SUNDAY
conflict between christians and islamics in jos state nigeria, many dead
indigenous berom and hausa settlers contending over political power
manifested thru religion when christian berom too 17 of 18 election slots
i dont know the details just yet, shortgame is to stop the violence
longgame i dont know, i just dont know
rdoc
SATURDAY
hello world, 1233 pm and old boy clocking pages, or rather paragraphs
generally takes a couple of days for paragraphs to become pages - its all good
rdoc
FRIDAY
blessings and prayers for folk in mumbai, something abot that terrorism
the arbitrary malignancy of it i guess, make it feel like a bad death, if anybody
deserve cursing its terrorists, political dialogue shouldnt be life and death
would you believe that since last we spoke ive obligated myself to read 3 book length manuscripts
christopher mlalazi, zimbabwean playwright working his novel, met him at palf, his rep preceded him, him and his theater group be butting heads with mugabe art against power, i admire that, volunteered to look at his manuscript, can you believe that, volunteered
alex yates, thesis next semester, a brutal semester w/admissions process and a search too, need to dig in now, alex my boy, has always shown me respect, i got to return the love
rod jackman, new ren fellow traveler and literary companero for something like 15 years, what can i do, im just glad he kicking it, need to have that done by workshop in brooklyn next week
didnt have no choice with none of these to my way of thinking
vin my other thesis next semester, she didnt respond when i told her i need to dig in now, gotta insist cause vin cool w/me,
students choose who they want to work with, our 6 3rd years were able to choose between me, george saunders or mary gaitskil - hell i wouldnt mind working with mary myself and george saunders a past master of the form, george saunders literary legend - folk that chose to work w/me i have to make sure they dont regret it, my pride you see, got to give them my best, cause this what i do, help people make books
it is a skill of which i am unseemingly proud
during admissions process we talking some 600 stories in a month or so, if im not going to end up just scanning her manuscript i need to dig in now
and as always my undergrads have waited till the end of the semester to turn in their stories
got a mess of those to wade thru, god help me im in some kind of bookish twilight zone
i have would be writers complaining to me they dont have time to get their work done -
they tell me they got this and that keep them from writing and i look at them perplexed
cause life dont never give you no time to get your work done
what makes you think you gon be different from any other writer on the planet
most of us work for a living, got personal issues, love and family et al, constantly take their bit of focus
you have to get your work done in spite of all that, got to beg borrow steal writing time
have to design your life around writing time, maximize time sitting at the sacred desk
im going to take fri sat sun for my work though it means i will be playing catch up all week
living off 3, 4 hours of sleep, doing schoolhouse work i should have done over the weekend
but i am a professional and i dont play not getting my work done, i just dont play that
everyday its a struggle, you win today and get some work done, you wake up tomorrow with the same
old struggle staring you in the face - sit down at the sacred desk, focus, write, 3 hours minimum, 6 hours sweet
speaking of the which im gone, its 1135 and i havent even started working
thats not a good sign, usually by this time ive had a full days work in,
lets see if i start by 12, i will have 6 hours in by 6 pm, lets say 2 hours rest between shifts, 8 pm
hell, thats doable, im gone
all my love
rdoc
POSTSCRIPT: 8:23 and not a lick of work, have to start by 9 for a 3 or count today as a wash
doesnt look good, im just not feeling it, damn,
okay if i clock sat and sun i can still count the weekend as good, and its not written in stone that im not gon clock my 3 for today, work til 3 am and i can count that as a 6, do 6 saturday and i will be ahead of the game
when i dont work i feel like im losing, like im living a life without purpose, not doing what im on the planet to do or something, my blues come down on me then, my blues always hovering, ready to come down on me and drive me into depression but when im working, when im clocking pages thats when i feel like im winning, like im doing something with my life, like im making it count, and all the trials and tribulations, the mistakes and regrets, they dont bother me then, im getting good use out of them, im living life to its fullest instead of just existing, just drudging
thats when im being the hero i want to be
rickydoc was here
i like feeling that way every day
but sometime when you drive like i do sometime the body get impatient with you and say well if you wont rest i will and i will get back to you when i can and you have to accept that gracefully to get the benefit of rest and it dont matter what you want cause sometime you just lay there cause sometime thats all you can do
im gone
rdoc
WEDNESDAY
hello world, old boy laying low, solider been taking up the slack, good looking out
you know what im thinking watching obama put his team together
im thinking old boy gon go for it, im thinking old boy gon use this crises in america
to try to do his own new deal, im betting old boy figure america is desperate enuf
and times are hard enuf for him to run some serious change up in there, i believe old boy
confident he can handle all those sharks he surrounding himself with, that he sending the message
he come to play,
folk been complaining that he retreading old hands, they want him to bring in a bunch of wide eyed amateurs, forget that, obama come to play
old rickydoc closing down shop at the schoolhouse, ima miss those 2nd years, that was a fine workshop
i learned a lot dealing with them, had a good time with them, the amazing thing about working
in the syracuse mfa program is how powerful the students are, they keep you on your literary toes
i been telling aaron that he freed up my own work because when it come to going his own narrative way
hes further out there than i am - hes made me feel better about my own narrative transgressions
thats a good thing, thats revelation - thats what they call wading in the water
him and kayla the fierce be bouncing off each other in a manner the purely delite me
i have enjoyed this whole crew, shoutout to aaron, boke, kayla, stacey and tina, good looking out
okay, enuf sentiment, lets move into closure, got 5 days, wed thur fri sat sun, just me and that novel
did a post recently on a black hoodoo list about ritual muder, ima drop this on you and im gone
-------------------------
heres something that might be of interest
though i dont know what we could possibly do about it
but i been concerned about those ritual murders of albinos
been going on over in tanzania
apparently been a run on albinos for magical body parts
and got all the albinos going into hiding cause people hunting
them for ritual murder, the men the women and the little babies
this been appalling me for some time now, that and all other kinds
of ritual murder that stain the afrospiritual traditions
(dont care that much for animal sacrifice either but thats another story)
i believe that part of our mission is cultural custodianship as contemporary shamans
determining what of the culture need to be nurtured and grown, which
aspects need to be extracted and left behind
the evolution and empowerment of the culture i believe is in our hands
so looking at the problem in terms of lessening the instance of ritual
murder in the tradition
which is like the worst of our weaknesses in our spiritual culture to
my way of thinking
the thing that most make me cringe when i hear of it, the thing that
most make me question my long ago choice to go traditional
but as to work that condition
i dont know what to do about that
the big problem is as always that we have no instruments
of control and influence in terms of cultural empowerment
the atrs are attempting various strategies of institutionalization
but we as hoodoos are either not interested in the big picture
or unable to do anything about it
spiritual poewr is a very nebulous power in the real world
the hoodoo of the future that i see will have the instruments
necessary to effect its will
to take care of its responsibilities
as guide and guardian of the tribal soul
and destiny
now what this has to do with influencing that ritual murder problem
i dont think im any closer to figuring out what to do about that
i guess just try to incrementally move that practice out of favor
starting with the bloody practice of animal sacrifice
to speak out against that archaic mindset in atr forums and take the abuse that entail
be told condescendingly what the orisha the loa the et cetera demand
and realize that you barely moving the board
but in the real arena of working the tribal soul you have to think in
generations
have to think like the prophet do
but thats the longgame, the problem is influencing situations like this immediately
no instruments, tanzania has implemented policies designed to protect albinos
perhaps there is some way of helping them do that, if there is
i dont know it, it frustrate me not to be able to take action here
im going to have to put some real thought into this, it really bothers me
and im just working myself up into a state of frustration
being an artist, a hoodoo, an armchair revolutionary, a visionary, we got our role to play
and i love the game but sometime it just dont get it, sometime it just dont do, sometime it just a fantasy
a tale told not very well
suffice it to say that there is a problem of ritual murder in africa
that i as a hoodoo would like to address
i would like to extract that inclination that belief system from the tribal soul
i would like to stop the killing
in the name of the conqueror
rdoc
MONDAY
okay, back in the saddle, lets start aggregating
Leadership Vacuum: waiting on Obama to Take Charge - Michael Hirsh, Daniel Gross, Newsweek
pressure building on Obama to move on economy, he hesitant to take responsiblity when he doesnt yet have the power
but the bush admin is fumbling the ball again and just making a bad sit worse, obama will be forced to bust the move
unlike me who just dont have the time to do more than this quickie
im outta here
rdoc
SUNDAY
hello everybody, old boy been out of the loop
still trying to clear these decks, these stories
and manuscripts are like dragons teeth
they just keep coming
shoutout to alex and buffalo soldier
for holding down the fort
the soldier right on al qaida, we not their primary audience
old conjureman like to think he got perspective
i appreciate getting my coat pulled when i come up slack
my girl djenra windwalker laid some clarification on ndoki on me - but she told me my eyes only
thats my girl, closest thing i know to a hoodoo queen
but she do have her ways about her and if i want her to keep
dropping science on me i have to follow her rules
i suspect she wont mind me dropping her link, see for yourself
neo hoodoo: the orb of djenra, scribed by mama who dun
will try to do some real commentary sometime today - soon as
i clock some pages, if i dont get no pages aint gon be no blogwork
threw down w/that race in the south piece if i do say so myself
and slogging thru manuscripts 1 2 3 but novel at a dead stop now -
cold novel a tough row to hoe -
today dont look too good rick, do what you can
all my love
rdoc
Obama's Multipolar Moment - Wess Mitchell, Los Angeles Times
Zimbabwe Bans the Elders, All Africa
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