WEDNESDAY
well,, wasnt i busy yesterday: today just some quickies:
bart cop arrested: comments on article sobering, lot of angry white guys out there - i got to assume this killing was accidental but i hope he does some time for negligent homicide or whatever its called
at least we can dispense with the riots bit, they do raise the profile but you cant help but think riots cost more than they worth
bush gitmo overseer susan crawford calls gitmo interrogation torture - she got more balls than all these journalists talking about 'harsh interrogations"
political and racial bais at justice dept: recent report says justice official hired only rightwingers and fired folk for being 'affirmative actions hires" or 'using ebonics"
but justice declined to prosecute him for illegalities or lying under oath to congress about it - i dont suppose this is news to you
one wonders will holder sweep house or will obama let them stay - heard he had a dinner w/a bunch of conservative columnists yesterday - boy bipartisan to a fault aint he - i understand the strategy here but some bush policies will need correction, a politicized justice dept is one of them
okay rick, what else, gon have to close down shop soon, been novel working again, back at the schoolhouse and desperate again i guess, ima try to clock hours every morning like a good writer should, before schoolhouse crunch takes it all
strategy of moment is to work the manuscript digitally so i will have a good manuscript to redpen on flight to india, and trekking around to all these cities they sending me to - problem with that strat is that you get someplace special like that and you spend all your time experiencing instead of writing - we shall see
if i wrote on lamu, the most alien place ive ever been, i can write anywhere (except maybe memphis)
one more and im gone:
was reading about recent stoning in iran, 3 men for adultery (as in being an adult?) but one escaped - apparently if you can dig out you are shall we say acquitted - what caught my attention is that men are buried to the waist, women to the neck - ima let that speak for itself but it strike me as cold blooded - thats like a double sin in the book of rickydoc
quick point on prophecy and i will go: cause these topicals they dont really interest me, its the more esoteric speculations that really move me - i figure i give you what you want, i can do a little of what i want:
in indigenous kenyan traditions the difference between a diviner and a diviner prophet is that the diviner just does personal readings/advisements for clients while the diviner/prophet also does public readings/advisements for the whole tribe
i say this in light of my effort to position myself as the high hoodoo in african american culture
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way
i always stipulate wouldbe because i realize this is a big claim to make and i
will let the generations make the judgment on how well i did it
not even sure i know what i mean when i call myself the high hoodoo
im kinda figuring it out as i go along
rest for the weary will tell the tale
and on that note im gone
all my love
rdoc
TUESDAY
kinda jammed about getting to india, visa problem, hope its resolved in time
papua new guinea instituting new laws against witch burning after rash of them lately, 50 in last year or so - these the ones been reported
witchery and witch burning in developing countries is often an adhoc form of social control, self regulation of the community
too often used badly as expressions of social jealousy - people different or envied victimized by mobs/community
probably why i more often refer to
myself as shaman than witchdoctor
though when i was called mganga mua in kenya - witchdoctor flowers i was
told - i eagerly embraced the title
these are countries in which magic is still considered true force
and often blamed for unusual calamities and social ills
interesting how belief in magic can cripple social cohesion
whereas magic is at its best an instrument of communal harmony and enhancement of the human condition
sometimes its hard to maintain my belief in magical power - when you walk the magical paths its easy to get lost - next thing you know instead of you got the demon the demon got you
my distinction of my magic interest as high magic is an attempt to avoid
the foolishness that so often accompanies a belief in magical efficacy
the magic i practice is very much connected to my literary practice, i define magic as making real into
the world that which was not, exerting influence on human destiny, on the nature of reality
this the magic i want to put at the center of the hoodoo way
i call it high magic to distinguish it from the folk magic that so define conventional hoodoo, which interest me not at all, i do hoodoo magic to keep my chops in, to keep my standing in the hoodoo community
and because it helps me help the occasional client in need of spiritual ease, above all else ima soul doctor
right now ima anomaly in the hoodoo world, im one of a kind, but if i play my
prophetic cards right i will be the model of the hoodoo future
the high hoodoo
my type of magic is ultimately tied to my identity as literary artist, to my Works, to the
creative process - so what then makes it magic instead of just art, much the same process
consciousness i guess - so what cause me to be a magical artist instead of just an artist, apparently its some sort of afrospiritual retention, in the old days i would have been a straight up sorceror
in the spiritworld, the hoodoo world, i am rickydoc trickmaster, wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way
my contemporary manifestation in the realworld is as a mystically inclined literary artist
okay this is getting twisty, i got to move on
im not going to do that 2009 report,just dont have the time to get it right
o hell, how many times am i going to apologize for not doing that,
let me see if i can knock off a quickie
maybe refine it over next couple of days
this is a manifestation of my definition of myself as the worlds shaman, or
witchdoctor as the case may be:
top 5 issues of 2008
1) election of barack obama and defeat of repub agenda
2) collapse of american/global economy
3) rise of fundamentalism (western & islamic)
4) health education & welfare of all peoples
5)
top 5 global issues of 2009
1) election of barack obama and defeat of repubs
2) restructuring global economy
3) health, education & welfare of all peoples
4) managing global interconnectedness
5) environmental
top 5 pan african issues 2009
1) election of barack obama and defeat of repubs
2) leveraging global economy
3) health educ and welfare of pan african populations
4) conflict resolution:
5) positioning & empowerment
top 5 african american issues 2009
1) finessing election of barack obama and defeat of the repubs
2) finessing collapsed economy so it doesnt fall on blackfolk
3) health, education & welfare of blackfolk
4) empowerment & positioning in evolving american mulitcultural reality
5) positioning as global players
top 5 amercian issues 2009
1) election of barack obama and defeat of repubs
2) jumpstarting global economy
3) repairing damage of bush years
4) delegitimizing radical islam
5) health, education & welfare
top 5 literary issues 2009 (this one will be tricky)
1) leveraging economys effect on publishing (survival guide; writers, publishers, literary institutions)
2) determine 5 masterworks of 2008: (what constitutes a masterwork?)
3) literary vision of society (how does this calibrate, evolve, function, what role am i saying its playing)
4) evolution of literary infrastructures (developing and shaping literary support systems)
5) finishing rest for the weary (okay okay, i thought that was kinda cute myself)
okay, ive set up the basic structure of it, will refine it over week, what i should really do now is
break those categories down into specifics but i just dont have the time, just dont have it
this could have been a passage in rest for the weary the time i spent on this, this post
started as a comment on witch burning in papua new guinea and got carried away
but the ideas and narrative techs i work out here in the arena find their way into rest so i guess its okay
i gotta go, i been feeling all aggreived cause life been treating me harshly lately
but jeffs maleria puts it all in perspective, if its not your health its nothing
sidegame, do the best you can, keep on pushing
you know this idea lately of myself as the worlds shaman, this is new, im just now realizing im making this claim lately and its like jesus flowers you aint pulled off being the african american tribal shaman yet now you talking about the world, but i can see it as part of me the nationalist striving for universalism, to be a universal force, but it do strike me a bit presumptious i must say
ohwell, now that im claiming it i got to start feeling it, see where it takes me
the old days my magical experiments/speculations i used to keep them to myself
but now im keeping this public record of magical headplay and i find its not called an
occult science for naught
did a little novelwork yesterday, felt good, felt real good
all my love
rdoc
MONDAY
starting to get excited about this india thing, jaipur literature festival - apparently us gov
sponsoring me and asked me if i would do a goodwill literary tour while i was there,
my 1st time in india and they asking me if they can take me here there everywhere with what i assume to be nice accommodations and pay me too - i believe i can work with that
couldnt stay as long as they wanted, would have missed too many classes - as is it will complicate my semester but what could i say, it was an offer i couldnt refuse
this will be a rough semester anyway, a search, the application process, two grad thesis (books), 4 undergrad honors thesis and a forms course with a lot of reading, i will be crunching this one
but it doesnt look like we will be doing palf this year, that means i get my summer woodshed - so thats a good thing, specially since i didnt get any work done for dec woodshed
also doing a performance with terry adkins saturday, some sort of neo hoodoo thing reprising my bessie smith bit, thats gon be sweet, 1st time we did that i had to read the presentation, which for an old
performance artist like myself is strictly amateur, this time it will be primetime - just looked it up,
, neohooo, art for a forgotten faith, p.s.1 contemporary art center 22-25 jackson ave, long island city, nyc - various artists interperting contemporary hoodoo, look like my kinda exhibit actually
and of course i will keep a running commentary on what goes down in india - life is good
and will still do some truncated 2009 reading, i promise, soon as i get a discretionary moment
all my love
rdoc
THEY WERE TIRED, OH SO TIRED, OF THE MISERY BuffaloSoldier salutes Elizabeth Alexander. Interesting how all roads seem to lead to Kenya. The
Brother trying to put Rwanda is Kenyan. Our Pres is Kenyan and SoulDoctor
is taking his cue from Kenya in his quest to be America's Hoodoo Man.
The inaug is coming soon and I have a few thoughts. Mostly I'll pursue them
further. But Beyonce is performing and not Etta James? M. Obama and her
daughters walking through that White House door, since she does have a
link back to our BlackAmerican past here, is the kind of symmetry that warms the BuffaloSoldier's heart. Thanks, Barack. Still wish someone
from here had got there first. Sort of like there are plenty of
BlackLatinos and others playing baseball, but the BlackAmerican, Jackie
Robinson, was first. Why is BuffaloSoldier so bullish on BlackAmerica?
We still have to face down the BART officers and Bradley Schlozmans of
the land. And we've been facing them the longest with the most
disatrious results. Oh, we now have the one Black senator. That goes
along with the two Black Govs, one elected. I'm BuffaloSoldier and I
approve this message
Posted by: BuffaloSoldier | January 14, 2009 at 05:38 PM