SATURDAY
traditional chiefs in ghana were surprised to learn their national organization is latest scheduled to bestow title king of kings on gadaffi, scheduled to happen in accra next week sometime
seems the president of the national house of chiefs, one naa prof. nabila, is latest stooge to be bought off in gadaffi's campaign to be anointed africas king of kings -
informed of pending coronation, traditional chiefs protest that gadafi isnt even in the organization, how did he get anointed its king - one eagerly awaits developments
okay, i think i got the groove on facebook, 1 post a day max, a couple a week even better, i check it when i do my morning news run, restrain my tendency to build armies (damn i like that phrase)
armies are built by establishing yourself as a font of spiritual and strategic advice
a fulcrum of empowerment - eventually folk are drawn to you as plants are to the sun
as much as it embarrass me to be so pontifical if i keep it up in a couple of years id have an army
looking to me for spiritual and strategic advice, im an ideological orchestrator, thats what i do
its my nature
thats the theory behind this blog really - spiritual and strategic advice = rickydocs regulators
then i look at my little meagre readership after some 5 years of doing this and im thinking well flowers
your little theory aint working - but i got just enuf regulators to stay in the game - cool, ill take it
facebook is fertile ground, in my sorceric youth i would have been all over that
just dont have the time now just dont have it - minimum maintenance is all it gets
got a little work done yesterday, hopefully im back in my groove, lost about 3 weeks i suspect, bummer
part of that was revising 2nd half in my head, got a feel for what i want now, feel daunted by how much work this reconcept will entail - ie raw manuscript - but such is life in the literary lane
got about a month of woodshed left - showtime, believe ima call on shango for this one - need all the help i can get
rdoc
FRIDAY A LITTLE LATER
major jackson post this on facebook, see what im saying, whats not to love
i had just got back from vietnam and high as i could be in knoxville tn 1st time i
heard whats going on album, blew me away, i remember that moment
to this day - marvin gaye, caught him live once in long island, trying to go cold turkey
on facebook and almost missed this one - what im gon do is add facebook to my
morning news run, check it once a day instead of many times a day, that will work
man i got to get some work done today, last couple of weeks been rough
get my work done and i wouldnt mind time on facebook
blog numbers been falling too, times like this i wonder if im just delusional
all this man of power stuff i be spouting, building my illusionary armies
im just not feeling it today, been getting a little work done this morning (4:47am)
good days work and i might feel better about the whole thing, right now i feel like a farce
rdoc
FRIDAY
heard that obama through down at the naacp centennial, more confident coming
down on the black hand side now that he in office, had a theme of responsiblity
that there is no excuse for failure, we are so on the same page with that
i am so tired of blackfolk laying around crying the blues instead of dealing with it
my standard line on that one is crying about racism is like a sailor cursing the sea
because its wet, surely by now we have factored racism into our strategic posture
im not saying dont fight against it, im saying dont let it define you
the whole speech is here on hufffington post - i put it on facebook, what the hell
just went thru checking my friend roll and i missed at lot, i give up, junkie is as junkie does
once a day
rdoc
THURSDAY EVENING
who out there believes that sarah palin actually wrote her washpost article attacking obamas energy policy - raise your hand
THURSDAY
i was reading in the huffington post that cia supervisor was boasting of putting fireants on a suspect during enhanced interrogation and then other cia folk saying he was just bullshitting, dont pay him no mind
i think im going to have to come down on the investigation side of bushadmin policies, im sympathetic to obama not wanting to be distracted from whats really important to him and us
but its just too many stories drip driping and if he dont want this as a constant distraction best
to just get it done
now the facebook junkie telling me aint no reason not to say that on facebook, close my eyes and i hear
those armies calling my name - but ima fight the addiction, see how long i can hold out
i got that bit about building armies from a comment chris brunt made to mikael awake, chris talking trash to mikael when he say out the clear blue - i am building an army against you -
mikeal say he need to quite playing so much risk so this may be an inside joke but it made the old conjureman tingle, thats all i do w/my discretionary time, build armies against folk - defeat other folks armies
o i been enjoying that facebook but i got to go, step back a little bit
i swear by the god of the game - once a week will suffice, maybe twice a week, that aint bad
stick with the politics, stay away from the soul work
interesting interview of guy wrote book about founding of facebook, say it will become a way of life
food for metathought maybe - my last facebook post for awhile (couple of days at least, lord)
its like a personal echo chamber - you build your little network of folk who share your
interests and that get constantly echoed back at you and you thrive in it
im probably missing something w/my neurotic insistence on the strategic
something significant happening there in terms of 21st century engagement
irregardless rickydoc cutting back the afterburners, step back, become more enigmatic
a ghost in the shadows - minimum maintenance
i tell far too much of what im really about on this blog, but thats my contract with you
facebook i been coming too strong, gon have to lower my profile, cant let the public game
outrun production
of works - thats weakness
i got to go
rdoc
WEDNESDAY EVENING
somebody stop me before i facebook again:
decided to do some political commentary before folk judged me a spaceranger only interested in soul work: noted that republicans know they cannot stop sotomayor - what they trying to do is frame the debate so that she represent the extreme left so that subsequent nominations will be forced to the right of her, as the "cultural norm", ie conservative white male "neutrality" - strategically speaking they trying to get ahead of the game
got some comments, thats what i be trolling for, but thats it for me, cutting back on facebook, its fun but its distractive
im out
rdoc
WEDNESDAY
hello world, so adam banks started it, he asked on his facebook page if bootlegging was ever legit
i replied, i bootleg music all the time with no moral qualms, then 1 day i read folk bootlegging digital books and it was like whoa, wait just a minute now, but i think about it and think i got to be consistent here, i do it
to the musicians, (full disclosure, i buy a bunch of cds and itunes too) and in the final analysis its about distribution with me, getting my words, my works, my vision out there whether i get paid or not
online work you dont do it if you not willing to let it get stole
first i clarify that not getting paid is an indulgence of established writers, i believe in young writers getting paid, valuing their work so other folk will (but you have to give away stuff when establishing yourself, i know i know)
im kinda nervous about this bootlegging post, i figure folk wont like this one, all my professional friends, my musician friends maybe, so i decide, a couple of minutes after posting it im thinking im going to delete that one, but already my homegirl patricia spears jones has a reply, so you like folk stealing from you and you like to steal (w/an eclamation point)
chagrined i reply: o i didnt say like to be stole from, i said willing to be stole from, put it online and it will be poached, dynamic of the internet, 21st century literary life,
so anyway it generated a little commentary, which i of course enjoyed, but all the time im uncomfortable because i dislike the high pontificatory profile that come so natural to me
its a skill, establishing myself as a literary visionary, all i can say is its strategic, i do have point and
purpose, but it embarrass me sometime, pontificating like i do, that wouldbe prophet thing
so anyway in my head im thinking what i should have said, had a word misspelled dammit, should have said its the cut and paste that makes digital so fraught and so forth, i always do this, but im determined to move on
the next day though, binyavanga wainaina posts the following ;
Copyright Infringement Nairobi Star - Open Letter to William Pike
Dear Mr. William Pike,
Thank you for your letter dated 20th March 2009. I was very excited to receive correspondence from you. I heard about you, and the bold people of Kiss FM, open media to Uganda and Kenya even. I have been told what a tight and efficient business you run, that your radio station, Kiss FM is the most professionally run outfit in East Africa . Market surveys are taken, no decision is taken without good data. I have heard Caroline Mutuko call up Corrupt Pillars of Society and bring them down, and give them a good radio beating.
Will you allow me a moment to use your own brave journalistic methods? A few months ago, I was told that your newspaper, Nairobi Star, published an article that I wrote. I was surprised, of course, for nobody had asked me. I was doubly surprised, for your newspaper had done this before, early in 2008, and when I complained, I was told that it would never happen again.
Let us take a moment to talk about theft, and impunity. It is the season for this subject, is it not? To my own understanding, theft and impunity in Kenya comes when people who have power, money and influence gang together, as the human animal is wont to do, when motivation is needed to do something childish and immoral. Sometimes giggling happens. People occasionally huddle, like rugby props, and hug, gurgling loudly – as our parliamentarians did just after they found their blood soaked cake and were gorging it on live television last year – bitter enemies now friends - when we decided to buy peace with our tax money by having the biggest government in Kenyan history, and paying them more than an American Senator is paid. Yippie!
Now, of course this cannot be said for a newspaper as dedicated to the truth as yours! According to your letter, it was ignorance – that lead somebody in your editorial team to cut and paste my Mail and Guardian column, from their website, presumably, and lay it down gently onto your pages, and shoot it off to the printer, happy that a day’s serious journalism had been done.
Of course, I must believe you when you said, “We thought that Mr. Wainaina’s articles were freely available since they are posted on the internet.”
I must believe you when you say this, for you are an outfit with much invested in research and data. Clearly some researcher checked, and found out that Mother Binyavanga Theresa goes about the internet Freely Enabling rich profit-making media.
I must apologize too. For I was so upset when I first heard what you did, I hired a lawyer, who has cost me 500 US dollars so far. And the results of his efforts are a three line letter from you, shrugging, “Oops”, it said, and “do you think I really care?,” it suggested.
No apology in your paper.
I thought, well, clearly these guys have more legal stamina and money than I do, and really don’t care whether or not they steal my work, they just huddle and giggle, and say, argh, shoot him a quick few lines to send him away.
Why was I so pissed off by your letter, Mr. Pike? For you to say, that any kind of writing is “freely available” is disingenuous. You are no fool, and are playing the ignorant and naive African paper that “does not know better”. You show little concern for what I see as an act of theft masquerading as an innocent “error” - as you put it. For, nowhere have I said that my work is free, and no law or practice I know of, assumes that just because somebody’s work is available for reading on the internet, it is available for stealing for the purpose of profit, without consulting the writer, the newspaper that first published it, without even indicating where it was first published.
As you have now been informed that my work is not ‘freely available’ for your two second cut and pastes, you owe me money. Now, the thing is, I don’t come cheap. My rates differ, from place to place, but a good standard is one US dollar a word. You also owe me 500 dollars, for my lawyer, and an apology in your newspaper, and one that is not hidden away in size 4 font inside your classified section.
I will donate your 800 dollar fee to the Kenya Red Cross.
What will I do if you fail to do this? Not much. As you know, no Kenyan trusts our justice system. Oh, sorry, No Kenyan except Chief Justice Gicheru, and our president Mwai Kibaki.
I will continue this conversation in my blog, soon. For fun, you know.
Oh, and as an incentive for you, a two-for-one, I am happy to let you publish this piece as well, for no fee at all.
Binyavanga
(its on his facebook page, im not sure how to link you to it, im still a facebook newbie)
so snyway the temptation was too great and i leap back into the fray, posting letter to my wall getting my copy cut paste bit in, said all im saying is in the digital age its just copy cut paste, you do what you can but when you digitize your work you facilitate it being stole, if that freak you out you in the wrong business - amatuers borrow, professionals steal - that aint news, its just been digitized, literary life in the 21st century
my final post on the matter was that i dont put my fiction online, im not willing to let my fiction get stole, i put out enuf to tease/promote but nothing substantial - my nonfiction, well i accept that as the cost of being in the game
okay, well, i have to say i enjoyed that little to do, i do love stirring the pot, i can see this facebook can get addictive, will have to draw back though, been letting the mask slip, profile too high -
charismatic power the strength is in the restraint
the temptation for me is this hoodoo instinct to conquer, to position myself as a significant player and start building armies, highjohn the conqueror is my patron haint - ima hoodoo lord of the delta and power is what i do
but the hoodoo power mode is to low profile, to position yourself and just watch, the observer, constantly positioning yourself for strategic posture, and when you do feel the need to intervene it should be done with the lightest touch possible - so old rickydoc gon back up off the facebook as instrument initiative
plus that its taking up noveltime and thats a woodshed no no
do a brief post every week or so rick, not quite as pontifical one hopes, but the deal here is im almost 60, i aint got time to be talking for the sake of talking, everything i do strategic, designed to manifest my vision,
aint got time for frivolity
all my love
rdoc
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