rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

on blowing the warhorn: transforming rootsblog into an instrument: battleformation

FRIDAY

draft is kicking my ass, what i thought was going to be a quick read thru is turning into a real draft

ive spent the whole week on one segment, its like that, part of the problem is my confidence is
shot to hell - passages that were ok before not acceptable now, ok dont get it

i got to take this novel to a new level of the game, the industry should not be able to dis me like this

i got to step up my game, again - damn the conqueror, when does it end

 

WEDNESDAY

obama on rosa parks bus, a luta continua

buried in my rewrite, its difficult this time, i think im burnt out on this novel, ima finish this one, then im done
not going to hit this no more, going to start scanning over sections im basically satisfied with, im done

whatever i aint got done by end of week/month dont get done, im thru

arf

 

 

FRIDAY

of the 3 finalists chosen for pulitizer this year, russells swamplandia, wallaces pale fire and
johnsons train something, none were chosen - wish i had been a fly on that literary wall

i would have given it to wallace on gp under those circumstances, not like he
didnt deserve it and not like he is going to get another shot

while chasing the story i read provocative quote from a nyt swamlandia review:

"Good short-story writers like Russell know how much depends on endings, those final
few breaths of ineffable melancholy, but landing a novel requires something more."

i thought that was on the money - those final few breaths of ineffable melancholy - and
i have been pondering since i read that just what do i expect of a good novels endgame

and I'm thinking the novels that have stayed with me are the ones that somehow transformed me,
the ones when you put the book down you look at life differently somehow, a good novel should

rock your world

thats what i want from rest for the weary, thats what i want from any story i tell

THURSDAY:

back in the cuse: trying to get my groove on, get my production back up

& let me start working this aggregator thing again, minimum maintenance of course, but
i figure we about to go into battle on these elections and i want to do my part, ima see

if i can transform rootsblog into an instrument of empowerment: a news aggregator fits
my stylee/interests and hopefully can be done with minimum maintenance

cause we got the mother of all electoral battles coming up and rickydocs regulators being called up for duty
oganizing for obama just sent out a call for volunteers to learn organizing - was i a young man i would but im

a strategos now and my contribution has to be on a higher plane, odds are this is another futile initiative, but if i can
cook rootsblog and rootwork.com up to anywhere near the level of influence that huffpost or real clear politics has

it will be a fine thing, will it not, for a wouldbe player such as myself

Dems Must Stop the Completely Demented GOP - Charles Pierce, Esquire
Congressional GOP Has Boxed Romney In - Norman Ornstein, TNR

maybe devote a week to an issue, cause already im noticing a motif here, issue at hand that i
believe the repubs have to be thoroughly repudiated so their crippling ideology is discredited

Demographics & the Fading GOP "Majority" - Timothy Egan, NY Times
The Myth of the GOP's Inevitable Decline - Joel Kotkin, The Daily Beast

ok, dont have time to really work it now, & no real idea what im doing, only that i hope to manifest power in the world
my novels, my sacredtexts, my work - literature strictly long game, strictly about shaping generations, but i want

power in the world now, tired of despairing of the human condition and feeling like i cannot effect change, am i or i not the conjureman

of course im working blind and inevitably reality will be less impressive than my ambitions and aspirations
its the effort that counts, right - thats what all us losers say, & speaking of losers whats up w/the malian junta

recent malian developments: junta arresting government affiliated politicians, a troubling violation of ecowas accords,
junta has already proven itself incapable of ensuring territorial integrity, this just makes it worse - ganda coy indeed

also war declared in the sudan: sit report: sudan was bombing south sudan border areas, south sudan captured helig, a border town supplying good part of sudans oil, sudan declares war - and there it stands

i suspect this is not going to end well - south sudan, the worlds newest country, surely had enuf on its
plate as it was, hard sometimes to be the dispassionate observer when you see the hammer falling

im out, i have not really worked in about 2 weeks, this will never do - the day i left the delta i worked a critical
rest scene, trying to slide back into my groove - now i got to follow thru, one day does not a woodshed make

all my love

rdoc

 

on building armies

MONDAY

i got doubt. 

so far its been seven nos and one i will think about it.  i got doubt.  is this work after all the farce i fear.  am i after all
not who i want to be, what i need to be, has reality won after all, o merciful gods of literature am i to be denied.

arthur flowers: literary footnote.

been a couple of months now, might as well do another rewrite, make it
stronger still, strategy all along has been a work so strong it cannot be denied,

but this rewrite under a cloud of doubt that im not accustomed to - matters not, i
tell my students all the time - dont matter how you feel, just work

sabbatical coming to an end, i got one more good draft in me, one more woodshed
if you see me dont waste your time saying hello, its just a mirage. somebody

cover me, im going in

 

 

SATURDAY

so ive got this website, rootwork.com, that i registered in the infancy of the internet and havent done a thing
with in about 10 years, literally, its like a digital dinasaur thats been embarrassing me but i didnt want to let

such a fundamental hoodoo url go so every year i reregister it

so this postrest phase i been designing i decide to transform it into some kind of organizing site, a huffingtonpost v realclear politics type aggregator on the blackhand side in conjunction with rootsblog,

or an arm of rootwork publications, or whatever variant of rootwork ima name my press - its all still in the air, im formulating

so im checking to see if there are variants of rootwork already online and 1st url i put in, rootwork.org, - this organzing site shows up

site designed to help folk develop online organizing chops and im like well aint this nothing
they chose rootwork for much the same reason i chose it, that building from the roots thing

(w/o the hoodoo overlay) so i asked them for advice/quotes on upgrading my online organizing chops, hope they dont get territorial on me, look like they might be able to walk me thru this attempt to upgrade my site

i asked for a quote on what they charge to rebuild a site, they already doing a lot of what id like to do -be a progressive resource

one thing that will keep us from bumping heads is i cant do this fulltime, i got to write, i got to teach. both of
which are fulltime gigs - this still on the side for me, whatever format i develop its got to be minimum maintenance

but i want my online presence to be a resource, true power and im impressed w/their
brand of armchair revolutionaring - we on the same plane in more than name

some other url hits were rootwork foundation, an social organizing ngo in pakistan
one thing already clear i have to build a network on org, not just one,

press, institute and foundation optimally, if i want to cover the strategic ground

whatever i do with that site i got to start building teams - like many of my best ideas none of this might
come to fruition, most primarily i got to write and these dreams of mine are sometimes just material

have not heard from agent in months now, guess they having trouble selling it, im tempted to inquire
but im professional enuf to know that if they had good news id be the 1st to know, ima let it be

ima keep working - mojorising rewrite, the hoodoo book of flowers draft, poetrydrafts on rest, brer rabbit tales draft

dont know that i should say but found george (74) in hospital, hopefully he will be okay, but my george hunt
projects just got put on the front burner, a coffee table book of his works and my praisepoems, and now

a bio of him because his story deserve to be told and i fear he might be checking out, my plate so full
that worrying about selling rest for the weary not really my concern right now, somebody will buy it eventually

its a good book, and good books will always make a way

o and let me not forget, 5 year business plans for these institutions im building,
jesus christ and yemaya too - there is no rest for the weary


 

THURSDAY

hello world, took care of family business yesterday, this patriarching wearys the soul
have not been doing the kind of production i like to do but never do when im home

i am concerned that obama is lettting romney flip the script on womens issues, romney is
trying to reframe womens concerns as economic and not health and obama is following suit

i hope he does not let the dialogue change up

 

 

WEDNESDAY

folk put all their business on social media, far as im concerned facebook/twitter/rootsblog/et al, are not my friends
they are instruments, i would not consider putting personal business on fb - question on fb is who gaming who

they trying to use me, im trying to use them, whole point of fb is to get you to give them info so they can sell it
privacy settings mean nothing, every chance they get they change the rules so what was private is no longer

game is getting more out of them then they getting out of me (aint this always the case)

only info i put on fb is strategic manifestation: the online version of me that im constructing
for the generations, samesame rootsblog et al, im building armies

if the fb folk want to help me promote that they welcome to do so,

i feel the sameway about publishing companies - when im jetting about on book tour to all these different cities/countries doing my thing, its like i got a major corporation working for me, helping me convince the

world that i am who i say i am - historical

god i love the game

hunted george hunt down, got his permission to kick my hunt projects into gear
also had a good moment at the african student assoc celebration, it was on

much as memphis aggravate me i love it dearly, the delta is my holyground

went to river yesterday and read 2nd vol of bayou finally, i was waiting until the right moment and had
an hour or so yesterday, went to the river and read it, this boy has flipped the script on afroam folklore

cultural players such as myself who use afroam folklore as a trope henceforth have to take his riffs into consideration

also deep is that its only because i recently read the entire brer rabbit corpus that i realize what hes doing w/it, i read vol 1 before this understanding, only reason i put vol 2 off was to enhance the experience, i figured

a quiet moment on the river was just right - now i realize just how high old boy has raised the bar on me

i got to remind myself, once again, what aishah rahman told me so long ago,

when i told her once that i wanted to be the greatest novelist ever lived

she said thats not what you want, art, you want to sing your song best you can sing it, that way you
can appreciate other folk singing theirs, been one of the best pieces of advice i ever got

well brother jeremy love, i got to say you sang the hell out of that one, you put your foot in that one, bruh