WEDNESDAY MORNING: 5:14am
seems every semester requires a diff production routine, depending on what days im teaching
this semester im teaching mon and tues, it took me a minute to figure out the production routine
schoolhousing S/M/T, W for transition, T/F/S my work, only just now feel like semester caught up enuf to focus
got a lot on my plate, got to read ninas manuscript, which is going to be a challenge, and
got to do this presentation on hoodoo spiritwork for a congregation of student psychiatrists
was looking forward to it but they been micromanaging me and im feeling a little hemmed in now, only
reason i took the gig on was because it was different and interesting but now i just want to get thru it
what i really want at this point is out but i fear its just too late to do that to them
feel like im being straightjacketed by the specificity of their expectations
and if im not having fun how will they
not sure what the students think they will get, an amusing rustic bush wizard is what
im thinking or maybe an academic talking about folkmagic as a field of study
whatever they expecting im not it
rdoc
SUNDAY
ok, ive done 5) WILL and working on 6) ACTION and only 12pm, but i got to put it aside now & prepare for class
but ive figured out how to clock two movements a day now, basically lower standards to where they nonexistent
its difficult to keep driving forward when you leaving trash behind, but thats what i tell i students they
have to do - hold your nose and clock those pages - until you have a draft you not in the game
all my love
SATURDAY ADDENDUM
all day long i struggled with the page, all day long i been wrestling demons, what do i have to
show for it one movement: 4) SURVIVAL
i refuse to fail, i refuse to miss my deadline, i refuse
SATURDAY
mr im gonna kick butt and take names did not do not one passage yesterday, apparently i
burnt up my writing energy writing about writing in yesterdays post instead of doing it
my focus was on finding my dentist, getting my grillwork started
then i just chilled out and out surrendered to the blues
project like this most critical at the beginning, a good solid week of work and it will be programmed,
faltery day on day off work and it wont feel real, will not get me to the promiseland
so, a comment or two and ima outta here -
thanks & blessing: hope eghagha, brother i met palf ghana, poet and playwrite, is apparently also the
high commissioner for education in the delta state, nigeria - who knew - found out when he got kidnapped
by deltafolk and held for ransom, my understanding is that he has been released
thats the way i like my disturbing news delivered, already resolved
unlike this election, which has been all knotted up
after all the fire obama has gone thru to put the economy back on track, it bother me romney might be able
to claim both credit & benefit - by the time the repubs break it again, hillary will have to fix it, again
it would embarrass me to tell you how much money ive sent obama
on one hand i feel like its a sign of political maturity to fund a politican you believe in and i still believe in obama, flaws and all - on the other hand i feel like a fool for believing in a politican in the 1st place
much less sending them my hard earned money - but id hate for obama to lose
just because he didnt have enuf money to contend w/citizens united
i notice hes using some of my money to build a post presidency grassroots organization,
im impressed but hopefully it wont be needed until 4 years or so
also interesting how fully the repubs, the rightwing and the teaparty have shrugged off romneys pivot to
the center, how easily they ignore the insincerity of his promises - beating obama is everything to them
then they try to make blackfolk feel bad for circling the wagons
felt bad for staceydash, i was one of her only three fans left
but solidarity has always been our first line of defense
it dont play in this postrace reality like it did in the 60s
but when our backs are against the wall, the call go out
gather the tribes - shield and spear
(hmm, with a little fiddling i believe i can use that commentary in 41) solidarity
focus rick
thing about a big push, if you win one day, all productive & all, the next day the whole struggle starts anew
just cause you took care of business yesterday dont mean you will do it today
focus, rick
FRIDAY
finished 3) trial and now on 4) survivial, but it seem the old boy
got a little taste of the blues, im tired and im weary and life
been a little rough on me lately - family issues got the reluctant patriarch running & gunning,
fumbled my workshop this semester, & now ive cracked my front tooth and cant find my dentist
and obama, jesus that boy worry me - old boy rickydoc woke up
this morning w/a bad case of the blues
pages i accept lifes little hammers as part of the territory
also - after much resistance, i have accepted averaging 1 movement a day just wont get it
and even at 1M a day im leaving holes in the text, which is counter to my philosophy of production
but if i cant figure the hole out right then & there, i leave it & keep on pushing, cant afford to sit & ponder
& id rather have a real draft w/holes than a 1000 page mess of notes anyday
got to do this while maintaining schoolhouse obligations, full courtpress on all fronts - it weary me just to think about it,
but if i want to be a player got to pay my dues w/o whimpering, just buckle down & just do it, only way
ima get a project of this magnitude done is to throw down, allout throwdown, when & wherever I can -
(then i wont have time for these blues knocking on my door)
so - outside of the proverbial act of god aint nothing stopping this party rock - ima have to
burn up some mojo on this one, this one will cost me lifeforce - but ima get my draft
of the industry & the literary world - well fuck them all, im the one make this call
clock rest for the weary & the hoodoo book of flowers, my legacy is assured - a novel of
historical stature and significance - hopefully - and a functioning holybook - gamechangers
i can only imagine
do it rick
i know you can
THURSDAY ADDENDUM
i got to go for it, i been up and down about this, because its fucking impossible
and its going to put my schoolhouse groove back on catchup mode
and im realizing not only do i have to do the impossible one a day, but that wont get me to the
promiseland, ima have to do 2 or 3 a day, 82 movements at 2 a day thats 41 days
that will finish my draft before the end of the year, because nextyear schoolhouse will be
brutal, the application process (500 submissions) 3 thesis advisees, and a new forms course
if i dont do it now i wont get to it till next summer, take a deep breath rick, showtime
but you know truth be told i aint happy less im up against the wall, trying to do the impossible
in the name of product, the almighty product - making books, thats what i do
do it rick
THURSDAY
im rocking and rolling, did 2) consciousness yesterday and
started on 3) trial & tribulation, which i might rename 3) testing
im kinda amazed this is actually working
but i dont think ima be able to do one a day, im already kinda reeling
but reeling is not dead in the water and thats what it take to stop
a full court press, we shall see
also did major revision on 1) condition, but ima just leave the roughdrafts up
anything i put on the internet im basically giving away - and anybody come
stealing i prefer they be stealing trash
man i am so glad obama handled his business tuesday
after its over ima have to think about why one bad debate
was so significant, right now im just trying not to get whiplashed
by the polls, by the ups and downs, the american electorate
never ceases to amaze me, its hard to underestimate them
keep your government hands off my medicare??????
regular folk voting for republicans??????
okeydoke indeed - i gotta go, trial and tribulation
waiting on me
WEDNESDAY
well, hello world - so much for the best laid plans
i tried to segue to novel but im still caught up in the holybook
i printed it out & was looking it over & i was thinking that at 1000 pages this next draft, the one
that turn raw notes into coherent text, would take me a year or so - then i thought about what
i tell my students when i challenge them to do a manuscript - just do it, dont worry about what it
look like, just do it and i thought if i bull run this on the computer for this 1st draft i can just bull thru it
get me a real draft before i put it down - if i stop while its just notes i will have to start from scratch when i
pick it back up - if i make it a real draft the next draft will be percolating in my head when i pick it back up
and i would just like to have a real draft on gp, i surely would, something real, something to show
for all these years of wanting to make this happen, something i can die with if necessary
so i sat down yesterday and i bulled thru my 1st movement - 1) CONDITION, the state
before 2) CONSCIOUSNESS
what was about 10 pages (singlespace 10 point) of raw notes became about 3 pages of coherent
text, so if im bulling i might be able to burn thru those 1000 pages in the two months left
so, i got nine submovements per movement:
1) de invocation - where i choose a hoodoo haint (tribal ancestor) to represent and do a praise poem
2) de consultation - supposed to be consultation advice but i got to work it
3) de mythicals - mythical tales pertinent to the moment
4) de historicals - a sacred history of the blackworld a la memories of fire by galeano
5) in de tradition - hoodoo speculations - highmagic & the hoodoo way
6) de longgame - strategic analysis and positioning
7) de illuminations - spiritual observations
8) de geas of rickydoc - personal observations
9) de fa - fate, fa and destiny
i figure with these subsections i cover the whole of my interests
and dont lock myself into one mode
i cover the spiritual approach (illuminations)
the political, hardgame - (the longgame)
personal advice (consultation)
and so forth, different modalities for different situations
cause i really really want to be an illuminated spiritual force, but my basic function
is war prophet working with both hands, and a couple of magical ones
so i roughed out my first section, rough as hell but i will clean it up when i got a draft
now im thinking if i can get one a day (rough as hell) i can have a real draft of THBOF
this what i roughed out for 1st M, just to give you an idea of the approach, really rough though
not even a 1st draft,
i dont even know if this will be the final format, this is what came up when i drove thru, after i
cut all the slush of the notes and tried to make what was left coherent, it will definitely
be epigrammatic and elliptical, cause that contribute to it remaining fresh over generations
also trying to figure out if i will use (de) instead of (the) and where/how consistently
cause i want to use afroam folk dialect as sacred language/enhance its functionality
basically im just trying stuff thiis draft, by chronicling its evolution here is establishing my right to write a holybook,
as it is tell folk im doing a holybook and their eyes glaze over, i understand, its an ambitious undertaking, bychronicling its evolution here, by the time its done it will be clear that this is the real thing, & that im bonified
usually i just say sacred text, folk can digest that better, but between you and me dear regulators, the bucknaked truth
the 1st movement is 1) condition, the initial state of being, before 2) consciousness
for this movement i call on legba, the god of the crossroads
in hoodoo theology all beginnings, all spiritwork, starts with asking legba to
open the gate between this world and the spiritworld
naming these movement reps 'hoodoo haints' is me trying to reset afroaam folklorics,
accenuating the positive, finessing the negative and not messing w/the in between -
traditionally haints have been restless spirits of the dead, but i figure to use its similarity to word/concept saints
and define hoodoo haints as tribal ancestors, basically deifying them as orisha, saints, loas and the like -
an african american pantheon, i know what im doing . . . .
------------------------------
1st MOVEMENT: DE CONDITION:
I am
By God and all that's holy I am.
DE INVOCATION:
Attend me Lord In the name of |
DE CONSULTATIONS:
condition: the state before consciousness
a perilous affair - best you wake it up, o ye
traveler, best you do it quick
DE MYTHWORK:
in the old days, before time was time, all the
monkeyfolk
walking on 4 feet when one day the
monkey doctor say i have been
thinking, & i believe if we stand on our hind legs that our tribe
and all our generations will flourish, i believe we can be more than we are
like this, he say and he stand, weak and trembly but he
stand and he say well
why on earth, scoff the monkeyfolk, would we want to do that,
what can
we possible do on 2 feet that we cannot do better on 4, our ancestors
did everything need to be done on 4 feet - why,
pray tell, would the great
monkey god give us 4 feet if not to use them, you are a fool, they say
staring at holes in the sky has driven you mad
DE HISTORICALS:
listen o ye generations, to the griotic tales,
whatever
challenges we face we have faced them before
in the griotic tales there is always a way
out from mother africa and populated the planet, the little dark ones - negritos all,
de
kung, de wa, de tcheu-li, de semang, de malay, de sakais, de dravidians, de
liu-kiu,
de melanesians & de khymer - de first peoples built de first civilizatons
along the great
rivers of antiquity, de ganges, de euphrates, de nile, those
who called themselves de people of de bow
born
in the shadows of jebal barkal, de sacred mountain of kush
o mother
africa, cradle of humaity & bilal al sudan, land of the blacks,
born
in the holygrounds of wo'se, nowe, khartoum, asselar, thebes, meroe,
punt,
rozvi, zimbabwe, khol, san, nubia, nok, darfur, and the tassili mountains
the
sahara of 6000bc was bountiful, lush and rich and fertile, the people
were plentiful, proud fisherfolk of the sudan.
but it
is in de midst of plenty that we must call on de elders of kush
gathering in de shadow of jebal barkal, heart of de holyground
the roots of divination are consulted and the story is told
de
children of de sun must be scattered to de 4 corners of the earth
i am told they saw the days of slavery, the forging of gods instrument
yet
the old blues claim as long as jebal barkal
stands, the blacks cannot be defeated
it is in this work that jebal barkal stands
strong and true
position yourself
IN DE TRADITION:
hoodoo often confused with voodoo, both part of a
family of African retentions in the Americas
voodoo, like most ATRS, is a conventional religion, while hoodoo a magical
system
when African captives brought to the Americas they were
not allowed to practice their religions,
where allowed African religion synthesized with Catholicism, vodoun, Santeria,
candomble, etc
where the African way was heavily repressed, as it
was in the states, it became magical
under mortal siege and denied its
priests, the afroam slave community turned to its sorcerors
de gullah jacks, de nanny
accompongs, de macandals, de bookman duttys, de zumbis and de such
representing the resilience of the
African way in an environment built on their dehumanization
round about the 20th century, mystically inclined Afroam writers start using it as literary ground - charles chesnutt w/conjurewoman tales, zora neales conqueror mythwork, ishmaels ideological orchestrations, etc
when folk hear the word hoodoo they generally
thinking slaverytime hoodoo
spells, hells and blackcat bones, but as afroams have evolved so too has their
indigenous spiritual tradition, the cutting edge
of hoodoo aspires to high magic:
shaping reality, shaping generations, enhancement of the human condition
shield and spear
heed the call
DE LONGGAME:
if
you are of the will, this is the way - de longgame
what
babajohn killens call being - a long
distance runner
i would each
and every one of you be an instrument of power, each
unto self an army, master players on the hoodoo board of destiny
shaping generations, enhancing the human condition
game on
DE ILLUMINATIONS:
awaken de sleeper, protect de weak, guide de strongde hoodoo way
this is a book of changes, this is
a text, a work of power
an African American way - a
shapeshifter
this is a hoodoo book of wisdom - a book of divination, a
book of fa
this is de hoodoo book of flowers,
de great black book of generations
this is a work of prophecy - this is a book of wonder
Cast
your vision young hoodoo as far as you can see
Determine
the challenges the tribe will face
Prepare
the tribal soul to meet them.
come then o traveler
i claim for hoodoo the prophets way
DE FA:
listen o ye firstborn to de geas
of rickydoc
and i will give you a mission
greater than your adversity
i will give you a destiny
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