rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

magic or fantasy: today im voting fantasy: its always showtime

FRIDAY  424 pm

hello world, bee off the grid, stonewalling
everything but novel

totally quick commentary:

america drawn into shiite struggles for power and influence - iran
the puppetmaster in this struggle

defense dept hires 21 year old contractor to deliver defective ammo to afghanistan
this is the government that couldnt shoot straight

neither hillary no obama can take advantage of mccains weakness
because they still on the bataan death march of 2008

im clocking page, only thing you
can do when the world is falling apart

rdoc

TUESDAY MORNING  334 am

hello world, figured out my problem, had written myself past my understanding
had to stop and reassess what im doing, redo my outline, no problem

invest a couple of days in outline i be good to go
it feels good to be moving again

schoolhouse got me running and gunning

summerwoodshed coming and i need to hit the ground running

quick commentary: hillarys misspokement is too juicy to pass up

bill say its all good, let the blood flow

obama look a little weary these days
hang in there brother

cant handle hillary what
can you do

rdoc

MONDAY MORNING

after all those wolftickets last post i did about an hour of novel
rest of the day went to palf and some schoolhouse

im under the gun - had to dump the fancy fonts
just aint had time to play - life got me

quick shoutout to rod jackmon - he be regulating
appreciate his help on rest, occasional admonitions

to buck up
rdoc

SUNDAY

hello world, i been off the grid, palf and schoolhouse got
me rolling - squeezing noveltime here and there

and this endgame got me spooked, got to reconcept
primary thread - this sorceror who would be prophet

im feeling a little humble today, running scared
and questioning my game, magic or fantasy

today im voting fantasy, today reality is winning
today i wonder if this just a juneteenth fakeout - the wouldbe

greaat novel that never seem to be great enough

will this novel ever be viable - or am i in truth just the footnote
the literary world claim me to be - do i simply not have the chops

to be true voice

focus rick, keep the faith - ignore anxieties, ignore internal pressures
external pressures, anything that depress discourage or distract me

just Know one day this novel will be the work of
wonder i see in my head and it will all have

been worthwhile - i tell folk 20 years cause i once found a draft of this novel
from 1990, but ive actually been busting it about 8 now, long enough

feel like ive given it my youth

suppose to be a bigtime conjureman
bending reality to my will is what i do

well this reality has not bent and I wonder
sometime why the gods have cursed me

why give me the power/vision/need
and not allow me to manifest

they want to keep me hungry, keep
my nose to the grindstone - so be it

today we work that spine - focus rick
its always showtime - and im always behind

masterpiece or farce, make it happen
let the generations decide

in struggle
rdoc

FRIDAY

obama speech successful in deflecting some of the pastor wright heat
but its a vulnerability no matter how it plays

impressive that obama didnt throw wright under the bus, i wouldve -
that oldschool rhetoric is terminally marginal and counterproductive in

the 21st century - we dont want to bring america down, we want to claim
and guide her, maddog rhetoric dont put blackfolk in a illuminated state of mind

dont nothing stres the old conjureman like weak longgame - but
some strong and pertinent folk still stuck in that mode

i have to work them to, try to get them on the good foot
been a struggle to break free of it myself

i am a die hard black nationalist but i am not the angry
black militant i was when i was 20 - radical purity is for kids

obamas campaign been repudiation of that oldschool idea of struggle
cant be running yesterdays game in tomorrows struggle

have to figure out how to be black in a multi culti world,
a comfortable part of the mix - players instead of victims

i spec boy obama wove thru that one about as deftly as could be done

wright gon still cost boy obama but such is life - cant fault a man for allegiances -
my understanding is that there is more to him than soundbites portray

this campaign been as much a wakeup call for black america
as its been for white america, hispanic america et al

speaking of which timely move by richardson - good looking out mi amigo -
wouldnt that be a nice ticket - but it would totally freak the nervous whitefolk

o what a tangled web - ima leave it alone
have not done any novelwork lately

let me get serious
weary but still struggling

rdoc

if its gotta be knuckleduster then knuckleduster its gotta be

WEDNESDAY

okay, man woodsheds are sheer monotony, you work all day - clock a couple of paragraphs
and you get up the next day and just sit there at the SACRED DESK one more again

clocking paragraphs - if you lucky - i may be mortally bored
but im clocking 6, 9 and 12 hour days - this is a good thing

i be telling my students to use these breaks to clock pages
and they just go out having a good time with their little breaks,

they aint desperate yet - got all the time
in the world

okay, some quick commentary from a desperate man - go endeavour go -
space is the place yall - got to get off the planet

for i would ye be a starfaring race
it is the geas of rickydoc

spitzer on the other hand has crashed and burned - gon give up governorship for reduced charges - unless politicized justice dept decides to stick him like he stuck others

got wallstreet SINGING DINGDONG the wicked witch is dead - hubris of a high order (no condom?) has brought down one wouldbe hero -  nuance another

in the case of general fallon of centcom, it was nuance did him in - last november fallon was in hot water w/bush for telling the egyptians there would be no war w/iran

too many hotspots in the middleeast he say, with "five or six pots boiling over our nation can't afford to be mesmerized by one problem."

got in trouble w/bush when he told the egyptians to chill: "I don't want them to get too spun up," but "washington interprets this as all aimed at them. Instead, it's aimed at governments and media in this region. I'm not talking about the white house."

but like the general who said it will take hundreds of thousands
of troops to pacify iraq, bush dont like generals who speak truth

to the people, congress, their soldiers or anybody else
he prefer lapdogs like powell

yo obama, scoop fallon up w/the quickness
before hillary do - or even worse, john mccain

in the name of the conqueror

rdoc



TUESDAY

hello dear regulators

obama howling for clinton to  reject and denounce ferraro: this is tacky
forced and petty, catch yourself my brother - get your game on

dont get to wrestling w/pigs
you just get dirty and the pig enjoy it

this what she said:

"if obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. and if he was a woman, he would not be in this position. he happens to be very lucky to be who he is. and the country is caught up in the concept,"

so what man, who cares, you know you got a little something something
that nobody can deny, dont get caught up in the tit for tat

i aint saying dont slap down the strategy, ferraro and the clintons trying to wave the
battleflag of affirmative action in front of resentful workingclass penn whites

note it, counter it, press on - the more of an issue you make it
the more racial it becomes - which is what they want

stay on the highground brother - you probably seen this quote from greg craig
state dept during the clinton admin and now a supporter of barck obama:

greg say she wasnt no player

“she did not sit in on national security council  meetings. she did not have a security clearance. she did not attend meetings in the situation room. she did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. she did not do any heavy-lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not. she never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis. as far as the record shows, senator clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue — not at 3 a.m. or at any other time of day.”

==========

now thats tough - that other
thing, that feel kinda petty

WORD by
trickmaster



MONDAY

so, what do you think about the new graphic lick
just trying something out, SEE IF IT HELP the numbers

probably work against me, like every other
time i deviate from the beaten path

but i do like to play - and i do consider myself an artiste and this a Work of art - so ima play with it awhile, see if it evolve, tried it once before and dropped it - i fear it lacks gravitas

we will see - okay obama has finally shot down the clinton vice president offer for the trash it is

called it the okeydoke - which is what i often call
bushs tactics: trying to hoodwink the people

and the latest from senator monsterspin is to count 3 categories of delegates, pledged, caucus and super

she say because the caucus process is fundamentally undemocratic  - ie not breaking for hillary - the caucus delegates should be

counted as unpledged - this must be some kind of liars primary where you change the rules at whim - one day they will

overplay their hand - the people
or the superdelegates - will say enuf

rdoc



SUNDAY

hello world, hope things well with you

im pretty mellow, its springbreak - bonnie went
to visit the folk, just me and the cats

barbarian time: i might not shower
dont need no stinking shower

mini woodshed yall and crunching pages
so far been disciplined, nothing but pages

well more like paragraphs - but you get the idea

with this blog lately and everything im feeling like what the fuck
am i doing, aint like nobody paying attention or nothing

i think i be wailing

but my lack of significance in this primary
frustrate me - i want to give advice, i want

to speak for the people
be the voice of tribal consciousness

went by field negros joint yesterday
man he got damn near 100 comments per post

i aint even got 100 regulators, my books out of print - its like i aint here
world treat me like i aint got action - like my words mean nothing

no mojo

this simply will not do - no no no - semester been slack
last 3/4 weeks schoolhouse took it  all

catchup time - 6 days just me and the Work
by god ima CRUNCH SOME PAGES BY GOD

focus rick - dont nothing Count but getting this novel done
im tired of this 2d string reality

whole world can kiss my dusty this week, this week its
my world: rickydoc on a sungun: looking for the ZONE

you need to crunch some pages, son
PAGES, PARAGRAPHS, WHATEVER

all my love
rdoc



SATURDAY

hello world, okay just to prove its not obama 24/7
when you got a couple of spare hours check out

the maap site, mapping the african american past - a multimedia
exploration of the history of black manhattan from columbia university,

or if you dont have that kind of discretionary time
and want to knock off something quick and dirty

for wouldbe middleclass memorists who dont feel like
creating their own tale of exotic degradation

23/6 has a memorist kit for you

they also had a cute little bit redpenning sam powers resignation note
behind calling hillary a monster - but it was maybe a little too racy for me

some folk say the monster comment was the obamas camp way of saying it
without actually saying it - a little crossgame in a cynical world

i can relate - i want to go full bore on clinton but i keep
restraining myself, kinda in the same bind obama is in

cant really clock her because i dont want to be
accused of sexism, but being seen as venal

dont seem to faze her at all
i put it 24/6 hit up, i took it down

guess im just going to put the link up
then claim it wasnt me who did it

and look here o man needs to shutdown clintons obama-clinton routine
thats just another uactic to make folk think voting for her gets both

everybody knows bill will be her real #2, possibly her real #1

in struggle
rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, well on to penn, boy obama slipped up and withered
under hillarys negative onslaught, he gon have to unleash his inner

chicago machine pol - and not make stupid mistakes like nafta
how many votes coming in from canada, that was unnecessary hubris

from whats been a tight campaign - cant be stumbling about when
lowblow hillary looking for blood - shes given up contending

on the issues, its strictly tear him down now -

as for the charge obama only winning states that dont count, those are the very states that willbe in contention  - calif and ny aint in contention

hillarys claims to macho experience wont get far against john mccain - obama can go head up over the independents who will decide this race

whats interesting is that desperate republicans have put their maddogs into the kennel
but for democrats look like the politics of personal destruction still getting play

this is a big misread of the national mood - folk tired of it - god, 7 more weeks of it, i cant imagine
and boy obama gon have to punch back, while looking like he aint - this gon get ugly

got rightwingers like rush ecstatic: "look, half the country already hates hillary, but nobody hates obama
yet. hillary is going to be the one to have to bloody him up politically. . . . it's about winning, folks"

boy obama gon have to get tough w/o getting nasty
cant let clinton drag him down to her level

you stay on the highroad dawg
let rickydoc handle the roughstuff

so me and bonnie, we having a political argument right
she says to me, if hillary wins there is no way i will vote for her

not after all that she has done

i been pondering that myself
but i say - unless obama ask us

bonnie say not even then, not after the way shes gone about this
and i say but what if obama ask us to, if obama is willing to

bury the political hatchet i will too - politics
she says no, not even then, ive had it w/hillary

this from somebody who was iffy back at the beginning
about which one she would support/vote for

well i have too i said, nothing but contempt
her and her supporters, nothing but contempt

but if obama does win, i guess its okay for hillarys
folk to sit it out too - to let bush/mccain and

the republicans back in for 8 more years
i cannot contemplate such a thing - 8 more years

of this

just vote, i said, not support, never again - and
only if obama ask us to, sincerely ask us to

she say i will if michelle ask me
i say - deal

in the name of the conductor
mother tubman see us thru

rdoc

the texas debate, mccain the manchurian candidate of the lobbyists - whatever

MONDAY

hello world, had two presentations last week
been kinda out of it

a quick catch up

hillarys doubled down on the negatives, unfortunate but expected
weve seen about 3, 4 hillarys this last week alone, 3, 4 different strategies

each one of them weak,

obama seem to have good black demographics in texas, not only
black texans but evacuees from new orleans w/an attitude

and a delegate process that favors democratic strongholds
which includes urban black areas - be nice when this phase is over

desperate clintons are not a pretty sight, no telling
what kind of damage they capable of

mccain and crew trying to take obama down on patriotism, one of their favorites
if michelle wants to be 1st lady she is going to have to chill the cynical thing

speaking of cynical i dont have much faith in a restructuring kenyan government
to make two enemies co presidents (prime minister w/real power)

that aint likely to work and government structure should be a little less adhoc
this will not stop the ethnic cleansing afflicting kenya, maybe it will buy them

some breathing room for a real deal but im not hopeful
okay, what else, what else, thats it, my heart is not in this

i got so much work to do
im outta here

in struggle
rdoc

LAST WEEK

hello world

texas debate: no knock out blows,

hillary got some points with closure statement and graciousness
she nailed that last question and probably provided the debate highlight

obama got some points with anit delusional response to get real/change by xeros gambits
you can tell the way she said change by xerox she thought she had a winner, it fell flat

mccain: would be nice to derail him like that but w/o hard evidence nobody is buying it
dont want competition with mccain to become about personality, hes relatively likeable

and w/o hard evidence he will get benefit of the doubt
keep it on issues, his policys are reeking deadmeat

i believe thats one of the reasons hillarys losing ground, she keeps trying to
make it personal and folk really dont want that, change by xerox actually got booed

mccain: we can beat him on issues, personality attacks will turn the independents away
this weak move by the times has probably helped him build conservative support

that said, be nice if another shoe dropped, cant help but think if there
was one the times would have found it already

instead of putting out lightweight work
must have been wishful thinking maybe

the meat of the article was the info on collaboration w/lobbyists
including those running his campaign, the manchurian candidate

21st stylee

workng on a presentation for the baobob society
need to work on that today

much love
rdoc

babajohn killens presentation: conjuremen and official secrets: catch them while you can

WEDNESDAY

hello world, this one you got to move fast on, a website called
wikileaks that publishes confidential info that folk have leaked

a judge just tried to shut it down because a cayman island bank
objected to some of its info put on line and we know what cayman

island banks do right

it has also put the guantanamo operating manual online
the rules of engagement in iraq -  you get the picture

the good stuff, secrets those in power dont want yu to know

but the judge who closed it only closed the domain name which
mean he dont know how the internet works

the backdoors and mirror sites are still up, here is its protocol address and
are a few mirror links set up for just this contingency -

quick now, catch it while you can:

Wikileaks.org 
http://88.80.13.160/ 
http://wikileaks.be/ 
http://wikileaks.de 
http://wikileaks.cx

man, i got to remount rootwork.com
us conjuremen love secrets - specially good ones

oh, congrats to obama on taking wisconsin - cutting deeper
into hillarys base and boosting his delegate lead

if we can take texas and ohio this is a wrap

thats two weeks till march 4th - 2 weeks of devilishment
i shudder to think what a desperate clinton camp will try next

i did a presentation yesterday for adam banks rhetoric class
which is studying babajohn killens, its a great class that reminds

me of babajohn cause he does a community version of whatever
he is teaching just like john always stipulated that his workshops

would be open to the community, its kinda long and those of you
who know me, dear regulators, have heard it before

but here it goes

==============

(conch horn)  lord legba open this gate, it is i rickydoc rootdoctor ask that this gate be open, this work be done, in the name of the conqueror

first id like to apologize, feel like I been hogging the conversation, which aint my lowprofile style, but john o mean so much to me, , it never cease to amaze me that john killens dont get his propers as a literary visionary, and I am so tickled to be part of a class where he getting his due respect - I asked adam if I could say a few things, some personal memories cause I was one of his legions, for 13 years I followed babajohn from school to school – in spiritual traditions there is whats called the unwritten knowledge that is the example of the masters life and I kinda wanted to share a little of that with you

ritual opening on all my works: I am flowers of the delta clan flowers and the line of o killens. . ., this is a griotic opening formula where you start by telling who you are and who you were trained by- i was trained by babajohn killens  - babajohn taught me not only how to write but how to be a writer, taught me how to be a visionary, what he called a long distance runner, what I call the longgame, babajohn showed me the way

back in the day, john killens was the only one of the major writers who tried to pass it on, to teach young writers, provide a space for them to grow, whenever john taught he would stipulate that his workshop would be open to the community. So over the years he drew a cadre of young writers to him – tmc, nikki, eliz, bebe, etc

came to nyc in the summer of 73 to get into babajohns workshop at columbia and stayed in it till he died in 1986.- for 13 years i followed john o. killens from school to school, (the story – I had read . . .)

babjohn worked hard to institutionalize a progressive black literary infrastructure - babajohn train generations of blackwriters in the longgame - he trained us in how to be a literary mob, how to wield literary power, how to be successful writers, how to produce works, market works and how to be culturally and socially influential

we were all politicos and artistic activists who had come out of the black arts movement, where the point of art was to develop it as an instrument of cultural redemption and empowerment, john o showed us how thats done  -  how to be culturally influential, how to change things (the example of terri mcmilan)

content and context, (the dialogue in African americn lit and the generational developments and the charge against politically inclined literary writers of craft and content struggle)  john o stipulation:  "the more important that you have to say the more obligated you are to say it well"

for 13 years I followed john o Killens from school to school. johns rep declined over the years  -( the schools – medger evers the meeting place and its tribal griot – the great griot master of brooklyn)

the last time I saw him in Brooklyn, (death watch and hollywood advice barely able to move -  dont lose soul and his never sell your name, speak from heart not wallet - him telling me to sit him up in the chair, calling up ms grace, i like to see he said - i know you do she said

i like to know whats going on around me he said, 
i know you do she said)

keith gilyard, adams mentor, once said to me that the primary trope of afram lit is struggle  - the ongoing struggle for survival and empowerment that blackfolk have waged since we came to this land and that has more than anything shaped us as a people 

africanamerican literature is consciously griotic and passionately concerned with cultural custodianship. 

as the voice of a culture that has since its inception felt itself under mortal siege, african american literature is fundamentally shamanistic and vitally concerned with communal health and empowerment.  its most revered figures have all been culturally engaged.  Langston, zora, amiri, tonimorrison, creating the visions without which the people shall perish and serving in its mythic heart its ageold griotic function of keeping the culture alive and viable.

Not only did john o teach us the skilz to fulfil that function, john o tried to institutionalize committed afroam lit – so that it would train and nurture generations of committed black writers, cause john o played the longgame – what he called being a long distance runner

"our struggle for liberation was indeed a long long distance race, for we are out for nothing short of winning the entire human race and we were up against a formidable foe, and to win this race would require planning, pacing, discipline and stamina, and a belief in our ability to win the long protracted struggle. . . .we must construct one hundred year plans.  two hundred year plans.  we must construct institutions for generations yet unborn.."

babajohn taught us that in ideological orchestration, the the longer more encompassing your ideological game, the stronger it is, the one that subsumes all others – babajohn taught us how to be visionaries

babajohn o passion was that our people and our culture survive the cosmic cut, and become one of the worlds influential cultures, that we continue to grow and evolve as a people and culture and dont decline and wither away

john o position was that we must build a culture so strong and beautiful that the entire human race want to be black – john o would have been very impressed with obama, cause john o taught us every generation got to figure out its issues and how black identity in the multiculti reality of the 21st century is one of our big issues and obama has figured out how to make struggle serve both our families, blackfolk and all humanity

thats good game on a lot of levels – black culture as guide and guardian of humanities struggle to evolve

there was once a time in my memory when african american culture was considered one of the worlds sacred cultures, and not only in terms of spiritual practice, the viejos and the like but also in terms of political practice, our struggle has inspired struggle around the globe,

we are still one of the most progressive political blocks in the west, the world - friend of mine once said we the 2nd toughest people on the planet - but we got to be on the highground to do it, cant be waddling in the mud if you want to play destinygames, - hiphop a powerful force but it got a lot to learn  - about representing

john o taught us that that as writers and trained cultural forces we in our works leave a legacy for future generations & you should be conscious of what you want that legacy to reflect,  you want it to mean something, you want to stand with Langston and zora and richardwright and all them  - 

he taught us how to use the word as an instrument to move the people, what adam the other day called a vehicle – everybody got their vehicle, and words are ours, he taught us how to get up on a stage and use words to move the people, (I am rickydoc rootdoctor, I am mythmaker . )   john taught us how to mack

taught us how to be cultural custodians, to be guide and guardian of the tribal soul and destiny, to be shield and spear

he taught us that literature  a sacred calling & he guided us through all the stages of our lit development -  when we didnt know how to write he taught us how, when we knew how to write he taught us how to be professionals, when we were professionals he taught us how to be great writers, not just writers, great writers by his understanding of what literary greatness entail

in my literary youth i aspired to be an intellectual of power who would forge blackfolk into a conquering horde and fling them into battle,  power was my thing and field of study and people were just factors to be used - this was reflected in my work  - 

one day babajohn pull me aside and say "art you a brilliant writer but with a little compassion you could be profound"

all i heard was brilliant - wasnt till many years later i realize babajohn trying to make sure my contribution, as his student, would not be hard and cold but warm and loving  - old shaman trying to ensure the health of the tribal soul

i have internalized so many of john o precepts about being a writer that he continues to guide me in new challenges, i would never do anything as a writer that i dont think john o would approve of  -  there are times when I regret I ever met john killens , hadnt been for babajohn i dont think i would have been a novelist.  would have been some easier kind of writer, making money and getting some respect instead of obscure and marginalized

but on the real side I cannot fully express to you how proud of being one of john killens legions - what sara fabio once called 'killens chillens' knowing john was a once in a generation experience, there will never be another like him, and I feel like I was totally blessed to have known him, to have been trained by him - with everything I do I praise his name  - my mentor in struggle - babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn 

I want to thank adam for this class, I want to thank this class for showing john o some respect, some appreciation – means a lot to me, cause with all his heart and soul he loved you, he loved black people, he

gave them everything he had to give, he tried to represent

that is all
this spell is done

===================

i didnt even finish, i teared up and got emotional on that last paragraph
ima do a self enclosed version and see if i can get it published somewhere

maybe fill in those parentheticals were i addlibbed

i dont usually concern myself w/publication unless somebody ask me to give them something
but this one is for babajohn, not me -  for babajohn i will put myself out there

i been ruthless about telling folk no these days, folk always asking me to present
i wont never get no Work done i tell all the folk ask me to present yes

but the baobob society over at esf got me again this year, cause i stood them
up last year for the spirit and essence black history month dinner, i owe them

i already gave them one make up, but i told them i would always be available
to them so they called me on it, spose to do that one the 23rd, best i get on it

my love to you all
in the compassion of o killens

rickydoc flowers
a luta continua

singing my song, fakeout phrasing and obama for president: fired up, ready to go

SUNDAY

hello world, while hunting zuma links i found that one below, a southafrican news site where
south african reporters consulted sangomas for divinations about how the election would turn out

obviously didnt have a lot of respect for the diviners
while i was there i read all these sensationalist articles about muti killings

where south african magicians kill children for bodyparts, they call them muti killings
they are prosecuted under whats called the human tissue acts - (rough when you got to have a law for this)

now, these articles kinda sensationalist and you never know the real deal in a case
like this where you are out of culture and afrospiritual practice everywhere is often denigrated

but im thinking this is actually an issue in some traditional spaces and its one i rail against when it shows
up (diluted) here in the americas, recently some of mambo racines folk were arrested trying to bring a freshly dug

skull through haitian customs and there are many practitioners here who dont object to the skull bit at all
atr deal in blood and bones w/the regularity but i find it appalling and aint gon restrain myself from saying it no more

i am not susceptible at all to the tradition rationales i hear from the atr practitioners, its fucking barbaric, and when allowed it opens the door for all kinds of atrocities like the ones accounted in these muti killing articles

that shit got to go, rickydoc say so
gon lay de geas on the hoodoo line

folk be telling me how various gods/spirits insist on it and thats just bullshit
this just primeval human thinking and most cultures have left it behind, have evolved

all cultures have that constant tension between tradition and evolution
cultures, traditions, religions evolve all the time and leave antiquated practice behind

even if they just go virtual, like the catholics do, drinking the blood and eating
the flesh of christ is not that appealing to me either, virtual or not

thank god we aint talking muti killings here, im talking bout that whole headset, all that killing
and all, all those sacrifices and belief in the power of blood and body parts, we wallowing in blood

i got to get rid of that whole headset
all that blood and guts state of mind

animal sacrifice, so forth & etc
that shit got to go

oh i can hear them now, oh you just parroting the west
you do not understand these things - fuck that

that shit got to go

in the name of the conqueror
that shit got to go

folk think prophecy about telling the future or something
but prophecy is about regenerating tired cultural practice

determining what is viable, and what should be left behind
hooking up cultural practice with destinic consequence

and de ol hoodoo prophet gon tell you straight up, that shit got to go
with all my power im gon extract that shit

mark my word

rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

SATURDAY

hello world, trying to convince myself to do an end of the year report
laying out the most significant issues of the year and speculations

on developments in 2008 but im having trouble convincing myself its worth it all
guess it depends on how much novelwork i get done over next couple of days

some real quick quickies
obama cutting into clintons lead in black vote

un african caucus backed arab/islamic caucus effort to disband un human rights panel on sudan as part of arab/islamic caucus campaign to alleviate pressure on the sudan

justice and admin tell congress/courts any investigation of the destruction of cia tapes will impede their own investigations - but whats being investigated is justice/cia/admin obstruction of justice - thats bold, thats so bold, it never cease to amaze me how bold they are

my toss say look like 100% zulu boy zuma will be the next president of the anc/southafrica -

course any diviner can have an off day,  like south african historian leonard thompson, who wrote in 2001, "the new president [thabo mbeki] appointed as deputy president jacob zuma, a loyal anc member who had no formal education and posed no challenge to mbeki's leadership"  - see what im saying

what else, nothing, im not feeling this
maybe later, im tired, im down, im done

i got the blues

sometime the punches be coming at you so hard you cant get your feet under you -
it be like BAM . .  okay shake it off rick, shak . . BAM  . . sh . .  shak . . BAM

and it be like damn, i need some slack, lord
just let me get my breath, lord

mercy. lord
then again, there is that great blues line:

anything you werent born with
you can learn to live without
                               ike turner r.i.p.

                                    

THURSDAY

hello world, following a link to rootsblog i came across a nytimes
listing of the best novels of last 25 years, apparently they asked some

100s of literary folk what novel they would choose and then put their
reasoning/essays about which novel they chose, it was fascinating reading

some of them protested being asked to choose 1 novel but they participated
everybody got a favorite novel, one that moved them, or they think moved society

or the literary world, this was done in 2006 sometime, wonder if the list would be now

beloved by toni morrison was the winner

runnerups

underworld by delillo
blood meridian by mccarthy
rabbit angstrom (4) by john updike
american pastoral by phillip roth

counting the honorable mentions the gender breakdown was 2 women
20 men, and the list was classically canonized, wasnt for toni at the top

it would have looked kinda generic, the usual suspects, still, some very
interesting discussions on what makes a novel important, for instance

jane smileys essay, talked about how toni built dramatic suspense into beloved

i might have to dig back into this article when i got some discretionary time, get some
pointers - what was kinda humbling was how many of them i havent gotten around to reading yet

also kinda humbling, i been hoping this novel would be my masterpiece but its so strange
i cant really judge whether its actually works or not, much less is a true masterpiece

at 57 i have to consider that i might not have a masterpiece in me, ohwell, too late in the
game to do anything but plug away at it and accept whatever i get, reminds me of something

buddy of mine, playwright aishah rahman once said, i once told her i wanted to be the greatest novelist
ever lived and she said no art, thats not what you want, what you want is to sing your song

best you can sing it, that way you can appreciate other folk singing theirs - one of the best pieces
of advice ive ever gotten as a young writer, its kept me from being jealous of my buddies work/acclaim

and trying to write like other folk, best i keep it in mind

read a very evocative black agenda report article by khail muhammad
that puts bill cosbys uplift agenda in context of a longline of uplift agendas

from booker t on and does a good job of skewering them but also sets up some false
dichotomies using this poll sometime ago that asked if middleclass blacks

were aspiring to 'white values', thats not really the issue - i for one am not
trying to getting to get black folk to 'be white' and just because

particular whitefolk try to skew the question and rationalize racism et all as
black pathology kinda aint got nothing to do with what we got to do to flip this

script, and we cant let them define the dynamic, which is what this article does, the
question is not black vs white values, thats a fakeout question easily knocked down

let me define what black values are, or ought to be
and struggle aint no either or, its working with both hands

on many levels its a fakeout article but it was a very evocative, with a lot of points to chew on
i aint got time to breakdown all the nuance on that perennial question right now

maybe tomorrow

im always gon try to speak truth to the people
even when they dont want to hear it

but im kinda tired of always being the contrarian, of being out on a limb and feeling
misunderstood, feel like i should just keep my mouth shut sometime

books out of print, 100 hits a day w/rootsblog
sometime i feel like im just wailing in the wilderness

youd think i had enuf sense to give up by now
but i dont think i can

once again, just do what you do rick
just do what you do, hang in there

all my love
rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello world, i wanted to leave my rest for the weary post up for awhile
but i got to be moving on, readership been weak lately, who cares

rest for the weary coming right along, if anything im in the zone
i notice this article about obamas unofficial campaign slogan

fired up, ready to go

apparently he was in some little town in south carolina when local activist, edith childs, woke up the crowd with fired up, ready to go chant

obama say he was kinda tired when he got there, say he was whipped
but "after a minute or two, Im feeling kind of fired up." he say, "im feeling like im ready to go."

he been using it ever since
i also notice hillarys campaign playing dirty tricks on obama lately, or rather oppositional work
tried to stick him with a charge of illegal campaign contributions thru his PAC

(one of which being a campaign contribution to hillarys senate campaign, go figure)
when he accused her of dirty tricks, the clinton campaign claim it was republicans that did it,

but journalists say it was the hillary folk planting those stories, just yesterday i read one of
hillary folk saying obama drug use as young man was going to make him unelectable,

a little while back they tried to use a kindergarten essay say he wanted to be president
one day against him - hillary hillary

obviously their oppositional research is in full swing now that obama seem to be getting some traction
i been basically sitting this one out cause i got respect for hillary and im conflicted about

whether i think president of the united states is all that great a job for obama anyway
i want him to keep being a community activist i guess - seem like a higher calling

kinda like folk who think im a sellout cause im a 'professional' writer now
instead of the community poet i started out as

all us writers 'in the tradition' started out as community poets but you cant stay there
and its become a pejorative term for unsophisticated work among us

and you proud of your community poet roots and your community poet skilz
(i can still move the people) but when you grow beyond that your influence is magnified

you still warriorkind but you more sophisticated in your game
and your work - if anything you striving to be an international force

destinic in your scope

im still conflicted about obama running for president
but im starting to hear the warhorn lately

fired up.  ready to go

if its good enuf for oprah
its good enuf for me

rdoc