rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

back in the game

thurs 5/6 4:40 am

fuck research, ima give this text one more day, ruthless skim
one day to incorporate new beats, thenn last read thru

this just information, what i know about magic will
have to suffice if option is being off schedule

force march, do or die
lets separate the writers
from the dilettantes

rdx

 

 

wed 6/5 10:04 pm

dug in on stolen lightning, about 100 pages in
got to pick up speed, cannt afford to give this
more than 2 max 3 days, problem is it keeps
catching me up, saying stuff i have to contemplate

grace and god i was just riffing, i know them
just need help articulating essentialist beats
give me triggers and i will get to riffing

but magic i clearly dont understand on level
ithought i was on, i keep running up on
provocative beats that make me think, section im
readiing now talking about oral nature of magic
for instance says there are 4 magical word packets:

expressive: magical wordage , abracadadabra, boil and bubble (what about once upon a time . . . )
propositions: statements grounded in mythology, it is wriitten .  .the gods demand . .
prescriptions: wish magic, saying it is so to make it to - defy me and your generations will suffer
performative 'statements that by themselves create a new reality' i vow .  .  i name thee . . .

what he also calls 'power prescriptions' (ima simplify his academey categories)
who knew, knowledge like this will influence the narratory of my novel
beats like this i have to digest them, adjust my magical paradigms

which i love and why i have judged this an essential
text, im growing as a high magician / novelist and
thats always wonderful, but j christ who got time

got to go

500 more pages to wade thru
god give me strength. . .

pattern is deeper ijn more i get his salient points
and the more ruthless the skim, already he lagging

i gpt to go, of reading many
books there is no end

rdx

 

 

wed 6/5 9:32 am

hello world, appears my typepad is working again
im caught up in a creative bind

supposed to be working on novel but im supposed
to turn HBOF into layout guy on the 17th and there
were a couple of sectiions i needed to address, this
great prayer of afriica beat, and the section on grace

and i knew i had texts for both so i dug in, made god notes
and im getting thru 2nd book of grace but now that im
researching there are a couple others i consider critical

stolen lightning, the social theory of magic, 600 page
academic tome on magic i been intending to read
since i was a baby magician, ima skim the pedagogy

but its making me think about magic, which is my life
and how its going to work in both texts

another one is 'spiritual guidance across traditions"
an anthology of practitioners from diff traditions
talking about how their traditions do spiritual gui9dance

critiical knowledge for what i do
for the path i want to forge

then one 'sorcery, totem and jihad in african philosophy'
about the conflictual dynamics of ATR and Islam iin the sahel

and i got about 3 books on cosmology id liike to get thru
actually i got about 8 on the shelf, ima choose two i
consider critical, ii want to be in that state of mind when
ii abandon research, i want to be a cosmic thiinker

so iima have to abandon research on about 11th, that will
give me a week to incorporate new material and refine

thiis is an example of my raw notes, from god and grace,, im
dug in on magic now, what i do is read the text and do notes
by letting stuff trigger riffs, to be cleaned up next round, quote
marks on it means it not my riff yet, means it needs processing

these are raw notes, will wean them down and ruthlessly refine
i havent started processing magic and cosmic notes yet
i desperately dont want to be doing the drudge of research
but i got to take this last opp to fill in the weak beats

i cant be weak on grace
or magic, or god

this is what i had for grace, i only have 7 beats per segment
did this to force discipline on the text, if i cant fiit what i got to
say in 7 i do 9, but my grace 7 were weak, damn near filler
now that i got better beats i will replace the weak ones &n refine
if im not going to have but 7 beats they have to be strong, essential

------------------- 

9:61: hoodoo grace
o bonnie angel, lead me to thy grace

1: I see grace as divine presence in your life, grace can mean many things, for some folk grace is gods unearned mercy, for some it is a certain dignity, for some style, smooth and seamless, not a move wasted, a rightness in the world, all tings irie, I recall a story wherein the priest arrives late to the death bed and is challenged for his tardy grace, what does it matter, he reply, grace is everywhere, 

2: I assume god the uninverse is not, as we perceive it, conscious of us - I choose to believe that the cosmos is essentially beneficient and rewards evolutionary survival behavior - within that context I too want the confidence that god / the universe will come thru for me in times of great need, people have always found god at the limits of their own strength and I too wish to face my troubles with the invincible confidence of gods grace

3: I know that life is unrelenting struggle, I know you have to appreciate the fleeting moments of grace and be at peace with yourself and your world, its all good is how jimmy carter responded when he was diagnosed with cancer, said he has lived a good life and expressed his satisfaction that the carter foundation had helped almost eradicate the guinea worm, I just want, he said, the last guinea worm to die before I do - to achieve grace is to be capable of greeting all gods messengers, good and bad, with equal acceptance / equanimity / finesse,

4:  grace is a gift, those times when you do not correct an innocent mistake, or take umbrage at a slight, extract revenge for a wrong, grace is when you let it slide, best way to get grace is to give it, freely, the debt erased and, if necessary, taken upon your own shoulders, the quality of your graces will evolve as you do, what good is grace given only to those who are worthy, giving grace is for your benefit, no theirs, giving grace moves you closer to godhead, it is divinity in action,

5: grace that comes when needed is healing grace, a divine blessing that accepts us all as flawed seekers in an ongoing act of creation, the godhead that transcends adversity, time and space - people want grace, need grace, desperate for grace, awaken the sleeper to the possibility of grace that grows in the consciousness of grace, in acts of grace that become habits of grace, in habits of grace that become a life of grace culminating in a graceful death,

6: you struggle and you struggle for grace, then the testiing comes and you fail the test, you can pass it many times but you onlyhave to fail it once to wonder if you will ever truly know grace or are you to be forever bound with just be the appearance thereof - but I am told not even the just are just always, if you give your all, god will give the rest

7: the babajohn was the face of the operation but it was ms grace carried the weight, it was ms grace once told me you wont find what you want until you can bear what you need, to call down ms grace only good deeds will do, random acts of grace - consider the gift of grace: one act of grace a week, one a day if you are particularly devout, a great heartedness capable of divinity, watch them grow,

grace is what you fiind at the crossroads
where your daily grind meet the divine,

shalabongo, shalabongo, o
how grace becomes thee

demoja

---------------------  

fucking pablum, grace escapes me

its not as bad as it was, you cann see ive already
switched out some of the weak beats

just got back from cuba, major experience
they love me in cuba, did opening with nancy norejon
all praises, threw down, bells and all, made the news

next day in auction square, old havana, museum attendant
gets excited, rapid spanish, folk translate, she saw you on tv
poetica, she tells her friends, poetiica, then she starts
busting out my moves

near end of conference they gave me a little proclamation
i thanked them in my un poco spnaish and started to sit down
when the crowd started chanting - sing hoodooman, sing

so i sang, i sang my fucking heart out
trying to give back the love they was giiving

sing hoodooman, sing - i sang

im gone, all my love

rdx

 -------------------  

Grace is what you find when every thing else abandons you

Acts of grace are lifechanging for both the giver and rhe givee
it's the small curtesies thtat folk remember, amirii once did me a

Soluid that he probably didn't remmebmber but it meant sp much

Tio me,

Wise advice is soon forgotten, kindness never

everyone in life is fighting hard to survive
a kind word or deed is a hoodoo blessing by
the grace of god and the power in you, the
genorsity of spirit that defines you, be kind

You are always in a state of grace
so,etime you don't acknowledge it
event as it delivers you from pain

grace is being a tad kinder than called for
just a touch of compassion breeds grace

kindness sanctifies

the greatest blessings are those that cannot be repaid

‘never bite when a simple growl will do

Hemmingways grace under pressure

To live in grace as as living in mojo harmony

‘The ready concessipon of minor points’ as essential at
attidude in both pursuit of grace and serenity, don't sweat
the small stuff, the insignificant,, if its not essential its

Illusion

This whole concept of illusion fascinates me, anything
that's not of the spirit, the eternal, the essential

Most material things are fleeting

Soul fevers are distractions, therefore illusion

Illusion as focusing on anything that's not truly significant

That's not eternal and of the spirit,, this is gaining mojo

Being caught up in illusion is shedding mojo

Fa is to remember that no matter the adversity you have
the power to choose how you will deal with it, the
hammer is always a crossroads, an invitation to grace

it was dzugudini, granddaughter of the monomatapa, had a son with no father, when her own father attempted to punish her, her mother stole his rain charms and taught her daughter how to use them, this power saved her and reunited the warring family under the auspices of mudjadiji, ruler of the day, rain queen of the lovedu and embodiment of the rain goddess, khifidola maru a daja, transformer of clouds and guarantor of seasonal regularity, at the turn of the 21^st century, makhobo, 6^th of the line, was chosen, and on that day blessings rained down upon all the people with divine abandon,

when i address god for the common good i am
the galactic custodian of the universal destiny

‘the priest of the universe’

in this healing let me be an instrument of the great mojo

so he will move from resistance to accepting

himself as an instrument of the great mojo

tomukujen, behold my vicories, my enemies are scattered, it is well

i pray that this is day

lenana i pray

o earth, dear earth,, be gentle
and i will be gentle in my turn

the search for significance prioritizes
the eternal over the transient illusion

you divinity, i give me what i need
remove the pain of all peoples

be nice if i could dramatize his evolution

into the cosmic griot

rituualization sanctifies

murungu, attend to me, hear my words

let the great ones gather,, attend my plea, our pleas

thank you nhialac,we have refused death thid day
be gracious, hear my speech, wuuuu

my words are done

i sing omarari, let thy wrath cease

i cry omarari, let thy wrath ceas

akongo come, mokango
bring aid, mokango
bring help, makango

culture heros, kunda of the ngombe

nyikang of the shiluk, garang of the dinka

the great elder, the great mantle which covers us all

hear my constant prayer, everyday i pray
with every word and deed, want and need
i pray i pray and pray and pray

may the years enndmeet u, may we live to be old
at this end of this road my we sit agaiin

jouk, judge me worthy

asobe, take away my pain
see me safely home

wash away todays sins, lt me begin again
this morning will be a day of good mojo

hello morning, may this be a good day, one
strong in grace, let us gather up the mojo

give me serenity in the storm

dear deng, do not forsake me
do not abandon me when
i am most in need of grace

in your care i cannot fail, will not fail

the role of grace in the creative process
it only comes when you have achieved zone

‘the truly creative word has not yet been pronounced
thiis is nommo, the word of power that ugo could \not
pronounce the world into being, jubilation is try to
conjure a new world into being, to sayy the right word
to conjure, im lost but there is something there

i am  nothing without you

this is yours, kazooba
this is yours, ruhanga
this is yours, rugaba

you divinity, accept my offering

I have harmed no one with intent
I gave only blessings before me

Ruwa, take me by the hand
Fortify my arms     

Epilipili, be still

‘We don't eat till everybvody free

And we dont sleep till everybody eat’

O engai, grant us life, he wiil grant us, grant us grade, she wiil grant it

A hoodoo death is a generous death, let go of your regrets andd resaentmnents appreiate the experience of a fully lived life

Nhialic, be merciful

‘you spirit, you must leave this body, you must leave this person alone, you must leave this village, come with me now, I command you, I will restore your grace, we have come to drive you away, you are not respected here,

nyankonpon, who alone is great

nzambi, what you have made is good

There are many roads but only one path, the roads are all hard ones, beset with trial and tribulation you must surely bear, when the hammer fall you must remember your calling, you are hoodoo bound and in trouble you only grow strong,

Let us rededicate ourselves to life

Mbamba kkiara, grant us rain

Deng of surpassing greatness
do niot forsake me

O imanna, if only you would help me

Khmvoun, hear our call

Bless this tree, make it grow, let it be entirely a blessing without any evil, let blessings abound

I call upon grandfather nyikang, I spread
the palms of my hands in prayer

O merciful nhialic, turn your eyes on life

Everyday to thee I pray

grace transcends, grace overcomes all obstaces

Deng, great ancient one,

Thy will; thy way,, llet the souls of the people cool
remove all evil from my path

O ruwa,, protect me

Sound the chords upon the drums
who seweth the heavens like kente

meketa is trad name for god mong the kono but tataa more common now
holyfolk are begene, a pure man a spirit against which there is no accusation

Asis, see me

Mutulabala the eternal

May your travels be many, your friends be true

Bilikonda the everlasting eternal one

dear mercifull imana, i am in distress, where will
i go, what will i do, where is there room for me

chance is not necessarily chaos, it can
also be the opening of new paths

grace is what you find at the crossroads where
your mundane daily grind meet the divine

the human project of grace mutt be
guided by the primacy of benevolence

grace appreciates the spirit of the law over the letter of it
it is grace that informs the creative process, grace is the zone

grace as a generosity of spirit
that always begins w/benefit of
the doubt, in itself conjurational

if we are in a constant state of growth, one that expands
on itself as we move into closure then its only at the end
that we will be fully who we are, that we will attain fa

there are those moments of grace, when you
did not correct a mistake or did bot insist on
privilege, slide somebody unexpected slack,
did not take offense personal, times when you
repaid injury with hoodooed blessings, when
you found yourself greater than you are

you struggle and you struggle for grace
then the testing comes and you fail the test
and once again proven you not there yet
you can pass it many times but you only
have to fail it once to wonder if you will
ever truly know grace or be forever slave
to the appearance thereof

‘not all the deeds of the just are just’

if you give your all, god will give the rest

abassi of the effik and his wife atai
adroa of the
akongo of the ngombe
ajok, of the lotuko, rain god, resurrection
ala of the ibo, earthmother, wife to chuku
alouroua of the baule, creator god, mystery
anna, sky god of the dogon
chiuta, raingod of the tunbuka
deng of

hanging in there

wed 5/222:02pm

Hello all, been off the grid because of some glitch in my laptop
so im doing this post from desktop in office, until I figure out
Typepad laptop glitch I will come into office once a week & do this

Im so afraid, I have finished my holybook
supposed to give it to layout guy in two weeks

Two sections need work, one in which I name
all these African high gods, I gotta fact check that
got them mostly from mbetis prayers of African gods
read it years ago,, just ordered it so I can fact check

ima trust mbeti, and this website god check, was useful
I just know this whole text is riddled w/cultural errors,

and I fear it is not really moving, inspirational
I wish it could have all been obscure parables
but I have to directly speak on what I think
should be programmed into the culture

And in the final analyses what I got is what I got
ima trust my creative vision, if this is where it

Led me this is where I am, this book will
exist before the end of the summer, im done

other than the god segment and the section on grace
which im not yet happy with, grace still escapes me
but I got two weeks to work on it, grace will be there

so I finished the draft yesterday, got some maintenance
stuff need doing, left over rec for student, etc but now
I got to dig into novel serious, may is gone, I got to get
on it, this is a very vulnerable time, you look at the
text and all you can see is what need to be done

 

and you wonder if you can possibly do it this time
after having failed to do it right for the last 20 years

what makes you think this time will be any diff

 

but fuck it, win or lose, this what I do

and summer woodshed is when I do it

I work in sequences, ive pulled out the most problematic
Sequence, jubilation as prophet, the one that most has to work
And currently is not working as I need it, I read thru the

segment and all I hear is weak discordant notes, its depressing
But you have to just wade in and fucking hope, this what I do

struggle w/the page, I know folk want to be writers
but they aint willing to struggle w/the page

but this is it, im done, showtime - whatever don't work this
time just don't work, so I am afraid this might be it

the final failure, or, even worse,

I am afraid I am fooling myself and that this is not the final run
but that I will keep on repeating this beat unto eternity

Constantly checking myself unto eternity

Unto eternity, eternity

 

 

 

 

the hoodoo boopk of flowers: 1st movement

fri mar 29 6:01am chaingmai thailand

hello all, as you know ive decided to just do the
hoodoo book of flowers myself, im tired of begging
i see all thhe pablum out here and i cant get the
time of day, ima put a tease up, plan is to have it
out there by this summer, 81 moovements, this
is the 1st one

1st movement
hoodoo initiation

open mine eyes, that I might see
open my heart that I might be

 

1:01:hoodoo consciousness

lord legba, open this gate, in the name of the conqueror let this work be done

1: welcome o traveler, let us begin with I am, consciousness - know thyself - the greatest struggle, the greatest  power - who am i? why am I here? what is the point? - a pilgrim once come upon the babajohn and said I seek the babajohn, the babajohn replied, so do I,

2: initiation of the soul is not a given, we, all of us, start life ignorant & asleep, as we mature our understanding of real increases, we conduct ourselves accordingly, our lives become more harmonious, we are initiated, the spiritual life doesnt just happen, it is an active choice, nurturance of the soul is the goal of this Work - open your eyes, young conjure, a step every soul must take, look deep and tell me, what do you see, what is consciousness & who knows, when the only thing certain is we are surely blind & wisdom must be won again and again and again,

3: in the beginning was the mojo, then bang there was the great mojo and all that is begin to be and the cosmos begin to manifest entity / eternity, desperately seeking Fa and spewing seeds of stellar dust that become one big great thing, planets, galaxies, suns, peoples, we is the universe, the universe is us – and the great mojo called it good,

4: then in the fullness of time here come humanity, leap frogging from the primal muck to stand upright, tools in hand, eyes on the stars, ever questing to be greater than we are - it is consciousness allows you to shape your life, only then can you master your own destiny instead of being tossed about by the winds of circumstance, subject to the whims of others,

5: 1^st let us call on mother lucy the monkey doctor, first of the monkey people to stand on two feet, I believe, she told them, 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, she say, and then she stand, and o my god, she say, if only you could see what I see, from here I can see forever, from here I can see the stars, at which point the monkey folk scoff, why on earth, they say, would we want to do that, what can we possibly do on 2 feet that we cannot do better on 4, why, o fool of a dreamer, would the great monkey god give us 4 feet if not to use them, but mambo lucy, she persist, listen, she say, many years I have birthed, taught and tended you, all for this one time I must be heard, Fa has come to us, a journey like nothing this world has seen, the long march of the firstborn has begun, and there, she point at the stars in the sky, is where it will end,

6: safer perhaps to begin w/lord legba, lord of the crossroads & keeper of the gates, opener of doors between this world and de spirit world, messenger of de gods and de random factors, he who must be petitioned at the beginning of any spiritwork, legba flourished in the Americas, in dahomey he is an outlaw, a trickster, a profane flouter of tradition, in dahomey he lacks moral fiber and makes his own rules, in dahomey he is mawu-lisa’s linguist, custodian of the crossroads and divine writ, when the realms of human custodianship were divided amongst the loa, legba, the youngest loa, found himself with nothing to do, and so he was given the space between realms, the keeper of the gates, now whenever you attempt spiritwork you must 1^st ask legba to open the gate,

7: for it is in the beginning of things that paths are laid, destinies shaped, most folk go thru life asleep, zombies walking, but this moment is a conscious one, another sleeper has awakened, a better you has been born, Fa awaits,

Fa is upon you, o traveler, embrace it
w/a hoodoo passion for life

this is the text
this is the way

demoja

 

da 5 bloods, brotherme brotherblood brotherblack

hello all, in thailand working as consultant on spike lee film,
da 5 bloods, im  supopssed to be telling them what it was
like being a black soldier in vietnam, ima just put my last
three facebook posts up in reverse sequence

 

fri mar 22

well, catching a freedom bird to thailand in the morning,
spike lee shooting a movie about black soldiers in vietnam,
da 5 bloods, because of de mojo blues, the trash of my youth,
I been asked to be a consultant, run the blackinization experience
down for them, brotherme, brotherblood, brotherblack,
school the actors on what it was really like – there it is

 

 

 

mon mar 23

first thing spike tries to talk sports, I have to tell him
I don’t even know what season it is, today I’m supposed to
explain to chat . . how do you spell his name, the black panther -
how to run his kingdom, well, at least how to be a child of the 60s
soldiering on the black hand side, brotherme brotherblood brotherblack

 

 

tues mar 26

https://timeline.com/the-militarys-war-against-free-speech-4a639e72d0d6?fbclid=IwAR22gflAa_gD8OtiSWb3nopVGs1dKSTDGo0nskon2KdUtS3CgWRjj5hXejg

had a meeting today w/spike and cast principals so moving
it made a believer of me, i have had a certain reserve in this
process cause i don't really do the celebrity thing, i agree
w/nietzsche, why should i be in awe of other folk if they not
in awe of me, but everybody been really cool, real folk, and
my presentation today on black exp in nam i rollercoastered
them from teary eyed grace to chest pounding solidarity and
back again talking about how conscious we were of being a
colonial levy and the redemption we called blackinization, a
culture of defiance that shapes me to this day, 3 times i got
courtmartialed, 3 times they told me cut your afro, 3 times i
told them kiss my axe, what you gon do, send me to vietnam -
it got so emotional and cathartic up in there today i feel like
we actually was on the battleground together, me and my
brothers in struggle, all for one, one for all, i pride myself on
my cynicism but today they made a believer of me

 

 

hanging in there spring 2019

TUES 3/12 2:26pm

done deal, ima crash out for a minute then start
reading thru novel, im both elated and afraid, ive
glanced at it a couple of times, appears to still be
reading smooth, we will see what a close read says

 

 

TUES 3/12 5:50am

hello all

i been off the grid, schoolhouse got me humping
and i been pouring all my discretionary time into
latest revision of the hoodoo book of flowers

thought it would be a read thru, turned out to be
a real revision and im like is this thing eternally
gon be lacking, have contracted w/adero to edit
it in april, i figure two more read thrus and ima
let it be, i could otherwise do this forever, doing
poetry drafts now and could spend like a week
on each para if i allowed it, now that ive decided
to do it myself i got to make sure its as
professional as humanly possible

and as much as its got me grindhousing &
as discouraged as i am, thinking how ive
invested decades of hard grind work and
the industry ignores me, the literary world
(my readers) have shrugged it and im here
still plugging away, spending my life up on
it because no matter what i believe in it

it is designed to Work the african american soul
and by god and all thats holy its designed well

doiing poetry draft where you have to be
real precise with your wordage and there is an
elation i cannot convey when the absolute right
word comes to me, reeking of power, and i am
once again infused with the power of the word

and a project i believe will actually change things
i got no beefs, im just glad im still here to crunch it, that
i have once again made it a better more precise text

sometimes when my text grows like this im glad the
industry did not take earlier versions, same same rest
i dont really mind the obscurity any more

ive gotten used to it and it has facilitated production
cause it piss me off and its like i will show you all

and i have gotten back into daily practice w/my mbira
was crunched with schoolhouse and gigs last months
and every discretionary musical mnoment was in studio
and had to revise manuscript repeatedly for studio but that
mean i been crunching it and the text has grown exponentially

and i listened to the 9 fucking hours of tape
and its not bad, not what i want yet but i got
the raw material, and if im still functional i will
do it again next year, every year i will record

or re-record a text and when im gone surely one
will be viable, speaking of gone im out of here

im on the 7th movement now, will be done w/this
draft today, then start reading rest to start programming
that revision in my head, do kimberlys text, do taxes,
then start VT text and i will have had a productive
spring break woodshed, im gone

picked up stephanie rose birds 365 days of hoodoo
have interacted w/her in past, she was respectful

i acknowledge her to real thing, need to give her
some play in HBOF, and i saw she had the hoodoo
calendar/almanac idea too, instead of having to
do it again each year though she did it generic
maximal impact, minimal maintenance

also i note how traditional it is
she modernizes the folk magic
but im in radically new territory
w/the high magic focus, i like
what im doing, i will have to
make it happen on them, 70
years old and have to go guerilla
on them, i believe i got one more
good campaign in me, lets do this

all my love
rdoc

its been a while

SUN 2/10 1 AM

hello world, old boy is under the gun
have decided to publish HBOF myself
tired of twisting it all out of shape trying
to give industry something it can live with

i put the blackness back in it but w/a
lighter touch, still universalized

listened to the tape of oral version
today and its sounding good, last
session this thurs, finally realized

its not giong to be a perfect reading
and just accept mistakes, get it done
started over 4 times before realized
just get it done, get it off my plate

heard from ellen, she say hit it again
such is life in the literary lane

god help me, god help
me to persevere

one more summer
thats it, im done

fairfax got to go, w/the quickness
nordham i will giive a pass to
if the option is giving virginia
to the republicans, i expect
policy penance of some sort

all my love

rdoc

 

 

done deal

FRI 01/19 8:08 am

on my way to studio in about an hour
time to finish this HBOF oral project
been down w/mucus but im tired of waiting

snowing heavy of course, such is life
major revision from last push, it will never
be done, i spent weeks taking out the blackness
trying to make it saleable to industry but now
that its clear industry doesnt care for it no matter

what i do im putting the blackness back in but
much tighter so it doesnt become rhetoric again

decided ima do like ive done my lit hoodoo class
im being much looser than i have in the past, im
basically training them to be word magicians

last class we talked about magic, about what
makes a text magical and they were on

told them magic is making real into the world what was not
told them you create the image in your mind of the alternate
reality you want to conjure then pour all your magical energy
into it until it becomes real in the world, asked them what
other process does that - told then art

told them a text is magical when it changes the reader as it is read
what it changes the world as it unscrolls itself, ima go deep on them

also im going in studio today for the 4th take
the 1st 3 were toss aways, now i think i got it

and i was thinking ima approach it differently
before i was very formal, thinking this is for
posterity its got to be perfect, but now ima
be more laid back, more personal, more
conversational, now im thinking ot if
as a chance to hold a dialogue with the
future,  ima try to make this endurance
run fun, its three 5 hours shifts and by the
end of a shift im wore out and drifting

but ima get this done
ima get it off my plate

photos are of baobabs im south africa that climate issues
are killing after some have lasted 1000s of years of climate
challenges and i thought about once i read that griots were
buried standing up in the hollow heart of baobabs, that

appeals to me, im gone, i got to read apps
i got to read manuscirptx and do all kinds of
schoolhouse paperwork, im gone

all my love

rdoc

 

TUES 01/08 5:50am

hello world

sent off my novel and my holybook
now i got to put them out of my mind
when you been invested like i been invested
hard to step back, this last read was hardcore
thoroughly sick of it, have lost faith in it but at
this point all you can do is fall forward

now i got to full court press schoolhouse
i got folks manuscripts and this is my only
slot, once schoolhouse starts its a grind
but this morning bereft of a major project
i swtarted thinking about mojo rising but

ima restrain myself, i got so much need
to be done, already i know of some novel
issues, i saw a sequence glitch, should
fix it before i seque out, erven if ive sent
it off, at least fix it in the draft i have

im gone, all my love

rdoc

 

anytime somebody tell you dont vote assume you being played

my apologies to the new york times 12/17 for stashing this but this is critiical info to me
you know i dont like it when blackfolk get played, i want a race of playas not fools
ima use this and the report to do something, i dont know what but ima stash it here

i will not have them fucking w/my culture like this, i will not have it
the full new knowledge report is here

in the book of flowers this is a game changer

Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media

The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The report adds new details to the portrait that has emerged over the last two years of the energy and imagination of the Russian effort to sway American opinion and divide the country, which the authors said continues to this day.

“Active and ongoing interference operations remain on several platforms,” says the report, produced by New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, along with researchers at Columbia University and Canfield Research LLC. One continuing Russian campaign, for instance, seeks to influence opinion on Syria by promoting Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president and a Russian ally in the brutal conflict there.

The New Knowledge report, which was obtained by The New York Times in advance of its scheduled release on Monday, is one of two commissioned by the Senate committee on a bipartisan basis. They are based largely on data about the Russian operations provided to the Senate by Facebook, Twitter and the other companies whose platforms were used.

[Read the report here.]

The second report was written by the Computational Propaganda Project at Oxford University along with Graphika, a company that specializes in analyzing social media. The Washington Post first reported on the Oxford report on Sunday.

The Russian influence campaign in 2016 was run by a St. Petersburg company called the Internet Research Agency, owned by a businessman, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who is a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Prigozhin and a dozen of the company’s employees were indicted last February as part of the investigation of Russian interference by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel.

Both reports stress that the Internet Research Agency created social media accounts under fake names on virtually every available platform. A major goal was to support Donald Trump, first against his Republican rivals in the presidential race, then in the general election, and as president since his inauguration.

Creating accounts designed to pass as belonging to Americans, the Internet Research Agency spread its messages not only via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which have drawn the most attention, but also on YouTube, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and Google+, among other platforms. Its attack on the United States used almost exclusively high-tech tools created by American companies.

The New Knowledge researchers discovered many examples of the Russian operators building an audience with one theme and then shifting to another, often more provocative, set of messages. For instance, an Instagram account called @army_of_jesus_ first posted in January 2015 images from The Muppet Show, then shifted to The Simpsons and by early 2016 became Jesus-focused. Multiple memes associated Jesus with Mr. Trump’s campaign and Satan with Mrs. Clinton’s.

The Russian campaign was the subject of Senate hearings last year and has been widely scrutinized by academic experts. The new reports largely confirm earlier findings: that the campaign was designed to attack Hillary Clinton, boost Mr. Trump and exacerbate existing divisions in American society.

But the New Knowledge report gives particular attention to the Russians’ focus on African-Americans, which is evident to anyone who examines collections of their memes and messages.

“The most prolific I.R.A. efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing black audiences and recruiting black Americans as assets,” the report says. Using Gmail accounts with American-sounding names, the Russians recruited and sometimes paid unwitting American activists of all races to stage rallies and spread content, but there was a disproportionate pursuit of African-Americans, it concludes.

The report says that while “other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, the black community was targeted extensively with dozens.” In some cases, Facebook ads were targeted at users who had shown interest in particular topics, including black history, the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X. The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers.

The Internet Research Agency also created a dozen websites disguised as African-American in origin, with names like blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, the largest share of Russian material covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality, with channels called “Don’t Shoot” and “BlackToLive.”

The report does not seek to explain the heavy focus on African Americans. But the Internet Research Agency’s tactics echo Soviet propaganda efforts from decades ago that often highlighted racism and racial conflict in the United States, as well as recent Russian influence operations in other countries that sought to stir ethnic strife.

Renee DiResta, one of the report’s authors and director of research at New Knowledge, said the Internet Research Agency “leveraged pre-existing, legitimate grievances wherever they could.” As the election effort geared up, the Black Lives Matter movement was at the center of national attention in the United States, so the Russian operation took advantage of it, she said — and added “Blue Lives Matter” material when a pro-police pushback emerged

Very real racial tensions and feelings of alienation exist in America, and have for decades,” Ms. DiResta said. “The I.R.A. didn’t create them. It exploits them.”

Of 81 Facebook pages created by the Internet Research Agency in the Senate’s data, 30 targeted African-American audiences, amassing 1.2 million followers, the report finds. By comparison, 25 pages targeted the political right and drew 1.4 million followers. Just seven pages focused on the political left, drawing 689,045 followers.

While the right-wing pages promoted Mr. Trump’s candidacy, the left-wing pages scorned Mrs. Clinton while promoting Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. The voter suppression effort was focused particularly on Sanders supporters and African-Americans, urging them to shun Mrs. Clinton in the general election and either vote for Ms. Stein or stay home.

Whether such efforts had a significant effect is difficult to judge. Black voter turnout declined in 2016 for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, but it is impossible to determine whether that was the result of the Russian campaign.

The New Knowledge report argues that the Internet Research Agency’s presence on Instagram has been underestimated and may have been as effective or more effective than its Facebook effort. The report says there were 187 million engagements on Instagram — users “liking” or sharing the content created in Russia — compared 76.5 million engagements on Facebook.

In 2017, as the American news media focused on the Russian operations on Facebook and Twitter, the Russian effort shifted strongly to Instagram, the report says.

The New Knowledge report criticizes social media companies for misleading the public.

“Regrettably, it appears that the platforms may have misrepresented or evaded in some of their statements to Congress,” the report says, noting what it calls one false claim that specific population groups were not targeted by the influence operation and another that the campaign did not seek to discourage voting.

“It is unclear whether these answers were the result of faulty or lacking analysis, or a more deliberate evasion,” the report says.

The report suggests a grudging respect for the scale and creativity of Russian influence operations. But the Russians were not eager to take credit for their own efforts.

After the election, the report says, the Internet Research Agency put up some 70 posts on Facebook and Instagram that mocked the claims that Russia had interfered in the election.

“You’ve lost and don’t know what to do?” said one such post. “Just blame it on Russian hackers.”

all africa peoples conference 60th anniversary

FRI 12/14 12:24 am

digging in on revision rest, that phase where all you see are the
insurmountable problems, the insurmountable problems, this
is the time of testing, my faith has been flagging last couple
of days and its liike im walking thru crises, i think its just
ccause im about to embark on a big push and i fear failure
whatever it is old boy got a bad case of the blues

 

SUN 12/9 1;24 am ori in ghana but this is revision 12:11

hello all

so, was invited to be part of opening ceremony for 60th anniversary of the all african peoples conference, univ of ghana, accra, and i was like cool, ima blow them away, went full regalia medicine man, my global griot thing, mganga maua, afroam stylee, activate  my ghanian legions, i fumbled thru, it was okay - but the experience itself was revelatory, being introduced to all these stalwarts of struggle, 1000+ or so pan africanists from the continent & diaspora, i tend to think i know everything i need to know but every once in a while you exposed to new & ancient beats,

and after i did my little hoodoo prophet thing, de geas of rickydoc, this brother came up to me and said my people are being genocided, will you do a song for us, i will get it before thousands (actually he said millions, I'm just trying to keep it real) - i was so moved and i was like the global griot strikes again - but it turns out he is from cameroon and the situation is like dicey and i was like well maybe i can heal their afflictions and then i was like maybe you should just chill the fuck out, mr global griot, but i will keep an eye on it, i like being wanted, save us rickydoc gets me every time

 

 

allmy love

rdoc

 

 

 

one w/the great all

SAT 12/01 10:35 am

i think i already told you, doing this hoodoo calendar project
and as part of it im dusting off my old astrology skilzz from
when i made charts and im like a doubting astrologer, not
a true believer but i have found something intriiquing in it
but for this project i was thinking follow the seasons and
then i thought it would be even more informed if i knew
what the stars were saying and so im studying astrology
texts and they talking about the positions of the sun and
planets and stars and i get excited because once again
im studying the cosmos with intent of attuning the indiviidual

with the movements of the cosmos and its like trying to
attune yourself to god the divinity and its majestic

passage and i feel like a dancer, a tai chi master
moving iin tune wiith our perceptions iof the unjiverses
movements and im still a doubter that we can comprehend
the universe much less attune our ilves as we do our spirit

i will have to articulate this better later
but this will be the next phase of my life
im going to become a star gazer again

i bought the lewwellyn calnder notebook
and ima do an entry for every day as a
trial run to get hang of it and see what
stands the test of time and ima look at
a farmers almanac and see how the
classics handle it and when the lewellyn
star guide for 2020 comes out i will use
it and others to do informed hoodoo
calendar predictions w/nice imagery
attuning all things w/the great diivine

will be its stated purpose

all my love

rdoc