rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

stylee

FRIDAY (last one must have been thursday - quien sabe)

(had to do a rewrite, my tonals were strident, had to step back)

since this stylee week, lets talk orginality and plagiarism

martin de leon pulled my coat to my boy salvador taking incoming

seems this shane jones, author, i use the word advisedly, of the the light boxes snatched concepts, characters, passages, tonals, structure etc from people of paper and called it legit

sal cried foul

jones partisans jumped sal, wheres the harm they ask, sampling is a legit artistic tech nowdays

like i said in reality hunger post, everybody steal, what artist dont build on whats come before, but there is an ethic to stealing, you digest it, you make it yours, you dont just steal,

dont have to define artistic thievery, everybody know what we talking about, so now we
got jones partisans declaring that orginality in art is overrated -  o the shame of it all

for a longtime everything i wrote sound like bad marquez, but if you dont grow

past your influences you derivative, i dont care what you call it, and if you steal

folks ideas, words, concepts and characters you a thief, where is the art in that

recent interview by sal still crying foul - insult to injury is moviedeal, acclaim and dollars
sal didnt get, but such is the literary life, sal got the respect and i expect him to move on

he who steals from my youth steal trash

the real tragedy here is that im reminded just how profound, complex and moving
the people of paper is, downright depressing, i like to think my novel as a pathfinder

but compared to the people of paper im barely in the game, i need to read
it again, see what i can steal  -   once again best to keep in mind something

aishah rahman told me a long time ago -  once in my callow youth told her i wanted to be the
greatest writer ever lived, she said art, thats not what you want, you want to sing your song

the best you can sing it, that way you can appreciate other folk singing theirs

all my love

rdoc

FRIDAY

finally reach the stage where i enjoy working on this novel, every hour i work on it now makes it better - and to think i have a whole 4 month period of making it better, life is good

recent proclamation by vir gov mcdonnell of confederate history month has opened some interesting worm cans

not only was it civilwar revisionism but it didnt even mention slavery, this is in keeping with the confederate apologists position that the civilwar had nothing to do w/slavery

it was about states rights, a grand old way of life, etc, but surely not slaves and that blacks and progressives who insist that is was need to get a life and move on

some apologists claim that only a few southerns were slave owning elites so the confederate soldiers who died were fighting for their own causes

more like they were fighting for slave owning elites who tricked them then and trick them now into championing causes that are not in their own self interest

like being against health care

of course vir proclamation of independence claim itself aggrievance a slave holding state, lets go to the text:

The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitition were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States:

conservative black backers, sheila johnson of bet and douglas wilder, the 1st black governor
professed to be surprised that the repub they supported over the dem would do such a thing

shelia johnson, dismayed that the politican she thought bought and paid for had wandered off the plantation, wrote:

“I must condemn Gov. McDonnell’s proclamation honoring ‘Confederate History Month’ and its insensitive disregard of Virginia’s complicated and painful history, the remnants of which many Virginians still wrestle with today,“ said Johnson, an African-American business owner.

“The complete omission of slavery from an official government document, which purports to be a call for Virginians to ‘understand’ and ‘study’ their history, is both academically flawed and personally offensive. If Virginians are to celebrate their ‘shared history’ as this proclamation suggests, then the whole truth of this history must be recognized and not evaded.”

after a day or so of stonewalling mcdonnell backed up w/2nd proclamation proclaiming slavery as uncool

strictly political expediency, we know where his heart is

what, i must ask, did sheila johnson expect of him, she need to go back to her bootie butt videos and
leave the real world to those of us who really care

the moral of this story is that black conservatives should not be surprised when they lie down w/dogs they get fleas

on the flip side, organizing for america, is doing a summer training camp for organizers
that is so cool, the rightwing being using this to train their farm team of poitical/community organizers

wish i was willing, wouldnt mind having a little training on my organizing skills, but tis i believe a young persons game

all my love

rdoc




TUESDAY

ive reached the point now every day i write on it i make it better
a more fitting legacy, ive reached point now where its fun

4 months of woodshed will make it tight and right
it will take an act of god to knock me off this groove

rdoc




MONDAY

wow, has it been a week, i been on a shamans quest, looking for power
working on my vision
have always prided myself on my spiritvision,

dealing w/folk spirit to spirit

frank richs column yesterday refer to obamas ability to be all things to all people

call obama a shape shifter

thats a power i wouldnt mind having myself

how does that translate into the realworld

i have in my professional life  attempted

to deploy traditional magical powers in a contemporary manifestation

is shapeshifting being all things to all people or more what the power demand

i dont have time to work this, got to clock pages

rdoc

SUNDAY

well its official, when asked what he checked on the census
the whitehouse replied, obama checked, black, africanam, negro

in case there still any confusion, afroams have always been a bastard race
why would we give up the one drop rule just as its working in our favor

making us an expanding race/culture instead of a contracting one
giving us pretty good positioning in the multiculti 21st century

i grew up with blackfolk looked white and would tear the heart out
of somebody try to deny them their blackness

blackness is a state of mind

what we got to do is make it so cool to be black
that everybody in the world want to claim some

ima give them a mission greater than their adversity

ima give them a destiny

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

thinking about style today, cause of this novel, and my soph fiction class

their 1st groping efforts towards style
figuring out how you like to tell a story

mastery of craft that facilitate
your particular voice

the delicate handling baby steps require

thinking about this novel of mine
how i hope its a masterpiece

how it could so easily be a farce
sylee so unortho its hard to tell

i had a vision, a literary vision, saw this novel i wanted to write
sat down to write it conventionally and it just wouldnt dance

for awhile that cause me to question my own literary value, which
would be fatal, in a literary world that deny me

want this novel

to sing - for a variety of reasons
some high some low, all good

all my love

rdoc

done deal

WEDNESDAY

did not clock a page, not a page yesterday

usually i schedule 2 days a week off on a woodshed push

because i know its coming and if its scheduled then i dont feel bad like i do today, like i aint serious about this

even god rested one day a week, but when you
only got one week its hard to take downtime

interesting program of rushdie digital archives
keeping your records part of being literary

have to take this digital archiving thing into
consideration in my literary mythworking

when i heard about this deeming move the dems were
going to try i was concerned that it would give the repubs

something else to attack them on and not be considered as viable
but i find that i dont care at this point, reconciliation, deeming, dont care

what you call it, just do it

hanging in there

rdoc

TUESDAY

clocked 8 pages yesterday, its all good,

early draft of that legendary dali atomicus photo, it didnt work

took it 28 times to get it right, each time had to mop up the floor and corral the excited cats,

art aint nothing but process and bulldog determination

and vision too

and that attention to detail that make art art

otherwise flabby article about the future of publishing had this provocative paragraph:

"The role of the author would be forced to change radically: No more E.B. Whites tucked away in a Maine writer's shack. The new author, Krozser suggested a little scarily, "has to prove their worth" from now on.  According to Stier, it is no longer acceptable for authors show up by themselves; instead they must come with their virtual "tribe." Authors will need to demonstrate a facility with social networking, or foster an ongoing relationship with the text that continues beyond the official publication, through crowd sourcing and customer feedback.”

dont know thats actually all new, babajohn was big on teaching his students promotional skilz
and dont know that it just goes for new writers, us old hands got to know how to promote too

i dont put personal business in facebook, thats not what its for for me, it is a promotional instrument
building my online literary persona, and i dont look at promotion as just getting the word out,

i have tried to establish myself, both here and there, as a font of political, spiritual and literary advice

est myself as guide and guardian - its strictly business, im building an army

it boils down to what your definition of literary success is and whether it includes cultural influence
its about establishing a dialogue with your times and your literary line - a lot of that dialogue is online now

i do not have to tell you dear regulators what i feel about books and novels, my struggle is to make sure
my novel speaks to future generations, folk processing information differently these days, their minds

being trained differently and if literature wants to retain its cultural primacy it has to make attitude adjustments

no, let me say we have to make attitude adjustments

in the 21st century and beyond

i believe its just as impo to establish an online literary persona as it is to establish one on the page

thats why i keep doing this blog and facebook, keep floundering
about putting my business in the street like i do

its all about literary mythmaking

in the name of the conqueror

im out

without pages its all a farce

best i clock some

rdoc

MONDAY

i am stressed, the euphoria of woodshed start is gone and all i can see are those days flitting away,

im halfway thru and have progressed one whole page, most of the time
been spent revising endgame,

okay, structural work sometimes necessary but you dont necessarily feel good behind it, if you dont see progress

ifi i end up on the same page after woodshed that i started it on im not going to feel too good

right now i feel like this dali piece, this is arthurs brain on creative fire, damn cats just wont stay still

serenitys latest 'thing to do' is sit in my lap while im typing
i will be glad when she gets over that one

okay, i have about 8 more days of woodshed left, then i have to go back to the realworld
best i buckle down, i think whats about to happen is im going to lower my standards

of whats acceptable

hate to dump on winnie that last post, lot of folk still consider her mother of the revolution
but she been a loose cannon for awhile now, and there have got to be some serious issues

between her and mandela, best i stay out of that one

a luta continua

rdoc

SATURDAY

rickydoc clocking pages, so far so good

im feeling the president, give me a vote already, enuf talking, lets get it done

text of controversial interview of winnie mandela slamming mandela
by naipauls wife, winnie has responded to ensuing controversy by denying

interview but not the words, obvious setup, an ambush winnie walked right into
apparently she thought it was off record but naipaul aired her dirty laundry w/glee

takes after her husband dont she - a luta continua

rdoc

FRIDAY

clocking pages, buried in narrative mud but moving, woodshed pace, ie discernible progress - what im realizing is that im going to have to rewrite these last 50 pages or so over and over until they are the strongest most polished part of the novel. i want them to be

riveting,

by the end of summers woodshed i will have rewritten the whole thing 3 or 4 times, including the poetry draft, o its gon be right, pleasure this good kinda frightening, you feel like you will fumble it somehow, an act of god or something

let me get back to work, all my love, rdoc

THURSDAY

hello world

im in a very strange space,

almost thru w/my novel after a 10 year grind (found a draft from 1990 but i refuse to count that, then it would be 20)

been strictly on faith, literary world has written me off and the novel just wouldnt come to life

but this the moneydraft, this one works, hard to believe after all this years

got a springbreak week now and the last 40 pages, just me and that novel

i believe i can put it to bed this time, if im focused, if im disciplined, i know i can

ima spend the summer woodshed cleaning it up, but this the draft make it a novel
make it so i can relax some, finish this draft and if i die tomorrow it will be okay

wont be wonderful, but it will be okay - got my novel done

course when i do get this novel done, then i got to open negotiations on my holybook,

prayer of the middle aged novelist upon finishing novel:  thankyou god, now can i get 5 more years for this next one, ima work faster next time, but just in case what about 10, can i get 10, ima take care of myself god, ima eat good and go to the gym, ima do good deeds, can i get 10 more years please, one more book and ima be thru

buckle down springbreak week, rick, and its a done deal

tell everybody im gone, if you see me its a mirage

rickydoc is in the woodshed - pray for me

rdoc

back in the game: in struggle we trust

SUNDAY  11:17 PM

fathersday shoutout to dr arthur flowers sr, doing what i can dad, to be the man you taught me to be, and to babajohn killens, my mentor in the longgame, for teaching me not only how to write but how to be a writer - good looking out

rdoc

SUNDAY 11:36 AM

what ive decided i have to do is  keeping driving forward like i still think i can win this
thats all i can do, keep driving forward in the state of acute desperation that gets the work done

and see how far it takes me, i got about a month that i can give this a full court press
before i have to start thinking about family and schoolhouse matter

when i realized i wasnt going to make it i immediately started chilling, start taking it easy, and realized i had
been in an acute fever of work, that amadeus working himself to death scene, and thought how unhealthy
that was and that i was better being more paced about this, thought about that great line in shogun
where the shogun tell the aggressive young prince patience puppy, then i start thinking about the manuscripts

i need to read, the books i need to read, the projects i need to do, movies i want to watch, but this state
of bliss does not last long, my mind still racing, i still got the fever, i need to stay on the sungun, i need to stay in the zone, drive myself to creative madness and see what happens, 4 more hell lets say 5 more weeks of the madness, see what happens

all my love

rdoc

SUNDAY

look like that window of opp in iran is closing, without  benefit of those huge numbers
it will be easy for the mullahs to pick off the bold ones, but the state has lost critical validity

it will be interesting to see how they go about reestablishing their authority, hard or soft

the window may be closing but this is still a seminal moment and i have to say im not sure
how this is going to play out, kinda depends on what the state does at this point, i just dont know

i suspect moulavi will want to retain his insider status and back up but i just dont know

i hate it when i just dont know

im at a crossroads of my own here, i have to decide if im still going for a moneydraft or just a coherent 2nd half, i dont believe i have much choice, coherent 2nd half and hopefully have a couple of weeks in august for a desperation redpen before school start

if i get a coherent draft i can do redpen over the semester, raw manuscript is what i dont want to be trying to do during the schoolyear

i am really discouraged, computer down, woodshed down, slogging thru the narrative mud, and
folk will be asking me arthur you finish the novel, and ima have to say no not yet and ignore the doubt

in their eyes, ohwell, life goes on, just keep slogging thru the mud rick, keep the faith

rdoc

SATURDAY

this slow computer is killing me, i  feel like im in some 3rd world cybercafe
got to have 3 screens up in order to move at a decent pace

okay, a couple of comments about obama, been disappointed in his handling of the financial
crises, does not appear to me that he putting those financial boys in sufficient check

obama play his game a little more cautious than i would but then he aint me is he
at the end of the day i assume his game will be tight and he will have left a good legacy behind

i still assume he will do me proud , i got your back brother

as for flak he getting on iraq i think he calibrating that about right, he got players game
any opportunity for the mullahs to blame america for the unrest will be counterproductive

iranians doing just fine on their own, oama and the wests position is clear, they know they being watched, the know they being judged and found wanting, inside and out
interesting how many of those signs in english

 i believe the hammer is inevitable,  i speculate when it come
to velvet revolution or tiananmen square the mullahs will square

i am constitutionally opposed to theocracy, among which i include saudi arabia, israel
and americas own fundamentalist attempts to impose their religious dogmas on the rest of us

in my ateempt to be a literary instrument of the human condition

i am always going to be in favor of democratic impulses over the autocratic,
this iranian election seems to be, in its own context, as significant as the election of obama

in many ways democracy just a facade too
but such in life in the human condition, you take what you can get

like this slow computer

ol boy wading thru the literary muck now, that soulsucking bane of literary existence - raw manuscript

raw manuscript: you go into the old draft you pull out everything but the few sentences/passages (sometimes just a bunch of notes to yourself) that might still be useful, you take that skeleton, you read it over, then you reconcept, what is this passage trying to do, what is it doing,  what could it do, what dynamics at play, you do this on paper, or screen rather, freethinking, you start writing down random metaphors, you run random characterriffs, dialogueriffs, stagedirections, et al, you try everything, you keep doing this until you got a good stock of material to work with, you do this until you just cant take the standing still no more, until your soul is crying for momentum, but you need multiple pages because cutting out the chaff will cost you about 80%, the remaining 20% you use to start the whole process over again and again until you got viable manuscript - so the only question is how many drudgery hours a day can you take, 

does it make sense, no, its just a bunch of mess, but you keep wading thru the muck until you

until you remotely got something look like a viable scene, thats when you got something to work with

redpen time - those 1st redpens are brutal though, what i call bleeding all over the page

this is when it shapes up into real manuscript - you have to do them over and over until all you doing is

working the poetry

thats when it becomes fun, when one or two words/phrases/passages can add layers of meaning to the whole novel

basically what im trying to do stylistically at this stage is have every passage every paragraph be a
 piece of flash fiction unto itself - one big epic narrative poem, its taking me forever

i thought i was at redpen, had all the holes filled in, but it turns out whole 2nd half is a hole and i been pushed back to raw manuscript - what a revolting development this is

im out - this post has become a diversion - you know what i want to do, i want to just quit, just be a teacher and not try to be a novelist no more and just coast thru the rest of my life, i make a decent paycheck, i got tenure, i dont have to do this

i got folk so trained to me not delivering this novel i can tell them im still working on it for the next 10 years, until im too old to care

live a normal life like everybody else in the world, get me a little rest sometime

but my pride wont let me, my pride wont even consider that

punk out like that i couldnt hold my head up amongst my peers and students
much less future generations

i will make my destinic bones as a novelist or i will die surprised

i saw a colleague at the grocery store yesterday, she said how is the summer going
i said im trying to get a little work done, she said you supposed to be having fun

i am i said, this is what i call fun - this what i live for

ever reach the point i cant struggle with the work id put the shotgun in my mouth too

rdoc

THURSDAY

hello world, system crashed, with all the work ive done on that rough passage

my bad, hadnt backed up, my bad, IT dept trying to bring my system back, one can only hope my work is
still there, so anyway i decide no sense fiddling with that passage no more till i see whats what

so i move on to the next one and its worse than the previous one, i read thru more passages and they getting worse and worster

i realize then not only is 2nd half of novel rougher by definition but cleaning up previous chapters have
rendered much of 2nd half no longer viable, critical movements no longer work, im thinking oh hell

took me damn near two weeks to fix last passage, if remaining passages are as bad im dead in the water
theres no way i will be thru  with a clean draft by end of summer, i will be lucky to have a draft period 

IT keep telling me we will have your computer fixed by tomorrow art but its been 4 days now and i been sitting around having a pity party - then i decide if one of my students came to me talking about my computer crashed i cant work - i would be so not wanting to hear that, i would be so intolerant of that - what you mean you cant work, what kind of punk bullshit is that

so i dug out an old computer we had just not gotten around to throwing away just yet and im back in the game, balky and irritatingly slow but back in the game, that pity party wasnt working for me, ima professional - limping, lame, whatever it take

realized during my downtime that whats fallen apart is not the passages but the concept of novel
ive taken 1st half so far beyond what i had that 2nd half just doesnt work anymore

thats life in the literary lane

i dont see a chance in hell of making my deadline now, but that wont stop me from trying
im looking for a miracle now, im looking for 12 hour days now, im looking for a miracle, lord

if i thought i was on defcon 1 before i didnt know the meaning of defcon 1, its fucking total war now
facebook, sociallife, housemaintenance, blogging, family - everything got to go - fat chance of that but ima try

i been noting how twitter and facebook et al been used in iran in the eternal conflict between
authoritarian/democratic forms of government, in the ongoing effort to enhance the human condition

thats one of my things you know, enhancement of the human condition, ima have to monitor that

and im realizing ima have to twit too at some point, but twitting/facebooking/blogposting
all that, thats gon have to wait till i get back down to defcon 3 - right now its total war up in here

had to go on campus to take my computer in and somebody saw me, start talking about lunch, i told them,
this aint me, this a fucking mirage, this just my traveling spirit, you just think you talking to me

god this computer is slow, i will be glad when i get my instrument back, then ima have to go thru the hassle of rebuilding it - ohwell, at least im back in the game

in struggle we trust

as for iran its more complicated than it appear, but then what isnt

im outta here

rdoc

literary organizing and self promotion

MONDAY

did not work sat or sun, got this section so bad im going to have to go longhand and totally redo it
longhand is when what i have just doesnt work and i have to make it stronger w/stronger narration

when redpen wont get it, when online generation wont get it, when only pen in hand will do
this will be decon 2, but then what will be defcon 1, basically total war

okay, these are the defcons according to wikipedia

DEFCON 5   normal peacetime military readiness. 

DEFCON 4   normal, increased intelligence and the heightening of national security measures.

DEFCON 3   force readiness above normal. (9/11)

DEFCON 2   force readiness just below maximum readiness. (cuban missile crises)

DEFCON 1   maximum readiness. attack on US military forces or US territory by foreign power.

so my defcons will be:

defcon 5: lifemode: minimum maintenance: schoolweek mode: doing what i can, aspiration 3 hr day

defcon 4: basic production mode:  weekends, xmas break - 3 - 6 hr shifts

defcon 3: summer woodshed mode: cleaning up existing manuscript, x pages a day - 6 - 9 hr shifts

defcon 2: woodshed/zone mode: structural changes, filling in raw manuscript holes, major revision 6 - 12

defcon 1: zone mode: longhand, critical raw manuscript generation and enhancement 6 - 12

gnerally woodshed mode is defcon 3 w/defcon 2 being the zone, but the kind of desperation, the kind of focus im feeling now, thats defcon 1 -  do or die

i suspect you dont find this as interesting as i do, playing w/production, little tricks to enhance production, this little trick will be good for about 3 weeks before it loses its power to drive, then i will come up with something else, till then, defcon 1: do or die

rdoc

SUNDAY

so bonnie drags me kicking and screaming to some play last night - crowns

its about church women and their hats she say all enthusiastic

to say i am not enthusiastic about this play would be an understatement

but im working i say, what is the book about i say, what is the story

i am attempting of course to make a point with this series of questions

she say its a coming of age but there is not much of a story

i sneer what is it one of those tyler perry plays, a your arms too short to box w/god play

so she say well i will find somebody else to go with me and i know then its a command performance

specially when she go ahead and buy the tickets in spite of all my grumbling

i realize then not only must i go but i best quit grumbling about it

but i get there and its one of the few plays when its over i wish it was still going on

it was wonderful, made you appreciate our history, our struggle, our grace, i enjoyed it immensely

the actors were incredible, singing dancing acting fools - theater folk at their wildchild best - you could tell they enjoyed the roles - the set and customing was exquisite, and it took some bold moves for a church based work

started off with the preacher dude in a redsatin lined dr strange cape, a magicians staff and a red velvet tophat, a black herman mystic w/african witchdoctor overtones and he made it work in a church based format - i was impressed - in fact i took notes

the audience full of hatted churchfolk, which gave the experience a certain flavor - o i enjoyed it immensely - ima trip value junkie you know

and that play had trip value, its been a good weekend

i have to say it took me back to my southern black baptist days as a child

what would i say its about, famiy legacies and female bonding in the church maybe - it covered some ground

novel on the otherhand is breaking my heart, ive hit another brick wall of bad

last passage this bad i fixed it by taking it out of the novel, this one is too critical to extract

this one i got to fix - almost 10 days into june, damn near half way through the summer woodshed

this one is going to take me at least a couple of days, maybe a week - assuming i can fix it - a luta continua - a luta continua

rdoc

SATURDAY

still moving, still moving slow but moving

so me and bonnie both fans of karen savoca, one of my library finds

so we see she and pete heitzman playing at the local unitarian church

turns out she a local, so we trot on down there this evening and its one of the
most memorable concerts ive ever experienced

and i really liked petes guitar playing, you dont really hear it on the cd like you do in person

they give a better show than their cds and the cds strong - they had the folk house rocking

now whenever i hear them, i see them too, now that was what i call a performance

me and bonnie both count that one of lifes memorable experiences - they live in oneida now but the

crowd was heavy w/friends and regulars in an intimate venue, it was a very warm and toasty evening

i shamelessly stood on the love your work line, told them i came here tonight as a fan, now im a fanatic

they liked that, they thought that was cute

they gon be at some local jook called the red house nov 7, rickydoc gon be there too

all my love

rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, the text of obama muslim speech here

i might go thru at some point and note the highlights

but not today, clocking pages, basically a full court press all day

yields a page or two, which just barely gets me to the promised land

by the end of the summer, everything else has fallen by the wayside

im in a ruthless state of mind, too close to the finishline to do anything but

hanging in there

rdoc

THURSDAY

bummer, just heard from george that toby wolff had a stroke, two strokes actually, wife say when the doctor was giving them the news what happened

his recitation sound like a passage from tobys story: bullet in the brain, toby say next time he will

write about winning the lottery - hes doing well enuf to be cracking literary jokes, thats a good sign

impaired vision and speech, what he calls his dr strangelove arm, but hes been moved from icu to

rehab and one hopes for the best

this is a bummer, toby the one brought me and george into syracuse, toby brought me out of the cold

into the mfa world, otherwise i was still a starving artist at 45 years old, this is kinda deep for me cause i been talking about john o as my mentor and i consider toby a mentor of my literary maturity

brought me and george into syracuse, spent about a year or so training us and told us it was time for him to move on, he was passing it on to new blood and a different aesthetic - this more or less verbatim

i remember when i came here for the audition, im dancing, im jumping thru the hoops, im not that confident cause my credentials shaky but toby was the man then

and when i waa leaving after it was done, toby pulled me aside and said dont worry about it, you got the job

every once in awhile i bless toby wolffs name

and i am glad he survived his strokes with his sense of self intact

my prayers are with him and his wife catherine, and all the folk who love toby wolff

toby one of these hearty but socially awkward folk, brooks say with toby its always like you on the 1st date

1st date with the proverbial heart of gold, toby only 5 years older than i am, man im glad he took that hump in style

im glad he cracking literary jokes  -  look like he still showing the way

all my love

rdoc

TUESDAY

there i was this morning clocking pages when i ran up on a passage so brutally bad it broke my spirit

it was so bad it made me want to crawl under a rock and i tried to remember if i had shown it anybody

i fear i have

okay, let me take a deep breath and wade thru it, make it work

those of you been keeping up will see i have edited down last couple of days postings

sorry about that but they struck me as intemperate - too much information

basically im in the zone and im kinda out there - best i restrain myself

im gone, clocking pages

hanging in there

rdoc







IS IT MONDAY AGAIN, I THOUGHT YESTERDAY WAS MONDAY

been fallow last coupe of days

was reading one of the 2009 folk, becca fishows musings on fame in the internet age
cause me to ponder that for writers its about promotion, a literary skill ever more important

thought about how babajohn trained his students in the arts of literary promotion
how we were all politicos when we came to him he just transformed our organizing skills

made us literary organizers

taught us successful writers master the skills of self promotion
the internet has just added tools to the mix

these days you build your name on the web like you do in the print world
it was jeff parker made clear to me a 21st century writer has to work with both hands

its always a blend of promotion and substance, hopefully w/emphasis on substance

depends on what your definition of literary success is -  fame and fortune - or writing good books - or is it
aesthetic, destinic, cultural influence - influence on the way of things through the power of art

is it all the above

literature to babajohn killens was a sacred calling, i feel the same way about it, i dont treat the literary life lightly, i treat it like the blessing it is

i got to figure out how to best use facebook as an instrtument of literary organization

maximal impact, minimal effort, the minimal effort is always key, who got the time

two days off im feeling a little panicky, if i dont make this draft deadline i will feel bad
like im not serious, like im just spinnng my wheels and dont really have a great novel in me

2 days off and my fears, my desperations, rise up in me

but you know im not going to pay any attention to that, that kind of fear can cripple you, stop your flow,
i tell my students, doubts and anxieties, they never go away, you just ignore them, you write thru them

let me see if i got any quick commentary for you

abortion doctor assassinated- in church no less - bummer

penn paper runs personal ad suggesting assassination of obama - bummer

suffering in darfur grows after aid orgs expelled - where is barack hussein obama - bummer

forget this, im just depressing myself

artwork is john killens as long distance runner by tom feelings, tom sent original to me right before he died - like an acknowledgement of me as babajohns protege, that touched my heart

babajohn supposed to be getting respect thru me, i gotta get busy

all my love

rdoc





MONDAY

winter 2009 issue of the literary review is out, contemporary african writing,

guest editor is jeff allen of pan african literary forum

not sure whats happening with palf, jeffs bout with malaria has thrown us off our game

i look forward to picking up a copy of this one though, met most of the folk in it

i see mildred barya is there, she will be coming into syracuse mfa with the 2009 crew, im excited about that

i also have to get my hands on rob spilmans gods and soldiers, the penguin anthology of contemporary african writing, been intending to do that for awhile now

ive decided what im going to do is powerdrive thru these manuscripts on my plate, just added another, that makes 5, im just too behind on that, and the mlk, i really want to clear my decks so all i got to think about is mine, but i feel guilty putting these folk off until spring

im outta here, might not be able to work today, im feeling weary

i always schedule 2 days a week off during a push, otherwise i will take them anyway and feel bad

today might be a day off, we will see

trying to think if i got any commentary before i sign off but i dont think so

probably should be keeping up with the battle to define sotomayor but ive kinda learned something stepping back from engagement with obamas struggles

too close in that and you go up and down with the daily calls of the brutal news cycle

step back like a player should and keep some perspective and you dont get caught up in it like that

applying that to sotomayor too, keeping my perspective, take a hand when i can, but as far as the trenches go, not going to happen

with obama ive decided i will let him handle his game, i will handle mine

with sotomayor, ima let the hispanics carry the ball on that one

still trying to figure out how to use that facebook as an instrument

i dont have time or inclination to be socializing - who got time for that

im out

rdoc

new day: showtime part ii

SUNDAY  2:30 am

 according to recent pew study the more you go to church the more comfortable you are w/torture

as always its the comments that are most interesting, kinda interesting to see the religious folk

justifying torture this way and that, at 1st its kinda surprising but then when you think how many

folk have been killed in religious holywars i guess its not that surprising, probably the more you

go to mosque the more you think suicide bombers are okay dokey too, might be a fundamentalism

thing happening here and the real equation is the more fundamentalist you are the more youre

okay with dehumanizing your enemies i guess, the rationales folk give for torturing are scary

my nephew james ross is into poetry soup, online poetry community - i finally got around to

checking out some of his poetry - boy got some chops

this film im not quite sure where to start commenting on this one

1927 fritz lang, metropolis with music by fadigaziri

it was actually cool i couldnt read either of the subtitles, those slient films were designed

to be visual anyway and i rather enjoyed not knowing what was happening

i will tell you the plotline in later post, right now i want you to see it raw

(if in public space watch out for the music, turn it low)

im gone

SATURDAY EVENING

4:34 and clocking pages (well, a page), looked over previous pages and not as bad as i feared

pulled a sweet little move this morning w/the idea of story in the text, dont know if i will try to develop it, i fear added weeks, but so far its been a good day and i still got day to go

today i feel like i just might be the delta mack i always thought i was - rickydoc on a sungun, 360%

today mind you, today

you have to ignore them both, moments of despair and elation too

state of mind got nothing to do with getting work done, just keep writing, just keep writing

rdoc

SATURDAY

been humbled, again, o world,

been clocking pages and they weak pages, dont matter what angle i look at them they weak

then i been emailing with my colleague, whose name im afraid to call, as we mend our ties

so happens we exchanged some nonfiction, and hers was so astounding, once again im sitting here in awe

last time i sat in awe of her eye it got me in trouble, this the last time ima account this

but her nonfiction commentary was just astounding - i told her she should blog, that would be a powerful blog

im like damn thats the way commentary meant to be done, what ive always aspired to and never achieved

but then i calm myself down and say flowers everybody got different licks, different powers,

she liked mine, i liked hers - need to let that suffice

have to remind msyelf this aint about competition, this about singing your song the best you can sing it

that way you can appreciate your buddies singing theirs

but it made me consider what are my strengths as a literary voice,

cause im slack in so many regards - thats why im still just 2nd string in the literary world - cursed be

i find myself restrained about speculating on my strengths online, feels immodest, but i assume what

makes me of a different order in literary world is same thing makes me different order in hoodoo world

im historical (which bring a certain quality to my eye, my vision, my voice)

at least i try to be - not even certain of that like i usually am,

i believe im feeling vulnerable because im working on this novel now and im

not liking what im coming up with, but i cant judge pieces, my style on this one so strange i cant judge it

and scared to show it to anybody - yesterday i was gon send a segment to oxford but lost my nerve

what if they say no, im too fragile for a no right along in here, im working on faith and cant mess w/that

got to finish the draft, then i will see if it works, then i will know, meanwhile

im just holding my nose and writing, clocking pages, got to be done with it

10 years i been working this novel, anymore of this and history will write my story as a tragedy

im gone, limping lame, still game, im gone

got to ride this pony home

rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, schools over, im chilling somewhat, i guess i should put this genetics post under duuhhh
not exactly news, that african americans mostly from west africa

but this recent article in the journal science traced african american genetics to confirm:

abstract below

for the whole thing they want me to pay, fat chance, i might try to get my hands on it through the schoolhouse:

------------------------

Africa is the source of all modern humans, but characterization of genetic variation and of relationships among populations across the continent has been enigmatic. We studied 121 African populations, 4 African American populations, and 60 non-African populations for patterns of variation at 1327 nuclear microsatellite and insertion/deletion markers. We identified 14 ancestral population clusters in Africa that correlate with self-described ethnicity and shared cultural and/or linguistic properties. We observe high levels of mixed ancestry in most populations, reflecting historic migration events across the continent. Our data also provide evidence for shared ancestry among geographically diverse hunter-gatherer populations (Khoesan-speakers and Pygmies). The ancestry of African Americans is predominantly from Niger-Kordofanian (~71%), European (~13%), and other African (~8%) populations, although admixture levels varied considerably among individuals. This study helps tease apart the complex evolutionary history of Africans and African Americans, aiding both anthropological and genetic epidemiologic studies.

----------------------

one point the study makes is that africa has the most diverse genetic mix in the world
and that african americans trying to trace their genology were not likely to be able to do so

which reinforces my own assumption that all these services purporting to do so for a substantial fee

are basically rackets taking advantage of african american desire for some closure on that

when i see celebrity blacks flacking for them i consider it a sell out, along the lines of you ought to be shamed

so buffalo soldier was telling me behind post i did on traveling spirits about this marvel comic book character called brother voodoo

that has two spirits, one of which is a traveling spirit, that he sends out to take control of people

interesting how pop culture will pull out some realworld aspects and play with it,

im an old doctor strange man myself an apparently brother voodoo came out after my comic days were done

so i googled him, when i looked him up he had a lot of questionable attributes

or rather i should say he was used in keeping w/the wests sensationalist take on african traditional religion

but as is so often the case, i take what i can get  -  ithis is still material for me to use in my efforts to

mythwork the perception of african american culture in the world - comic books train the youth headset

looked for some images for this post, the one i liked

most was brother man in doctor stranges cape  -  usually they have him half naked

doctor strange was my boy when i was growing up, sorceror supreme & master of the mystical sciences -

this was before i myself attempted to walk the path - interesting

when i was a kid i was a comic book fiend, and to this day i call myself being a hero

im out

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

last class yesterday and no maymester, guess i best get busy

woulda been better if we let toomey beat spector, then let toomey lose to real democrat
cause spector will be problematic democrat, a joe lieberman democrat

unless democratic leadership shackled him in return for their support

ps: doesnt look that way

im relieved that obama put health care (and everything else?) on the reconciliation track 

which precludes fillibusters

spector coming on board doesnt change the need for that, last thing we need his him being the swing vote

couple of times recently ive menioned the traveling spirit, when i was talking about sending my
traveling spirit to do last week of class - let me lay that out for you  -  and myself

this come from old hoodoo belief that everybody got two spirits, the one that animate the body
and the traveling spirit that go about in dreams and in consciousness

long ago i decide that traditional hoodoo needed modernizing and start trying to modernize
traditional beliefs and practices, including that of the traveling spirit

now to a large part high magic is nothing but playing around with consciousness

so at one point i was experimenting with astral travel and did some experiments
w/the traveling spirit concept as part of my early hoodoo training

so its come up a couple of times lately when i spoke of going thru motions at school while truly focused on work as sending my traveling spirit, body w/limited consciousness while true consciousd focus was at home working

i enjoyed calling it the traveling spirit and began to think i havent done traveling spirit work in a long time
work designed to enhance the concept, to manifest the instrument

decided that is a force id liike to cultivate, folk always curious about what being a 21st century magician entail and i got all these pat answers about consciousess and conjuring
reality but this where the bread get buttered

empowering a traveling spirit something worth Working on

oxford asked me for a piece, on southern writing, or being a southern writer

i think i will do a piece on delta mythwork and my attempt to use
mythwork to take down nathan bedford forrest  - to rewrite his myth

delta mythwork and taking forrest down

jesus i just dont have time for all these projects, 1st mlk now this, how many exceptions you got to give, rick

but this one been flowing through my head all morning

guess that mean i got to do it, god help me i htink i do

all my love

rdoc

showtime:

SATURDAY

amazing how many folk are upset about the torture memos being released
and the impending release of more torture pictures

the rightwing swears this is weakening america while my folk insist its the torturing that
weakens america, the rightwing is sometime inexplicable to me

this hnn article didnt say a lot new, except that the bill of rights explicitly excludes torture

but i loved the title - who would jesus torture

and what about representative harman, caught up in a wiretap of israeli agent
offering to sell influence on american government for personal gain and power

when cia wants to follow policy by alerting congress one of their own been tagged bush admin says no
because she is helping them legitimize the very wiretapping program she been caught up in

this feel like a movie script, feels like hoover, twirling his mustache and going got one

should be working, generally i sleep about a week after semester so im not panicking just yet

close but not yet, graduation today, i am so ready to be thru

rdoc

FRIDAY

been gunshy about posting lately, still feeling a little singed behind that recent post

good news is that the schoolyear almost over, get thru this weekend and next tuesday

and im done, dont have but 1 person signed up for my maymester class

thats a bummer, already spent that money, but on the other side it means i

have two more weeks freed up for woodshed, which is a good thing, im ready to ride

so about 4 more days and i will be a free man, rickydoc on a sungun, 360%

still got about 4 manuscripts to get thru, and this indian publisher i met in india

has sent me the prints for this collaboration w/tribal artist in india i agreed to do

you know i shouldnt be accepting projects at this stage in the game but it was one

of those offers that i couldnt refuse, a artistic collaboration on the civilrights movement

published in india, my text, prints by tribal artist in his traditional style, what could i say

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

schoolhouse got me humping, closing down the semester

traveling spirit cant handle it, full court press

rdoc

TUESDAY

just revised that post i made about students making the cut

seems i caused a lot of unecessary grief with that post and

made my colleague seem more dismissive of folks chances than warranted

how was i to know folk were going to take that post so to heart, i messed with folks

insecurities and the rootdoctor ought to know better

that post almost cost me a friendship, one that i treasure

all i can do is apologize for causing miscommunication and be more attentive

with my blogging, i was the one calling into question folks chances of making

the cut, any grief need to come to me

rdoc

SATURDAY

im feeling it world, im feeling the power settling down on me
im already out at the schoolhouse, im just going thru the motions now

im gone, im out, im in the woodshed, i mean im still there but
what they see now just a mirage, my traveling spirit is handling that

and maymester, thats gon be my traveling spirit

okay, okay, maybe not yet,  - cursed sense of responsibility wont let
me check out of the world just yet, 3 more weeks, lord

1 week schoolhouse, 2 weeks maymester, god help me if i aint chomping
at the bit, gon have to be half and half, got 3 novel manuscripts

i need to get through in those three weeks too, then my decks
will be cleared and it will be showtime lord

and already i can feel the power moving down on me,
rickydoc ready to ride

been listening to this sistashree, african american sister be doing rhythm and blues mantrawork
girlfriend thowing down, check her out on amazon or itunes, i mean throwing down

yall know i been hanging out with saraswati lately, so i went on itunes to check out some saraswati music, right
and liked sistashrees saraswati so much i checked her out too and jackpot, think saraswati w/bluesharp/tabla remix

these my kinda devotionals

this from her website:

For many years, Sistashree (Regina) has studied and practiced Mantra Meditation with her Guru. The chants that she performs are time honored at the Ashram in her Guru's village. In fact, these sounds are common to most of India. The chants have seen many incarnations, both in and out of meditation.

Although Sistashree's chants have traditional origins, her style is unique. The musical instrumentation and arrangements add sounds, textures and flavors that define the African-American musical heritage. In a true organic way, her albums "High Places" and "Sacred Sounds" weave the music of the Mississippi Delta region, the black gospel church, the blues, jazz, funk, folk soul, rock, rhytm and blues, and the wisdom, of ancient Africa with the tonal energies of Sanskrit and Vedic chants.

-------------------

been working to her beat since 2 this morning, might be why im feeling the power so strong, cause she throwing down

who cares why, dont question the power rick, just ride it, gotta ride this pony, schoolhouse get 3 more weeks, traveling spirit

me, im out: me and sistashree, we outta here

might have to give them next week but this

weekend belong to me

in the name of the conqueror

lets ride

rdoc

on the nature of magic: flash fictions, the albino killings and conjuric interventions

FRIDAY

ran across an account of witch killings in kenya and commentary by local healer"

----------------

"Others are skeptical the slain women were witches. At the top of a hill outside Kisii, Joseph Omache practices his craft. Omache is a shaman, or traditional healer. He throws bones and communes with ancestors to help heal physical and spiritual ailments.

"It is very painful when somebody kills another person in the name of witchcraft," he says. "Why couldn't they come to me so that I can perform my herbal potion to identify the real witch so that I can go ahead now to trap him and then we can see what to do?"

Omache says that in his 10 years of studies and decades of practicing, he has never come across a witch.

"These are vendettas. It is not that people really bewitched somebody," he says, adding he believes that "witch hunts are really about people expressing hatred and coming up with an excuse to hurt someone."

-----------------

these the type of healers highjohn need to recruit for
his worldwide afrospiritual protection society

or is that rickydoc trying to do that
wonder if brother omache got email

all my love

mganga maua




THURSDAY

man i am so deep in the zone, i tell folk if you see me its just
a mirage, just walk on by - still working that last 20 pages or so

what can i say, fixing endgame
entail fixing a lot of preceding text

that albino scene worked out pretty well actually
gon to do a series of hoodoo interventions

in sudan, haiti, brazil, somalia et al
basically enlisting afrospiritual practitioners in his vision of

blackworld destiny (and that of all humanity)

folk unhappy w/fox news referring to michelle obama
as obamas baby mama, fox do step out of line dont it

ran across this alternet review of book
the family:the secret fundamentalism at the heart of american power:

an account of a religious right secret society in the highest levels of american politics et al, the
elite of the rightwing ascendancy, inclu some folk you would not think would be involved in it

founded by some guy who preached that christanity had gone astray with all
this concern with the poor and the downtrodden, that it should concern itself

only with the powerful, and so it has, through an array of
techs like congressional power i meant prayer breakfasts, et al

that have nursed the rightwing ascendancy
book say the threat of the right wing is not what they will do

but what they have done

seem to be viable investigative reporting
instead of just raw conspiracy theory

as wouldbe founder of a hoodoo secret society,
such works fascinate me

must reading for a man who like to think
he know true power from the illusion of it

rdoc

MONDAY

enjoyed doing that last post about the guy in the bus station
that kind of observational characterwork narration

good training for the fiction eye
think im going to do more of those

got this sequence i want to work into rest where he is doing his
fantasyworld storyteller thing and supposed to have these visions

of himself as a classic hoodoo w/mythical powers and how he
would address all these blackworld issues as this mythical dr strange

kind of shaman, what if i was really a magician like in the stories
gandalf the grey and the like

so i been thinking lately have him start off visioning it, but as novel progresses
write them as if they were actually happening, him in his fantasyworld, his novel, something

i will figure it out as i do it, so anyway i see this article in the sunday times about albinos being
killed in tanzania for body parts because its believed albino bodyparts are magical

okay, so one of my missions is to bring african magic into the 21st century
to extract the weaknesses, samesame african religion

so killing albinos for magical body parts i consider to be problematic

the nyt times article here
more information here

make me shame to call myself an afrospiritual magican

so i have this vision of me showing up, when something like that bout to go down
and show those suckers some real dr strange kinda magic, where i not only stop it

but illuminate and transform in the doing

i see myself intervening down in haiti, (if the voodoos were on the case in
haiti it wouldnt be in the shape it is in now)

i see myself intervening in the sudan, in the congo,
in kenya during their recent tribulation, south africa

and all over the united states
put a new definition on

conjureman

so anyway im going to write more flashfiction observations like i did yesterday
just do the raw here but sometimes working them as passages in rest for the weary

let me do a quick raw text of this albino thing
i will clean it up later

--------------------------
samuel mluge works works his way through his rice fields with a quickness that is wasteful and finally stops, that is all he will be able to do today

the rice is stubborn today and he is covered with a carapace of sweat that calms new sores rubbed raw by the long sleeves he must wear to protect his albino skin from the tanzanian sun

he imagines his wife looking down the road wondering, hoping, praying,

it would be cruel to concern her so and her world is cruel enuf without his assistance

and so with reluctance he gathers his tools and starts back to the house. - the sun has begun to drop behind the horizon and barely repressing his fear he hurries through lengthening shadows.  he imagines his wife at the sturdy door looking for him and hurries even beyond his own fears

when he sees his compound she is there in the door as he imagined she would be, her pale skin spectral in the dusk.  what on earth posses him to marry another albino.

but that was before the rumors started, before the killings began, before his albino skin became more precious to others than it ever was for him

now he must protect not only himself but his wife and his 5 fair skinned children.
husband she will say in that voice she knows irritates him, why do you stay out every evening

till the day and the neighbors are gone

the horizon is indeed empty, they have considered moving to the city but this land is all they own and it is only at night that they are left isolated - in the night that used to belong to them

barely sun down they would take the children and visit friends and sometime just walk here there it didnt matter and while the children slept they sit outside and converse about anything and everything , a story shared with the few folk in passing, often friends would gather just because it was known they would be there

samuel is rueful as he pulls thick bars across the 4 windows, they had cost money he could afford but now the windows are barred and the door is sturdy and it was worth it, this peace of mind

pays for itself but still every car that passes they wait and wonder and so they are

instantly alert when one does not pass and instead pulls to a stop outside
and they are two statues staring at each other in the dark

pales skins ghostlike impression, waiting for the voices that have begun to mark their
days, look, albinos, that skin will make one rich, i am told their genitals will bring a man luck

some claim for luck better the eye
both are good, but one will do

I did not know we had some so close by, where do they live i wonder

a tentative knock on the door, much too tentative, they do not answer.
hello in there, we know you are there, we have come for you

the knock becomes insistent, better but still no answer
the children are awake now but as still as quiet as their parents

you will anger us the voice
on the other side says

ive checked said another, the windows are
barred, is there no other way in

no no, i told you, we must go through this door, you in there, we will let you
live if you give us three of your children

from one statue a stifled laugh she cannot hold, it amuses her
that this life this skin could ever be considered lucky

---------------------------

okay, i dont know about this

that ghouls bargaining outside the door i once saw that in an
achebe story - it was kinda chilling

then ima have the hoodooman show up
king of the magicians

like gandalf or dr strange, paul maudib, w/that storybook magic
on the black hand side

not only stop this tragedy but some how transform and illuminate
the moment, the participants, the culture, the tradition

this is a fantasy i sometime have, gon work it is rest
but i dont know about writing it out online

i dont mind giving up nonfiction online, cause ima 21st century literaryman
and i understand you got to give it up if you want to establish an online literary persona

but its too easy to steal online, you just highlight and copy, hell thats how i get a lot of
my online material, its the cost of doing business

as long as you moving forward, growing, working your material into book form
you still ahead of the game and evolving from the give and take

but fiction, i dont think im willing to give up fiction like that - maybe i will
do just enuf to start the passage - refine, enrich and manifest in the text

we will see

what im doing here is using my more prosaic realworld magical tools to address that blood ritual problem
in afrospiritual practice, cause im gon nip that shit, rickydoc do not approve and im gon extract

the bullshit out of afrospiritual traditions, i swear fore god and all thats holy i am
from ritual killings to animal sacrifice its all part of the same continuum and

that shit gon cease
on rickydocs shift

in the conquerors name

rickydoc trickmaster

wouldbe prophet of
the hoodoo way

thats magic
enuf for me

endgame: rest for the weary

hello dear regulators, dug in on rest for the weary
starting my redpen today, novel starting to feel good to me - finally

worked on my endgame this morning and im gon share it with you
dear regulators, hate to give novel away like that but i assume it

will be different by the time im thru with it anyway, revision is forever
and i just feel like sharing it cause im tickled with it, novel finally starting to feel real

as i move into closure i will be sharing more passages with you
i really shouldnt put the endgame out there but hey i dont have that

much readership that i got to worry about giving it away do i
i may take this down later but im feeling good today -

do this redpen and ima have a real draft, 15 years i been working on
this novel, folk been dissing me for the last 10, been treating me like i

aint serious - like i aint a contender,

just for you dear regulators: endgame: rest for the weary
all my love: rickydoc flowers

-----------------------------------------------

9TH MOVEMENT: WHEN YOU NEED ME, YOU CALL ME

The letter find him sitting on the landing of the steps that run up the side of house.  He put he roots down and walk he neighborhood one more time.  He get as far as Parkway and Third before opening it.  Friends it says.  She doesnt think hes ready for a real commitment.  Real life.  Real world.  She isnt a real woman to him it says.  Say she wont be no mans fancy.  You have control issues she say.  Too fond of headgames.  And finally, she say, I am committed to somebody else and am unable to give you what you need.  Can you she say, can you really quit.

He withdraw to the park and behind him the holyground he has so carefully nurtured is transformed, house by house and street by street, into a little beatup urban neighborhood.   Musty and tired and ragged around the edges.  By the time he cross the bridge, Ms Turbees house is gone, the library, Riverside Baptist and the Hole in the Wall.  All gone.  John Henrys workshop silenced, neighborhood bottletrees just jagged glass necks hanging on frayed strings, and he just a bedraggled Viet Vet sitting on a driftwood throne wedged into the fork of a lightning split tree.

Day and night he can be found sitting there, staring out over the river and handling roots in a calloused hand.  Neighborhood kids vie for his attention, challenge each other to disturb the hoodooman, go touch him why dont you, double dare you why dont you, but he ignore them as he does curious adults - those who have heard, those who know, those who see.  It become a neighborhood thing to picnic around him, to bathe in the curious peace to be found there on the bluff of the Mississippi.

But as it sometime do, a hurricane come to the Gulf and Memphis brace itself.  That eerie stillness that proceed a storm, the earth holding its breath.  Folk wait until the last minute but the storm do break and the delta wind come moaning.  Time to go.  The park empty out and through rear view mirrors he can be seen still sitting there as around him trees bow homage.  Windsong whistling in great gusts through the trees shift he roots ever so faintly and lift he dreads in a whipping halo.  Branches brush the wall of he aerie in arboreal symphony, the sky open wide and the rain it come.

Stormbringer raise I man head to the cooling spray.  I man see the stars.

Over time the chair root itself, roots spreading from its base deep into the delta mud, he beard grow twiggy and vines wrap themselves into he limbs, ravenous worms aerate he legs, he foot root deep, a statue carved of smooth and exotic wood that gradually become one with the earth.  A dreamer casting he greatest dream, he greatest spell.  One that remake the world as he would it be.  One in which he dreams come true and he soul be saved.

One that would be rest for the weary.
That say to all the generations

When you need me you call me 
I will come

I am the Conqueror

players, victims and going for the gold: playing to win

WEDNESDAY

 hello world, weak workday yesterday: bummer

while searching for my quickie links i went by chickenbones and black agenda report
old comrades who have basically excommunicated me for not following the party line

that kinda hurt but i was glad to see they still kicking it - chickenbones an unprecedented repository  (it was rudy of chickenbones once told me i should include images with online work)

and glen ford over at black agenda report be dropping serious knowledge - unfortunately glen dont much respect what i do  - both of them kinda rigid

i still think we got to move past the old verities of struggle in the 21st century
and i think transafricas global positioning is reflective of that

it do distress me im so often out of step with old comrades in struggle
but ima artist, spose to be a pathmaker, forge new ways of seeing

and willing to take punches for what i consider the truth of it all, for
consideration of strategic nuance over radical rote -

as a hoodoo and would be tribal shaman, i got 3 warrior clans i have to monitor and guide
got my community activists, my bougie activists, my radical activists

cant afford to dis or dismiss either one of them
all three of them have roles to play and its my job to understand

those roles and coordinate them, harmonize them, and im actually pretty
good at what i do, dont nobody do it like the hoodooman do

but i got to finish my novel, do my holybook, so the generations
understand the destinic nuance of what im trying to say/do

got to make my contribution
build facilitating institutions

otherwise both politics and the literary
i been buked and scorned for naught

in struggle
rickydoc trickmaster

wouldbe prophet of
the hoodoo way

TUESDAY

hello world, working hard, which means rootsblog get time for some quickies

holyground: wooded area back of my sisters house, somebody cut a tree and left a shrine for me
when im home in the delta, i go out there and raise the sun up every morning:

darfur: status quo: not good: tensions between southern sudan and north growing: also not good

somalia: humanitarian crises in wake of fighting between transitional gov/ethiops and islamists/assorted opportunists breeding internal refugees fleeing mogadishu

transitional government must reach out to disaffected if it is to survive: prospects weak

south africa: tension between mbeki and zuma threatening to split anc: neither option appealing, both of them have baggage

the us election: obama pulling even with hillary in iowa:
im ambivalent about possibility of black president

i suppose its a good thing, but its such a morally ambiguous job i just dont know
just to be competitive obama gon have to get down and dirty: jury still out on this one

katrina/neworleans: for the first time in generations, neworleans recently elected white majority city
council, probably majority republican too to go along w/new republican governor, hard to believe bush/fema

policies werent designed first to abandon blackfolk to storm, then disperse them (and democrats) since
thats whats happened, but i wont go there, dont want to be called a conspiracy theorist: bummer

could have used a black president then i guess, but i cant help but think a black president would
be as useful as the black general being used to front africom:

adjuncts: was reading where some universities are up to 70% adjunct, as an ex adjunct
at medger evers (a position me and elizabeth nunez boldly dubbed the killens chair)

i can testify that adjunct labor is slave labor, thats a rough way to make a living, and hard
on students - when you getting paid by classroom hour you just cant justify too much facetime

with students, got to trek to your other institutions, class prep time suffers too, according to
this report so does graduation rates - adjuncts organizing into unions, schools being pressured to

add more tenure tracks - free the adjunct 1000s

us middle east conference joke and a farce, more anti iran conference than pro palestinian: israel
insincere, bush/rice insincere, abbas desperate to even consider it and the saudis et al reluctant

to play the fool even to check iran/hamas/hezbollah 'shiite' axis: this is a joke: a farce

haiti: progress under preval: but we still got so very far to go: crossing our fingers
(btw: kudos to wyclef jean while im at it: boy been doing what he can: warriorkind)

the struggle: while searching for cosby  links, found lot of dialogue on self determination/responsibility for
our own empowerment - glen ford on bar makes some points on not being sidegamed, not a problem when
you working w/both hands -

at least reparations seem to be off the table - thats a blessing
its the great gitting up morning and its: looking good

and on that note, back to work

rest for the weary: been working my futurescenario scene for about a month now
takes place on a university planet far into the future: university de sankore of palmares

finish it today, i can get started on the redpen tomorrow: 1st redpen always the roughest
because so many sections have to be extensively rewritten, subsequent redpens are

easier because all you doing then is cleaning up the text and putting the poetry on it
thats when it becomes fun, when one word/one phrase can add layers of meaning to the text,

that i can do during the spring semester, then a whole summer of polish/refinement and
i will have a moneydraft for sure: im so excited: its all on this 2 month redpen

new plan gives me a new 2 months end of year woodshed instead of customary 1
an indication of just how desperate i am, squeezing noveltime howsomever i can

best i get busy: my love to you all
rickydoc flowers: in it to win it

MONDAY EVENING

hello world, i have recovered from that little manic bout of confidence
still going to go for the draft but no longer consider it a given

spent whole day struggling with the same page, this gon be rough
but i have never missed a deadline, except one time an act of god

and that dont count

and even if i, heaven forbid,  miss it, i will get some serious
production just from the effort - this a win win

pray for me
rdoc

MONDAY AFTERNOON

hello world, threw the shells today, my little homemade
divination chain, the mojo told me go for it

thanksgiving break and i been clocking pages
got another 7 days and im feeling strong

you know what ive decide, im going for the draft
got a week here, then 2 more school weeks, lets say i

get ruthless about those two weeks, which mean
schoolhouse get backburnered, thats gon cost me

but then i hit the ground running 2nd week in december

2 more weeks before i head for the delta, talking crunch city,
im talking zone - im talking 9 & 12 hour days - talking about separating the writers from the dilettantes

then a week or so in the delta and im generally disciplined in the delta
i generally get my work done in the delta, im strong in the delta

another two weeks in january before i simply have to focus on schoolhouse
thats like almost two months of woodshed, on a redpen, with a little

superhuman effort i can do a full redpen in 2 months by god, even a hardcore
redpen, im going for the gold yall, gon do me a end of the year draft

touch it up over the spring semester, full woodshed summer and im good to go
rickydoc on a sungun, 360% - in the line of o killens

rickydoc flowers
babagriot of the hoodoo way

                                          

MONDAY

hello world, i like to think of myself as a fearless artist, when i find myself asking
am i afraid to say that, i say it if for no other reason than i dont play that

and im always whining about no respect and no readership
but thats all the penalty you pay here in the united states,

you dont get no play and have to scuffle some
then i read about really fearless artists,

when the penalty for offense is jail, matters of life and death -
like these two zimbabwean theater brothers

anthony tongani and silvanos mudzvova,
arrested after their mugabe satire, the final push,

ran in zimbabwe - first night takedown, didnt stop no show though, soon as they were released
they back on stage -brother mudzvova say since media been silenced its all on the artists now:

"Artists, like everybody else, fear for their lives". say Mudzvova,  "But the moment you have that fear, you won't
get anywhere. People are saying, 'If you guys have that fear, where are we going to get the correct information?'

i tell my fledglings all the time

want to be a true artist, got to be fearless, willing to speak truth to power
truth to the people, even when they dont want to hear it, truth to yourself

like the lyrics from the artists prayer -  this profession aint no hiding place -
artists like this do me proud, reinforce my own courage, my own determination

to be true voice

a luta continua
rdoc

SATURDAY

going to continue working on last post: or maybe not

maybe start working on the second movement: each movement has to
be broken down into 9 internal movements

but wanted to address comment by bill cosby addressing black educators in nashville

"You're so quiet," he said to them at one point. "I bet I could get all
of you to stand up and clench your fist if I blamed the white man."

i got issues with some of what bill be putting down
but at the same time i got respect for what he trying to do

and that he willing to get out there and take his licks
for his position, he could have just chilled with the dollars like

most of those celebrities doing, but he in the arena, thats all i ask
him and danny glover two sides of the same coin

cause you got to work w/both hands and
there is more than enuf struggle to go around

glovers brand of activism gon speak to some folk, cos to others, only way we gon be a whole race of
activists is w/respect for folks whose programs might be different but still viable

caue we got to be on it, all of us, all classes, on every level of the game, and
everybody aint gon struggle the same -

cos aint figured out yet that the black middleclass been just as complicit as
the black poor, and the black elite aint even in the game

but he dead on about wasting our time crying about how bad folk treat us

that march folk had this weekend at the justice department, walking
around it biblic 7 times, thats so oldschool, thats so tired

trying to get the justice department to prosecute hate crimes

well thats a good cause and all but its pretty much a waste of time and energy w/this
admnistration, we got to get more strategic about our game in the 21st century

marches and protests and all that, those are loser strategies, folk who aint
got no strategic options, all they can do is whine and beg, that aint longgame,

newsflash: the powers that be figured out how to counter/neutralize that move 30 years ago
that tactic aint hardly a nuisance to power, and the justice department is in much worse shape

than that limited agenda address, and also coming at it that way make it
just a black issue, we have to bring more pressure down on folk by broadening

our agenda so that we gain allies in pressure and bring pressure where it will
make a real difference, the politicization of the justice dept would have been

a better agenda, one they more vulnerable to at this strategic/tactical point and time
got to step up our game

got to be serious about getting our work done, about our organizing
about taking care of business, the only way our condition will change

is when we, by our behavior and actions, make the reality of
black inferiority a false one

and i aint talking about no individualism, im saying struggle is both individual
and collective, im saying we got to work with both hands

in the words of this brothers article on it all:   "Never has it been clearer - despite the legitimate social
justice claims blacks continue to have - that black progress going forward will have to be made almost
exclusively through the efforts of black Americans alone."

i say this so much better in rest for the weary
so much got to be said, so much work to be done

the hoodooman do not accept the continuation of this condition
i will train my people to the game if its the last thing i do

swear fore god and on the sweat and blood of our ancestors
by all their hopes and dreams that live on in me i will

on that note let me work on the 2nd movement
i need 9 internal movements for the longgame

the longgame

game and the longgame  (on the nature of game and longgame as destinywork: shaping generations)
game and countergame  (countering game being run on you)
game and sidegame (avoiding being distracted by sidegame and diversionary game)
the hoodoo board of destiny  (on the nature of the hoodoo board of destiny)
mounting the board  (how to become a true player)
playing the board  (strategies and tactics: how to play the board)

okay these categories not working, and im feeling
pressure to get todays novelwork done

you know what im thinking is that i cant spend time on this limited project
i need to give that time to the hoodoo book of flowers, aka the great

black book of generations - need to give whatever discretionary time i can beg borrow or find
to my holybook, maybe make instructions to the cadre one of the movements in it

im outta here

my love to you all
whatever i got i will give to you

my positions aint always correct, or viable, i know that
but ima keep swinging, win or lose, right or wrong ima try

to do my part
god, i love you so

rdoc

clear water & ibeshe tchula, the dream of sekou sundiata and desperate men

TUESDAY

hello world, me and bonnie had dinner w/trebor and deb last night
we had a good time, in spite of my antisocial ways - bob and deb chill me out

bonnie had got me one of his photos that i had fell in love w/for my bday
the lighthouse one that chill me out, (we got a nice bob gates collection on the walls)

trebor is not only a lodge brother of the mystic knights of the sea
trebor is one of the most consistent readers of this blog

will comment occasionally on things ive written
offer kudos and challenges

often when im talking here, im talking expressly to him, or one of
my other few regulars that i know about - my beloved regulators

thinking trebor will like this one, this one will impress him, make him smile, etc (conscious of when he wont approve too)

samesame the other few folk that i know surf this blog w/some regularity
i like to claim i dont write to please anybody but i do have folk that are my

audience, in my head im writing/communicating with them
speaking for them, speaking to them - my beloved regulators

i be thinking of my regulators as guerilla troops, soulwarriors, covert operatives out here playing
the hoodoo board of destiny and conjuring a new reality on the human condition - regulating

look like im the one they be regulating
im feeling fey today, in a strange space with my novel

finally finished the historical section (4 years maybe?) and now im back
in the contemporary section, last 3rd of novel

but i havent systematically focused on this section for 3, 4 years now
and ive got all these unformed ideas of what to do with

- jubilation highjohns struggles as hodooo sorceror and wouldbe prophet
- the human struggle to live a meaningful life
- his/my struggle to empower the african way of god
- to save the race and his/my crippling sense of defeat and perhaps redemption

- the struggles of my characters
making them authentic endgame progressions

critical scenes/dynamics that have to be brought to life
so they speak to folk beyond consciousness, disturb and transform them

make my literary vision manifest

and all these narrative games i want to play, just what is
the relationship between reality art destinywork and conjuration

everything else been setup
the endgame is where the novel dies or becomes luminous

showtime and i look at it and im lost
got to redo my outline, figure out how to take it home

so next couple of days outline and plow thru
no way in hell i can do this in 20 days

but thats not going to stop me from trying, lord
i do my best work under pressure

in the name of o killens - the great griot master of brooklyn
(took my boys to his grave in brooklyn, they helped me tend to his ground)

worked on my holybook last couple of days, which felt good,
birthday present to myself

got to catch up w/projects ive allowed to fall by the woodshed - family, holybook, manuscripts, palf, etc etc

have you checked out the website for the pan african literary forum yet - looking good if i do say so myself

but the forum itself is still up in the air - as you well know, getting
something like this off the ground is a major challenge

and the old gray organizer just aint what he used to be
we got commitments but we aint seen a check yet

and we have made all these commitments and we got large contingents
of students coming from kenya, senegal, southafrica, nigeria, congo - all over africa

gon be an amazing experience
a seminal moment in african world lit and culture

its fa, its destiny

we got commitments from the legends of african world lit - the potential of what can be is breathtaking
and we have decided that no matter what the show will go on, that we have to establish

a reputation for doing whatever we say we gon do
if it comes down to:

jeff allen - novel
mohammed n. ali - shortstory
arthur flowers - nonfiction
some ghanian woman poet - poetry

the show will go on

course if the money come thru we gon have all the folk on the website and more
if the money dont come thru we pay our own way and make it happen

hope you will be part of it
gon be a seminal moment

speaking of shows going on i got to go

i got to get that new outline done today
got to get rootwork.com back online today

so many projects, so little time
my love to you all

rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, was going to move on and start a new post
but i believe i will stay in this one and set up the 101 talismans

but today a shout out to one of my favorite conjurors in all the land
ibeshe tchula, was googling about when her name came up and

i see she has redone her website, it was always aesthetically pleasing
and now is even more so - until the water is clear is her riff

Tidings:

Welcome to until the water is clear, a website  designed to convey the many facets of my artistic expression. Ibeshe Tchula, a conjurer.   I am also Anna Beatrice Scott, a cultural/performance theorist  I work in various media and modes, with a special emphasis on the kinetic. I enjoy producing investigative works that provoke further inquiry and performance.  My focus is multiple for these pages, but I  have posted this site with the desire to book more performances.lectures, workshops and now, workings.                          
As a conjurer, I am very interested in the old timey ways of wrapping one's mind around a situation to produce a solution or series of possibilities.  Repetition. Cycles. Circles. Tides. Calling. Responding. Coding. Ciphering. Spelling. A lot of my work is influenced by or in discussion with sacred texts from many of my ancestral lines. I am hybrid, though easily recognized as a Black woman. I have come to understand myself as (minimally) Gaelic Afro Indian.  You may laugh. It is a joke.                      

I particularly enjoy pushing the boundaries of race, racialism, racism with radical love.  No one can know what's at the bottom of the sea, so who's to argue with the parameters of our existence?

Please dive in and swim around.  If you know you belong here, in the flow of her darkness as it draws upon the hind leg of clarity, then click here,  for further instructions.  Good tidings, one and all.

THURSDAY
hello world, sorry i been out of the loop

still recovering from my trip to the delta
and sekous death

aint no small thing you know, shifting the world a
little bit, better get a grip
                                    urban music by sekou sundiata

been listening to sekous work, i think
this is my favorite - urban music - i hear you sekou

what up black    you still black? . . .

i know you trying    to be something else    in your dreams
but you just keep coming back didnt you black, and more black and more black

'i understand   trouble   in the mind of blackness     trouble in the mind of blackness
seeking the light of    anything    to explain    the long reign    of the upside down. . .'

went to the funeral saturday, big drama, they tried to keep it tight, so there was

all this dont tell nobody going on but surely they didnt think they could stop sekous
folk from showing up - cathedral st johns divine, folk i havent seen 10 15 20 years

they done him proud
folk was showing a lotta love

i can only hope ive earned that kind of love when its time for me to go
at some point ima do up  what i want my service to be - forget that sad bit

i want a throw down, i want to rock the house
make a joyous noise - rickydoc checked out, gave it my best shot

a luta continua

'i wanna tell you    how much we wanted    to make reovlution
and in our yearning we learned    that suffering aint noble    and to struggle is a blessing'

listening to sekou now, he left a good body of work, but the one i love is that urban music,
i got some lyrics here for you, but reading them aint the same as hearing them

'we dreamed you black    in your madness,
made you up out of poems    and lies   and words to live by

we ourselves was dreamed    most likely by some slaves

whenever they    got a little space   they climbed into their heads   and be free
when they close their eyes    what did they see    they saw you    they saw me

ima miss sekou, gotta work sekou into my mythwork, he deserves some play
and apparently thats my role, determine who of my generation gets mythworked

into the destinical narrative

i got this initiative in rest for the weary, i believe
ive spoken on it before, where i annoint 101 hoodoo haints

historical and contemporary hoodoo destiny players
to be canonized - deified

and im thinking about my contemporaries, folk like sekou and
safiya and imogunla and dorisjean and jokillens, davidearl and more to come

while not all literally literary hoodoo i believe i will canonize them anyway
they are part of this life i have known/recorded and i will include them on a personal

after i list the 101 talismans, i plan to give them attributes
mythwork, a narrative

the 101 talismans of rickydoc

- historical hoodoos
- leaders&destinyplayers
- contemporary hoodoos
- literary hoodoos

work on this during the week sometime, just dont have time right now
got pages to clock, last lap, about 30 days left before i have

to go back to the schoolhouse, go back
to being a civilian - back in the world

bunch of pressure on me to deal with the world now but all i can say is not yet
i got 30 days, world  -   people, obligations, everything got to back up off me

stonewall time - best not to get in the way of a desperate man
next 30 days belong to my novel, my work, my dream

whatever it cost me
i will pay the bill

once again we must seperate the writers
from the dilettantes

i just read over what ive done and got left to do and it
looks suspiciously bad, i fear im just playing with myself

and you dear regulators - doing a juneteenth on you
i fear i just dont have another viable novel in me

15 years is a longtime to have worked on something
that still has not reached threshhold viability - that bothers me

its so strange i cannot judge its viability

all i can do is keep the faith and do what i was born to do -
ive already given my life to this, i dont have options at this point, dont want them

i fear i just might not have the talent, but if determination
counts i got that

i will not accept defeat in this matter
masterpiece or farce, ima do this

if i am not a great novelist i am nothing

i fear that i am not even a decent novelist
a literary footnote whose vision exceed his reach

no matter, ima do this
win or lose ima do this

today, tomorrow, everyday i can beg borrow
or steal ima do this

woodshed you never get all you planned done
life always take its pound of flesh

frustration and despair inevitable

but i can do a lot in 30 desperate days
need to come out of this woodshed with a draft, lord

not getting no draft is
not an option

in struggle
rdoc