Serendipity - The effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.

So I'm walking down Broadway between 143rd and 144th(home of the Haze)and i see this older gentleman that looks rather familiar. I say to myself..that can't be him..but then i think, why can't it be him. Now as I'm thinking that I'm walking behind him so i can't get a solid look at his face. Then he turns around and come toward me and there he is. A legendary poet, musician, and activist looking right at me on Broadway and 144th. Now usually when i see people i admire i don't say anything but this was different. I mean at work during that same week i was introducing someone to his work and contemplating if i should go see him perform at Carnegie Hall. So as he starts to walk toward me I quickly think of something worthy of him to say. "Are you Gil Scot-Heron?" I mean i know it was him, but i couldn't think of anything else to say. "Yeah yeah that's me" he says, seeming a little bothered because i interrupted his train of thought. As he walked past me i tried to tell him how much i was influenced by his work, and that i have his albums on my wall, and that his artistry and thoughts were so profound and actually shape the way i look at the world. But that was pretty hard to get out as he was passing so all that came out was"I'm a big fan of your work". "I'm a big fan of your work"? That's all i said? I'm sure he hears that everyday. But I'm so much more than a fan. "thank you youngblood", he says as he still continues to walk pass me and into a store. So now I'm just standing there feeling so unfulfilled. I mean Gil Scot-Heron! I'm thinking, I just can't let it end there. I have to let him know how much his music and words have meant to me over the years, all without being a fanatic, which i was sure he thought i was. So i wait outside the store. While in front of the store I'm thinking of exactly what to say to him. Of course before i figure out what to say he comes out the store. When he comes out, i approach him again as he walks toward me. "i don't mean to bother you Mr. Heron but your music...." He cuts me off right there and says "yeah yeah youngblood I'm just trying to run some errands right now just walk with me" Gil Scot-Heron just told me to walk with him so he tells me to walk with him to Subway to get a bite to eat! As we enter the Subway he ask him if i wanted anything to eat. I said no I'm good, and he tells me to sit down a for a minute. he did mention that i seemed oddly calm for a fan and back in his day when he met Miles he was speechless. I guess i keep all my excitement inside. So i sit down and we start to talk about his music, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and i was just blown away with the experience. I told him that i had a couple of vinyl albums of his music and he said he would love to sit and listen to them one day. He asked me if i had a pen, and proceeded to write his number down. Since then we've talked a couple of times on the phone and i couldn't believed he still remembered me. If you enjoyed this story i have more to share. Next i'll tell the story of meeting Cody Chestnutt at 3:00am on my way to VA.

Peace

Here's some shots from The PR trip. My d40's lens got broken on the way to the airport, so these shots are mostly cell phone shots but they came out pretty good.

What up peoples!
I know I haven't posted in a while(too damn long!)so I figured I share some pics from my trip to Puerto Rico. It was sooo beautiful! When first arrived the weather was 87 degrees. Now remember, I just left NY and, the weather there was about 30 degrees and flurrying, so that was amazing to me. We stayed in Cornado which is right next to San Juan. The spot we stayed at had a casino also(which seemed totally rigged)and a block away from the beach. We could've had a oceanview for an extra 200 bux, but I figured if I wanted to see the beach I could just walk one block for free(I ain't ballin like that). We did rent a wrangler though and drove out to Elyunque, which is a beautiful rain forest on the island. There was a 1 mile path to get to the beautiful waterfall(1 mile each way). At first I thought I can do that, but about halfway through I was like danm where's the exit?! We also went to Luquillo beach for a while. I told my wife, i gotta see some blue water before I leave, and we found it there. We then got drunk at the Bacardi factory and ate some good food
(DAMN THIS SOME ASS CHEESE!). The only bad thing about the trip was leaving. When we stopped in D.C.(my old stomping grounds)it was back to 33 degrees and raining. And the dream was suddenly over. Back to the cold weather and back to work.
I'll post the pics tomorrow.

PEACE!

I can't believe that a huge company like Verizon would shoot something like this! Not only are they all young black males, but they're dress so stereo typical(hat on backwards, bandanna and all) that its ridiculous. You mean these brothers couldn't be at the office or something and have the same effect or so called humor? These brothers look a lot your typical black man coming home from work after a long day(not from corporate gigs. They look at us different when wearing suits) dealing with the bull we all deal with at day jobs, and then they have to deal with this subconscious fear we get from whites and some other races. And they use a song about institutionalized racism. How ironic? It's images like this( and there's a million of them ) that continue to feed that those fears. I wonder the race of the person who wrote this commercial? Better yet, the person who approved it.
I guess he who has the gold , makes the rules.

Peace!!

DAMN...I KNOW ITS BEEN A MINUTE SINCE I JOTTED DOWN MY THOUGHTS SO I WOULD LIKE TO FIRST OF ALL APOLOGIZE TO THE 3 OR 4 PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THE BLOG. SO LET ME GET THOSE PEOPLE UP TO DATE. MY SON IS GETTING BIGGER EVERY DAY AND IS ALSO SUPER SMART. JUST THE OTHER DAY HE PUT HIS PACIFIER IN HIS MOUTH ALL BY HIMSELF. THAT MIGHT NOT SEEM LIKE A BIG DEAL TO SOME, BUT BEING THAT HE'S ONLY 3 MONTHS(YOUNGER AT THE TIME HE DID IT) AND THAT HE DOESN'T REALLY KNOW THAT HIS HANDS ARE ATTACHED TO HIS BODY, I THINKS ITS AMAZING. MY WIFE WAS ON MATERNITY LEAVE FOR ABOUT 3 MONTHS NOW SHE'S BACK AT WORK TRYING TO GET BACK INTO THE SWING OF THINGS, BUT ALL SHE CAN DO IS THINK OF MILES. I'M STILL ON THE PLANTATION(MY JOB) AND EVERYTHING IS GOING COOL FOR THE MOST PART. ITS JUST REALLY TIME CONSUMING, AND ITS HARD TO SQUEEZE TIME IN FOR MY SON, MY WIFE, WORK, AND MY PASSIONS. AND I ALWAYS END UP SPENDING MORE TIME ON THE PLANTATION AND THAT'S THE LEAST REWARDING. ITS THE MOST REWARDING FINANCIALLY(FOR RIGHT NOW) BUT THAT'S IT. TIME IS SO PRECIOUS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GET IT BACK. OKAY I HAD TO STOP THREE TIMES WHILE WRITING THIS BLOG BECAUSE THE CEO OF THE COMPANY I WORK FOR IS HAVING A IMPORTANT MEETING AND I HAVE TO SUPPORT THEM, SO LET ME STOP NOW. I WILL BE POSTING MORE SOON.

PEACE!!!

So how come in certain places, around certain people you don't indulge in one of the best tasting fruits there is? Stereotypes have plagued our race since the days of slavery and continue to hold us back even today. Back in those days we were looked at as lazy pickininnies whose only pleasures in life were a nice slice of watermelon or some fried chicken. My thing is, if we were so lazy then how could we pick cotton from sun up to sun down for free? Its obvious these stereotypes were basically made up but they're so embedded in our minds that we started to believe they were true. They were created to keep a race of people in servitude and to keep another race in the role of a master. I mean if I'm a lazy, dumb witted, clumsy nigger then being a slave is the only way to survive in a white society. If not that I guess then I can sing,dance or make you laugh. Luckily we were strong enough to break out of those mental chains(for the most part) and become one of the most influential races of people on the planet. Jazz, Hip Hop, and Rock and Roll was spawned from the souls of slaves expressing themselves and communicating with each other in the mist of an extremely oppressive society. We've also made tremendous strives in science(George Washington Carver , Percy Lavon Julian) and inventions(Henry Brown , Valerie Thomas ). So i guess I should thank the white society of the past because without the pain and the oppression who knows where we would be today(probably in Africa being oppressed by some more Europeans).

What up peoples? Yo I just figured I'd share some things currently working on and hope to give to the world soon. First is a instrumental album I'm finishing up that will be available soon so look out for some old school futuristic soul music. Click here for a sample. And something I can't wait to resume work on is a documentary I'm writing the script for now and I plan to start shooting before the year's out. Here's a clip. I'll keep you posted.


PEACE