This is probably a terrible idea ... (National Poetry Writing Month)
... but tomorrow is the start of National Poetry Writing Month, which I did last year (and forgot until I saw Nikki Blak's blog about it earlier today.
Last year, I started six days late, wrote thirty poems and nearly killed myself. This year, I have a newborn baby and a job that's been ramping up the stuff they need from me. Will I be taking this year off?
What do I look like, some kinda pansy? Of course not!
So, starting tomorrow, right here, THIRTY DAYS, THIRTY BLOGS, THIRTY POEMS! Believe it!
Yes, I plan to do lots of tankas and haikus. I make no apologies for this. I have a few ideas I didn't get to last year -- a poem from the perspective of Bizarro that my dawg Craig suggested, for example -- that will be longer pieces. But they all have to be newly written. No "breaking out an old poem that I wanted to work on some more" -- if anybody has ever heard it, it's not going down.
If I'm alive in thirty days, we'll all be lucky. Let's go!
Playing (Music): "Oh Really" by KRS-ONE, Buckshot, Talib Kweli and Geo of Blue Scholars
NOTE: Since this blog is automatically imported into my Facebook page, I apologize if you comment on it and I don't respond, as I am taking a sabbatical from social networking for 2010. So me not responding is not personal, I just won't see the comments ... until 2011. Maybe. Also including this disclaimer on blogs, but you're welcome to go to the blog itself and speak your mind, as I may look there ...Labels: bad ideas, creativity, masochism, napowrimo, poetry
Shotguns
I went to Oakland a few weeks ago. Never mind why, some business got transacted and I'm back to tell the tale.
Anyway, during my trip I caught up with my Oakland homeboy and all-purpose kook The Truth Sayer, who took the photo below. He enjoyed some of my fine hospitality at Kincaid's Taphouse, where a sister named Tennille (as in "The Captain and ...") brought nourishment and tolerated our jokes.
The other member of this assemblage of crazy was libertarian crusader and carb-hater Jere Krischel. We may not agree on much politically, but he's one of the best people I know. He got into Oakland for business the day before (no, I won't say what he was doing either) and the rental company gave him the sweetest ride -- an almost-brand-new Grand Marquis.
Jere picked me up to coordinate with El Sayer of El Truth at Jack London Square, and the ride there was part Blues Brothers and part police chase. With Jere's ponytail and my penchant for cursing fools out at the drop of a hat, Jere decided that we were codier versions of Vincent and Julius from Pulp Fiction and demanded we do a shot for shot remake. Luckily, Jere is super busy and crazy ADD, so one recreation photo managed to settle things ...
"... we definitely needed shotguns for this sh**!"
... for one wildly entertaining night in Oakland. Maybe Jere will post the recording of our dinner conversation one day. I make no promises ...
Playing (Music): "Armada Latina" by Cypress Hill feat. Marc Anthony and PitbullLabels: comedy, friends, movies, oakland, randomness
Mobility
This blog is brought to you, live and direct, from my new Nokia N900 smartphone. My bony backside posted on the dusty red front stoop of my home, an "app" (in my day we just called it "software") called MaStory providing the gunsight for these ballistic syllables as I freestyle phonics directly from me to you.
Some don't get why a phone so powerful was needed. This morning while my infant daughter slept snugly strapped to my torso, I installed a Debian Linux package so I could rum a full featured word processor called OpenOffice, giving me full compatibility with those helplessly trapped on Massa Gates' plantation without letting actual software from Redmond into my life. Open source and as free as a Black man can hope to be in the western world, I now enjoy 40 gigabytes of digital domination on my left hip, from mp3s transmitted on an FM radio band to cropping photos and removing red eye.
The reasons why are myriad and mystifying. With two kids, breaking out the MacBook Pro is often logistically challenging and 181 grams is easier to carry and store than 5.9 pounds. As a journalist (of sorts) the concept of shooting 5 megapixel photos, editing them live and posting them with accompanying explication is an intoxicating whiff of the ultimate scoop. Again, it comes down to freedom, the ability to do where before "doing" took some ... well, doing.
So maybe more blogs, yes? Let's see what happens.
Watching (kids): playing with dogs and scooters in familiar drivewaysLabels: blogging, family, freedom, life, technology
Scattershot (work friends phones politics gratitude life)
BANG! BANG! Bullet point blog shots to your dome, home skillet!
- Today I flew to Oakland at 7AM for an all-day staff meeting. I didn't really consider it the best usage of my time, but I got some good news: I got a raise at my job that will kick in within a month, plus a nice little bonus based on merit. Me! Merit actually recognized! I'm so flabbergasted at that I think I'll start a new savings account.
- I also was extraordinarily blessed to hang out with my friends, libertarian kook and activist Jere and anti-Obama crusader Jabir. We ate at a place in Jack London Square called Kincaid's and recorded what might one day be one heck of an amusing podcast. Jere and I also re-enacted a scene from Pulp Fiction because the rental company stuck him with a Grand Marquis that had less than 9,000 miles on it. I almost wanted to make out with this car. I love domestic sedans, I won't apologize for that.
- When I got home to my beautiful wife and sleeping daughter, I ordered my new phone, the Nokia N900. I also got a hard rubber case to protect it. My laughable Samsung Behold 1, which I could only review like this will likely be used as a spare camera/MP3 player for the car. I'm excited to step back into the 21st century, but a little nervous about getting all my data up and running on a new OS which is not exactly user friendly. More news on that as it develops, as the phone should be in my hot little hands by Wednesday.
- Saskatchewan.
- My dinner at Kincaid's with Jere and Jabir got me really interested in this book and how DDT could save millions of lives (while, admittedly, whacking a few along the road) as well as spur on development on the African continent. Maybe I'll expand on that. Maybe.
- My stepdaughter's mother got me some down slippers. I barely know the woman. I find that extraordinarily kind and generous, and appreciate it a great deal. I am very blessed to have some very good people in my life.
- Shut up, you're drunk!
- Also got a very nice comment about my good friend Craig, who I miss dearly but who (like many of my friends) simply operates outside of my periphery right now. The good thing is that like many other friends -- Inpu, Dana, Malik, McGowan, some others -- the second I see him we'll fall right back into that old rhythm, like we never missed a beat. I'm very grateful for that too.
- I think the $12 backpack I carry my work computer in is starting to show some signs of wear and tear ... I bought it on a whim at a Sav-On in Westchester late one night.
- Why is this bullet point blog not on The Hundred and Four like the last one I did? It's more personal. The last one was more "look around at the world" and what not.
- I will say, musically, that I'm enjoying the surprisingly smart mixtape from Malcolm and Martin and the singer London's new project, both of which have me itching with ideas for a mixtape of my own. Lloyd's also been dropping some digital heat, while Chris Brown's been engaging his Euro-pop side with songs that would likely rock Catch One. Mateo's new project is also a revelation, so far.
- Sleep now. Early morning watching Fraulein Fussenfeiffer (my daughter Ella's nickname is "Fuss," which I have morphed into Doctor Fussenstein and more weird configurations, which are at least close to being spoken in English) while the wife teaches, then (I think) a 3D screening of Alice in Wonderland and maybe time for my weekly haircut at my barber's new shop (he's a co-owner), Head of The Line Barber Shop, 5420 Adams Boulevard, 323-691-8475. Clean shop, nice neighborhood, an organic cafe next door, ample street parking and some hilarious freakin' barbers crackin' jokes in there.
Playing (Music): "I'ma Rep Texas" by Chamillionaire
NOTE: Since this blog is automatically imported into my Facebook page, I apologize if you comment on it and I don't respond, as I am taking a sabbatical from social networking for 2010. So me not responding is not personal, I just won't see the comments ... until 2011. Maybe. Also including this disclaimer on blogs, but you're welcome to go to the blog itself and speak your mind, as I may look there ...Labels: family, friends, gratitude, life, music, phones, politics, randomness, work
"... fame, fame, fatal fame ..."
As part of my ongoing preparation to be the keynote speaker for Blogworld 2012 (joined on stage by Erick Sermon and introduced by Jenny "The Bloggess" Lawson ... what? It has to be true, it's on the internet already), I agreed to be the subject of a new interview at a site called Blog Interviewer.
You're probably asking yourself, "What the hell do I care?" Well, this part is what is considered a call to action for you: If you'll note, there's a voting button (thumbs up/thumbs down) in the upper left hand corner, and it will enhance my prestige and therefore help in making an all-around more interesting presentation. Plus, it takes all of two seconds to vote and confirm, no giving them your email or what not.
 Vote for Hannibal Tabu's Soapbox as an awesome blog! DO IT!
So, if you'd be so kind as to click here and VOTE for me (and my blogs -- it actually represents The Soapbox and The Hundred and Four, so it's like two votes jammed into one), I'd be ever so grateful.
Playing (Music): "I'm You" by Ne-YoLabels: blogging, blogworld 2012, cheap publicity, interviews, shameless pandering
Not my smartest move ...
It's 2:11 AM as I start typing this.
I just got done writing a major and difficult scene for my third novel. I've been all over Google Maps, keeping my eye on a TGIF and a building in Tokyo, Japan (see the photo, courtesy of Nikuyakun) and outlining action scenes in my head. I got to a huge plot point and backed the material up. I feel good about it. It could be years before I can explain why I was so interested in this picture
(Photo by Nikuyakun)However, it's 2:11 AM and the sink's full of dirty dishes, and oh, yeah, I'm out of wash cloths and jeans, so I'm headed to the 24 hour laundromat down the street. I have to be at work in less than seven hours. I could blame one element of my life being two hours late, making me sleepy and throwing me off of my rhythm, but my little girl let me sleep until 10AM today, which went largely without interruption given that the wife and baby are out of town. I should know better, basically, and should have worked more quickly. But I didn't. So tonight's gonna be a long night. Bygones. Playing (Music): "Go Crazy" remix by Krave feat. Lil Jon, Flo-Rida and PitbullNOTE: Since this blog is automatically imported into my Facebook page, I apologize if you comment on it and I don't respond, as I am taking a sabbatical from social networking for 2010. So me not responding is not personal, I just won't see the comments ... until 2011. Maybe. Also including this disclaimer on blogs, but you're welcome to go to the blog itself and speak your mind, as I may look there ...Labels: randomness
Macaulay Culkin
The pitter patter of lacksadaisical raindrops beat against the windows of my apartment as I sit in strange solitude. My wife and our two-month-old baby are hundreds of miles away, surprising an old friend and celebrating with another. It's the longest I've gone without seeing the new life we put together, and the first separation of more than a half day for me and the wife in a month of Sundays.
She's probably tossing her head back in laughter with people who knew her before she was legal, and I'm chilling (not literally -- I started running the heat the second she left and never looked back). The beloved stepdaughter was my road dawg today, as we experimented with music making, sculpted in clay and took her to a capoeira class. She's getting ready for bed and Hulu awaits me while I sit and listen to the rain and write until I'm ready to sleep.
Once upon a time, this kind of night was de rigeur -- the soft light of a single lamp and some gun-wielding entertainment the accompaniment to the sound of my brain churning out copy. Now, it's weird, like a throwback Jon Kitna Seahawks jersey, a reminder of "glory days" that weren't really anything to write home about.
Tomorrow, Mooch's dad picks her up and I'll have the house to myself, with laundry to complete and dishes to put away before the family starts its week in earnest. Now, she wants to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid in anticipation of the big screen adaptation before her 8PM bedtime comes down like Mjolnir, and I'm happy for the company, suddenly uncomfortable in the space that's taken up most of my life. Hopefully a deluge of writing, coding, TV and games will get me through tomorrow.
"... and to all a good night ..."
Playing (Music): "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" by Coldplay
NOTE: Since this blog is automatically imported into my Facebook page, I apologize if you comment on it and I don't respond, as I am taking a sabbatical from social networking for 2010. So me not responding is not personal, I just won't see the comments ... until 2011. Maybe. Also including this disclaimer on blogs, but you're welcome to go to the blog itself and speak your mind, as I may look there ...
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