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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sobriety is the New Enemy!


Peace Y'all

First I must apologize for my lack of political acumen. I mean I totally forgot this was the year of the elections, so there I said it! LOL

I mean after all, it's not like I don't have any interest in politics, but I don't believe that old cliche' "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is an all-encompassing statement, I mean sometimes you have to know when to continue to try and when to quit, when to let it go, ya know?

In this great state of mine our governor has slickly gotten away without any notice about the allegations of taking bribes from a Big Pharma company in exchange for making the HPV vaccine mandatory for ALL public school- attending girls over the age of 12, regardless if they are sexually active or not. Local schoolboard elections have given victory to gangsters who masterfully take the money from school(84,000,000 dollars last I checked) superintendents come and go like Arab nomads, our two-faced mayors and other city officials are continuing to find themselves on the news, and not for good reasons either. And the grand fiasco of all, realizing America's first Black President is not any better than America's last White President, bailing out the real bank robbers, lying about the economy, and now resorting to Juniors' old tricks of the same old tired "somebody's trying to terrorize America" scam, one must begin to wonder what is this politic mess all about.

But I must admit there are some things worth really voting for, and this year brought out some doozies, mainly Propositions 1 and 2, propositions about whether or not beer and wine can be sold in grocery stores in Dallas proper. For the most part Dallas is still a dry city, except for certain business areas and in the parts in the 'hood(as if that's a surprise). Surprisingly my area which is now seeing its part of ghettoization/gentrification taking place, had an ordinance prohibiting the sales of liquor in stores, but like most if not all pre-dominately African-American 'hoods, they were at one time predominately White neighborhoods until the n... well you know the rest of THAT story.



Now advertisements now popping up on so many billboards entering downtown and even skyscrapers are encouraging passers-by to get tow-down, with giant-size billboards of the latest and greatest of hooch, elegantly packaged to make even the stinky-bummy drunk look and feel as if they are privileged to swig such a fine wine.


To suck the voters into approving this move brochures were printed out using the old "enhance the economy" and "encourage economic development" and paying better wages to policemen routine, and adding the notion that if this is not passed, the city will be unable to recouperate at least 30 million dollars from an already whopping 80 million dollar city deficit. This lack of funding has supposedly made the city cutback funding to parks, pools and libraries, now even the downtown library looks like a ghost town every Monday, but strangely enough orchestrated music is piped through the elegant Bose speakers hanging above the entrance. This past summer, stores all around the Dallas area, even Wal Mart neighborhood markets hosted registration tables encouraging people to vote YES to sell beer and wine in grocery stores in Dallas proper.




This photo was taken at a gas station in my 'hood. My area has not had a grocery store in the past 2 years, yet people are being encouraged to vote YES on November 2nd to allow beer and wine to be sold in such places.

A couple of problems here, especially in my hood, where the nearest grocery store is a DOLLAR STORE! Which is more important, a grocery store, or the ability to sell hooch in a grocery store? If you don't have a car in my neck of the 'hood, tough rockos kid, 'cause the nearest decent store is miles away. There's only two ways to get food in my area, the dollar store(with its limited supply of meat, and even more limited supply of non-pork meat), or pretend you're poor(if you're not) and go to Mt. Tabor Baptist Church and front yo' self a sack of groceries every Tuesday.

Another issue is the cry about the rise of crime already in these 'hoods, especially in the impoverished areas, but nevermind that correct? I mean the only drugs that are illegal here are marijuana, crack and cocaine(which you won't see in my parts), right? Never mind that before the invention of crack, alcohol was the suicidal choice in the hood, right? Nevermind that every year more people die of alcohol-related incidents 4 times over than the amount of people killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11, but hey, no one's shut down a brewery right? Or accused a liquor store of being a terrorist cell, right? Then why use the same old revenue-generating excuse( which we the taxpayers won't see anyway) as a means to pump sauce into the neighborhoods, knowing fully we won't see the results of such ventures except maybe increases in deaths, dependency and depression? What happened to the Texas Lottery, that was legalized in 1992, which the proceeds from that was said to fix roads, schools and.... Where's that money? More and more casinos are being built, more ways to gamble your money away are being established, and more and more ways to hype up your addiction or depression are concocted, but what happened to the jobs? How can private-owned buildings continue to go up downtown while public libraries, pools and parks are closing down?




In closing, I want to make it clear that this is not a blog to encourage or discourage voting, or to urge to vote no, but basically showing the sickness of this society, allowing corporations and political pundits to to further contribute to the spread of vices and addictions and hide them under pseudonyms called "urban development" "economic growth" and so on. In the end who really wins?

Peace y'all

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Flashback!!!



Flashback picture...Did this in 2007, I had just started to play with pastels after spending all of the time off away from art. Really liked it. I don't mind doing still life pics(in fact I really dig it) but I felt I had to establish my voice first, in order to be taken seriously. But things like this make me wanna just whip out the pastels and let the dust fly!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

...Quandry (Black Haunting)

Peace all,

Sometimes being a clutterbug(such as me!!!) has it's downers. Take today for instance. After feeling good about labelling my next project Black Haunting, some of the ideas I have for the project spurred into another direction, and ANOTHER project came about, one I'm thinking of entitling What Was It All For Anyway? I think both of these will really be interesting in scope and range, as well as content, and I'm sure it will be one that not too many people would want to talk about initially. But that's me right? Always into something, always causing trouble...Tee hee hee!!!

I am in my best mood right now after recovering from what looked like a down point in my life. Missing the exhibit, The Lost Ones, one that Joanna worked so hard in getting to happen, and one that I wanted to participate so badly made me take a hard look into wondering if I should continue on. But even more sad were the incidents that took place which resulted in my abscence. I usually don't place my personal feelings and incidents online, however I feel this one needed to be stated in order for me to move on with my life.

Two weeks before the exhibit my car was repossessed for late payments. I had been searching for ways to pay for the car as well as looking for a job after leaving my last job, (an issue which some people are still trying to second guess to this day) but was unable to come up with any solution. I went through several ordeals to get this car, and to find out it was taken away really hurt me. I had left some personal belongings and some clothes in the car at the time it was repossessed. In order to retrieve those items I had to borrow my mother's car, drive 60 miles out of Dallas and back to retrieve my belongings.

I tried to look for employment opportunities to keep the car and my personal finances in good standing, but nothing happened. I searched and prayed for relief and kept toiling about. Finally I asked some relatives(who are very able mind you) to front me a loan until I can get back on my feet in order to redeem the car and to help with some basic needs. At first I was told that the check would be in the mail and I would get it the next day. I cried and thanked God(Allah) thinking this would save my car, and help with some basic needs until I can get back on my feet.

A couple of hours later I received a call from their son pretending to ask questions about what happened at my previous jobs, why I left those jobs or was fired, and what the future hold for me(which only God can answer that). He says we was trying to help me find some work or some leads, as if he was sincere. I honestly told him what happened and my aspirations for doing my own thing as well. The very next day I received a package with some old dates and a printout of a narration from Prophet Muhammad(S) about how the person's sustenance was written in the womb of the mother 120 days after conception and NO CHECK. This statement is true, but the circumstances behind why this happened are fishy. The rest of the story is too hard to tell, and too hard to think about.

In any case I lost my car, among other things, and now I am somewhat starting from scratch, but I have not lost my zeal and my drive in any way. Actually many of the current events are the catalyst for my newest projects. And these trials that I go through make me stronger for handling bigger problems that may come my way in the future.




Keep moving forward...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

3 Blasts From The Past

Peace All,

Still working on my blog, but in the meantime here are 3 ditties from the past, one even shows the softer side of the Q, if you can believe that...LOL

Take care all...Love Ya!!!











Friday, October 1, 2010

K'NAAN - Somalia

Peace all...

It's been over a month since hitting the blog, but getting busier than ever, working on a new project to be revealed soon...In the meantime, check out this video of one of my favorites...Somalia, by K'naan....Take care.

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