Rhinos vs. Tea party

I just heard something that made me sad and angry and astonished. John McCain said in the senate that it would be disingenuous ans dishonest to tell your constituents that passing a balanced budget amendment in this climate and connect it with the passage of the debt ceiling will actually happen. If his colleagues who have been there (meaning in the senate or house) for only 6 months think that a balanced budget would pass, they are crazy and things just don't work that way.

So how does this piece of pretty angry wisdom get taken by the tea party republican radio talk show host Mike Gallager? McCain is now considered a RHINO - - Republican In Name Only.  Now as a black person I feel it's hilarious that now white people have a name for people they think don't fit with their cultural parameters. Once when I was a kid some stupid idiots called me an oreo. I'm just glad that blacks aren't the only people with these types of names.

But all kidding aside, the republican party is imploding on itself. Tea party republicans seem to think that they should take a principled stand about the budget.  What it seems like to me is that on principle they're willing to watch the country explode in order to prove a point. They're willing to cut the biblical baby in half rather than save the baby because they want it their way.This is what we get when good people don't take stands and do what is necessary, cause now the angry mob flashed and mobs don't think straight, they're just angry. 

Another for the album: Depression

Song is done.  I’m into these basslines.  Always have been.  I can’t play them well, but I sure do like them.  Changed the form of this song to kinda mimic how the mind thinks rather than about a hook.  People just feel; they don’t know what to call it all the time.  And they don’t say, “Wow, I’m depressed, anxious, frustrated, lonely and sad.”  They just feel like shit at that moment…maybe a lot of moments. 

Depression...

My life, or my thoughts, as I say always ends up as a song somehow.  I’ve started this thing about depression.  It makes me depressed just working on it.  I’ve been working on gratitude and thankfulness especially when there are hard times.  But I bet it's so hard to be grateful when no one calls to see how you are or calls back when you’re looking for employment.  We always say to keep your head up, but what about that moment when you just can’t and there doesn’t seem to be anyone around that cares enough about you to help you out and you gotta keep living, and sometimes it’s too hard to do that.  I’ve been there…man you know I been there….

A Tantrum??

Obama is having a Tantrum?!  Really?!  A Harvard educated, constitutional lawyer who is the epitome of the American dream is now a cranky 2 year old.  Well, then, I guess bush was just that spoiled 4 year old cousin you hated because he had to have everything his way and you just sat in stunned silence while he stomped all your toys and threw them out in to the street to be run over by passing traffic because you wouldn’t play the game by his rules.  Maybe I should write a song about the fallout from these politicians.

More Debt Debate Insanity

Today was nuts.  The debt ceiling debate in driving me crazy.  So many people say they want to cut spending, but that’s in the abstract.  WHAT do you want to cut, specifically??!  Just because McDonalds in changing their happy meal to be more portion controlled and healthy, I don’t want to pay the same price for less food.  That would be nuts.  You want to cut medicare…how?  That building project that will provide jobs in your district, you wanna keep that right, because that’s necessary to the health of your community, not pork.  Trying to figure out $2 TRILLION in cuts in ONE WEEK?!!  I can’t figure out how to deal with my family budget each month, let alone cut it in the equivilant of 30 seconds.  And what about the stuff that actually is needed?  How do you determine that?  Also, the lobbyists of all concerned(whether you think they’re good or bad) are gonna yell and scream and make many a commercial to make the public not really hear or understand the issue completely.

Can't Even Afford To Get High...

I was thinking about a friend of mine who was really “clinically” depressed and was thinking about her in the context of us being in a "lesser depression", as I wrote about in my previous post.  Life is so hard right now.  It’s a wonder a lot of people aren’t just lighting up all the time, getting wasted..maybe it’s because they don’t have any cash. Lol.  Can’t even go to the store to get liquor if you can’t afford to gas up your car or the cash for the bottle…

The REAL debt ceiling...

I’m a bit down today… Just heard that my girlfriend got laid off and she has two children.  There but for the grace of God go I… My other friend just got her hours cut down and she’s a single mom with an advanced degree.  It took her 18 months to find this job.  My other friend’s husband got laid off, and then a couple of weeks later, she got laid off; they just got a new house and have four kids.  My other friend has some food in my freezer because her electricity just got cut off….And all these muthaz can talk about is the debt ceiling.  I’m really working hard to make sure that I’m valuable enough to people so that I am not laid off.  I need to pay for daycare for the baby and know that in a year I will be paying the equivalent of 10 electric bills each month for said daycare.  I’m working my ass off by taking all work (fortunately for me they’re musically related) so that I can have a stash to pay for all this stuff coming up.  I got into an accident and my car has $1k worth of damage to it.  I don’t have time to be with my kids because I’m working so daggum hard.  I haven’t had a more than a day off in God knows when…The pressure is really getting to me…Life sucks sometimes…

Debt Ceiling...sigh...

This debt ceiling stuff is really getting to me.  I can’t stop listening to it.  I think the best word to describe politics now and politicians is my usual word: INSANE.  I’m actually kinda scared.  I was talking to my brother about it, as we have these really long political discussions about this stuff.  I was telling him that I think there are a lot of people who don’t really understand what’s at stake here.  It’s literally like the world is going to end and if the debt ceiling doesn’t go up so much shit will happen to the interest rates, America’s bond rating, and frankly the confidence of the world in us!  This country, financially, militarily, and economically holds up the world in so many ways.  If Saudi Arabia suddenly decides that the dollar is not stable enough and switches to another currency, that’s it for my dreams of being able to afford a mini van.  I could certainly buy it, but I wouldn’t be able to put any gas in it so it would run.

New song for my album! GENTRIFICATION

wow! this came together quick. That article really struck, um, a chord, I didn't realize how strongly I felt about this issue...

I love it when we work fast like this. instant gratification! OK, here's a snippet of the song pre-mixed and stuff. I love, love, love my musicians!

GENTRIFICATION (Snippet) by divablue

Gentrification...

I talked to my brother, and he liked the song. We have a lot of similar ideas. I sent him the vocals and the chord changes.

Song...

I can’t play and sing this song too well, because it’s just a bass line and a couple of chords, but here it is, the first part of it.   I like my bridge. Makes me think of Donny Hathaway with the melody. My favorite line, “Every war ain’t always got fightin, just cause you ain’t cut don’t mean there’s no blood…” I just like that image. People don’t understand that actions have consequences. And even when they do, they don’t really care cause they just want to live in that nice house. There is culture that is being ignored. I remember that article in the Times which said that a group of citizens wanted to ban the sale of chicken wings because the bones were causing rats to proliferate. CHICKEN WINGS?! That’s like banning bagels because you made them too big and they make people fat. Maybe you should ban dog walking because people don’t pick up the feces. It feels like a war no matter what you do because of competing interests and cultures are clashing, and there’s not a lot of respect for who was there first.

A Song is Born??

I’ve been working with this bass line that really makes me hear what I’m talking about with this gentrification that’s been going on. I was talking to a friend who just showed me the whole set of blocks off the H street corridor. This one guy owns them and has signs up about what he’s going to do: putting up high rises and luxury housing and all sorts of stuff. It probably would be good for the community in the long run, but what happens to the people who live there now and how do they make their living with the type of jobs that will be there in the future?

Makes me remember when I was in Harlem parking on 145th and St. Nicholas and I parked literally one foot over the line where you can’t park. A woman who obviously didn’t live there until a few minutes ago looked at me like I was nuts and really wanted me to move the car, because it was too near the bus stop. She actually spoke to me about it. I just walked away and shook my head. Later, when I told my girlfriend who lived near that area about what happened, she said, “We need a good shooting. That’ll learn ‘em” or something like that. Just so it's clear to non-city-dwellers: My friend WAS NOT advocating violence against anyone. She was merely remarking that in her hood, historically (ok traditionally LOL) every-so-often there's been a drug shoot out, or a mugging or some such. She was saying that the new neighbors probably wouldn't have been so bold and cavalier about telling others what to do and how to go about they business when to do so meant you might get shot at!

Has this world gone INSANE??! (aka Welcome to my new blog!)

I’ve been thinking about so many things lately and I just feel like I’m about to burst.  The world has gone INSANE.  And frankly, I just need to release, so….voila! I'm gonna see if writing a blog helps. You and I (whoever you are) probably won't agree on everything but, hey, you can't please everybody! 

So here goes...

++++++++++

I just read an article about how DC is changing its demographics.  You know, I’m tired of people seeing only one side of this issue.  I’ve been on both sides…well, I’m black so there are actually only so many sides I can be on.  To put it bluntly, I’m tired of things changing for the better, but only because of who’s moving in.  Didn’t the people who live in the area deserve crime free, clean streets before more affluent (read: white) people started moving in?  Now, when I moved into Bed-stuy(do or die baby!)Brooklyn, I was one of those edjumacated (yes this is actually a word...in ebonics) blacks who started a garden in the front yard and tried to literally clean the streets.(I, with a few of my neighbors literally picked up the trash off the block.  We even cleaned up the crack house front yard…they kept it clean from then on so we wouldn’t come back LOL)  But then, after some time of seeing the police around, a really nice…wait for it…sushi bar moved in not far from me.  A SUSHI BAR?! Really?!  I like sushi, but in Fort Greene where Biggie lived?  In Harlem, a Caviar bar moved in…I really don’t have much more to say about that.  All of a sudden, street lights where fixed and roads were repaved, because in what seemed like just a few minutes after all that, white folks started to move in.  Now the first newbies were harmless.  They were just decent folk who wanted to live good and be a part of the community.  But before long, it seemed like a critical mass was reached and I began to really understand what the old folks mean when they use the word "gentrification" : suddenly there was no parking, buildings that didn’t look like they belonged in the same neighborhood started being built.  Now, don't get me wrong: it’s great to have all the nice streets, and restaurants and stuff, but the people that sold earlier got tooken (more ebonics, if ya don't know).  Those people sold for less and then…these new neighbors have the audacity to have a problem with the weed head sitting in front of the house.  Now, those guys just sit and smoke weed and talk shit.  They're mostly harmless. All they wanna do is smoke weed. But each of them at one point or another knocked on my window to tell me I needed to move my car (in NYC they have opposite sides parking for street cleaning, a joke in many respects since it cleans nothing and it allows the nyc parking authority to make money giving out tickets for $75 or so).  A crackhead once even removed the big stump that I had been digging out of my front garden for a dollar. FOR A DOLLAR! My neighbors, who had lived there for years and years, watched my 1^st child grow up and ride her big wheel down the sidewalk.  These are salt-of-the-earth people, with their own dignity and purpose.  Those whom just moved in should not have any precedence over the original inhabitants just because they have more money, an ipad and/or a new hybrid car.