Natural Mystic Blowin'

    (illuminedsoul)

                                                        

The times they are a'changin'..

Pay attention to what's happening in the world......The ground has been shifting for some time now in ways not easily discernible...,,Seek information from sources beyond the mainstream, beyond hearsay or common opinion....Think for yourself, reflect & critically connect the dots....Like a natural mystic, let's arise from our illusions & embody a deeper understanding of the chaos that surrounds like brother Bob says:

 

 There's a natural mystic blowing through the air;
If you listen carefully now you will hear.
This could be the first trumpet; might as well be the last:
Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die.
Many more will have to cry - don't ask me why....

Stay awake.

OneLove

:::MME:::

Desiderata (Desired Things)

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others,

even the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals;

and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment

it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive Him/Her to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

~ Desiderata: a Poem by Max Ehrmann

 OneLove

:::MME:::

The New Conquistadores

 Among the destroyers there was no respect for anything we could say. They had come determined to see nothing, to listen to no one, bent solely on the satisfaction of their greed, of which we had ample news. But the king was infatuated with the  destroyers and would not heed the people's will.....
-- Ayi Kwei Armah from Two Thousand Seasons


After reading an article in the New York Times yesterday, I was reminded of Alex Jones' comments on the ruling banking elite and their shady dealings.The facts are all around--it's just a matter of disallowing ourselves to become so distracted by the many irrelevancies & being about the business of uncovering the untruths and misdeeds of the Ivy League bullshitters.Check out Alex Jones commentary on the still unraveling financial crisis.....

A couple of footnotes to Alex Jones' comments:

The Secretive Banking Elites

Market Alarm: US Fails to Control Biggest Debt in History  

Are we going to just sit around, watch our soaps or ESPN sports programs & just act like we're not getting screwed every which way? And even if some of us are making a decent & comfortable living, is this an excuse for being disinterested? Ignore reality at your own peril......


OneLove

::::MME:::::

Questioning the Two-Party Monopoly

Quite an interesting interview..The dude looks like someone's drunk Uncle Bernie, but he makes a lot of sense



Peace

:::MME:::

The Genius of R.Kelly

R.Kelly is, without a doubt, a musical prodigy. In spite of his questionable, well-publicized personal issues, he ranks up there with the best (Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder..) when he is at his best. His latest release, "Love Letter", is an ode to an era that produced the best music ever, the mid 60's- mid-70's. You can hear echoes Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder & Quincy Jones throughout which makes this release outstanding in every way. I selected my personal fave, "Number 1 Hit" , but you can stream the whole thing on his Facebook page~~Enjoy!
 



..Here is a "Best Of.." playlist I assembled some time ago which features some more slammin'  R. Kelly tracks from "12 Play" to  "Untitled":

OneLove!

:::MME:::

Truth Crushed (....shall rise again)

With the world abuzz with the Wikileaks bombshell, we should all take heed and reflect on the meaning & ramifications of this information. However one may judge Julian Assange & his mysterious past & motivations, that's a separate matter--we should not shoot the messenger if we don't like the message. Let's make it our duty as citizens to get the facts and question, question, question....With that said, I offer a few relevant quotes I especially like on the nature of 'truth'...

Truth, like milk, arrives in the dark
But even so, wise dogs don't bark.
Only mongrels make it hard
For the milkman to come up the yard.
~Christopher Morley


Truth has very few friends and those few are suicides.
~Antonio Porchia


When I tell any truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.
~William Blake


Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.

~Charles Caleb Colton

Truth breeds hatred.

~Bias of Priene, Maxims

Truth is the breath of life to human society. It is the food of the immortal spirit. Yet a single word of it may kill a man as suddenly as a drop of prussic acid.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

~Denis Diderot



Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives... by make-believe.

~W. Somerset Maugham

If a thousand old beliefs were ruined in our march to truth, we must still march on.

~Stopford Brooke

Peace & Guidance


:::MME:::

Chalmers Johnson: The Passing of an Oracle

Chalmers Johnson passed away last Saturday (11/20/10) and with him goes the dimming of another light in this increasingly desolate & angst-ridden world. After reading his book, "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" a few years back, I became a student of his work. This man knew what he was talking about as he was once a consultant in the bowels of the C.I.A, and saw first-hand the official agendas, secret strategies & backroom deals of empire. Many people shy away from the uncomfortable truths of their nation as they tend to invalidate or challenge cherished beliefs they would much rather like to hold on to. I find people like this quite dangerous (& utterly pathetic!), and it would serve them well to ponder what Chalmers Johnson has to say in the following interview:

To read some of his probing articles, check here.

One of the most penetrating questions he posed close to the end of his days with us was this:


What would the "sole superpower" look like as a bankrupt country?

I wonder.... 

Peace

::::MME:::: 

The Sound of Transcendence

        If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.
      -Louis Armstrong



OneLOVE!

:::MME:::

Happy Thanksgiving Folks!

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

- Buddha



Create a playlist at MixPod.com

Peace

:::MME:::

Stranger Than Fiction

(Binary Star)

Reading some of the latest cutting edge science articles in various magazines & on the Internet is like reading an Isaac Asimov novel. Here are some unbelievable stories that have recently piqued my interest.....

The Invisible Cloak--In the wrong hands, utter mayhem!


Event Cloak - This will create a 'reality void' that can hide entire events. Not a good thing given human nature.

Alien Rainfall - The Martians have arrived!

Plant ESP - Is the Earth a living organism as one theory holds? Makes you wonder....


Dawn of the Cyborgs - We will be taken over by our own inventions (or eaten!) 

Dream Recording & Playback - Dangerous! If my lady sees Sanaa Lathan feeding me grapes on playback, I'm toast!

Mind-Reading Phones - Remember Minority Report's Pre-Crime Division? This technology will get us to that point (Actually, it's about to be rolled our in Washington D.C & other areas).

Global Extinction Imminent - Where Money is God, I don't see anything short of a catastrophe that will move powers that be to do anything life-sustaining to stop this.


Internet in Contact Lens - Yes, contact lens!

Brain Waves Will Control Computers - With a Intel chip lodged in the brain, mind control will be a piece of cake!


Camera That Can See Around Corners - Great for search & rescue missions.


Our Incredible Bodies - Mitochondria are the body's power plants - Inside each of our cells, they convert sugars into energy


Planet from Another Galaxy - Witness the slow death of a Sun and its orbiting planet - The fate of our Sun and its orbiting planets is a chilling parallel.



There is a whole lot more to share, but that would make things too long. I will post more cutting-edge science later.


Peace

:::MME:::

Where Is The Love?

Today's New York Times had a very disturbing article in the Education section which details a report by the National Assessment for Educational Progress entitled, “A Call for Change,” that was released by the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for urban public schools. The report paints a bleak picture for our youths. As I read the article, it mentioned factors such as poverty, high unemployment, parental indifference, quality of teachers & inadequate mentoring. Buried in the middle of the piece were two items--sociological and historical forces--which the writer did not elaborate on. Why didn't he just tell it like it is? The truth is segregation has crawled back into the American educational system & the legacy of slavery still shadows efforts toward racial justice & equality. 

Another glaring omission in the Times piece--or perhaps washed over by the "historical forces" bombast--was school funding which tells the tale of why our kids aren't getting the best resources available for them to learn. Affluent school districts (mostly white) have higher property tax revenues, half of which goes to public elementary and secondary education. Poor school districts (mostly non-white) get funded (or short-changed) by the State. Money counts & everybody knows it. President Obama did not send his kids to a public school in Washington D.C--they're in a well-funded private school. He is all too aware of the critical issues in the urban public educational system (& so were the Presidents before him).


So, with this ongoing national crisis which is an indictment of the U.S educational system  as a whole (with some notable exceptions) that has failed miserably to reach the most vulnerable & marginalized, one has to question, who really cares about the young, non-white child wilting in the educational hinterlands? 

A cursory look at the US's national budget reads like a crystal ball on our dilemma & illustrates the gaping hole in the soul of this nation. Fifty-four percent of the national budget goes to the Pentagon. The National Priorities Project has estimated the the money spent on the Iraq war alone could have provided:

• 21,510,598 full four-year scholarships to public universities
• 7,689,734 new public school teachers
• 58,770,981 chances for children to attend head-start 

 What's even more disturbing to most is that the federal government can bail out automakers, banking & investment Goliaths, Fannie&Freddie.......but to date, no bailout for our young ones trying to get an education. Where is the love?

Since our leaders don't seem to care, it's up to each and every one of us to show the kids that we care and collectively fight for their very lives. Here's one way to get involved. 


{CLICK HERE}

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

-Paulo Freire

Peace

:::MME:::

A Call to Cerebral Action

 
The following documentary plays off the Socratic observation that “the unexamined life is not worth living". Philosophy has been in need of a make-over for quite some time. For too long in Western societies, it has been associated with dusty old books of dusty old men in dusty old rooms with no sign of life. Thanks to Cornel West, Slavoj Zizek & a host of other trailblazing social  philosophers, this image of philosophy is undergoing a face-lift. Philosophy has left the academia and is weaving through our decaying urban landscape on a long-term assignment to wake folks up from their stupor........





Philosophy is nothing but common sense in a dress suit. ~Author Unknown

OneLove

:::MME:::

The Rootical Meditations of Taj Weekes & Adowa

The music speaks for itself.

(Check out this review--couldn't have said it better.)

OneLove

:::MME:::

Who Will Tell The People?

Back in 1994, I read an eye-opener of a book entitled, "Who Will Tell The People: The Betrayal of American Democracy" by William Greider. In it he laid out in blistering detail the pathological inner workings of American politics & corporations & their corrosive effects on the body politic. This book made me upset as it became obvious that the citizens of this nation, who really want to believe in the myth of American exceptionalism and the belief that the government will work for the benefit of all, are being short-changed and heavily manipulated. Seventeen years after Greider's book release, the plot has thickened and now we find ourselves closer to the cliff's edge. Who indeed will tell the people that they have been betrayed and robbed in the most profoundly diabolical manner, yet again? 

On the eve of the Republican takeover of the House, it will become increasingly difficult for some people (mostly Republican supporters) to understand that they will be in no better shape with the Republicans in power. With the daily rants of  Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh & Sean Hannity filling their heads and overriding their abilities to think for themselves, they will hear nothing resembling reason. President Obama did not cause the predicament we're in, but they have been led to believe so, and like a mob, they want his blood. Indeed, they can't see the forest for the trees yet they too are in the same sad story of our collective malaise. 
 
Make some time to absorb the following video & draw your own conclusions:




The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest. —Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Peace

:::MME:::

Electoral Politics: The Illusion of Choice

(political reality)

This past week on my way to & from work, I saw a number of folks standing on the side of the road with big signs which read "Vote Democratic: Help Obama Out", "Vote Early", "Vote for Continued Change", & so on. This was to be expected as my area is the third most Democratic state. What has always bothered me about electoral politics in the U.S is the fact that it is, for the most part, a sham. I don't need a civics lesson to know the importance of voting and the hard-earned right to participate in the democratic process, especially for people of color like myself. I also understand that socio-political change is a very slow process so one should not expect structural and institutional change to happen overnight. OK--I get that.

What has gone terribly wrong in electoral politics in the U.S is the fact that Big Money has a more powerful influence over electoral choices & outcomes, especially now after the Supreme Court this past January opened the floodgates to allow big corporations to, without any limits, fund any candidate or issue of their choice. Of course, corporations have been doing this for quite some time (soft money) in the shadows, but now direct corporate campaign finance is law which signals the closing of the door to any third party that had any notions of taking on the two-headed Hydra (Democrats & Republicans) running the block.Your vote, what so many died for to give you this right, has been rendered to nothing but toilet paper.Every politician, including the President,  can now be legally purchased lock, stock and barrel. And who benefits? Not you, not me, but the health care, banking, investment & oil and gas industries. The dirty water that is politics is now a fucking swamp (examine what the billionaire Koch brothers are doing to influence the current elections as ONE instance of how the deck is stacked against us).

So on November 2nd when you go out to vote, keep in mind what we're up against. As the late great George Carlin once observed, “The next time they give you all that civic bullshit about voting, keep in mind that Hitler was elected in a full, free democratic election”.Here are some more shards of sanity from Carlin:



If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it-Ken Livingstone

Peace

::::MME::::

MME's Jam Of The Day

 Listening to religious/spiritual music from various faith traditions is one of my many joys. From Youssou N'Dour's Sufi classic, "Medina" to Andreas Vollenweider's non-denominational, "Drown in Pale Light" to the Hasidic reggae chant of Matisyahu's, "I Will Be Light", the love & devotion shines through regardless. One of my favorite contemporary Christian pieces is "Ordinary Just Won't Do" by Commissioned. Their harmonies are celestial & deeply inspiring and have left a lasting impression on artists who came after them (BoyzIIMen, 112, Dru Hill....). These brothers can saaang.....







Music is love in search of a word.  ~Sidney Lanier


Peace & Guidance


:::MME:::

Heart of Darkness

I have read many news articles, books, magazines & seen many interviews of scholars & experts either for or against the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian lands. However persuasive both sides may appear to be, it is from the mouths of babes & sucklings that the unadorned truth is uttered to still the heart of Man and his pretensions.

Listen to this Palestinian child decry her peoples occupation, violation & dehumanization by the state of Israel. If only the leaders of the world would pay attention to the children & thereby reclaim their humanity & get to the real cause of the unending cycle of violence......




It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. ~Mark Twain


OneLove

:::MME:::

An Easy Seduction: Digital Narcissism

 A lot of us hesitated to get on board the Facebook Express for a variety of valid reasons, chief among them, the inherent vanity of the platform itself. Some of us have succumbed to the need to simply communicate with friends & family with no additional frills like explaining what we're doing every minute or where we're going to dinner tonight. Sure enough, many people have been compromised by their words, images & whereabouts on Facebook, foolishly ignoring its various privacy settings. We have all read the stories of fired or prospective employees, husbands, wives, lovers, friends & foes who have all been scorched by what they chose to share with the world. Let's not even mention our children & their quickly-vanishing innocence through this vortex of vacuity. 

Unsurprisingly, the tentacles of the National Security State are wrapped tightly around Facebook and other social networks mining our personal lives for evidence of malfeasance of various sorts. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security operates its "Social Networking Monitoring Center" to keep tabs on what we're saying/doin. Indeed, George Orwell's Big Brother nightmare now has a more interesting twist: our narcissistic complicity. (Read the details of EFF's lawsuit here.)

Stay conscious.

OneLove!

::::MME::::

Empire FAIL

“As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities. That would be awful if that was the end of the story. But, exhilaratingly, people also have an incredible capacity for good. People who should have been consumed by anger and bitterness and lust for revenge have shown in so many instances a remarkable magnanimity, a nobility of spirit. That's the chief lesson I have learned. That in spite of all the horror of injustice and oppression, and the sense that those who perpetrate evil tend to appear invincible, the texture of our universe is one where there is no question at all but that good and laughter and justice will prevail. In the end, the perpetrators of injustice or oppression, the ones who strut the stage of the world often seemingly unbeatable — there is no doubt at all that they will bite the dust. (Laughs) Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!”.~~~Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

~~Follow the money & you will discover the Puppet Masters~~

Peace & Guidance

::::MME::::

Obscure (& Not So Obscure) Rhythms

I am sure most folks have wondered from time to time why the best songs on any given CD are not the ones promoted or made into singles. I can recall classic Barry White, Bee Gees, Commodores & Prince albums that had a number of obscure "fillers" that sounded better to me than the promoted pieces. Sometimes the intended hits are overshadowed by B-side tracks--Prince's "Erotic City" (B-side)sounded better than "Let's Go Crazy", Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" (B-side) was better than the crappy "Substitute" & Bill Withers "Aint No Sunshine" (B-side) was better than the A-side "Harlem". For the most part, these "fillers" remain on the album/CD and not released at all like many of the songs on the following playlist. You have to dig deep sometimes to find quality.....




Find more music like this on Soul Commune


MME's SoulCommune Playlist


Peace & Guidance

:::MME:::

"We are simply, dramatically stupid": An Interview with Manfred Max-Neef

Chilean economist Manfred Max-Nee gave a fascinating interview with Amy Goodman yesterday which should be closely listened to. Two observations he made really struck me:

"We have reached a point in our evolution in which we know a lot. We know a hell of a lot. But we understand very little. Never in human history has there been such an accumulation of knowledge like in the last 100 years. Look how we are. What was that knowledge for? What did we do with it? And the point is that knowledge alone is not enough, that we lack understanding."


"We are simply, dramatically stupid. We act systematically against the evidences we have. We know everything that should not be done. There’s nobody that doesn’t know that. Particularly the big politicians know exactly what should not be done. Yet they do it."
Check it out:

(PART 2)

Transcript:  

“The wise understand by themselves; fools follow the reports of others”-Tibetan Proverb


Be Guided


::MixMasterE::

Musings

“Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. 

When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important

Becomes whole and sound again. 

When man reassembles his fragmentary self

..and grows with the calm of a tree...”

OneLove


:::::MixMaster E::::::

Dangerous Distractions

Celebrity culture is a cancer to the living soul. Not a day passes when we are not drenched in the lifestyles of the priveleged celebrity--where they vacation, what car(s) they drive, their palatial mansion(s), their position on Forbes Wealthiest or their latest multi-million scheme. The Celebrity has become a Demi-God. When they cry, we cry. When they die, we mourn. With some thought, one should question the utter bullshit of it all. .

Millions of dollars are spent on studying & altering human behavior towards controllable & profitable ends for a select few at the expense of the bamboozled many. From as early as the 1920s, it was evident that perceptions & opinions could be manipulated by using the subconscious.Hence, we have today the socially-engineered herd behaviour of 'preferring' certain brands, ideologies or the lastest flavor of the month (Lady Gaga, Vans clothing line, Kindle 3G eReader, etc). We blindly think that the choices are ours to make without recognizing the deeper forces at play.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, income inequality is at record levels, the poor citizens of this Earth getting poorer, sicker & more exploited every day and the ecosystem is under severe disress with the now prevailing opinion that we have reached an irreversible point putting us all in jeopardy. One can surmise that the powerful commercial interests (& the politicians they buy) are hell-bent on keeping us close-minded, depoliticized and indifferent to the chaos.It's good for business.

This is where the antics of the slavish artist comes in. Where the downfall of a politician or businessman grabs the spotlight. Where the latest curvacious model or entertainer steals the show. Where the latest infidelity of the deified  entertainer/athlete/businessman takes center stage...and so it goes....This constant flow of decontextualized fluff filling the air and rendering us mute & defanged (well, that is the aim). Those who control the media know exactly what they are doing.

Governments notoriously misappropiate & squander money as the politicians have to pay off the rich donors who sponsored them in the first place, so nothing short of taking it to the streets will ever change this unsavory paradigm. It's funny how money becomes available for some bank bailout or how the US government can spend more than half a trillion dollars on military expenditures annually, but will get bent out of shape to invest more for education, environmental management/sustainability or unemployment benefits. What a racket! It's the biggest con in the world! The world can be teetering on the brink of destruction but the profiteers will still draw your blood.

This is why I find this celebrity culture so loathesome & dangerous--we are entertaining ourselves to death as Neil Postman wisely observed. Our minds have been hijacked & led away from what is real & vital . We have been primed to buy the latest gadget, fashion or vehicle while Rome burns. Jay-Z can make Forbes list & buy Beyonce an exclusive island for $20 million yet the folks in his hometown of Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York) suffer from the highest poverty rates, high school drop-outs, hunger & homicides in the region.That $20 million sure could have done a lot of good in Bedford-Stuyvesant instead of it being wasted on some over-rated diva. This is part of the the danger that besieges us.....

Be Guided.

:::MixMaster E::::

Don't Give Up

Something has gone terribly wrong. We can all feel it...No need to elaborate.One thing that remains glaringly obvious to me about our journey here on this beautiful blue orb is our capacity to endure the most onerous circumstances yet hold on to the flimsiest threads of hope. This impulse seems as natural as the air we breathe & is arguably what has allowed us to still be here as a species.

Herbie Hancock's latest masterpiece, 'The Imagine Project', is a masterful, cross-cultural, transpersonal gumbo which I enjoyed thoroughly. 'Don't Give Up' is the best cut on the album, in my opinion.It captures the pulse of our collective nature & provides the soundtrack to the teeming, suffering humanity looking for that silver lining...

Be Guided.

::MIXMASTER E:::

Concept: Music as a Starting Point in a Mind's Liberation

 

...and through a black hole in the fabric of a weirdly fantastic spacetime continuum, she flashed through back to the year 2010 mantled in the joyful melodies of the spheres & a simple mission: to save us from ourselves.




Now, if only she can avoid the vortex of commercial crassness, poisonous fame and a retinue of make-up artists to mask her true beauty before returning home to her sphere of endless possibilities.....

“When I look into the future I see danger in its eyes/Babies die before they’re born and no one ever smiles/The writers and the artists are all paid to tell us lies/To keep us locked inside…”~~Lyrics from "Locked Inside".

Keep your third eye open (it will save you).

::MME::

The Feminine Mystique

   

Woman

   will define herself... naturally. 

   will talk/walk/live/&love her images. 

   her beauty will be. 

   the only way to be is to be. 

   Man, absorb her. u don't need
   music to move; your movement toward her
   is music 

   & she'll do more than dance.

-Haki Madhubuti

 















Peace


:::MIXMASTER E::::

..the mystery of ourselves..

~Nasa scientists have just discovered what they believe is fresh evidence of life on Enceladus, one of Saturn's seven moons~

We all wonder about life & its origins whenever we gaze upon a cloudless, starlit sky. Theories abound from Charles Darwin's "Origins" to Chandra Wickramasinghe of Cardiff University whose new research "overwhelmingly" supports the view that human life started from outside our Earth (he claimed microbes from outer space arrived on Earth from comets, which then "multiplied and seeded" to form human life). It's mind-boggling to ponder the possibilities, no matter how wayward they may appear. We (humans) are indeed mysteries to ourselves in many respects. This reminded of a strange song Stevie Wonder made entitled "Saturn" from his classic, "Songs in the Key of Life" where he uses the planet as a metaphor or trope for humanity's proclivity towards war and division. How strangely ironic Stevie's symbolism now appears in light of NASA's latest discovery.......



OneLove

::MixMasterE::

The Unknowns Who Mattered

Every year during Black History Month, I've noticed how the mainstream media parades the same cast of heroes for us to honor & appreciate--Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglas are all celebrated & rightfully so. After all, people of their kind were not supposed to dream far less become anything more than what the larger white majority felt they could be. Dehumanization was systematic and became the 'natural order of things'. With such a tortured backdrop, it's a wonder that African Americans accomplished as much as they have in so many spheres of endeavor. What has always intrigued me personally are the stories of the lesser-known, unheralded heroes who worked brilliantly in the shadows and never got the credit they deserved. I recently watched a HBO movie, "Something The Lord Made" which exemplifies what I'm speaking of. It illustrates the pioneering work of an African-American, Vivien Thomas, who pioneered the field of cardiac surgery with a procedure to alleviate a congenital heart defect. Sufferers faced brutally short life expectancies & his genius revolutionized a new procedure to change that.

Stories like these litter the American landscape and they need to be told. The lazy-minded habit of regurgitating the same biographical sketches of well-known historical figures, though instructive, needs to stop. A little work and imagination is all it takes.

::MixmasterE::

Don't Believe The Hype!

Hip Hop music can take several trajectories, but the dominant one is the trend-altering commercial one which has its moments, but for the most part, we are all the poorer as there is so much more to Hip Hop than the acquisition of material objects & the pursuit of the flesh. As I've mentioned before, the best of Hip Hop is seldom heard on plantation radio, but for those of you who keep an ear to the riveting underground sound & know where to seek it, you know what's up! Give me Immortal Technique or Mos Def over Lil Wayne & Jay-Z any day. Intelligent lyricism with clever hooks is where it's at! Here's a small dose I concocted in the lab......

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

OneLove!

::MixMasterE::