MME's Jam Of The Day

Washington DC's-own Carolyn Malachi is one of kind. This song, Beautiful Dreamer, soars and the video is equally as compelling for its  inspiring account of a young girl overcoming bullying because of her good grades and Malachi, playing the role of the girl's guardian angel,  helping her to stand strong & believe that she can achieve her dreams (in broader terms, her message is about overcoming incredible odds and living a passionate life). "It's a never-ending story, dying for the glory, living through the pain," Malachi notes.   

The instrumental version (featuring Vahagn Stepanyan on piano, Trey Eley on flute, Matthew Shell & Devin Spear on Electric Guitar, Markus Huber on Bass & Jabari Exum on the djembe) will definitely put you in the zone.....These musicians are on fire! 

(Download both versions here)

Never stop dreamin'....

OneLove

:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "Break The Frame" by Emilia Barrosse

Imagine something you love;
Something you've always dreamed of;
Something you're too intimidated to speak of;
Something you own that you'll always be proud of.

Do you have the picture saved?
Have you chosen the moment?
Did you give it a name?
Did you pluck it out of space and put it in a glass case?
Did you hold it and enclose it and put it in a frame?
Did you hang it on your wall so you can check it on your way
through your daily routine that's doomed to stay the same?

Did you keep it locked up so long it's in ashes instead of flames?

You pictured the moment. You imagined. You dreamed.
And that's great. Congrats. You've got a picture, and that's it.

That picture's all you've got.
You've tied up opportunity with the perfect knot.

You put perfection in a picture and froze it in time;
You harnessed a single moment and stopped it on a dime,
And as you grow old,
The picture gathers dust and grows mold.
Your life is bought and sold
And your heated moment grows cold.

'Cause when you picture your life or you imagine your life
Or you talk or wish or think, complain or bitch about life
That's just a waste of your life, you'll never taste your life
'Cause the picture that you've taken is just a glimpse of your life.

What happens next?
Who knows! You gotta step out of frame!
You gotta get up off the bench and get your ass the game!
What would happen if you stripped your clothes and stood in the rain?
Would you be drenched in shame?
Would someone remember your name?

The answers to these questions are only found one way:
You gotta stare into the changing face of life every day.
You can't just catch a glimpse and blink and think that everything'll stay!
You need turn around and face the noise and move and dance and sway!
When life gives you direction you have one choice: you obey!
Otherwise you'll write your life's story and have nothing to say!
People won't remember you when you're dead in decay.
They might think, 'I don't remember her much, but, ehh, she might have been okay...'

'Cause when you picture your life, don't suffocate it in a frame!
When you seize the moment - don't lock it up like a slave!

When you seize the moment, you can't tell it to behave!
You need to climb its wild back and ride it like a tidal wave!

Once you've seized a moment, you're only halfway there -
Once you've seized it, then release it and then solemnly swear
To chase that dream, idea or opportunity anywhere
So that when you catch it again, you can throw your fist in the air,

And break that picture frame. Let the glass lie on the floor.
You let the moment out and now it means so much more!
It meant way too much to be confined by those four
thick pieces of wood, and locked up behind your front door

So do yourself a favor and throw your pictures out.
Live the moments in the pictures that the frames leave out.
Catch your moments in your mind and set 'em free and have no doubt
that steppin' out of bounds is what our lives should be about. 

OneLove

::::::MME:::::

One Percent Madness

 This documentary is eye-opening not so much for the data it presents, but for the callous, inhumane & degenerate mind-set that maintains amongst members of the wealthy.This film was produced before the financial meltdown of 2008, but the observations, testimonials & prescient analyses are on the money. Edward Wolff (NYU Prof. of Economics) for example, predicted the Occupy Wall Street protests about 16 minutes into this film when he stated that the sense of frustration amongst the working class within the US does not rule out outright rebellion similar to the ones that have taken place in underdeveloped countries.

This film impressively highlights the growing "wealth gap" in America, as seen through the eyes of filmmaker Jamie Johnson,  heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. Johnson also  produced the HBO documentary Born Rich which earned him a  Emmy-nomination. He does a great job in humanizing the cold, statistical data that we hear often & allows us to share in the misery of the dispossessed.  By the end of the film, the desire to resist the dark forces that are bent on keeping things chugging along the crooked tracks til Kingdom Come, takes hold--Be the resistance!


OneLove


:::MME:::

Thanksgiving Rotations: M.M.E's 80s Redux Vol. 1

I'm gonna take the next couple of days off from writing so I wish you all a peaceful & edifying Thanksgiving holiday.

OneLove

:::MME:::

A Message To OWS

I first came across the works of Grace Lee Boggs many moons ago in a college history course. I recall being overwhelmed by the sheer depth and scope of her writing and found myself rereading her work in order to fully absorb what she was saying. It has been quite some time since I read or heard anything from this visionary philosopher & activist until I came across this clip. What a beautiful & engaged mind! She's 96 & her passion has not diminished, but rather has distilled into a luminous essence. Heed this vital message from this courageous soul as we move forward in the healing of our fractured world....






OneLove


:::MME:::

Give Thanks

Thanks
by W. S. Merwin
Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water thanking it smiling by the windows looking out in our directions back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging after funerals we are saying thank you after the news of the dead whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you over telephones we are saying thank you in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators remembering wars and the police at the door and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you in the banks we are saying thank you in the faces of the officials and the rich and of all who will never change we go on saying thank you thank you with the animals dying around us our lost feelings we are saying thank you with the forests falling faster than the minutes of our lives we are saying thank you with the words going out like cells of a brain with the cities growing over us we are saying thank you faster and faster with nobody listening we are saying thank you we are saying thank you and waving dark though it is

OneLove


:::MME:::

Musings

 

This is from Arthur Schopenhauer's essay On Human Nature. His remarks are applicable to every war zone in the world today.
  
'When the herbivorous animals had taken their place in the organic world, beasts of prey made their appearance--necessarily a late appearance--in each species, and proceeded to live upon them. Just in the same way, as soon as by honest toil and in the sweat of their faces men have won from the ground what is needed for the support of their societies, a number of individuals are sure to arise in some of these societies, who, instead of cultivating the earth and living on its produce, prefer to take their lives in their hands and risk health and freedom by falling upon those who are in possession of what they have honestly earned, and by appropriating the fruits of their labor. These are the beasts of prey in the human race; they are the conquering peoples whom we find everywhere in history, from the most ancient to the most recent times. Their varying fortunes, as at one moment they succeed and at another fail, make up the general elements of the history of the world. Hence Voltaire was perfectly right when he said that the aim of all war is robbery. That those who engage in it are ashamed of their doings is clear by the fact that governments loudly protest their reluctance to appeal to arms except for purposes of self-defense. Instead of trying to excuse themselves by telling public and official lies, which are almost more revolting than war itself, they should take their stand, as bold as brass, on Machiavelli's doctrine. The gist of it may be stated to be this: that whereas between one individual and another, and so far as concerns the law and morality of their relations, the principle, Don't do to others what you wouldn't like done to yourself, certainly applies, it is the converse of this principle which is appropriate in the case of nations and in politics: _What you wouldn't like done to yourself do to others_. If you do not want to be put under a foreign yoke, take time by the forelock, and put your neighbor under it himself; whenever, that is to say, his weakness offers you the opportunity. For if you let the opportunity pass, it will desert one day to the enemy's camp and offer itself there. Then your enemy will put you under his yoke; and your failure to grasp the opportunity may be paid for, not by the generation which was guilty of it, but by the next. This Machiavellian principle is always a much more decent cloak for the lust of robbery than the rags of very obvious lies in a speech from the head of the State; lies, too, of a description which recalls the well-known story of the rabbit attacking the dog. Every State looks upon its neighbors as at bottom a horde of robbers, who will fall upon it as soon as they have the opportunity.' 


Very interesting....I'll leave it to you to connect the dots..


OneLove


:::MME:::

Arundhati Roy Speaks

Arundhati Roy

 This is the text of a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the People's University in Washington Square, NYC on 11/16/11. Great speech!!
 
Tuesday morning, the police cleared Zuccotti Park, but today the people are back. The police should know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We're not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or there. We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for the people of the United States, but for everybody.

What you have achieved since September 17th, when the Occupy movement began in the United States, is to introduce a new imagination, a new political language into the heart of empire. You have reintroduced the right to dream into a system that tried to turn everybody into zombies mesmerized into equating mindless consumerism with happiness and fulfillment.

As a writer, let me tell you, this is an immense achievement. And I cannot thank you enough.
We were talking about justice. Today, as we speak, the army of the United States is waging a war of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. US drones are killing civilians in Pakistan and beyond. Tens of thousands of US troops and death squads are moving into Africa. If spending trillions of dollars of your money to administer occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan is not enough, a war against Iran is being talked up.

Ever since the Great Depression, the manufacture of weapons and the export of war have been key ways in which the United States has stimulated its economy. Just recently, under President Obama, the United States made a $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia - moderate Muslims, right? It hopes to sell thousands of bunker busters to the UAE. It has sold $5 billion-worth of military aircraft to my country, India, which has more poor people than all the poorest countries of Africa put together. All these wars, from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Vietnam, Korea, Latin America, have claimed millions of lives – all of them fought to secure the "American way of life".

Today, we know that the "American way of life" – the model that the rest of the world is meant to aspire towards – has resulted in 400 people owning the wealth of half of the population of the United States. It has meant thousands of people being turned out of their homes and their jobs while the US government bailed out banks and corporations – American International Group (AIG) alone was given $182 billion.

The Indian government worships US economic policy. As a result of 20 years of the free market economy, today, 100 of India's richest people own assets worth one-quarter of the country's GDP while more than 80% of the people live on less than 50 cents a day; 250,000 farmers, driven into a spiral of death, have committed suicide. We call this progress, and now think of ourselves as a superpower. Like you, we are well-qualified: we have nuclear bombs and obscene inequality.

The good news is that people have had enough and are not going to take it any more. The Occupy movement has joined thousands of other resistance movements all over the world in which the poorest of people are standing up and stopping the richest corporations in their tracks. Few of us dreamed that we would see you, the people of the United States on our side, trying to do this in the heart of Empire. I don't know how to communicate the enormity of what this means.
They (the 1%) say that we don't have demands… perhaps they don't know, that our anger alone would be enough to destroy them. But here are some things – a few "pre-revolutionary" thoughts I had – for us to think about together:

We want to put a lid on this system that manufactures inequality. We want to put a cap on the unfettered accumulation of wealth and property by individuals as well as corporations. As "cap-ists" and "lid-ites", we demand:

• An end to cross-ownership in businesses. For example, weapons manufacturers cannot own TV stations; mining corporations cannot run newspapers; business houses cannot fund universities; drug companies cannot control public health funds.
• Two, natural resources and essential infrastructure – water supply, electricity, health, and education – cannot be privatized.
• Three, everybody must have the right to shelter, education and healthcare.
• Four, the children of the rich cannot inherit their parents' wealth.

This struggle has re-awakened our imagination. Somewhere along the way, capitalism reduced the idea of justice to mean just "human rights", and the idea of dreaming of equality became blasphemous. We are not fighting to just tinker with reforming a system that needs to be replaced.

 I salute your struggle.

OneLove


:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems" by Yusuf Komunyakaa

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(Full text)

OneLove

:::MME:::

The Battlelines

(Data Source)

Damn thieves need a flogging! 

OneLove


:::MME:::

Masters Of The Game

From left, James Black Jr., Justus Williams and Joshua Colas. Their success is a “phenomenon,” one veteran chess player said.

Great article from the New York Times (11/12/11) about three boys from New York who have a achieved a rare feat in chess: the title of Master (before reaching 13!!) To be that young with that title is mind-blowing. Read the detail of this amazing story here.

I had to post this article as chess has been kicking my a** for years, so to see these KIDS master a game that has given me nothing but grief, is nothing short of amazing. 

OneLove

:::MME:::

MME's Jam Of The Day

Listening to this medley of a few of Sparrow's hits brings back some youthful memories of family gatherings, hanging out on the beach with friends, walkin'-and-whinin' in the street on J'ouvert morning during carnival season & of course, drinking & talking a lot of crap just for shits & giggles. Ah yes, the sweet charms of life on the small islands of the Caribbean is a priceless experience. Sparrow was a genius and he reigned over other Calypsonians for decades as his provocative stories captured many elements of life, love & politics which were unsurpassed for their vocal & dramatic delivery. 

Calypso is definitely not what it used to be when Lord Kitchener, Mighty Shadow, Chalkdust & Short Shirt were blazin' the Caribbean charts. The stories nowadays are quite tepid & calypso music overall has been overtaken by its faster-paced cousin, soca/zouk which I do enjoy, but it's still sad to see calypso, which has historically been a slower-paced, cleverly veiled, satirically-laced, story-driven music, taking a back-seat to the more popular genres.

The Mighty Sparrow has continued to record and to date has produced some 90 albums.The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has awarded the Mighty Sparrow with the Caribbean's highest award, the Order of the Caribbean, for outstanding contribution to the development of the region. A true legend. Check out this great interview with the King of Calypso:

OneLove

:::MME:::

As The World Turns....

OneLove

:::MME:::

Musings

   

(could it be?)

                                                          
Before you were born, you were in a large room, laughing and dancing with a thousand other souls.  The birth angel came into the room and held up a card.  Everyone in the room could instantly read the card and understand its contents.  The card contained your birth and death, all the experiences and choices of your lifetime.
Someone said, ‘Ooo — look what happens to her when she is 5.’  Someone else said, ‘I did that stuff last time,’ and a third: ‘I think I’ll pass on this one.’
After a brief silence, you said, ‘I’ll take it!’ and a great cheer rose up through the crowd.  You followed the angel down a long hall, a door opened, and you forgot the crowd, the cheers.  You began to play your part, and pretended to be alone. 

-Brian Arnell

OneLove


:::MME:::

Easy (Like Sunday Mornin')

(The songs on this playlist have been with me for quite some time. These are the songs that have lifted me up over the years when the vicissitudes of life became a bit overwhelming. My favorite piece, the late great Rev. James Cleveland's classic, "What Shall I Do?" is eminently luminous --it's like having church in your personal space.)


OneLove


:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "Playthings" by Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

 

Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning.

I smile at your play with that little bit of a broken twig.

I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.

Perhaps you glance at me and think, "What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!"

Child, I have forgotten the art of being absorbed in sticks and mud-pies.

I seek out costly playthings, and gather lumps of gold and silver.

With whatever you find you create your glad games, I spend both my time and my strength over things I never can obtain.

In my frail canoe I struggle to cross the sea of desire, and forget that I too am playing a game. 

  






(See more Tagore links here...)

OneLove

:::MME:::

Our Shadows

Back in the day, I was an avid reader of Mad Magazine. At that time, it was the only comic book that satirized/parodied modernity & the contradictions of the human condition. What was most interesting about this eclectic comic were the tiny drawings on the border of every other page. One common theme that left an indelible impression on me was the one dealing with the human shadow (which is loosely defined as a psychological projection where a person subconsciously denies his/her own attributes/thoughts/emotions by projecting them to the outside world, usually to other people.). In the little sketches, one would see a person going through the various pleasantries/pretenses of civilized behavior, but the shadow he/she casts tells the opposite story of his/her true feelings. As I grew older, the more I read up on these unconscious forces within us, the more confused I became about the nature of identity, free will, morality, ethics & the whole notion of what makes humans human outside the sequence of DNA bases. 

Stumbling across the above clip recently was fortuitous as I've been pondering over this phenomena off & on for quite some time. Being skeptical & shunning Oprah-esque feel-good/New Age pop psychology, red flags popped up here & there while viewing this, but the clip does raise some interesting nuggets everyone has thought about at one time or another. Well worth the time to delve more into....


OneLove


:::MME:::

MME's Jam Of The Day

This cut, "The Dance", is the best one on Prince's 3121 CD, in my opinion. From its haunting opening to its string-laced build-up to its stirring grand piano solo & guttural screams toward the end, Prince propels this song into the realm of the ethereal. Rock with me....

OneLove

:::MME:::

Presence Of Mind

Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a living treasure. The great Martin Luther King acknowledged him as an apostle of peace & nonviolence & nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Of all the books he has written, the ones that affected me the most were "Living Buddha, Living Christ" & "Peace Is Every Step". You don't realize how messed up you are until you read the works of enlightened souls or simply by observing the good deeds of others.


I found the following clip most illuminating:



 
People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result.
-THICH NHAT HANH, Living Buddha, Living Christ

OneLove


:::MME:::

Musings

OneLove


:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "Empowerment" by Propaganda

OneLove


:::MME:::

The Other "Mascot To The Wall Street Oligarchs"

(Herman Cain is either a naive, self-absorbed, unrepentant fool or a shameless opportunist pandering to the worst fears & stereotypes of the mostly white electorate he hopes to woo in the coming elections. Jon Stewart zoned in on the complete buffoonery of this ad in a way few can do so effectively. Like Dr Cornel West stated a few weeks ago, "Cain needs to get off the symbolic crackpipe”...Nuff said. Enjoy the distractions.....)

OneLove

:::MME:::