Adventures in NERD Land the photo essay coming soon ...

Today i trekked off to the 24 hour path mark. This supermarket is truly a haven for some interesting women. Anyhow, it was crowded as heck and i happened to bump into a girl from college that i slight interest in but who kept giving me the runaround.

I spotted her very quickly as she came towards me i was readt for her to ignore like many have done in the past.
but she stopped abruptly and the convo began:

her: Hey!
me: hi (trying to make something of a smile)
her: How are you? Did you graduate?
me: yep
her: Well I didn't
me: oh
her: (interjects quickly) I got married. Had a baby. (looks behind me) This is my husband ***** (I basically did not remember his name a second after she told me.)
me: Oh really
(weird pause)
her: well, it was nice seeing you, take care
me: you too

Now i don't know what to make of exchanges like that. I realize that marriage is still considered an accomplishment by some. Not saying it's bad, but hey...

Yesterday, I saw a black man beat a white woman to a cab on 23 St. in the city. And it was not some well-dressed black man, just a regular-seized man dressed in jeans versus a whie woman dressed in a "power suit." Pretty amazing stuff in NY, where even veteran actors like Don Cheadle and Danny Glover have problems catching cabs.

Lauryn Hill Brainwashed? (Hey that's what FoxNews wrote, not I)

My Fellow blogger Koku put me onto the lastest in Lauryn Hill gossip from foxnews.com. Click the picture to read.

The Eminem factor...



Funny ain't it, i bet most folks would not peg me for a Eminem fan. Although Emenim Show is the only album of his i own (courtesy of the Interscope mailing list), i have been listening to the boy since i was first graced with his apperances on Old World Disorder's "3ree6ix5ive" and DJ Spinna's "Watch Dees." My reasons for not owning any of his full-lengths have stemmed from my divided feelings on his extremes -- specifically his tirades towards his ex-wife and sometimes over-the-top shock tactics.

But the boy is talented and will go down in hip-hop/music history as a major marker - an artist who truly has become this decades biggest anti-hero since PE or NWA or ICE T (circa "Cop Killer"). And more importantly he is more than a gimmick, he is a truly talented lyricist and frankly while Ja Rule and others conform to making "hits" Em's skin color along with his clever wordplay and flow have allowed him to irk the powers that be and not be forced "shut up." Yes he has radio-appeal, but if u don't know by know how he can sell 1.3 million copies of his new album in his first week, then u have no paid attention. Highlights for me are "White America," "Square Dance" (where Cnaibus gets mopped off the florr with, "Cleanin Out My Closet" (more venom spit at his daughter), and "'Till I Collapse".

"Strangely enough, Em has laid off of the homophobic ranting pretty and of course still does not use the word "nigga" in any of his rhymes.

Let your hair down to the track, yeah kick on back (boo!)
The Boogiemonster of rap, yeah the man's back
with a plan to ambush this Bush administration
Mush the Senate's face in, push this generation
of kids to stand and fight for the right to say somethin
you might not like, this white hot light
that I'm under, no wonder I look so sunburnt
Oh no I won't leave no stone unturned
Oh no I won't leave, won't go nowhere
Do-si-do, oh-yo-ho, hello there
Oh yeah, don't think I won't go there
Go to Beirut and do a show there
Yeah you laugh till your motherfuckin ass gets drafted
While you're at band camp thinkin the crap can't happen
'Til you fuck around, get an anthrax napkin
Inside a package wrapped in Saran Wrap wrappin
Open the plastic and then you stand back gaspin
Fuckin assassins, hijackin Amtraks, crashin
All this terror, America demands action
Next thing you know, you've got Uncle Sam's ass askin
to join the Army or what you'll do for their Navy
You just a baby, gettin recruited at eighteen
You're on a plane now, eatin their food and their baked beans
I'm twenty-eight, they gon
take you 'fore they take me
Crazy insane, or insane crazy?
When I say Hussein, you say Shady
My views ain't changed, still inhumane, wait
Arraigned two days late, the date's today, hang me!
- From "Square Dance"

As For R. Kelly...
My colleague will expound
CNN too

oh yes i am lazy but not lazy lazy. Today was Russell Simmons first real "Action" with his hip-hop activist turn -- rally at NYC's City Hall a to protest to proposed 1 billion dollar budget cut to education to an already strapped public school system. Fortunately for the rally, it began at 3:30, enough time for teens and kids to make it to the rally and support the teachers who have been without a contract since 2000. Bad for me, since today was my corporate work day. So i had to make an effort to make it downtown West after 5pm. And yes it was pretty much deserted when i got there.

Seems things got out of hand with the arrival of a handful of popular hip-hop artists and things ended early. But the jump-off supposedly began when police told Wyclef Jean he could not get up on stage since the hip-hop portion of the rally and ended. Needless to say, Wyclef being unpredictable, as he is known for, decided to lay on the floor on his stomach wit his hand behind his back. Anyway, to make long story short, him and his bodyguard got arrested to crowd of teens, teachers, and supporters got restless and started pushing against the barricade. The police got nervous, tear gas or pepper spray was utilized, a stabbing occurred. And that was that.

So with much disappointment, and not much surprise, I decided to try to find Ground zero (aka where World Trade Center Plaza once stood). This was my first time being Downtown West since last August. I have avoided it since Sept. 11. AS I took the walk, which was longer than expected I took pictures of different things: street signs, the downtown directories with maps of the different sights to see, including the World Trade Center, Southstreet Seaport. And finally I got to Ground Zero. The had finished digging up the last piece of debris last week, but it was of course still blocked off and fenced in so that u could only see the surrounding buildings – some slightly damaged – and the fence that surrounded what was once the Center. I stopped and stared at the cross-made out of two steal beams. Turned and noticed the church and the cemetery behind me, and the memorials that hung on its fence. Then I saw the train station and went home.

"Lazy, i am" to paraphrase a short, ancient, green and wise Jedi