Chasing Dreams

S o I'm at work, it's an uneventful night and the women in my office are all talking about young hot actors but in a way that seemed different than usual.  When I ask what's going on they tell me it's about Paul Walker. It didn't hit me until I looked at my Instagram and saw all the posts about his death.  HIS DEATH? News of his death was a shock. I mean at first I thought it was one of those stupid Twitter/Facebook hoaxes that pop up every now and then about Bill Nye or Carlton from the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" dying but this was real. Paul's death seem to resonate with a lot of people but it has really hit young people hard. It's been two weeks and still social media is buzzing with stories about tributes and probes about the fiery crash. But it makes sense. A school friend of mine posted that she couldn't stop thinking about him and what had happened.  Of course not. He wasn't sick, this wasn't the result of a drug...

  IMPORTED FROM MY TUMBLR ACCOUNT   E very now and then I get hit with “are you even black” which doesn’t phase me in the least since this country I love and call home suffers from deep racial scars that imposes expectations based on silly stereotypes . So lemme drop some science, as we used to say back in the day. I’m not now or ever was a thug but I know how to get what I want. I don’t go around saying “can I axe you something” or order skrimps at Red Lobster because I earned a fucking education at an accredited college and not in some prison which has served me well. It may not have been on the streets but I’m wise enough to smell trouble and avoid that shit when I can. I know my past and understand the debate about black people owning the word nigga and as a result removing its destructive power but I prefer to say brotha because when that shit is used casually by everyone and shows up on instagram memes the pain of its destructive power is forg...

I was planning to just post something on Facebook, but this deserves a full on rant and I'm deliberately writing about this and not the Navy Yard shooting because I don't know what to say to people that feel the need to own a gun without significant regulation is more important than keeping them out of the hands of dangerous people. If this statement got you going, read on I got lots more. Ok... so this is in response to the uproar from the right about the NEW beautiful Miss America, Nina Davuluri pictured to the left in her traditional Hindu garb.  A slew of racist Tweets emerged when she was crowned, much like the Tweets posted when Amandla Stenberg appeared as the character Rue in the Hunger Games, remember that?  Even Todd Starnes of Fox News or as I like to call them Faux News adding fuel to the fire with a Tweet about who the "real Miss America" should have been.  So for those out there that feel the new Miss America does not repres...

Ok it's been a few weeks since my last post and it's definitely high time for me to weigh in on this Syria mess. Secretary of State Kerry, WTF man? Allow me to put what I understand so far into context: This bloody sectarian civil war has been waging for years with thousands of casualties , an unfortunate result of the Arab Spring . As many protested and fought for a better life, Syria's leader   Bashar al Assad  manipulated it into a civil war with rebels fighting rebels instead of uniting against him. A skillful execution of divide and conquer. It's been reported that he perpetrated a chemical attack resulting in the deaths of over 1,400 non combatants including women and 426 young children . Babies man! Evidence of this attack has been accepted by not only the US but other nations like France and England while  Russia and China notably have blocked efforts for a strike until the UN inspectors conclude their report.  The situation is much more comp...

S o as a Marketer I am fascinated by politics. Building local and national brands, gauging public sentiment and adjusting strategy to optimize results. Politics is a Marketer’s dream.   Anthony Weiner's recent bid for Mayor of New York is an interesting case study on Brand self destruction. I have to admit I wasn't paying attention to the story until I saw his bid had legs and his greatest opponent was himself. Now I know that a great many of you are reading this from outside the US so allow me to briefly lay out the whole sordid tale of Anthony Weiner's damaged brand and how he tried to save it. Anthony David Weiner Former Democratic Congressman from New York Previously fervent bachelor with notable affairs before marriage Preoccupation with sexting revealed on the Opie and Andy radio show Insistent denials coupled with a claim his Twitter account was hacked by opponents Investigation started by private security firm costing Weiner about $45 More p...

WARNING: SOME OF THE LINKS IN THIS BLOG MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO PRUDES So can someone explain the Republican's obsession with sex and gay people?  Virginia's  Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli  is pushing to get their anti-sodomy laws back on the books and enforced claiming it's to protect kids.  The law reads: If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony. Now I agree with brute animal part because that's just nasty I don't care how much you love animals lol... but the rest of it would criminalize some of my favorite sex, even between a married heterosexual couple, well except for good ole vaginal insertion. That part about " any person " does not distinguish heterosexuals from homosexuals so by definition cunninglingus and fellatio are included. The felon...

P resident Obama likes to use the term “ teachable moment ”, his presidency is the first time I've heard it used so pervasively. So although this may sound offensive to some, what is the lesson we can learn from George Zimmerman?  It is simple: LEARN and KNOW the system so you can use it FOR you before it is used against you. He participated and earned an A in a law course that featured the infamous “Stand Your Ground” law that was pivotal in his acquittal. He knew all the right things to say to the police after the incident and provided his attorneys with the elements that were used in the effective narrative to get him off despite the fact that he was and remains culpable. Now do not misunderstand what I’m saying. This is NOT a call to arms. I am not advocating buying a gun and learning the law, which would lead to the wild wild west. I AM urging everyone who is disappointed and feels as if the system is not working for them to change that dynamic through education. ...

W hat we witnessed last night July 13, 2013 doesn't even come close to resembling justice yet it’s the system we live under; a system that is sending a clear and not so subtle message that people of color are not equally protected under the law. Do not tell me this wasn't racial. Do not insult my intelligence with fairy tales of equality designed to lull  disenfranchised masses into compliance. If the ethnicities had been reversed the Sanford police department would NOT have had to yield to pressure to arrest the shooter, it would have been done. By and large when the shooter looks like me he is arrested or shot in haste. And for those that believe because Zimmerman has Hispanic roots it negates the race issue, I’ll remind you that this country is all about PERCEPTION . You ARE what you appear to be. Your book IS judged by its cover. And to the disgrace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s dream, you are prejudged by the color of your skin way before most can even get t...

S o our friends in the GOP have a plan to end abortion once and for all. Something called " Personhood ."  Now this plan is ingenious because it establishes that a fetus is a legal person even before viability, which would make abortion murder as well as most chemical contraception.  The truly ingenious part is what happens WHEN these laws along with any other of the recent overreaching abortion laws are challenged. The arguments will no doubt, one of these days rise to the level of the Supreme Court where the current justices will have an opportunity to review and strike down the historic Roe Vs. Wade decision. You think it won't happen, you think it's impossible? Well who could have predicted that the court would have struck down the Voter Rights Act. I'm still reeling over that decision.  So women that want to protect their right to control their own bodies and their supporters have to find a different way to fight these laws. They have to challenge th...

F irst let me admit that I am not a pundit or strategist, I am simply an informed voter and a bit of a political beast paying close attention to the climate of modern politics. Like most voters I’m not driven by any one particular issue. I am interested in the whole, the overall impact of policies by both parties and I know that any system as complicated as the American system of government needs checks and balances that can only be accomplished by parties of opposing views that share a common goal. Oh and most importantly a desire to work together. That means strong Republican and Democratic parties, at least at this juncture. Who knows what other conservative party will ascend if the GOP maintains its present course. Now I could have been flip and just written the names of Michelle Bachman, Ted Cruz and poor rich boy Romney as the three miscalculations but on the off chance that there is a staunch conservative reading this I want to make sure I don’t lose them too early ...

Hmm... it's been a busy year. I didn't make any entries into this blog. But I did start another focusing on my photograpy. 2012 has been a year of math. Who would have expected this year's presidential race to be so dominated by numbers with special attention paid to percentages.  Let's start with my favorite GOP comedian this year; Pizza mogul Herman Cain. Like a deranged George Jefferson , Herman proposed a simplistic solution to our complicated tax code, he called, his 9-9-9 plan .  I won't go into detail here except to say it was reported to sound very much like the 9-9-9 plan of the SIM City video game. Herman finally suspended his campaign after dropping to about 8% support. The gaping chasm between the ultra rich and the rest of us was a major point of contention and the subject of several of my blog posts. The growing discontent gave rise to the Occupy movement and the division of America into the 99% and ... obviously the 1% .  The movement g...