Island Letter

This is one of the most romantic songs, and at first might seem like an unlikely candidate for such a title because of the words it doesn't use.

Love isn't uttered a single time.

But "Island Letter," does evoke a particular feeling.

This is another song from Shuggie Otis' overlooked masterpiece "Inspiration Information."

An Other Anniversary

A few months ago, when I told a lady I'd been living in Maryland almost two years, she offered as reassurance, "You're one of us now."

That I am not.

I was remembering those words yesterday as I marked the second anniversary of my move from New York.

When I was speaking with a friend on the phone, he'd remarked, "Has it been two years already?"

The answer is: unfortunately yes. Two years of the surreal life, which is often more like imitation of life.

It's not even about NY anymore, but something more that my niece Keel would simply describe as "comfort."

Anyway, it was a good day for me. I didn't dwell on darkness, but was wide awake because I have a plan of action of how to ease out of Maryland. And by ease out, I mean this entire area. This plan is called, simply but accurately, Get the Hell Out of Maryland.

And because every revolution needs an anthem, I've included a clip of Van Hunt's "Down Here in Hell (With You)." The lyrics are pointed and appropriate.

Rallying!

The stock market has been rallying lately, but no one seems to really know why. It can't be because the economy has turned around. Things have just been inexplicably better.

Ditto my mood. Last week began like a disaster. But by the middle of the week, I had recovered. I don't know why. Nothing had really changed in my life. Things just seemed better.

In fact, today's Thursday and I'm still flying high.

I'm trying to tell myself that it had nothing to do with my weekend trip to New York. But I really think it did. Like always, it was a mix of the good with the bad. And toward the end it was a race against the clock.

But it definitely was memorable, and I'm just not saying that because I heard a song called "Big Ups to Jesus" in church on Sunday.

Then most jarring occurrence happened as my trip was coming to a close: My phone died on Monday morning. This was doubly upsetting because i had planned this to be a photo blog with pics taken on my cam phone.

...Okay, It's gonna be a photo blog anyway. Just use your imagination:

The Troubadour: This is me strumming an acoustic guitar at a friend's apartment in Astoria, Queens. I walked in and there was a guitar in the living room. I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd be singing a nonsensical song.

The Bride: I did make it to the Queens Museum of Art as I wrote about in "Queens for a Day." It was a really lovely area, next to the Unisphere. There was a park with people riding bikes, playing soccer and just generally relaxing. As I got closer to the museum, there was a bride having her picture taken. It's relatively common to see brides being photographed in New York. I used to see wedding parties all the time along Museum Mile and near Grand Army Plaza. But this was a touching scene, so I snapped a picture with my camera.

The Crowd: After I finished with the museum, I got swept up in the crowd from a Mets baseball game (the museum and the Mets' new home, Citifield, share the same subway stop). But I must say, New York knows how to handle a crowd. There were tens of thousands of people, but there were ample cops and subway personnel on hand to handle the situation. One subway employee had her script down in a rap:

"Express down stairs/Local to the right. Express down stairs/Local to the right."

I couldn't help but think about DC and the fiasco that was the transportation for the inauguration. It really wasn't well coordinated. The L'Enfant Incident will live in infamy!

The College: This is a photo of the main administrative building on the campus of Medgar Evers College. I just happened upon the school while walking in Brooklyn. The school is named for Medger Evers, a fellow Mississippian and civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1963.

Waiting for Lauryn

Lauryn Hill is set to take the stage at two European jazz festivals this summer, and I hope this is an indication that she's not only returning to the concert stage, but the recording booth as well.

According to Billboard.com, Hill will play the Stockholm Jazz Festival and Montreaux Jazz Festival. She's set to play a total of 10 European dates in all.

Though she has no appearances scheduled stateside, one can only hope!

She rose to fame as a member of the Fugees, but achieved solo stardom with her sole solo album, 1998's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It won five Grammy Awards, topped year-end best of lists, and established for Hill a place in the pantheon of great artists.

Then it was pretty much lights out, as she started a family and had five children.

It must be a testament to her prodigious gifts that people are still interested. After all, when someone releases an album, there's never a promise that they'll release another. But there is an expectation. And with Hill, expectations had been great. Miseducation had become a cultural hallmark, like Carole King's Tapestry a generation before. With its mix of love songs ("Nothing Even Matters") to heartbreak ("I Used to Love Him") to testimony ("To Zion"), I was captured by the first note and hooked until the last second of the bonus songs.

I'm ready for an encore.

Photo: The cover of Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Queens for a Day

When I lived in Queens back in 2004, it was nothing that I really appreciated.

It was my first stint in New York. I was there alone, and didn't know anyone in the city.

The guy next door, a Panamanian, must've been the neighborhood godfather. One night as I was arriving home, he told me if I ever needed anything to let him know.

I was in Jamaica back then in a small room with no air conditioning. It was summer, and even opening the window didn't help. It was a jail cell.

Someone had made a joke that the only thing in Queens were old people and cemeteries.I saw it as my duty to break out-- It was just a speed bump on my way to 23rd St.

Now, I'm trying to break back in.

What I saw then: Queens is industrial, and not necessarily what you'd call a hot spot.

What I see now: The borough is the most diverse place in the country (almost half of Queens' 2.2 million residents are foreign-born), and, to top it off, you don't have to fight for a parking spot. Just look around.

And I have found that it has some really nice neighborhoods, the most fascinating of which offer a huge mash-up of culture. In Rego Park, there are Russians and Hispanics. In Elmhurst, there are Hispanics and Asians. In Astoria, there were Brazilians and Greeks and everyone else who wants to join the party.

For me, a kid from Mississippi, it's like walking through a global wonderland.

Since I'll be in the city this weekend, I'm going to spend at least one day in Queens. There is a wonderful museum there, PS.1, that I visited in 2006 that I'm going to check out, and another, the Queens Museum of Art, that a friend had raved about.

Then there's Jackson Heights for night. More about that later.

Photo: Five Points near PS.1

50 Flags

When I was a kid, I briefly had a thing for memorizing state mottoes. Some of my favorite's were New Hampshire's Live Free or Die, Michigan's If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you, California's Eureka (I Have Found It), and New York's Excelsior (Ever Upward).

Not so much with state flags. You've seen one, you've seen 'em all.

But I was at a workshop recently where there were representatives from all 50 states. Before each one spoke, their state flag was displayed on a large screen.

I don't remember anything those reps said, but I did gain a new appreciation for a few of those flags. These are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. South Carolina. A palm and the moon. Simple and nice.




2. Virginia might be for lovers, but given the bare-breasted chick (Isn't this the original wardrobe malfunction?) on the seal, it ain't nothing to play with. Is she actually stomping the departed?



3. Califonia's flag is bold, and dates back to its territorial days. Just don't wave it around Wall St. Bears are not in season.



4. New Mexico. Enchanting.



And there was also one OMG-what-were-they-thinking-when-they-settled-on-this-design flag:

Ohio: Irregular shape, extraordinary ugliness.

NBC Watch--Parks and Recreation

Watching NBC was a huge part of my life for more than a decade.

Beginning with the premiere of "The Cosby Show" in Fall 1984 on through the "Seinfeld" finale in 1998, I'd be glued to my tube every Thursday. I've watched many comedies, like "Will and Grace" and "Friends," but its been years since I've regularly watched NBC.

Maybe that's all changed with the new comedy "Parks and Recreation." The series is a starring vehicle for Amy Poehler, a familiar face for me because she starred on the network's "Saturday Night Live" for eight seasons (and before that she had recurring skits as Andy Richter's annoying little sister on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien.")

Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreaction Department of Pawnee, Indiana. The only thing is that Poehlere isn't your typical government slacker. She plots ways to establish subcommittes and attacks mundane duties with gusto. She's the type that thanks you for taking the time to meet with her, even though you're just in the adjoining office.

Most importantly, she build parks. There's nothing a park can't cure! Got a big whole in the ground near your house? Call Knope. She and her crack staff will fill it in, and put a park on top of it. It's no surprise that she sees herself in the same vein as Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

"Parks" is in the same style as "The Office," a faux documentary. I never really much liked "The Office" (or is it just Steve Carell's character?). But "Parks" seems like a funny show. Powered by Poehler and a supporting cast, I think I'll be checking it out again.
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Speaking of SNL, there was one crazy/hillarious skit from last weekend's Seth Rogen hosted episode that has been gaining heat on the web. It's titled "The Fast and the Bi-Curious," an obvious take-off on "The Fast and the Furious."

And Andy Sandberg deserves a special mention for delivering a line like, "Why am I shaking?" with a straight face.



Photo: Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope

When We Get By

I heard last year that D'Angelo was working on new music, and that's always good news.

He's only released two studio albums, but they have left an indelible mark on the musical landscape.

This song, "When We Get By," is one of my favorites from my senior year in high school. It's on D'Angelo's 1995 debut album, Brown Sugar.

A, or In the Beginning

(From Aug. 2008)

"Someone had said, It's gonna rain tomorrow, but I hadn't paid attention.

I didn't really worry. Besides, I don't like being saddled with umbrellas or rain coats. And tomorrow was tomorrow. This was Friday night, my first Friday night in New York in more than four months. So I just went off skipping into an endless night.

The next day I was pinned under a huge awning outside of the Kmart on 34th Street with dozens of other people who, like me, either hadn't listened or just didn't care. The rain was coming down hard, but after a few minutes I made a run for it (my NYC time is precious). As I dashed down the sidewalk, it was like an obstacle course as I dodged people and big puddles of water. And it seemed that the faster I ran, the faster the rain came down.

Repeat the scene two weeks later, except this time I'm standing alone with Alif under an awning on Christopher Street. I had passed him twice while walking and each time he had given me this smile that said I'm the happiest guy on earth. It looked so genuine that it impressed me.

In learning about Alif, I'd have to say the thing that most impressed me, besides the dazzling smile, is the name Alif itself. I looked it up, and its the first letter in the Arabic alphabet. So it's basically like naming your kid A, or alpha or something to that effect."

Author's note: Me and Alif bit the dust a few weeks later. Oh well.


Photo: me and Alif in the Village, 7.13.08

"You Got Insurance?"

When I recently called a doctor's office to make an appointment, the first question out of the receptionist's mouth was, "You got insurance?"

I'm one of the lucky ones in that I can answer yeah. For those that answer no, things are more complicated than ever.

With no end in sight for this recession, things are tighter than ever for state budgets, including medical assistance programs for the uninsured. For the most part, those without coverage are being left to fend for themselves.

Witness what's happening in Nevada. This piece, entitled "Closing the Clinic," aired on "60 Minutes" on Sunday, April 5, 2009:

A California Convert

While I was in Sacramento recently, all of my happy memories began to run together.

Was it here that I'd seen the band Kudu performing? No, that was in Queens at PS.1. Was it in Sacramento where all my friends lived? No again, that's the East Coast.

But for whatever reason, I associated good things with the city. It's like for only the fourth time in my life, I had fallen in love.

Truth be told, perhaps it was because I had such low expectations. When one thinks of California, 20 other places before Sacramento come to mind. There's Los Angeles and San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley and San Jose and Burbank and on and on.

Then there's Sacramento, the capital.

I walked around the downtown area as if I'd lived there my whole life. I became a local. At The Beat, the city's best-known music store, I picked up a few used cd's, most notably Linda Rondstadt's greatest hits. This was my nod to California, as she had ruled the charts in the '70s and '80's as the personification of California Cool.

At Beers Books, I bought a few used books, including The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan and Jubilee by Margaret Walker, who had taught for decades at my alma mater, Jackson State University.

By the end of my trip, I was all "I don't want to watch no movie; lets go watch the stars put on a show."

There were mountains in the distance. And for the first time in a long time I felt a profound peace in my life.

The idea of going to San Francisco, which is only 80 miles away, had been floated. But it didn't happen.

No biggie. I have a feeling I'll be back in that part of the country sooner, rather than later, living my life in the sunshine.



"I don't want to..." from the India Arie song, "Nature"