fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
President Trump, where are your tax returns? I’m not falling for this late round of obfuscation, distraction, or deflection. He can tweet-storm until the cows come home. That will not deter me. I will continue to ask the same question. Where are his tax returns? So now we have spurious allegations that former President Obama ordered Trump…
My favorite section of Hajdu’s Strayhorn biography Lush Life, the part with the strongest storytelling, is where he talks about Billy Strayhorn’s cancer diagnosis. For this chapter, he relied on the vivid memories of Marian Logan, Harlem socialite and wife of Dr. Arthur Logan, physician to both Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Strayhorn took his diagnosis…
Two friends on Facebook, who do not know each other, independently and simultaneously posted their reactions to Tom Perez winning the Democratic National Committee chairmanship. One friend noted that Mr. Perez, Labor Secretary in the Obama Administration, worked hard on LGBTQ issues, in particular on transgender rights. The other friend had a one word reaction,…
Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, is a one trick pony. Trump humiliated himself and the country during his joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week. When asked about growing anti-semitism, he went into a free association, stream of consciousness diatribe about his electoral college victory. This comes…
I first noticed the music of Mocean Worker when NPR’s All Things Considered used his tune “Tickle It” to introduce their feature “All Tech Considered.” It tickled my ear, so I bought the album it came from, Cinco de Mowo!. I’ve been Mowo-ing ever since. His blend of classic jazz and electronics struck a chord with…
Carolyn Bryant recently admitted that she lied. It was not a little white lie, but a big white lie, the biggest of white lies ever told. A big fat white lie told countless times over the centuries, always to the detriment of African-Americans. Her lie? She said that Emmett Till, a 14 year-old African-American boy,…
I wonder how many folks avoided watching the inauguration the day before, as I had. For me, January 20 was a day of pause. I worked on writing stuff, stayed out of view. All that changed on Saturday. I arrived early. But things were already busy. In no time, it became even busier. Revulsion. Fear….
Still Here The bay is still here. The trees are still here. The grass and weeds are still here. Flowering succulents are still here. Dog poop left on the ground is still here. Birds, chirping, tweeting, singing, flying low over the water, diving for fish, are still here. Cars parked nearby are still here. Radios…
Rogue One did not interest me when I first saw a preview for it. It’s off the main sequence, a side story. Sounded like a classic cash cow production. The Force Awakens put the franchise back into good health. Don’t spoil it by overdoing it with trivial side stories. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Rogue One…
I once knew a space like the Ghost Ship. It may still be around, I don’t know. I visited it once when a friend had an art exhibition there. It wound around, corridor after corridor of sectioned off studios. The ceiling seemed impossibly high. It had a primitive feel to it, the quintessence of two-by-four…
