fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
So let me get this straight. BART management signed a contract with their unions on October 21. Apparently, three folks representing management signed the contract. One of them was their highly paid negotiator. Now, nearly a month later, BART is saying they had no idea that a provision in the contract calls for paid FMLA…
When the Republican-controlled House of Representatives finally approved bills to raise the debt ceiling and to reopen the federal government, voices near and far swore up and down that such a thing would never happen again. Senate Minority Leader Mitch O’Connell declared, “There is no education in the second kick of the mule.” He further…
The Eastbourne Performance Duke Ellington hated endings, as I’ve noted in previous entries. He dreaded his own mortality the most, as many of us do. In 1971, he was probably already suffering early symptoms of the cancer that would ultimately take his life. By 1973, those symptoms were ever-present. He tired easily. His legendary patience…
Togo Brava Suite There are two CDs by this title. One is a studio session of never released tracks of the sort that Duke Ellington recorded when he wanted to hear how certain pieces in development sounded. It features a seven movement Togo Brava Suite. Don’t get this recording. Instead, hunt for the largely out-of-print…
Sometime in 1931 Duke Ellington hit the road in earnest for the first time. Commentators noted that he was able to make a “graceful” exit from the mob-owned Cotton Club in Harlem by arranging Cab Calloway and His Orchestra to take his place. The Cotton Club gig had been good to him, though. It gave…
A horrid highway accident occurred this week in Tennessee, killing eight people. The National Transportation and Safety Board will not be investigating it because all of that department’s employees are furloughed. The US Geological Survey is in partial shutdown mode. They posted this on their earthquakes website: Due to a lapse in Federal funding, the…
[Dedicated to Barry. RIP.] Hollywood, some time in 1976 I left the theater alone. He never showed up. It was a shitty movie and I almost left early. I didn’t because I kept hoping that maybe he would show up. Also, too, he cowed me into waiting. The last time he was late, and I…
Last year, I posted that I mainly wanted to see President Obama reelected to ensure that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, took effect on schedule in 2014. I said that I had family members who would potentially benefit from the program. This need has grown tremendously in the past couple of months. One of…
[Originally published September 2012.] “When I woke up in a different room than I remembered falling asleep in, I knew it was going to be one of those days.” That’s a line I normally associate with the morning after I had a few too many. But that wasn’t the case, not this time. I went…
[Originally published in March, 2012.] The magic, they say, happens after the lights dim and the images begin to flicker on the screen. In this case, though, for most, there would be little magic as the story was already known. But for others who were young like me, black like me, and torn asunder by…
