I have had a few plants overtime, and the odd thing is that when I take them home, they die… well its not that odd.

My latest plant has stayed at my office. It is almost 2 years old and overdue for a transplant.

Its called lucky bamboo…but

(from wikipedia) The plant marketed as "lucky bamboo" is actually an entirely unrelated plant, Dracaena sanderiana. It is a resilient member of the lily family that grows in the dark, tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Africa. Lucky Bamboo has long been associated with the Eastern practice of Feng Shui. Japanese knotweed is also sometimes mistaken for a bamboo.

Even though I do blog over at josephdbferguson.com I thought it would be useful to actually update something somewhere. So I will use this time to give an update on what the hell I have been up to.

Played golf this weekend to get back in the “swing” of things, that was corny. I bought some new tobacco for the huka, mint flavored. I finally upgraded my music hard drive to a 1tb drive…. nice. On that note I am looking for some new music to add to my collection, I have run out of options, I am now begging. And since I am begging, howabout a pretty girl with a nice attitude?

trying to get windows live writer to work with my other site, http://josephdbferguson.com

we will see how that goes

EVDO network speeds, this means I surf the web, FAST
Tethering- Allows me to use my phone as a usb/bluetooth modem with no additional fee per kilobyte
Picture/Video mail send/receive (MMS)
Sync with my exchange server to get Calendar, Contacts, and Email
Push mail, when it comes, I get it, no checking it every 5 minutes!
Allow me to write/run 3rd party applications
Actual Keyboard with keys I can feel !
Office Mobile- Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook
Record Video with built-in camera
Exchangeable/ Replaceable memory, up to 4GB at a time

What the iPhone does do

Most probably think yes.

I recently shaved all my facial hair, and I think I look like a dork, so I guess my looks finally fit my character! But what if I cut all of my hair off!?

But I disagree. In fact so often now I have my hair off my face, that I forget it is there. Sounds silly. But whats more is that I could really cut it and not lose any sleep over the situation. 

There are reasons to keep it and reasons to get rid of the locks,

Pros:
Get rid of the dead old life that I led
Free myself from this identity slump 
Move into a few more hat styles (big plus)
No more eating and having to worry about chewing your own hair (it gets in the way)

Cons:
No one wants to clean up all that hair
Not even sure my mother would recognize me
If I miss it, it will take some time to get it back !

I plead the 5th, in the fear that I will further incriminate hip hop

I feel some responsibility for what has been said and how African Americans are depicted, I make this music. My purchases fuel this music. As a DJ I play this music.

I cannot defend hip-hop or rap music, but if I was asked to here is what I would have to say.

It is hard to parry the attacks on hip-hop / rap / urban music in the attention deficient society we exist in today. I think that as the music industry faces an attack on one of the most lucrative facets, there is much more that seems to be ignored in the debate. Without a representative that neither has a fistful of dollars nor album out in stores now, I feel a responsibility to illuminate some of the seemingly ignored angles.

The Sopranos Complex

I love movies that have action and violence. In fact, in terms of my cinema, I would prefer some blood, some sex, and some foul language. What does this say about me, not certain, but what I do know is that I am able to make those decisions and spend my money accordingly. I know there are plenty of good films out there that are about feel good stories and happy moments, but those films usually do not end up on my must see list. I think that music is similar in many aspects.

Frequently when urban music is brought up and blamed for adding to the corruption of African Americans I think of how other media entities affect other groups. One of the most obvious examples is the HBO Original Series, The Sopranos, a show which in recent times has been under scrutiny by the National Italian-American Foundation for the negative depiction of Italians and Italian-Americans. The IAF has even gone as far as disputing the filming permits for the shows series finale. I believe that there is a similar movement that has existed for years in the African-American community. But here we will stop and move to another topic.

The African American Community

My neighborhood is not predominately made up of African Americans, does this mean I am not part of the African-American community? Some races/ethnicities have representatives and groups to act as unions to improve or protect the rights of many members of the same race/ethnicity; does this make the groups they protect a community? I do not have the answers, but I will go further with the assumption that there is a community; what are the requirements if such a body?

Am I still a member of a community if I do not subscribe to the beliefs of the majority?

Does the community have or even require leadership or a spokesman to continue the pursuit of protection and improvement?

If such leadership is required, who decides, who votes, who leads, who speaks?

I will leave the above questions with the reader and continue further into the problems with properly defending or attacking hip hop / rap / urban music.

Smoking Chicken, Flaming Egg

What came first our inability to tolerate what is different, or our desire to increase tolerance? I imagine that they arrived at the same time, but from opposing teams.

The American culture has altered tremendously over the past two hundred or so years, what was taboo years ago could in some cases be considered normal. The allowance of sexuality, language, and violence has seemed to increasingly outweigh what is still considered too much. In the future, will it be ok for nudity to be displayed over public signals, will the blacklist of words and topics shrink? If so, who decides how this list changes; in America, it is the dollar.

Is the problem with the African American community isolated with the problem with American culture? Certainly urban music is not to blame for the shift in values in America. So is the African American community suffering because of a symptom of a larger problem? I think so.

I believe that we live in a society that is hypocritical. We teach and praise tolerance of opinions and ideas, but we also seem to be intolerable to ignorance and bigotry. I know that not everyone that walks the earth is expected to tolerate everything, but where do we draw the line? Once this line is drawn how do we react to transgressions?

Forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me

If this was at all followed would we ever have to apologize?

If we were as tolerable as we teach and preach, would we consider either side of an argument to be trespassing?

As the conversation quickly seems to approach faith, I will again switch topics and leave those questions lingering.

Music as a method of speech

Before attacking it for its impact on the community let us first just remember that there is nothing illegal about the music. Many would argue that music is a method of speech that is protected by the first amendment of the constitution of this country.

Urban Music = Art?

Though it is a matter of opinion, it is very difficult for some of us to consider urban music art. At the same time, others do not consider throwing ink onto paper art. But if we do loosen our tolerance for what we consider art, wouldn’t that also force us to tolerate a wider variety of mediums? If music in general is considered artistic expression, is polka music not a form of such art?

I do not particularly think that all music seems artistic, in fact most of the urban music that has become so controversial falls into this category. What I do not agree with is the categorization that this music, which I among others consider non-artistic, should mean that it is scrutinized differently. The idea that someone or some group can decide what is and is not artistic, is not scientific. The sliding scale would just move from one genre to the next, until all that is left is, well polka.

While on the topic of categorization, let us face the loose labels that we are discussing.

Urban

Rap

Hip-Hop

Alternative Hip-Hop

Gangsta Rap

Breakbeat

Hip-pop

Pop-rap

Etcetera

We can place labels on the problem, but there is so much music that is not necessarily controversial. Let us not forget that there is music from the above genres that could be considered useful or empowering to the African American community. Why is this music not what we see on television? Why is this music rarely as visible?

Is popping the difference?

Some would say. The band/group The Black Eyed Peas, made a dramatic transition between albums. The audience changed, the number of radio rotated singles per album changed, and of course the amount of money they made changed. As the audience increased, the album sales and money followed. Followers of pop music may see this as a positive move, while others, and in some cases former fans, consider this move a sad trend. Many acts make the move from underground success to pop trend; from conscious superstars to TRL regulars. With the transition from the darkness into the light, a lot of times what artists have to lose is what made them popular in the first place, an opinion. In most cases that opinion never matched with the swift spiraling of our popular culture, but in order to sell art becomes a replica, no longer an original.

So Now What

Without going too much further we have to ask the question what do we do?

Is it possible that the chase for money leaves a bitter taste in our mouths as the rest of the world sees the African American community as it is seen on music videos and heard on the radio?

Does this same lack of respect and positive examples follow African Americans on all media facets, film, television, and radio?

What do we do?

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/lifestyle/story.html?id=d2f12b74-f2ce-4bdb-8a9e-0fa299608703&k=93526

This is stupid, I dont even want to argue that this is a terrible idea, but damn, I will record the episodes to see who wins. I guess what they want to do is test out the whole Darwin idea. Seems to me, that we are moving backwards, but if that means more people watch TV, then its ok right?