let's sell this...

i'm not sure how i feel about this. but i guess it fits in there with the daughter's beanie baby dolls, the presidential interviews during the superbowl, and being on the cover of enteraintment weekly. it's as random as it is cool. it's as shameful as it is affective. this family has become universally marketable. you put their face on it and it sells. you mention them within the fabric of anything and it grabs your attention, good or bad. Michelle's toned arms secrets, Barack's sunglasses, Malia's hair products, Sasha's missing teeth. there's something for everyone in the Obama store. on sale until 2012, or until the next big thing (my vote is American Idol's top three in the coming months, or the rising trend in edible boxershorts).

puerto rico #5 (remember to flush)

i am at a pizza place.

the food, i just successfully ordered in spanish. i even finally figured out how to get water in a glass, instead of the bottled water they bring every time by default. it should be arriving shortly.

as i wait, i pull out my laptop (janice) and proceed to read through some blogs before hopping back on the grind. and after getting engrossed in some of my favorite blogs, by some of my favorite people, i looked up. i looked up and around the room for no reason in particular. and, maybe because i saw what appeared to be black americans across the room, or maybe because my brain took longer to pull out of wild cowgirl's world than my eyes did, or maybe because this pizza place just looks vaguely familiar with no real Puerto Rican flair or ambiance, or maybe for all of those reasons - i thought i was back home.

for a split second, maybe two, i could have sworn i was in atlanta, or ny, or chicago, or boston, or any other random city i visit often in the states. i thought i was on the mainland.

this means one of two things. a) i'm starting to feel more at home in Puerto Rico, or b) i'm really growing more and more homesick. i'm going to lean towards the former, solely because i've done the homesick thing before and know that feeling when i get it. i don't think this is that. i think i am assimilating. but only to the degree of being able to cope and survive. if this is indeed assimilation, it has brought to me a very astute cognizance that i am not supposed to be here. yet, in some strange way, i am also clear that i am supposed to be here....and now i sound like a crazy person...

to put that ramble into a frame that makes sense, i realize now that puerto rico is a catalyst for me. a place that i am supposed to be, but for the purpose of moving on somewhere else. it is a pipe in my journey that i am supposed to go through, but not get stuck in. and though this may sound like a given, i find it surprising how many people get stuck in their pipes. through assimilation and routine, through obligations and responsibilities, through fear and insecurity, i think we all run the risk of getting stuck in our catalyst, prolonging the journey set ahead for us if we were to only flush on through.

i have to remind myself, i am not at home. despite conformity and/or integration into that which surrounds me, this is not my home. and though i may not know what this is until it's over and done, i know what it's not. and i have to remember where i'm supposed to be headed, and what i am supposed to do.

my pizza's here.

have a nice day.

strength...desire...

i'm still not sure how exactly this works. but this is my first go, after a while of trying to figure out how the hell to embed audio. but alas, neither here nor there, these are just some thoughts i had when i had some time on my hands one night.

hope you enjoy.

UPDATE:
ok, i was stupid. and the little audio player i had here was crap. i have learned much tonight in the world of multimedia blogging. the best way to add audio to blogspot you say? don't. turn it into a video, and upload it in blogspot directly. for my mac people, that would be to just throw it in imovie, share it as a quicktime file, and upload it here in .mov format. for my windows people, i have no idea what wmv can do these days; maybe you should just play it loud on some speakers and record it on vimeo. what's done is done. i'm now free to proceed with my life. free.

pop-counter-culture

i called my cousin franklin to put him on to a new artist i'm feeling right now. granted, he's starting to blow up a bit, being featured on MTV, a song on Madden '09, and releasing a new album last week with Mos Def and the Roots. but still, i'm bumping K'naan's 2005's freshman album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher. i haven't even heard anything from the new album, and I'm kinda afraid you. his freshman album is laced with themes of finding strength in ones self and through one's God, criticizing the hip-hop industry for losing it's message, and making ends through whatever means possible (not to mention skillful delievery and flawless signifying).



i'm afraid the new album may not relfect such themes now that he has found relative success. moreover, the first album tends to reflect my personal journey right now. not that i'm struggling on the streets of Somolia or anything, but just being able to identify with it in terms of trying to figure our God's plan, identifying my goals, and trying to dodge technical rationality to achieve my means.

but those are the reasons I like him. I've been trying to put him down with everyone else because I just think he's a cool new artist, and I like to be up on things before they get big and overly popular. Yet, whien calling cousin Franklin about him, he accepted the invitation to give him a listen out of politeness and curiosity, but then told me about a book he was reading, which was directly linked to what i was doing in my own artist recommendation.

in a nutshell, the book he was reading, "Nation of Rebels", Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter discuss how counter culture became consumer culture. how the subculture dedicated to refusing cultural trends and popular fashion as now become popular in and of itself. it discusses how the capital marketplace has not only acknowledged this subculture, but has marketed to it, catered to it, and has now made it the consumer culture right under it's own nose. take, for example, Urban Outfitters. stores of this type sell gear, clothing, accessories, and arbitrary articles solely for the purposes of completing ones rebel attire. Apple, in and of itself, was initially a rebellion against the PC world, a refusal to conform to the corporate paradigm, a subscription to that which was against the grain. artist that were once underground and of faithful, massive following, were uprooted to the mainstream to capitalize on said fans and garner more through their "underground, mainstream image"(right, TV on the Radio, N.E.R.D, T.I., etc.)

don't get me wrong, for almost all of these artist, it's their dream to make it big anyway. the book is not criticizing the artists, or the stores, or the manufacturing company. it's criticizing us. all of us that have fallen victim to captalist marking to the counter culture of non-capitalism and non-conformity. it criticizes why we're so quick to pay extra to be so different, when it's really making us a part of the very culture we are trying so hard to differentiate from. the message wasn't to not be a part of it, but to think first, and really analyze if what you're doing is truly what you're trying to do. counter culture isn't buying a pair of torn jeans from Express, it's going to the thrift store and buying jeans someone else has worn out - sending the message to pop-culture that you refuse to pay out the ass for basic clothing.

yet, somewhere, that message became popular, so the Express jeans went on sale, and now everyone is a rebel. and if everyone is a rebel, no one is. (thanks Incredibles.)

this brings me to why I'm so adamant on plugging k'naan right now. because he's not in the mainstream (yet), I find some satisfaction in playing him in my car and my guests ask, "wow, who's that?" and i reply, "yeah, no one knows about this artist yet, he's good, here, listen to track 5..." because i'm a jerk. as much a jerk as anyone else. and nowadays, we all want to be a part of something that no one else is a part of, only to turn around and get everyone else to be a part of it.

think about it. that's all i'm saying.

ps. k'naan is the truth though. i'll check out the new album soon and let you know. peace.

puerto rico #4

i'm sure i have written at least three entries about puerto rico. so let's just call this number 4, so i can keep track of them. i owe various people some pictures, descriptions, explanations, apologies, money, drinks, and general status updates (not being the random sentences on facebook I upload from my phone when watching episodes of America's Best Dance Crew and Lost). so, with taking this moment to write some things that have been happening on this Dharma-Initiative run island, allow me to play catch-up with some quick points.

#1) i noticed that i had a "blog follower". i mean, i knew i had people that read the blog. but when it pops up that one has a "blog follower", it's kinda cool. i'm not sure how that works. i should, but i don't. and i'm afraid that if i dig too deep, it won't be as cool anymore. with that said, let's move to #2...

#2) i moved from my old place, to a new place. as it turns out, my place was hella posh. i was leaving in isle verde. which is literally, come to find out, where the wealthy in puerto rico purchase their beach condos that they escape to on the weekend and rent out to college kids on random spring breaks. coming from NY, it seemed like a steal. $600 for a beach front studio; smack in the middle of great restuarants, bars, and clubs; a block away from a good 24 hours grocery store; across the street from the highway exit; and excellent, private, gated parking. then, after 3 months and actually talking to people, i learned that everyone else in puerto rico (the normal people) were paying around $300 - $400 rent, including utilities. there's to the revelation, but, long-story short, i went broke very quickly, and barely made it out of the apartment before bad things started happening. now it's "get yourself out of debt" time.

i owe my dear friend pictures of the old place. even though i know they're gonna ask for pics of the new place immediately afterwards.






that was the old. i don't have the new pics yet. i just don't. i wish i did. but there are some things i have to sacrifice. $325/month with utilities fits into the budget better. it's all relative yknow. it took a little while for me to realize that i wasn't getting paychecks from NY anymore. PR paychecks are vastly different. vastly. so, sacrificed is the beach, the restaurants, the bars, the clubs, the close highway, the 24 hour grocery store. gone is the private gated parking. gone is the rooftop view of San Juan. i was living posh. but i thought everyone lived on the beach! it's puerto rico! i thought it was normal, i really did. the $600 was already more than a 50% slash from the NY apartment!! how was i supposed to know i wasn't supposed to be paying out the ass for high speed internet in my posh studio?! how was i supposed to know i was supposed to do like everyone else and cop a squat at Starbucks, Borders, or McDonalds to get internet there?!












#3) yes, the free McDonalds internet is supposedly whats' up here. I don't know about the states, but it is here. you know why? because everything here is tricked out. whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, i don't know. but i rode a yellow school bus to a field trip a few days ago, and it was installed with a small television where the rear view mirror would normall go. around it were several high performing speakers. and just for those throughout the bus, the ceiling was spotted with smaller speakers installed throughout. we proceeded to ride through the streets of Carolina, PR bumping reggeaton, swerving with the door open and the speakers set to Xplode apparently. other examples include A) a whore house using an electronic LED scrolling marquee (similiar to those at a movie theatre), only, the message scrolling across is that which comes pre-installed on it, demonstrating examples of utilization (store discounts, millenium countdown, and current time, etc.); B) the consistency of stilletto heels to do anything whatsoever (from grocery shopping to getting the mail); and C) my car has a siren. i don't know why. but it does. along with it's chrome steering wheel and electronic gas reader that may or may not read correctly.

all of these are things that i dig, and think are odd. simultaneously. but hey, "it's puerto rico". that's all you can say. it's the only thing that makes it better. it's the only thing that makes it right.

ok, i think 3 points are enough. i have to leave...i can't remember if i locked the door back on my new apartment, and for some reason that worries me. more on that later.

have a great day.