Public Schools

Why is it that only the predominately black public schools force children to wear uniforms? What is up with that, how dare they try to destroy the child's individuality. But it is only our children who they are trying to program into being borg followers, white children for the most part, are allowed to wear what they want as long as it is not too sexual. I would not put my child in a public school like that. My children once went to a private school that started to wear uniforms and my children were always finding ways to get around their restrictions, to express their individual styles while still adhering to the rules. You could always accessorize but now, in some schools they are even trying to put restrictions on any type of creativity. In the end, we had to leave because we lost respect for the staff because of their attempts to teach our children to be collectivist. I am glad my children are grown, but I worry about my grandchildren growing up in this world where individuality is not respected, it is vilified by the collective.

the buddha throne

Easy breezy @ Peeble Beach

Today was a fantastic day on the Northern California coast, I have to specify which part of California I am talking about because I don't really like the Southern California's bay watch type beaches. This beach is my favorite beach to stretch out on, even though there isn't any sand, there are only rocks. I feel like such a sea loin when I lay on those rocks and sun myself while listening and watching the roaring sea. I love the sea and the sea loves me back. I have spent some wonderful and some sad days on those rocks. There is a rock outcropping that I call my buddha throne and I sit and envision the buddha sitting in calm meditation before the fury of the sea and not flinching!

Jewelry as Talismans

I love love love all of my jewelry and I am loving my new silver rose, but while I am enjoying it all and loving the way it makes me feel for many, it is a source of irritation. I realize that american women find it odd when they find out that I wear it 24/7, they don't understand how I can sleep in it. I tell them that when I enter the dreamtime, I like to be fully adorned, it makes me happy. There is a lot of irritation that I, one person who is not a queen or a movie star, should be allowed to have so much jewelry or to flaunt myself by wearing it all at once but , I inform them that I am not wearing it all at once, are you kidding me, this is just one collection. One of my daughter's friends, a man, asked, "how is your mom and all of her jewelry? When her granddaughter turns 18, she can cash it all in to pay for her college education!" I said WTF is he talking about? So in his mind I can only have what I have if others will benefit in some way. What kind of communist bullshit is that!

Cool places

I went out looking for things to photograph and I found it in this building in San Francisco called the African American Art and Culture Complex but many years ago, we just called it the western addition where we went to take dance, capoeira, drumming and once a year, we would go there to celebrate Kwanzaa. Now, they have added a couple of art galleries, some murals and some new paint to the mix and re-opened to the delight of the community but still when we went last saturday, aside from us and the security guard who acted like we were suspect for even walking in the door, the building was empty. The week before at the grand re-opening, someone posted pictures showing crowds of people standing around while they cut the ribbon and they all poured into the complex, even former San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown was present, so what happened? It must be the same as before, not new and improved but, still paid for by the city thereby giving the people that are running things no incentive to fill the building with paying visitors. It doesn't matter if anybody ever shows up, they will still get paid. So although it is a cool looking place filled with some cool things, I am still waiting for it to really become an art and culture complex.

cool places

I am still in search of cool places in my town and I keep finding treasures in little nooks and cranny and that excites me because I love a treasure hunt and that is what it feels like. So, I am planning on going out in the morning and walking through the downtown area and taking some pictures. It should be fun as long as I have my wits about me because like all downtown areas, there are a few shady looking characters and a few people that are down on their luck, and several pawn shops, as I stroll through draped in the jewelry, I wouldn't want to give them any ideas.

Grandparent

These are my lovely grandchildren on one of their visits to my home, and they are a joy to spend time with, but, I have a problem with people who think that as a grandparent I am under some type of obligation to care for them whenever their parents want me to. What the hell is that about, I mean I do have my own life. Someone on facebook asked the question, "should grandparents be paid for babysitting," and I said hell yes, because I am talking about the parents that expect the grandparents to babysit everyday while they go off to work, not the occasional stay. A couple of people said , no, while others said that you could pay them by taking them to dinner or paying a bill for them. Someone even mentioned that the grandmother was sitting at home watching her stories, what? I think or at least I hope that this depiction of grandparents as having nothing better to do than take care of grandkids is just a horrible stereotype. I hope that the new millennium grandparents are blossoming all over the place and out in the world having wonderful creative adventures. It is alright to bake cookies, hang out with your grandchildren and watch your stories, which is all television is anyway, but, just not all of your precious time.

Summertime!

Oh when will I get back to my painting and daily practice of spanish and guitar? It seems that this summer, thanks to facebook, I have been particularly busy because people are always inviting me to events and I can hardly wait to meet my friends in the so called real world as opposed to the virtual world. Yes, I am having too much fun but the down side is that I am not getting much creative work done. It is all of this light that makes me just have to get out of the house and mingle, but, I think that is the natural order of things, summer means getting out and about. Winter will be here soon enough and it will be cold out and I will be snug in hummingbird cottage with plenty of time to be introspective.

District 9

Just returned from the theater where I saw District 9 and it was fricking fantastic!! I don't really like bloody movies and this is what they said on the ratings but it really wasn't bad at all, I simply closed my eyes and it was over. Most of the time I worry when I see Black people in these types of movies because you know that they are there to get fucked up, but everything in this movie made sense accept for a couple of "Shaka Zulu" witch doctor type scenes that were just stupid. All in all, I found it to be a very creative and highly entertaining film.

Enslavement

Today I saw part of a video on Eugenics in the 21st century and the starting point in this film was slavery. I only saw part film, because it was full of nasty derogatory statements about Black people by, some very sick white people. About 15 minutes into the video I stopped it because I decided that I am not going to listen to the crazy sick ramblings of dumb ass people any more. Yes , we were enslaved for over 250 years in this country and the mental sickness called racism is still going on but, I am refusing to waste any more of my precious time listening to this total shit. If and when, and I have been in the past, I am confronted by these mentally ill people, I will deal with it by stomping it down through legal actions, which I have done successfully in the past, or putting my foot in their asses, been there done that, but in the meantime, I am going for all of the joy I can get. I know a lot of people that dedicated their lives to fighting against this crap, they have passed and the racist mindset as well as the systemic racist, is still here. I am not going to waste my time on planet earth subjecting myself to the madness if I don't have to.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki

A moment of silence please for two hundred and eighty thousand people that died because our government wanted to test the affects of their new bomb and they needed guinea pigs that Americans would not care about. They would never have dropped this bomb on Europeans but it was alright to drop it on the Japanese because of Pearl Harbor. Even before we dropped it on Japan, the US government tested it out in the pacific ocean close to islands inhabited by dark people, and let the radiation blow over them so the effects could be studied. On August 6th Hiroshima and August 9th, Nagasaki, the US government unleashed this horrible energy on the world and we will never be the same.

Oakland artist

Giving permission

Once you give permission to a journalist in the case of my daughter's family or in my case, to a film maker, you have given up control of your image and your words and they can present you any way that they want to. I used to be a journalism student but in my senior year of college, I switched over to anthropology because for the most part, I really dislike journalist and newspapers because I saw their work as being very shallow. So you see, I had to move to something that allowed me to observe and write in a more in depth manner. The journalist that did the story on my daughter's family arrived with her angle already in mind. She presented them as struggling and asking for hand outs when in fact, my honorary son-in-law came up with a unique way to earn money. The fact that reporters have their own story already in their heads before they even meet with you is crap and I do not trust them. They are not objective at all! She really should have done her research before arriving. Now in my case, I was interviewed by a very nice couple who were filming a documentary and, I am a little worried about how I am going to look in the film. I won't say that I am chanting and hoping that it won't see the light of day, but I have a little anxiety about how I will look physically and if I am going to have to leave the country for the things that I said to them. The one good thing that came out of the whole experience is that it forced me to come out and start to show people my true self, love it or leave it. I mean the idea of people disliking me on a one on one basis is okay, but, I could actually have a lot of negative energy coming my way from a lot of people and how will I handle it? I have forgotten most of the things I said except for some of the hot topics on race and I am cool with people questioning me about my views and know that I can give them clear answers. The only question that stumped me was when they asked me what made me happy because I really don't think about it. I mean if you have read my posts you will see that my life is so full of joy and I am just trying to keep others from trying to destroy my tranquility. So for that question, I gave them a generic answer, "family," and I don't remember what else I said. In the end I hope I look and sound alright and am not mis-represented through the editing process.

Indian dance-granddaughter-in back row-tall in red

Tap-granddaughter in back pink top

Silence Retreat

After going over the day in conversations with Charlie, I realized that I did enjoy most of my time spent at the Silence Retreat. Since I took my sweetie with me, sometimes we found ourselves whispering to one another but that was fine as far as we were concerned. Having the masses meditating, doing yoga, walking labyrinths, chanting and journaling is so new and shocking for me because these are the things that I have been doing since the 60's. I really don't know what to make of it yet, because if the people participating in all of these marvelous practices are sincere and righteous, why aren't we further along as a people. Why is there still so much negativity on the planet? Is it real or is it just another fad for the masses of people? I am just a little bit suspicious of the whole new age movement because a lot of people see it as a lucrative business and that is their whole aim. Some say that if you talk the talk and walk the walk, that means you are legit but not me, there are a lot of what I call , spiritual pimps out there and, they speak so eloquently and they appear to walk the walk but you can not always trust that. You have to listen to your gut, and see with your inner vision to know if their intentions are pure. But, yesterday was actually a pleasant experience and I did enjoy listening to the readings and guided meditations of Rev. Liza and she radiated beautiful warm loving energy. She was so attentive to all that came to the retreat. Oh yes and I must add that the beautiful harpist Destiny created a heavenly vibe with her music. So, I am looking forward to going to the next retreat in October.

Silence Retreat