‘Free Diddy’ Won’t Free Us

Or how our emotional investments in questionable symbols of Black excellence continue to fail us. I have three thoughts about the large engagement of African American energy in Diddy’s innocence from creating a criminal enterprise over an azz of one. “Tight p**sy”. “Loose shoes”. A “warm place to s**t”. You should Google that. Or read […]

Scene & Heard: “A New Day” by Vladimir Cetkar

“Sounds influenced by George Benson” was my commentary after hearing Jazz-Funk guitarist Vladimir Cetkar for the first time more than a dozen years ago. Cetkar has excellent taste in influences, by the way. His high-energy Post-Disco “Ocean of Love” track from the 2007 OM Vibes, Vol. 1 compilation remains a pleaser, and I’ve kept an […]

The One Question No One wants To Ask (Or Answer) About the Current Gaza War

As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza from Israeli military strikes rises to more than 10,000, according to the Palestinian Gaza health ministry — with an estimated 4,000 of the dead being children — there’s a question to be asked among Israeli and US government officials that I doubt will yield any straightforward answers. How […]

It’s the Day After Christmas — And You Still Need to Get Patsy Moore’s “Winter Wonderland” Song

I think you should get all of her Holiday releases … I just remembered that Patsy Moore releases annual Christmas music when she recently shared one in a social media update. I don’t feel great about that since I call myself a fan. Released about 11 years ago, “Winter Wonderland” (Volume I) is part of […]

Aural Dive: ‘Moving to the Light’ by Division X

It’s a war out there. Make this song part of your 2021 armor … With the first 12 days of 2021 shaping up to be a sequel to the perfect American maelstrom 2020 has proven to be for many of us — pandemic death spiral, mass unemployment, coup attempts, imminent threats of White terrorist violence […]

2020 post-election meditations: it’s not the Russians or Bernie Bros. It’s White supremacy.

Dedicated to those who still think racism was born on November 8, 2016 … Note: I suppose this series will become a quadrennial thing for me. Check out my three posts about the 2016 elections. Soon after the 2016 elections, I went on record early to cast my doubt on the theory that Russian hackers […]

Trump stars in ‘Superspreader: The Final Tour’

Get ready to stream the most spectacular personal implosion, IRL … This side of 2020 looks like a mix of Lord of the Flies, Station Eleven, Blues for Mister Charlie, The Unwinding, Papa Doc, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, How to Rig an Election and Animal Farm, with a consistent stitching of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen […]

13 takeaways from the Harris-Pence VP debate

Looks like Senator Kamala Harris didn’t put Vice President Mike Pence away after all … I’ll follow-up my earlier note about the debate with a mix of 12 hits, misses, and outright lies. Let’s start with the visual allegory of the night That fly arguably made an allegory for the entire Trump administration. I can’t […]

Aural Dive: Jamal Dixon – ‘Africans on Warren Street’ EP (2020, Nylon Trax)

A timely release for the summer. And our times. Thanks to Jamal Dixon and his Africans on Warren Street EP, I’ve found pandemic living room club songs for my summer playlist. On the heels of his debut Brick City smasher, the New York area DJ and producer’s creative lion has been fiercely roaring in the […]

Turning from bad to worse: Trump wants US hospitals to send coronavirus cases and testing data directly to the White House, bypassing the CDC

Placing data in the hands of an erratic administration means more than politicizing science — it’s downright dangerous. Pardon the fucked-up language I’m using, but Team Trump’s demand for hospitals to send coronavirus data directly to the White House — while bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a data collection point — […]