And Now, A Fine Pop Music Interlude

the layoff thing - getting beyond denial

A friend remarked the other day that the only person we know with a "job" is one of our friends' husbands who works at The Home Depot.

I thought about it. She's right. Three of my friends have been laid off in the last year; a couple more are struggling to keep their businesses going, a couple more are single moms - one of them on public assistance - a couple more are doing odd jobs here and there to pay what bills they can.

But very few of the people I know have an actual job.

Somehow though, Atlanta keeps pretending. Denial is our specialty. People run here and there, get nails done, hair done, the gym done, the spa done. Hell, I'm one of them. By day we pretend it's going to be ok. By night, we hoard and joke about who has enough land for crops.

Three big restaurants in our immediate area are closed in the last six months. Two coffee shops still boast signs welcoming customers, but they're all but abandoned. Building projects have been halted in media res. It's beginning to look someone decided to bail half-way through prosperity.

Another friend was going by the Cobb County unemployment office on Monday. The parking lot there is not small. I was there seven years ago when I used a mutually-agreed-upon departure from BigPR to start my own business. There were no shortage of parking spaces even though the newly laid-off were plentiful then.

But on Monday, my friend said, the parking lot was not only full, but cars were parked on both sides of the road where it's located, up and down the street, no where to park.

That's not so good.

I was working at Starbucks yesterday (a knowledge worker, not a barista -- they have better benefits and work hours, trust me), and three ladies were at the table next to me. One said, "So what - I'll lose my house if I have to," and so I poked my nose in and said, "Did you get laid off?" They had 'the look.' I knew before I asked. She said all three of them had been laid off on Monday, along with 65 others. Small company, just down the street.

I told them it would be okay. They didn't look like they believed me.

It's not like the end of business as usual wasn't predicted. It's just that most of us didn't think it would happen all at once.

Joke's on us.

If you have a job, don't wait: Start your own business. Whatever you're good at, get better, get networked, and start taking on small projects where you can get them.

And someone wake Gary Turner, re: the blogtank--are we there yet?

---

Losing Joe

There aren't many musicians remaining of both the hardy stock and stubborn attitude required to survive the Rochester/national/international jazz scene from the time my father played it (1950s-60s) through the time my husband played it (1970s-90s).

The more of them we lose, the more loudly the loss resonates. The absence of a player's unique interpretation of sound and space can be deafening.

That's just one of the reasons why it's so hard for artists to live--period.

Joe died December 1st at 76 of lung cancer. My memories of hanging out after the gigs listening to Joe's special brand of humor haven't faded since the 80s. I could say a lot of things about him--about his musicianship, his edge, his, his tenacity. But instead, I'll simply say, so long Joe Romano.

Ok it's time to say something

First of all, I have glasses. I'm 46 years old and these are my first real glasses--the kind you wear all the time, the progressive lens type for people who can't see close or far away.

My initial reactions:

• Trees have leaves.
• There are too many words hanging up in the world.
• I am short.
• My feet don't walk right.
• I need to wax my upper lip and pluck my eyebrows. Like right away.
• Time for some makeup.
  

It reminds me of Halley's old snowglobe posts...

... they got me in and out of there fast as can be and in LESS than an hour and my glasses are a god send. I slipped them on and hell, it was like being high on dope with Oreos, with your best high school buddies and candles -- I am seeing things so much more clearly, I was amazed. I say to the glasses guys, "Whoa! I can really see with these things!" The manager says, "That's the idea!"

So I leave the mall, feeling so cool that I can see things -- like I can see my car in the parking lot, even before I attempt to open three other wrong Burgundy Camry's and before I have to bend down and braille-read the license plate. I'm just teasing, I'm not that bad. Well, almost.

I feel some sort of apology is in order - for my clients and myself. Blaming my fuzziness on menopause may have been inaccurate. I now realize I was fuzz-sighted. That's not near sighted or far sighted. That's when everything is blurred around the edges.

Now I look like a dork, but I have these lenses that make me feel like a kid, complete with feeling shorter. I wonder if that's my brain reconfiguring my perspective back to the last time I could see this well.

It's all very very very odd.

---

You know this Ella?

You gotta try a little bit.

the bridge is so nice

Oh Gosh I almost forgot the Stupid People song. An oldie AND a Goodie

heh.

okay sing the stupid people song with me--want to?

Helloooo stupid people
it's good to meet you
no it's not
see you made me lie
and if I tell you true
I would have to tell you
you
really you make my
intestines flutter
and rumble, baby
and not in a gooood way, baby.

I'm not sure how you
live with a pin-sized braihaaaiiin
but you really do
yah you do baby
you do it all my sweet
thing
because you're not just
ordinary
solitary
no
you're very very
extraordinarily
stupid
How do you do it?

You're bill-o'reilly stupid
You're bill-o'reilly stupid
You're not just smiley stupid
You're bill-o'reilly stupid

I bet in the morning, yah
you open your sweet shining eyes
and come alive inside
and your mind, your mihiiiiind
goes back to sleep
precious sleep
and that's okay
because baby
you gotta lotta work to do
in this world
a lotta hard work to do
and it's not easy, baby
no not easy
to operate the fryer
all the grease
sometimes the policeeeeee, baby
they come a rum come come
and say to you...

You're bill-o'reilly stupid
You're bill-o'reilly stupid
You're not just smiley stupid
You're bill-o'reilly stupid.

social allaboutMEdia or how i forgot my blog's 7th birthday

It's hard to see the forest for the trees these days. Social media pundits are punditizing themselves into such puffery that they are bursting from the very overstuffing of their grandiosity. There are more places than ever to pontificate, but blog posts still reign supreme as the bully pulpit to nowhere.

as in:

If I See ONE MORE post with BIG BOLD SUBHEADS boasting cute phrases that want so desperately to be profound that I have to turn my head to spare them their own embarrassment, I WILL puke.

I'm telling you, people.

I'm not talking polite regurgitation - I mean PUKE.

Don't pretend you have no idea what I mean.

"Think Small, Talk Deep" "Make Them Let You See Me Sweat" "If They Say Yes, You're Doing It Wrong." THOSE types of bullshitty neon nonsense.

You can tell these posts because the 'faux ballsy' subheads are most often followed by all the reasons why social media-community-internet-technology (buy my book buy my book buy my book) is the answer to every question yet to be answered under the sun, especially by business, which we all seem to forgotten, has RUN OUT OF MONEY.

That's the kind of supluferous fluff disquised as consulting genius I'm talking about.

It's the echo chamber, baby, say "hello" (ello ello ello ello)

So repulsed am I by what the conversation unleashed online back at the turn of the century - yes I was there - has become, I have managed to miss my own blog's 7th birthday.

happy birthday to me and the class of 2001.

Not for nothing, but if you think you're saying something new and interesting ABOUT the Internet with those big sweeping subheads you hope to work into a TOC for your next novella, it's time to actually DO something new and interesting BECAUSE OF the Internet. Or create something interesting and let us at it.

Because those posts--the ones with the faux-ballsy subheads--they gotta go.

happy birthday to my ass.

Paint the White House Black Lyrics, George Clinton, Baby!!!

I've been on the interwebs long enough to find everything I've ever wanted to find, needed to find, hoped to come across, and a lot of stuff I wish I'd never seen. One thing I haven't been able to find since I started looking when our new King, Barack Obama, began his run for office, are the lyrics to the funkolicious "Paint the White House Black," by one of our elder kings, George Clinton. I have the CD Smell My Finger, and in 1993 I danced like a proper funkateer to PTWHB. But I never could find the lyrics online, so I did what any good netizen would do - transcribed em myself.

I could use help with one line--you'll see he ???s--leave a comment if you can make out what she's sayin.

With assistance from grandmaster George himself, the following represents my best shot at transcribing the lyrics to Paint the White House Black, which, 15 years later, is ever more timely - Picture this, paint a picture picture perfect, paint a perfect picture. :-)


Paint the White House Black
George Clinton
Paisley Park Records, 1993

...Featuring Ice Cube, Dr.Dre, Yo-Yo, MC Breed & Kam; other appearances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy, Shock G & Pupa Curly


And in these uptight times
Hardcore Funkateers deploy the Bop Gun
The unleasher of positive light
The bop gun can do you no harm
It frees your mind
so your behind can follow.

Let's do a fly-by

123 and I come with the wicked
White house, lights out
Boom boom boom with the bop gun
looks like I dropped one.
I'm top gun.

Picture this, paint a picture picture perfect,
paint a perfect picture, paint a picture.
Picture this, paint a picture picture perfect,
paint a perfect picture.

Hi, yeah, what's up? What's poppin'?
This is Dr. Dre callin' from gun control
Can I speak to the President?
Uh, yeah, just tell him he was smokin' last night at the club,
you know what I'm sayin?
What? He don't inhale? Well I know I got
the wrong muthufuckin' house.

Did somebody beep me from there?

Colors don't clash
for good.
Color me happy
next to you.
Oh, just like it should,
There goes the neighborhood
That's what they'd have us believe.

Paint the white house black
Brown
Paint the white house

(No matter what creed no matter what color)

Paint the white house black
brown
Paint the white house
white.

If love ain't got nothing to do with it
then keep it
Ain't no big secret
We all know the reason
People change every day
but life stays the same
one big game
ain't a damn thing change
A woman's gotta do
what a woman's gotta do
be a macstress
don't let these macs smack you
So I can ??? ????
I'm stressin' and tired
the man that runs the joint
gets me higher
It can be a white house
a black house
it can be a crack house
An outhouse
if it ain't the right house
Go get your army
Yes ladies we got a fight
They ain't gonna set aside another night.
It's so bad in Los Angeles
It's so scandalous
Gimme somebody
who can handle us
Young brothers on top of things
So ah color me man
I'm ready for a change.


I gave a show
one time too many
and a brother gotta be
comin' out his nickles
and countin' up his last pennies
buyin' his brushes
and bum rushes home his greenery
man he don't give
a hill of beans
what it means to me.

Leave it up to me
I'm paintin' the white house black
It ain't no feature when you're frontin'
So why do LA be frontin', Jack

It'll either change
or we're gonna change it
(yeah it's gettin old)
Usin' everything from
spray cans to charcoal
Put em up
Put the crew up on discharge
leavin' wet paint signs
in the front yard.

It drives these people crazy man,
They don't even know what I'm sayin'.

Ohhh, air brushed and colorized
change right before our eyes
Real is the US of every flag

And that's the north side from the right house
Be it the black, red or white house
I fear the puppeteer can pull
our strings.

Paint the white house black, brown.
Paint the white house.

(This white ain't right, get the flash light.)

Paint the white house black, brown.

(No matter what creed no matter what color)

Paint the white house.

I pledge allegiance to the flag
bein' all i could never be
Damn, with this toe tag
This is USAK all day
And you can't interrupt
Lay back.

Stars and stripes
For the tards and tights
Got brothers like me
behind bars and on pipes

Damn I'm gettin' fit for a trip
they got me seeing stars from the club
and stripes from the whip

Why must ya'll be like that
I ain't into politics
So skip them
white collar tricks
They never did us no good
to hell with the space shuttle
put some money in the hood
and make jobs
let's mob up to the capitol
Then we ain't gotta rap at all
Power to the people
And the only way to get free
Is the J to the U-S-T-I-C-E.

Picture this, paint a picture, paint a perfect picture

Yo listen to the real Clinton
Who Bill Clinton?
Hell No, I'm talkin' bout George Clinton

Paint the white house black, brown

Paint the white house black, brown
(no matter what creed or what color.)
Paint the white house
(with God by our side we gonna change this power)

Paint the white house black, brown
Paint the white house.

Picture this, paint a picture picture perfect, paint a perfect picture, paint a picture.

There goes the neighborhood.

Picture this, paint a picture picture perfect, paint a perfect picture, paint a picture.

You understand this, cause that's how it be.
His name is George and his last name begins with a "C".

Picture this, paint a picture picture perfect, paint a perfect picture.

technorati tags: George Clinton, Paint the White House Black, Picture This, Barack Obama, History, Rap, Music, Funk

despite everything that's wrong...

...this is so right.



Hard to be in a bad mood lately.

so we don't forget

Yes, We Did.

I can't stop smiling.

I just can't.

Can you?

To those who said to me in the early years of my marriage that they didn't believe in mixed marriages because, after all, "What will become of the children?" I say to them today, "They can become your President."

Happy Day, America.

The fear mongers are out of power.

Breathe.

Let's get ready to get to work.

It's for them.

Been busy holding my breath

WAITING hoping praying for an Obama win.

meanwhile, the spammers have started to have their way with my comments, so I decided to stop being quiet and start breathing.

If you are still thinking of voting mccain, listen to these colleagues:




The group Vietnam Veterans Against McCain attacks Senator John McCain's heroism as a POW in the Vietnam conflict; this is making some waves in the news due to McCain's presidential candidacy. The documentary "Missing, Presumed Dead the Search for America's POWs" however focuses more on Senator John McCain successfully blocking the release of classified POW/MIA documents. Here is a DVD extra from that documentary. A DVD of the documentary may be purchased at www.MissingPresumedDead.com.

The Ills of Big Pharma - Cure? Not for you.

It's happening to Andrew Barron's dad, who happens to have a researcher on his case who has discovered something important.

It appears the Drug Company with the potential cure is trying to block its use.

In what can only be defined as a miracle in timing, a few days ago, one of his doctors who has been studying his tumor cells in the lab for years found an antibody with an exact match: Tysabri which is manufactured by your company, Biogen Idec. In the test tube, it attached to the antigens on the surface of the tumor 100%.

Though the drug has never been used before in this way, and because time is running out, the head of the FDA, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach has granted special approval for use of the drug for this purpose but you have personally decided “no”.

Help Andrew if you can - he says how in his post.

Also: Interesting discussion on this issue at TechCrunch.

-----

The Corporation Pwnd - Silver Lining 3.0

THIS my, fellow soldiers, is the Official End of Business as Usual.

THIS is the moment where loosely joined independent workers will change how business is done.

THIS has been 10 years in the making. It will not be easy - but it will be transformative.

THIS is the rightful skewering of the bloated corporation, the bleed of the overstuffed startup.

YOU are the new upstart.

Get started.

i kinda never liked hillary better than right here

How Right You Are, John McCain, My Fellow Prisoner

Sheesh--they shouldn't have gotten on to him about using "My Friends" incessantly. Now he's saying what he REALLY thinks.

Why Wait? Move to Canada Today with the ELITE Plan

WANTED: Alphacat and Sara Benincasa Mashup

A DEFINITE MUST. Introducing Alphacat - ROCKIN the BARACK

Won't Evict, Sheriff Dart Says

An American Hero in the War on Economic Terror

CHICAGO (AP) - Residents of foreclosed properties in Chicago and other parts of Cook County don't have to worry about deputies forcing them out. Sheriff Tom Dart says that starting Thursday his office won't take part in evictions.

Dart says he's concerned that many of the people being evicted are renters who were unaware that their landlords have been failing to pay their mortgages. He says his deputies have no way of knowing whether they're removing someone who has defaulted on a loan or someone who has been faithfully paying rent.

Dart says he thinks he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop such evictions during the ongoing foreclosure crisis.