Porgy and Bess (The American Black Opera ?)

Two of the more popular songs from Gershwin's folk-opera were: 'It Ain't Necessarily So' and ''Summertime'.
I live in a town that seems to make every published negative list in America.
The club's Facebook page is littered with complaints about how boring the city is.
When I suggested that we go to the symphony or opera, people thought I was joking.
Besides when the next Tyler Perry-esque play coming to town, many Black people here seem to have little interest in culture.
(*note: The videos are NOT the original performances from the play.)

Americathon

I liked the 'Chelsea' interlude with Elvis Costello....
(And that the National Indian Knitting Enterprises -NIKE- owned the country.)

I Used To Love Mission San Juan Capistrano

It was where my father would take my mother every year to watch the the swallows.
After my dad died (when I was one year old) my mom would take me there every once in a while as a child.
I still have all those little silver saint medallions from these trips in my old bedroom at my parent's house.

I guess Father Junipero Serra (who held mass at the site) is set to be canonized by Pope Francis.
Sainthood for a missionary who allowed the mistreatment of the native tribes all in the name of acculturation for The Church?

My mom was sent from her reservation in Klammath Falls, Oregon to the Judson Academy in Scottsdale, Az for her boarding school experience.
My home town in Riverside has a similar school (Sherman Indian High School) which was created for the same purpose of teaching natives how to act like real Americans.
Even to this day churches are teaching the heathens how to act like real Americans.
The school's traditional multi-tribe Pow-Wows have been replaced by Christian prayer services in recent years.

Now my father's side of the family...
Apparently the mulatto children in Louisiana were taught all that was right and good in the eyes of The Church as well...

C'mon Pope Francis, stop trying to appeal to the American Latino crowd and pick a better option than Junipero Serra.

ALL Animals Are Equal...

Or so says Orwell.

The best thing to happen to the whole Black Lives Matter/Campaign Zero/The Counted movement was the recent arrest (and attempted cover up) of the Harvard educated former tennis star James Blake while he was just chillin' outside of and upscale New York hotel.
Sure, Blake DID look a lot like the guy the police were looking for in an identity theft case but how many other Black males have been detained because they 'matched a description'? (It's REALLY common for this being the reason given for searches in 'Broken Window' police policy.)
If it could happen to Blake it could (and does) happen to anyone.

As I stated earlier - Black Lives DON'T Matter.
Only SOME Black Lives Matter.

Dambit !!! MORE Homework...

What is it with the Bees?
(Jupiter Ascending was a less-than-great movie by the Wachowskis but they referenced that bees could sense royalty.)
From the Mormon's 'Deseret' to Gurdieff's 'Sarmoung' to the usage as symbols by Egyptians, the Merovingians and Napoleon...(among others).
What is so special about Bees?

In a Time of War

Sometimes being tough is better than being smart.

What Next?

Obama HAD to come across as anything other than The Angry Black Man in order to win the election.
While certain qualities will get one elected - these qualities are not necessarily good once one is in office. (Sometimes the boss has to be a dick.)
Trump has no such social/political/cultural obligation.
Trump can be Trump.
(If asked a question, Trump will give an answer - even if he's wrong. But I guess when people are uncertain and afraid clarity is better than ambiguity.)
And when it comes to Vladimir, I think that many think that Obama may be a bit too soft.

The Boy Is Soft, America

A Little Dirt Doesn't Hurt

The bitch-assed-nigga who shot on-air former co-workers was a sissified punk.
Apparently the boy had been picked-on during his tenure at the same station.

Really?
By the time one becomes an adult one should be able to handle rejection.
By the time one becomes an adult he should be able to just move on and learn to stop identifying and dwelling upon his particular form of 'victimhood'.

Being different is what makes people great.
NOT fitting in is what sets people apart from the ordinary and mundane.
Being able to overcome setbacks is what makes ones successes even more satisfying.

But I just don't get this whole high-self-esteem/pampered/participation trophy/coddled generation.
When we'd get into a fight - we'd win or lose.
If we weren't good enough to make the team - we'd get cut (there was no such thing as a 'B' team).
When we messed up - we got our little bad asses whooped.
When we got teased - we had to learn to take or tell jokes.
When we went outside to play - we got dirty.
It was this exposure to dirt which built up our immune systems which helped us fight of illness later in life.
Maybe all these wanna-be-bad grown assed boys just needed to get a little bit dirty earlier in life.