Amadeo Sogni

“The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted.”
Martha Graham (1894 - 1991)

So I’ve been considering exercise. Not like, “hmmm…maybe I will”, but more of what I want to do. You see, I have a fear. I’m scared of having bourgeois muscles. A mentor introduced this concept to me many years ago. If you’re physically fit your body becomes capable of a lot of things. However there is a difference in the body of a person that just works out and someone who works. For example, if you ever see someone who’s so muscle bound they can’t straighten their arms…that’s Bourgeois muscles. As oppossed to someone who looks like this:

I like to use the term “Country Cut”. A strong person who isn’t bulging everywhere and isn’t chiseled…but could hamstring an Ox, whoop your ass and eat a thanksgiving dinner and then go back and work somewhere. These are the cats who gained their physique from work, not a regimen. These are the cats that you really want to have your back…the type that openhanded slap someone and take a layer of skin off cause their hands are calloused. These dudes maybe able to bench press alot, but they also have flexibility. That’s what I’m trying to get to. I’m going to run…but I’ll try to focus on more core exercises and rely on weights a little less then in the past. I realize that the times I was most fit were from action that wasn’t geared towards getting fit. Working in a warehouse, riding my bike instead of catching the bus. Mind you I could go get a warehouse job…but I wouldn’t like the check. I actually thought about buying a bike…but haven’t made up my mind. Riding a bike to work would be cool…save that it’s all uphill on the way home and it wouldn’t mesh for days I wake up late. I almost want to do a Rocky IV thing where I go to snow woods and cut down trees and run in the snow and what not. I could learn to do wood carvings at the same time. When I think of the ultimate in this category it’s always Bruce Lee. With a shirt on dude looks like he’s a skinny ass little guy. But his cuts are the tale of someone who’s done crazy exercise and has pushed his body to limits. The thing is I don’t think he’s done much with weights. His body retained it’s form, it just moved to the peak possibility of that form. I usually wonder how much could he bench press. The thing is most of his form comes from doing. Like those old Kung Fu movies or even Karate Kid…no one says…go hit the gym. They give you some weird ass task that ends 2 months later with you being strong as hell.

” Here go down those 1000 steps and get two buckets of water….500 times and wear these. “

Or one of my favorites:

“Hit this….when you break it you’re done…if you hand breaks…switch hands.”

Perhaps I’ll try to come up with a cross country, calisthenics program where I carry a dwarf holding twenty pound weights in a book bag and pick fights with latinos and islanders playing soccer, then I’ll steal the ball and let them chase me. Maybe.

WWWD:

“Hard to keep my edge up there with nothin’ more threatenin’ than bunny rabbits and bambis.”
Wolverine

Short Round: Indy, I love you. You’re my best friend!

Have you seen this boy?

Look into those innocent eyes and witness what Americans going over seas for pleasure has wrought. Child Labor? Pedophilia? Something worse? Who can say for sure. We do know that he was last seen as a driver for one Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. He also was taken along through an Indian Temple full of worshipers of Kali Ma…Thuggee cultists. No place for a young child…but that did not stop Dr. Jones. In this Temple Short Round was whipped, and used a slave labor. At one point Dr. Jones even struck Short Round while he was under the influence of the Thuggee “Black Blood”…probably Brandy. Short Round help to liberate the child slaves that were captured by the Thuggee. What did Short Round want? A chance to go to America. After Dr. Jones filled his head with American Baseball and the Yankees and hot dogs…where was Short Round in Dr. Jones subsequent adventures? He probably dropped him at the first orphange in Taiwan and went home. Perhaps Dr. Jones taught him more then just how to drive a car and help him escape from gunfights? Maybe if there had been a Goonies 2 Short Round would have shown up again. Yeah…the eccentric American Professor goes abroad, “befriends” an orphan, endangers his life and tosses him aside. Short Round…Be strong.

Barack Obama’s speech…did you see it? What do you think? Discuss. I’ll give my opinion later on.

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”
Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

Familiarity breeds contempt. I’m familiar with the term, but one story has made it take on a new meaning for me. Brandon Morris has been the talk of the newfolk. They love to have crime stories, but it’s even better when the person is in custody and on trial. Makes people feel like something is being done or it justifies their lack of faith in the system. As someone who has grown up amidst certain things and works with low income, transient youth, I have some familiarity with how screwed up his life may have been. There’s a flip side to it though. I’ve seen more people get beat up, intimidated, humilated and so forth in schools then anywhere else. Despite being from an era that was more about fighting then killing, I know the feeling of, “I might have to kill dude, cause I wanna live”. I know strike first. I know watch the hustle. I know get over. I’m also intelligent enough to understand courts sending a message, defensive strategies, and so forth. Everytime I see one particular video of this cat, I think “He was going hard and there is no remorse.” It’s kind of an ill feeling. The look on his face does it. He mugs on the camera. It’s one of those mugs that if a dude got it from down the street, he’d think it was time to go see money. I know cats like that to. Cat’s that mug the whole world. Cat’s who used to be different, but over time you realize that even if you were ever close…you might not be safe around him. Like he was a con man…and you know you aren’t working on the same level…so now he sees you as a mark. All he does is take down marks. The type of guy that if he walked into a club today…you’d think it’s about time for you to go. Even if he has no plans to rob the place, you know how close he stays to blowing up. The type of dude that you hope doesn’t come off at your lady. Cause in that position he won’t apologize or back down. He’ll make you backdown or go full out. He expects you to back down. You know you have enough in your life to protect that you should back down. Only problem is you don’t wanna have to deal with him later. Your problem is you’ve learned how not saying that extra thing can prevent the clash. You’ve learned how not caring a little let’s you pass by. You’ve learned you’re a little tired of it all. You know what’s inside you and you know what you’ve been able to do before. Every now and again you get the urge let go on someone and this is the perfect type of person. If he doesn’t really care then you don’t have to either. If he would hurt you without remorse, then you can do the same. You’re hating him. Hating him cause you can’t even go out without coming across someone like him. You can’t even do your job without seeing another him. You go to a mall and run across little scared people trying to convince themselves and others that they are him. He’s the Sabertooth to your Wolverine. You hate him because he is a part of you. The part of you that you supress he has embraced. What he revels in you regret. What you have disciplined he has unleashed. So much so you wouldn’t even express it all aloud, cause you want to be more compassionate than him. But you’ve known plenty people like him…people that went so hard either the cops ended them…or they did enough that someone else had to. When you hear about them going you don’t feel sad…you feel a little relief. That’s one less that you have to be alert around. It’s a fucked up feeling I tell you. Especially when you can become a target cause you your elevation (however limited). You end up being seen as an easier mark cause you won’t want the drama, cause you’ll let it go. You start to hate for even being put in that position. You start thinking you have too much to lose to back down. You’re logic is different now. You have things to fight for. He’s become another person in your mind. You know there’s nothing special about him, he either doesn’t care…or is willing to go far enough to make you think he doesn’t. You start to be angry that he might even think to try you. You understand what you could do and you almost want an excuse. In that moment you no longer care. Worse is you don’t feel anyway about it either. You think fuck him and your thoughts are a mirror of his. Not only do you not feel bad, but you feel like you earned the right. You realize that there is darkness in you and you’re not sure if you’re sad that it’s there or happy that it doesn’t rule you. What a world.

Wyatt Earp: What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?
Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
Wyatt Earp: What does he want?
Doc Holliday: Revenge.
Wyatt Earp: For what?
Doc Holliday: Bein’ born.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Jack London (1876 - 1916)

I’m trying to understand who leaves these long as comments on peoples blogs. I mean spam bots are one thing, but it’s like if Pat Robertson, Tony Robbins, and Michael Moore were combined, imbued with geek powers and spend their time leaving long ass comments in on folks blogs. Once I tried to read one, but I couldn’t even stay with it. It’s like evangelical conspiracy theory blog raiding. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about, I’ve seen some on some of your sites and for those who get spam blocked, you’ve seen them in moderation. These cats need to be beaten with a bag of nickels. I would like to form a hunting party and go find these people. Who’s with me?

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. “
Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898)
So…my ace was shot recently. He was up in D.C. and turning down the wrong side street ended with .44 slugs being propelled through his car. He was able to get away, but not before he took one through his leg. Being that we’re similar in nature I should have known that because he said he was alright did not make it so. I found out this morning that he has nerve damage and may not be able to use that leg. That’s normally bad, but he’s a very physical person (as is the nature of his business) so that compounds the issue. What’s really getting me about this whole thing is what I thought. My first reaction was, “We’re too old for this” and not in a Danny Glover way. See I according to statistics a young black male is ver susceptible to death from a gun shot wound until he’s 26. So when I turned 26 I celebrated the fact that I had made it out of that range. Not long afterwards I started seeing the trends that the age had increased to 28. A month from now I’ll be 29, a little more than a week later my ace will be 30. I thought we were out. I thought we had made it. This bothered me. What bothered me even more is that I have begun to think of getting shot as something that happens to young people. Acne, puberty and bullet wounds. Proms and paramedics. I admit to the sickness of that line of thinking, but I also have to address the truth of it. That it’s much more likely for a young black male to be shot than anyone else. I can think of times in our lives when, while not at the forefront, the possibility of being shot was there. I can think of times that I counted myself blessed that I hadn’t been shot. Near misses and lucky escapes. All of those could be forgotten in the space of a day as I went on about my routine. Just accepting it as a part of life. I thought we were past it. I thought that we had seen the danger zone and made our way through it. I was wrong. I forgot that it wasn’t just the age, it was the people. So those most likely to shoot one of us is growing older with us. It’s just the ones younger than us are more likely than ever to shoot one another. But my graduating class has not left it behind…we probably never will. The glasshouse of my perception is shattered.

I’m gonna live till I die! I’m gonna laugh ’stead of cry,

I’m gonna live, live, live, until I die!

Frank Sinatra

“Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.”
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

So, here we go again. Instead of simply ranting and raving (which I’ll do anyway cause it’s my blog…neener, neener, neener) I will give out awards to those who deserve it. It seems only fitting as I look around and find ignorance rewarded everywhere. So I present my first ever, “Get that Out of There” This is for people who have their head shoved firmly up their ass. The first recipients are:

Tony Harris of CNN:

Various Parents:

A Slew of other folks:

See Bomani Armah has a song called “Read a Book”. He made a video and sent it to BET. To my surprise BET actually played it. I say my surprise because the song was basically ripping Hip-Hop or to be particular Crunk Music. I saw him perform this joint at Afram back in June. His concept was that people listen and the radio plays music that is basically a series of hooks that don’t say anything worthwhile. If figured what if I do the same thing but my content is actually about things people should do. When I heard this song I loved it. I was reciting the lyrics for days. Shortly after it started to pop up on blogs and got alot of praise from my demographic. The problem is, when BET did play it some older folks got mad. They said it wasn’t appropriate for children and it wasn’t a parody. They got mad at BET and Bomani. This is the thing…the video was in cartoon form so by their logic it’s obviously meant for little children. Of course no one over the age of 12 watches cartoons. They also said it a good way to make a public service announcement….cause anytime anyone says public service announcement that’s what it is, even if they play it on a music video show and it’s performed on stage. They compared it to the Electric Company and Seasame st. They got up in arms.

Them (also known as they): Rabble, rabble, rabble, rabble.

There is cursing in the song. There are cartoon figures shaking their booty. My issue is this…dude is making fun of all the other videos on right now. Since it played on BET they had to take the cursing out (just like Bomani does when he performs it). Parents got all up in arms about it, but these same parents aren’t up in arms about all of the other videos that play around this one. It takes me back to Dave Chapelle laughing at Lil’ Jon…”I can’t believe he said skeet on the radio.” No parents got upset over that. On a CNN interview Tony Harris asked if the videos Bomani mentioned played at three in the afternoon. The correct answer (that he dismissed) is yes. My futher problem, as someone who grew up with Hip-Hop and can’t stand most of what’s on now, is that these parents didn’t mind the content of the videos, but when some of that some visual content comes in cartoon form accompanied by chants of read a book there’s a problem. Not to mention if it’s made for kids, why is one of the lines “Raise your kids”. It might be helpful future information, but I’m sure it could be pointed at people who actually have children now…possibly. Anyway you guys peep the video and tell me what you think.

“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)

Barry Bonds might as well stomp puppies after ever hit or homerun. For the way he’s treated, at least there would be evidence of him doing something wrong. To date there is no positive test and no record of him having received steroids despite the fact that multiple other players have been caught. He didn’t lose weight in the aftermath of the scandal like some players did either. But to this day, everyone acts assured that he did use and that he is a cheater and he is a villain.

So now what? In a league that has been coming down on people lately for any step outside of the rules, even when it involves things off the field. What type of justice is it to give a large fine to a rich person? Yeah, they’re going to take a draft pick, so what. If the Patriots have a good season their picks will be low anyway. So if a player gets caught up off the field and gets suspended, why doesn’t the coach who cheats in the context of the game get suspended as well. I find a few things about this just totally crazy.

1) Mangini gave notice that they should be on the look out and that’s how the camera man was discovered. Mangini used to be his assistant so does this mean Belichick has been doing thing like this?

2) They said that additionally they were scrambling people’s signals in regards to coach - quarterback communication.

3) Sean Payton (this past off season) got a vote on giving defenses a system of communication like the offense has, this would do away with the need of signals and such. It was two coaches shy of passing.

4) For years people have been suggesting some shenanigans about the Patriots…I personally wrote a lot of it off as a side effect of losing, but now…

So Barry Bonds is an outcast despite the fact he has not been proven guilty. Belichick is caught in the act and he gets a fine. Even the players are kind of pissed cause they’ve had to be on their P’s and Q’s lately even if they’ve never been in trouble. So here comes GutBelichick; he actually cheats on the field and there is an uproar…but his punishment can be solved with a penstroke and using free agency to cover the loss of a draft pick. What type of bullshit is that. If we’re concerned about off field activities making the league look bad shouldn’t cheating on the field be met with the stiffest penalty? With steroids, no matter how strong you get you still have to be able to play. In regards to football the Patriots are known for making amazing half-time adjustments, so if you know the signals the defense is using…I’m sure that can affect what plays you send in to your quarterback. Where’s the balance?

“If you come home to a household of chaos and anger and fear, you’re not going to feel protected from the world.”
Sandra Bernhard

So, week before last I’m over the Vixens place and her and her sister have located a train wreck in progress on the tee vee (big up Mr. Wrong). The Ozone Awards. Jesus Christ Monkey Balls! I’m not a big fan of awards shows anyway, but this was one of the worst things (animal, vegetable, mineral or other) that I have ever seen. The people involved, the production values and anything else you can associate with it. To make it worse it was on MTV and then to compound my misery Buttahman was playing a game called, “Hoodfab” during the commercial breaks. I personally thought dude was in the closet when he worked on the radio here, the more I see him on MTV, the more I want to yell - “Just come out”. I bet Superhead could tell us what’s up. I did hear later on that a woman was roughed up that night by the cops. The thing is I was waiting for that, when I was watching the awards I knew there would be some tense cops in the area….it wasn’t just a lot of black people…it was a lot of Hood Black people and hood white folks. Those were the kind of people who’s family won’t admit their related. Now, as a life long fan of Hip-Hop I have an additional gripe. How the hell do you have an awards show where 98% of the people are from down south? An awards show where there were like less than 10 people from NY I’m not sure if there was more than one group from the west coast. WTF?!?!?! I swear I lost brain cells just sitting there and watching that maddness go on. That was like a compilation of everything that is wrong with Hip-Hop. To the point were certain dudes who were nominated I knew (and it was demonstrated) that there was no way they were going to show up. Somewhere Clive crying.

“Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.”
Robert Orben

I have a question for the ladies. How do you know if he just wants to be your friend? Perhaps that was just forward so let me frame it. One of the big relationship issues are people who are “just friends” and if they really are just friends. Even if you think they are just friends, do they really want to be? See the Vixen made a good move recently and initially I didn’t recognize it. To hurry myself along, she basically called to say a male friend was trying to get up with her and make sure I was cool. I was and at first I felt like some possesive guy, then I remembered she initiated the call. Of course it’s just like showing the cops you don’t have a weapon before you walk towards them. Eliminating excuses. Making sure everything is cool. However, having had this discussion come up in the past I had to ask of my readership, “How do you know if they’re just a friend, really?” I’m not talking about the casual acquaintance. Some guy you rarely see and come across and have some coffee with is easy, if he expresses interest you can quell that uprising before it begins. My question is about those dudes that are around. The portion of the male argument I usually fall on is the, “I trust you, but not him” side. See you may have it secure in yourself that you’re happy with your man and no one shalt come ‘twain you (yeah I said ‘twain). The thing your man worries is that he is bidding his time, which from afar doesn’t matter, but when done in close quarters is disrespectful of your man and what you have. Another aspect of this is; if you have a woman who sleeps with people based on emotional connections you worry that this dude is latching himself on and that may make it easier for him to slide in when the door is open a crack. If the two of you get into a fight, will he be there to console you before the first tear falls? It’s kinda of like “ass-seeking-poets”. If you’ve been on the poetry scene (especially if you’re a man) you know what I mean. Those poets that almost always do poems about women. His general themes are:
1. Sister, Queen, Mother, Goddess - you too damn good.
2. Fellas, we gotta do right by these sistas.
3. I would love you a thousand ways.
4. A list of things I would do that your man does not.
5. I love women (in a wholesome way).
6. Look how sensitive I am.
7. Look how hard it is for sistas, but they strong enough to get through.

Male poets (and men who frequent poetry spots want to kick this guys ass. Not because the women will tend to dig him and want to hear him. It’s because this asshole is most likely to fuck several of the women who come to these spots. It’s the double whammy, he makes the rest of us look like crap (especially with #2) then he pulls the orignial crutball move and further tarnishes your opinion of men. Plus if we’re heard saying what a douche he is we look bad yet again, while pushing the ladies towards him. So as a warning in the midst of my question, beware any dude who the majority of his art (poetry or otherwise) is about women.

I digress, what I’m really curious about aren’t the mistake dudes; you knew each other you were close and at the right time and place something went down. I’m talking the: {you} oh he’s my friend - {him} she will be mine, dudes. How do you know? I’ve kept in touch with sisters for a minute in an effort to build something, I have never intentionally played a friend role when my intentions were otherwise. Tell me you have a man and my intentions will come clear pretty quick. That’s why this situation is a minefield! The casual friends are easily dealt with. The ones who could either be REALLY good friends or crutball potential usurpers have the same traits. They remain a constant. They call, they invite you out, they remember birthdays, your family may like them. So do you find out one night when they reveal all of their feelings? Do you become suspicious because of things they say or do? Does your man’s attitude drive you into the “friends” arms thus bringing his concern into reality? So, how do you (if you do) know when a guy really just wants to be your friend and when he may be harboring feelings or intentions toward something more?