It’s hella late here, or early (depending on who you ask, I suppose). If you were to ask me right now, I’d say my back aches, my stomach is growling and my eyes burn. But none of that is going to deter me from posting right now. It’s just that I happened across something I had almost forgotten, and I want to make sure to share this before memory fails once again.
At the very end of 2007 Amnesty International (France) released a new public service campaign- As a whole it was nothing short of compelling. Still pretty profound in concept… the folks responsible are due some negro nods for having the gaul to say something important, in an emphatic way. It’s inspiring to see people who speak plainly and are less concerned with offending you and more concerned about whether you’ve receive the message they aim to deliver. So… many a negro nod goes out to:
TBWA\PARIS, Boulogne-Billancourt
Creative Director: Erik Vervroegen
Art Directors: Ingrid Varetz, Javier Rodriguez
Writers: Daniel Perez, Veronique Sels
Photographer: Michael Lewis
Retoucher: Jean-Pilippe Camus
While cruising mypsace, I found a couple new things on Afrikan Boy’s myspace page that I thought were worth sharing. AB has been Reppin’ hard! Can’t be mad at all.
I saw both their latest videos for the first time today. Gotta say… Janelle’s won by a lot. Kanye’s wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as cohesive. There were a few things actually, but none worth discussing. But just incase you haven’t seen Janelle’s, enjoy!
So the past couple days I’ve been toiling away with recoding things. Improvements you probably won’t even notice and features that you won’t see until the relaunch of the site. None the less… I’ve been working hard.
A couple of the new functions I’m excited about… email blasts and syndication!
Since a number of our colony members have their own blogs, we’ll be sourcing in some of their posts, eliminating the need for them to post in two places about the same thing.
But what’s better is, when we get a must read post… you’re gonna get an email about it!! : P
So I’m a few days late on hearing this news, as I’ve been mostly watching the stock market and looking forward to the vice presidential debates. But being an honest to god child of hip hop, I found this story to be just as new worthy…
Apparently last week community leaders watch hopelessly as the courts ruled to allow the sale of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the South Bronx to real estate developer, Mark Karasick, which puts the future of the 100 families residing in the building, in jeopardy. This, even after tenants partnered with housing advocates filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court in an attempt to block the sale aaaand assembled a $10 million offer for the building, which doubles the $5 Million mortgage that needs to be paid for the current owners to withdraw the building from the city’s Mitchell-Lama moderate housing program.
In march of this year, the first attempt at the sale of this property was rejected when the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development deemed that the roughly $7.5 million sale price “significantly exceeded the building’s assessed value”, and was “not sustainable.” At the moment, no one seems to be sure which bank is financing the sale of the property, and are all wondering would finance this project at such an inflated price and during such pressing financial times. Housing advocates were actually hopeful that the recent financial woes on Wall Street would prevent the deal from holding up.
What’s extra-speacially heartbreaking here is that 1520 Sedgwick is more or less the birth place of Hip Hop. So it seems a shame to know to know that the rec center in the front of the building, where DJ Kool Herc first learned to work his two turntables, happens to also be the same room from which Senator Charles E. Schumer delivered the news conference when the sale was first rejected in march.
Shout goes out to The New York Times’ blog for covering the story so well. You can check it at length here. While you’re there you should also check this story about bronx area photographer Lisa Kahane who, much like Jamal Shabazz, played an integral role in documenting life & times in the Bronx, during the early 80s. Get smart.
I never thought the phrase “drill baby drill” would elicit psuedo-pornographic images in my mind, but yesterday I think that happened.
My history teacher Mr. Williams would say “I remember in the seventies, during the Oil Crisis - by god you couldn’t even hardly get gas! Ya’ll are just spoiled, it’ll run dry… *cue Charlie Brown trumpet blather*
“Don’t everybody like the smell of gasoline? Well burn motherfucka burn American Dreams…” - Outkast Gasoline Dreams
Well um… Atlanta as the locals say, “ain’t hardly got no gas - nowhere”. That’s a triple negative statement if you didn’t notice, so you know its bad. Worse - Atlanta’s mass transit, is well, less than sufficient. The Math ain’t in our favor. NYCs buroughs represent 305 sq. miles, L.A. 499 sq. miles on a good day and the Atlanta Metropolitan area? 8,376 SQUARE FUCKING MILES. Meaning if you
a) can’t afford the 4.40 gal. b) can’t FIND the 4.40 gal or c) Need to get to work, buy groceries, are mortally wounded and need urgent medical attention, and/or Wife is preggo and you need to get to the hospital?
Then yes, I hope you got a quarter tank, because otherwise you’ll be googling “home remedies” or sucking gas through a hose.
Aside from realizing I reflexively shift into neutral anytime I sense inertia is on my side… I saw something disturbing yesterday that made me realize its so bad PEOPLE WANT TO PAY $4.40+ gal for gas. Seriously, these are crack prices people. CRACK. After work yesterday you woulda thought this one guy was making babies with his gas tank, eyes closed, head to the sky, fisting the hell outta…that err uhm, gas pump. I wasn’t sure if he was nodding his head to music or the rhythm of the gasoline surging through the hose and deep into the empty tank. A big grin of apparent satisfaction came on his face when the loud “click” from the tank rung through the air. “Got my tank full ya’ll!”. Strutted into his car, lounged in the driver’s side, reved up - and sped off.. as if he didn’t just drop at least $75 to get from point A to point B. I live off of Metropolitan Parkway in Atlanta, which was once known for prostitution… I imagine at this rate prostitution for petro will soon take hold.
What followed was even scarier - two cars (one SUV and one sports car) swerved where I swear fumes were still swirling in the air, where Mr. Petro Puta himself just left. An argument starts, one guy cursing gets out his car, then goes back at which point it occurs to me “Its now legal to carry concealed guns in this city - one of these mofos cap off, burst open a tank in flames - whole fucking station erupts , riots break out -end of the world etcetera, etcetera…”
I decided I’d leave and go home, coast as much as I subconciously could in neutral and wait til morning. Who got the gas you ask? Well it looks like Mr. SUV muscled Mr. Mustang out of position…only to find out that particular tank was already tapped out. He didn’t realize that upon filling up, the previous buyer went well over the $20 cap a lot of stations are asking of customers.
The 21st century Maroon Colony is a NY/SF based critical art & design collective representing the Afro-Triangle and the 2/3s world.
Comprised of 3 primary cadres, we employ a Think-Tank, Make-Tank, Break-Tank approach- initiating and executing interactive design projects, developing and designing conceptual textiles & design objects, and distributing physical/digital information & goods.
