reality radio

if you have no clue what i'm referring too - it may be a good thing (but don't worry, Beelini will get you up to speed); but if you do - then i know that you know there's a 99% chance you have listened to a RADIO One commercial with a corresponding jingle and CEO, Cathy Hughes reminding you that "This is reality radio... what's your reality!"

i loves it. ev'ry da## piece of it...
i reckon i might be the minority of her, 'cuz over at the 5 spot, i know for sure Rummy detests the infomercials (tee hee, tee hee)

HR Bill 848 - Performance Rights Act

context
in a tenuous economy, a faction within the music world (artists & record companies) would like to get their cut from radio (AM & FM stations) be'cuz they supposedly already get their cut from satellite radio and the internet). radio only owes the songwriter a cut. interestingly enough, there is a faction in the music world that is opposed to this measure besides Cathy Hughes. this group consists of songwriters. songrwriters are afraid that this measure will undermine their cut. and ya thought Cathy was leading the crusade by herself however, add'l language has been inserted in the bill to assuge the concerns of songwriters by stating their cut won't be diminished or adversely affected. so you say

back to Cathy
so Cathy is straight clowning folks (Representatives: John Conyers, Sheila Jackson Lee, Hank Johnson, Bobby Scott, Mel Watts, etc.). and i think this is hilarious. Radio One is Cathy's playground, she calls the shots. given she has urban radio on lockdown, you may choose to turn the dial or turn it off, but she's lurking on another sista station near you. i know some folks are feelin' it - ok a lot of ya ain't feelin' it, but you'll get over it. if your enterprise was takin' a beating and you cultivated it from the roota to the toota, i betta see you out there swingin' and that's what Cathy is doing... but Cathy you ain't got no problems as of yet...

if HR 848 is anything like the healthcare bill, the reality is your reality won't change so much


cheers,

Bellini

Setup a Meeting to Discuss

There is nothing that can be taught in the halls of academia that can prepare a person for the wonderful world of working. Could someone please tell me why I did not eat lunch today until 4:30? And I got to work around 8:30! In a word "meetings". Back to back ones at that. I told ya'll before how we like to get down in the good ole government. And that is the problem!

I mean I like to socialize as much as the next person, but more often than not I can do without these caring and sharing sessions around oak tables in windowless conference rooms. Let lighting strike me tonight, if my manager did not spend 30 minutes talking about his trip to see the groundhog see his shadow. Why? Because the resident brown noser felt that our budget pitfalls was the perfect segue! Huh? Now I won't lie to ya'll I enjoyed the diversion and I learned that groundhog day is big business to some... but I could have spent that time surfing the internet, or just mindless starting at my cubicle wall!

But as my boss circles the table asking for everyone's two cents-but not really caring about our opinion because the next course of action was decided before we all got together-and really we are just participating in a formality...

Everyone is either dreaming about being here....



Or wishing they were this guy!



*Sigh*


If only meetings involved more 80s hair....I think I wouldn't mind giving up my web surfing time...and maybe I could eat lunch at a decent hour!




See You In Seven

Mud, Music, Love, Laughter...

Mud, Music, Love, Laughter documents the journey of a talented young ceramic artist determined to make a living off her artwork. Adjusting to her post-marital life by working with clay, she learns to love and laugh again. This column follows her as she takes a nontraditional approach to changing her career.

For those unsure of how to make an unconventional transition into the art world, Mud, Music, Love, Laughter serves as a real world, How-To story. No one knows, the ending or whether the decisions made by the artist are the best, but she is a student of the ceramic arts community that plans on achieving her goals. There is no formula to her approach, as it adapts everyday. However there is one thing that will never fail and that is her persistence.

“Keep in mind I am an artist and I am sensitive about my ish!” – Erykah Badu

This statement has been hard to accept and it has crippled me beyond measure. It is time that I work towards the person I really want to be—an artist. For the past four years it felt like I was stuck in the closet. Living in denial, telling myself that the occasional freelance job was enough. Well it wasn’t and it will never be. I don’t recall the day that my cosmetic bag replaced my sketchbook in my purse but today is the day that the sketchbook returns.

I still remember the first time I learned how to paint. It was using one of those elementary watercolor paint sets and my father taught me how to paint a pink rose. He showed me how to finesse the brush in such a way that the pedals emerged from the white spaces on the paper. Starting light and using very little paint and water at a time, letting it dry, to only paint another layer of color. It was magic!

He taught me patience and discretion.

Only now that I am older, do I realize I was on the right track throughout my childhood. I wore my passion on my sleeve and was eager to develop my artistic skills. Somewhere this got lost between falling in love, getting married and planning a future. Fast-forward a couple years later I am forced to face the reality that my life lacks passion. I had to start somewhere. That somewhere was with mud.

Painting came easy but mud was temperamental. It was an unfamiliar medium. But I am no stranger to working with my hands or to a challenge. I had made up my mind that I was going to do this. So I might as well get into the practice of saying “I am an artist”.

The first couple times I said it, boy, were those words heavy.

You are an artist? Well, can I see your work? Not knowing how to honestly answer this question, led me to Step One: Create the work.

How can I be an artist without any work?

I’ve got talent but I need inspiration.

Step One—hurdle one.

Here I am, three years shy of thirty, divorced and searching for inspiration. I might as well pack it up and go home. And it was in that sentence that I found my inspiration—Home. It was always the contingency plan. The question was, “Was I truly ready for island life again?” And despite my sad state, the answer was “No.” I wasn’t ready but I sure could really use some island inspiration right now. Sketchbook meet coral reefs.

That night I sketched like a mad woman. I was going to create art out of mud. Music blasting from the speakers, I could breathe. I was alive. Rejuvenated.

Much luv until next week... peace :)

P.S. Following suit... jump up in the air and stay there! OOOOoooo! Booty don't know how to keep still to this joint.

I'll Fly Away

Week in and week out, I come here and give you words. Lots of words. Wit. And dare I say, wisdom? Heh. But today all I can give you is E. Badu's new song, Window Seat, cause it captures everything I'm feeling right now. And while I don't have, "my music, a lover, or some babies," The chorus is where I'm at.

so can i get a window seat

don’t want nobody next to me

i just want a ticket outta town to look around

and a safe touch down

so can i get a window seat

don’t want nobody next to me

i just want a chance to fly

a chance to cry

and a long bye bye...

Yeah I would totally take alladat right about now.

Update - check the live version y'all!

That's my time y'all! Happy Rum Punch Friday!

the absolution of...

in my youth when i would conjure up images about marriage, feelings of love, or needed to hear the music the prose that emobodied the elements of love... just cue ms. anita baker... i mean really do i have to explain... in case ya didn't know -anita is the soundtrack of my childhood.

from beginning to end, 365 days in a year ...
picture in a frame, and it remains the same...
your undying love for me - keeps me strong...

i mean i could go on - these were certified hits or for the young folks - bangers... they remind me to this day, when Bellini gets hitched i betta be singing and feeling it just the same!

and now to know ms.baker and her hubby are going thru it... i'm just devastated
be'cuz i'm trying to understand how and why can all this come about... why is the ending so dramatic, resentful, bitter. i feel like there's manipulation involved, deceit, trickery - it ain't good honey...

but really what happened?... how are you hitched for 20+ years, progeny to boot, and it comes down to how much money is owed the other? huh?
why is shit so difficult, complicated, downright hostile?..

well from what i heard hubby wants his cut from her albums back in the day, but how much is being disputed... oh, and the fact that ms. anita never signed contract, and the judge (bless his/her heart) had the decency to give her some time to understand its implications. lawd knows i wish my brother was done with law school and passed the Michigan bar so he could provide her some pro bono counsel... i mean really if you're a lawyer able to practice to Michigan impart your legal counsel to ms. anita.

couldn't placate him with your older hit? i know you told him...
you're my angel...


and i'm saying your '90s hit didn't work either?
i apologize - oh belive me i do... ya know the rest...


cheers,

Bellini

Life to the Fullest

My latest guilty pleasure reality show is Hoarders on A&E. It is amazing to see people’s homes filled to the top with treasures (aka trash) that they have collected over the years. We are talking about rooms filled with stacks of newspaper, clothes from 1972, loaded guns buried in closets where rat feces have been found. Refrigerators filled with spoiled food, growing things within and outside of them. We are talking about adult protective services coming to take folks out their homes because they are just unlivable and naaaaaaaaaasty! It is just fascinating to watch. It’s even more amazing to discover that these hoarders are married and have children who have learned to live with and deal with their crap. A couple weeks ago a couple purchased a second home because their first one became inhabitable because of the items the wife had collected, paying two mortgages left them cash strapped and facing foreclosure, but they couldn’t sell either home because they were both filled the hoarding wife’s trash.

Last night’s episode featured Jim and Claudie, a black couple from Illinois who had been married for 37 years and had 12 children. Claudie’s hoarding had gotten so bad that Jim told her that he was going out for a little bit and that he would see her later. Well…Jim didn’t come home for over a year and during Jim’s absence Claudie was forced to live in a homeless shelter! It was pure craziness, and if I was able to get to Youtube on this here government computer I totally share the link… But in a few words the episode was deliciously tragic to watch. And I got to thinking about Jim who told his wife that he’d be back in a few and high tailed it off to Vegas to live a new life, and probably with a new wife. Many other viewers have their opinions about Jim but while watching the show I was beginning to get a little jealous of Jim. Here this man was in his 70s, been married to his wife for decades, has a house in shambles and he is able to get up and walk away? Say word? That’s both messed up and awesome at the same time! Messed up only because adulthood teaches us to strap responsibility on our backs by way of bills, work and family and carry it singing a song and wearing a smile. But here I am in my 20s and I am often reciting the childlike phrase “I don’t wanna!” And as Rum Punch mentioned the other day it’s easy to get into a wash-rinse-repeat cycle of living our lives. And so it’s a little bit awesome that Jim could look at his situation (and I will acknowledge that Jim isn’t wrapped too tight either) throw up the deuces and keep it moving to Vegas. I wish I had the guts to do the same sometimes.

So at the church house on Sunday pastor got his preach on talking about living life to the fullest. And I began to wonder if I was. Honestly and truly. Surely there is more to life that working, paying bills, meeting friends for dinner and movies. Surely there is more to life than amassing a whole bunch of things and hoarding them in my closet. But does living life to the fullest mean walking away from the mundane just because I don’t wanna? Imma say no. And I’m saying that because I’m an adult and that’s what I am suppose to say. But if I am not filling my life with the aforementioned things, then what should I be filling it with?

I guess how people should live their lives is a question that has been asked for ages. Be it watching a hobby develop into a way of life, dissolving stereotypes by climbing the corporate ladder, representing the misrepresented or interpreting life through the written word we are filling our lives with something. Maybe the key to living life to the fullest is sharing it with others.

See You In Seven

Focused on the good.

This past weekend has got to be one of those weekends where your strength is truely tested. I am not sure how I didn't break down in tears from frustration, anger and disappointment. I guess I must a stronger person now.

Here is the recap:

1. Finished building a piece I had been working on for the past 8 weeks. Not the happiest about the proportions. (deep sigh) Time to make a new one.

2. Get home at 11 pm to work on a project I already explained to the VPs of my company is not physically possible. Up all night through the snow... nap at 4... back up at 6pm and so this pattern continues.*

3. Friday night I rebel with a break to find the inside of my car filled with snow. SNOW! Why would my car be filled with snow? Ahh, let's see because someone managed to get into my gated parking lot that I pay extra for and break into my car?!?! Are you sersious and yet there was nothing for you to take.

4. Then as I try to put plastic on my car incase it snows some more, due to fatigue and emotions overload, I slit my hand on the broken glass.

5. Saturday... paid out to fix that window. There goes the play money this week.

*It is not just me working these crazy hours, I have my whole department and others breaking their backs and I am not even sure what for. (deep sigh)

I had to focus on the GOOD! So let me tell this story again...

1. Thursday - On my fourth attempt to build a fountain, I succeed and learn a lot about timing and what is going to be needed to complete this project. I look forward to making the next one even better than this one.

2. When I reviewed what my team's work, I was relieved... the revisions I had were minor. They really stepped up to the plate after weeks of training.

3. Friday - Shoveling snow out of my car I found my friend's iPod under the seat. LOL! The bastards didn't find it but... WE did after a week of looking, thanks to them. OH and nothing was taken from my car.

4. Saturday - I was really afraid my hand wouldn't stop bleeding but it did. YAY! No stitches.

5. At least I had the money to get a new window and I was the first stop for the day so I was good by 10 a.m.

6. After all this Semi-colon stops by to chill for a minute (which is really hours) and help me put together my write-up for a charity show that was the next day.

7. Show went well with a lot of positive feedback.

This weekend could have been a lot worst... I could have been in Chile Saturday morning.

Much luv with focus on the good until next week... peace :)