Truth Hurts

IF Truth is stranger than fiction, why are people so compelled to make stuff up?

Whether it's James Frey and his all too recent understanding of what separates truth from fiction, or the President of the United States and his own idea of selective truth, It becomes more and more obvious that truth isn't what it used to be.

Mind you, this is the SAME president that led us into war under two premises, neither proven to any degree of verification, both exhaustively refuted in the mainstream media, both believed by a majority of Americans despite said refutation.

1. Saddam Hussein played a role in 9/11
2. Saddam Hussein had WMD

And lest you think only rich white folk have the sickness, Consider the case of one Willie Lynch.

You DO know...the letter is a fake, right?


The immediate response by those who float this stuff out there is to act as though since the letter addresses some actual issues that we as African-Americans face, it is just as relevant.

No.

If it didnt actually happen, IT DIDNT ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

IT
IS
A
LIE.



You cannot use any lie to prove any kind of truth. No end is righteous enough to be justified by that means.

Yet it pervades our very fabric. And with the emergence of the Internet and it's inherent anonymity, the lure to stretch and contort a small and simple kernel of truth into a all you can eat buffet of justification is just too easy to pass up.

Sending an email asking you to Watch Jamie Foxx's special on NBC because he has a diverse cast of African-American characters isn't enough; there has to be a nefarious conspiracy against the man; who is everywhere at the moment.

Sometimes in our search for the "truth", we make mountains out of molehills when in fact..they are, in fact, merely molehills.

Is Kanye West REALLY comparing his plight to that of the Savior of the World?


No...he is just being Kanye West and trying to sell records and magazines.

Far be it for me to do any more to help him than to say his album is great.

Don't worry about the cover...its just marketing masquerading as truth.

No physical likeness...or movie for that matter can compete with the actuality of what Jesus suffered and why. Some men wore crowns of thorns and some were crucified, justifiably in some cases.

ONE man rose on the third day and saved me from my sins. Kanye West isn't that man nor does he pretend to be.

Kanye West, in that tortured genius artist way of his, takes the little truths that live in his mind(George Bush doesn't care about Black People;I am the best in the world at what I do, I have NO problem telling you so, and I think deep down you are jealous of the whole thing.) and cultivates them into something that has you talking about him, which is ultimately what this is about.

To get worked up about a media stunt like that is only to feed into the very insanity such beliefs rely on to survive.

"The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies." - Sir Francis Bacon

The thrill of Victory, but not here.

Yes, I am happy.


I am a Steelers Fan. After numerous close calls, The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl.

I will not elaborate in this space on this topic.

That is about sports, so it will be over there.

Don't think for a second I am not excited, but there is no point in belaboring the obvious, especially since the game isn't for 10 more days.

Beef anyone?

Clearly it's been too long, so, someone had to do something.


Cam'ron Disses Jay-Z....by name.


In a move he probably should get an invoice from Nas for, Cam'ron puts out a dis record on Jay-Z...weighing in at SEVEN MINUTES AND FORTY-FOUR SECONDS.

Yes, boys and girls, Cam'ron has an album coming out.

yes...I have it...yes...i will send it to you...if you want it.

a brief summary.

Cam is an average rapper with slightly above average wordplay skills and a quirky flow.

He was on the verge of a decent career until Mase either found Jesus or hid from Puffy, depending on who you ask, and left him holding an album and no deal.

then he was in no-man's land, a rapper with a crew and no deal and mad about it.

a few years later, in the absolute heat of the Jay-Z era, Damon Dash signs Cam and his crew to Rocafella and gives them a label imprint and if I recall correctly, a goodly sum of cash without consulting Jay.

They enjoy(?) a fairly casual co-existence but when it all goes down. the relationship sours....Jay and Damon split up (like some married couple btw) and everyone chooses sides.

Apparently Cam is a little bitter cause Jay ended up with the name Rocafella and most of the artists who actually SELL records, along with Kanye West and Jus Blaze the house producers.

A couple of months ago, Cam'ron was shot in an alleged car-jacking. He survived, claiming it was some foul play involved...but wouldn't say what it was about.


NOW he's saying Jay is responsible in some way.


He is also saying He can't dress, he is ugly, old, in the closet, and is not to be trusted.

He also unearthes Beyonce singing on a song of his from his second album...and alludes to having her first.

Which would probably piss off Mr. Knowles, since she would have been like...12 at the time (actually 16-18 but who knows, I wouldn't be surprised if she was 30)

I have now heard it about 10 times.

It's amusing.

It's provocative.


As someone indifferent to Cam'ron's catalogue but casually impressed by his flow, it's noteworthy only cause it's about Jay.

The streets are abuzz.

I admit my curiousity is piqued.


and YES...i do have it.

if I can get my radio blog to work...ill post it on here...later.

COMING SOON

On Monday, I am opening a new blog dedicated to sports.


You're saying:


That is so mannish of you. You men only care about sports. Sports aren't that important, it is just grown men making millions of dollars to play a game.

You keep thinking that.

I find that the very same people who harp on atheletes making millions have NO problem with plunking down 8 bucks plus popcorn and raisinettes to see absolute CRAP at the movies. And let us not even comment on what people watch on TV.

Admit it, you would watch a celebrity do ANYTHING, wouldn't you.

Skating with celebrities? You have GOT to be kidding me.

I don't mind American Idol, but is people singing BADLY, on PURPOSE, really entertaining? Let me know when they stop showing some white dude doing a bad Michael Jackson impersonation. And all of you are responsible for William Hung. You owe me an apology, but I will accept financial renumeration.

Professional sports is at least a meritocracy. I am watching some of the best people in the world at their craft practice it.

My ability to earn a living is directly impacted by the success of the Texas Rangers. When they succeed, I actually make more money.

Conversely, when the Dallas Cowboys win, I make less money. That is just a quirk of life, but it does enable me to root against them with justification.

I realize that as a genuine intellectual(my arrogance is officially showing), I find myself apologizing for being a sports fan, as though because I can rattle off statistics and observations, it lumps me in with those who have no concept of the context of sports.


Ah, yes...the context of sports, THIS is the topic.

Sports has a context, much like politics and entertainment. In the American Aesthetic, Sports is the ultimate petri dish. It is the controlled envrionment where people come together over things bigger than them and divide over things as small as the difference between the Cubs and the White Sox.

Sports IS important. It may not be important to YOU, but it is important.

Sports MATTERS, just maybe not to you.

But maybe it should.

If the existence of something brought Billions of dollars into the economy where you lived, wouldn't you want to pay attention to it?

The city of Detroit is ALREADY counting the money they are about to receive from Super Bowl XL.

The city of Pittsburgh is PRAYING, and I do mean LITERALLY PRAYING for a victory to get to the Super Bowl, because it will be the best news they have had since, almost the LAST Super Bowl.

The city of Indianapolis is STILL trying to get over the cloud of smoke that represents their dreams of Football supremacy.

And on Sunday, ONE man will be playing a football game despite having been jailed for smacking his girlfriend in public for dancing with another man, while ANOTHER man will be suspended from his job for leaving his work station to investigate a confrontation involving his wife and a man who may have been threatening her.

The sports world is a mirror on us, and I intend to use it to show us who we REALLY are.

All of us.

But that is for over there. So you folk who don't care about sports don't have to read it.

But you should.

There is no telling what interesting tidbit about life you can uncover over there.

Balls and My Words - a blog about Sports in its larger context...coming Monday.

We begin with the beginning: 100 things about me, part one.

For those who are still wondering who the hell I think I am, Here is a repost of part one of a two part list to tell you more about me than most people have any business wanting to know.

100 Things about Me

1. My given name is David Wayne Parrish, Jr.

2. I am the Father of two sons

3. I am named after my father who I believe is named after the actor David Wayne.

4. My oldest son is named after me...and I would have named all my sons David...if it wasn't so unfair.

5. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, where I attended an all Black elementary school and an all Black High School.

6. I learned to read before I was potty trained

7. I was raised on PBS and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

8. I Wasted one of the most lucrative college scholarships ever offered for reasons that I cannot truly explain in this forum, although I am sure I will address it.

9. I have one younger brother who is infinitely more charming than I am.

10. My Father died of an aneurysm in 2000.

11. I spend a lot of my time trying to avoid mistakes my father made, something that is much easier said than done, since he was nice enough to pass on all his faults to me.

12. My step-father died when I was 13 after marrying my mother when I was 7.

13. He died of Lung Cancer at the age of 53. I vowed to never smoke a cigarette (or anything else) after that and never did.

14. That man spent his last months on earth cramming life lessons about being a Black man into me that I wish I was old enough to process at the time he told me. I would have had a much easier road in life if I had grasped what he was instilling in me.

15. My mother is #4 of five daughters and one son born to my maternal grandmother, a woman who has 6 children 24 grand-children, 37 great-grandchildren, 12 great great grandchildren and has not had a negative word spoken about her in my lifetime.

16. I am the only one of my deceased paternal grandmother's grandchildren with two Black parents. She had three sons and only one of them, my father, married a Black Woman.

17. My mother is left-handed, I am left-handed, but neither of my sons are left handed.

18. I wet the bed until I was well into my teens.

19. I sleep so hard, it sometimes amazes me that I still don't wet the bed.

20. I lost my virginity at the age of 18 during my first year in college.

21. I have never seen ET

22. My Father was a professional drummer for many years, playing for the R&B group Samson and Deliliah, George Benson, Earl Klugh, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and some others.

23. I played drums (and trombone) at Westinghouse High School for a band director who graduated from Grambling.

24. I attended Florida A&M University for two years on the aforementioned lucrative scholarship that I pissed away for reasons I shan't discuss. Today.

25. I met the two men I would go to war with if it went down tomorrow. One of them will be my best man at my second wedding. The other stood by and watched while I broke one, no two, no three, no four of the 10 commandments. Which is what your boys do when you act an ass. Stand by and watch while you FUBAR on your own accord. Then stroll by and help you pick up the pieces.

26. I am an original hip-hop head from the break dancing days

27. Every 2 years or so, I vow to walk away from hip-hop, leaving it to the children and lil white boys it craves to market itself to. Then a project comes along to pull me back in.

28. This year, those projects were Late Registration, The Craft and The Minstrel Show.

29. I am not afraid to admit i will cry at movies.

30. Last movie I cried at was Coach Carter. Something about father son scenes really pulls at the heartstrings for me.

31. My sons live with my ex-wife, although I hope to spend their puberty years with primary custody.

32. I have received mail in the following states: Pennsylvania, Florida, Connecticut, California, Maryland, Texas.

33. I am a cat person who owns a Shih-tzu named Casey. This is what happens when you decide to marry a dog person.

34. I am marrying a Fourth-grade teacher in the FWISD, who happens to be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc.

35. My first wedding was on my ex-wife's birthday

36. My last wedding will be on my birthday.

37. My ex-wife was a Mets fan originally from the Bronx currently living in Maryland.

38. My future wife is Yankees fan originally from Queens, currently living in Texas

39. My ex-wife was a track star

40. My future wife was a softball star.

41. I dunked a basketball on a regulation rim exactly twice.

42. I was a horrible athlete growing up.

43. I distinctly remember being force-fed soccer in elementary school, back when the powers that be were intent on making the US a soccer power. 30 years later, they are still trying.

44. I am a registered Democrat, although that means absolutely nothing to me.

45. I will likely go to my grave having never been a registered Republican, although I grow more conservative by the day.

46. This factoid is purely the fault of the Republican Party, as the Democrats have done NOTHING to ensure my continued membership.

47. I once ran a political campaign for city council.

48. I will likely never do that again.

49. I believe that people who WRITE about politics have far more influence than people who work in politics at the current time.

50. I have no public political opinion on Abortion because I believe it has no place in the political discussion. IMO, you would do better arguing the criminality of bypass surgery, because, in effect, it is a medical procedure.

New Year, New Attitude, New Purpose, Just NEW

This is exactly 7 days past due.

I was supposed to Start my 2006 writing year on January 9. IT is clearly not January 9, and for that I apologize.

If I did everything right, there will be some changes to this here blog today and this is only the beginning of such changes.

It is my general intention, now that my personal life seems to have reached its cruising altitude( impending wedding and its inherent insanity notwithstanding) 2006 is the year that I get my writing life in order.

As my tardiness illustrates, I have a long way to go.

another sip of haterade

D4L's success continues as their hit single "Laffy Taffy" set a new one week record
for sales of a single download. The single, dubbed "Snap" music, sold more than
175,000 downloads last week, thanks to the sale of various digital music players
during the Christmas holidays.

I was doing some background in order to address that disturbing piece of information that hit my inbox a couple of days ago when I found this article.

Yes, go read it and come back..you know how this works...I will stop here and wait.


Back yet? Good.

For those of you too lazy to check it out, the quote reads:

Just as the Jew is hated in Russia because he is thrifty, so the Negro meets no resistance when on a downward course. It is only when he rises in wealth, intelligence and manly character that he brings upon himself the heavy hand of persecution."
-Fredrick Douglass quoted by Speech of Arrested Development

If you don't know the context of that quote you must go back and click the link, then you must sit in the corner in punishment for not following the flow of the post. Now that you're caught up with everyone else, I will move on.

I have been struggling with this very issue about us lately. What I didn't know is that Mr. Douglass had stated it so eloquently so many years ago. At some point we must wrestle with the images put out there in our names.

Oh...you DO know that if ONE of us screws up, we all gotta ride for it, don't you?

You don't think that has changed do you?

I am sorry for reminding you of that fact.

...and don't get mad at me, I don't make these rules, I just live by them.




just like you do.

a sip of haterade...

As a black author, I had certainly become familiar with the sexualization and degradation of black fiction. Over the last several years, I had watched the shelves of black bookstores around the country and the tables of street vendors, particularly in New York City, become overrun with novels that seemed to appeal exclusively to our most prurient natures - as if these nasty books were pairing off back in the stockrooms like little paperback rabbits and churning out even more graphic offspring that make Ralph Ellison books cringe into a dusty corner.

-Nick Chiles in the 1/4/06 NY Times on the state of Black Fiction

I stumbled across this article late tonight while trying to get caught up on my reading and get back into a routine of sorts.

As an alleged fiction author, I found Mr. Chiles argument rather troubling. I have found that art as usual, mimics the culture it springs from. We have evolved into a culture that takes sexuality very casually and impacts not just what we watch and listen to, but now what we read as well. people used The "ghetto lit" thing as a tool to reach a market that wasn't buying books. Now we find that market being the primary retail market. I don't read these books, and I don't know anyone personally who does. But judging from the numbers, SOMEONE, LOTS of someones, in fact, are reading these books. And before you ask, from what I have seen, they are as bad as you think, with some exceptions.


Kinda makes me wanna stick with political commentary.

While We Slept...

One...not 12

Getting it right is the most important part of imparting information. Being First...is not nearly as important as being right.

Turns out that there was a communication error between the mine rescue team and the Command center and 12 of the 13 miners were not, in fact, alive, but all but 1 of them were dead. This mistaken rumor spread from the families to the media which was pretty much standing around the whole time.

20 minutes later, the company gets the correct information and waits...until they get an ACTUAL report of how many are alive and dead and THEN goes to break the news to the families.

How did this all happen so poorly?

He said that company officials received a report from a rescue team down in the mine that 12 miners had been found and were alive. Twenty minutes later, he said, they learned that initial report was wrong; that only one of the 12 was still alive.

But someone in the command center at the mine site heard the report that 12 of the miners were alive and relayed it to family members at the church, prompting a joyous celebration.

This "someone" should be unemployed. After a brief career in government PR, The FIRST commandment is

"Thou shalt not run thine mouth without confirming said information beyond retraction."

The urge to be the hero with the good news is powerful...but the need to make sure that news is RIGHT should take precedence.

My heart goes out to the family, and yes..the company for their loss.

The urge is to blame the company, and because of the careless act of ONE employee, they are responsible. But this is tragic for all involved.

Save some "knee time" for them tonight.