Blogs won't let me wait

Everywhere I look, I see thoughtful, challenging, amusing and well-written posts. What's up with that, huh?

The Colorblind Society's "Stealthy Review"
Meskel Square's "Miss Ethiopia, Supergeek"
Rainmayun's "The Shotgun Theory"
The Life & Times of a Hustlin' Scribe's "Rosewood"
Kyra's Weblog's "My Own Brand of Independence"
tuckergrrrl's "The Film Festival Shuffle"
black looks' "Blogging takes off in Africa"
The Third Decade's "Step-By-Step Gentrification"
Naked Cartwheels' "We're Riding on the Groove Line"

Do your best, leave the rest

One thing I'm finding about reading black bloggers' sites is how often surprising and interesting things happen to them.

They publish short stories in Playgirl.
They attend Blogher (yes, Laina D., Marian, Ambra, Nichelle, Lynne and Tiffany, I'll see you there!)
They give readings from their literary efforts.
They turn 30 years old.
They pass the word about missing women of color.
They pass the word about church efforts to end violence against gays.
They pass the word about famine in Niger.
They turn Toronto into a Carribean paradise for a weekend.

Wednesday's Top 40

Black Looks' "Water Water"
Githush's "Thurgood Marshall and the Kenyan Constitution"
African Bullets and Honey's "Yes, There Are Slaves in Niger"
mostly AFRICA's "US Pentagon wants more authority to arm & equip African armies" and "Nigeria: report on torture"
The Zimbabwean Pundit's "One trip, one new title and two huge concessions: Mugabe's Chinese venture pays off"

Pandagon's "That Wedding Ring Thing"
Tayari Jones' "Confessions of a Video Vixen"
Anderson@Large's "I Can't Stand the Heat"
Seasoned in the Life's "Black Fraternity Survey"

Palm Trees in the Ghetto's "The Real Blue States"
Nappy Diatribe's "Sunday I went to an old-school hip-hop show"
Stereo Describes My Scenario's "Ath-a-letic"
Sterfish's Place's "Indulge your narcissistic side"
Ghetto Uprising's "Why I download music"
Bullet Proof Soul's "The Greatest Novel Ever Written"

Tuesday's not just another day, is it?

I've been running around all day, so I missed my usual sitdown with Bloglines. I've got some planning to do in the runup to Blogher. If you're going, you should drop me a line at george at allaboutgeorge dot-com or, of course, AIM me at "allaboutgeorge." (If I'm not online, it'll go to my cizzell phizzone. Ah, technology!) There'll be all kinds of black bloggers there. Lynne is going. Ambra is going. Tiffany is going. And I'm going, because men are also invited.

For now, here are some questions and some answers.

What do you do when it's 80 degrees in New York and too hot to sleep? You do what the News Blog does. You blog about it.

What do you do when you have a great idea about recasting "Good Times"? You do what Ink Blotter does. You blog about it. (And then you read the 29 comments that are already there, and then you have your say. But, heck, you don't need me to tell you that, do you?)

What do you do when you have a slammin' recipe for some Jamaican jerk chicken? You don't do what I do, which is write it down on a piece of paper, wad it up in a ball, aim for the trashcan, miss because you have no jumpshot to speak of and because the only thing you know how to do on a basketball court is wear the hell out of a suit like your name was Pat Riley, grab your car keys and go to the Emeryville Public Market for some tight J. j.c. You do what the Down Home Soul Food Cooking Blog does. You blog about it.

Everywhere you want to be

I'm really glad that Minister Faust of the Bro-Log is all right and didn't get caught up in the madness. I'd only added him to my main blogroll in the last couple of weeks, and was already marveling at his travels. Check out "My wife and I are fine; far too many others, sadly, are not" and "Red Sea to Cairo--Moses' route remixed" for his latest updates.

Other posts well worth your time: "Bullet From a Gun" by Korentang's Toli (part of his London's Got Soul trilogy), And We Shall March's hungry-making "It Might Be 98-degrees Outside, But This Chicken Isn't Going To Roast Itself," and Tayari Jones' post spotlighting John Fountain's disenchantment with the black church.

Test entry for Technorati blog-ownage

Technorati Profile

"Tell me that you are living with HIV. Tell me that you care."

Frank Leon Roberts' Brooklyn Boy Blues post "I think you're HIV-positive" has probably sparked some of the widest discussion I've seen in several weeks among sectors of the blackosphere. That discussion -- touching on health, public safety, nihilism and self-worth -- deserves a wider audience among traditional media outlets; here's hoping others link, comment and testify. Roberts' tone, though not intended as accusatory, is intended to cut through perceived silence on the state of our brothers and sisters. It's an "if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" classic.

Picking up signals in the distance

Baldilocks' "The New Blitz" comments on today's bombs in London (as do Culture Kitchen and Republic of T.) and Ursula Barzey is there and well, thank goodness. Steve Gilliard over at the News Blog has a couple of thoughtful posts in "Different Approaches" and "Security Theater"

Prometheus 6 provokes with "Black Politics: A kind of stereoscopic vision"

EBrown over at Vision Circle mulls over "Haiti and the War on Terrorism"

Outrageous stuff seems to happen to Will at In My Write Mind all the time. Example, the first? "The 2Pacalypse is Coming"

Down with my Crew

I'm sitting in a ubiquitous-mermaid caffeine-habit-satisfaction shop, and I get an instant message. It's an ex-co-worker who's moved south from the Bay Area. She mentions that she's quoted in today's Los Angeles Times. "Suh-weet," I say.

Adrienne Crew stops short of using a term such as "new sincerity" but says she's noticed a growing interest among young urbanites to simplify their lives. Crew, a 40-year-old attorney and "brainiac" writing a novel on African American geeks, is the founder of labrainterrain.com, a blog and calendar listing of intellectual events around L.A.

"I'm seeing these youngsters who are really looking for expressions of unmediated experience, fun that's not created by consumer culture," she says. A growing trend she sees as a reaction to hipsterism is "granny chic," or social groups centered around archaic hobbies. Stitch and Bitch and The Church of Craft are two Los Angeles-based examples of groups that gather to work on quilting, needlework, paper craft and lace making — in unabashed earnestness.

Crew also cites the Machine Project, a group that combines performance art with science, hosting workshops on such topics as how to build a radio. Says Crew, "Every two days I get these e-mails that go, 'Hey, kids, we've got this goofy thing we're going to be doing, so bring anything you want demagnetized!'"

Check out Adrienne at L.A. Brain Terrain.Noticed elsewhere:Cobb's "What Do Black Conservatives Look Like?"

Not too tired to Tut

Let's just say I did a lot of driving today. I'm tempted to either try a theme post. See if you can guess the connection:

Digital Penny's "One Vacation"
It's My Place's "My Greek Adventure"
Shasta McNasty's "Nothing Good Can Come From This"
a.lil.funk.for.my.day's "Atlanta Bloggers"
I'm Working on Me's "Ranada's Tale of Two Cities"
Poetry, Rants, Women and Power's "Seattle" and "Seattle #2"
In My Write Mind's "'Will' you be down?"
urban bohemian's "why don't we ... Runaway!" and "The grind (minus Eric Nies)"

A bit of black-blogging backloggage

I use Bloglines to keep tabs of (as of today) over 600 black bloggers. While it's relatively early today, here are posts from the last few days that caught my eye for long enough to merit their own tab in my PowerBook's Safari browser until now:

ReidBlog's "Cabana Radicals"
Mudd Up!'s "Today MP(still un)FREE Turns 10" and Foreign Dispatches' "10 Years of MP3"
The News Blog's "Apologize?"
Cobb's "The Backhand of Merit"
J's Theater's "Bastille Day" (with one of my favorite poems)
Planet Grenada's "Different Religions Week" and "Arrested development"
The Hunter's Herald's "Army finally honors first black chaplain"
Booker Rising's "GOP: 'We were wrong' to play racial politics"
John Kamau's "Just what makes a community go berserk?" and African Bullets and Honey's "The Tragedy and Puzzle of the Massacre in Northern Kenya"
Vision Circle's "An Apology for Slavery"
Professor Kim's News Notes' "What the NAACP has done for Americans lately"
Republic of T.'s "Good (for Nothing) Ol' Boys" and "Rove/Plame Primer"
Korentang's Toli's "Catford Bridge"
Footnotes from the Ugandan Underground's "All Rock, No Action in Live 8"
Black Looks' "Blair and the New Victorians"
Devas T. Rants and Raves!' "Kid-Lit Thursday: random thoughts"
Pica 12's "Knowledge and the Bill Pickett Rodeo"
Pandagon's "Women-only town coming under attack"
breath of life's "July 17, 2005"
Gina's RantSpot's "I should be working but ..." and "Wondering ..."
Hiphopmusic.com's "I'm 20 Pages into Harry Potter, and I'm Pissed"
Kenya Democracy Project's "A Hail Storm is Visiting Us Soon ..."
Anderson @ Large's "The Woo Woo Singsong"
Anything those photobloggers post at EthiopiaLives.net

Mid-July madness

When it's time to sum up blackospheric trends, I'm finding that it's not an easy thing. I find myself tempted to try to extrapolate trends from seeing posts on similar topics, like Urban Sista's Adventures' "More women delaying motherhood until 30s" and Gina's RantSpot's "The Sh*tty Dating Scene in Chicago." Or I'll read about places where things are jumping off over the weekend, like Charlotte, North Carolina, in posts like Rod 2.0:beta's "Pride in the Carolinas" or Prime Time's "NC LGB Pride '05" and "National Black Arts Festival July 15 - July 24." People have found a way to weigh in on various subjects this week, including the CIA leaks, the fallout from the London bombings, President Bush's trip to the Black Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana, and, well ... the list goes on.

I'd like to send a special shoutout to writer extraordinaire Bomani Jones, who marks his first blogiversary. Bomani, it only gets more fun from here on out!

Have a great weekend!

Great Scott!

I'm posting late because I took time Wednesday to hang out with Richard Scott of Tragically Deep Thoughts and Road Warrior Chronicles. (Highlights: Billowing gusts of fog atop Twin Peaks, pumps offering $6-a-gallon gasoline and vertiginous drives up and down Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill before finding the infamous Lombard Street.)

Let me tell you: if you haven't done so before now, hanging out with bloggers is fun. The people who post daily to the weblogs you read are not just text, they're flesh and blood. There's something to be said for getting away from the keyboard and screen to be sociable, visible and voluble. On that note, I'd ask that you (yes, you!) send up a flare if you're swinging through the Bay Area on business or vacation. I'll do my best to meet up with you, or at least offer tips that may smooth your travels.

How much is getting your groove back worth to you?

Summer M.'s fecundmellow post "Niagara Movement Reconsidered: Open Letter #2" is a really silly and lovely take on the NAACP meeting taking place this week in Milwaukee. I've spent a little time thinking about why I'm not a member, and her post got me thinking in a way that several Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel articles simply haven't.

Tony Pierce's busblog post "Before there was Howard Stern, there was Steve Dahl" shows up within a week of Stacey Lester's wishlist gift to me, Peter Shapiro's "Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco." Coincidence? I think not.

K is for Kamau

"Most bloggers tell stories differently." So says John Kamau, who talks about karaoke bars in Edinburgh as well as some of his other times covering the G-8 meeting at Gleneagles. I'm listening to the BBC World Service on my laptop, and a bemused interviewer is talking with Kamau and another blogger about the London bombings and Londoners' coverage via phone cameras and sites like Flickr.

Worthwhile posts elsewhere: rod 2.0:beta's "Amerie's Vibe" and Prometheus 6's "Black Intrapolitics: A spectrum of shades"

Webified weekend

The black blogosphere seemed to enjoy its Saturday and Sunday. Here are some of the posts that caught my eye.

Angelina Jolie's newly adopted Ethiopian daughter? A sore spot of sorts for Between & Betwixt and Safire (not once but twice).

London commuter Guessasaurus set down her thoughts last Thursday, as did Uaridi and Andrew from London. Another Londoner, Wangari at My Own Private Mews, felt rather town-proud. Farther afield, I found I rather liked "The Terror Era" at The Thinker's Room.

You may not have been paying attention to the chaos in Zimbabwe lately, so read Manulite Delite's "A new day in the life of a Zimbabwean" (via Zimpundit's "Life in Harare" post) to get up to speed.

If you're looking to take better care of your health, get motivated with Summer Squeeze, Okolo or Tony Eason.

On a happy note, please wish Duane Brayboy of the Black Informant a happy first blogiversary.

Will over at In My Write Mind writes about watching Luther Vandross' funeral on television. And speaking of Luther, you'll really want to check out this interview from 1982 at breath of life.

And last but not least, Angela Odom made it to that bookstore (the one I mentioned before) and Michael Miraflor posted that Dave Chappelle show review (as promised).

Rounding up the week

There are a lot of topics on people's minds, so it's difficult to take the temperature of the black blogosphere this week. I'm tracking over 402 blogs written or co-written by black folks, so I have a few ideas, mind you. The four or five that come to mind most easily this week are the terrorist transport bombings in London, the Live 8 concerts (accompanying the just-concluded G-8 meetings in Scotland), the death (and afterlife, if you will) of vocalist Luther Vandross, the run-up to hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement and the Memim Pinguin Mexican-stamp controversy. Let's see if those topics show some staying power next week.

London tube and bus explosions

You've probably heard of today's bombings in London. The first thing I did when I heard about them this morning was to visit Ursula Barzey's blog. It did me a world of good to know she was unhurt, if not a little shaken (and justly so) and had gotten home safely. Then I got an e-mail notice about a new entry on Bomani Jones' blog. Bomani just recently visited London, and he was rightfully disturbed.

Never too much

The great singer's passing was noted on a number of black weblogs, but the posts that caught my eye most strongly were Professor Kim's NewsNotes' "The thing about Terry McMillan and a few other things," The Republic of T.'s "One Song Unsung" and ThatColoredFellasweblog's "Any Love: Luther Vandross 1951-2005."

Bonus reference: Keith Boykin's "Who's Gay and Who Cares?"

Post-Live 8/Fourth of July roundup

Lots of action to catch up to over the long holiday weekend!

African Bullets and Honey has some fire for those who took issue with their skeptical stance toward making poverty history.  Black Looks says "we are not whales!" Medlog calls it "poverty karaoke."

Angela Odom climbed a mountain to watch some bombs bursting in air. Fresh! over at Scribes has a nice fireworks shot.

Going postal, pt. 2

The letters -- I mean, posts -- just keep piling up.

John K.: [...] I won't get into Mexico's complex and troubled racial history, which like every other nation in this hemisphere included the marginalization and slaughter of Native peoples and the subsequent enslavement of Blacks (the two in particular were linked in Mexico's case because of Bartolomé de las Casas); one aspect of this history has been an enduring racism against its large indigenous Indian population, which has resulted in periodic flareups such as the war in Chiapas; a racism of a different but intense sort against its native Black population, which has long been presumed not to exist; and, among the White/European ruling élites, against the visibly mestizo majority, which is evident in Mexican-language media, politics, business circles, and so on. Related to these forms of racism is Mexico's guiding mestizaje ideology, from which the Black "third root" has been almost completely erased and effaced in both official and popular discourse. [...]

rootwork the rootsblog: this is so hapless its kinda funny
its like where have you been the last 50 years
dont you folk know its bad form to be overt w/the racism these days