prickly self-expression
12 December, 2008 | No comments | Category: for.the.love.of.words!, madness!, prose.tales, thinking...
a fuzzy tube of void fills with the aroma of congested, stifled breath… a ball of feeling anchors it in the pit of the stomach.
feelings…tiny bubbles of unsettled distaste rise along with flittering flattering flimsiness traveling like smoke from an incense burner through the throat up into the mouth, where the tongue rests motionless. pity; swallowing heightens tastes of bitter sweetness; the pleasurable fragrance of incense replaced with breaths of bafflement.
the face expressionless, those delicately-crafted tender lips down-turned, as cheeks lunge in concert with the lids and fragile soft skin sags under the eyes…contrary to its age.
swallowing hard, her mind races …speeding stamina of thoughts do not dissipate, as if regenerated as the race drains the perkiness from her face channeling energy to her mind keeping it reeling.
have you ever closed your eyes and kept typing? …a lady emerges as a foggy image from whatever is streaming through fingers as the keyboard and cushy finger tips step a staccato tap dance.
is there anything like releasing emotion through expression?…anything as cathartic? the disconnect between the physical and the abstract paralyze while, mysteriously they fuse to make the tangible feelings…prickly.
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Uncomfortable Truth: Nneka
- Flattery: Fast-tracking Success?
- Opposite Sides of the Border
- Murky
- Dark Spirits
Kenna.i.love: Grammy Nominee EthioAmericans!
4 December, 2008 | 1 comment | Category: madness!, musiqa, thinking...
This is way beyond surreal! I was writing up this post last nite before going to sleep-- and this morning I woke up to an alert on facebook: Two Ethiopian American Musicians have been nominated for Grammys!! Way to PUSH the envelope! CONGRATULATIONS- Way proud of you guys!
Best Urban/Alternative Performance
Wanna Be -- Maiysha
Be OK -- Chrisette Michele Featuring will.i.am
Many Moons -- Janelle Monae
Lovin You (Music) -- Wayna Featuring Kokayi
____________________________________________________________
Kenna.i.love?
such love!
its inexplicable! wheew!
its beyond the realm of words i tell ya….
it’s a feeling located in a place only music can reach.
Kenna Zemedkun, is an Ethiopian-born American musician- a rocker…
i didn’t like his music just a year ago…i thought it sounded like empty ruckus muckus suckus. tehehe i know, so harsh right?
but now--NOW i hear him and i quickly connect…he is like a genre of his own which u acquire a taste for. his voice is so singular, so clear…so confident. his style is so unapologetic…which i just love. His artistry is like he has a little caption under his music: this is me *shrug*. that’s kinda deep… that’s a lot deep…!
yes, part of his stuff sounded/s kinda the same…but thinking more about it, to me, he’s kinda like gnarls barkely in that -- his distinction and sometimes sublime lyrics have an enthralling clarity. hmm…his stuff is always so recognizable, and catchy…great ‘on the move’ music.
what i am in love with the most tho is that …from his work i sense he’s a creator…a musician who flows passion into his work, pours it all right out, splatters it onto the guitar strings, sound mixer and keyboards from his heart. exhaling ‘there!‘ An artist friend of mine once said to me “creativity comes from the heart” and i was like …hu? the heart spits out innovative cartoon thought-clouds? sawweet …it’s all subjective anyway, i guess…
been looking @ some stuff on creativity. The “creative personality” article on Psychology Today was an especially intriguing commentary on creative people’s personalities… had some fascinating observations including -- ‘creative people are more like ‘multitudes’ rather than ‘individuals.’ ‘one word what makes their personalities different from others, it’s complexity.’ Here are some more abstractions from the article…
- great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest
- smart yet naive
- combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility
- alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality
- tend to be both extroverted and introverted
- humble and proud at the same time
- escape rigid gender role stereotyping
- both rebellious and conservative
- very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well
- openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment
Well i don’t know how this all sounds to anyone else but, to me, these descriptions paint portraits of people who are full of contradictions and frankly speaking- plain ol CONfuSION…I think it’s like they’re comfortable with the confusion and ambiguity…they choose to be at that itchy middle point, the interface, on the edge. They are comfortable with discomfort because they know the Brink is where they can push themselves off the edge into something new. after all…one wise dude once said ‘necessity is the mother of innovation’. out of a survival instinct standing at a void-at emptiness and a lack of fulfillment of what is humanly necessary or comfortable, these creative minds make do and use what is available to create…
ok enough philosophizing for one sitting. handing it over to a queen of creativity herself…
lo and behold the world-renown ‘Joy Luck Club’ author Amy Tran asking where Creativity Hides. Quite the edgy, quirky, rambilicous talk seeped with sarcastic humor. video again courtesy of Nani
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Uncomfortable Truth: Nneka
- Flattery: Fast-tracking Success?
- Murky
- Dark Spirits
- Let’s vote off the Cravat!
I spy with my little eye…
18 August, 2008 | No comments | Category: madness!
the second installation of ‘madness in the DC metro’ chronicles. Behold fellow human! and enjoy!
life is fun. keep on living. use caution around the tracks.
Possibly Related Posts:
I dare you to…
20 June, 2008 | 2 comments | Category: madness!
this is a message from the ibdoch who sponsored the banner below on the red line underground metro in DC. please and thank you.
Go do something youseful today. Sprinkle some maddness in this mad world!
Possibly Related Posts:
chili pepperzz in the land of superlatives
9 November, 2007 | 7 comments | Category: ethnicity
I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!
the red hot sizzle of chili is soo good for u, it is medicative!!! no wonder my auntie used to tell me to eat chili when i got a cold.
Not only am i’m an addict of hot sizzle chili, i’m also a lover of all foods *spicy*…so when BBC bust it out that scientists “can harness the heat in chili peppers and adapt it to combat inflammation in arthritis.”
i was all like ‘woaaaaahhh hot tamale’! or rather ‘abet Qaria’!
i’m the little girl who used to concoct pastes of berbere & butter, berbere & water to be eaten with injera for breakfast, lunch or afternoon snack. i would spread dollops of it on injera being heated on a mitad clay plate which seeps the moisure from spongy pores transforming injera to crunch-ilicious Qategna… *|mouth watering|*… i was one to mix lemon squeeze with berebere that goes on top of rice with salsa, i would chop up green chili to make some ‘pasta saltata’, add more hot hot mitmita to kitfo …i’m still that little girl…
…with one difference! Now, when someone obliquely & proudly (!??) proclaims the unmatched heat & spiciness of Ethiopian cuisines, my eyebrow pricks up into an arc…
i’ve come across chili in varieties… Ghanaian Sheto sauce with fish, shrimp in the marinade is extremely potent, while the Thai method of splashing pickled, ground or oiled chili mixed with seeds is nothing short of flaming tearjerker if overdone ever so slightly! other… indians, turks, mexicans… use chili across their cuisines in various forms…while some, exhibit exceptional cultural idiosyncrasies like some crazy naija people who carry emergency packets of ‘peppe’ everywhere! or the Filipinos & Koreans eating chilli leaves? *|yet another priceless eyebrow raising moment!|*
stereotypically… ethiopians believe their tongues withhold the very feistiest of many a pepper & their cuisine uses it! …which should not be much of a surprise given they readily embrace many a superlative about ethiopia/ians… ethiopians the most beautiful people of the world, with the most fertile and green landscapes on earth, the fiercest warriors that defied all colonial rule, the fastest of people, living in the ‘origin of civilization and humankind’, the home of selected people by God to protect the arc of the covenant… yadi ya…content ubernationalism makes gorgeous-est and spice-desensitized-tongued Ethiopians ssssssssssssssmooookiiiinnnn’ …
….chili pepperzz FYI
“The Naga Jolokia (Bhut Jolokia, Ghost Chili, Ghost Pepper, Naga Morich) is a chili pepper that grows in northeastern India (Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur) and Bangladesh. It was confirmed by Guinness World Records to be the hottest chili in the world…”
chili peppers are implicated with many health benefits! …and disbenefits… *|blink|*
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Uncomfortable Truth: Nneka
- Why I write about Ethnicity…
- no more historybooks, ever?: Ethnic Genetics
- nonchalant I
- immigrant stories: theirs*ours