CLAY CANE // GET YOUR LIFE

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

PGN

music: "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes

I hope everyone had a good weekend .... ! I'm sure there will be some bloggers detailing the happenings. Yes, Lawd ...

I used to live in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection known as Philadelphia -- the City bored me to tears so I packed my bags and ran here to the tri-state area. Philly is an interesting City and has tons of history ... it is also one of the most segregated urban cities in the world. Of course this segregation trickles down to LGBT communities.

Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) is once again under scrutiny for their despicable coverage of LGBTs of color. This has been happening for years and finally a collective of people are taking a stand against it (Now if we could get a collective of people to take a stand against the hatred spewed on LGBTs of color in the Final Call! THAT is another story ... ). Lee Carson from http://lees-space.blogspot.com/ has wrote a letter to the PGN and is encouraging others who are, or from the Philadelphia area, to do the same. Pasted below is an excerpt of his letter.

"Members of our communities must be careful to not provide ammunition to those seeking to limit or take away our fundamental rights. We cannot tolerate marginalization within the LGBT community. Hence, we demand that the PGN provide greater press coverage related to the diverse LGBT experiences occurring in Philadelphia, including LGBT communities of color .... We share your vision of an honest news source that works with integrity and professionalism to serve the LGBT community. With these changes, we believe that the PGN can serve as a model of fair, non-marginal 'gay press.' Even still, it can exist another 30 years with deeper respect from Philadelphia’s racially and/or ethnically diverse LGBT communities."

I am glad to see people are taking note of this historical failure with the PGN. Please check out Lee's Space for more information and what you can do if you would like to make your voice heard --- and, in my wispy Michael Jackson nose ready to collapse voice, "Make that change ... "

Labels: Politics, Sexuality

Posted by Clay :: 8:31 PM :: 1 comments

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Friday, May 26, 2006

India.Arie Interview!

music: "Single Life" by Cameo

Hey people --

Pasted below please find my interview with India.Arie ... This was a great interview -- she really let it out on the legendary seven Grammy nominations and LOSING them all, her take on socially irresponsible artists and so much more. Check it out!

India.Arie - Still Not Your Average Girl

Have a good Memorial Day weekend! And for all the boys who are doing the Gay Pride Events in P.R., or Miami -- you are NOT on the DL, or in the closet if you are traveling hundreds of miles for gay pride. LOVE YA'!

Labels: FREELANCE, Interviews

Posted by Clay :: 5:25 PM :: 11 comments

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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

ATTACK THAT SNATCH PART II

If you didn't read the first installment of ATTACK THAT SNATCH it is okay -- the title alone should help you to follow the story line.

Years ago I used to work an early shift from 6:30am to 2:30pm … of course I had to be on the train by 5:30am and there were always some interesting happenings early in the morning. I would always be on the train alone with just me and the “happening,” which can be scary at times, but I digress …

One time an older, butch, black woman got on the train looking wore out in a baggy, stained jogging suit. As she walked on the train she had her hands DEEP in her pants prowling and looking around for a seat. At first I thought she was attempting to be "masculine" and "hood" with her hands in her crotch, but then I noticed there was some seismic activity going on in the wild goose region, but I tried my best not to look.

On her hunt for a seat she would put her "free" hand on each seat as if she was trying to feel if it was warm or cold -- then she would sit down for a second and jump back up like it burnt or chilled her. By this time I knew she was coo-coo for the coco puffs and I just prayed she wouldn't sit next to me. Finally she finds an acceptable seat across from me and slumps down, looking like she was about to fall asleep -- the whole time her hand never left her pants.

Right when I think she is snoozing she begins ATTACKING THAT SNATCH... and I don't mean a lite-lite tickle -- she is attacking her snatch like it is a war zone! She is moaning, growling, whipping her head back and forth, legs shaking, big ole' bosoms reverberating through her baggy clothes... I AM APPALLED AND NAUSEATED ... I felt like a good-Christian white woman seeing a big black dick for the first time!

What made it worse is NO ONE was on the train and she just GOT HER MOTHAF%!KIN' LIFE right in front of me! I considered running to the next car but I didn't want to attract any attention to myself -- she might've attacked me if I even slightly interrupted her attack on that jungle bush! Finally after a good ten minutes of attack-a-tion she lets out a deep moan ... and found her happy ending. I thought it was over but then she takes her hand out of her pants with a GOOEY MESS dripping from her sticky fingers and GRABS THE POLE that people use on the train and falls the fuck asleep.

I AM FINISHED and wishing I had a bottle of ammonia to clean the entire train car. My spirit was "shooken," I was deeply wounded and every time I retell this story I feel like I am reliving the horror. To this day when I put my hand on a pole in the subway I think of all the bacteria and how that woman was ATTACKING THAT SNATCH... which is exactly why I scrub my hands like Joan Crawford the minute I get home!

Labels: STORYTELLING

Posted by Clay :: 1:00 AM :: 39 comments

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Monday, May 08, 2006

She Sho' Ain't Dead

The majority of my readers might be R&B heads but you all need to know that Pink's new CD I'm Not Dead is FIRE! I truly did think Pink was dead after that disaster of an album Try This. However, she is back with a vengeance -- amazing voice, powerful lyrics (for the most part) and a soul that I haven't heard in contemporary music in years.

Yes, I know Pink was R&B for a moment in that cheese ball album Can't Take Me Home ... however, she can sing circles around Beyonce (I was actually a little surprised she didn't take a hot lash at Beyonce because she defintely falls in the "Stupid Girl" category ... "flippin' my blonde hair back, popping my Christian snatch.... STUPID GIRL!") and has more compassion and conviction in one note than Rhianni, Ciara and the other R&B tramp clones combined -- them whore hounds need a reinvention! A lil' guitar might give Beyonce some soul ... oh wait, she tried that with Prince ... nevermind!

Note: In comparison to Pink's rock counterparts she pales next to Fiona, Alanis, or the last crazy white bitch standing Miss Courtney Love.

Originally I had no interest in this new Pink album - I wasn't much of a fan and while I liked Missundaztood and was happy she abandoned the contrived R&B get up, I felt there were only a couple good songs on the album ("Just Like A Pill" is a brilliant rock-pop song) ... and anyone who was part of the "Lady Marmalade" debacle was definitely a waste of musical space. BUT then I saw the clever video for "Stupid Girls" and she was on Oprah ... I thought it was interesting that she was taking a well needed stab at these waif white girls who are consumed with conspicuous consummation and being pretty, which they think will attract more men to splash inside their cat-trap. Lyrics like "porno paparazzi girls" or "Pretty will you fuck me girl, silly as a lucky girl -- pull my head and suck it girl, stupid girl!" really grabbed me and I said -- well, Pink is really saying something! I can only imagine what these images of women are doing to young women and to see a video where a little girl chooses a football over a hairbrush (she betta market to her lesbian fan base!) is excellent ... not saying this hasn't been done before, but in this younger generation I don't think it has.

Shortly after seeing her on Oprah I bought the CD and realized it is a great album -- it couldn't have survived at the height of women rock in the mid 90s, but considering the garbage that is out there it is well produced, written and executed with convinction.

Some of the songs are so powerful and filled with raw energy that they ring in my ears all day. For example, the profound "Long Way To Happy" where she wails how after being fucked over a thousand too many times it will be an exhausting road before she can ever touch, feel, or love again ... it's going to be a LONG way to happy ... I can pull up about two other bloggers that are echoing those same sentiments on their blog TODAY.

She also gets a little political with a scathing song to Bush entitled "Dear Mr. President." While some of the lyrics are cheesy like "What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?" My little brother could've wrote that but she redeems herself with ...

"What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine ... "

I know that's right! She proceeds to roar at the end .. "you don't know nothing 'bout hard work! HARD WORK! HARD WORK!" It is an excellent song that I felt the moment i heard it.

The true gem on the album is the title track "I'm Not Dead" - this is where you really feel Pink's range, power and stamina. I once saw Pink in concert when she opened for Lenny Kravitz so I know she can sang, but her voice has really grown. She starts with a hard verse letting out "We only spun the wheel to catch ourselves so we weren't left for death" in the chorus she wails in one of the best rock choruses in the past five years, "I'm not dead just floating ... Right beyond the cigarette and the devilish smile -- You're my crack of sunlight!" Go off Pink!

The great thing about this CD is that it isn't a full rock CD - there is a alot of R&B/blues, which pulls off better than I expected. If you need some new music in your life with a mix of pop, rock and soul this CD is a must and you know Clay wouldn't steer you wrong. You can click on the link at the top right to purchase I'm Not Dead today!

Labels: Reviews, WHITE CHICKS

Posted by Clay :: 12:16 AM :: 14 comments

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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Barber Shop

Barber Shop

music: "Who Knew" by Pink

Last week I went to a new salon to get my hair nice and freshly twisted for my birthday party. The salon also had a barber so I decided I would get a shape up too ... I was in the salon for hours and by the time I walked out I was so irritated, disappointed and over the "salon/barber shop" experience of black culture.

I've talked about this before in previous entries but this was my first time in years spending an extended period of time in an area where there was a barber ... As we all know when the male straights enter a room of women the stretch to exercise their hyper masculinity is extreme. It all began with this one guy who talked about gay people every few seconds ... people at his job he thinks are gay ... gay men who want him, etc. Of course none of the dumb straights in the room are mildly thinking, "If he is talking about gays so much then maybe there is something wrong with him?" Anyway, he goes on to tell a story of how he was in Atlanta - the minute he says “Atlanta” the sistah girls in the room gasp and swoon saying you just can't find a good man in Atlanta (as if gay men can easily find the love of their life in the ATL) -- what I gathered from their convo is that they are ALL single (about five of them) so obviously they can't find a good man in Jersey or New York!

The man says, "Yeah, they got a lot of faggots in Atlanta!"

Queen of the sistah girls and owner of the shop yells out, "And they gotta lot of AIDS down there too!" I looked at her really gagging that she would let out such an ignorant statement and her chorus of sistah girls gave her the "Uh-huh," "I know that's right," sho' does."

The man proceeds to tell a story of how everywhere he turned all the men wanted him .... he couldn't turn any corner without a man lusting for his over 40, badly aged, sloppy body, trying to look 19 in his baggy clothes (it is so disturbing to see a middle aged man trying to dress like the 36 Mafia). He said how he was in a department store with a friend of his when the person who helped him found out he had a girlfriend name Tanya -- supposedly the man who helped him went off -- threw his clothes in a bag, tossed him his change at him, etc. It took everything in me to not say something! It is amazing how the ugliest men get the most powerful stroke of confidence when they assume every gay man wants them. They rest of the salon goes on their homophobic banter and a few times the guys nodded their head to me saying, "Yeah, nigga you know what I'm saying!"

Above anything what really wore my melanin out was the man had his son in the barber shop ... I could only imagine what hyper masculine constructs the boy was being taught by his father. The boy barely spoke a word and when he did you could hardly hear him, which was a contrast to his loud and obtursive father. At one point the man had to move his car and when he came back his son was quietly crying for him. Well, the man got EXTREMELY upset, "What is wrong with? Why are you crying like that? Man up! MAN UP!" Well, God-cotton-pickin-damn! Man up???? To a little kid!

One of the sistah girls asked, "How old is he?"

"Five!" FIVE??????

How do you tell a five-year old to man up when he isn't even close to being a man?
How do you tell a five year-old to man up when you aren't even teaching him how to be a boy?
How do you tell a five year-old to man up when you are narcissistic, homophobe who is more concerned with what you think someone who is not straight thinks about you then your daughter who you are considering putting in a group home (that was one of the many things he revealed about himself in his moronic diatribe)?

I was extremely over this ... and I couldn't help but think ... why am I supporting these people? If I decided to not support homophobic black folks -- I would be in no black establishments! Is it worth it to support black folks if they are just as hateful as others, but their hate revolves around sexuality? Of course not ALL black folks are like this -- but in the black church, the barber shop, or many traditionally known places for black culture to thrive attitudes like these are prevalent. The saddest thing is -- I felt like I couldn't say anything ... I COULD have but no one would have really heard me ... no one in there was trying to have an intelligent conversation or think (except for maybe the five year-old) ... everyone just wanted to hear each other scream and out talk the next person ... it wasn't worth it for me to "raise my voice" and try to shed light on something I knew they didn't know anything about it. Experiences like this are always disappointing ... ! But my shape-up and locs were tight!

Labels: STORYTELLING

Posted by Clay :: 12:30 AM :: 30 comments

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