As seen on Kristop's blog

I'm digging Raul Midon. Do you? Leave a comment with Top, the music lover who put me on to "Sunshine".

More from Ta-Nehisi Coates

If he writes it, I'll read it. You should, too.

via TPM.

Cool music on a scorching day

It's H-O-T!!

But Ali Farka Toure is cool. PJ graced me with a double-CD a few years back. Luz is sleeping in the sling, just got off the phone with my man, Jaasi, and the fan is on energy save mode. Not a bad way to spend the morning.

Beats being outside.

Another reason to pass on the North Face

From Tim's El Salvador blog:

"Women in El Salvador sewing $165 jackets for North Face and $54 shirts for Eddie Bauer cannot afford milk and other basic necessities for their children as their wages fall behind soaring food costs. Some mothers report they will have to take their children out of school.

The women are paid just 94 cents for each $165 North Face jacket they sew—meaning that their wages amount to less than six-tenths of one percent of the jacket’s retail price."

In my lifetime

A proud day for my country. Long overdue, but right on time!

Obama. Barack Obama. Democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama. Next President of the United States, the Senator from Illinois - Barack Obama.

Say Word!

sweaty haiku

luz and papi, a
mid-morning stroll, maya slung
nap while i mop sweat

or

luz and papi stroll
maya slung mid-morning, shade
sweat like dew-moist leaves

Black Man's Burden

(h/t to a 'friend of a friend' who emailed this link)

From the Boston Globe

Big Thanks

I just applied to law school thirty-eight minutes ago.

Big thanks to everyone who helped me with my personal statement: Marta, Marian, Omar, Jaasi and Debbie.

Big thanks to Rey, Ariana and Pam for their letters of recommendation.

Big thanks to everyone who encouraged me from day one.

Let the waiting begin!

A Lovely Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

First day as a Project Manager at CITI.

Obama - "Yes We Can" video

Props to Americablog. Props to the producers of this video.

Morsels

Courtesy of the U.S. State Department's america.gov site:
> the restored Lincoln Cottage, situated up the street from our home, is opening in February 2008. Years ago, I took an "1860 - 1960" tour of DC monuments led by Ed Smith of American University/the Smithsonian. At the Soldiers' Home, and Professor Smith told us how Lincoln's ideas on race were shaped by his discussions with Frederick Douglass at the Cottage. Basically, Douglass' rise from slavery to international abolitionist proved the lie of Black inferiority.

> Out of the mud blooms the lotus.

So there you have it: my hopeful nature shining through on a beautiful Saturday in January.

Toni Morrison Endorses Obama

I've been wanting to go back and read Morrison's original "Clinton is the first Black President" thing after the recent South Carolina debate and the whole SC primary bullsh*t. I never read it back in the day, and I'm tired of the moniker being bandied about seriously, when she could only (in my non-having-read-it-estimation) have been making a point metaphorically. Anyway, here's the relevant /snip/:

African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear "No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and--who knows?--maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us."

For a large segment of the population who are not African-Americans or members of other minorities, the elusive story left visible tracks: from target sighted to attack, to criminalization, to lynching, and now, in some quarters, to crucifixion. The always and already guilty "perp" is being hunted down not by a prosecutor's obsessive application of law but by a different kind of pursuer, one who makes new laws out of the shards of those he breaks.
/snip/

So now I have this to chew on: Morrison's Obama endorsement - which poetically and pointedly rejects the Clintons. (For extra measure, let's let Christopher Hitchens chime in on the myth of Bill's affinity for Black folk).

What this means for me is something closer to home. I have a picture of me and Bill Clinton - the coup de grace: he's wearing a Stanford t-shirt - that I've kept for years. Until we had painting done recently, it hung upstairs in the hall. What to do? I dig the photo. But I'm increasingly down (have been since he was in office) about the actual policies and politics he pursued. And the prospect of him back in the White House makes my skin crawl.

Caroline Kennedy Endorses Obama

W.W.B.D.?

(What Will Billary Do?)

icy-hot

it was supposed to be a quick rub-down;
calves salved - not menthol fuming

your gas-taut lungs.
nor a fuming wife

sending me to shower and change
the sheets, lest we asphyxiate.

A restful, wakeful moment

Luz on my chest, slung Maya style;
Marta taking a well-earned nap.

Quote of the Day

About this: "These kids make Robert Downey, Jr. look like all he had was a little cold."
- Marta

Luz Antonia Graham Urquilla

Born December 29, 2007 at 10:40pm.

Amazing!!

Sista Souljah Redux

From Jack and Jill Politics

Nights like this

Me and my Boo, laid up...
D'Angelo docked, croonin' over
belly-rubs. talkin' to Baby Girl,
Urquilla-Graham

We have 23 days to go, folks! All the books and advice and doctor's visits and therapy have us at least a little prepared for what awaits. But little B.G.U.G. will show us what's up.

Excited, anxious, happy, together. Marta and I are enjoying this last phase of the next phase of our lives. Everything is everything!

Mortified

Apparently, I don't know how to use the spell-check function.

So...

B-a-t-t-l-e-s-h-i-p.

I stand corrected.