Mothers Day Shouts, Anniversary Greetings, and a Schedule Update

1. Happy Mothers' Day to all the women out there who have cared for someone other than themselves. It's called mothering and without that saving grace, humans would have extinguished themselves through general stupidity and excess testosterone millennia ago.

2. Happy (Late) Anniversary to my parents E&P, who, on April 30th, celebrated 39 years of marriage. I couldn't exactly call it bliss, but they still together.

On honeymoon in Nassau, Bahamas - May 1970

3. In keeping with my commitment to myself as a writer and you as my audience, I'm officially establishing a posting schedule that you can scratch yo back by. Starting today, fresh posts will appear on Fly Brother every third day. This week, look for new material on Wednesday and Saturday, followed by next Tuesday, Friday, Monday of the next week, etc. Dig?

Why not post on two fixed days, such as Monday and Thursday, you ask? Because I like variety and seeing different days in the postmark header. Nothing more.

In addition, I'll be responding to comments, should there be any, within 24 hours of receiving them, instead of each time I upload a new post. So comment, dammit, and then I can respond to the comments in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, I've seen some visual drafts of the blog redesign and I like, I like! Be ready, folk!

Motivated.

Often, just when we are in greatest need of motivation or inspiration, it comes suddenly and without warning. For me, these last few weeks have been marked with anxiety about my future, annoyance with my present, and a general ping-ponging between frustration and fatigue, feeling over-burdened and over-committed.

Enter Chris Guillebeau's 279 Days to Overnight Success, a succinct, engaging guide to establishing yourself as a full-time artist and/or social media guru, offered free-of-charge on his amazing site, The Art of Non-conformity. Having been profiled in The New York Times, on MSNBC, and here on Fly Brother, Guillebeau outlines his quest to hit every country on Earth by the age of 35 and to make the world a better place in the process. In his encouraging manifesto, which I read in a little under two hours, he discusses his successes and failures as a full-time writer, the expectations to succeed but not to receive much front-end financial gain, self-discipline and prioritization, the extreme importance of maintaining an accessible connection with your readers, and, above all, remaining true to your own voice to attract the right audience for you.

Amidst the chaos of increasing work and life pressures, reading this guide today was a needed splash of cold water, underscoring the intermittent messages I've been receiving from the varied reaches of the cosmos in one orienting, 79-page stroke. In forty-two days, I'll be done with high school teaching and Colombia, at least for a while. Between now and then, there's nothing to do but buckle down, prioritize, and get the documenting, grading, blogging, reading, writing, working-out, planning, and packing done. Over the next few weeks, I'll be making the necessary changes that reflect my commitment to my readers and my writing, giving voice to an under-heard perspective of international travel at Fly Brother and other venues, and I'll be utilizing many of the techniques outlined by Guillebeau and other young, successful, full-time writers who are doing exactly what I want to be doing—making a living while doing exactly what they want to be doing. And I urge anyone who's interested in that lifestyle choice to read 279 Days to Overnight Success.

Today, children, I leave you with three quotes that came to mind as I wrote this post:

From the aforementioned manifesto -
"[Y]ou have to find a way to keep making art during the not-so-fun times."

A very shaky paraphrase of a sermon I heard a few years ago by Rebm, Jr. at Bethel Baptist Institutional in Jacksonville, Florida - "Sometimes, you cain't be waitin' on nobody else. You gotta hold your own hand up."

And something deceptively simple, profound, and oft-said to me, most recently by São Paulo trailblazer Kevin of Club Whirled -
"You can do anything you want."

Stay tuned.



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Help a Fly Brother Out

Hello to all you grown-and-sexy people out there,

I'll be redesigning Fly Brother over the next month, and as a part of that upgrade, I'm asking you, my lovely readership, for your opinions and feedback.

I'd like to know what you like about the blog, what you don't like, and what you'd like to see more and/or less of. More music or video? More favorites lists or how-tos? More city snippets or personal narrative? More essays on race or history? What would you like to see that I haven't come up with yet? How can I make the blog better?

Let me hear it, folk; lay it on me. I appreciate and thank you for your comments and patronage.

Paz e bem,
Fly Brother

Global Juke Joint: Soundz of Colombia

Beyond the uber-famous, internationally-known Shakira and Juanes, Colombian music is a thick stew of flavors and spices ladled in from the three founding cultures of the country: Euro, indigenous, and, most potently, Afro. And, as in most post-colonial societies, it is the music of Colombian artists that speaks most loudly against injustice and in homage to marginalized groups, all the while urging feet to tap and booties to shake. Check these:

CHOC QUIB TOWN, a powerful triumvirate of lyricists from Quibdó, the impoverished capital of the mostly-black, oft-maligned, and federally-neglected department of Chocó, on the Pacific coast. In what is virtually the Mississippi of Colombia, the scant resources sent to the region are stolen by corrupt officials and starvation, illiteracy, and narco-trafficking are rampant. Out of this struggle, of course, comes amazing creativity, manifested in Colombia's world-class entry into the realm of hip-hop.


Cabas, a son of the Colombian Caribbean, infuses his pop-rock melodies with the syncopated rhythms of his native region. Raised by a musician around musicians, Cabas' youthful voice and style add a playful air to his aural flirtations. The video below caught my eye when it rotated heavily on MTV, but his most recent hit also makes me smile (the refrain is "spend the night with me, gorgeous, and stay all day tomorrow").


Living world music icon, Totó La Momposina (NOT pronounced like Dorothy's dog), represents the epitome of traditional Afro-Colombian and indigenous folk music. Born in Mompox, a colonial river port deep in the swamps of the Caribbean interior, Totó chants and sings over the drumbeats of cumbia and mapalé with the soulful mix of Southern church lady and Yoruba griot.


The "niche" (pronounced NEE-chay) in Grupo Niche refers to a hip, stylish, fly black male—I've been called it a few times by people who thought I was from the Colombian capital of salsa, Cali, where this salacious musical combo is based. In fact, no where else in Colombia is salsa danced or played with as much boompangfwap as in the country's third largest city, very much like Atlanta with its black middle class, its history as the seat of a slave-based agricultural economy, and its present as the seat of a black music movement. Also check out their cousins, Orquesta Guayacán.


Lastly, Bogotá-based La Mojarra Eléctrica mixes traditional Afro-Colombian beats with reggae, funk, jazz, and electronica. The group is named for a traditional and plentiful fish eaten on the Caribbean coast, only electrified like their music. The video below, Calle 19, was filmed on the major commercial strip near my old crib in Downtown Bogotá, so when I watch it, I get a li'l nostalgic for the street vendors, juice bars, cheap lunch counters, car exhaust, noise, and gritty Ande-urban flavor.



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Piece #1

"A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture."

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fly Favorites: April 09

Over the last few weeks, I've run across several interesting Internet items that I thought I'd share with you, my dear readers, starting with:

• A Hundred Single Ladies in Piccadilly Circus

• Life Magazine's brand-new online gallery of stunning travel photographs.

• Jet Set Zero: "...a group of twenty-somethings traveling the world after only three months of minimum-wage work. We started with nothing to see just how far we can go, and have a few good adventures along the way." Why the HELL didn't I think of this when I was in MY 20s?

• Writer Christine Garvin's treatise on cultural interloping, "White By Birth, Another Heritage By Choice", at Matador Network's Brave New Traveler blog.

• The Micro Machines-style interactive map of casino development on the Las Vegas Strip from the Las Vegas Sun newspaper (It's more interesting if you start at 2007 and work backwards).

• The humorous rundown, over at World Hum, of the tightrope walk that is international dating etiquette: "Around the World in Five Dates".

• Gawjus Jawjuh peach and consummate salsera, Zhaleh, currently in Korea, and some of the darnedest things people say to her, as elucidated at Supa Dupa Fly Seoul Sista.

• Smelling, tasting, and feeling the Cidade Maravilhosa through my computer screen while being swept up in Alex Forman's visceral travel dispatch on Rio de Janeiro over at Nerve (This is inspired prose!).
  

• Upgrade: Travel Better's thoughtful, thorough report on The Best Airfare Comparison Sites, and I guarantee you, it ain't Orbitz or Expedia.
  


• The very impressive Afro-Swedish culture and lifestyle e-magazine, Urbanlife, and its review of the hilarious French race-changing comedy, Agathe Cléry (You HAVE to watch the trailer).
  

Photo by Taro Taylor

• Taro Taylor's astounding photographs of the people and landscapes of the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea.

• Travellious' quick-n-easy guide to getting your first passport, for those of you who still haven't caught on that true ballers go through Immigration, biyotch!
  
  
• And last, but not least, IHOP is finally in all 50 states. BDT.

From the AV Room: Hispaniola

Recently screened at the Havana Film Festival New York, the 12-minute short film, Hispaniola, tackles Haitian-Dominican relations on the Caribbean's second-largest island.

Director Freddy Vargas shows us how childhood friendships can be marred by issues of race, class, and nationality as we watch a rich, light-skinned Dominican kid befriend the son of Haitian migrant workers living illegally across the street. The opening sequence underscores the misinformation taught to Dominicans about their historical ties with Haiti (the Haitians freed the entire island from European colonial rule and liberated the slaves on both the French and Spanish sides), and alludes to the legacy of former U.S.-backed Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ensured that education in the country minimized any references to African heritage.

My only criticism of the film would be that the obvious phenotypic differences between the characters in the movie don't speak to the complexities that arise when Dominicans of my own skin color (or darker) behave with the same rancor and hatred toward Haitians (or even very dark-skinned Dominicans). And believe me, I love my Dominicanos, but when it comes to the race issue, sometimes I be havin to let 'em know.

Best line comes from the little rich kid when he goes over to see his friend in spite of his jackass dad and tells him, "We're still friends and we're going to play baseball, okay?" with all the verve of a knowing Caribbean uncle. A mi mencant'el acento'minicano, sabeh?

more about "From the AV Room: Hispaniola", posted with vodpod


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