Thug Life Army Blog

The American Kennel Club(R), in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox and John Grogan, announced today the launch of a new public service announcement (PSA) campaign tied to the upcoming film Marley & Me. The campaign can be viewed at www.akc.org/marley and features 60-, 30- and 15-second television spots and a print PSA designed to remind all dog lovers of the commitment it takes to own a dog.

Responsible dog ownership is something Grogan, the author of the best-selling book on which the film is based, knows better than anyone. Marley & Me recounts his life with his rambunctious Labrador Retriever, who quickly grew from an adorable puppy to 97-pound steamroller. In the PSA Grogan states:

“Puppies… they’re so cute. Until they’re not. Then they become 100 pounds of thundering, hairy, yelping, jumping, drooling, go-exactly-where-you-don’t-want-them-to-go… commitment. In a word: Marley.

I’m John Grogan. I was Marley’s very patient and loving owner for over 12 years. I know there is nothing like the joys and rewards of pet ownership but… someone’s got to be the responsible one… most likely you. ”

The PSAs, part of the AKC’s longstanding public education campaign, remind potential dog owners that dogs are a big responsibility and that the decision to buy a puppy should not be taken lightly.

“Unlike other films and aspects of popular culture that idealize dogs, we think Marley & Me depicts a more balanced view of dog ownership and we want to underscore that further through this campaign,” said Daisy Okas, AKC’s Assistant Vice President of Communications. “Dogs bring us love, affection, comfort, security and unrivaled devotion despite our flaws, but there is a lot that is required of us in return for the wonderful privilege of having a dog. We applaud Fox and John Grogan for providing the public with an entertaining story that drives this message home to all animal lovers.”

“This heartwarming story about the trials, tribulations and lifelong commitment of owning a dog lends itself perfectly to a public service announcement campaign,” said Rita Drucker, Senior Vice President, Feature Films, Twentieth Century Fox. “We are pleased to be working with the AKC, an organization synonymous with the care and well-being of dogs for the past 125 years, in delivering the practical message Marley & Me sends to all dog lovers.”

Created pro-bono by Doner, the new PSAs direct viewers to www.akc.org to research the right breed for them and learn about dog ownership. The television campaign has been distributed by On The Scene Productions to hundreds of stations nationwide and the print PSAs are available for download at: www.akc.org/marley

In addition to the PSAs, a co-branded AKC/Marley & Me licensed line of premium plush pet toys for large dogs from JAKKS Pets are being sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores. The AKC and Twentieth Century Fox have collaborated previously on films (such as 2007’s Firehouse Dog) in order to promote responsible dog ownership messages.

The American Kennel Club

Founded in 1884, the American Kennel Club (AKC) is a not-for-profit organization which maintains the largest registry of purebred dogs in the world and oversees the sport of purebred dogs in the United States. The AKC is dedicated to upholding the integrity of its registry, promoting the sport of purebred dogs and breeding for type and function. Along with its nearly 5,000 member clubs and its affiliated organizations, the AKC advocates for the purebred dog as a family companion, advances canine health and well-being, works to protect the rights of all dog owners and promotes responsible dog ownership. More than 20,000 competitions for AKC-registered purebred dogs are held under AKC rules and regulations each year including conformation, agility, obedience, rally, tracking, herding, lure coursing, coonhound events, hunt tests, field and earthdog tests. Affiliate AKC organizations include the AKC Humane Fund, AKC Canine Health Foundation, AKC Companion Animal Recovery and the AKC Museum of the Dog. For more information, visit www.akc.org.

AKC, American Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club seal and design, and all associated marks and logos are trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks of The American Kennel Club, Inc.

About Marley & Me

Based on the best-seller by John Grogan, the motion picture comedy MARLEY & ME is the story of life, love, family and the world’s worst — and best — dog. The film stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, and arrives in theaters everywhere December 25.

Web Site: http://www.akc.org

‘No Te Espantes Ve y Vota’ Voter Turnout Rally Joins Community Groups, Elected Officials and Voters in Event Sponsored by Latino Issues Forum and Fundacion Azteca America in Partnership With SALEF, MALDEF, Green Dot, HOPE and Voto Latino

Community groups and political leaders join forces in this rally to dispel myths that could deter first time voters, encouraging all registered voters to exercise their rights on November 4.

The event is open to all media. Help us help our community to get out and vote . See you there!

What: “No Te Espantes Ve y Vota” Voter Turnout Rally to ensure the community exercises its civic duty.

Who: Fundacion Azteca America, the non-profit arm of Grupo Salinas and Azteca America Network, and Latino Issues Forum present the event in partnership with Green Dot, Salvadoran American Leadership and Education Fund, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Voto Latino, as well as elected officials California Senator Gil Cedillo, LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and others.

When: Friday, October 31, 2008, 9:30am-10:30am

Where: Los Angeles City Hall, 1st Street Steps
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles

Contact:

Belinda Barragan
Regional Director
Latino Issues Forum
213 488 0325
bbarragan@lif.org

A unique Middle East debating forum has conclusively warned America that a victory by John McCain in the US Presidential election would seriously undermine already damaged relations with the Middle East.

In the largest voting margin yet recorded in the Doha Debates, now in their fifth year, an audience of more than 350 people voted 87%-13% against a motion suggesting that the Middle East would be better off with McCain as President.

Hafez al-Mirazi, the former host of Al-Jazeera’s Arabic weekly television show From Washington said that just as President George W Bush had made the Middle East “worse than it was eight years ago” so his “hawkish Republican mate” would do the same.

He suggested McCain was eager to “fight and engage in wars” against Iran, Syria “and anyone who would oppose America.”

“Like Bush he wouldn’t talk to his opponents and like Bush he shoots first and talks later.”

In an opening statement that drew loud applause from the packed audience, Mr al-Mirazi warned that Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, was from the same warmongering mould as Dick Cheney, Bush’s vice-president “who happens to be a quail hunter.”

Mr al-Mirazi asked the audience at the debate, to be broadcast by BBC World News on November 1 and 2, whether it could “imagine what would happen if Palin, a moose hunter, reached the White House? It would be the same thing.

“What did Palin do when she visited Kuwait on her only trip to the Middle East? She practiced shooting,” Mr al-Mirazi said in reference to a visit by Palin to US troops stationed there.

“A McCain-Palin victory would do to this fragile relationship what Lehman Brothers did to the markets.”

Dr Michael Signer, foreign policy adviser to Democratic Senator John Edwards’ presidential campaign in 2007-2008 and a highly respected foreign policy expert, also attacked the motion and the dangers a McCain victory would present.

Describing Barak Obama, the Democrat nominee, as “thoughtful and deliberate” he said such qualities were of paramount importance during the present troubled times.

“It is time we had a president who thinks before he acts rather than acts before he thinks.”

He said Mr Obama was an African-American who spent his formative years in Indonesia, a Muslim nation, and would be a president “who wants to understand and listen, rather than just talk.”

Danielle Pletka, Vice President for Foreign and Defence Policy Studies at the American Institute for Public Policy Research, supported the motion, suggesting that Senator McCain was the only Presidential candidate who would not “walk away” from Iraq leaving the region to return to sectarian violence.

She said Obama was constantly changing his opinions and had even offered to negotiate “unconditionally” with Iran.

Dr Saad al-Ajmi, former Kuwaiti Minister for Information and Culture, said he supported the motion largely because he feared that Mr Obama would pull US troops out of Iraq prematurely “before they had cleared up the mess they created”.

About the Doha Debates:

The Doha Debates are a unique forum for free speech in the Arab world. Chaired by Tim Sebastian, the internationally renowned award winning broadcaster, the series has been broadcast on BBC World since January 2005. BBC World reaches nearly 300 million people in more than 200 countries.

The Doha Debates are hosted and funded by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. The Foundation is a private, chartered, nonprofit organization committed to the belief that a nation’s true wealth is in the potential of its people. Chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, the wife of the Emir, it seeks to develop that potential through a network of centres devoted to education, public health and research.

Source: The Doha Debates

CONTACT: Marlin W. Collingwood, President of Bell Pottinger USA pforbes@bell-pottinger.co.uk

Web site: http://www.thedohadebates.com/

How McCain Will Steal the Election from Obama (Sort Of)
From www.DaveyD.com

Imagine an election where one of the participants calls foul. Investigations are launched or at least called for. Prosecutors raise the specter of charges, the U.S. attorney and FBI get involved. No voter fraud is ever actually found. But by the time that conclusion is reached, the myth has been solidified both to soothe the loser’s supporters and condemn the winner.

Sound familiar? Sound like the recent ACORN scandal?

Well, actually I’m talking about the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. That Nixon was cheated out of a win is the stuff of legend on the Right. The allegations say that Kennedy loyalists fixed the vote counts in Illinois and Texas–swinging 51 electoral votes and a majority in the Electoral College to Kennedy. In more hyperbolic versions there is alleged involvement by the mob, the Teamsters Union or legendary Chicago mayor Richard Daley.

The story goes on that Nixon, “for the good of the country,” conceded honorably and exited the scene. No matter that Nixon was later chased out of the White House for cheating in an election. The myth endures.

This whole story–maybe to be replayed with Obama playing Kennedy and McCain playing Nixon–is a canard. It is a fable. A lie made up by the conservative movement to hold together their fraying coalition.

In 2008 the stakes are bigger than they’ve ever been before for conservatives and the canard is that much more important to them.

In the case of Obama the conservative movement is lining up a serious of story elements. They are:

• Obama was a community organizer.
• ACORN, a group that does community organizing, has committed voter fraud.
• Obama is from Chicago.
• You know what happens in elections in Chicago. Remember the 1960 election.

The story is half true and half lies. As we all know, Barack Obama is from Chicago and was a community organizer. Those are the only true parts of the conservative story. But the other two facts are myths: the 1960 election wasn’t stolen (says the conclusion of recounts and investigations in 1960 and numerous academic studies since). And, ACORN has not committed voter fraud. Not one bit.

The facts about ACORN are worth getting out. ACORN is an organization that, among other things, registers low-income people to vote. One of the ways they do this is to hire door-to-door canvassers from the neighborhoods they are working in. This sort of work is tightly regulated. So, when one of the thousands of people they give jobs to doesn’t do their work right and brings back bogus or phony voter registration cards, the law REQUIRES that ACORN turn the forms in to the voter registration office. The law, rightly, doesn’t want anybody throwing out voter registration forms for any reason.

But ACORN goes a step farther. They have people assigned to do quality control on all the cards–calling people on the forms after they fill them out. When they find bad information on the cards they attach a cover sheet to the card but, as mentioned above, they turn in the cards as required by law. The effect is that a few bad canvassers or a poorly run office will mean that bad cards are submitted as part of the normal process. But ACORN has done everything possible to make sure voting officials know to check the forms.

The sad fact is that in at least one state–Nevada–the voting officials disregarded ACORN’s cover sheets flagging the voter registration forms. That should have never happened. The resulting blowup was a scandal in search of a scandal.

The stunning con of this whole thing is the assumption that bad voter registration cards being submitted will lead to vote fraud. If somebody submits a card for Mickey Mouse it isn’t like Mr. Mouse is going to show up to vote. There is no voter fraud if nobody votes.

But the big story here is what the Right is doing. Their attacks on ACORN open up the door for two things.

First, the ACORN myth allows the Republicans to do more purging of the voter rolls–the process of removing people from the voter rolls because of arbitrary anomalies in the voter registration databases. Richard L Hasen, author of the Election Law Blog and a distinguished law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles recently wrote, “Careless purging–driven by unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud–can lead to many eligible voters being incorrectly removed from the polls.” Already in Ohio the Republican Party is pushing for more purging and they found a federal judge who agreed citing ACORN’s activities.

Second, in the event that campaigning, purging and intimidating voters doesn’t work, the Right is creating a myth like they did in 1960. They are creating the myth of a stolen election. Conservatives plan to claim that ACORN and Barack Obama stole the election. Their hope is to steal the legitimacy of what is looking like a massive repudiation of Bush, conservatives and the Republican Party. The Right plans to steal the election by trying to steal the legitimate defeat of them by progressive forces.

And why wouldn’t they? The entire Republican coalition could be shattered with this election. White suburban voters who once voted Republican on tax issues are running away from Republicans on a host of issues–including taxes. Independent are looking more and more like Democratic voters. Barack Obama may even win a majority of male voters. All of them are joining with urban votes, voters of color, young people, working class union members and others to form a long-term governing majority for progressives–a progressive majority.

Conservatives are scared of a progressive majority. And they’re going to lie, cheat and steal to prevent it from happening. But they can only be successful if we let them.

The best way to deflate the conservative fable is to win with an overwhelming landslide that guarantees there won’t be a dispute of the results.

We also need to confront the Republican vote purging and suppression. Already big efforts by the Obama campaign, the DNC and independent groups are working on this. Progressives and Democrats are united in this effort.

But we also need to make sure the ACORN canard doesn’t get to live in daylight. It is time to circle the wagons and make sure John McCain and the Right can’t steal the election…even if we win.

For progressives, the ball is in our court.

UPDATE: Don’t take my word for it. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an editorial on the topic. They write:

Here’s what else you should know about these charges on ACORN’s efforts in about 11 states.
The organization is obligated to turn in every registration card completed, even, as one spokesman put it, if it has the name Daffy Duck on it. The organization says it segregates and flags suspect cards to election authorities. It apparently doesn’t catch all of them. But a vast conspiracy? We’re doubtful. If a worker taking illegal shortcuts fakes a name on a registration card, that act overburdens election officials, but do we really think that the faked person will vote?

Voter registration fraud, when it occurs, is a serious matter, and it’s obvious that even if ACORN is catching many, the number of bad registrations it is turning in points to quality control problems. However, most of the cards submitted, said Milwaukee’s top election official, appear to be good.

If the past is prologue, much of this ballyhoo is really about those new voters and who they might vote for.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost…l-steal-the_b_133989.html

Dr. Uhuru Hotep
Kwame Ture Leadership Institute
Pittsburgh, PA

Problem. Very few Black families and even fewer Black communities have stockpiled sufficient food, water, clothing, medical supplies and the other essentials needed to sustain life for a three to six week period in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. Consequently, most Black families and the communities in which they reside are totally at the mercy of government-sponsored disaster relief efforts. Considering the combined failure of the New Orleans, Louisiana and federal governments to effectively coordinate and deliver relief services following Hurricane Katrina, we would be foolish to rely totally on the government’s will and skill to address our survival needs in the event of a national or regional emergency. Furthermore, our long history in this country is replete with cases of local and state government’s willful failure to protect and preserve Black life. Finally, climatologists and terrorism experts tell us that the U.S. in the coming years will be besieged by natural and man-made disasters. Only those who prepare today will survive tomorrow.

Solution. After preparing your immediate family’s disaster survival plan, demand that our Black political, religious, civic, cultural, and educational leaders immediately come together to establish a national Black disaster relief fund (NBDRF) with the goal of stockpiling in our faith-based institutions water, food, clothing and other essentials needed to sustain our people for three to six weeks. If this fails, as it well might, then we must lead the initiative ourselves.

The NBRDF would first raise the funds needed to set up five Black community-based and operated model Emergency Survival Programs each designed to serve 100 people. These ESPs, located in Houston, Oakland, Chicago, New York and Atlanta will be working models and national training centers for Black community groups from around the country who wish to establish an ESP in their home communities. To serve the 40 million Africans in the United States, we will need tens of thousands of these ESPs situated everywhere our people reside.

Critical Action Steps:
1. Research and correspond with existing community-based disaster
relief program in the US and abroad.
2. Establish working relations with existing community-based disaster
relief programs, like Baba Hannibal Afrik’s Akoben Awareness
and Preparedness Survival Project in Port Gibson, MS. Call
601.535.7551 or baba_hannibal@yahoo.com.
3. Identify organic farmers in your area
4. Take a course in basic first-aid.
5. Plant veggies and herbs.
6. Identify faith-based institutions in your home community
willing to serving as depositories and dispensaries of disaster
relief aid.
7. Raise funds to purchase canned and dried foodstuff, bottled water,
blankets, clothing, medical supplies and other essentials needed to
sustain 100 people for three to six weeks.

Helpful Websites

www.survivalcenter.com
www.communitygarden.org
www.areyouprepared.com
www.ena.org/EmergencyPrepared/Tips4Parents.asp
www.redcross.org/services/disaster/beprepared/shelterinplace.

Copyright©2006
Kwame Ture Leadership Institute

_________________________________
Dr. Uhuru Hotep is a consultant to the Kwame Ture Leadership Institute, host of Kilombo, an African centered radio talk show, and co-editor of the best-selling book 72 Concepts to Liberate the African Mind. He is a nationally recognized authority on academic and cultural enrichment programs and leadership initiatives for urban youth. Dr. Hotep can be reached at hotep@duq.edu .

Newark, New Jersey, raised hip hop rapper, R&B singer, actress and cover girl QUEEN LATIFAH has reportedly made plans to start a family by adopting a child from her native U.S.

The ‘Chicago’ star announced in June (08) her plans to start a family, telling reporters it would “happen eventually”. But according to National Enquirer, the 38-year-old is ready to become a first-time mom by adopting a child from America.

Latifah, aka Dana Elaine Owens, has spoke to the publication about adopting, but would not confirm if she was going ahead with the plans.
She says, “I can understand why people go outside the U.S. You can adopt someone here, and the birth parents have three years to come back and get that child. That’s terrifying.” Queen Latifah went on to say “(American children) can use just as much assistance as someone from around the world. I want to do something here.”

Queen Latifah has always remained tight-lipped about her personal life, despite repeated claims she is dating her female personal trainer Jeanette Jenkins.

However, a source tells the National Enquirer the pair “are hoping to have a little one by Christmas (08).”

Hi there all loving fans of our late Tupac Shakur, I receive an email of needing bloogers so I rose to the occassion to give my input. I am a elder of 70 yrs and very grateful to have this opportunity to be on this blog. I came on this route very mysteriously, and glad that I am a part of the Tupac’s fan community.

I used to hear Afeni voice, about her son, and I too have lost a son of 19yrs old either a bad drug or biological through suicide. I would inquire about Pac as I knew of him but was not a fan per se. There was an time in between I would hear her voice again. So I thought I would look into his life. Since I am a community worker, I thought I would seek to find out what his mission was all about.

My focus has been with women in crisis pregnacy as a donor of goods for infants and toddlers. I have did other things, such as donating to a women’s prison, Host Minitry work, visiting parishoners to fulfill the mission of the church, and trained for pastoral visitors, visiting the sick in the church. Further background I have worked as a respite worker with babies whose mothers was ordered by the court to take a parenting skill workshop, and working with the elderly as a senior aide. This was all done in the 90’s.

A lot of the time Pac was in the struggle to help his community, I was in full force with mine even helping ones in my immediate community, and aim for a degree in Human Services. Due to expense I had to stop but my collegues would tell me I didn’t need a degree to help others. For that I was pleased that I was in tune with his times as I was very active in studies and activities in my church I presently live about ½ mile from when he lived here in Baltimore. I am not known citywide as doing this work, I preferred to be lowkey about what I was doing. There is a point of telling this now.

In my next blog I’d like to give u details of my life and community, especially as it was, because some in these recent years cannot live the way I did, because of the crime we live amongst. But in my story, you will see a lot of activity on my day to day living as a youth. Yes later when I was in my 30’s I did have the Black Panthers in my day and in my community.

My reference has been the work of Tupac in Tupac Resurrection, I’ve watched about 5 times. I have all his films, and plan to get his music. With all this seriousness I like to have fun, and I watch a lot of documentaries, and I do a lot of reflecting after I watch them, and old African American films, and I watch prison pictures fiction or not. I also teach myself jewelry making and crochet, which came about after being involve with a baby blanket and books project.

My present work along with the crisis work is contacting prisoners, I am on a Death Row forum, and I am against the death penalty for the reason to protect the innocents, it is immoral to me, and I’ve learned quite a bit about abused children when they grow up they do not respond to conflict or problems due to the damage of their brains. There is also the ones that I feel need to be evangelized. In my opinion this growing prison population is a very large and growing problem, especially on Death Row. I am writing to three inmates, and
it is true they do feel remorseful, and this to me is because being off drugs, they seem to realize what they did. was very wrong. Some are innocent and have been on Death Row or in prison many years for a crime that they did not commit. But by DNA tests they are freed. Some drop their appeals and want to die. An example, an inmate dropped his appeals, but his lawyer talked him out of it, DNA later found him not guilty, and now he’s free. At first I thought “am I suppose to be doing this prison work?” But now I feel more comfortable doing so, voicing my support for them over the forum. I hope in time I can inspire ones to get involve with this imprisonment problem.

Drugs and guns has escalated this problem, and always to me, lack of decent living wage jobs. Also lack of health care for the criminal insane is another factor. Then we have and had the problem of police brutality, like the murder of Sean Bell and a 91 year old woman. With my short intro and insights, at this time I would like for those that can please donate to the defense fund of this inmate, and read his story.

Manuel F Garza
For over seven years I have been incarcerated on a crime that I was wrongly convicted on. In my struggle to seek help and justice in my case I’ve came upon the knowledge that the justice system does not exist in the way it is suppose to. I say that because in my case where it was me an unarmed man,in a struggle with a police officer who pulled his weapon out on me, daring a fight between us.

Where in court it was proven that I could of not have been the one to pull his gun due to the locks the police have on their gun holster.. So I look at that and say well what is it that people don’t get about that?. All they see is the dead officer and me, a young man still
standing.

Fact is when it came down to my trial the facts were taken and twisted to what the Prosecutor believed and made me look bad rather than what the truth(facts) really showed.

So what is a young man suppose to do?. I coudn’t shout out in court to right their wrong, because their are ways to going about things in court. And these ways, people are the ways that none of us regular people are accustomed to.

For many years young men like me have been at the hands of court appointed attorneys who are paid by the state, and who I believe only do enough to cover the seat they sit on.

It’s like a no win situation when a guy like me of the streets enter a court room accused of killing someone. The stakes are aready set and the team that wins is the most schooled and the one with the deepest pockets to pay for all the high profile experts to run game on the jury in ways the don’t even realize it’s happening.

Just over a month ago I received a hearing on my case to bring up issues and new evidence into the record to help benefit my appeal to get relief from this death sentence and hopefully a ticket out this place. And in the stay I had in my home city I not only found out that the attorney I had on my defense team not only held important information from me that proved I was a harmless person, I wasn’t violent (and my records show this.

But he is also for the death penalty. Kinda messed up that the judge would appoint a man who she knew would do me harm in my case? It’s like I said the state pays for the court appointed attorneys so you would think they would do more for them because that’s where they are getting their money from. Yes, that is exactly what the problem is.

And my goal is to break the cycle by asking you for your help to attain my own paid attorney.

I do not want you to think that I am just sitting in this cell they have me doing nothing, no I have learned how to draw pretty well and I am saving money myself to reach this goal. As I can’t expect my friends, you or family just to do it all for me.

It’s been a long time coming and I think this is the right time that people know that I am not the bad guy here in this case. I was not the one who had a record of beating up people and sending them to the hospital, or shooting people for no reason. I didn’t have the record of chasing after people and beating them down because they ran from me.

Ya know people there are a lot of stories coming out and have been coming out about these bad cops beating people and even killing people for no damn reason. And I feel like this: what about me. Ha/what if I would of died that night? I can almost guarantee you that nothing would have been done and that officer would have received a medal for his work. Sad, but true but this is the reality we the people of the United States of America live in, where cops get away with whatever the they want.

I, don’t want to be another statistic where the study shows another poor minority was pulled through the injustice system without proper and respectable representation.

I encourage you to keep up with what the Texas Defenders service- (.com) writes because trust me what they write and say is plain truth to the tenth power. These people reveal all the tricks the state plays on us and you when it comes to the court room and the way the justice system is ran.

I hope to hear from you soon, I look forward to meeting new friends from all over the world. I will respond to each and everyone. Take care and May God Bless.
Sincerely,
Manuel F Garza

Manuel F Garza
999434 - Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 S
Livingston, Tx 77351

about myself:
I’m 27 years young, and from Stand at about 5 foot 11, I keep myself in shape both physically and mentally, as I am in a cell 23 hours a day.. I love to read, and I definitly love to listen to all kinds of music. My passion is writting poems, and drawing as well. I wish I could have went to art school to polish out my skills but I’m doing with what I know now.

All my leisures take me to my own world as it gets pretty hard at times bearing the separation from doing what I’d really love to do. I really enjoy receiving mail. That is always a high point in my days here. Mail can never be too much in this place. So get to writting. Smile

“Quilombo Country,” the award-winning documentary about Brazilian villages founded by escaped and rebel slaves, will have its premiere theatrical run at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater from Friday, September 19th to Thursday, September 25th every evening at 7 pm.

The film is narrated by Chuck D, the legendary poet, media commentator and leader of the iconic hip hop band Public Enemy.

The Pioneer Theater is located in the heart of New York City’s
ast Village at 155 East 3rd Street near Avenue A. The film’s creator, writer-director Leonard Abrams, will take questions after the Friday and Saturday screenings. Seating is limited — online purchase, especially for the Friday and Saturday shows, is highly recommended. Go to http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer . Student discounts apply.

Brazil, once the world’s largest slave colony, was brutal and deadly for millions of Africans. But many thousands escaped and rebelled, creating settlements they called quilombos in Brazil’s untamed hinterland. Largely unknown to the outside world, these communities struggle today to preserve a rich heritage born of resistance to oppression.

“Quilombo Country” explores Afrobrazilian village life among the forests and rivers of northern Brazil, with rare footage of festivals and ceremonies that blend Catholic, African and native Amazonian rituals and customs, including the use of dance, drumming, tobacco and other sacred plants to facilitate the communication between the spiritual and material worlds. “Quilombo Country” is alive with first-person accounts of racial conflict, cultural ferment, political identity, and the struggle for land and human rights.

“Wonderfully rich…Abrams’s grainy, intimate portrait of the difficult everyday life of contemporary quilombo residents
refuses romanticization.”
– Black Camera

“Persuasive, complex, and timely.”
– Southern Quarterly

“Outstanding footage of festivals, parties and religious ceremonies.”
– In These Times

“Winner, Best Documentary, 2007″
– Black International Cinema Berlin festival

Visit “Quilombo Country” Website: http://www.quilombocountry.com

“QUILOMBO COUNTRY,” New Documentary about Black Rebel Villages of Brazil, Premieres at the Pioneer Theater in NYC, September 19-25, 2008.

Narrated by Hip Hop Legend Chuck D, lead man for Hip Hop Group Public Enemy,

WHAT: Debut run of “Quilombo Country”
WHEN: Fri, Sept 19 – Thurs, Sept 25, 2008. Most shows at 7 pm.
WHERE: Pioneer Theater, Ave. A & 3rd Street, NYC
PLUS: Q&A with director Leonard Abrams after Fri & Sat shows.

Let me be frank. You can’t eat Hip Hop cd’s nor do they make good bandages. Let me explain:

My younger brother wants to rap.
I have a good friend who is pursuing a Hip Hop & R&B song-writing career.
I have about four younger male cousins (that I know of) who want to get into the rap game.
Two older cousins that produce Hip Hop music and own small local labels.
I won’t even count my friends and general associates because that would be too many.

Am I the only one who finds it mildly disturbing that…

No one wants to be a lawyer (besides my younger sister*), physician, or surgeon?
No one mentions opening up a couple of food franchises, or barbarshops?
No one wants get into real estate, the stock market, investments?
No one speaks about the banking business, working for NASA, or becoming a senator?

My Point?

When did Hip Hop and the music industry become our only source of income? Our only career choice? Our only means to an end? When did an artform become the ultimate hustle above all other hustles? Now, I am certain that God made some of us musicians, but will he make more musicians than doctors? More rappers than chefs or even cooks? More singers than seamstresses? Highly unlikely…

It seems like to me that we, the descendents of the “kings and queens of Africa”, or the “original people” of earth are acting as modern day gypsies, but instead of selling beads, oils, and paintings, we are selling our music. And to promote our music, we have to sell pieces of our soul. You don’t agree? Maybe it’s just me. Tell me your thoughts…

How many young brothers you know want to rap, because they love music? How many of us read the Source Magazine but refuse to read the “real source” book? How many of us feel proud of hustling our latest mix tape, but couldn’t tell you the subject matter of Barack Obama’s latest speech? How many of us really understand Tupac’s overall contributions to black culture that transcends Hip Hop music? I think we all will agree that he was much more than just a rapper. And I think we can all can agree that young black men can be more than just rappers too. The Hip Hop crutch is shiny, strong, and expensive, but it’s still a crutch nevertheless.

Besides, as I said earlier, you can’t eat Hip Hop cd’s, we need some restaurants. Anyone up for the challenge? Oh, and Hip Hop cd’s don’t make good bandages either. We need some doctors for that. Anyone else up for the challenge?

The Individual, Calm Hill
www.calmhill.com