WHO DAT!

Yeah its been a long time, but I just gotta say it:

WHO DAT say they gonna beat them Saints!!!!

Been following the Black and Gold a long time, don’t let me down now.

Commentary on Pac and Biggie

I've been reading after this guy for awhile, here is a good reason why:

How Long Will They Mourn Me?

What's New

I need to get back on this blogger thing, got so much to do and talk about, just not enough time to get it all in. So:

Work is good, grad school is busy, but fun.
Watching LSU screw up all over the field and give a game away on Saturday was not fun.
What’s happening to my Jags, I leave BR and they lose to Prairie View and others. At least from what I hear the Human Jukebox has more members now and is better than ever.
Family gatherings are a lot of fun, even with a crazy family. Too bad as you get older they seem to occur less and less.
New Orleans is still a tale of two cities, where I live really cool, other places not so cool. Speaking of the city, I’ve attended a decent number of planning meetings since I’ve been here. My conclusion, a lot of people are investing a lot of time and effort into rebuilding, but it has to start at the top. And that is where the problem is, a lot of the neighborhoods have their stuff together. Speaking of those at the top………
Nagin (don’t get mad, I would still vote for the man today and I’m willing to give him a chance) I know you gotta play the political game, “you help me, I help you”, that sorta thing, but endorsing Dollar Bill, I just don’t know.
In Jefferson’s defense, he has done a lot of great things for New Orleans, he hasn’t been charged yet, and there was a lot of craziness surrounding the search of his office. But the fridge, the fridge, I just can’t get over all that cash in the fridge. But what do I know, not as much as I think, and I find this out daily.

Let's Go Saints

I've been a Saints fan forever but I said I wouldn't let the game get to me, I mean its just football, and I'm not really even from New Orleans, and I got class so I'm not even going to the dome tonight, I mean I got thru August 29th ok. But if people feel like I do right now the tears will be flowing tonight.

This is a great read:
Michael Smith ESPN Article

I couldn't find any pictures from the last Saints game in the dome (sometime in 2004) I went to, but this is still one of my favorite all time pics, only in the dome do brass bands roam the halls.

I Know Some Incredible People

While running this afternoon I saw a three-legged dog. No lie, but that is all I got for today. A few of you (that’s all who reads this) have let me know I should update my blog more often. But this brother’s been hella busy the past few weeks. I’m gonna get back on it soon, I promise.

Until then if you want something awesome to read check out the blog of my friends, Tamara and Laura; we were in the same LSU Ambassador class and did all kinds of stuff in the good ole days (campus leadership and service, Slinky's, The Chimes way too much, etc, etc). Now they are both medical doctors who just left for Africa to work with AIDS patients. You gotta read their story, I’m not sure if I’ve ever been more proud of any of my friends. I also added the blog to links sections.

http://blogs.chron.com/intoafrica/

Katrina, I tried to forget about you.......

So it’s been a year, huh. At least for me I don’t quite know how to feel, I could barely get anything done at work today and I’m not sure how I’ll pay attention in class. Just to compare and contrast, on August 29, 2005 I was living in Baton Rouge, working for a large telecommunications company, undecided about going back to school, getting ready for football season, and sleeping most of that day because you really can’t do much without electricity. Oh, also believing the news reports I saw early that morning that New Orleans would be ok.

On August 29th of this year I’m now an Uptown New Orleans resident, working for one of the coolest non-profits in the city, matriculating in a remarkable graduate program that will give me the chance to work hands-on in the rebuilding effort, waiting to see Reggie Bush play in the Superdome, and generally thankful for the opportunities I’m blessed to have.

I would like to think I’m in a better position now than one year ago. I understand most residents of New Orleans cannot say that today. Hopefully I can help to change things so that next year more people can look back and say things are better than they were a year ago.

Katrina, I tried to forget you, but it hasn’t quite worked out yet.

Things I wrote about Katrina last year

If only I knew what was coming. Or maybe better said if only I knew how crappy those FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LEEVES were.

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/hurricane-katrina.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/louisiana-hurricane-season-notes.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/we-survived-katrina.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/09/keeping-things-in-perspective.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/09/letting-it-out.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/09/report-from-new-orleans.html

Football Time

Almost time for football again. Just to reminisce:

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/its-football-season-lets-go-crazy.html

I Get Around

It’s been awhile but I’m back at it. In the past three weeks I’ve left one job after 4 and half years, started a new job, moved to a new city, an in about one hour I’m starting grad school. Now I’ve done all of the above at one time or another in my life, but never in a time frame of three weeks. Needless to say life is busy.

I still consider myself very blessed. For one thing my new job is awesome. It is almost the total opposite of my previous hustle, before I was working for a big company with hundreds of other employees. Now I’m working for a small non-profit with only 6 other employees. I used to have a 50 mile roundtrip to work, now it's about 7 miles. At my old job the emphasis though not directly stated was “don’t do anything to lose us money or customers, or get use sued.” Now it’s more like let's try and do things to help people and do good things. I don’t have any truly bad memories from my old job, I just like this better.

As for moving there is a lot to say and at the same time not a lot to say. I just moved to a city that was nearly completely mowed down by Hurricane Katrina almost one year ago. I got a decent spot to live at a great price in a good area, but even where I live the evidence of the storm (now that I’ve moved people here don’t say the name much anymore, just the storm or other more derogatory terms) is everywhere and still overwhelming.

And school, and school, and school. Mainly I’m excited to be in a cool grad program. It’s really crazy to think 10 or so years ago I was just starting college out of high school, trying to walk around campus all cool and chill, you know impress some ladies. Man now I get out of my car and I all I care about is getting out of the freaking sun and South Louisiana heat. My how things change.

Rising Tide NOLA Conference - New Orleans

http://thinknola.com/wiki/Rising_Tide_Conference

From the website:

August 25-27, 2006, there will be a convention for all people who care about New Orleans.

The Rising Tide Conference will be a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita). We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a "real life" demonstration of internet activism as the nation prepares to mark the one year anniversary of a massive natural disaster followed by governmental failures on a similar scale

I’m really digging this conference and since I’ll be a New Orleans resident in a few weeks I definitely want to check this out. Another plus, these guys and gals even had the great foresight to schedule the event before LSU football season starts. Ok that might not have been a consideration but still the timing works out great. I look forward to meeting a few of these people and hopefully hearing progressive ideas for the city of New Orleans. More on my move later.

Tiger You Had Me Tearing

Yeah Tiger you had me tearing too.

I walked in the house a little after 12, just getting home from a good Sunday morning church service and turned on the TV just in time to catch Tiger Woods teeing off from the 18th hole of the British Open with a 2 shot lead. Now any non-Tiger related golf tournament I’ll rarely watch, mainly cause I’m just not a TV golf fan. In fact I’m barely a playing golf fan although maybe that will change the first time I ever break 100 over 18 holes. But anyhow the inevitable happens, Tiger wins, and all is good in the world. But then my man started to cry, actually it was past crying, he was sobbing. And I understood why, I can’t say I knew how he felt, but I could understand why. I’m still blessed to have a living father, sometimes I don’t realize how much of a blessing this really is.

I can’t imagine how Tiger felt after winning yesterday, but I would imagine he would give back all of the $60 million he has earned in his career to share it with pops.

When Educated Folks Go Off On Hip-Hop

I’ve seen this article floating around the web for about two weeks now. I feel the need to comment because I can, and also because he referenced Paul Lawrence Dunbar who was an amazing brother. Check him out, I've enjoyed almost every work of his I’ve read over the years.

I will qualify my remarks by noting that I’m an old-school hip-hop head that has been retired for a while now. I haven’t watched a music video on MTV or BET in years, rarely listen to Urban radio, and I probably can’t identify more than 2 or 3 songs on the Billboard Top 10 Rap Chart. Also I used the word “Nigga” in conversation like 3 times a year. So maybe my comments on current hip-hop artist might not be the most relevant unless we’re talking about the likes of The Roots or Outkast. Anyway my thoughts…

While a powerful read I don’t believe we can blame rappers for all of the nihilism in black communities today. Not to underestimate the influence of music (this would be an injustice to songs like Billy Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”) but most music is made to titillate and entertain which I really got no problem with. I’m all for musicians who take on a mantle of social responsibility in our neglected communities, but if Luda or Ice Cube is the best black American got to speak for us we have some inherently deeper issues to confront. I hope we ain’t waiting for a rapper to lead the revolution. That being said………..

I must admit Dr. Cobb brings it hard and heavy with his assessment of many of the so-called gangsta rappers of today and their attitudes. I love this part:

Of all their claims, the charge that Oprah sold out to win points with
her white audience is the most tragically laughable. The truth is that
her audience's white middle-class kids exert waaay more influence over
50 and Cube than their parents do over Oprah. I long ago tired of
Cube, a thirty-something successful director, entrepreneur and married
father of three children making records about his aged recollections
of a thug's life. The gangsta theme went cliché eons ago, but Cube, 50
and a whole array of their musical peers lack either the freedom or
the vision to talk about any broader element of our lives. The reality
is that the major labels and their majority white fan base will not
accept anything else from them.

Just read the whole thing. Should make you think a little.

ARTICLE

Voices

Yesterday I ran the 4 mile loop around the lake near LSU, starting and finishing at the Baton Rouge Beach. Now this is a beach in name only which is a shame considering the lake boarders campus. However, if I was in charge of LSU I would turn all of sorority row into general student housing, tear up the road running in front of the sorority houses, and turn that entire area into a sandy beach for general student use. Of course if anyone tried this they would be probably be assassinated by a sniper team composed of angry Tri-Delts, DZ’s, Chi-O’s, and Kappa Kappa Gammas. If I learned anything from my student government days at LSU it was not to F… with the sororities. Anyway, I had an average run though way slower than I planned for 2 reasons. First, a little more than 2 miles into the run I ran into an old friend from college I had not seen in years walking the other way. She was actually an old girlfriend of one of my good friends. We chatted for about 5 minutes then headed our separate ways. Second, about a mile later I spent almost 3 minutes stretching and trying to pound out a massive cramp in my left quadriceps.

Anyhow I finished, stretched a little more, then headed back to my car when I heard this voice from a distance, an unmistakable voice I hadn’t heard in years but I recognized it right away.

Digressing for a second, it’s amazing to me how a human being can identify another individual human being just by the sound of their voice. Of course family and close friends are easy to identify most of the time, as well as those with distinctive voices. I imagine if I was walking down the street and heard Barry White singing behind me I would recognize his voice almost immediately. Of course if it was actually Barry White I would then take off running the other way (or maybe join in if he was singing My First, My Last, My Everything, that’s an all-time jam). And I have a few professors whose voices I could probably identify too.

Anyway this voice I heard belonged to one of my old high school track coaches. He works at another school now and had some of his runners out at the beach for practice. I went and spoke for a few minutes, exchanged normal pleasantries, etc. I’ll always remember his voice as well as the voices of my other two other coaches from high school, the most palpable explanation being when someone yells at you for an hour each day its hard to forgot their voices. Coach had aged and looked different, but even if he underwent a Michael Jackson level physical transformation I would always be able to recognize that voice.

More Links

added some links, gonna play around more later....

My You Tube Videos:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=fnealjr

African American Blogs, Black Blogs, African Blogs:
http://sisterstalk.com/blackblogs/links.php

How Cool Is This Video

Enough about Jazzfest I know, but during Lionel Richie’s set he broke out with this song; I knew the Commodores sang it but I hadn’t heard it in a long time. For some reason it was one of my favorite songs as a little kid. Well I had never seen the video until now but thanks to youtube my destiny has been fulfilled. Watching the video reminds me of looking at college pictures of my mom and dad. Also I love soccer, but where did that come from? Wow again. Youtube is awesome; I’m actually hoping they block it at my job so I can get work done.

The Commodores - Lady (You Bring Me Up) - 1981