CONTENDING WITH CONTENTIOUSNESS

SHOUT OUT

To fellow blogger David Dust who is walking his weight down. I think he has dropped 26lbs. or so as he 'left foot... right foot's his way around town. Good for him!!

A lot of people talk themselves out of weight loss because they think that some special kind of training or knowledge is required. It isn't and it is fairly simple. You know when you are eating too much and when your diet is unhealthy. Taking charge of your health starts with you getting up and taking control of your body. Starting with walking and cutting out a snack or deciding that you won't eat after a certain time isn't hard to do. Way to go, David!!


LETS GET IT RIGHT


Of course there is more to the Dez Bryant/Jeff Ireland draft questioning than the rudeness of asking someone if their Mother was a prostitute. Apparently Dez was being boastful and full of himself (which given some of his issues in college, may actually be sh*t) and his rough upbringing. He makes a point of saying that his Father was/is a pimp. I don't know about you but if someone tells me that his Pops was a pimp then I have to ask that kind of question as well.

What is annoying about all this is how James Frey-ish it is and how it only further erodes the understanding of different cultures. I could talk trash and walk around 'whut, whut... East Side!!' and pretend I was a roughneck. I remember when I was boxing in the service and I would tell folks that is how it gets done on Mack Ave. But when someone asked me what was I talking about, I would tell them 'sh*t... I have NO idea of what they do on Mack! I am from the most western part of Detroit... saying 'I put a Mack Ave beat down on someone sounds a lot better than saying that is how we do it on Lahser Road... or at Edgewater Park!!'


What I was doing was called 'frontin'. I think Dez Bryant has been caught 'frontin', telling people some bullspit to make him sound like someone he is not. The difference between what I did and what he has been doing (I bet) is that I would always smile and admit to my role play. Obviously this is a character issue and if it isn't going to interrupt his athletic career, I can only imagine what kind of effect this kind of behavior has in his personal relationships.


This kind of crap is WHY they have such a process... and I guess that is why Al Sharpton didn't rush up and mug for the cameras when this story first broke.


WHEN THE LEATHER RUNS SMOOTH ON THE PASSENGER SEAT


I hadn't concerned myself much with anxiety prior to my own diagnosis. My stint in therapy helped me a lot and I am grateful for being matched with a therapist that I was able to bond with. He gave me a card that says, 'Stay in the moment. Do what's next.' Good advice, because there are days where I wake up and there they are waiting on me. Forcing myself through those moments are things that I have had to do on my own for a good while. Now is not that much different except it is harder to shut things out.

Walking down the street, nearly a mile to the bus stop, I was nearly seized by worries that weren't based in any reality that I have ever lived in. I have never been chased by a stray, vicious dog or felt threatened by my surroundings. But here I was with that in the back of my mind, as if the city that Robo-Cop patrolled, 'what if' scenarios were playing out.


Even after getting to my last stop, on the walk down to the gym I was worried about getting hassled by someone who could see right through me. I guess I woke up and felt marked as 'vunerable'. After swiping my fob and going into the gym, it still seemed that I would be seen as an 'imposter' or as a person who didn't belong.

Didn't know what sparked the feeling and of course, I could find something and put a 'face' on what started this insecure feeling. Was only going thru the motions until the stereo system in the gym played the song 'Space Lord' by Monster Magnet.





That was a song that I have some powerful positive association with. I always heard it as an underdog's anthem who has now become the overdog and is reveling in his power. The cat is more a representation of inevitablitiy than anything else to me. At any rate, the clouds were lifted and I finally began to enjoy my workout.

Priced the bikes at the D & D's bike shop and they fall between $4 - 500 bills, which was expected. Saw a sweet black one and though I would like to call my next bike Trixie Too (get it? my last bike name was Trixie), if I found enough money to buy the black one, I'd have to go with a more appropriate name.

ANYWHO...

Of the two major free weekly tabloids that are published here, I always have had a difficult time finding the Real Detroit and the Metro Times can be picked up in library branches!! I have never understood why that is. The Times does come across as more of a news oreinted paper, the both of them have all the other things that I have come to expect of such tabloids. Snarky editorials, reviews of new release in the theatre and for the I-Pod (or however you get your music) and what's poppin' in the concert scene.

There is NO QUESTION that I will miss the music scene around here. I would go down to places like The Majestic or down at the Shelter and see a up and coming band before they got anywhere. Most of the time I would pick a show based on the review of their latest release or on their name alone (Everbody Was In The French Resistance is catchy name enough to consider a look see!) and with ticket prices no more than $20 bucks... some of them less than $15, I got to see a lot of the bands I'd fall in love with.

One of the bands that I saw perform at a free street fair last year... the Zoos of Berlin are headlining a show. There are some real main event folks from the past... Rev. Horton Heat, PIL gonna be thru here too. But if there were two shows that I would like to see but can't neither afford or get to, the Maxwell/Jill Scott show at DTE and Edwin Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes at Crowfoot in Pontiac are the two I would not mind attending.

First, Maxwell and Jill are in May and that is too soon for me. There is no way I could afford it. The Edwin Sharpe show is in August and I do hope to be from here in August.

Then there is transportation. Would need it for both shows. Clarkston, where the Maxwell and Jill show is, is not around the corner!! Pontiac is just a smidgen closer, but there is no way for me to arrange a back and forth. The Fly Skimmie is as huge a Maxwell fan as I am a fan of Jill, complete with a crush and everything. That would have been a fun friend date for us, were she around. As far as the Edwin Sharpe show, I'd have to make someone take me and bribe them to do it. I don't think anyone I know would want to check them out but me. Their song 'Home' is way cool and I would like to see if they are as intense live as they sound on the radio.

Hope everyone has a way cool weekend..! I know I plan on having one myself!!