The Negro Speaks Of Rivers by Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks Of Rivers by Langston Hughes

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.


My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Today

I have a new writer/editor well, actually two new writer/editors. One is official. The other is not she is still mulling it over. I do believe she will be on board soon. The new guy is a very experienced journalist from a large mid-western city.



He is also a Michigan State Trojan. The other new writer is an Ohio State Buckeye......This should be real fun around football season. Michigan and Ohio almost went to war in the 19th century, however both side were too drunk to go through with it.



I am, however above all of it, as my pedigree shall not concern itself with such trivial, petty, juvenile(GO BUCKEYES!) pastimes as collegiate athletics. The latest post is from Butch the "Do Me Philosophy". Look forward to more from Butch. Butch I want to thank you!

'Do You...Do Me' Philosophy Takes Ignorant Turn

Lately, in my travels around the city I constantly overhear this refrain in stray conversations...girl I told so and so do you cause I'm sho gonna do me....or dog I'm just gonna do me....condition or circumstance be damned. No matter how jacked up they may be, they still gonna proclaim I'm gonna do me.

I think some of these sistas and brothas need to re-evaluate and really proclaim they are going to "Do Something Else." This reminds me of the forever popular "Keepin It Real" refrain that seems to have shackled the positive mentality and progress of many African Americans for the past 10 or 15 years now. As that great urban observer and humorist Chris Rock once said...Keepin It Real...Real Ignorant.

Well its first cousin expression Do You...Cause I'm Going to Do Me...is keeping the ignorance alive and well. Don't get me wrong, there is something to be said for being your own person and not following the crowd in a positive way - instead of being like Mike, blazing your own trail...that's cool.

But don't do me if that means, everyone else is going to school or pursuing a career, I'll just hang out and chill. Or if everyone has pulled up there pants, or hidden their thong lines and tried to dress in a more mature and neutral way, I'm going to Do Me by continuing to sag with my dingy, skid-mark boxers showing or squeeze my fat ass into some hip-hugger jeans with the top of my leopard-skin thong showing and my gut hanging out. While others adopt a calmer demeanor in public less dropping MF-bombs and N-bombs every third word and constantly splitting verbs and nouns, I'm going to continue to Do Me and never ever conjugate the verb to be and be blissfully ignorant, loud and wrong.

Now before you think I'm coming down too hard on the young people, the older folks who know better are just as guilty, if not more in many instances. Instead of saying do you cause I'm gonna do me, they might as well say I don't care about you, I just care about me. It's a selfish attitude that we don't need today. So please, just don't do it.

On the bright side

Hello family! I am on the library computer! I hope all is well! One of the great things about being unemployed is the amount of time you have.....nothing but TIME! I have been making the effort to make as productive use of the precious commodity (time) as possible. I have been reading! Yes reading! I decided to share my reading list with you. These are the titles of the books I have completed as well as the ones I am in the process of completing.

• boogaloo- the quintessence of american popular music by Arthur Kempton


• Motown-Music,Money,Sex and Power by Gerald Posner


• Sellout-by Randall Kennedy


• SuperCapitalism-by Robert Reich


• Authentically Black-by John McWhorter


• Learned Optimism-by Dr. Martin Seligman


• The End of Work-by Jeremy Rifkin


• Black Rednecks White Liberals-by Thomas Sowell


• Winning The Race-by John McWhorter


• A Love Supreme-by Ashley Kahn

I have expanded my horizons, I have stretched my mind, I am enriched by the experience. I am also troubled that I have read about ten books since the beginning of July. This means I certainly need to get out more often. I am also now enrolled in school. I will be going back in August, I will be looking forward to this. I am on a library computer so somehow I don't feel as relaxed to really write what I want and the way I want. I would however like for any one who may have read any of the titles I have mentioned to send me your comments/opinions regarding any of these books. 'Till next time.

NubianBlues: I hate to lose!

My computer is messed up. I have no money for a new one. This is the losing season. It seems once the job goes. The cosmic vacum goes to work on the rest of your life. Money, stuff, friends, esteem, psychological well-being, snacks, nights out, balance, sleep, peace, the regard of your family and friends,debit/credit card purchases, new clothes. Hell what is the point!?

I had a friend(maybe ex friend) lecture ME!? on her "testicular fortitude" as well as the pride her family raised her with. I had not asked this woman for money.....just some understanding. Family this is not a good look for me. I can remember when other people I knew went through a situation like this. WE just sort of forgot about them. WE just wanted to erase them from our memory. WE began to act as if they ceased to exist .

I am now one of the dearly departed. I have been embalmed, funeralized, eulogized, and finally buried. I had a homegoin' goin' on and did not want to admit it. I know why this happenend, not because all my peeples is bad. It is because they are afraid for themselves. It could happen to them and they just don't want to witness something that might go down with them.

I am now entering the ranks of the hardcore unemployed and my computer, my source for information, my source for stimulation, my source for the JOB search is JACKED UP! WTF!? I am using the computer in the library.......so this is what it feels like to have a losing season. The technical difficulty has kept me from posting. I have all kinds a stuff I wanted to put out. This is the losing season. The vacum of the cosmos is doin' it's work.

Viva Salvador! What is better than one Henri Salvador song? One Mo!

Viva Salvador!

Henri Salvador came to my attention in the Quincy Jones autobiography, he was mentioned as one of the artists he wrote arrangements for on the French label Barclay during the time he spent in Europe 1959-1960. In the book there was a photo of Salvador he appeared to be a light-skinned Nubian, he had the features but the photo was a black and white. I was intrigued by the photo and what those collaborations may have produced since the music that Q creates stirs the soul no matter the language or genre.

In the very same year I had the opportunity to see a documentary called In The Pocket on PBS. In this excellent representation of the lives of Mr. Jones, various musicians tell the story of an arrangement by Neal Hefti. Neal presented his arrangement to The great Count Basie it was uptempo and very much in the contemporary style of the day a "nice chart" as Clarke Terry the trumpet legend and all around beautiful cat remembered (who was also at the rehearsal as he was a part of the heart pumpin' swingin' machine Count Basie commanded).

Mr. Terry recalled The Count listened intently to the band run through it. The Groovemaker said "it was nice". Quincy Jones picks up the story. Count Basie said "let's try it here"and he began to play the arrangement on the piano in a very slow groove and the chart took on a whole new life! Q spoke with amazement about how dramatically the tune opened up because of the change in tempo. Quincy described the new colors within the harmonic structure that were not heard when the tune was played at the original faster pace. Q said "that was when I realized everything is about timing"!

Lil' Darlin' ended up being another hit for The Count! In the same documentary Q was rehearsing a big band at Montreaux and Henri Salvador was the featured vocalist on the song Lil' Darlin' The first thing I noticed about Henri was his wide warm smile and that legendary booming laughter. He was beauty! His soul. His gift. His elegance.I recently saw a video online with Henri and the two supa bad French sistas Les Nubians. I don't posses the words to describe the beauty of this slice of love. I have the video below the Henri Salvador story. Enjoy!

Biography

Salvador was born in Cayenne, French Guiana. His father, Clovis, and his mother, Antonine Paterne, daughter of a native Indian from the Caribbean, were both from Guadeloupe, FranceHe had a brother, André, and a sister, Alice. He played many years in the Ray Ventura (dead on 29 March 1979) et Ses Collégiens where he used to sing, dance and even play comedy on stage, and made some appearances in great movies such as "Nous irons à Monte-Carlo (1950) " or "Nous irons à Paris" (Jean Boyer's film of 1949 with the Peters Sisters) or "Mademoiselle s'amuse" (1948). He is known to have recorded the first French rock and roll songs in1956 written by Boris Vian and Michel Legrand Rock'n Roll Mops, Rock hoquet, Va t'faire cuire un oeuf, man and Dis-moi qu'tu m'aimes rock under the artist name of Henry Cording, (a play on words with Recording).

Despite this historical aspect, he never ceased to claim that he disliked Rock and Roll and even refused to talk about this subject later on. In the 1960s, Salvador was the host of several popular television variety shows on French TV. In 1964 he scored a hit with Zorro est arrivé, which was inspired by The Coasters' U.S. hit Along Came Jones. He is also famous for his rich, catchy laugh, which is a theme in many of his humorous songs. In 1969, Henri Salvador recorded a variation of Mah Nà Mah Nà titled Mais non, mais non (But No, But No or Of Course Not, Of Course Not), with lyrics he had written in French to Piero Umiliani's music.


Henri Salvador and his song Dans mon île (1957) was an influence on Antônio Carlos Jobim in formulating the Brazilian Bossa Nova style [1]. Caetano Veloso, a famous Brazilian composer and singer, made Henri Salvador famous to Brazilian audiences with the song Reconvexo, in which he says "quem não sentiu o swing de Henri Salvador?" ("who hasn't felt the swing of Henri Salvador?"). At age 70, Salvador was the voice-over of the crab Sebastian in the 1989 French dubbing of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Recordings of Embrasse La (Kiss the Girl) can be found on Youtube. Salvador discovered singers Keren Ann and Art Mengo. He died of a ruptured aneurysm at his home in the early hours of February 13, 2008. He was 90 years of age.

Legacy

Henri 's music continues to be popular today among French communities in Canada. In 2000, Virgin Records released a CD featuring popular hits like Jazz Mediterrannee which continues to receive regular air play. In 2002 his album Chambre Avec Vue sold over two million copies. In 2005, Henri Salvador was awarded the Brazilian Order of Cultural Merit, which he received from the acclaimed singer and Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, in the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his influence on Brazilian culture, particularly on bossa nova, to whose invention he contributed.



He was also a commander of the French Légion d'honneur and of the National Order of Merit. In 2007 he released "Reverence" on V2 Records which features Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. He then went on to perform the track La Vie C'est La Vie from the album Reverence on the BBC program Later … With Jools Holland, which aired on May 4, 2007.