To be young, gifted and black

There's another meaning to Grace that isn't the ballerina across the room nor the way the ethereal object of your desire glides across in front of your eyes.

It's when someone takes your shitty life by the scruff of your neck and gives you a glimpse of the hills. "There boy, life ain't that bad. There be hills, but you can climb 'em. And you can see real far from one o' those."

Or at least makes you feel that way.

I'm rather fond of superlatives lately, but I love Nina Simone.... jazz can be really boring nowadays (yeah yeah, subtlety)... and it's really great that there was actually someone who said "listen to me boy." Someone who sings with steel and verve... and writes with lovely tales and morals to tell. Evocative mood & lyrics, such that singin' it be seein' it. And with a cause...
the "Martin Luther King" suite for the kids blown up in the church in Birmingham, Alabama... breaking off in the middle of "My Father" cause it was bullshit what the song was singing

"My Father always promised me, That we would live in France(You know you don't believe that), We'd sail upon the Seine, and I would learn to dance... We lived in Ohio then, and he worked in the mines"

then : "i don't want to sing this song. it's not me. my father always promised me that we would be free, but he did not promise me that we would live in France."

(maniacal laughter)

"How about New York?"

"My Father knew nothing about New York, at all. He promised me that we would live in peace... and that maybe I can still get"

she did live... and die in the South of France though, in her old age.

and the gospel music... oh i have died in heaven and gone to hell. this is futile....

Other things to like: the Vietnamese trade office/ embassy is a house.... and I saw his kid return from school... it's a quaint... old rural rich-holding sort of bungalow... you know... none of 'ose tennis courts an' crap... badminton court... zinc corrugated porches... palm trees... you know. like my grandma's house.

and to be able to meet someone you haven't seen in a long time. coincidence and all that. =)

I'll have to catch up on all my work tomorrow... but I've got soul with me now. And I better get my passports back soon...