Darling Nicky

These are my friends: Gold, iGreen, Blue, and Red Che – otherwise known as The Five One. I met them last summer through my friend Kendra. She said her cousin’s band was playing Afropunk at BAM in Brooklyn. They came on just before Murs, a California underground rapper, and I was pleasantly surprised that they were really good.

They’re from Virginia, and have a sound akin to N.E.R.D. but defintely make it their own. They touch on everyday topics like work, relationships, interactions with authority, etc. They can have a nice melodic, SoCal vibe and then switch it up to raggae or even punk rock. When I saw them at Afropunk, I noticed that they switched instruments around depending on the song, and thought it was real cool that each member can play more than one instrument. They have a site called Deuce Day World where they interact with friends and fans as their music can be heard, and sometimes downloaded, on that site.

In 2009, the Five One is creating 51 remixes. They will release these remixes every Thursday (Deuce Day). This week they have remixed Lykke Li’s “Little Bit”. I love how these guys have such eclectic (and sometimes eccentric (Red likes Gogol Bordello) tastes in music to even reach from the international music scene (Lykke Li is Swedish) and become inspired. One mix from last year was a take on Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown”. iGreen waxed poetic about the financial meltdown and credit crunch on Wall Street and other American businesses, and why the government can’t bail out the average citizen.

Not only will you find their music on Deuce Day World, but you’ll also find somethings that the members of the band find interesting as well as members of the site. It’s hugely interactive and membership grows everyday. Being that the members of the band identify themselves with colors, of course, new members to the site must pick a color. Mine is pruple. What’s yours?

It was a good day. Not only did my nephew turn nine-years-old, but it was the day the first African American was elected president of the United States. Words can not express how I feel about the historic outcome of this election. I really can’t believe that President-elect Barack Obama is our 44th president! I was at an election night party with friends, and my friend Adam and I were in the middle of a conversation when at 11:03pm CNN had announced that Obama had garnered 284 electoral votes declaring him the winner. He was turning facing me when it happened so I shook the hell out of him to look at the tv. The room full of friends, black, white, southeast Asian, and French; erupted in screams of happiness. We were so excited that Obama had won that we ran into the streets of Harlem and celebrated with everyone. We weren’t too far from 125th street so went to the State Building where there was already a huge crowd and people were celebrating.

It felt good to see everybody in the streets happy over one thing.

Just recently, Al-Qaida’s number two in charge, Ayman al-Zawahri, has called President-elect Barack Obama, an “abeed al-beit”, or a “house slave”. I’m not even angry or in the least bit disturbed, but I am confused. Most citizens in countries all over the world are very happy that Obama will be sworn in January 20th, 2009 – why is Al-Qaida? Are they scared that Obama will actually make an effort to find those who are responsible for 9/11 in Afghanistan, and try them and make them pay the price for their crimes? I really think this is it. He and the rest of the Al-Qaida operatives want to belittle this historic and flawless campaign with racism and say that Obama is in the opposite of black leaders like Malcolm X. Why pull Malcolm X out of your hat when it was members of the Nation of Islam who assassinated Malcolm X because he left that sect and became a Sunni Muslim.

I think that we, everyone who believes that Obama’s foreign policy will be different from that of the Bush administration and that he is not a “house slave”, should fight against stupidity such as this from people and groups like Al-Qaida. I have friends who are Muslim, and I know they do not align themselves with the terrorist organiztion, nor do many other Muslims. To quote Colin Powell, someone al-Zawahri lumped Obama with in the “house slave” category, “It is not a bad thing to be Muslim” but with Al-Qaida making a having a huge presence in the back of the minds of many people, it is definitely hard to be one and identify yourself as a Muslim, American, and a supporter of Barack Obama.

At least 30 states have allowed voters to cast their ballots early, and lines to vote before election day have people waiting up to two hours. With voter registration having more than doubled, what has the rest of the 50 states not allowing their citizens to vote early? I live in New York City, and I can’t imagine what the lines are going to be like on Novemeber 4th. I got up early four years ago to vote thinking I might have to wait, and while there were people ahead of me, there was no line. This year will definitely be different, especially because NYC is one of those states that does not allow early voting. I certainly hope that every vote will count on Election Day ‘08. I plan to get up early again this year, and I defintiely expect to see a line. I think I might just cover all the long lines around the city, and ask people how they feel the city could’ve handled the expected surge in voter turn out, and you know in this town everyone’s a critic so someone will defintiely have a gripe.

I’m so happy that Window made this commercial. I have a PC and, I know this sounds really stupid but, I felt dissed by the Mac commercials saying how outdated PCs are. There are plenty of things that can be done on PCs and I am very happy with mine. I have had viruses but they easy to get rid of as long as I immediately scanned computer and deleted them, though I have only had two instances with viruses when I’ve had my PC for five years. I can’t take it everywhere I go, but what’s the point of leaving your house if you’re taking what would keep you there with you?

The commercials are really sweet and funny. And even though the commercials were made on a Mac (ack!), they really drive home the fact that PC users are varied and worldwide. PCs are decades older than Macs, but there’s is still a lot of fight (and good use) in them yet.

A bus driver gave me a cherry tootsie pop for picking up her pen. She said, “It’s the least I could do for you”. I thought to myself, “The least you could do for me is to say ‘Thank you’ and drive me to my destination, but I’ll take it since you offered”. I feel like I just got a gold star sticker placed on my forehead by my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Gordon, for getting a 100% on my math test on long division. I did something good, and am very proud. Thank you.  

I know this is really random, and not very entertaining but I thought it was worth sharing – some kindness in the city that people say everyone is so rude in.

My 5 year high school reunion will be held in September. Wow! When I got the mail yesterday and saw Saint Michael Academy on an envelope, I just thought it was the little newsletter they sent out from time to time but then I remebered that they discontinued it due to a lack of funds. So I opened it, and it was an invitation to rsvp to Reunion 2008. It would be a lot of fun to catch with some of the people I was at least friendly with back in high school. I know a lot of the girls I went to school with got married to and started families right after graduation, some went to college (like myself), others took a year off to get a job to be able to afford college and stave off heavy use of student loans (unlike myself), and others just disappeared into the world, possibly to never be heard from again.

Reunion 2008 will include Mass at 11:30am (which I would like to skip because I’m athiest) and a buffet lunch with music and dancing! Oh, SMA, how your feigned enthusiasm never fails to soup me up! One problem is that I’d have to pay $50 for tickets for myself and a guest. Yeah, being that it has been quite difficult for me to find a job since I graduated this past May I definately do not have the money. C’est la vie! Hopefully, I can get the money somehow and go. I’d love to see my old classmates…

Today, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obama denounced Ludacris’ song ”Politics Obama is Here”. In the song Ludacris calls Hillary Clinton a bitch and says that the only chair that John McCain belongs in is in a wheelchair. Sigh… Here we go again with another Obama supporter taking things a bit too far, and Obama gets slammed for something that he didn’t even say. Granted Obama was very quick on the draw to make a statement through his campaign before anyone could scrutinize him for being associated to people with opinions that may or may not be his.

I can’t help but to feel bad for Obama, though. He’s had to denounce his former spiritual counselor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then the church that Wright gave the speech at and that Obama attended. Then he’s had to separate himself from Islam when people started confusing Obama with Osama and mentioning that his middle name Hussein is a Muslim name, alienating his Muslim supporters while showing that he is “a friend of Israel”. He now has to denounce what rapper Ludacris says about his Republican rival for president and his former Democratic rival. Give him a break people!

Not only is this a bad time to make a song like this when a lot of Hillary’s female supporters had a hard time getting over Hillary conceding the nomination, but this is the time where the Democratic party is trying to pull together and unify after some heated words of Hillary supporters *coughHarrietChristiancough* and threats of voting for McCain instead of Obama in place of Hillary. This song is one more thing that the right can use against Obama and sensationalize to those who still don’t know who they will vote for come November and those who are uninformed and easily swayed. They’ll use this to say that Obama is not for unifying the country; he’s sexist, ageist, and elitist, even though the words of the song are not his, but those of a rap artist’s who happens to support the Illinois senator.

I do hope that hip hop continues to become political and put their support behind a candidate that has stances on the issues they agree with, but can you lay off the mysoginstic and down right unnecessary lyrics, especially when the presidential race is so close. We’re looking at two people that at the beginning of the primaries these two were underdogs and no one thought they would be presumptive nominees, but now here they are, and it’s still either one’s race to claim. I don’t want to say that hip hop artists shouldn’t have an opinion, but there has to be some responsibility taken into consideration.

Here is a link to All Hip Hop where Ludacris’ “Politics: Obama is Here” is mentioned.

I met a guy at a block party in Brooklyn yesterday. I was walking to the subway when three men passed me and one of them stopped to talk to me. He told me his name, and I told him mine. We then started to get to know each other with the basic questions, like What do you do?, How old are you? (I look really young but of age, so this is a usual question for me), Where did you go to school?, etc.  He’s telling me I’m beautiful. We kiss. Blah, blah, blah… So far, I’m liking this guy and thinking I could have sex him. Problem is I didn’t tell him I’m a virgin because it hasn’t gotten me anywhere in the past with guys.

            Another problem is that he got to eager. He then started asking me about my experience as far as sex goes (duh), what I like to do, what my favorite position is, and so forth. I’m wondering what the hell happened to the easy breezy conversation we were having? Yet I’m completely turned off to him, until he insinuates that I must be a freak (if he only knew). He says I’m probably good at giving head because of how sexy my lips are, I probably like to be on top riding the hell out of his dick, blah, blah, blah. We part ways on the subway so he can hitch a ride with one of his friends home. Before he gets off, he tells me to call him when I get home and we kiss goodnight.

            I get home and text him that I arrived safely, and he texts back five or six times about our kiss, about our plans to see each other the next day, about what I’m going to do to him when I see him, and more. And you people say virgins are clingy! All I wanted to do was tell dude. I’m over him already. He’s become overwhelming, and it’s just too much! So, yeah, I’m supposed to see him later today, but I don’t want to anymore. What do I tell him to get out of this? I just started my period?