I’m still in shock.

President Obama. President Obama. President Obama. President-Elect Obama.  President Obama.

I feel like Celie in The Color Purple- my smile is so big I can’t contain it.  It spreads across my face every time I think about it.  Every time I say it.  President Obama.

Even after they called Pennsylvania I held on to my cynicism.  When they called Ohio and Virginia, I started to maybe-kinda-sorta believe.  When they made the announcement, I laughed, and then I cried.  And cried and cried and cried.

I cried primarily for my grandparents.  Each of my parents lost one parent when they were young, and one when they were parents themselves.  My mother’s mother (Granny) and my father’s father (Pop Pop) had an incredible impact on who I am today.  Granny because she helped raise me.  While my Mom worked typical 9-5 hours in jobs that were always too small for who she really was, my grandmother kept me, fed me, taught me.  She taught me how to have compassion, how to cook, how to play scrabble, how to tell someone to kiss your ass without saying “kiss my ass”, when you say “kiss my ass” anyway, how to drink (scotch on ice was her drink of choice), and how to love unconditionally - especially family (no matter how full of shit they are, as she would say).

Pop Pop taught me about the value of education.  He and my grandmother sent all of their children to Morgan State, even though neither of them had gotten past middle school.  He taught me about entrepreneurship.  By the time I came along, he was the owner and operator of “Ocean City Taxi” - at the time one of the only cab companies serving the Ocean City, MD area.  My grandfather ran his business from the head of his kitchen table, sitting in the chair closest to the side door of the house and only a step from the CB radio (which sat on top of the dishwasher).  I learned about management, cash handling, employee relations, and customer service watching him hold court in that chair.  He made me want to own my own business one day - a desire that has never left me.

I called my Mom after the intial celebration, still crying.  She said that she thought this would happen in my lifetime, but never in hers.  I remember sitting on her bed in 2004 watching Barack Obama give his speech to the DNC.  We had heard good things about him, and wanted to see what all of the fuss was about.  Neither of us had any idea that we would be here, four years later, having played a part in electing that charismatic and inspirational Congressman as our next President.

I called my Dad, still crying, and he was crying too (my Dad and I are soft touches).  He said that his parents would have never imagined that this would have happened.  And that’s the thing - neither would I.  I still, on some level, can’t believe it.  I can’t believe the country came through.  I can’t believe that we showed everyone the Joe the Plumber <> America.  I can’t believe we proved that not all of us listen to the smallest and meanest parts of ourselves.  I can’t believe that the next President of the United States looks something like me. 

And what better person to represent America?  He’s a person of color.  He’s multiracial.  He’s educated.  His father was an immigrant.  He was raised by a single mother and by his grandparents.  Barack Obama is America.  He represents us, with all of our contradictions and our strengths.

I hope all of us, on all sides and of all persuasions, take Barack Obama’s words to heart.  We have to work together.  As I tweeted at some point last night, it is officially time for us to stop fucking around.  I took a step: for the first time in 8 years of working here, I’m going to participate in a volunteer oppurtunity offered by my job.  I’ll be spending a couple hours at the Giant Food in Waverly, helping collect food for the Maryland Food Bank.  It’s a small step, but all it takes are a lot of small steps.  There are a lot of us that make up this country.  Maybe together we can make it truly great.

Last.fm Chart Exchange Week 2 - C.P. Time Edition

I am a horrible, horrible blogger.  It is time for another last.fm chart exchange, and I am LATE.  In my defense, I haven’t been feeling well (hence my lack of blogs period), but at the same time that’s no excuse!  So I owe humble apology to my fellow bloggers.  So, without further ado…

You guys should remember softjunebreeze, who blogs at Write For Freedom from last month’s exchange. Well, besides posting a great breakdown of the source of Lil’ Wayne’s ‘A Milli’ sample’, she also guest blogs every Monday at Gangstarr Girl (yet another blog you should be reading) for Manic Music Mondays. So go check her out! Her chart for this week:

[John Legend's new album is FIRE.  Go get it.  Seriously.  But I ain't one to gossip so you ain't heard that from me.]

Next up is a new addition to the exchange: Nukirk, who blogs @ Thought Remixer. He says he want to be a “different sort of hip hop blogger”. The post that really sold me on his blog was this one, where he posted a commercial for Guinness Stout featuring Ainsley Burrows. I’ve got quite the soft spot for poets, and his post not only introduced me to someone new, I found the poem incredibly inspiring. I feel like I should get the text and put it on my wall, so I can read anytime I start to doubt myself. But anyway, here’s his chart for the week:

And not, without further ado, my own chart:

So, I went a little game-tastic this week. The first entry comes from my listening to the Final Fantasy XII Piano Soundtrack, and the second entry is “Kow Otani” - the composer for Shadow of the Colossus (an absolutely incredible game and soundtrack). Other than that, my only other comment is that I am a strange, strange person, but then again I own it, so whatever. :D

So. Got a blog? Wanna promote it? Use last.fm? Well then get in on it! Hit me up - laya[dot]white[at]gmail[dot]com.

Broadway Madness

And now for something completely different, because it’s past 3 4 in the morning, I can’t sleep, and I have fallen down a vast well of youtube videos.

Firstly: if you did not know this about me already, I’m a huge musical nerd.  I love musicals in all of their forms: movie or on stage, professionals or community theater or high school, whatever.  Honestly, I love the theater period.

I think my first real encounter with musicals was the movie version of West Side Story - which is still one of my favorites.  Occasionally I babysat for a friend of my mother’s who had adopted a brother and sister from China.  They weren’t allowed to watch any television, but they had a massive library of VHS tapes - mostly homemade.  One (or rather two) of those was West Side Story, and I remember being entranced, even though the older child fast forwarded through the “mushy parts” (such as One Hand, One Heart) because she didn’t like them (nowadays I agree - weakest part of the whole movie) and the Rumble, because it “wasn’t appropriate”.  Yeah.

Then, I discovered that my Mom had the soundtrack to West Side Story on LP, so I listened to it incessantly, learning all of the songs (and all of the scratches).  She heard me, so for Christmas that year, she bought me the movie on VHS, along with The Sound of Music (another favorite).  And so it began.  (I like dance movies too, but that’s a whole other post.)

Continue reading »

My Fellow Americans

I am sick and tired of this election. Yeah, I said it, and I know I’m not alone.

I’m tired of analysis, of speculation, of fear mongering and personal attacks.  I wish cable news had something else to talk about (not that I watched much of that in the first place).  I’m tired of people talking about it at work.  I’m tired of talking about it with my friends and family, and I’m tired of not being able to help myself.  I’m tired of campaign ads on TV.  I’m tired of signs in people’s yards, signs in their windows, stickers on everything and buttons, buttons, buttons!  I know who I’m voting for, dammit!  So let me do that and leave me alone!

I think there is something seriously wrong with the way elections happen in this country.  If 2000 broke any illusions I had that things were fair, 2008 has ground those illusions into dust.  The level of racism and intolerance that has come from people on both sides of our “political system” sickens me, but hey - I’m black, female, and living in America so I can’t really say I’m surprised.

Despite all of my bitterness, at my core I am still American, and I still believe there are others like me on both sides who are fair, tolerant, and want what we feel is best for this country.  There was no better way to bolster my faith in my country than for me to see this video on Attackerman (via Jezebel):

Continue reading »

The Great last.fm Chart Exchange

Ah, twitter.  Supreme time suck, voice of the hive mind, and sometimes the generator of truly awesome ideas.

If you’ve ever looked at any of the blogs listed in my sidebar, you’ll notice one called Write For Freedom. That is the blog of softjunebreeze - a music expert, friend, and all around cool person.  We’ve been trading thoughts and comments for a while now - first through livejournal, and now on twitter and through our respective blogs.  I *loved* the music-related  posts she did from time to time on Lj, so I was quite happy when she announced she was taking it to the blogosphere.  (Psssst. You should go check out her blog. Seriously.)

Somewhere in the twitter thoughtgasm, an idea was forged: we should trade last.fm charts!  For those that don’t know, last.fm is a music sharing site.  You can run a plugin to your favorite player (iTunes is my choice, natch), and it will “scrobble” all of the tracks you play.  The site aggregates this date per user, and provides a widget showing your weekly or monthly “charts” by artist or track.  (If you look at the very bottom of the blog page, I’ve embedded a widget with whatever I’m currently playing.  As I write this, I’ve been on a Bjork kick for the last half hour or so.  But I digress.)

Hopefully, this will become a regular thing.  So without further ado, this is softjunebreeze’s last.fm chart for the previous week:

And, because it can’t be said enough, go check out her blog, Write For Freedom You won’t be sorry.

And just for shits and giggles, my weekly artist chart:

What’s funny is that it’s going to say one thing now, and something completely different later on when a new week in last.fm time starts. So I can’t even comment on it, lol. I’ll say this - I know there’s going to be a lot of plays of Jazmine Sullivan. If you haven’t copped that yet, what are you waiting for??