geeoff’s Neighborhood

 Update: I have a master’s degree on its way to me… some how… eventually. 2 weeks paid vacation from work. Having spent the better part of four months focused and driven to finish my thesis, I feel like I have no direction and no drive. So after a pity party of one yesterday it dawned on me...

In my last stand-up routine in college I joked that all I was qualified to do with my degree was commentary on “American Culture” and for one of those I love the “whatever” shows, and well being that we only have 10 days left in the decade, I figured WHY not?

 

So here goes, one year a day, five categories per day for the rest of the year. It ain’t necessarily what I <3 but it sure is worth a rant.

 

2000

Y2k aside 2000 marked the end of my junior year in HS and start of my senior year making us the 2nd class of the new millennium–  a fact which pissed us off to no end. In the fall of the next year I’d be moving to NY and starting college. But here’s what happened that year that I think is rant worthy.

 

Politics:

• Vermont legalizes gay marriage– and in California we pass the “defense of marriage act” which prohibits it – clearly all our granola munching hippies have retried in Vermont.

• We also pass a law known as prop 21 targeting juvenile’s and gang related offenses which in essence turned any three young people dressed alike into a gang– not so convenient given we had a dress code at school and couldn’t walk together in groups of 3 or more from that point on– cause you know a rag tag bunch of kids in white collard shirts and black pants are CLEARLY trouble.

• Bush 2’s first term. (That’s all he’s getting).

 

Fashion:

• Pointy toed heels are in, causing me to sort of lose it as a shoe lover. At 17 I think they look witchy yes witchy.

However, in a HUGE departure from the clunky platform shoes the 90’s had left us with it is at the least a step somewhere. A pointy-toed step somewhere.

• Nike re-releases the Air  ax 90s which I’m deeply pleased about.

• Track suits are in and  while b-boys will b- boys (what’s up Mos Def!) anyone can be throw back hip with these. I cop a red and black original Adidas jacket I find in my dad’s closet that I have a hard time believing he once fit it.

Velour even makes its comeback from out your uncle’s wardrobe (cause he thought it’s proximity to velvet made it appropriate for fancy occasions) onto the bods of J-lo and them. It was cool for a minute in that it kept ya warm– but really it just made people look like fuzzy sausages.

 

Movies:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon makes anyone even slightly involved in martial arts think that all we need to do to learn to fly is take karate lessons, and then we can kick ass like them. That’s all that mattered. We all wanted to kick ass.

• Bring it On bestows us with a few gems of quotes such as: "She puts the 'ass' I 'massive".  And “…this is not a democracy, it's a cheerocracy. I'm sorry, but I'm overruling you.– You are being a cheer-tator…”

It does, however sadly drop a bomb on the way over quoted “BRING IT ON!” phrase it self. Not every event merited a retort challenging your friend to bring it, but damn did it seem that was the go to phrase for a few years. I mean really, what is there to BRING and what are we putting it ON?

 

Other:

•Mp3s and digital music emerge becoming the go to for music. Having been computer illiterate– being too broke to have the latest (not even knowing what would happen to my world when I started downloading music and using AIM) this was beyond me.

• Tiger Woods achieves the grand slam in golf. Alls I gotta say is “Remember when?”

 

Music:

Ima try to keep this brief because this could EASILY be all I write about. For what it's worth, R&B and Pop DOMINATED. Clothes were bright red, shiny pleather and rhinestone covered because of the Genuwine's, Puffy's and Britney's all over the scene.

•Christina’s a genie in a bottle and Destiny’s Child wants you to say their name– especially since two of the then members would be no more by the end of the decade. Nsync and the Backstreet Boys tell us it’s gonna be them and what the shape of their heart is.

•Santana, who has always been on heavy rotation in my house, makes his comeback in late 99’ featuring Wyclef, RobThomas, as well as everyone and their mother. But 2000 does not begin without everyone woman being told that “its just like the ocean, under the moon, it’s the same as the emotion that I get from you,” or that “you remind me of a Westside story”.

• The most thrilling single, released however, had a profound impact on our lives. By our I mean two fold, we saw the resurgence of a particular clothing item: and by resurgence I mean we now knew which bitches were wearing them (yeah I said that too). And the other our, is my high school. Small though it was, we were a strange, clever, funny bunch. And 2000 was the year of our first and I mean first ever, junior prom. We’d had a knack for choosing slightly inappropriate themes for dances but a heavy contender for us that year was this single.

No it’s not that we wanted our theme to be the ‘thong song’ instead we wanted it to be “the thong th thong thong thong PROM.” No we weren’t a class full of proud thong wearing folks, we just thought it was hilarious. So did the staff, who kindly acknowledged that it was clever, but incredibly inappropriate. Don’t ask me what the theme was after all, instead I just remember what it wasn’t.

Not really wound per say... just... off? Tired. Light at the end of the tunnel in sight but so far. Holidays looming– yet whatever the opposite of looming is.

Swirly head but sooo happy that the count down to a new year is here. I want every day to be a day to "reset" my life, and they are and they have been and they can be... but 2010 will hopefully mark a new new new... new new new new start.

That said. Something I have only a few words for. In case I never made my self clear, I *heart* sneakers. In peeping thatonedood's latest posts last week or so I thought... "oh snap" (yes I only say oh snap to myself) "my collection is incomplete until I get some J's... I had a pair of Team Jordan's when I was in HS and on the basketball team but I think they had to get tossed. So I started searching... and I came across these... (I can't even remember what site. So for those really intrigued... Google image search is the hyper link).

Jordan's...     Air Jordan's...     High Heeled...    High Heeled Air Jordan's...    Gross.

 That's it. Nuf' said. COME ONNNNNNNNNNN 2010.

Please peep my second oldest friend thatonedood's blog.

fresh dls. fresh clips.

he took good care of me in seattle this weekend. last of my 3part vacay.

Ok... one month left yall. ONE MONTH.

not even. i'm tryna be done by 11/20.

but for now, for thatonedood... the mp3 version of wale's live performance of pretty girls on late night with jimmy fallon. if you didn't know i have a very crazy love affair with the roots, and well this is just the ish.

here's the vid...

Seriously, can ANYTHING Top this???

The headlines say it all. Here's a select few.

• " On Barack Obama's Nobel: Prize for appeasement"
• " Obama's Nobel Prize will Exacerbate His Narcissistic Tendencies"
• " The Last Thing Obama Needs is A Nobel Peace Prize"

• " Obama Says He's 'Humbled' and 'Surprised' by Nobel Prize"
• " Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action' "
• " President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Viewed Positively in 62 Percent of Twitter"

And as if it weren't clearly articulated above:

• " US divided over whether Obama has done enough to merit award" 

Clearly– this man could sneeze and people on both sides of the fence will loose their minds, and yet he hasn't even been in office for a full year.

NYC I'm Coming Home, built with love, and help.
P.S. Didn't manage to set an order, just shuffled it every time I played it... lame? Maybe. Convenient, YES.

September is over. Out with the old.... I'll drink to that. 
SF->LA->SF

October is here. Halloween too. Here's to reconnecting with the past.
SF->PK->NYC->SF

November is just around the corner. Here's to being on the brink, but not forgetting what's up– Same page, different book, the sequel. I can definitely drink to that.
SF->SEA->SF 

Thank you Woffsilog, for sharing this HufPo piece.

Blueprint 3 came out... and well it made me cry three times. Waxed nostalgic for NYC and my old self.

HAD to resurrect this one and pair it with this audio clip though. Not like Jay had seen my shit, but hilarious to me nonetheless.

There are those songs, that you come across where you neither like, nor dislike the artist, but nonetheless the song just hits you a certain way...

I've had a lot of those lately.

Then there are those songs that you find hidden deep in your iTunes library that you forgot were there, again an artist you're pretty much indifferent to– maybe someone put it on a mix for you, maybe you're like me and felt as bad/non-significant as the song might be you may "need it later" for a "never going to happen but I can still dream I'm doing a one woman show" type deal. And that song hits you, hits you hard.

I never really denied the power of music, but I don't know that I take full advantage of its awesomeness. And then, amid finally feeling like I'm on the road to get my head right– despite a crazy summer/last month I remembered this hook.

"Now we can ball seven days, six nights

If that head and that p***y get right
Hey, match ya panties with ya bras get ya shit together
Go get ya hair and nails done get ya shit together"

All I could think was "SANG IT T.I. Sannnnnng it."

Yet another mantra to add to the many I've tried to come up with to, indeed get my head right (I'm pretty sure those lyrics are not accurate, but I don't care. I come from a family that invents their own. I hear what I wanna hear).

I took a mini vacation last weekend and the following learnings helped me get my shit together... though I can't promise it actually involves matching my bra and my draws.

• Experiencing something for the first time, can often ground you and remind you of who you are and what you love. Case in point; Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

• Having little faces great you in the morning, saying "Good Morning Auntie Magtonic" while scratching their bellies and yawning" is a pretty rad start to your day.

• Sometimes seeing something abnormal, that you wouldn't normally care about can pull at your inner "smooo mooo" and make you have the excitement of a 5 year old.
  

• Writing your thesis in your bathing suit makes for such a productive day.

• No matter how much you believe this will change, your oldest friend is eye candy for the ladies and will get better service than you in restaurants, so start asking him to use that to get you free drinks or desserts.

• It's okay that you aren't ready to drink in an airport bar alone. According to DG, "you can drink alone at an airport bar once you hit 50. It is actually quite liberating to be a crone. Nobody messes with you and you don't give a shit if they do."

• And lastly, Long Beach Airport, is still Long Beach.

First this...