A place for Huey

Stereotypes - Melting Not  This host + the realness of his shows = <3

Just to quickly jot down some thoughts on what has passed through my mind today: basically, an interesting day in Washington, D.C. 1. Supreme Court rules in favor of the constitutionality of Obama's health care bill! Phenomenal, all around, especially in terms of the bill's implication for the millions of uninsured, those discriminated against by insurance providers, and young adults. This is perhaps the very first time I have immediately sensed and experienced the effect of legislation on my personal wellbeing; it is an odd feeling that a reverse decision (perhaps a dissenting vote from John Roberts) would have basically left me uninsured and drastically changed my life. Honestly, medical expenses are no joke.  2. Eric Holder is held in criminal and civil contempt of Congress and the walk out of the House by Democrats = history. To watch this unfold in real time on CNN was surreal. Mr. Holder's press conference was pretty bold too. Holder did not hold his head in disgr...

Last week Friday, while I was walking around my neighborhood, taking care of errands, and as always, listening to my ipod, I decided to listen to a rap song called Mrs. Officer by Lil Wayne. I had not listened to the song in a long while and given that it was one of my favorite songs my sophomore year in college, I knew the song would, and I wanted the song to, revive some fond memories of being at the school cafeteria and at parties with my friends. So I am jamming and singing along and I hear myself say, "Rodney King baby, said beat it like a cop". I literally stop in my tracks and decide to listen to the song again to make sure that I am not saying the wrong words as I am notorious for butchering lyrics. On second and third listens of the song, it is clear that Lil Wayne does says, "Rodney King, yeah, I beat it like a cop. Beat it like a cop. Rodney King baby, said beat it like a cop". My immediate feeling is one of disorientation in light of the news that Rodn...

"People are not always awful..." Pictures that will restore your faith in humanity

One of my hobbies which I developed fairly recently is researching/learning of the origin of the music that I like, specifically, its production - what the producer sampled and what went into the making of the sound. Yesterday, I came across Rita Ora's song, RIP, which has reached mass appeal with almost 13 million views. It immediately rang reminiscent of Nneka's Heartbeat which I had spent a few days listening on repeat not too long ago. It also drew me back to Drake's unofficially released song Ready for You on his mixtape, So Far Gone. The story appears to be that Drake sampled Chase and Status's dubstep remix of Nneka's Heartbeat. Drake says that Ready for You was written for Rihanna to use on her album Loud but Rihanna did not want it and Rita Ora asked/bought the song ( Drake talks to Kiss FM ), thus RIP by Ora. Check out the original, remix and samples below. I think they are all fascinating and I will explain why I like each.   1. Nneka's original is ...

I have taken a needless hiatus from writing and I am vowing with the start of a new week to get back to it, though less idealistically. I will try to write as much as I can but I must be honest and say that this may not be an everyday affair. This past week has been an enlightening time for me in both exciting and difficult ways. For the exciting, I have rekindled my relationship with two amazing old friends, went to a J-Holiday concert, started my driving lessons, found an old sewing machine and created a sewing project for myself, bought my GRE books, have found some opportunities to volunteer in the city, and went to my first 21+ club in the city (best time in NYC yet). For the difficult, it is time to start anew in many respects. I need to constantly remind myself and work on the knowledge that I owe it to myself to be happy; to not be jaded by others, experiences, and the temptation of using clutches to explain certain behaviors which I need to work on.  ---------...

I am still trying to figure out exactly what I want this blog to be with respect to both its content and aesthetics. If you visited this site previously, you can tell that I changed the layout. As I get "my feet wet" in the blogosphere in the next month or so, there will be constant changes to the blog as I try to figure out what this place for Huey is and feels like - the feel is very important for me. What I know for sure at the moment is that for the next month or so, there will be constant writing (a post a day) and constant change. The really cool thing about blogging, for me, is that it allows you to think about what you want to share with people on a particular day and then share it. Facebook no longer allows you to that. I really do not know what people do on facebook anymore; at least I do not know what I really do on there. I am moving towards sharing what I want to share on this blog instead of facebook. That aside, social media as a whole fascinates me and I wa...

The video above of President Obama titled "CNN-Barack Obama: "Ask bin laden about appeasement"-Like a Boss" came to me by way of a friend's facebook post. On the post were the following comments, "like a boss" and "he is so cool". This raw, unedited response by the President will feed into his swag canister when and as it finds its way to millions of viewers via social media. And for a president who epitomizes the icon of the hip, younger liberal, cool is good. What I am going to do below, however, is argue from a few angles that this is not a Boss moment for the president. Some of my arguments are undoubtedly stronger than others and none of my opinions are set in stone. I simply hope that this opens up a discussion on war, Obama, coolness, and citizenship. First, take Obama's statement "Ask Bin Laden and the 22 out of the 30 top Al Qeada leaders who have been taken off the field whether or not I engage in app...

Two things: 1) tomorrow night, one of my closest friends from college is leaving the country for a few weeks. 2) I just finished watching the movie, Into The Wild, which another close friend recommended or more accurately, quite insisted, that I watch. In these two things are elements of wanderlust or footloose-ness which, coupled with a status another friend shared on facebook today, leads me to this post on the question of what I am doing post-graduation. The status was, “It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing” - Axiom of the Kogi indigenous people of Colombia. I have given many variants of the same reply to the question of what I am doing with my life now. Most days, it is preparing for graduate school or traveling. The answer is “just living” when I am not in a particularly entertaining mood. And sometimes I say that I am trying to figure it out. But by far, the latt...

Today's post is on my lover, music. I think, breathe, and literally speak music (ie. I quote lyrics randomly in conversation :)). I always tell myself that in another life, I was either a rapper, singer, or dancer or all three. This blog is indeed going to be very much that - very much music. In addition to my musings on life, work, and play, I will write and share a lot of music by the artists I love! For me, music is a story of and about people's lives and as the rapper, J. Cole, poignantly writes on his twitter headline, "my story ain't the only one I'm trying to tell". My first post on music comes by way of Ms. Hill. I came across a status on facebook raving about Lauryn Hill's performance (and comments about Nikki, etc) at Hot 97's Summer Jam and finally came across the video on clutchmagonline.com. I am writing a post on this because I have replayed the video (below) several times tonight. Lauryn is an amazing singer and rapper and while I onl...

Today marks the one week anniversary of my graduation from college. By the time I post this reflection, it will be a week and one day (ha, it is already 11:59pm on Sunday as type this sentence). I have had a lot of time in between endless web browsing, watching t.v. mindlessly and window shopping around the block to partially reflect on graduation day and the speeches I have heard in the last month. In particular, I have mulled over my own speech at the Black Cultural Center Senior dinner and its lack of traction. Either people simply did not like it or more likely, people liked it while it was being said and during the 30 second applause it received afterwards but not after the event and certainly not today. Of all the things I tried to get across in my speech, my closest friends who were at the event asked me a few weeks later what I actually said in the speech. One started to make fun of me for talking about the zombie in the Starburst commercial. Another randomly aske...