This Birthday

"don't move," you said. "stay just like that." i was still holding the flowers, i wanted to put them in water before they died, but i soon forgot all about them. you dashed at the canvas with such energy it shook the easel. You plunged the brushes into the paint so fast that red and blue, black and white flew through the air. They swept me with them. 

I suddenly felt as if I were taking off. You too were poised on one leg, as if the little room could no longer contain you. You soared up to the ceiling. Your head turned down to mine, and turned mine up to you brushing against my ear, and whispering something. Then together we floated up above the room with all its finery, and flew.

 -Bella Chagall speaking of Marc Chagall's painting above

instant inspiration

 This my friends, is a song i was lucky to come across a few years ago, and whenever I feel lost or hopeless, this song has kept me going. I want to share it with you all, such brave and amazing poetry. If you haven't heard the song- GO BUY IT- no a better way to spend 99 cents. Promise.
<3 inaimless

No Rest for the Weary
-The Blue Scholars

[Verse 1]
There's no rest for the weary just another day grinding up stones
Till they turn into dust, it's tough, dimes in the rough
Diamonds ain't enough to cover up a corrupted and fucked up legacy of strange fruit
Bloody whips and small pox, trigger-happy cocks
Barbed wire and fire water, y'all it don't stop
Whether colonizing game with the cross and the sword
I threw the first spear and said "I declare war!"
I'm a battle-scar wearing heir apparent
Descendants of a long lineage of proletariat and peasant

[Hook]
So check the work ethic and the name
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
I ride the rhythm and vibe a little whine talk
Head get the concrete to line wit' your spine

[Verse 2]
I speak to find peace but its war all the time
It's deep like the drive from Renton to Shoreline
I'm a more mindful guy ever since finding out that
I'm about to be a father and doubt is not an option
And now I can't be getting crunk and faded as often
So get your hands dirty 'cause a prayer ain't enough
Boss, what cross?
We got crucified by buckshots
One million Jesuses and Judas got his nuts off
Pages torn out the memory of those who remain shackled
in the chains of international capital gain
They claim civilize with they animal ways
Peace to Oakland, I've never been a fan of the A's
But some days you can find me inscribed in my soul on the page every crime has an alibi
Disciplined and organized is how I handle my
New jacks are spending mad time on their battle rhymes
I can't knock it if you find it entertaining
I rep those whose labor ain't compensated

[Hook]
So check the work ethic and the name
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
Forty to a class, no wonder we delinquent
Half the school district never make it to commencement

[Verse 3]
I've been the spine of the track until it snaps
Pops working overtime and he got a broken back
Got three little sisters, one brother in Iraq
And mom prays novenas to keep the fam intake
But the song ain't a song waiting for God to answer
Brothers call me "Dog", they got the letters backwards
I'm back with a plan of attack to reposes my
Main face in history y'all who wanna test
My capacity to spit caliber shit into a rhythmic lesson
And entertainment's a legitimate weapon
Igniting the cipher sessions I'm deciphering life
And blended both theory into practice I write
Vernacular and actual fact
Got no posturing
A thousand points and fingers I defied every one of them
I ride for my brethren who carry the burden
of a future uncertain 'til the fall of the curtain
You better move
Hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
That's why we call it a struggle
You're supposed to sweat

[Hook]
Check the work ethic and the name
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
Crazy landlady tried to switch up on the lease
If she raises up the rent again it's time to say "peace"

Peace, peace and that's my piece
It's still all about the bullet in the belly of the beast
From the East my brother we came
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
So keep marching 'til your feet split open
"No Rest For The Weary" Blue Scholars keep going

California coming home

I just got back from Italy, and have to say it feels good to be home. Not that I don't love Italy, who could not love Italy? But California has always been my home and coming back to her always makes me happy. I spent yesterday like a zombie, even getting lost on the way to my own house! What a crazy thing jet lag is, what evidence that we are so connected to this earth we live on, to the soil and the way the sun rises and sets- we have to reconnect whenever we leave our part of the earth for another.

The ways of life are so different here and there, people always say it, it makes you appreciate the life you have. There are, of course, many things I wish that we had from Italy, the culture, the food, the emphasis on community. What kind and loving people (even if they sound like they are screaming at each other all the time haha). But the smells and the sights of home...

And now the people. My boyfriend just called me on his way to San Fran, halted in traffic because there is someone with a gun and claiming to have a bomb on the bay bridge. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/11/BAF81GAKQV.DTL) These people, so isolated in our American Dream they can't find another way to live. For all our advancements in this life, the simplicity of happiness is the thing that eludes us most- desperately we seek it everywhere but where we can find it- in the hearts and smiles of those around us.

What a world.

hello blogger world

I have abandoned my wordpress blog, which was started around a certain project and finished with it, so I feel that works out well. But in continuity and to not abandon all that work, I thought my first post here could be my homage to wordpress, and my blog there.

Hail great Wordpress! And my blog there: http://inaimless.wordpress.com/

heehee.
Anyway, that was one of my time paintings, started one year, a portrait every day, then exactly one year later I repainted the whole thing on top of it. What journeys they turn out to be, those time-paintings, as I like to call them. Give it a read if you're game.


Event for work at good ol' Bay Area Community Services this Saturday: Beers and Brats! Should be fun, come out and drink beer for a good cause: http://bit.ly/b7thdC


Then just a few more days of work next week and off to Italy I go! I'll try to blog from there but god knows I will be busy eating delicious food and drinking even more delicious wine. and that, as you know, takes a lot of concentration.


xoxox
aimee