Wonders Never Cease

The Henry Louis Gates Jr. scandal has been on my mind (and apparently everyone else's) this week but I'm saving that for next week's post. This week I want to talk about Michael Jackson one last time.

While going over various websites, reading the news that interests me as usual, I found a video clip of an awesome, legendary, and rare performance. I will set the stage for you. James Brown is performing a concert in 1983. In James Brown fashion he invites Michael Jackson, in the crowd (with the regular people, no less), to come up on stage and sing a bit. After doing what was asked of him, Michael whispers in James's ear (inaudibly to the audience and camera) and James brings out...Prince!!! In the "While I'm on the Subject" post I talk about the first albums my sister and I ever bought and how these Prince and MJ were major forces in our lives. Obviously I almost lost my mind when I viewed it for the first time (of many though, trust me).

Now, I'm not even going to add the details because I want you to watch the clip, but I was awed as I watched the events unfold. And I couldn't help but wonder "why am I seeing this for the first time?" I asked around and none of my friends or family remembering seeing anything like it either. But I am so pleased the video surfaced and I can't think of a better way to remember Michael and James. My sister would kill me for even imagining it, but when Prince passes, (because we all surely will) if I am still alive at that point and my memory is still strong, I will remember this video. It was the quintessential Michael, Prince, and James Brown performance and such a great display of who they were and appeared to be to us, their audience.

Each musician had different talents and were amazingly focused on the quality of their product. I remember hearing about how James Brown earned the title of "hardest working man in showbiz" and it was given to him in part because he could never maintain any weight during his concert tours. He had to eat A LOT during the day when he toured because he burned so many calories on stage that he would start becoming malnourished. Additionally, he would sweat so profusely during his performances that he would literally be dehydrated! It has become common knowledge that Prince recorded quadruple what is available and used various other names to contribute, in major ways, to other acts. And Michael had patents, PATENTS, for tricks he used in his shows in order to make them truly magical for the attendees.

Career-wise they were at different points in 1983. Michael was enjoying the fruits of his labor and was a crossover SUCCESS. He had released Thriller the year before. Prince was really still an upstart in a lot ways, though he had been performing for years. He had just become popular in the mainstream with 1982's 1999. And of course James Brown was a legend, but a star whose light was fading with the new generation.

Both Prince and Michael Jackson always cited JB as one of their main influence, musically and as an entertainer. It was beautiful to see him invite them on stage and share his limelight gracefully. It was also beautiful to see the respect and love, both obvious, they felt for him. It was a really uplifting video in all ways and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Should something go wrong with the embed, the link to the video is also here.

Changing My Story

At the moment I am going through the most painful part of the writing process: editing. I am trying to tweak my stories an extent that allows each story to reach its full potential and I'm having a very hard time of it. When you write something you get unbelievably attached to your story. For that reason I purposefully left my stories alone for months and years so I could have a level of detachment when it was time to edit. But many of my stories bring back memories when I read them and I find myself not wanting to change a thing though I remember how I stopped short on many of them simply because I was too lazy or didn't want to get too emotionally invested in some of them. Trying to fix and/or change them now is hurting! And so I procrastinate.

But I have only two weeks to finish edits and on the first of August I will be turning in the final version to be copyrighted. So I really can't keep procrastinating. A lot of things have changed about the book, from the title (it's last incarnation, hopefully) to some of the extras (I am seriously considering an introduction which I wasn't originally going to add) and I've really been attempting to get a collection of stories together that I really, really like. It's easy to start writing a story and love it but as the story takes shape it sometimes becomes something that has you on the fence. In addition, there are the times when it is simply emotionally draining to add any more to a story that hits close to home and I have confronted both of those issues.

I think too that I'm a bit scared. As the date for completion rears its ugly head I feel like nothing is ready. I want to throw everything I've written away and spend the next five years re-writing stories with full attention to detail. I know there are so many little issues that affect the way the stories will read when they are finished and I am not confident in my own abilities in some of those areas. It doesn't help that my two go-to editors are unavailable and I was really depending upon them for copy edits but I don't want to postpone the collection any longer.

So far I have a good idea of how the finished product will look. I am reconsidering the cover and I may go in a totally different direction from the original artwork I have for the cover. I want the artist to produce another painting if necessary, however, and I'm not sure how keen he is on that idea. I do know what stories will appear in this collection and I actually had to plan another collection of stories just to have an outlet for all of the stories I've written, many more than I thought I had.

Right now I'm just making finishing touches on the whole book as a concept and reworking the stories themselves. I spend my nights with my two highlighters, one for grammar and one for spelling, and I go through my stuff paragraph by paragraph. It's incredibly tedious but I want a collection I can be proud of. For that reason this week's blog is focused on my stuff; my attention has been on my own business and I really haven't paid much attention to the wider world. I will be happy when I can actually write about the various things that interest me in other arenas.

Check out the Lifestyle Simplicity blog tomorrow because there's a good post coming about poop. That's all I'm going to say in an effort to pique your interest in that blog (you can read it here). Also, there are some other news items about that whole movement that I will be announcing in the coming weeks. Mark your calenders because in two weeks on this blog I will be announcing that the final version has been sent to the copyright office, Insha'Allah. It's 4:30 AM and I need to do some edits so see ya next week or tomorrow on the other blog. Peace.

The Thing About Love

I was going to write about a totally different topic this week but I decided it was probably better to put it at the other blog, which you can read here. Looking at my life as it stands today, the lives of those around me, and recent events - most notably the passing away and memorial service of Michael Jackson - in the media, I decided I should write about love this week. And honestly I write about love constantly; when you write stories you often realize that love is generally the most-requested and most-considered topic of fiction, memoirs, or whatever. The runner up is overcoming obstacles and the Pulitzer Prize winners usually mix the two. As I wrote about hate not too long ago it seemed like love was overdue.

You live and learn, but then you live some more and if you're lucky those lessons continue to change, shift, and evolve as you undergo the same process. If love meant the same to me now as it did when I was seventeen, seven, or seven months, something would be wrong. But as love evolves you go back to some of those earliest lessons. When you realize that love and passion are two totally different ideas you have reached a milestone during your teen-aged years (usually). When you realize that you won't necessarily love the person you love today ten years from now, and you may not even know them, you have grown again. When you realize that loving is often even better than being loved, you have reached yet another level of growth. For the sake of the conversation, I will add that realizing that how you understand love is a measure of your maturity is another sign of maturity (tee-hee).

Love conquers all. In high school I made a t-shirt of that phrase with a single red rose for graphic arts because I didn't feel like doing anything that took real time and/or talent. I wore around the house for over a decade until the words had been all but completely washed away. And yet when people saw the haphazard bits of letters here and there they always filled in the blanks and got the answer. Now my logical mind knows of this ability of the brain to fill in blanks as necessary, but my emotional self knows that people saw those words because they knew the phrase and trusted it. And that is why love indeed conquers all.

We trust love. Obsess over it. Wish for it, dream of it, misdiagnose it, and love to have it. We miss it when it's gone and wonder if it's all it's cracked up to be when we're in. Books, movies, music, any medium of art? All for love. Weight loss, plastic surgery, abortions, fertility treatments, therapy sessions, Shakespeare in the Park? All about love. We love because it is necessary, beautiful, and the only thing that makes life have meaning. Can you imagine living without thinking that someone had loved you at some point and/or that you had loved anyone? And not just romantic love. The love of family sustains us. The love of friends supports us. Our pets rubbing our legs reassures us. We need love to survive.

But love takes work. Love is work. From making sure to call on birthdays to overlooking flaws in order to see the bigger picture, we have to feed love. Just like hate, its brother, love requires something. And we give it, give to it, and give of it, because we want to get a little in return. Love is the ultimate "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" scenario. Nothing is worse than loving someone you doesn't notice you (not even being hated by that person). Nothing is worse than someone who tells you they love you but who never shows it. Nothing is worse than giving up on love all together.

So, this is what I ask of you. Love heartily. Love with patience. Love kindly. Love in a way that shows the person you aspire to be. Love like you've never loved before. Hugh tighter, kiss more, but do the things that you only expect from people who love you. Reach for things your loved one is struggling to get. Open doors you know they need opened. Lift them up when they have fallen down. Love and care are opposite sides of the same coin so give equal amounts of both in all you do. And you will be rewarded in equal measure by the ones you love the most. And if that doesn't happen, find the one who will, because they are out there. I love you!

Declare Independence

Today I am declaring independence. Initially I considered shouting this battle-cry on my 27th birthday, less than a month away. I changed my mind when I considered just what Independence Day means. Of course we know what the day means historically but how often do we really think about what today means? Here are my conclusions and the big announcement. As an aside, I am extremely tired, it is now after 4:00 am and I have been staring at the computer for hours so I am not doing an edit today (not that I normally do).

Today marks the day when a people made it official that they were not going to be influenced, much less dictated to by another group that did not share their ideals. Can you imagine it? Seeing the ocean that separates you from those who direct your movements, though they really have no interest in your life's goals and desires? Feeling so trapped though you the illusion of freedom is all around you? Knowing just how close you are to true liberty but being constantly aware that it is just out of reach?

I have felt this way for the majority of my life, unfortunately. There have been different reasons at different times but the bottom-line reasons why I have felt this way are materialism and consumerism. I have combatted this feeling in a variety of ways over the course of my life, from changing polictial parties to religions as an adult and you-don't-want-to-know as a teenager. When I think about it, most of the problems with relationships stem from issues stemming from one of those two -isms. Examples? Think of why children were teased in school prior to mandatory uniforms. Think of why so many people are in debt up to their ears. Why the banks failed? Why we are in a recession? The greed of stockholders, real estate agents, loan officers, etc. and the desire to attain of the "common" man.

Yes we are all consumers. We all consume air, water, and so many things we take for granted. But, like anything else we can become addicted to shopping, buying, and acquiring. And it's not natural. It's entirely new and entirely foreign to us, the trailblazers of greed. We have a constant stream of advertisements shoved in our faces and down our throats, and the things we eat and use are designed to keep us addicted (especially our food, but more on that whole subject later). We have become the uber-consumers but it has been gradual. We have to change back even quicker: before it's too late.

I want to rid myself of this addiction. And I want to help other people conquer it. So, I've created a few things to start the process along. I am working on a website www.lifestylesimplicity.info, which will hopefully help someone, even if it only helps me. In the same spirit of biting off more than one can chew that follows me wherever I go, I have committed myself to a plethora of work; typing, editing, reviewing, reading, etc. and I am adding to it. I will attempt weaving (for fabrics and as a quicker way to knit), I will complete the knitting series on Youtube, I will tweak recipes I have in my head and write them down. I will share the knowledge I have acquired over the years and seek it from others in order to learn how to live a more simple life.

I am so blessed to have a solid network of people who are already rejecting the popular way and going in the opposite direction. I myself have done a bit as well and I hoping that this group will become a community that grows and spreads its message to even more. The funny thing is, the simple life is much more fun and much less stressful than the work, buy, pay cycle many of our lives have become. What's the point of accruing if you can't enjoy?

In addition to the website I am launching another blog, designed to be a companion to that site and a way to ensure that this blog isn't overrun by topics more geared towards that sort of thing. That blog is www.lifestylesimplicity.blogspot.com so you can go there if you're interested in seeing what's planned. The website is taking shape nicely though I am still developing it but it is actually available right now.

Lastly, last month one of my cousins made me two beautiful pairs of earrings. She inspired me to try my hand at jewelry-making (though not earrings as I don't want to compete) and I have several necklaces and bracelets done at this point. I am considering selling those of the new website as a way to pay for hosting and whatnot. BE SURE TO TYPE www.lifestylesimplicity.INFO because .com was taken so that one has nothing to do with me.

Oh, yeah, I have also updated my website (www.missmaria.info) and added links from there to here and to my Yahoo group, recently launched. So you can check that out too. Peace!

While I'm on the Subject

Last week I was very upset over the unexpected death of Michael Jackson. I will always remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I first read the headline, that I actually thought was a hoax initially. I've only felt that feeling once before, when I was first told about my best friend's death a decade ago. Then too I thought it was some sort of very cruel joke. Because of my emotions, and the silly girl who made the negative remarks, my last post was a lot less about Michael Jackson and a lot more about people in general. I hope to amend that with this post. We all turn tragedy into stories about ourselves and here are some randoms about me and the impact MJ had on my own life. I am still working on an unveil for later this week *rubs hands together* and you'll see on Independence Day why I've been all over the place for the last two or so posts.

My mother always took me and my sister to various stores when we were young and allowed us to purchase things with a budget she gave us. It taught us how to manage money and the costs of the things we took for granted while allowing us to develop our tastes in different things and ensuring we wouldn't just buy a crappy doll that would break in two minutes from the dollar store. The first record I ever bought was the "Thriller" album. We were each allowed to buy an album but we chose things we would both love so my sister's choice was "Around the World in a Day" by Prince. I was born in 1982, which is when the album came out, so it was at the used record store and I was super-excited to get it. My sister and I alternated between that album and the Prince album and to this day those records go hand-in-hand in my head, though they were released three years apart from one another. Each record had a song I was scared to death of, "Thriller" had the song "Thriller", and "Around the World..." had "Temptation". The video for "Thriller" shook me up pretty bad too.

I loved Barbie dolls as a child, and I had the MJ Barbie doll. I recently saw a picture of a fan at his Gary, Indiana childhood home holding the same doll. I still have the doll, though it wasn't nearly as hardy as my other dolls and therefore his legs are cut off at the knees. His pants, microphone, shoes, and glove are gone too (victims of a childhood move from one state to another ten hours away). He still has his red jacket with gold detailing, however! Aside from him my Flo Jo Barbie doll is the only other doll based on a public figure I have. She still has her original one-legged tracksuit and alternating-colors nail polish but for some reason when I was about six I took an emery board to her eyebrows and then tried to draw them back with a Sharpie. She's looked like a (stylish) drag queen ever since.

When I was an adolescent we didn't have cable. It was one of the luxuries lost when my mother became a single mother, simply because she never watched TV and didn't think cable was necessary. As a result, I watched music videos, Def Comedy Jam, and the rest at my best friend's house. When we were about 12-13 my best friend got in a crapload of trouble for ordering two videos nonstop for weeks on the now-defunct pay-per-view music video channel The Box (known as The Jukebox years prior). The two songs we kept watching? Her favorite "Funkdafied" by Da Brat and my favorite was "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson. We thought the trouble she got into quite worth it but we did learn to just record videos we liked after that.

From that "HIStory" album which included "Scream" came "They Don't Care About Us" and "Come Together", two songs I truly loved. I did not know at that time that "Come Together" was a Beatles song and one of the infamous masters that MJ outbid Paul McCartney for. I still think MJ's version is one of the best (check out Ike & Tina Turner's version too though). I had a boyfriend at that time who played the album constantly and the album, and my favorite songs, always make me think of that particular guy.

When Princess Diana died I remember a lot of her interviews being played and pictures of her various humanitarian works being shown. A funny story I remember hearing at that time was the story about how much she loved the song "Dirty Diana" and how when she attended a concert by MJ and she was informed the song would was taken off of the list in order to pay her respects, she asked MJ personally to perform the song. That blew my mind at the time somehow.

His "Invincible" album was such a mature and relevant album that I think it went under the radar for that reason. It was mellow and R&B instead of being the Pop extravaganza he was known for. I absolutely loved that album and listen to it even now. It was so unfortunate that it became his last album but when I think about it, he went back to his roots in many ways by making an album that appealed to his original audience, some of whom he'd alienated over the years. It went double-platinum and was therefore considered a flop compared to his other albums but I think that showed that he went back to his base, they bought it, and they liked it.

His televised concert special that aired around the time of the release of "Invincible" was really great. While I believe he lip-synced through all of it except the ad-libs I found it to be exhilarating to watch! It was so great to see him performing and to see the people who outright loved him. I didn't care about the first half, though I liked the idea of those performers paying homage (and Marc Anthony tore it up). Seeing the Jacksons and then Michael himself perform just blew my mind. To this day I clap when I watch that special. I had really hoped his London concert would be televised so I could catch that too, but when I look back on it, seeing him perform with his brothers and his solo performance on that special was probably the best. His brothers weren't going to perform in London and that would have made it a little less special.

All of these disjointed stories have a larger meaning to me. Michael Jackson was always in the fiber of my life, like he was in the lives of so many. I took him for granted because I always expected him to be there in some way, forever. During the BET awards show Janet Jackson said that Michael was an icon to us but a member of their family (and in that sense, human). While I understand her intent I disagree with her. MJ was probably the only star many of us felt that connected to and was therefore, quite human to us. He pushed so hard the idea of a global family too that he was a brother to many people other