The Internets Celebrities tour du force thru NYC drops again this Wednesday. Come with us to the neighborhood of my childhood, the center of New York City (when you look at an MTA subway map) – Corona, Queens.
In this episode we’ll explore the origins of the delicious dish mofongo.
I.C. NYC is must see TV, er, internets.
In another year your boy will be married. Chocolate Snowflake and I have considered where we will live and raise our family. Will we stay in Brooklyn? PrA’li not. For us to remain working class in Brooklyn you have to be pretty wealthy. We are considering relocating to Washington D.C. or possibly Philadelphia.
I can fux with D.C. and Philly. Both cities have the ‘big city’ appeal that I need. I have to be around people and I have to be around art. I would also like to live somewhere I felt like the social culture was unique and not homogenized. New York City itself is beginning to have that pasteurized feel. Sometimes I don’t even know I’m in NYC. Washington D.C. can be like that too.
I thought Philly was the last place that kept it really real. Maybe I got it wrong on this account also. Philadelphia has a concentration of colleges sited within the city. Penn State, Temple, Drexel, Lehigh, Villanova and St. Joe’s to name a few. But then why is this town so depressed and politically deactivated?
How do you let this beautiful building become dilapidated?
The building is called the Divine Lorraine Hotel. When it was purchased by Father Divine of the Universal Peace Mission Movement in 1948 it was the first of its class in Philadelphia, ne, the United States, to be fully racially integrated.
Believing that all people were equal in the sight of God, Father Divine was involved in many social welfare activities as well. For example, after purchasing the hotel, several parts of it were transformed for public use. The hotel’s first floor kitchen was opened as a public dining room where persons from the North Philadelphia community were able to purchase and eat low-cost meals for 25 cents.
The building was closed in 1999 and sold in 2000 by the International Peace Mission. In May 2006 it was resold to Philadelphia developer Michael Treacy, Jr. to be converted into condominiums. Treacy, instead of redeveloping the building gutted the Divine Lorraine of all the classic interior’s fixtures and architectural ornaments. Treacy then left the building in tatters to the squatters and the vandals.
I’d like to believe that Philadelphia can once again be as great as it was when the Divine Lorraine Hotel was a beacon for the best in man, but if Philly can’t put itself back together again this humpty dumpty is gonna have to consider moving to New Hampshire.
The July 4th weekend is Chocolate Snowflake and my anniversary. When we met seven years ago we came to realize that we had been in the same place at the same time mostly all our lives. We just weren’t looking for one another until finally our world’s collided like the Hadron.
C.S. and I are musical beings because we love the sounds all around us. Rain on the window sill. Birds in the trees. The cars on Eastern Parkway. There is a rhythm in all of those things that is musical if you can open your mind to hearing it. That is the way you also find love. You have to be open to receive it, just like music.
The day didn’t begin on such a great note for us. I wasn’t feeling in top shape. My diabetic condition isn’t getting better on its own and before I have to do something drastic like taking insulin I am trying some other methods and formulas. I just wasn’t feeling it that day tho’ and C.S. understood and was willing to just stay home with me and nurse me back into the fight.
I wasn’t going out like that this time tho’. Roy Ayers was performing at Central Park SummerStage and this was our anniversary dammit. I mean, everybody loves the sunshine…
Roy Ayers was preceded on the stage by the Jazz Mafia Symphony. Leave it to some dudes from San Francisco to try and keep jazz alive. I’m sure it will be some Bay Area Berkeley ass rappers who try to save Hip-Hop also. There has to be something funky in the water over there.
Jazz Mafia then brought out some grade school kids from the Harlem School of the Arts to play behind Ayers’ seminal classic ‘Everybody Loves The Sunshine’. It was quite magical. The star of the show was this little blind Black boy on the keys. When I say that he killed it, please believe he merc’ked it. My apologies to this camera phone quality video.
Seeing those young people on stage was actually reassuring in the sense that art was being passed down to another generation. We rarely witness that passing of the torch in rap music because of the fake scarcity of resources that is promoted in rap culture. That principle will be a discussion for another drop because this post is all about Chocolate Snowflake and me.
When the Roy Ayers concert wrapped up we had a few choices left for our day. We could scramble ourselves back home to sit on the steps of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and people watch the 1st Saturday partygoer procession. 1st Saturday was where we shared our first dance together. The legendary story is all about the foot massage that I offered C.S. on the steps of the museum after the dance party had ended. She accepted, and the rest as the story goes is his story.
The deejay set at 1st Saturday was done by my friends from the Freedom Friday party so I know the vibe was sky high at the museum. The Freedom Friday crew was motivating over to Brooklyn Bowl to do a dance party there afterwards so we decided to make BK Bowl our next stop. I’m sorry that I missed the KeiStar BBQ on Washington Avenue since that was also one of the places that C.S. would run into me that fateful first weekend seven years ago.
We were met at BK Bowl by C.S. younger sister who immediately recognized that DJ J-Period had on the SAME t-shirt from the Roots Picnic in Philly. She asked J if he needed her to buy him another shirt. J-Period claimed to have other shirts but ionno. Big up to Toronto emcee Shad for blessing me with that shirt also. The party at Brooklyn Bowl was a perfect endcap for the day. My mood and my physical condition had improved along the way.
Shoutout to my folks from Pardon Me Duke who happened to be in the place to be celebrating the PMD founder’s new year. Another anniversary made perfect by great music and good friends. For Chocolate Snowflake and I it was another year to renew our love and faith in one another. Brooklyn was the planet, and everybody loves the sunshine.
The Combat Jack Show was another classic webcast on Wednesday night. Microphone issues as usual. Uninvited guests and never a topic too taboo for the discussion. Shouts to Torae and Nitty Scott for kicking it with us for a few minutes.
Sasha Jenkins and CHINO BYI rounded out the show’s lineup. Two words… Class. Sick.
The Combat Jack Show (The Random Edition) 6-29-11 by PNCRadio
I’m getting into all kinds of mess this weekend so hold onto this excellent Combat Jack Show episode from the week prior featuring Jean Grae and SlaughterHouse (and more specifically Joell Ortiz) co-manager Mike Herard.
The Combat Jack Show 6-23-11 (Jean Grae & Mike Herard) by PNCRadio
NEWMANATI!!!
Sexual assaults in America are on the rise for a bevy of reasons. One of them has to be the advertising of sex in all sorts of consumer products. No one is more notorious right now then the marketers of American Apparel.
After the Random Axe show several members of the Combat Jack Show walked past an American Apparel store and felt compelled to talk about the displays and their overarching themes. Yeah, I think we were drunk too.