I love that you're writing about my baby daddy in my head, D'Angelo. I also resonate strongly with your account of your father. My father was a beautifully uncouthed man who reveled in and practiced the art of hell raising and ass whoopings when his lines had been crossed. While that's a last resort for me (by choice only), it's definitely a resort if need be. Think Erykah Badu with the Newports.
Back to D'Angelo, I remember sitting in my college dorm room with a friend discussing the album, Brown Sugar. We talked extensively about Shit, Damn, Motherfucker and how even the title was unapologetic. We loved the loosely veiled storytelling of the song and how it led us to discuss the boundaries in romantic relationships. This is a great piece! I'm so glad I read it.
yeah, i wonder about that time, in myself. how neutered it feels on this side, how im possessed by the milquetoast, in garbs i’m told god wears so i should grab a pair. fubu. milquetoast, who been waging war with words like religion and peace and fairness and even and righteous.
when i try to think bout vengeance — “is the lord” is always RIGHT on its heels. i can’t get none. it don’t trade on the streets no more, and the plug say we killing each other but not for anything like love but for sport, which is just what it has always been, entertainment in a clear capsule. i’m doped up too, unfortunately.
i think of D’Angelo and see a man at peace with being guilty. someone who paid no never mind about being a devil in that story they writing over there, as long as he was tapped into the truth of his own deliverance. to me, that’s love.
anyway. enjoyed this entry and looking forward to the next.
"Vengeance is the only occasion when a victim is allowed aggression, no longer sublimated or solvent or self-abnegating or reasonable or internalizing the evil deeds done them, because finally the wronged party is striking out and refusing to recoil." The sentiment in this sentence is so insightful and impactful, smashing the dull surface of complacency and sending waves and reverberations to those who understand and take heed. An apocalyptic clarion call played down through the ages, the same song riffed by Nat Turner, Old John Brown and most recently those so called, "barbarians" smashing through the gates of their oppressors.
I love that you're writing about my baby daddy in my head, D'Angelo. I also resonate strongly with your account of your father. My father was a beautifully uncouthed man who reveled in and practiced the art of hell raising and ass whoopings when his lines had been crossed. While that's a last resort for me (by choice only), it's definitely a resort if need be. Think Erykah Badu with the Newports.
Back to D'Angelo, I remember sitting in my college dorm room with a friend discussing the album, Brown Sugar. We talked extensively about Shit, Damn, Motherfucker and how even the title was unapologetic. We loved the loosely veiled storytelling of the song and how it led us to discuss the boundaries in romantic relationships. This is a great piece! I'm so glad I read it.
fuck. again, barring shit.
yeah, i wonder about that time, in myself. how neutered it feels on this side, how im possessed by the milquetoast, in garbs i’m told god wears so i should grab a pair. fubu. milquetoast, who been waging war with words like religion and peace and fairness and even and righteous.
when i try to think bout vengeance — “is the lord” is always RIGHT on its heels. i can’t get none. it don’t trade on the streets no more, and the plug say we killing each other but not for anything like love but for sport, which is just what it has always been, entertainment in a clear capsule. i’m doped up too, unfortunately.
i think of D’Angelo and see a man at peace with being guilty. someone who paid no never mind about being a devil in that story they writing over there, as long as he was tapped into the truth of his own deliverance. to me, that’s love.
anyway. enjoyed this entry and looking forward to the next.
thank you, and that's beautifully said, regarding D'Angelo and deliverance, and all of it
This is an INCREDIBLE piece!! You're an excellent writer! I have to watch the whole performance soon too I'm so surprised I haven't before
"Vengeance is the only occasion when a victim is allowed aggression, no longer sublimated or solvent or self-abnegating or reasonable or internalizing the evil deeds done them, because finally the wronged party is striking out and refusing to recoil." The sentiment in this sentence is so insightful and impactful, smashing the dull surface of complacency and sending waves and reverberations to those who understand and take heed. An apocalyptic clarion call played down through the ages, the same song riffed by Nat Turner, Old John Brown and most recently those so called, "barbarians" smashing through the gates of their oppressors.