Spent the evening with Ma Dukes to celebrate her birthday. Nearly the whole family unit was in attendance. Unn and Tita even called from Norway to wish her a happy birthday.
We had the traditional White Castle birthday menu that she insists we have every year. I was also shocked to find that Jonas had never tasted White Castle before today. Strangely enough I am not sure if I should count that as a parenting “win” or a parenting “fail”. I guess I will find out tomorrow when I see how his stomach reacts.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. If I am being honest I would rate it a close second only to Christmas in terms pure fun and excitement. It has been this way for me as long as I can remember. Halloween was a time for me to totally release my inner nerd/geek without fear of being looked at as strange. Every year I went dressed as one of my favorite comic book characters. I was having a hard time Continue reading “Superhero Halloween Mashup!”
The morning commute from hell. I got trapped on the 4 train for near 50 minutes. There was a sick passenger on the train ahead so of course some moron needed to pull the emergency brake to be “helpful “. Now keep in mind this is with a screaming baby and another moron who felt inspired to loudly rap off beat about all his women and how he runs the drug game.
Luckily the transit workers were finally able to pull the front of the train into the station and walk us off at 42nd street. Another ten minutes trapped with the off beat rapper and I might have made Negan seem like Gandhi.
The wife and kid took me out on the open water to explore the waters surrounding Lofoten, Norway. The speedboat (rip) that we traveled on was an interesting way to see the fish and wildlife in the area. Our guide Theresia said that the waters on this day were fairly calm and peaceful. If that is the case it must be crazy out here when the sea is rougher.
As I am riding home on the train at 4:30 in morning a few thoughts enter my mind. I grew up in NYC during the 70s, 80s and 90s when the city averaged between 2000 – 3000 murders a year. During that time I traveled from one end of the city to the other. From Harlem, to the South Bronx, to Bed Sty. I am not being arrogant when I say that I do not frighten easily. And yet despite all of that, to this day, at 50 years old, nothing scares me more than the sight of two young white cops alone with me on a train.
As a lifelong comic book fan, and a kid born and raised in Harlem, I absolutely loved this trailer for Luke Cage series. The music from Nas almost made me scream. It was perfect! The series drops on Netflix in September. Fans got a brief taste of Cage in Continue reading “Luke Cage: King of the town”
The last few months have been an extremely stressful but yet amazing period. I seriously injured my leg training for a martial arts related documentary I am filming, had reconstructive surgery on my knee, watched in nervous anticipation as my daughter waited to receive college acceptance letters, and celebrated both my daughter’s 18th birthday and 23 years with my wife. However the most joyous and nerve racking experience of this time was closing on a new apartment.
Much to the annoyance of family and friends I have been referring to our new home as stately Wayne Manor!
I had a great time hanging out with my mom on her birthday. I am still not sure why she insists on having White Castle every year. My stomach can’t deal with it anymore.
As a father of two young black children, the Tamir Rice situation terrifies and angers me. The thought that someone could arbitrarily murder your child in cold blood and then have the state, and large sections of the American public, justify that action is beyond disturbing.
My son asked to borrow one of my video cameras to capture shots of him and his friends skateboarding. He was initially upset when I told him no. All of my HD cameras are black could be mistaken for something else by a trigger-happy cop. As a result, I went out and bought my kid an HTC Re camera that looks like a white inhaler so that no one could mistake it for anything dangerous.
I had a black HD camera I used to use with a one-handed pole grip for action shots until I thought about how it might look to some scared cop. And really when we pull back the curtain I believe that most cops are terrified of black people. This accounts for many of their overreactions. Now some honestly hate us, but some of that hate is a direct by-product of their fear.
This was the original action camera he wanted to use. The shame is that it is a great camera, far cheaper than a go pro but with similar quality. However, the form factor is too problematic, especially in black or silver.
The last time I looked, selling untaxed cigarettes didn’t carry the death penalty. To get away with murdering a Black Male in America all you have to do now is say you felt “threatened” or he was a thug/criminal. What happened to due process? When did it become ok to carry out judgment & execution for petty crime? The problem Black people are having is that Black males are dehumanized and depicted as threats worthy of death. In our justice system, I have yet to see the prosecutor seek the death penalty for stealing, walking, or running however this sentence is imposed on Black Males by police at a disproportionate rate.
We have just been having a great run of good fortune lately. My daughter received her first college acceptance letter this weekend. I am just overjoyed that her first acceptance letter is from a school that my daughter really likes and that we can send her to and still afford to retire one day! This is sure to be the first of many positive letters because she has worked really hard over the past few years. It is nice to know that she will have options.
