I made it to 1K! Here’s what I learned along the way. — I made it to 1000 Medium followers! How crazy is that? Some more disciplined writers enter Medium with a plan. I didn’t. A triple digit following was never an aspiration, though I did admire to diligence of the writers who had amassed such a legion. My first article garnered a…

A 2022 album for each quadrant of the summer experience — It’s often said that you don’t find your summer soundtrack, it finds you. Or maybe it’s not often said, in which case, I just coined a new idiom. Go, me! It must be those warm rays of inspiration courtesy of the summer sun that awakened my musical muse, because I…

5 ways to “emancipate” yourself from your privilege — Dear White Allies, seasoned and aspiring: Juneteenth is upon us! For the second time in the 157 years since the enslaved Black people of Texas were informed of their freedom two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Juneteenth is being commemorated with an official federal holiday. Awesome for…

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth embodied the essence with a transcendent debut. (95.5/100) — “To know the truth is to know the self,” Pete Rock’s majestic baritone ministers over the burrowing bass and solemn organ of Cannonball Adderley’s “Country Preacher” . “To know the self is to know the mecca. Mecca’s not a state of mind or a place. Mecca is a way of…

A totally rational solution for school shootings that preserves the innocence of children — “The killer entered the school the same way the killer entered Santa Fe - through a backdoor,” Ted Cruz astutely observed of the gunman who murdered 21 students and teachers at Uvalde Texas’s Robb Elementary School. “An unlocked backdoor!” Griot that he is, Cruz followed up with a story; an…

Harry, Taylor, and Bruno are big — it’s the music that got small… — When digital media’s foremost pop plethorian Pierce McIntyre announced June’s Riff Album of the Month selection, I must admit I was a trifle triggered. It wasn’t the selection of Harry Styles’ recently released Harry’s House that parched my vinyl. I like most of what I’ve heard from Harry, and using…

Sounds for a Sojourn of Solitude — January 21, 2024 Dearly beloved, We are gathered here today to get through this thing called the second Trump administration. Dystopian phrase, “second Trump administration.” It likely means forever, and that’s a mighty long time, since at Trump’s installation, his rogue militia formally declared the end of democracy. But I’m here to tell…

If you missed the memo, I’ve stopped listening — Dear Americans, Kindly quit it with the prayers, already! Don’t you think I know the drill by now? Sub-sentient cretin shoots up a school? Thoughts and prayers. Mouth-breathing bigot massacres a church full of worshipers? Thoughts and prayers. Deranged degenerate unloads on a crowded supermarket? Thoughts and me-damned prayers. It’s…

The Nolia’s old soul solidified hip-hop’s southern invasion. (84/100) — By 1998, the dust had settled on the voracious East Coast/West Coast feud that both invigorated and contaminated hip-hop’s greatest decade, revealing the battle’s singular winner: the Dirty South. The West floundered, 1997’s murders of 2Pac and Biggie rendering their trademark gangsta style a little too real for comfort. The…