Writer, filmmaker, and radio host Nyree Emory on the role of the Law Of Attraction in interpersonal relationships.

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(Overheard on the 6:40 To Croton Harmon)

“She been at my house for a week my nigga…”

“A week?”

“Yeah, she been there since I had the cable cut off. I’m about to turn that shit back on though. Tired of that bitch being in my house…”

(5 minutes later…)

“Told you, my nigga, ignore that shit. Act like that phone ain’t even ring. When she say, ‘Why you ain’t call me?’ just tell her ‘I’m callin’ you now, right?’ And if she keep up with it, or say some shit you can’t come back from, hang up. Her insecurity will be eatin’ at her my nigga.”

(3 minutes later…)

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They say that it takes about 7 years 4 u 2 recycle all the cells in your body. This took place abt 2 Pierre’s ago.

Chakaras & I went to art school together. We had several small adventures during the time we knew each other… our last big one was a road trip to the Million Man March in October 1995.

I was inspired to get this photo essay/album scanned and uploaded by his untimely passing last week. It’s dedicated to him, his memory, and all of those whose lives he touched.

You always hear the cliche about the journey and the destination. We’re all destined to end up in the same place, but i am thankful that our journeys crossed paths at some point. I am better because of it. Thank you, Chakaras. rest in peace.

Our Last Big Adventure

I’ve been doing some soul searching, I’m finding some good stuff. I’m being pushed reluctantly into the foreground, a place that i purposefully abandoned several years ago. However situations keep occurring where my hermit tendencies don’t serve me. I am also being informed that my style of perfectionism doesn’t serve me. My art is like a cockroach in that for every one piece of mine that you see there are about 30 that you don’t see. Growing up I used to throw away sketch books, rhyme books and journals because they were not “perfect.” It wasn’t till i got married that i really started to save my work & even then many things never saw the light of day. I learned that just because something comes easy to me doesn’t mean it lacks value. So here i am unwilling to put things out there that are not “perfect” but in desperate need to share and make room for all the new stuff. The first challenge I put to myself is to be “out there” more. I’ve decided to do so by starting a Video Blog (which i believe is called a V-log). It is tentatively titled “2 minutes with your imaginary friend Pierre!” I begin shooting later this week…see you soon..well…you’ll see me soon but you…you get it…so yeah.

Duke professor Mark Anthony Neal and Grammy winning producer 9th Wonder (pictured left) are using SunMoonChild – amazing song by imani uzuri, amazing video by Pierre Bennu – as part of the midterm exam for their course, ’sampling soul.’ The course is about black cultural production and the tradition of borrowing/remixing/sampling and how it all relates to today’s legal issues of intellectual property rights and copyright law. Since YouTube just removed SunMoonChild after three years this issue cuts particularly close for us.

He’s made the midterm public on his blog to encourage a wider dialogue and wider exposure to the ideas. Stop by and give it a read, comment if you can! )

–jb.

As a DJ, an artist, a sometime teacher, and the son of an academic, I will never get tired of marveling at the intersection of HipHop and academia. It’s an honor to have my work thought of as contributing to this discussion.

–pb

- Dear guy with missing tooth laughing at the duct tape situation my tail light is in: he who haseth not teeth is in no position to laugh publicly about anything.
- Dear record store I miss you.
- Dear ears, dude are you slowly going deaf? If so tell me but tell me really loud cause I can’t hear too good.
- Dear supermarket can we get rid of those dividers? Are they really necessary? This is my stuff right here, all that stuff way back there not touching my stuff is her stuff. I mean really, are you that fast that one day you just rang up everyone’s stuff together? [Read more]

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I’ve tired desperately to attach this story to something to make it some how more relevant or witty or give it a moral. I realize now that some things just ARE.  Like a slug in a middle of parking lot.  They don’t make sense but there they are. Why would a slug try to cross a parking lot? It’s always fun to be the hero of the stories you write even if you’re self depreciating. Somehow you find a way to make even your shortcomings shine. Well this isn’t charming, and I’m not the hero in the end and I don’t win. In this story no one really wins.
It’s just like the slug in the middle of the parking lot .

A friend and I were riding to the post office with about 5 bags filled to the brim with packages to mail off as was the ritual at the end of every day we work at the warehouse. We were stopped by a light and at the corner in the open space between the gas station and the curb were 2 children with bikes. My eyes would have not caught them had it not been for how small one of the children was. They both had dirt bikes but the smaller child seemed dwarfed – somehow he was riding the bike but could barley reach the handle bars. His hand couldn’t even wrap around the handle. It would be the equivalent of an adult trying to put their hand around a half spun roll of toilet tissue.

Me and my friend in the passenger seat smirked at how silly it all seemed, this child’s dedication to being out and on this bike that clearly he was too small for just seemed funny.
Then coming across the street were 2 women. One was holding a child the other was just stomping mad, her anger clearly pointed at the smaller of the 2 children.  Somewhere in the back of our minds we thought that universal childhood theme:  “oooh hes gonna get it” [Read more]

- Dear late 80’s early 90’s r&b group, I cant really sing but if I can dress up like you, learn the choreography and just be the guy that says “whooooooo” at the end of the breakdown of a slow song ill be eternally grateful.
- Dear person who says “ValenTimes day” instead of ‘Valentines day’ you should officially receive nothing on this day as you are not pronouncing it correctly. Instead, you should have a holiday called “ValenTimes day”where you receive the empty wrappers of candy and presents from those who do pronounce it correctly.
- Dear fluffer, you are the unsung hero. I salute you from a distance with my clean hand LOL
- Note to self: its ok when asked about your weight to say your putting on pounds for a role in a film.
- Dear pseudo righteous poet type dude, I don’t think here in public is the best place for the ” do you know how good an enema is for you” conversation. PS please stop calling my son “my seed” its just feels weird.
- Dear rasta I’m curious. In my youth I probably devoured  enough chew sticks to decimate a rainforest and build low income log cabin housing for the inner city.  But I still don’t know where chewsticks are made and how they are flavored. Do you? [Read more]

Excuse the brevity and scattered nature of what you’re about to read. It’s late/early. The sun has not yet come up.  These are the moments I must salvage to be creative – I’m up editing a documentary and planning for the website and my plan was to also edit the three (count them: 3) new baby blogs that were all unfinished because the baby has been sick.

This being our first baby and our first sickness we work in our strengths. My wife does everything and l look worried and ask what can I do.

Since I don’t have the body full of milk and the hairier face I am the legs of the family. The “could you get me the…”  guy  I’m also the “oh and don’t forget the…” guy and more often the  “did you remember to…” dude.

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Bernie Mac (1957 – 2008)