The Rule of Thirds/A Memory, Photographic.

I have a photographic memory. It’s flawed, but remarkable nonetheless, at least to me. People ask me several times a week, “How did you know/remember that?” The answer is always because I saw it or read it once, somewhere – scrawled in the borders on the page of a book or driving by a billboard. I can’t remember birthdays unless I write down the date on my agenda or unless someone shows me their license – tying the letters of their name or their likeness to that important string of numbers. Continue reading

Music Coursing Through My Veins: What I Love

It’s funny, because I was going to post a blog last night listing some of my favorite workout songs that have motivated me at the gym over the years, but I was so tired when I got home, I decided to save it. In the meantime, browse the answers to this survey. I’ll get to the “iPod Workout Walk Down Memory Lane” another day.

List 10 musical artists you like, in no specific order (do this before reading the questions below). Continue reading

Black Girl Gone Wild (Photo Blog)

I went camping (for only the second time in my life) this weekend with my best friend April and my former roommate “Double-0” and I can tell you three things:

1. Camping is for White people.
2. Camping is for White people.
3. When camping with White people, drinking makes the experience infinitely more fun.

This is what I packed into Double-0’s car. April went up early to set things up for us since we had to work.

camp1

Continue reading

Pork Medallions in Cranberry Chutney (Recipe post)

If you do not like pork because you’re one of those people who has “texture issues,” or because a piece of pork truly traumatized you at some point in your life, you can skip this one.

On the other hand, if you don’t like pork because every time your mom made you pork chops growing up, they turned out like black bricks of death and you had to smother them in ketchup just to make it to dessert, well then this is for you. My friend “Jennamafer” falls into this latter group and came to my place for dinner a couple weeks ago. When I told her what I was making, she said, “I don’t like pork.” Now she likey. Continue reading

The Importance of Being (John) Ernest

Prof. John Ernest with me and Kristin at our college graduation

Prof. John Ernest with me and Kristin at our college graduation

I went to college with a mission: I wanted to learn more about Being Black. Problem was, $10,000 of my scholarship money for New York University had fallen through on the day of my high school graduation. I wouldn’t be attending school in the diverse Mecca-lekka-hiney-bro Melting Pot known as NYC.

Nope. The University of New Hampshire would be hosting my education in Being Black. It was as unlikely a place as one could find for increasing cultural awareness. There were 78 Black students out of 13,000. If you were counting me, there were only 77.5 Black students. We do what we can with what we have, though, and what I had was a course catalogue listing a 500-level course for Introduction to African-American Literature.

Any time I’ve ever wanted to understand anything, I’ve turned to books. From cooking to interior design to tarot card reading, if there was anything I’ve wanted to understand, I just buried myself in every chapter and verse I could get my hands on. I thought if I could read about other Black people, their history, what they had been through . . . maybe I would understand a little bit more about myself. Continue reading