The Power of the Ball

What started out as a question about my outfit turned into a discussion about the Olympics. I miss the Olympics. A lot. They should be extended to a month-long event. But like my other lover who only returns every 4 years, both the World Cup and Olympics last a  mere 2-weeks. I've learned to adapt.


Almost 2 months before the Olympics, I started reading The Ball: Discovering the Object of the Game by John Fox. I'd received a copy for The L Magazine Literary Upstart event. Fox travels through time and around the world to answer the question his son asked him 4 years prior to completing the book -- Why do we play ball?


Why do we play ball? What is it about football and football, baseball, cricket, basketball, tennis, water polo, lacrosse, rugby, handball et al. that enthralls us? What is it about the ball that leads to endless hours of practice and play and bouncing? Balls of all sizes and shapes are the center of drama and wars, form alliances and create enemies, decades-long bragging rights, hand-eye coordination, speed, agility, power, strength...


Alas, like the Olympics, The Ball is "over". It was an enjoyable and entertaining read. A documentary based on the book is in the works. Now I have yet another reason why I want to visit Brazil - Altinha.

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A Random Moment with Jay White

Jay White, DJ

I can never blame anything on the alcohol. It was the music. It took his sets for me to learn who Adele is, choose a Franki Valli song for my burlesque routine and discover The Supermen Lovers. Always an hospitable host, I had to get up with him for a interview even though he claims he's not as cool as everybody thinks he is. DUMBO. Halcyon. He rolled up on his motorized scooter and we got to it.

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My name is Jay White. Brooklyn. I am in the hospitality industry. I’m also a student and a DJ.

A DJ. That’s why I chose you, that’s how I met you… but what do you do in the hospitality industry?

I’m a maître d' at Apothéke, in Chinatown. I was also a general manager for the same owner's previous business, The Wall Street Burger Shoppe and was a hospitality specialist during my college years at Starbucks—that’s where the hospitality background comes from.

Ok, with the DJ’ing, what was your first gig, your first break?

My first gig, DJing, believe it or not, was at the Chelsea Hotel. I was nervous, I was sweating, I didn’t know what to play next. I had a friend who was trying to mentor me through the DJ process, Richie Beretta, and he was telling me, “play this next, play that next” – my set was like an hour but it felt like the whole night to me. But that’s when I realized I wanna do it, everything clicked.

Subjectified: Nine Young Women Talk about Sex -- Giveaway

Subjectified: Nine Young Women Talk about Sex Trailer May 2012 from Melissa Tapper Goldman on Vimeo.

Women have sex. But, why? How? Why do they choose the partners they choose?

Subjectified is a documentary that asks the question that is often answered by everyone else but the women in question. Women are often sexually objectified for men or by their standards. As a result other women develop their own views on the sex and sexuality of their sisters. Real expressions of female sexuality are few and far between -- now here's Subjectified.

"While our culture is saturated with images of female sexuality, the real voices of women themselves are frequently missing.  Through in-depth interviews, Subjectified lets women do the talking, trading easy answers and stereotypes for brutal honesty.  The stories may sound familiar: young moms, abstinent Christians, lesbians, survivors of assaults and STD’s.  But outside the world of reality TV and sound bites, women approach their lives in complex and unexpected ways: sometimes hilarious, sometimes sobering, and always heartfelt.  Subjectified will change the way you think about female sexuality. "

A Random Moment with Ijeoma Iheanacho

Ijeoma Iheanacho, fine art photographer

I answered her casting call that was posted on SocietyHAE. We've kept each other abreast on our shutterbuggery. Last spring, her series, "Faces of the Great Recession", was a featured in the Faces of the Economy show held at the Art for Change Gallery. I finally made it to the Bronx, where she was gracious enough to grant this interview.

 

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My name is Ijeoma Iheanacho. I am a fine art photographer.

How long have you been doing photography?

I’ve been doing photography since college. Graduated high school in 1996 so… ’96 to 2012… 15 years? I’m trained as an architect, I don’t do math [laughs].

Great Finds from bookbook

 

 Went to a bookstore today and bought 3 books. Topics: travel, food and sex. Hey, you love what you love.

I tweeted that on Saturday evening.


It felt good to be in a bookstore, to see the covers, to read the blurbs, to flip through the pages. I was at bookbook on Bleecker. These are the 3 titles I walked away with.

Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a rogue travel writer by Chuck Thompson

The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain

Bonk: The curious coupling of science and sex by Mary Roach

A Random Moment with The Hired Gun

The Hired Gun, Hip Hop MC, writer, critic, arts educator

We totally dated ourselves when we realized we knew each other since the heydays of Myspace. Yes, that Myspace. Since then we've been connected through the music and poetry circles and the occasional hot button race issue. At the Ace Hotel, on a Saturday afternoon we discovered we were neighbors in Brooklyn, kindred in the artist lifestyle.

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My name is Mikal Amin Lee AKA The Hired Gun, Fresh Roots Music, Nomadic Wax, Urban Word. I am a Hip Hop MC, artist, writer, cultural critic and arts educator. I’ve been based in New York City now for the last 13 years—born and raised in New Jersey—been reppin’ Brooklyn since 2000, officially. Unofficially, I’ve been reppin’ Brooklyn since Big Daddy Kane in 19- [muffles his voice] I’m not gonna say when cause I look very young.

As an MC and artist, what is the message behind your music?

My influences have been people like Chuck D, KRS-One, Brother Jay, The Native Tongues, Freestyle Fellowship and regardless of the political message or the artistic message, the thing that I took from them and what I try to carry on is I want you to think. I want you to ask questions. That’s what my music is—it’s to inspire thought, it’s to provoke thought—what’s going on with you, what’s going on with the community around you, what’s going on with the world around you, why are things the way they are, where do you fit in all of that. So that’s really what my music’s about regardless of what the topic or the concept or the theme is ... I’m not afraid to say I love Black people, so I try to celebrate us as much as possible in my music and I try to show a different angle because I’m not what this country or what people think are stereotypical of us so I try to represent that as well in my music.