I tried sangria on my 2nd trip to Barcelona, SP many, many years ago (98′).

I was on a 3-day layover and hanging with my fellow flight attendant buddies, Nitza Rodriguez, Gladys Montisenos & Jorge Carballo who was our self-appointed city tour guide.

On this one particular day, we did a little shopping, people watching & tons of tapas eating. It was perfect! As the sun began to set, Jorge found a little restaurant for us to have dinner.

The restaurant was quite small yet charming & I remember all of the marinating octopi & squid in this case & dangling lights hanging from the ceiling.

Jorge, Nitza & Gladys all had paella & I recall it smelling & looking WONDERFUL but since I cannot eat shell fish, I settled on a chicken dish. The chicken was pan-fried in olive oil with garlic & I swear to this day that it was the best chicken I ever had.

Most importantly, Jorge ordered a pitcher of sangria. When it came to the table, I asked what it was (I was young & not as international & sexy as I am now). When Jorge explained, I was like sure, pour me a glass up.

Well, several glasses later I remember us getting in a cab & me waking up in my hotel room with no sheets on the bed.

After that night out dining, laughing etc, I was hooked on sangria!

Sangria goes with any meal if you ask me but it’s PERFECT on hot summer evenings when enjoyed with friends.

My recipe is fail-safe & certainly a crowd pleaser. If you try it, I hope that you will enjoy.

Ingredients:
- 3 bottles of red wine (Doesn’t need to be super expensive. I used a mix of Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon)
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- ½ cup Cherry brandy
- ½ cup Grand Marnier
- 2 Apples sliced (granny smith & pink ladies are perfect)
- 1 Orange sliced (I prefer navel)
- 1 Star fruit sliced
- 1 Lemon sliced
- 1 cup Strawberries

The Jump Off:
- In a large pitcher, mix your liquids & sugar until the sugar is dissolved
- Mix in all of your fruit & refrigerate over night.
- Before serving, your sangria give it a good stir then enjoy glass after glass.

Factoid:
Sangria was introduced to America at the 1964 World’s Fair in Ney York City.

It’s officially summertime & no song gets me more excited about summer than Doug E Fresh’s “Summertime.”

“Summertime” was released back in 1989 & I recall Detroit radio station 107.5 WGPR being the only station playing the hell out of this song. 1989 was also the year that I got my 1st job & entered high school so that summer was very important to me as a young teen.

Typing out 1989 & thinking about what I was doing back then has me feeling quite old. Damn!

Happy Father’s day to the men out there holding it down for your children while providing an example of what being a man is all about.

As we all know, any man can father a child but it takes a real man to help that child grown & learn with love, patience, understanding & an all seeing eye.

By the way, this is my dad & I getting our sawg on while sitting on the hood of his beloved baby blue Chevy Camero.

I used to love walking to my job at KFC (Highland Park, MI: Davison & Woodward) listening to my Crystal Waters “Making Happy” maxi single cassette back in the spring/summer of 1991. “Surprise” was & still is my jam.

I had so many maxi cassettes & cassette singles back then. Kinda funny thinking about how I used to walk around with a small bag of tapes.

1991 was a rough year for my family after a bout with homelessness but my Sony Walkman & house music certainly provided an escape & made me happy.

I planted violas in one of my gardens last year & the bloomed throughout the summer.  To my surprise, this lonely yellow fellow greeted me today while I was weeding.

What a nice bright surprise.

Coincidentally, it’s my grandmother’s birthday; we called her Mommie.  Everyone called her Mommie. Her kids, grand kids & people in the neighborhood all called her Mommie.

No one dared to call here Essie Mae!!!

Mommie was a very mysterious woman.  She never told me why she moved to Detroit from Birmingham, AL way back when, she never revealed her age, she NEVER talked about my grandfather who was rumored to be a Detroit pimp back in Black Bottom.

What I did know about Mommie was the love she had for me, her high regard continued education, the enjoyment she received from selling World Book Encyclopedias & her influential unique artistic abilities.

Mommie once told me that being cultured was a necessity for a successful Negro (she actually said Nigga but I thought I would clean it up a bit).

Recently, someone asked me who my muse was, I said my muse is my Mommie. She’s been gone for many years but her influence is ever present!

I sure miss Mommie!

When VA Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that the month of April will be “Confederate Month” in his state by decree it was just a matter of time before blood started leaking out of old oppressive wounds.

Not only did he note that April was Confederate Month in VA, he also failed to mention SLAVERY or the events that initiated the the civil war. Double fail!

It wasn’t until people raised concern over his foolish & hurtful decree that McDonnell saw a need to include the mention of peculiar institution of slavery. Then he offered this sappy mea culpa:

“The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission. The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed,” said McDonell.

The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War. Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation.”

Racists love to apologize and want to hold hands after they have been busted shitting on the existence of other people.

Then you have this jump off here with Roland Martin & Brag Bowling.

Bragg illustrates exactly why we need to stop using the words “post racial.”  America is straight up racial! And Obama’s presidency really doesn’t mean shit when it all boils down to it.

Part 1

Part 2

All I can say about Bragg is a fool will never comprehend his own ignorance.

On a related note; If you ever wondered what America would be like if the Confederate army actually won, then you have to see the “Confederate States of America” movie! MUST!

The Washington DC cherry blossoms will be at peak bloom next week & I’m saddened that I cannot visit and photograph the majesty of the 3,750 blooming trees. Truly a spectacular sight to see!

At least, I have my memories from the fun of last year as well as some smile inspiring photos. And of course, there is always net year!

You can see images from my 2009 trip to the Tidal Basin here.

A year ago today, I arrived home, sat on my back porch and watched the clouds dance by as the wind blew. It was like watching a cartoon, a cloud cartoon.

You ever just look at the sky & wonder what if? Daydream? Float away while remaining still like in a Spike Lee movie?

Yeah, last year this day I was having one of those moments, a long enjoyable moment.

While in my moment I paused to take a photo of the sky so that I could have my moment preserved.

The beautiful thing about photography is that it makes moments last forever.

Some days I open the photo & make it my wallpaper on my beautiful 30” monitor and gaze away.

I wonder what the will be happening tomorrow when I arrive home. Will the clouds dance for me one-year later?

1992 was a big year for me. I entered the 12 grade at Mackenzie High School, I turned 18 years old & I voted for former president Bill Clinton.

Back then, all I cared about was voting for the 1st time, graduating, looking good & my little information booth job at Fairlane mall.

My mind was right up until November 5 that year when one of largest incidences of police brutality occurred in Detroit; the death of Malice Green.

I remember going to school Nov 6th and how many of my friends were saddened and outraged that another Black man was brutilized by the hands of white police officers. Men who swore to serve and protect.

Malice Green’s death ignited a powder keg of racial tension in and around Detroit. As details started to leak about the night the fatal blows ended a life things got more intense & people seemed more angry.

If you know anything about Detroit, then you know that it’s one of the most racially segregated cities in the US (Google it if you don’t believe me) and this case did nothing but present more barriers.

When I drive past the intersection of Warren & 23rd and see the mural dedicated to Malice, I have strong memories of people talking about rioting if the offending officers were convicted. The possibility of rioting was very real then considering the 1992 Los Angeles riots (remember poor Reginald Denny?) which occurred after the police officers who brutally attacked Rodney King were acquitted.

The good news is there was no riot, the officers were convicted & the city began to heal.

On the flip side of this story, I also remember being in love with Kym Worthy who was the prosecutor on the case.

It’s hard to believe this happened 18 years ago.

———————————————————–
Backstory

Malice Green was a resident of Detroit, Michigan who died while in police custody after being arrested by Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers on November 5, 1992 during a traffic stop. Both officers were later convicted for Green’s death. While Green’s autopsy showed he had crack cocaine and alcohol in his system, the official cause of death was ruled due to blunt force trauma to his head, although several other prominent neuro-pathologists ruled that Green died from an acute cocaine overdose. Green allegedly failed to relinquish a vial of crack cocaine, attempted to assault the officers, attempted to grab Nevers’ gun and resisted arrest. Nevers struck Green in the head with his flashlight approximately seven times during the struggle which, according to the official autopsy, resulted in his death. Again other neuro-pathologist ruled that his head wounds were superficial, and could not alone have caused death.

After the struggle Green was transported to a local hospital for treatment for the head injuries sustained in the struggle where he died.

A subsequent report presented by the police officers’ paid experts at their trial stated that Green died of heart failure, caused in part by an enlarged heart due to years of substance abuse, and aggravated by the struggle with police.

Green, a drug addict and career criminal, was black and the two decorated officers were white. The incident occurred only months after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which protested the acquittal of police officers in the video-taped beating of Rodney King. Local leaders, including Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young, may have feared a repeat of the Los Angeles riots in Detroit. Young stated that Green was “literally murdered by police” on national television less than 72 hours after the incident, before any investigation had been concluded. He also stated that the “wrong” verdict in the case could cause riots similar to those in Los Angeles after the Rodney King incident. (Source | Wikipedia)

Officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn were convicted of second-degree murder in 1993 by a mostly Black jury.

The other night, Suite Suzy was going through boxes of her old photos when she stumbled across some of her high school photos.

This was great for me because I hadn’t seen any of these particular photos in all of the time that we have been together (13 years).

Thumbing through the images inspired many good chuckles from the early 80’s fashions, wild mulatto girl hair, interesting eye brow arches & “sexy wanna be model” poses. It was a Suite Suzy that I’d never seen. And it was almost like unlocking a mystery. Not like she was keeping secrets but it was like a time capsule of sorts.

The photo above is from her 1984 high school senior portraits. I found this image to be so beautiful. And until I saw it, I never thought that out daughter Olivia favored Suite Suzy but this image makes them appear to be twins.

I asked Suite Suzy if I could hold on to the photo for a while & she obliged. The next morning I woke up, picked up the photo again & smiled at it.

When I was a boy, I used to make mix tapes all the time from the radio. I thought I was a pro at it! I never caught the commercials or the DJ talking. This made my mix tapes popular with the ladies.

Mix tapes required thought, good timing & effort. Making drag & drop playlists or CDs is just not the same.

Essayist Michael Resnick has said:

“With the CD revolution in the near past and the digital revolution at hand, our music collections exist increasingly on hard drives, computer software, and mp3 players, while vinyl and CDs collect dust in the attic. Simultaneously, the ‘mix tape’ has gone digital, the medium for which it seems it was always meant.”

I wonder if my children will ever reminisce over CDs or their vibrantly colored & shiny 8GB iPod Nanos?

My how times change!

I thought I was doing something special last night when I picked up a carton of black mission figs. I was like, hmmm, I’ll try these & see what they’re about.

I was really excited to try them after seeing some really delicious looking photos on Flickr.

So I made it home today & immediately sliced one of my deliciously ripe figs. The colors were rich, the smell was honey sweet, & the first bite sent me back in time.

Back in time? Yes, back in time! As I savored each bite, I remembered eating these as a kid in Alabama. Then I remembered how my mom used to talk about how much she hated figs.

I had all these rememories while chowing down on like 6 figs. Then I thought about how my grandmother LOVED fig bars.

So funny how food can trigger memories good, bad or indifferent.

While preparing this post, I called my mom & told her about my little flashback & she was like hell no. No figs!

Needless to say, I’m all about figs now & they did taste as good as they look. Yum!!!

BTW, check out a few more shots of my figs here. Sure to get you hungry!