Say is softly as you whisper in my ear…. “Aubegine…….”

Again.
Again.
Again.

Color excites me so.

The great thing about NYC is that you never know who you will run into on the streets.

Celebs, celeb stylist, stylist, style icons… Especially during MBFW

I bumped into noted fashion stylist Philip Bloch last September chopping at the Lincoln Center Fountain.

I pointed my camera at him & said give it to me. And here we are.

Thanks for being a sport Phillip!

Check here to view more of my NYC Analog Street Portrait series.

I am a man. I am a father. I am a son. And I’m living in my pride.

I am true. I am strong. I am worthy! Living in my pride!
…
I am black. I am brown. I am round! Living in my pride!

Pride! Pride! Pride! Pride!
…
I am rhythm. I am a song. I am the drum. Living in my pride.

I am freedom. I am equality. I am God. Living in my pride.
…

Nadirah Shakoor by”Pride”
——————————-

Headed to Chicago for a quick get getaway. Purpose of the trip? A) Dance to house music all night long Friday night at the Tortured Soul/Osunlade party. B) Recover from dancing Saturday. C) Random fun & excitement. D) A few pictures here and there.

See ya next week…..

Details/Updates Coming Soon:

I found about this on the Invisible Woman’s blog. A cool & cute video!  Go Helen & go Michael!!!

OK, this is such a good reason we need a separation of church & state. I cannot believe (yes I can) homeboy is up @ the pulpit talking this much shit about that half white boy & his white momma.

I mean, how much shit can one talk about anyone with a bald spot the huge surrounded by a fucked up, short & dried out Jheri curl.

“Now this is not racist or anything praise the lord” my hairy black ass. Will someone pass the collection plate to shut this mutha fucka up.

I wonder if Bob Johnson was in the church audience??? I tell you, Hillary has some all stars rooting her on.

I found this video on Smitty’s Soliloquy.

Well if you have never been on the AfroSpear then you will find everything new but for those who visit often that you will notice the sharp new header image & logo.

My opinion on the header being sharp is a little biased considering that I designed.

Backstory: Ever since the AfroSpear jumped off, I wanted to design a logo for it but did not put myself out there for whatever reason (maybe laziness).

Well earlier this week, I was inspired by the Freeslave to put something together after he posted about the Growing Pains involved with the AfroSpear etc. The post was very reconciliatory and a call to a renewed vision.

With that in mind (mine crazed mind), I said hey, now is good time to do what I intended to do months ago. A few hours later, I posted a response to the post & offered up a logo design.

“… something that I thought about doing since the beginning of the AfroSpear was offering to do a professionalized logo to give a little visual legitimacy. This post inspired me to put something together as a gift for us all.

Please have a look at what I done…”

After my post, I got some really good feedback & 2 days later, it was on & poppin’.

Note to self: I am officially on logo hiatus! Well I guess not, especially if a get another customer with some ducketts in hand.
———————————————————–
Many of my favorite bloggers are the primary contributors at the AfroSpear so I no doubt recommend that you check it out!

AfroSpear Mission Statement:

We live in a forced collective. Hear me out.

This gathering of people of African descent — whether born in the U.S. or Africa or elsewhere, whether descendants of slaves or free men, whether rich or indigent –this gathering arises out of a need for self-determination and a history of forced subordination and removed relativity to an abstract outsider. We face each other under a banner of survivalist solidarity because regardless of our differences — whether they be our sexualities, our disabilities, our religions or our interests — we are viewed as one. What jerks at one of us sends tremors through all of us. So we need to understand each other.

This space is an area to gather our thoughts — thoughts that we do not or should not expect to mesh into a single river of black unity. Thoughts that we do not write to bolster our Afro-credibility. Thoughts that may seem contradictory at times. We come together to share what we think works best for us as people who have had our fates forcibly woven together. As human beings, however, this weaving can read as a blessing or a curse. These writings, presented by a variety of different perspectives of those cut from the African cloth, intend to explore the mountains and the valleys of the landscape of being a person of African descent.

What does being a person of African descent mean? How does it guide individual and collective politics? Does it influence the formation of identity? Should we abandon identity altogether? What problems do we face, and what clear goals should we set to solve them? When should we band together? When should we break apart? Where should our priorities lie? This think tank does not claim any political affiliation; it does not claim any religion; it does not profess any specific philosophy as the guidepost for our people. Here, we unite to teach and to listen, to share and to withhold, to grow and to develop into people we pride within this forced unifier. We aim to loosen the restraints of these perceptive chains and to join our hands in unity — but only if we choose to do so.

These stories and ideas are thoughts of action, of ambition, of revelation, and of courage within our collective AfroSphere. We want to be interactive with those who share the above vision and want to add a positive contribution, i.e., their stories and ideas to this collective. We welcome interaction through comments, posts and essays. We will utilize the voices of guest contributors. However, we will have a zero tolerance policy on comments whose goal is to sow dissention, engages in personal attacks and/or attempts to demonize others because of their beliefs and/or opinions. Only positive criticisms, analysis and comments that educate, enlighten and edify will be allowed. This does not mean that we are only looking for those who will agree with our points of view. Far from it. However we are creating a space where discussion, discourse and debate can be exchanged in a respectful environment.

Welcome to AfroSpear. Share your insight.

Tonight I was clearing off my camera’s memory card when I discovered that I may really have a problem. As I was clearing off images I counted 25 pictures of myself that I took at various times in the last 2 weeks. So I am thinking that maybe I am a narcissist as I have been told many times by many people.

Some of the pictures I took were to test some of the camera’s features but then I got into I guess & had a self photoshoot.

After I added up what I had on my new camera, I looked at the images on my older memory card & counted 15 photos of myself & lastly I looked at what I had taken with my laptops camera & I will not even begin to list the number.

Am I really suffering from a narcissist personality disorder??? Am I that in love with damn self that I need to take all of these miscellaneous snapshots.

I just checked Wikipedia & they have the criteria for NPD & maybe I’m in trouble.

At least five of the following are necessary for a diagnosis so…

Diagnostic criteria:

• Has a grandiose sense of self-importance
• Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
• Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by other special people
• Requires excessive admiration
• Strong sense of entitlement
• Takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
• Lacks empathy
• Is often envious or believes others are envious of him or her
• Arrogant affect

To be honest I think like 5 of these apply to me so what do I do? How many of these criterion apply to you, no need to list which ones because I am ashamed to admit what may apply to me.

This pitiful snapshot was taken of my poor sweet Amelia aKa Boo Boo just before the stroke of midnight New Years Eve this past year.

While everyone was in good spirits, she was suffering and still is from some virus. She has been shooting out food from both ends for the past few days trying to get better.

Hopefully today she will be in a better condition because Suite Suzy goes back to work, so that means that I will have to handle any nasty explosions myself.

Anyway Happy New Year All,
Bygbaby

I was researching Black History facts for Sept 19 for the Bygbaby.com Afro port & ran across the interesting story of Barney Hill who reported that he was abducted by Alien’s the night of Sept 19, 1961.

Why is this story fascinating to me??? Barney is a Negro!!! When I 1st ran across this I was like no way cuz one thing I never hear about is Black people spottin’ UFOs & such. This story is quite intriguing & I believe it based on what I have found on a few sites. I’m a sci-fi sucker.

Enjoy
———————————————————–
Late on the night of 19th September, 1961, 41 year old child welfare worker Betty Hill and her 39 year old husband Barney were traveling home after a pleasant vacation in Southern Canada. They were traveling along Interstate Route 3, which cuts through the White Mountain of New Hampshire on the long journey home to New England. For quite a while the Hills had been puzzled by the ‘white star’ that had seemed to be tailing them. Barney, being skeptical by nature, thought it may be a plane heading towards Montreal. Traffic was very scare on the highway, and the couple decided to stop to allow their dog, Delsey, to have some exercise.

It was now close to midnight and, as Betty walked the dog off the side of the road, Barney used binoculars to study the strange light more carefully.

After a few minutes further into their journey, Barney felt the sudden urge to stop and leave the car. They were near an isolated spot called Indian Head, and ignoring Betty’s cries to return to the car, Barney walked deeper into the roadside tree cover, staring ahead at the white light in the sky. It became apparent to Barney that the strange light was a UFO.

It had a shape described by both witnesses as like a pancake or a banana, and Barney was sure he could see figures standing against a large picture window in front of the spacecraft. Barney lowered the binoculars from his eyes and shouted ‘I don’t believe this!’, then muttered something about a military helicopter playing tricks on them, then screamed out loud ‘They’re going to capture us!’ with that, he fled back to the car. The couple then sped off southwards to begin the drive down from the mountains. Further down the road, the Hills heard a strange ‘beeping’, a sound which, years later the Hills would describe as similar to a microwave oven. A second ‘beeping’ noise followed by a bump, and then everything returned back to normal.

The morning after they arrived home, the Hills noticed some problems with their car. The vehicle had strange blotches where the paint had been removed, revealing bare metal. Betty’s sister suggested that they should see if the spots were magnetized. She asked this because she also had experienced a UFO before, and had read that UFOs could stall car engines. Using a hand-held compass, they discovered that the compass needle swung wildly over the blotched areas of the car, suggesting that these spots, were indeed magnetized.

Distressed, the couple decided to ring the nearby Pease Air Force Base to report their experience with the UFO. They were told nothing at the time, but documents researched 20 years later report of a similar UFO being reported at the base on September 20th at 2.15 a.m. in the morning.

The Hills also decided to report their encounter to a national UFO group. UFOlogist and astronomer Walter Webb visited the Hills on 21st of October, and set in motion what was to become one of the most remarkable investigations in UFO history.

Barney was worried, because he could not explain the scuff marks on his shoes, as if he had been dragged roughly along the ground, and he was also suffering from an extremely painful back. On 30th September, Betty began to have a series of recurring nightmares that lasted for several nights. In them she would see horrible faces with cat-like eyes that belonged to creatures intent on kidnapping her and her husband. One fact that emerged during Walter Webbs investigation was that, during the Hills journey, they could not account for two hours of time, or 55km of their route. By Spring 1962, the Hills problems were still evident and they were regularly seeking medical advice to relieve them of their mental torment.

Finally they were referred to psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon in Boston. He recommended them to undergo regression as a way to free their subconscious minds of whatever was causing the problems. From the start, the emotional impact of that September night was obvious. Although both Betty and Barney were regressed separately, a number of images surfaced from their subconscious minds that were remarkably similar. The Hills’ response under hypnosis undoubtedly shook Dr Simon. On several occasions staff had to help him restrain Barney while he relived the events of that night and fought to escape the aliens that he visualized.

According to the evidence retrieved through these sessions, the UFO had landed beside the road, and rendered the Hills’ semi-conscious. The couple were then taken against their will aboard the craft by small beings with whitish skin and large cat-like eyes (similar to greys). Once on board, the couple were separated and both given medical examinations. Barney had semen extracted by a suction device, while Betty had to endure a large needle being stuck into her abdomen. Other samples such as nail and hair clippings were also taken. The aliens also appeared fascinated by the differences between the couple. Barney, who was Ethiopian by birth, had dark skin.

After the tests, Betty was shown around the UFO where she attempted to persuade what seemed to be the group’s leader to allow her to take away a book as proof of their adventure, but this was denied.

One thing that skeptics cannot explain is, Betty could draw a detailed sketch of the star system Zeta Reticuli which is in the Reticulum constellation, 6 years before astronomers even discovered it?

This case has become a landmark case in UFO folklore. The importance of the Hills’ abduction experience cannot be overemphasized. It changed the world of UFOlogy forever.

Information Source