For Every Step Forward...

...there's always someone or something that puts us two steps back. In this case, it's baker Ted Kefalinos at his bakery called Lafayette French Pastry in The Village, NYC, who for some reason, thought making "Drunken Negro Cookies" a good idea. You can read the disturbing article here.

With all the wonderful sentiments of hope, pride, and togetherness so much of the country felt during the inauguration of President Obama, there is still a large faction out there that refuse to accept "progress." When I hear random comments like references of the inauguration as the "iniggeration," and I see t-shirts that say, "Nigger, it's called the WHITE house," I am made all too aware of the work that still needs to be done. Will racism ever be truly eradicated? I think not, but it's a nice concept.

Hit Counters

I'm a little peeved that my hit counter for this site failed me. I was finally up to 2655 views, and had to get a new one. So now it looks like I'm a newbie and/or nobody likes me. This really sucks.

I'm through venting now...other than this little snafu, this has been an unbelievable day!

New year, new president, renewed hope!

More on this special day later...

NYC Book Club Rocks!

Last night, my book club met for our first meeting of 2009. As usual, we had a great time, and my spirited members had much to discuss about the December 2008 book of the month, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, by Eva Rice. Opinions varied across the board as to liking or disliking it; I was one of the naysayers. This book completely fell short of all my expectations for character development, storyline, plot (or lack thereof), and good ending (once again, or lack thereof). As I stated last night at our British venue, Pound and Pence in lower Manhattan, "If a book doesn't end well, then it's not a good book. If you like a book up until the ending--and you don't like how it ends--it's not a good book." Thanks, Toni for seconding me on that!

A few of the ladies kept saying how they enjoyed "Secrets," but kept asking questions or discussing topics within the book that revealed flaws to all of us. A couple of the highlights were noted by Krisha (pleasantly and quietly opinionated) and Marnie (a fiery one) who noted that they enjoyed when Rice narrated the banalities of everyday life; how she would randomly write about the little nuances in the characters' behavior that made them real and/or mroe special. We all agreed that that kind of writing is what makes for an enjoyable read.

However, there were some more complex issues raised as well. For example, Racquel, one of the most wonderfully opinionated women in the group, asked: "Why is it that strong women and/or promiscuous women always get punished in the end with death or some kind of disease (AIDS, cancer)?" She then drew parallels to SATC, all of which were very true. This is quite an interesting issue that I will have to address in an essay one day, but until then, much obliged to Racquel for searing this on my brain.

So, in the end, who truly liked the book? I think less people did than before we talked about it...

I'm curious to discover the opinions of our January book, Fairy Gunmother, by Daniel Pennac, one book of a French series that has been translated into English. It's gotten fantastic reviews the world over, but has yet to reckon with the eyes and minds of this fiesty group of ladies! Stay tuned...

New Year's Resolution

I know, I suck. I haven't posted anything here in almost a year. So I resolve to be more attentive and responsible to my blog this year.

In the meantime, I know some really great, artsy, funky, creatively cool peeps who formed a group a while back called Kinky Notti. Check out their music and their blog: Kinky Notti . Super nice!