Color My Missives

Mos Def opens his album Black On Both Sides with a challenge to the audience. “The next time you ask where is hip-hop going, ask yourself, ‘Where am I going? What am I doing?’”
I write this mainly because I often have no idea where I’m going or what I’m doing. Somehow, I’d […]

In New York City, every fleeting moment of inspiration is paid back in soot and grime. Sometimes the soot and grime become the inspiration themselves. More often, they crowd in from the sidelines — observed but not forgotten in the multitude of things that clamor for attention. It is said that the […]

And, perhaps, the dreamer himself.

Time doesn’t forget about places, it merely brushes them under the rug like so many dust bunnies. When you’re lucky enough to stumble upon one such place, you breathe in the accents and corningware. And when the payphone at the end of the counter rings, the metal bell clanging inside it recalls all the rest […]

Dear reader,
If any one of you claims to have a better suit, tie, and hat combination than the one Ornette Coleman wore to the Grammy’s, I’ll tell you right now, you’re lying.
rr