I recently released Kiss the Sky, a novel about a black rock musician. Then I did an event with an actual black rock musician who read my book and said that the part about Michael Jackson was so eerie. I had forgotten all about it. But I found it…written years ago… and yes, eerie.

Tell me what you think about MJ and your memories… I am getting creeped out watching all the old footage, especially the ones of Diana calling Michael “sexy” while they are are both wearing those dark spangly shirts…

I wish he’d been happy. I find it hard to believe he was.

Peace,
F

____________________________________________________

Excerpt, Kiss the Sky, Atria Books, 2009
(Written from the P.O.V. of the main character.)

Drifted into a drowse and thought about the way music was my whole life.

My great grandfather sold Billie Holiday reefers, back when she was a bad little girl and he was a dirty old man. A withered up little yellow man. Always looking at the girls of school-age. A sailor, in and out of port. In town just long enough every time to get great-grandma pregnant. And wasn’t it just like me to love Billie, all of her, even her vices.

Then there was my first musical love, Michael Jackson. I was six, and to my child’s eyes he seemed just enough older to know a lot of things I wanted to learn. He was pure music, shimmering, shimmying, shaking, grooving, moving, liquid hipbones and fluid bell-bottomed pantlegs, denim, slouchy caps, a sexy choirboy backed up by his older brothers; plus television, dancing lions and tin-men, a too-old Diana as Dorothy. But wait, that last part was later.

Still, the Michael and “The Wiz” were always linked in my mind. When I was six, my Daddy and I went to see “The Wiz,” way before the movie with Michael and Diana, before the nose jobs and the skin lighteners and the hair straighteners and out-of-court settlements. Strange third-person memory: I see myself and my father walk towards the exit, along a half-lit aisle, with the play unfolding (bright reds and golds) behind us.

But: Michael. His was the music of longing, in a man-child’s voice that a little girl could understand before she truly knew desire. I liked Michael the same time Daddy liked to play the Isley Brothers. I didn’t understand the Isley’s lyrics (thank God), but their guitar licks and keyboards made it hard for me not to dance; their whispers tickled my ears.

Older still: When my girl scout troop had a party I brought Stevie Wonder and my friend Ronnice brought Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall,” which was everything you needed to know about the difference between uncool and cool. Stevie was uplifting and parent-approved; the teenaged Michael was your best friend’s older brother, a boy who you had a crush on so bad you thought you might melt every time you saw him. Ronnice was in fifth grade and I was in third, which might have been part of my problem, but not all of it. She was what my mother called “fast”–loose with the boys, hard and unforgiving with the girls.

I loved Michael, don’t get me wrong. How could I not? He was my first. But I mounted a defense of Stevie, which all the girls took as a weak-assed move.

When I was in eighth grade, Ronnice had an abortion. Like most of my fast girlfriends, she loved house music, the kind you heard in the clubs she’d sneak into. She was underaged but built like a brick shithouse and nobody checked her I.D. When she got into LL Cool J, I was loving Prince.

Later I worked my way through alternative rock, romantic R&B, gay disco, Public Enemy, Madonna and Grace Jones. Music ecstatic and anthemic, smoke drifting through laser lights, tranny boys in platform heels and lip liner, parties on the subway platform, lots of drugs but not down my throat or up my nose, the music simply lifting me, carrying me like the wind under the cape of a superhero or a pigeon caught in an updraft from a subway grate.

The music, just the music, used to be enough for me. Everything else came later.

I wanted to get back to those days again.

____________________________________________

This is an excerpt from Kiss the Sky (Atria Books 2009) by Farai Chideya. Chideya is a multimedia journalist, author, and the founder of PopandPolitics.com

In 1962 Crayola changed the name of their “Flesh” crayon to “Peach”, out of respect for the then-burgeoning civil rights movement. The crayon company’s cultural sensitivity memo apparently never trickled down to some typically female-oriented industries. You can hit up any department store and find an array of foundation garments labelled “nude.” But if your skin color is anything darker than beige, you’re fresh outta luck for finding a pair of control panties that exactly match you. And the same thing goes for makeup. Most specifically, lipstick.

As spring turns to summer every year, the magazines all start sounding the trumpet. Nude makeup is back! Get that hot nude look!

martin and lewis online

And with reason — it makes for a very glam, very feminine, eternally fresh look. When done right, a nude lip doesn’t make you look washed out or corpse-like, au contraire. A smokey eye and a nude lip, so timeless, so gorgeous.

But guess what — nude isn’t a universal shade (according to my experience, at any rate. The Sephora bloggers have been convinced otherwise . I’ll have to do some research and get back to you on that one).

Lipsticks called “nude” frequently look just plain crazy on me. Consider some of the hottest options available online. Yves Saint Laurent Sparkling Touch For Lips in Sparkling Nude would be too pink, Philosophy Big Mouth lip sheer in nude, too peach. L’Oreal Endless Kissable Lipcolor in Shamelessly Nude 870 is too light, and I don’t know whose skintone Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipstick in Nude Blush is supposed to match. Even my palest friends might have a hard time with a pink that wan and opaque.

The point is, the typical nude probably isn’t my nude. And most of the time, the products called “nude” are made for a very limited and narrow-minded perspective of what “nude” is. Does that mean that the look doesn’t work for women of color? No siree — it just means you gotta look a little harder for the right nude for you.
The perfect nude should match your skin tone almost perfectly, covering over any slight discoloration your lips may have. A touch of shimmer or gloss amps up the look, but subtle beauty is the watchword. How can you tell that you’ve found your perfect nude? If you try it on the back of your hand, it should almost completely disappear, leaving only slight, pretty shine to let you know where it is.

The perfect “nude” lippie for a brown skinned bella might be a warm rose pink, it might be bronze, it might even be a plum or berry, or a deep, fabulous brown. Valana Minerals Sweet Spice collection has a gorgeous range of deep browns that could work wonderfully for my dark skinned bellas. Cordial Spice is a deep berry, and Nutmeg Spice is deep, dark, delicious brown with gold highlights. Layered under some Carol’s Daughter Candy Paint Lip Gloss in Bubbling Brown Sugar — oh, honey. Don’t hurt ‘em!

Philosophy the supernatural lip gloss in neutral is a great, very universal slightly-sheer warm pinky-brown lipgloss that would work great for many brown skinned bellas.

The standout nude lipstick for me is Cover Girl Queen Collection in Shiny Cinnamon. It’s a warm, creamy pinky brown that is incredibly subtle and stunning on me. When I put it on, I feel liberated to go with really bold eye makeup — a nude lip sets off bangin’ eye drama like nothing else. I love this look for outdoorsy days – it’s very clean, very fresh, and it goes perfectly with my happy spring wardrobe!

Do you rock the nude look, bellas? Or have you not found your perfect shade yet?

This post originally appeared on Afrobella’s blog.

Far be it from me to oppose a good passionate grassroots movement. Maybe I’m dating myself here, but I still remember big, huge marches and demonstrations that energized the heart and focused our nation’s gaze on high ideas—at least for the day. I support the scattered message tea partiers who have every right to take to the streets, distort history, wave their offensive signs and spout misinformation about the “inevitable” consequences of the proposed Federal tax increases.

And believe it or not, I don’t think the anti-spending battle cry is primarily about race per se. Although the prevalence of racist ideas promoted at some rallies was pretty un-American I’d say. I actually think the overarching motivation is something more fundamentally democratic than that. I think the tea parties are about people trying to find a way to push back on feelings of powerlessness. I think the tea parties are a fear-based reaction to change that many just cannot digest. Reasons vary, I suppose. It’s ironic given that the tea party people are now calling for ‘revolution’. [As an aside, I just would like to know exactly what this imagined “revolt” would lead to exactly? If anyone knows what America would look like the day after a successful “tea party revolution,” please explain in the comments section.]

With the election of President Obama, and our economy in the pooper, I think many of the protesters are finally facing the fact that “the land of their fathers” is gone – for good. What mystifies me is that it is impossible for some tea party protesters to acknowledge that a particular brand of American Dream has been pulling away from most of us at an alarming pace for the past eight years.

And to those who are genuinely panicked and taking to the streets out of concern for our country’s fiscal health? I would suggest that those within your ranks who compare Barack Obama to Hitler or Stalin, or who make light of the Holocaust by calling taxpayers “Jews for Obama’s ovens” are making your movement look tone deaf and hostile to independents like me. Their prominence, and your acceptance of them stepping into your movement, clouds and diminishes any argument you make. You simply cannot see President Barack Obama as Hitler, after 90 days in office, and not be suffering from extreme color arousal disorder, otherwise known as racism.

Protesting Obama as Overspender-in-chief? I get it. I, too, have mixed feelings about the federal stimulus price tag. Protesting against Obama because he’s the new Hitler or Stalin? Crazy.

This article originally appeared on Carmen Dixon’s blog, All About Race.

Tippin’ hats to Tip … In response to T.I.’s prison sentence of one year and and a day, some of Hip Hop’s famous have sent warm-hearted goodbyes, saying that the down south rapper will be missed. “From I’m Serious to Paper Trail, T.I. (and T.I.P. for that matter) has shown incredible growth as an artist, businessman and a friend,” Bun B said in a statement to MTV News. T.I. is serving time in Atlanta for felony weapons charges that occured on the eve of the BET Hip Hop Awards.

Pete Wentz, move out of the way … The original guylined punk rocker is back — Billie Joe Armstrong and the rest of Green Day are returning with their eighth studio release 21st Century Breakdown, slated to drop on Friday, May 15. The long-awaited album will be their first full-length since 2004’s American Idiot, and is produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage). The first single, “Know Your Enemy,” hits digital vendors in April.

Grunge and P.O.S. can

mix … The buzz around rapper P.O.S. gets even louder as the versatile DJ/producer released a video covering Pearl Jam’s famous track “Why Go?” featuring his talent on the mic, some keys, and the tables. The dude knocks the use of autotune and uses his true blue vocals in the pretty stellar rendition. Check it out here:

America loses some soul this week … New Orleans bluesman Eddie Bo (79) and Motown’s Funk Brothers drummer Uriel Jones (74) died this week, two significant losses in the African American music community. Bo, whose death was confirmed by his booking agent Friday, suffered a “sudden massive heart attack,” while Jones relapsed from complications of a recent heart attack also, according to his sister-in-law. Eddie Bo was known mostly for his New Orleansesque hit single “Check Mr. Popeye,” while Uriel Jones was best known for his psychedelic touches on the Temptations’ “Cloud Nine,” and “I Can’t Get Next To You.”

Poor Gordon Brown, he’s having a helluva week. First he’s taken on

by the Governor of the Bank of England for overspending, and then he gets to sit uncomfortably as his guest, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, goes off on a racially charged, wince inducing tirade about the reason for the global financial mess:

‘This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of people that are white, blue-eyed, that before the crisis looked like they knew everything about economics,’ he declared.

‘Now they have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about economics.’

President Lula, head of Brazil’s main left-wing party, said that ‘no black man or woman, no indigenous person, no poor person’ had been in any way culpable for the global banking crisis.

‘I’m not acquainted with any black banker,’ he said. ‘The part of humanity that’s responsible should pay for the crisis.’ Source

Oh Lord. Reflexively, when I first read about this on twitter last night (via allahpundit), my American back went up. My internal dialogue reminded me in its most stern tone that this castigation was from the leader of one of the most racially segregated and stratified countries

on Earth. I am not surprised that Lula de Silva “doesn’t know any black bankers.”

But then I had to ask myself, is there any part of his statement, no matter how racist in its expression, that is true?

The part that rings true to me is that wealthy, educated, privileged people most benefited from the explosion in asset valuation, corporate compensation and easy credit. Because I live a racially integrated, entrepreneurial life, I am surrounded by affluent people of all colors (poor too, but that is not the point here.) That diversity shapes my point of view. We all drank that champagne as it flowed from the cauldron of a deregulated environment that mixed greed with virtue. Greed was exalted and accepted as a motivational foundation for sustained growth. Now, our bar tab has come due. Not it all seems like a dream.

But the flip side is that it will be many of the same wealthy, educated people who profited from the hollow boom who will be needed to design the strategies to lead the way out of the financial mess. So let’s hold the blanket castigation for another day.

3 10 to yuma online download sydney white online

More Carmen Dixon can be found on her blog, All About Race.

In the latest installment of its ‘What would you do?’

nightstalker movie download

• 3 10 to yuma movie download

series, ABC News turns on its hidden cameras to show the world what racism, indifference, compassion and solidarity look like up close in the real world.

The setting for ‘Would you stop racism?’ is an upscale New York boutique. Actors portrayed a black woman verbally insulted and falsely accused of stealing by a white actress who plays a racist sales girl. The black actress is then patted down in rough style, and further insulted, by a white male portraying the security guard. We watch the actors’ every move. But, the hidden cameras are also capturing the reactions of the shop patrons. Watching the array of reactions is compelling and informative.

Many shoppers avert their eyes in discomfort, but just say nothing. Another woman is so troubled by the sales woman’s racist accusations and the scene playing out right beside her that she breaks down sobbing. These folks represent what happens when we feel helpless.

But when people feel empowered, they can go one of two ways. They become part of the solution or part of the problem. In one instance, the cameras caught the racist statements of a white man shopping with a companion. As the black actress is loudly defending herself, the white man says “I bet she’s played the black.” Why am I not surprised? But here’s the kicker. When John Quinones confronts the man outside the store, the man cops a sympathetic tone, completely distancing himself from what every viewer just heard (watched) him say. Later, a black man shopping with his wife and daughter protests loudly against the store personnel. He urges the young woman to contact officials and refuses to stay and shop.

But the moment that most moved me is the final one in the piece. A white woman is so disgusted with what she is hearing and seeing, she not only refuses to continue shopping but she inspires the other patrons to drop their purchases and storm out of the store. It is a beautiful moment—it will warm your heart.

Read more by Carmen Dixon on her blog, All About Race.

This is a really interesting article on the increasing number of reported incidents of brutal hazing rituals — sometimes resulting in death — among Asian American fraternities: The New Animal Houses. NPR’s Tell Me More picked up on the story with its own really interesting, really sad segment: Asian-American Frat Life Marred By Hazing.

It’s true, we’ve recently heard about a significant number of hazing-related deaths among Asian American fraternities. However, I wouldn’t necessarily single it out as an Asian American thing. There are fraternities/sororities, sports teams and other organizations that engage in hazing, regardless of race and/or culture.

Having never been involved in an Greek organization before, I can’t really speak to why young college students are compelled to join, and then go through the harrowing, dangerous and/or humiliating rituals they sometimes have to endure just to “belong.” (I am not, of course, talking about all fraternities, but you can’t deny that these practices do indeed occur.)

But I do know when a fraternity is collectively involved, it makes it that much harder for any one person to shoulder the blame and take responsibility when something goes horribly wrong. If they entire fraternity, as a collective entity, was taking part, who is really to blame?

Which member of Lambda Phi Epsilon at the University of Texas takes responsibility for the events that led to the death of Jack Phoummarath, who died of alcohol poisoning

as a result of hazing? Who’s the sad sack who gets to face Phoummarath’s family and tell them what happened that night?

All I know is, hearing Jack’s sister Marion in the NPR story, her voice cracking at the mention of her brother… it just breaks your heart. No one should have to go through that. It’s senseless.

For more Angry Asian Man, go here.

I am a graduate student at the University of Southern California. I am of Latin American descent; I  grew up, and live in East Los Angeles. From what I knew of white people when growing up is that they lived far, and my mom cleaned their homes.

As I got older, I came to understand the circumstances of my presence in the United States. There was a war back home in El Salvador, my mother, who held a Bachelors degree in Business Administration fled to this country, and was reduced to this work. It was fine work—honest, decent, but at the expense of so much more.

For the most part, I have lived my life in safe zones, interacting with white people from a distance. Not because they were scary to me, but because most just didn’t “get it.”

Now that I am at USC, at the Annenberg School of Journalism, I hear a fair amount of talk on the role of journalists who covers stories that are nitty gritty, the stories of marginalized, low income, communities of color. A community that surrounds USC, yet is absent from the campus. The school—at $18,000 a semester—definitely draws an upper-class student body, earning it the nickname, University of Spoiled Children.

In a recent roundtable discussion, a few professors noted that student journalists need to be comfortable in going into the community and talking to folks. To this I ask, which journalists?

The students in this mid-city academic institution who grew up in the surrounding neighborhood—South Central, ground zero for the Rodney King riots—aren’t uncomfortable. The problem is that their (our) voices aren’t as loud.

While white students feel uncomfortable around people of color what about the students of color who are surrounded by white people?

A tall bald white male student spoke about his experience in South LA, and how he, for the first time, felt like a minority.

The issue of cultural and ethnic sensitivity comes to mind. The stories of economic plight, the stories of people overcoming, the story of the former gang member who got his/her life together, these are not stories where white journalists become “white saviors” because they were able to put some ink to it.

These are stories of real people, that occur every single day, and it takes journalists, who regardless of race or ethnicity have an innate ability to understand the complexity of the human condition.

As one of a few Latinas at Annenberg who comes from an urban setting with a mix of street and academic knowledge, I always find myself contemplating these thoughts. All the time.

I love USC and my program and I have wanted to be a Trojan all my life. But, it’s moments like these that really solidify my presence, my viewpoint, and my understanding towards how stories should be covered, and the importance of community journalism.

We are not all blessed with having grown up in beautiful East or South LA. We are not all blessed with understanding concepts like intersectionality or outsider looking in perspectives, but I hope, that we can at least try to share our stories, without feeling like we just saved someone.

But to school officials, she is considered illiterate and has been serving three days of in-school suspension. Why? Lori refuses to take the complete the English Language Development Assessment, a test she says is demeaning and racist: Student rejects ‘demeaning’ test, is suspended.

According to administrators, taking the test is mandatory because Lori indicated on her school registration that English was not the first language spoken in her home. Her parents are Laotian and still speak little English. These administrators obviously don’t know a damn thing about growing up Asian in America.

So speaking Lao at home automatically puts Lori’s English proficiency in question? If that’s the policy, it’s flawed to the core. Does the school district not realize that it’s entirely possible that Lori somehow earned that 3.9 GPA while also being completely fluent in something other than English?

No doubt, she could rock that exam, but that’s not the point. Lori was born in California and lived in New York before moving to Iowa with her family. She has apparently never been enrolled in any English Language Learning or ESL program. But she refuses to deny her family, culture and identity, and that’s why she’s taking a stand. She shouldn’t have to take this damn test.

Now, she faces another three days of suspension for continuing her refusal to take the exam. She could be suspended again and then expelled for a fourth refusal. According to school administrators, her college scholarships — $86,000 at Buena Vista University and more at Iowa State University — could also be at risk.

This is utter bullshit. Ridiculous, racist

, and an absolute insult to someone who is obviously bright, accomplished, and completely proficient in English. I give mad props to Lori Phanachone for standing up for what she believes in. I wish I had her kind of conviction when I was in high school. Fight this, girl.

By the way, the assistant principal, Beau Ruleaux, actually told Lori to give up her refusal to take the exam because she’s “no Rosa Parks” and wouldn’t succeed in her protest. The guy sounds like an ass. How about he takes the English Language Development Assessment and we see how well he does?

There’s more on this issue here: Protest of language test gets student suspended. And here: Storm Lake, IA student refuses to take ‘demeaning’ test. I understand that there are a lot of forces working against her, and a lot at stake that could affect her future. I hope she hangs in there.

If you’d like to support Lori Phanachone’s fight and speak out against this ridiculous, useless English exam, here’s some contact information for administrators at Storm Lake. Let them know that you stand by Lori, and this is indeed an issue worth protesting:

Paul Tedesco – Storm Lake School District Superintendent
ptedesco@slcsd.org

Mike Hanna – Principal
mhanna@storm-lake.k12.ia.us

Beau Ruleaux – Assistant Principal
bruleaux@slcsd.org

The phone number over at Storm Lake High School is: (712) 732-8065.

This post originally appeared on Angry Asian Man.

CultureJunkie gets down

At work, the Pontiac team just launched this wacky Cheer-A-Matron site as part of their NCAA Game Changing Performance Pick and Roll promotion. On the site, you can upload your headshot, stick it on an actual cheerleader’s body, and cheer it out to handcrafted 2-4-6-8s.  There are 4 cheers to choose from, as well as a silly assortment of hair options. They did a great job – the site is beautiful and goofy and exploratory, all in one. Exactly as it should be.

While working on the project, the team realized they only had all these super White hairstyles to choose from. So they asked if they could use my curly Q’s, and of course I said yes. Gotta represent, you know. I also supplied my voice for one of the cheers (can you guess which one?).

Anyway, have fun! And if you’re feeling brave, send me your cheer and I’ll add a screenshot to this post.

Hooray!

• download defying gravity dvd

Jo rocks out

This was originally posted on Ryan Barrett’s blog.

• download hookers inc online

If you’re searching for an example of what open hearts can achieve, then look no further than the story of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton.

When Thompson identified Cotton as her rapist in 1984, she was sure she had the right man. But she was wrong. Cotton, then 22, was convicted of raping Thompson and another woman on the same night in Burlington, N.C. He would spend the next 11 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

That’s not so uncommon, right? We now know how unreliable eyewitness testimonies can be. That was the tragedy; now for the remarkable part:

In 1995, DNA evidence cleared Cotton of the rapes and showed that another man who was in prison with him was the rapist, a case recently covered by CBS’ ‘60 Minutes.’ Now, Thompson and Cotton are friends and have written a new book together on their story called ‘Picking Cotton.’ Source

The two speak on the phone weekly and travel together to speak out on the problems with eyewitness evidence. Even their families are friends. Thompson said she felt horrible guilt when she found out Cotton was not her rapist. “Suffocating, debilitating shame,” she told ‘60 Minutes.’ She asked Cotton if she could meet with him at a local church. “I started to cry immediately. And I looked at him, and I said, ‘Ron, if I spent every second of every minute of every hour for the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am, it wouldn’t come close to how my heart feels. I’m so sorry.’ And Ronald just leaned down, he took my hands…and he looked at me. He said, ‘I forgive you,’” Thompson told CBS. “I told her, I said, ‘Jennifer, I forgive you. I don’t want you to look over your shoulder. I just want us to be happy and move on in life,’”Cotton said. Source

I hope none of us reading this will ever find ourselves in Cotton’s or Thompson’s position. But the path that these two chose to walk together stands as a beacon of conduct for all of us.

Is there someone YOU need to forgive to free yourself?

I was completely surprised by the number of commenters who were upset and angry that Cotton had chosen to forgive Thompson. It’s like some decided to hold the anger that Thompson has chosen to release. If you see the ‘60 Minutes’ piece, Cotton, most unfortunately, bears a strong resemblance to Thompson’s real attacker.

I fully understand that in another time, not so long ago, Cotton would have been savagely lynched on Thompson’s words alone. But I can also appreciate that we are not in that time anymore. I recognize that although people are still wrongly convicted, we live in a time when there is DNA analysis and sometimes wrongly convicted people will live to see freedom and some attempt to restore justice in their lives.

What do you think? Should Cotton have forgiven Thompson?

This post originally appeared on Carmen Dixon’s All About Race.

photo by John Rawlinson, courtesy of Wiki Commons

To be blunt, because there is no time for niceties, I am sick and tired of black leaders, secular and religious, not talking about sexual practices in the black community and not talking about how HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are ravaging the black community.

Now those ’speak no evil’ types will have little choice but to break their silence because it’s official. It is confirmed that, at least in Washington DC, HIV/AIDS is epidemic:

At least 3 percent of District residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1 percent threshold that constitutes a “generalized and severe” epidemic, according to a report scheduled to be released by health officials tomorrow.

That translates into 2,984 residents per every 100,000 over the age of 12 — or 15,120 — according to the 2008 epidemiology report by the District’s HIV/AIDS office.

“Our rates are higher than West Africa,” said Shannon L. Hader, director of the District’s HIV/AIDS Administration, who once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work in Zimbabwe. “They’re on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya.”

“We have every mode of transmission” — men having sex with men, heterosexual and injected drug use — “going up, all on the rise, and we have to deal with them,” Hader said. Source

Infection rates higher than West Africa? More like Uganda? This is not rocket science. We know how to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS and every other STD. Practice abstinence or use condoms and dental dams if you are sexually active. This situation is inexcusable and the excessive weight this epidemic will put on our health care system is daunting:

So urgent is the concern that the HIV/AIDS Administration took the relatively rare step of couching the city’s infections in a percentage, harkening to 1992, when San Francisco, around the height of its epidemic, announced that 4 percent of its population was HIV positive. But the report also cautions that “we know that the true number of residents currently infected and living with HIV is certainly higher.”

The District’s report found a 22 percent increase in HIV and AIDS cases from the 12,428 reported at the end of 2006, touching every race and sex across population and neighborhoods, with an epidemic level in all but one of the eight wards. Black men, with an infection rate of nearly 7 percent, carry the weight of the disease, according to the report, which also underscores that the District’s HIV and AIDS population is aging. Almost 1 in 10 residents between the ages of 40 and 49 has the virus.

[ ]

Men having sex with men has remained the disease’s leading mode of transmission. Heterosexual transmission and injection drug use closely follow, the report says. Three percent of black women carry the virus, partly a result of the increase in heterosexual transmissions.

“This is very, very depressing news, especially considering HIV’s profound impact on minority communities,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Health’s program on infectious diseases. “And remember: The city’s numbers are just based on people who’ve gotten tested.” Source

There is much more information in the full article. Read More : HIV/AIDS rate hits 3% in DC

Visit The Black AIDS Institute Website

Do you use protection EVERYTIME you have sex outside of marriage?

This post originally appeared on Carmen Dixon’s blog All About Race.

The map reflects the exceptional (brown-red), extreme (orange) and severe (dark yellow) water problems in California, Nevada and Texas.

Richard Heim, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center told USA Today that the 2.69-inch average rainfall across the U.S. in January and February is the least amount of moisture in those months since NOAA began keeping records in 1895.

The current dry spell started in Central Texas in 2007, and hit California along with the rest of the Southwest in 2006. Los Angeles only received 3 inches of rain during 2006-2007, its driest year on record.

As a result of these prolonged drought conditions in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a drought emergency in February 2009.  For the first time in 15 years, Los Angeles is planning to implement a water rationing system – achieved “through price-enforced household conservation and tough new lawn watering restrictions.”

“The level of severity of this drought is something we haven’t seen since the early 1970s,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in unveiling his city’s drought plan, which also would put more water cops on the beat.

And to save endangered fish populations, the courts are reducing the amount of water taken from rivers (Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water source in Northern California). Water officials also decided to cut their Sierra Mountains water source pumped to cities and irrigation districts by 85 percent according to Reuters. These measures highlights the growing tensions between farms/agricultural water uses and animals as well farms/agricultural versus urban/metropolitan water needs.

Thus, another major loser in the water fight are farmers and ranchers.

California farmers lost more than $300 million in 2008 and economic losses may accelerate to 10 times that this year as 95,000 people lose their jobs. Farmers will get zero water from the main federal supplier (Reuters).

As farms continue to suffer, major Southwest cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix are growing in population. People are moving to the warm sunbelt.

“For the last few years, the driest states, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, have been the fastest growing. And you know that can’t be sustained,” said James Powell to Reuters.  Powell is the author of “Dead Pool,” a book about global warming and water in the U.S. West.

It’s not surprising that California, the world’s eighth-largest economy, uses enough water to cover the state of Washington in a foot of water.  And approximately 80 percent of the water is used by farms growing crops like organic lettuce and rice. The drought induced water cutback to the farms will cause a dramatic decrease in California’s agricultural production —- which has serious economic implications as well as food supply ramifications.

And to make matters even worse, the droughts are making California more vulnerable to wildfires.  Last year, a record 500,000 Southern Californians had to vacate their homes because of fires.

State officials are using prison inmate crews to clear away brush and create fire breaks around communities to reduce the risk of wildfires, said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (USA Today).

A water shortage, drought conditions, fewer crops and the potential for fires is a red flag for an impending disaster.

The artist formerly known as who? … Well, it’s Prince. The Purple Rain singer will be performing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for three nights in a row on March 25-27 in effort to garner support for the March 29 release of not one, but two albums. The albums, LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSoUND, will be available for purchase with a third album from artist Bria Valente exlusively at Target for $11.98.  And if you can’t get enough of the guy, catch Prince for a fourth night on March 28 for Leno’s Tonight Show retirement.

What about the real King of Pop? … Michael Jackson has announced 26 new dates for his comeback “This Is It” tour, all of which take place in London alone. The concert series, which includes 10 shows in July and an additional 18 in September,  is speculated to be part of a bigger world tour that has yet to be revealed. Tickets have been priced between 50 and 75 pounds ($70 and $105), a seemingly decent price range compared to today’s pop stars (ahem, Jo Bros). This will be Michael Jackson’s first tour in 12 years.

And the other Jack? … Jack White shows no sign of exhaustion as the White Stripes and Raconteurs frontman has developed a third band along with a new album. The new group, The Dead Weather, will be debuting their first album Horehound in June on White’s label, Third Man. The band also includes Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, and Jack Lawrence of the Greenhornes. White reportedly says that the band will go on tour this year.

Speakin’ of new bands … Ben Harper and his new bluesy band Relentless7 have released the music video for their new single “Shimmer and Shine.” The track comes from their upcoming release White Lies For Dark Times, which is scheduled to drop later this year. Check out the video below.

It’s really bad when the state of humanity hinges on a bunch of pseudo-sadomasochists parading around as costumed heroes who haphazardly decide to save the world for mere kicks and giggles. This is the twisted sense of humor and entire point of the mystery adventure Watchman.

This 2009 American superhero film is based on DC Comics’ award-winning, limited series graphic novel (1986-1987) illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Zack Snyder, who is famous for the adaptation of the 300 graphic novel, directed the movie. And Lawrence Gordon (Die Hard), Lloyd Levin (United 93) and Deborah Snyder (300) had a hand in producing it.  However, viewers should not expect the same level of cinematic beauty or the type of compelling storytelling in Watchmen that Snyder showed us was possible in 300. Instead, the long and needlessly drawn out film, which lasts a restless two hours and 43 minutes, has the audience wishing for their own superhero powers to teleport themselves out of the theater.

Watchmen begins in the year of 1985, and tells the tale of a group of former vigilantes who used to dress up as superheroes. Although the somewhat-counterfeit crime fighters have “retired,” a couple of them decide to pay attention to the nuclear threat (read: end of world scenario) and tension between the United States and Russia.

The stakes are high but the audience’s investment in the protagonists or their success is relatively low. This weak story drags on for a full hour and forty minutes and consists of confession after confession from weary and depressed individuals who must decide if they are really going to solve the weak mystery, which is somehow connected to the complete obliteration of mankind (for the remaining hour).

And here is where this artificial set of superheroes is exposed. Aren’t most superheroes like Superman concerned with unnecessary violence and killing people? Don’t most champions of justice risk their lives to save others and humanity? And don’t all superheroes have a special power or two that us mere mortals could only dream of?

On these accounts, viewers could legitimately question whether the movie had any bonafide superheroes at all. The protagonists, with the exception of the neon blue Dr. Manhattan, actually lacked any “real” or perceived super powers. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) can see into the future and teleport himself all over the universe after a science lab mistake. Next to him, the other hero hopefuls are pretty laughable. Heck, all they want to do is fight for fun and stave off boredom.

And speaking of characters, there were only a few that are truly memorable. There is the demented and bloodthirsty Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), whose street name was Walter Kovacs. Although his journal accounts provide the framework for the story, the inkblot masked Rorschach’s killing scenes will make the audience wonder if the film was written or produced by Quentin Tarantino.

And then there’s Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman), whose action hero’s name is Silk Spectre II. She had only one power—her drop dead gorgeous looks that captured the attention of her fellow superheroes. Other than a decent left hook and a swift kick, she disappointed the audience who expected a more Wonder Woman-like performance due to their close resemblance achieved through casting, makeup and wardrobe.

The rest of the major quasi-vigilantes—The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) known for his “Life is a joke” attitude, peace at all deadly costs Oxymandias (Matthew Goode), and pushover turned wannabe Superman, Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson)—leave the role of hero as a lot to be desired.

And for the parents and children expecting a Batman or Spiderman type film, please be aware—this movie is not for anyone under seventeen. In addition to the constant nudity of Dr. Manhattan, there are gratuitous sex scenes that weren’t worth actress Malin Akerman even baring her breast. And more importantly, the violence depicted in scene after scene was extremely bloody, gross and overdone—enough to make a grown man cover his eyes.

And as you may have guessed, the movie begins and ends with violence and death depicted in a realistic manner unlike its comic book beginnings. This is a film that could easily create nightmares for children and adults alike.

Thus, the only characteristic Watchmen smiley face this movie deserves is one that is turned completely upside-down and covered with the blood of its own fake super heroes. Like the main theme of the Watchmen: “Life’s a joke,” clearly this movie was too.