CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 22nd, Sunday/ I was watching a program this morning called Meet the Faith and the subject of sports figures being role models and I got to thinking... Why is there such a ferver over athletes being role models? Why would someone want an athlete to be a shining example to their kid when it comes to morals? Maybe I have an advantage, having worked around professional basketball players, that others not privy to inside 411 don't have. Trust me, you do not want athletes to be role models! That's not to say that all athletes are bad. However, you just don't want to go there. If you want to have role models in your kid's life, step up your game as a parent. No one is going to be better at raising your kid than you. No athlete will install core values in(to) your kid like you can. What's sad about the athlete thing is that athletes are coached to dummy down. They are not required or asked or encouraged to display any type of intelligence about world views or debate issues. There are a select few (very few) who are sort sfter for their opinion... Unless there is some comedic value associated with their comments. So, get off your ass and get to parenting!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 20th, Friday/ I was rushed to the tv set to watch two guys who have managed to scam their way into corporate America for some reason unbeknownst to me. My friends made a big deal out of it. They thought is was some great deed. I, personally, did not and do not give one rat's ass about something like that. Why? Because it has nothing to do w/ the price of tea in China! I mean, sometimes I just don't care about stupid people doing stupid things on tv! I have come to understand that whatever freedom I perceive I have will never outweigh the freedom a white man has anywhere in the world so I have a hard time getting excited about what someone is doing on a tv show! My line of thinking is this: If I scam my way into something and I get exposure for what I did, my black ass is going to jail!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 17th, Tuesday/ I have to admit to being addicted to watching shows on Bravo. I have a weird way of getting addicted to something. It does not capture my attention, at first, but I circle around it like a buzzard until I go in for the kill. The show, TOP CHEF finally got to me and I started watching it. So I'm watching the episode where the contestants are trying to impress a chef judge w/ seafood dishes. The Asian dude makes some concoction w/ oversized croutons and the judge/chef rejected his dish because of the oversized croutons. What the hell is that? (And the Asian chef defended himself by saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the judge/chef did not "understand" the concept!) What happened to the days when food smelled good, looked good, and tasted good? Now what's on the plate has to be in proportion w/ everything else on the plate. Gormet, schmormet... Who comes up w/ this stuff anyway? How anal are you to be that nit-picky about food? It's just a tv show, sure, but people watch this kind of stuff and incorporate it w/ reality! (Hence the term, "reality" show!) I can see myself now... I go to a restaurant, hungry as hell and looking to eat a juicy steak, and end up judging the food as unacceptable because my baked potatoe is not the correct dimemsions w/ my steak! Then, I keep doing that everytime I go out to eat, I starve, and then I die!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 15th, Sunday/ Man did I have a rough week! I worked a basketball camp, trying to teach kids of various ages how to play the game./ Kids are so much different from what I remember being a kid was like. They don't seem to be as focused about any one thing. It's like their minds are all over the place. Older people are not old because of age, although that has something to do w/ it. They're old because of the way they think. Older people can only focus on one thing at a time. If they attempted to "MM" (Mind Multitask) their head would explode! I know mine has. At first I had a headache. Then, my brain just went dead! Right now I have no activity going on up there. I appear to be fine but I have no thoughts about anything. God forbid someone should ask me a question right now... I would not be able to articulate an answer, even though I might know what to say somewhere in the bowels of my brain./ Like I was watching the program, Sunday Morning, and they did a segment on older people eating at a restaurant in the dark. It was so stupid, but I could not comment on it in the moment because my brain is malfunctioning! Maybe that's why they were eating in the dark and loving it... Their brains are blown like mine! Maybe the lack of light sooths them mentally? Maybe I should try it!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 11th, Wednesday/ What happened to the work ethic? Why are people getting jobs and their only qualification is that they are in good w/ the person who hired them? Then, they want to ask you for advice on how to do THEIR job! Meanwhile, you have to work w/ that person as your supervisor... What?/ Also, what is all the excitement about driving non gasoline engine cars? The Earth is already poluted! The technology has been in place to change the gas engine for years. Now there is this big campaign to save the Earth. The damage has been done a long time ago. People are dying horrible deaths because they have been breathing bad air for years. Now "global warming" is in full effect and it is a hot ticket item for the up and coming presidential elections. The oil barrons are already rich and set for life, the Earth is dying and so are its people. What president is going to save us now?/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 6th, Friday/ I was watching the new Paula Abdul Show w/ a friend yesterday and we got to talking about what would make great reality TV? Paula's show seems to be staged because she acts so goofy (unless she really is on drugs, which I think she is!). However, we decided that Bobby Brown would post a GREAT reality show now that he is separated from Whitney. That other show he did was "aw'ight" but now is the time to let the cameras roll! Find him, sign him and let the shit begin! I like watching "train wrecks" man! It distracts me from the train wreck that is my life and I'm able to suspend my disbelief. I don't know why I find so much comfort in someone else's misery. Does that make me normal? Or, do I explore the sadistic dark side to my personality that way? Whatever the case, find Bobby Brown and get his ass back on the TV set. Bravo, you're fucking up w/ this Paula Abdul chick. (You know you are because she only got a half hour show!) Free Bobby Brown!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

June 5th, Thursday/ Well, Independence Day, '07 is in the books and I have to admit that I'm feeling more independent than I've felt in a long time! I'm no closer to getting a job than I was yesterday, I still don't have a girlfriend, and I'm broke! Yet, w/out those things, I am free! Somehow what we crave, as human beings, enslaves us. I was watching some of the fireworks shows last night and it amazed me how many people were singing God Bless America w/ such joyful looks on their faces. We're in a war, gas prices are through the roof, and global warming is killing us, literally, and we THINK we're free! [I guess there is a difference between being free and being independent...(?)] Being black makes me sensitive to anything that I think enslaves me (I need to see a therapist about that!) and the shit that is going on now is really fucking w/ my head! But, what is cool about America is I can go through whatever drama that is in front of me, fact or fiction, and no one will give a fuck because w/out the things I mentioned I don't have means I don't count in America anyway! I guess God IS blessing America! We probably shouldn't waste what precious time we have left by worrying about things that would and should concern us in the distant future or anytime really. We're, already, the walking dead! So I should understand what it is when another American looks me in the face, in passing, and does not see me at all!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 3rd, Tuesday/ I got up this morning and immediately turned on the TV. I caught a video of Green Day singing their song "Working Class Hero" and I thought of how I used to think about fixing America... Not changing it... Fixing it! What happened to those thoughts? I grew up in the '60's when America was going through a big social transition. Black folks were in a revolutionary frame of mind. White folks were turning into hippie types... It was about people becoming politically aware and feeling the pulse of a nation. Granted, it was not a perfect America but it was fixible! I grew up with that thought firmly planted in my brain./ The song ended and I changed the channel. I caught the beginning of the new Paula Abdul Show and saw her fawning over some diamond jewelry valued at $1,500,000.00 and she had some little dogs running around. She commented that she hoped the dogs did not try to eat the jewelry, with a little chuckle... (Mind you, she left the jewelry on her bed and allowed the dogs to jump all over that bed!) And, like on cue, one of her dogs tried to swallow a diamond ring!/ It was at that moment that I no longer felt like I wanted to fix America (over 30 years of thoughts down the fucking drain!). Americans seem to be too stupid to be fixed! With the activity going on in West Africa about the diamond trade... You know, children losing their lives for a nugget and all... It would have been a shame if that dog swallowed that ring. Would it have been worth it that the kid that got his ass killed, die only to have some untrained dog of the infamous Paula Abdul swallow it? What would have been the point to die for that? CRAP!

W W J D?

I'm waiting for the ressurrection and I'm waiting with baited breath! I want Jesus to come back right now so that he can get right on this IPhone thing! How cool would that be for him? He would get all of his emails from his boys (you know, his crew from the "last supper" when they went to a sports bar and had buffalo wings and beer!)He would get all of his calls from his Pops so that he does not miss his curfew and shit. (Earth gets dangerous after dark, even for Jesus!) He could get the news, the weather, stock tips... Not to mention his messages...! The only thing I'm worried about is how would he pay his bill? Not having a job is some big deal in America! They might view him as a terrorist with the robe and the sandals and no visible means of support... (9-11 fucked up everything!) His dad could be giving him an allowance but nobody really believes in God anymore. Don't believe me? Then why is the world so fucked up these days? If jesus gets a hold of that IPhone, he's gonna be on the hot line with his dad, talking about what going on with the global warming thing... You know, who's dumping shit in the water and who is farting and polluting the air we breathe... Stuff like that! C'mon Man, hurry up and get your IPhone!

COMMENTARY/ by A. Dacosta Brathway

New York/ It's been almost a week now since the NBA draft has been held and it is still at the top of the sports talk list. That being said, I started thinking about what went down that night at Madison Square Garden and there was one thing that struck me. Is the "hip hop nation" now reverting back to some clothing choice sensibility? I do not usually watch the draft from year to year so it struck me as odd how sensible the brothers looked that night. What happened to those long ass preacher's jackets and those big ass baggy pants with the Stacy Adams "square toe Gators?" I can still see Jalen Rose in that hideous red (pin stripe)suit... DAMN! It reminded me of the beginning of Spike Lee's film, Malcolm X, when Denzel and Spike took that bamma ass walk through town with those suits on in those weird ass colors. But who knows what can and will happen next year? The style may go right into something even weirder than I have ever seen! I probably should have video taped the draft this year to have something to compare next year's draft with. Upon further review, why do I even care?

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 2nd, Monday/ Man, what happened to June? Anyway, I went out of town to visit someone this past weekend. Why did I do that? Have you ever liked someone but could not figure them out? I admit, I am not good at reading signals from females but DAMN! I've known this chick for several years and... Well, I doubt if I'll hang out w/ her again. I don't like being confused by women. The world has already done a great job of fucking my head up! CRAP!