We’re hitting the road to summer camp!!! Yeah! Time for some high adventure for my little city slickers. As Cub Scouts they’re not going to rough it like Boy Scouts just yet. We will be in tents with sleeping bags but they’re not on the ground. They will be on concrete platforms with cots. At least it’s not cabins so they will still get the adventurous feeling.
They have been looking forward to this for more than a year. We missed out last year but we’re doing it now. We’re only taking two, my son and another Cub which works well for me and my Assistant Cubmaster. We have found what I’ve always believed to be true. Not having large numbers of boys in our Pack isn’t a big deal because the ones who show up are getting effective training and are making progress towards ranks. And that’s the point in the end.
Where’s the Scouting unit closest to you? C’mon Mom and Dad. Sign your son up now and give him the opportunity to learn things you can’t teach him and give him some great experiences that you may not be able to provide. It’s a big world out there and we Scouters help them to see it by providing plenty of outdoor adventures ready for them to explore. We always need other adult volunteers to help us help your kids as well so sign yourself up today too and find a roll to play. Until then, we’ll tell you all the cool stuff you missed when we get back.
Readers do you remember Derrick Ashong who became blog famous for his interview outside an Obama campaign stop earlier this year? Refer back to my February 28th post on the young guy who gave answers to an impromptu street interview. Guess what? Homeboy is a singer and he’s pretty good too. Actually he’s the leader of the trio Soulfege.
Soulfège (’sOl-fezh) is an Afropolitan Fusion band. The best way I can think to describe their sound is a combination of American styles and Afropop sounds. You can definitely here some African and Carribean contemporary influences throughout their tracks.
Well the band is releasing their newest beats today. According to band member, fam, “On July 15th our band is releasing the digital version of our new record “Take Back the Mic,” which is our statement on the power of music with meaning.” fam afforded me the opportunity of a sneak peak of the new release with a MP3 download link. I like the sound.
I had the privilege of previewing the tracks and I’ll give you a personal review of the eleven selections.
1. Damoshi - It contrasts the popular imagery of entertainers with no content versus those with a conscious message in their music or a positive vibe in their life. It’s a Diasporic view, “…the time is now.”
2. Do Right - Has a driving rock beat that will remind you of Lenny Kravitz style-wise. “…we’re not the ones to be trifled with…you know we’re gonna get ‘em, so you better do right, do right.”
3. Jonny’s Song - It’s a melancholy sounding song. The message is about how influences can affect the future of a child. Kinda reminds me of the TLC’s Waterfalls from years ago. Johnny is getting closer to going over the edge the older he gets with the bad habits he picks up every few years.
4. To Be Free - Good reggae beat. The trio even sings it with the syncopated Caribbean style. “What would you give to be free?…” The song addresses finding your way in the world.
5. Just Me - Has a 60’s R & B guitar running through out. Kelley will remind you of India Arie when you hear her in this selection. It’s about finding your own identity, “let me be me”.
6. Funkadocious - DNA leads with a rap on this one. As the refrain will tell you they “bring the funkadocious”, the group’s international flair. A respectful reference to Chuck Browne of Jamaica Funk fame is even thrown in there. Kelley joins in to take the second rap verse. Nice song.
7. Once - A forlorn love song of a relationship hoped for but perhaps lost for good. A nice mix of singing and rap riffing with a brass section carrying the song nicely.
8. Beans ‘n Rice - A nice up tempo jam using red beans and rice to flavor the theme. It gives the song a perfect background cultural reference. There are conga sounding drums or some sort of traditional percussion running through this piece. It encourages you to get into the Afropolitan sound.
9. Sweet Mother - This one is simply about PanAfrican pride. The mother of the world, Afrika. If you’re familiar with South Africa’s national anthem, Kosi Sikeleli Africa, then you’ll appreciate this song on that level.
10. From the Soul - Another heritage song. Refers to the souls of the past calling to us to get it right in the modern day. If you’re familiar with the legend of the Sankofa bird you’ll appreciate this song on that level as well.
11. Fight On - The final track tells us to take a look in the mirror to look at what we’ve become. It’s a song of strength encouraging you to fight on through life’s challenges and discouraging moments.
This is a great collection. You guys should definitely buy Take Back the Mic right away. You’ll enjoy it thoroughly so go ahead and jam up those web servers with your downloads and let’s all jam some Soulfège!
We made it! Yeah baby, it became official on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008. The Talk of the Town Toastmasters Club attained Presidents Distinguished Club status when we got one more Competent Communicator qualified with her 10th speech. I am extremely proud of all the hard work the club put in to reach the finish line once they saw that it really was in sight. No mediocrity hounds, this crew. This is the pinnacle of club achievement in Toastmasters International and we reached it with a strong kick at the end. Yep, I am proud of my club and more importantly they are proud of themselves.
I’m really proud of myself too. I can’t think of anything I’ve done as satisfying when it comes to leadership. If someone had introduced me to Toastmasters early in my first career I probably would have been more effective much sooner as a young professional. Those are what we call lessons learned though. But, I am so glad that I got this opportunity later in life because I definitely know how to apply my newfound leardership skills once I re-enter the workforce in a couple of years.
As far as the club is concerned we have made massive progress over the last three years. We have moved steadily up the chain from Distinguished in 2005-06, to Select Distinguished in 2006-07 and on to Presidents Distinguished for 2007-08. We’ll add that top notch banner to our club flag and fly it with pride. I have our two previous presidents to thank for setting the precedent and giving the inspiration for success. Brenda Curtis drove us to earn our first banner. That was when I was a new member and had no interest in being an officer. Last year Jeanette Peters pushed us to improve and not remain static. That’s when I started to get excited. So to continue the trend, once I saw that the next level was possible I pushed my fellow Toastmasters even further just as my predecessors had done. So thank you ladies for being great examples for us.
Last week we had an officer transition meeting and we handed over the reigns to the new leadership team. I’d recommend this to all Toastmasters International clubs as well as to any other organizations. Over the last year I documented a club success plan, outlining in particular, what got us to the next level. The purpose was to create a repeatable system that would keep us at the highest level of club recognition annualy. Among other things we started doing every business function online. This made us much more effective in every way. We could do everything in a much more timely fashion than in previous years purely by eliminating paper and the snail mail process. I handed that “how to do it” document over to the new president and there’s no stopping now.
For the benefit of those of you in other clubs and organizations, here’s how we did the handover. We took our normal meeting time and gave the new officers a full orientation of their duties. We handed over files, binders, and notes. I reviewed some basic business functions on a couple of key web sites for the new officers. We huddled up in three subgroups and then swapped chairs to include and talk to other officers with related duties. It was a great way for the new folks to get on the same wavelength. At the end of the meeting our new president and her officers gave us the plan for the new club year.
There was even a usefull activity for regular non officer club members. Our area governor came by and gave a speech writing tips meeting in another room down the hall from us. And now that they know the 2008-09 master plan they can hit the ground running in full stride helping us to hit those new goals.
The transition meeting was a good change of pace all in all and last night the new officers took on their first meeting by themselves. Here’s to another great year for the Talk of the Town Club. Hey have you found a club near you yet? Sign up now and elevate your communication and leadership skills today.
T-Boone Pickens is the first oil man putting his smoney where his mouth is, ready to seriously put alternative energy sources into play. In this CNN interview he talks about implementing a national wind power strategy to reduce American oil dependency by 1/3 according to his early projections.
Good thing the business community is finally tired of the pain because the government was never going to get off it’s collective hump in a timely manner. It takes a big personality like Pickens and his connections to nullify the political inertia that’s been killing us on this subject. So let’s see how the private and public investment communities go about kicking this thing off in earnest.
On another slant, comedian J. Anthony Brown, a regular personality on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, is tired of these prices too. On Friday’s, he has his own segment - J. Anthony Brown Murders the Hits. If you like contemporary gospel music then you know the song, “Never Would Have Made It” by Marvin Sapp. Well give your funny bone a tickle as J. belts out that up and rising hit “Never Would Have Paid It”.
This particular link doesn’t want to insert itself into the post properly so copy and paste it into your browser bar for a good chuckle.
The Kansas City Royals honored Jackie Robinson’s last Negro Leagues team by wearing the old school uniform as their latest throwback uniform on Sunday. Check the link.
If you’re a baseball fan you know that during the season all the teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) wear any number of past versions of their team gear at various points during the season. They go “retro” or “throwback” as a fun ride back down memory lane for some and a good basic baseball history lesson for younger fans.
It could be old baggy wool uniforms from way back in the day or a powder blue road uniform reminiscent of the 70’s and 80’s. Either way it’s a fun promotional thing the MLB has been doing the last few years.
Kudos to K.C. for honoring Black history in June. If any of you want to combine your love of sports and history into a nice road trip, try making the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri a point of destination.
Today is a momentus time of remembrance for African Americans all around the country. Many of you many not know why though so let me enlighten you. It was almost a century and a half ago on Jan 1, 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Due to the obvious limits of communications technology and a degree of social resistance of that time it took a few months to a couple of years for the news to spread around the country.
It was specifically two years later by the time the news got to the state of Texas. When it did it became the genesis of the Juneteenth celebration, a tradition started by black Texans, but shared by many in various parts of the country. You’ll see some of my fellow AfroSpear bloggers writing about that particular comemoration. I’m going to let you know a little more about it’s celebratory cousin, Jubilee.
That’s how the holiday is known in the state of Kentucky. My old church began to help revive the idea and bring it back to memory in the Louisville area a few years ago. What began as a heritage and history celebration in the neighborhood of the church has grown to be a major festival downtown not far from the banks of the Ohio River.
As it turns out other states refer to the occasion in the same way. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine released this proclamation to the citizens of his state recognizing the 145th anniversary of President Lincoln’s historic federal legislation.
The origin of the word Jubilee is Biblical. It comes from the Old Testament scripture Leviticus 25: 40-54. The entire chapter covers the concept of redeeming goods and property of all sorts to families or individuals and dealing justly with one another in assorted ways every 49th year. Be sure to read the entire chapter for context. But, these particular verses deal with the redemption of slaves to their personal freedoms.
Interestingly you will notice some references to forms of slavery that were allowed. Makes you wonder if that was one of the scriptures Americans and Europeans used to justify the evil institution in modern times. The most important part for us however is the redemptive spirit of this section. If only the concept of a fifty year cycle had existed in America just think of where we could have been much sooner as a nation.
Thank God that we have advanced as far as we have. Check on local or near-to-home Juneteenth and Jubilee celebrations in your area and share the remembrance and the heritage.
Last week I wrote a couple of posts on upgrading your golf game and improving your public speaking skills and perhaps you thought they were interesting yet unrelated subjects. Not so, friends. I just wanted to give you time to digest both topics and allow them to sink in really well. Now I am about to give you an “actionist plan” - way better than your typical action plan - that will make you more competitive than you’ve ever been. Do what I’m doing. Fine tune your golf game and your communications game at the same time.
These two subjects of interest are powerful tools individually. But collectively I call them the Quantum Combo. One reinforces the other. They feed off each other by their complimentary natures and the two together will catapult you forward in ways you haven’t imagined up to this point.
Read Andy Dlugan’s link on how better communication and presentation skills will push you ahead of the pack for leadership opportunities on the job. The golf gatherings for fun with the office mates are gold mines of opportunity. They are also another chance to show off your outstanding communication talents.
Couple this with being able to hob-knob with your boss and his boss and her boss and all of their bosses along with every lateral peer and every subordinate below you in the organization at the next company golf scramble. You can’t help but elevate your career to another level. It’s a can’t miss proposition.
What’s that? Your company doesn’t have a golf scramble? Perfect! Start one and show yourself to be a leader once again. All the other duffers at work are just waiting on someone to do it. So why not be everyone’s hero and start a new company tradition?
June is halfway thru and July is upon us. Make it your business to make the second half of the year more profitable. Be an actionist and join your nearest Toastmasters International club and then sign up for a golf class at your nearest public course. Put the Quantum Combo into play and change your destiny today.
I did my blood test on Monday morning of last week for my first ever PSA exam. PSA stands for prostate-specific antigen. I turned 40 this year and it’s time to see if the family tendency for prostate problems is trying to minifest itself in me. Our old perceptions and taboos that we historically haven’t talked openly about have probably been killing us Black men needlessly for generations. Well I’m doing my part to help stop that trend.
It’s time to confront this health matter head on. Our family reunion is later this month. I’m going to risk angering and irritating some relatives for the sake of family health education. That’s O.K. though. If the effort saves lives I’ll give a good shake to the entire family tree (LOL).
The desired outcome is that in the process of updating the ancestral record maybe some of the folks in attendance will start talking, remember some past health events of their own and of those who have passed away, and perhaps begin to connect the dots. This should encourage my generation and younger to be more proactive about doctor visits and all of the important exams.
My doctor told me that getting started on the process early is important because men between 40 and 60 get lax on having the proper battery of tests done on a regular basis. That’s one reason this age group gets in trouble health wise. Unfortunately Black men in particular are still notoriously negligent about annual check ups and having problems checked.
We REALLY have an issue dealing with anything in remote proximity to our testicles. Yes I said TESTICLES in bold capital letters. Fellas, stop acting crazy and start being more sensible. All it takes to start off is a blood draw that gets tested. That’s what the PSA lab exam is for - to check for the appropriate levels of the important ingredients in your blood. If anything is out of whack the doctors will know and they can start working out strategies to solve any issues before they become real problems. If it’s already a problem, maybe they can solve it and keep you on this side of eternity with your families a few years or decades longer.
Contrary to movie and T.V. stereotypes, the anal exam is not the first step. For your information the formal name is DRE or digital rectal exam. But hey, even if it was the first step, so what. Do you really want to risk unnecessary problems by doing nothing? Go ahead and get checked to make sure you stay in the best health shape possible.
Before you do that though do some homework. I’ve been calling different family members who know “who died of what and when”. I’ve been finding out all sorts of stuff covering cancer, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease in my family. When I went back to see the doc later last week for my PSA test results I was able to have an intelligent health history discussion with him. You guys need to do the same thing. By the way, my test results were great. Just need to excercise more like most of us.
So let’s review what you need to do this week: (1) Call your relatives and document your family’s cancer history, (2) Call your physician for a PSA test. (3) Read up on the American Cancer Society and Prostate Cancer Foundation links high lighted through out this post and further educate yourself on the subject. Save yourself and help your family in the long run. Maybe we can all hang around for a while longer.
I heard some Wild Cherry recently and since I haven’t hit you with a good oldie in a minute I figured now would be a good time to get your motors running again.
Ready to get your day started with a jam before you hit the door? Turn up your computer speakers and make your monitors shake.
Yeah baby! Now you can go to work. Make it a great day.
This was the title of my pastor’s Father’s Day sermon this morning. It was great. The message was exactly what I needed to hear today. The scripture was from the New Testament, 2 Peter 1: 5-11 (New International Version) and it says:
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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He hit a lot of good points. For instance:
We can’t love or forgive in our own strength and power. God’s grace is what gives us power to love the unlovable.
He also mentioned that we can’t be good today and act any old kind of way tomorrow. We have to be consistent at all times and in all places.
And, we husbands must love our wives and children. We can’t do well by others without doing so by our own first.
Learn what God is saying to you, then apply it.
We fathers need to learn patience. The only thing in the world that is instant is salvation.
Kindness and love work together.
He wrapped it up by saying all these things are hard to do. That’s because the Christian life wasn’t designed to be easy. We can’t be discouraged because God is faithful and dependable in what he says.
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One of the supporting scriptures I really like is Galations 6: 10 (NIV):
10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
I needed this one today. It’s going to give me a really good boost into the week. I hope it does the same for you too.
