Self-esteem makes it seem like a thought took years to build

Actually seeing and hearing Kanye's tirade from Friday as opposed to just reading the transcript brought it all home tonight. While I'm still not gonna just abandon all reason and salute son, his stock definitely jumped a little higher in my book. Naturally, he still came off a bi suspect mentioning his business manager and his donation, the crackle in his voice was reminiscent of man a speech that I gave in the NSBE days. Matter of fact, someone mentioned it to me in March. I don't even remember who said it, but it was something to the effect of, "you always get all of us all choked up when you get up there and start speaking from the heart." Hey...I try.I'm only me.

But since we're on the speaking tip, I'll be damned if I didn't get a nice email note from my man Dr. Mike in DC requesting my assistance later this month. So it looks like I'll get a chance to start tackling some of the items on my to-do list sooner than I thought. Just need to make sure the schedule is all clear though. Definitely a bright spot for the week.

But the highlight of the weekend by far was going back to the Lizard Lounge. My contact high is still in effect. Apparently, the scheduled feature performer, Jamaal St. John, didn't make it, so this other homegirl, Sparlha Swa, happened to be in town and did more than a good job of filling in as the prime-time performer. I say that instead of poet, because she had her guitar and tore shT down. It was on some straight India.Irie-type vibe, but of course, Sparlha would probably prefer to say it was a Sparlha Swa-type vibe, but you get the gist. She definitely put on a great show. I still did not make it to the Emerald Isle for a full show, but I will; eventually. But I do plan on hitting up the Dublin House on Monday night. As for the LL's open mic, I ended up signing up after homegirl did her thing, which inevitably placed me dead last on the list. Fuq it. More time to write something at our back table. I was suprised that I was able to somewhat stick to a concept throughout all five pages. Maybe I'll find it and post it on here eventually. But man....everytime I go there and perform in the open mic, I always say to myself, 'damn yo, i wish i had this audio recorded.' The Jeff Robinson Trio is sick wid it. The sht was so ill it had mebobbing my head - while was on the fuqing stage - almost made me lose fuqing track of what I was saying. But nonetheless, it came off lovely and was a fitting end (i hope i'm not the only who thought so) to a nice night of poetry. It may not have even been all that tight of a piece but it felt good. And it's a step in the right direction.