MUSIC (playing it, listening to it, breathing it, eating it, you get the point), READING, artistic expression in any and all forms--I like oil painting, pastels, cutting and pasting, sewing, flower/nature arranging, coloring book sessions, woodwork, jewelry making/beadzzzz, etc., Dance (Traditional Irish dance, afro-cuban/ salsa, African, good ol fashioned grade school slow-dancing, oh, and dancing naked alone in my bedroom of course), ARCHITECTURE (particularly sacred architecture like the monolithic churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, the Ankhor Wat of Thailand, the Egyptian/Mayan/Aztec Pyramids etc., Theology, Philosophy (in its unstuffiest of forms), Helping humanity, Nature and all its magical, mystical phenomena, Cooking, Literature, Photography (though I admit the quality and potential of the new "digital" wave is nothing short of astonishing, I still prefer the good ol fashioned Black & White days with a clunky 35mm 10 lb. camera and a few hours buried in the darkroom)TRAVvvvel, Songwriting, Writing in general--im a reading, writing, arithmetic girl- *easy on the arithmetic
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H.I.M. Haile Selassie I and Her Excellency Empress Menen Asfaw, Yeshua Christos (J.C.), Mary Magdalene and Hannah of the Bible, my Father again someday (because there are a few things I forgot to tell him while he was here, oh and there are a few things I'd like to ask him too), my grandfather (who passed 1 month before i was born) and Robert Nesta (who passed 1 month after I was born), MOther Theresa of Calcutta, St. Therese of Lisieux, and Santa Teresa de Jesus (and all of my other remarkable "tocayas"), Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Subcomandante Marcos (poet, spokesman, author, artist, and luchador of the Zapatista struggle in Chiapas, Mexico), G.I. Gurdjieff(philosopher/author), Rene Daumal(writer/great thinker), Lizelle Reymond (writer/seeker), my half sister Nicole(whom I've not yet met to this day), a good, good man for me (someday perhaps) and any of my unborn children???
Yes!!!!:) I am partial to Reggae Music, particularly Roots & Culture (my initial love affair with reggae began with a mixed tape i scored when I was a little girl from this old Dread in an antique store down the street from my house who I used to exchange books, tapes, etc. with--he gave me an old mix with Peter Tosh & Jacob Miller on one side and Dennis Brown/the Spear on the other--I've never been the same.) Far too many artists to mention but a few standouts in no particular order: Aswad, Culture, Steel Pulse, The Abyssinians, Mighty Diamonds, Black Uhuru, Dahweh Congo, Garnet Silk, Stephen Marley, Ziggy Marley, Errol Blackwood, Ras Midas, Dennis Brown, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Lucky Dube, Misty in Roots, Robert Nesta, etc. All the St. Croix massive-Dezarie, Midnite, Batch, Ras Attitude, & the Zioniers, Army, Abjah, Niyorah, and the Star Lion Family, Mada Nile, Pressure, ETC. I was also reluctant about dancehall for years because of some of the empty lyrical content, but have developed a taste and appreciation for good, conscious dancehall artists like Fanton Mojah, Richie Spice, Cocoa T, I-Wayne, Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B., etc., I am not a complete and utter reggae head--my tastes span the board from what I grew up on (namely bad old school rap, classic R & B, soul, blues, gospel, Irish/Celtic, musicals, etc.) to more (relatively)current interests like African folk music (mostly West and Southeastern), Cuban son, classical, even harp (the harp harp and the harmonica), etc. Also artists like Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, George Bensen, Curtis Mayfield, Etta James, Michael Jackson (when he was still black), Nina Simone, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Louie Armstrong, Fela Kuti, Thomas Mapfumo, Ali Farka Toure, Miles Davis, Beny More, the Coup, Crown City Rockers, (Go Bay Area HIP HOP!), Talib Kweli, The Roots, Zion I, Hieroglyphics, Tupac, the Teacher (KRS-1), Wu Tang Clan, Queen Latifah, Lauryn Hill, OH, and can't forget the nuns chants from boarding school!!! Amen.
Im not big on your typical "blockbusters," though a few "intelligent" ones catch my attention every once and a while like the Matrix, Fight Club, etc. Otherwise I like mostly independent flicks, cheesy Kung Fu movies, and old Charlie Chaplin films -- Top 5: The Color of Paradise (An absolutely beautiful Iranian film about a little blind boy-must see), The Color Purple (with Whoopie), The Story of the Weeping Camel (a National Geographic film/..ary about a Mongolian Tribe of herders and their animals (check this link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/weepingcamel/index.html), H.I.M. Lion of Judah (a ..ary about you know who), Annie, Stand by Me, the Goonies, Spaceballs, Pray for Death (my first kung fu experience which brings back vivid memories of making aluminum foil chinese stars and numbchucks with my brother and chasing him all over the neighborhood--i pray for LIFE now, by the way), Dirty Dancing, Goodfellas, Rockers, Labyrinth, the Blues Bros. (did I mention i'm from Chicago??) excluding the SEQUELS!!! I mostly avoid sequels except for maybe the Rocky(S) and the Godfather(S)...hmmm. that was more than 5...
is EVIL (mostly)~~~~!!!! Though if I am to succumb to its claws, i watch mostly what I refer to as the "nerd" channels--travel, history, PBS, Science, animal, etc. I refuse to watch anything "reality"-based...Kids tell your kids, this is NOT REALITY
Here goes...I'm a bit of a book-aholic...the Bible (particularly the Psalms and the book of Job), the Kebra Nagast, Why Can't We Be Good (Jacob Needlema), Basic Herbs, In Search of the Miraculous (P.D. Ouspensky), Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson (G.I. Gurdjieff), To Live Within (Lizelle Reymond), Mount Analogue (Rene Daumal), The Bhagavad Gita, Soul on Ice (Eldridge Cleaver), anything Marcus Garvey wrote (well, almost everything)--(including his lesser known poetry), The Secret of the Golden Flower, Waiting For God (Simone Weil), Toward Awakening (Vaysse), La Historia de los Colores and El Viejo Antonio(Subcomandante Marcos), The Odyssey and the Illiad (Homer), Tao Te Ching, the Popol Vuh, anything by Krishnamurti, Egyptian Yoga (Ashby), the literary journal Parabola (I have collected them for years), should I go on?????
JAH. my mother *in all pureness of heart and sincerity, H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God, Empress Menen, Nanny (and the Maroons in general), all the blue collar hardworkers of the world, Muhammed, Jesus, the Buddha(s), Robert Nesta Marley, and all the other holy prophets of yesterday and tomorrow, Emiliano Zapata, Nelson Mandela, Mary Magdalene, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, that covers some of the big names, I also like myself and all the little children of this Earth