Does Cleveland Run This ___________?????

HELL YEA!!!

All Hail King James!

Now I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, because I don’t believe that Cleveland will win the NBA Finals, especially with Detroit playing the way that they have been.

BUT!!!

Did anybody else see that clinic that LEBRON gave Washington on Saturday? I mean, DAMN! Triple-double in your playoff debut?

Being a Cleveland Boy myself living in L.A., I long for any news from back home, and boy is this news. Most of the time when I tell people where I am from they say, Oh.

What does that mean, Oh? Oh, I am sorry, or oh, where exactly is that? Not really sure what it supposed to mean.

Now that the Cavs, led by the future of the NBA, are shining in the Playoffs, and the Tribe destined for the playoffs this year, it seems as though Cleveland might be getting a little of that long awaited attention.

Man, if my Browns can somehow find a way into the playoffs, I will lose my freaking mind.

My Mother's Son

Yesterday I was at a funeral. I had not attended one since ’83. I have been avoiding them, even the one for my grandmother.

What comes to mind is the tears, the grief, and the pain that one feels for their loss. I did not want anything to do with that. I feel like I have spent those feelings for my mother and grandfather.

I did not really know much about the deceased, my wife’s uncle. For this reason I did not expect to cry or to be emotional in any way. I was there to lend my support to my family.

I did not expect that seeing the people that I love and know very well in pain would affect me greatly. So I did shed a tear or two.

I thought that this would break open the floodgates and I would be a mess, but the only time that I thought about my mother that day was in reference to my mother-in-law.

I love her. I don’t know that I have said it to her, but I do. Many women have mothered me since ’81, but it never felt like what I would imagine a mother-son relationship to be. The relationship that I have with my mother-in-law is what I have imagined it to be. She is a wonderful woman that I cherish greatly.

I have never called another woman mom. I say it to my wife sometimes, but it does not mean the same. I even say it in reference to my mother-in-law to my wife, but never to her.

Somewhere inside me I am not ready for that. I am afraid of that. I feel as though it is some kind of betrayal. I love my mother still. I know that she is gone, but she is here somehow. I know I see her when I look at my daughter, and sometimes when my daughter looks at me I feel as though mom sees me. This is the reason my daughter’s smile means so much to me.

With that being said, I hope that my mother-in-law knows how I feel. I think that it is expressed without words, or at least I hope that it is. I often wish that I would have known her sooner, that maybe I could have received some of her guidance while I grew up with three other men in our house stumbling through the hurdles of childhood, adolescence, high school, and adulthood with next to no maternal guidance.

I will find a way to say it. I want her to know. I know, more than most, that nothing is guaranteed except for right now. Right now though is still not good for me.

FUCK THE RADIO…and the music industry that it rode in on.

I am so in love with this Leela James album, “A Change is Gonna Come”. A CD by the way that I would have known nothing about if I would have relied on the radio to supply with me with new hot up and coming artists.

Now I wont get back up on my soapbox again, about how we allow the music industry to continually degrade us as a people. How there is a constant attack on our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and girlfriends. I also will not say anything about how they continue to mislead our men on what it means to be a man or a father.

Instead I want to focus on the heat that Leela James brings on this CD. It is a very soulful CD, with some collaborations, but it is Leela’s deep smoky voice that carries you from the first track to the final one with no interruptions, fast forwarding, or pausing. If you want to party, listen to a nice ballad, or just chill, this is the CD that will cover all that.

For some reason I don’t hear any of this on the radio. Probably one of the hottest new artists out, but she gets no love.

Listenting now makes me think of all the other good music that I am missing out on.