Category: Articles

Why Lebron James is not the King

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I used to be a basketball fan. I still enjoy it from time to time, though not nearly as when I was younger. You see, I grew up on Michael Jordan, back when Basketball was exciting. Back when we had MJ parties and we would scream and shout with joy over the dark skin brotha floating through the air. But as Jordan faded away and we come upon our new school athletes, Basketball is just not the same anymore. In fact, I do not remember it being as exciting since Jordan. But in this post I am not going to compare Michael’s BBall skills to Lebron’s or give my opinion on who’s better. After all, the subtitle of this blog is that truth is stranger than fiction and it’s been awhile since I’ve said anything weird.

Sports are fun. I like sports. I play a little basketball for exercise on occasion every now and again. I ran track, and played a little tennis. So like I said, Sports is fun, I like it. Great way to exercise. But things do tend to get a little, well, strange……

When Michael first signed his contract with Nike, he stated that he did not want his shoes to be red and black because red and black are devil colors. Why did he say that? Of course, the devil is a spirit not a person. He has no color. But there is a reason red and black is associated with the devil:

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• Red and Black is associated with the devil because of Nimrod. Nimrod, a descendant of Ham (whose name means burnt black), was a black skinned man who became associated with the devil for two reasons:

#1: Nimrod had the people to bow down and worship him as God King.

#2: Nimrod was very powerful, so much so that he killed a bull with his bare hands. He covered himself in its blood, wrapped the tail around his waist, put the horns on his head and the hooves on his feet. He was black underneath and red on top. This is how we got the image of the little red devil.

Moving on, why is Lebron James not the King?

3 is Symbolic of the Trinity (The trinity is not in the bible but originates with Nimrod, his wife-mother Semiramis and their son Tammuz.).

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• Jordan’s Championship record is in a period of 3 apiece. He was also the 3rd person drafted into the Bulls in the year 1984. He played for Chicago, the 3rd largest city in the United States.

Satanists are largely into Numerology (a concept copied from the bible) so everything always has to line up:

• The Chicago Bulls came into the NBA in 1966. Jordan won 6 championships. Michael Jordan also wore the number 23. 2 x 3 = 6.

• Michael Jordan played for a team called The Chicago Bulls whose colors are, coincidentally, red and black. Bull is also coincidentally the same animal used to become Nimrod’s renowned image.

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• Michael Jordan’s contract with Nike makes his shoes the most sought after of every shoe pretty much invented. People have gone as far as to steal, kill, and destroy for them. Nike is not just the name of a shoe, but was the Goddess of Victory. She is seen with wings in most statues and paintings, ironically, in the same stance often seen by MJ as he floats the air.

 

(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
A stone carving of the Goddess Nike at the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, Turkey
A stone carving of the Goddess Nike at the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, Turkey
CHICAGO - MAY 14: Michael Jordan #23 of the Chicago Bulls goes up for a shot against the New York Knicks in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 1996 NBA Playoffs. Copyright 1996 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO – MAY 14: Michael Jordan #23 of the Chicago Bulls goes up for a shot against the New York Knicks in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 1996 NBA Playoffs. Copyright 1996 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

 

• Michael means “Who is Like God” and Jordan is known as the Basketball God because of his success, this is common knowledge. But in addition, he is the best Chicago Bull’s player in history, making him the King of The Chicago Bulls. Like Nimrod, Michael Jordan is both God and King, but of Basketball.

Lebron James is not the King of Basketball because Michael Jordan has already been crowned God King of Basketball.

My One Year Blogiversary

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Many of you have probably noticed an extreme increase in the amount of re-posts from this blog, or re-spins. I have been doing this to lead up to this day or rather, yesterday: My One Year Blogiversary! I remember the exact date I published my first post here on The PBS Blog. It was August 18, 2014.

I have learned so much about the blogging experience and writing in general from this blog. Primarily, I believe I was capable of being progressive with this blog  in particular because I set out to devote more time to it. I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone. I subscribed to other blogs, commented on other blogs, shared other people’s material that I found interesting, and participated in writing Challenges and Blog Awards. I also publish very frequently, at least 2-3 times or more every day for at least 5 and sometimes 6 days a week and I have done this since the beginning. I don’t exactly consider myself a power blogger but I do believe that the quantity of my posting has played a big part in the growth of my blog. If I could at all help it, I tried not to miss more than a day without publishing something to my blog. A poem, an article, current events / news, etc., whatever I found to be of quality material or funny material or thought provoking, I shared. I set time aside specifically to blog. I treated this like a part time job and it has paid off. That is because I believe in consistency. I am a very dedicated and loyal individual and I transferred this over to my blog. I try to make sure that my blog is not one stale compilation of regurgitated ignorance and conscientious stupidity. I believe this draws people in and helps build solid supporters. All of these components together assists me in reaching my blogging goals which I must say, were not very clear in the beginning. I had a purpose, but I was not sure how I wanted to navigate the online world. In fact, I remember my first few posts, which got no likes, no comments, and no views for the first few months of blogging.

I hope that the future of this blog will continue to hold the same versatility in which I now strive for. It was not this way initially, but over time as I gained more understanding on how to blog, I unintentionally created a place where all people could get something out of it, despite where they were in their lives. In short, I hope that the contents of this blog will always be thought provoking and inspirational for positive change and growth.

In honor of my first year completion, I have decided to change my blogs theme up a bit. I’m still working on putting everything back since the new theme did away with the sidebar and pages (now located at the bottom).  I appreciate your patience as I rearrange everything.

But how does everything look so far? I’m going for a neat, clean feel. Yay or Nay? Keep it or Trade it?

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – The Short Story

My Writer’s Quote Wednesday for this week is in honor of the Short Story. Wendell Harris says:

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“…the short story is a ….presentation of a moment whose intensity makes it seem outside the ordinary stream of time, or the significance is outside the ordinary range of experience.” —Wendell Harris

I really like how Harris spoke about, “the presentation of a moment” because it is what I think about when I think of short stories. It’s like a sampling of the authors writing, pulling as much life from the story as is possible and then storing it into as few pages as possible, which is my goal for my current short story trilogy. To fit as much information as possible in just a few pages, while simultaneously providing for that bit of mystery that I think is important for the short story. I think Stella relates to this quote because it is the presentation of a single moment in history. It tackles the ongoing racial intensity of the past and brings it into our present day so that we are experiencing, in a unique way, the co-existing of past, present, and future.

I wanted to include an Author Bio from the quote but I read this as part of a list of short story quotes and saved them to my drive awhile back so I’m not sure who this particular Wendell Harris is, but what a great quote!

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And that’s it for this week’s episode of Writer’s Quote Wednesday, as hosted by Colleen of Silver Threading.

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One Week to Go!

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OK people, we have only one week before we go Beyond The Colored Line, so what are we doing about it? I’m not sure. I have been pondering how to culminate to Launch Day and I’m not exactly sure what I want to do. So I’m asking for your help. Below is a multiple choice questionnaire for you to help me decide what to do by telling me what sounds like the most fun. This will only work if everyone participates. I will be making a decision based on the poll no later than Wednesday. That gives everyone a little over two days to vote. The book comes out next Monday. Should I:

a). Hold a 3 Day Giveaway (8/19 Wed-8/21 Fri)

b). Hold a 1 Day Giveaway the day of Launch (8/24)

c). Create a Contest with one grand prize winner announced on Launch Day

d). A and C

Please use this form to submit your answers. I will respond by launching the winning letter Wednesday. If for any reason you have trouble with the form just hit my email directly at ahouseofpoetry@gmail.com.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

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Movie Night Friday – Imitation of Life (1959)

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For today’s segment of Movie Night Friday, where I present some of my favorite movies and why I love them, I present a special feature in honor of my upcoming book, which deals with the concept of racial passing.

In this 1959 classic, which originally comes from a book of the same name and is a remake of the 1934 version, a struggling young actress with a six-year-old daughter sets up housekeeping with a homeless black widow and her light-skinned eight-year-old daughter who rejects her mother by trying to pass for white.

Imitation Of Life 1959“Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) dreams of becoming a famous Broadway actress. Losing track of her young daughter Susie at the beach (portrayed as a child by Terry Burnham), she asks a stranger named Steve Archer (John Gavin) to help her find the girl. Susie is found and looked after by Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a black single mother who also has a daughter, Sarah Jane (portrayed as a child by Karin Dicker), who is about Susie’s age. Sarah Jane inherited her father’s fair skin and can pass for white. She does this with fierce zeal and fervor, taking advantage of her European heritage and features. In return for Annie’s kindness, Lora temporarily takes in Annie and her daughter. Annie persuades Lora to let her stay and look after the household, so that the widow can pursue an acting career.”

– Wikipedia

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Though Imitation of Life was the fourth-most successful motion picture of 1959, grossing $6.4 million and Universal-International’s top-grossing film that year, there are mixed feelings among critics as to the social messages of the film in that time. Critic Molly Haskell once described ‘Imitation’s’ double-vision: “The black girl’s agonizing quest for her identity is not seen from her point of view as much as it is mockingly reflected in the fun house mirrors of the culture from which she is hopelessly alienated.”

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For me, I am about to watch it again, my first time in a long time, as study material. I am 28 years old in 2015, and as I cozy up on the sofa, pen, pad (and snacks) in hand, it is fascinating to ponder how those who lived in this time, black and white, saw the films message and how they viewed the influence of the film in the Jim Crow Era. What was America’s attempt in showing a movie like this? Was it to expose the practice of Passing as practiced by many African Americans of the time? Was it for a genuine concern of the many Americans of mixed ancestry and their search for identity? Was it, as many deem it, to further degrade the African American community? Or was it to seek change in the current societal perceptions of what it means to be black and what it means to be white in America?

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Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Aldous Huxley

For this week’s segment of Writer’s Quote Wednesday, as hosted by the lovely Colleen of Silver Threading, I take inspiration from Aldous Huxley:

Aldous Huxley“Every man’s memory is his private literature.” ~Aldous Huxley

The influence of memory in our lives is thought-provoking. Even if it’s just the name of a character or birthplace, memory plays a part in what we write and often even how we write, which is what makes this quote so interesting. A lot of the stories in my books, for instance, take place in Chicago because I know Chicago. This is where I am from, where I was raised, and it is the city that I know. I do not have to make up the names of streets and towns and shops because I know them. I’ve been to Ford City, shopped at the Food & Liquor on 63rd and Western (it’s closed now), and lived on 47th Street. I’ve rode the Red Line through the loop, touched the people, smelled the food and heard the voices. As long as I have memory of Chicago, I’ll always have some story to tell.

About the Author:

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What I enjoy about this weekly prompt, in addition to the inspiring voices of authors who compel us to keep writing, is the search and discovery of new authors to explore. Sometimes it’s best to understand more about the quotes you use. I discovered for instance, that Aldous grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was known as a controversial naturalist in his time, nicknamed as “Darwin’s Bulldog”, which made me think twice about whether or not to use this quote since I don’t believe in anything with the words Darwin in the same sentence. But anyway, I decided to play nice though and let Aldous hang around a bit longer, so here’s his background according to The European Graduate School website:

“Aldous Huxley, was a British writer. He was born on July 26, 1894 and died on November 22, 1963. He would become most specifically known to the public for his novels, and especially his fifth one, Brave New World, written in 1931 and published in 1932.

Aldous Huxley would come to be known mostly as a novelist and essayist but he would also write some short stories, poetry, travelogues and even film scripts. In his novels and essays Aldous Huxley would always play the role of a critical observer of accepted traditions, customs, social norms and ideals. Importantly, he would be concerned in his writings with the potentially harmful applications of so-called scientific progress to mankind” 

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That’s it for this week’s segment. Be sure to check out the other #WQW posts from other  bloggers this week. Just look for “Writer’s Quote Wednesday” in your readers :).

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http://silverthreading.com/2015/08/12/writers-quote-wednesday-roald-dahl/