Sunday Feb.13th Declared Gordon Parks day in the city of St.Paul

Today was a celebration of Gordon Parks. Parks is a noted photographer, poet, director,composer and writer. He was also known for directing two of the Shaft movies in the 70's. Shaft, was one of the first Black Action Heroes,one of the first with a huge budget and the soundtrack netted Isaac Hayes an Oscar and the honor of being the first African American to win an Oscar for composing.
Parks was also the first African American to take photos for Life Magazine
The celebration was at the Ordway and the house was packed. He is still very much alive, but was unable to attend today's show. By the way, front row seats are cool most times, except when they are showing pics on a screen, my neck hurts. :) Did I mention the Ordway was in St.Paul? Do you remember what else is in St.Paul, let me remind you. Only the stinkin' best cake in the Twin Cities, that's right Cafe Latte. Yes, I had chocolate cake and I did hear the music too. If you don't know what music I heard, you will have to check my post archives and you can find out.
The music was a mix of songs composed by Parks, songs that helped the narrator tell the story, and songs that part of the era being described. There were also a few actors on stage to help with the story. I enjoyed myself and thought the whole thing was very interesting.
A few years ago I had the chance to see Gordon Parks speak in person, he spent a good number of years living in St.Paul and many of his family members still live here and were at the celebration. His story is very interesting and inspirational without being preachy. I don't like preachy.

Soapbox: Washing out your mouth!!
Black History Month....
I sometimes joke about how Black History month takes place during the shortest month of the year, why? Why does "The Man" do that to us? (wink wink) All jokes aside. It's more important to me that American History becomes way more integrated and that "The Month" becomes more of an extra celebration and not the only time we hear about the struggles, inventions, and triumphs of African Americans. In fact, one of my greatest wishes is that we would all stop seeing color and start seeing people. I hope that in my lifetime we will see less "Black Lawyers", "First Hispanic Doctors" and "First Women Presidents" and just see people for people and the contributions they have made. I think a lot of my friends know that when I tell stories, color does not come into it unless it is an important fact to the story.
Just like I asked all my male friends about the going to the doctor, I would ask that all of you keep your minds open and be ready to accept new cultures, new differences and new opinions. Hold close to you what you believe and recognize that it may clash with others and that's alright. I like the differences, it makes life interesting. Now I may sound all huggy and whatnot , but I am human and I make mistakes and get set in my ways. I have to remind myself not to close the "book" try something new or hear a new side to an issue. I guess I am just becoming a little more mature, but I still love my cartoons and comics.

More soapbox....
Paranoimia, a song from the 80's made famous by a talking head called Max Headroom and recorded by The Art of Noise. My next rant is not about either one of the stuff I just spoke about, it's has to do with my own paranoia.
Several times over the past few weeks, I have had to ride the parking ramp elevator alone with a woman. Now this in itself does not make me paranoid. What makes me all freaky about it is what goes on in my head. Here's the situation. I get on the elevator and she is already on it, the floor I need to go to is pressed so I do nothing, but wait for my floor to come. The elevator stops, the doors open. I beg for her to be going to the other side of the ramp by taking the door on the left, because I need to go right. Crap!! She's going right. Then comes the battle. Do I hold the door open for her letting her go through first and then hope she goes a different way from me or do I go through the door first and risk being the rude guy ( I like to be chivalrous sometimes)?
She goes through my held open door and is going the same way. Now we are walking the same direction and I am behind her. The whole time I feel like she might be thinking "this guy is behind me!!!" So I cross to the other side of the lane and make noise to let her know where I am. I usually make Moo noises or hum the "Jaws" theme. Just kidding. Well, last week my car and the woman's car were parked next to one another and I walked all the way there and she was a bit freaked I think. When she still saw me coming to her direction she gave me this look like "Oh my god! What are you doing!?!" and jumped in her car pretty quick until she saw me get in mine. How should I have handled it? Suggestions? I am tired of feeling like the parking lot Stalker. :) The whole parking ramp thing helped to add to my sometimes crabby mood of late. I am not totally crabby just having one of those times when you have less tolerance for stupid stuff that would not bother you other days. Don't worry I am ok.