A Time to Plant and a Time to Harvest

It was brought to my attention today that First Lady Michelle Obama has utilized her own front yard to feed the stomachs of her family and guests, as well as the malnutritioned souls of an increasingly obese nation. I am obviously late on the news of Mrs. Obama planting an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn for all passerby to see, as it made front page for the New York Times and Washington Post back in March. However, it just came to my attention today in an AOL feature, which dished that part of Mrs. O's secret ingredient (besides the TLC of the D.C. 5th graders who helped plant the garden) is that some of the garden vegetables began as seeds that came from Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, VA. I did not know much about the history of the White House garden, but it immediately occurred to me the irony of a Black First Lady harvesting crops in 2009 on the very grounds that enslaved ancestors toiled to construct, using seeds from a slave owning president that helped create our founding government with the idea that enslaved Africans were 3/5 of a person...you know the rest. (By the way, the idea of another Black woman carrying TJ's seed is diverting in itself). I began to research the history of the WH garden to understand the social impact of advocating healthier food decisions in American culture and found that hers is not the first produce-bearing plot. But the momentousness of one of the most influential Black women in current events promoting fruits and vegetables when, according to the CDC "African Americans are at greatest risk for every major health disparity and diet related disease," is simultaneously relevant and historic.  

During my online search I was glad to find that the same thought crossed someone else's mind.  Peep out this interesting blog on Obama & Food: http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com


For everything there is a season. Bon appétit!

Ted Kennedy

"Ted Kennedy was the father who looked after not only his own three children, but John's and Bobby's as well," Obama said. "He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy."

The passing of Ted Kennedy is a natural event in the circle of life and yet it was against the most superstitious of odds that he lived, as the Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote, to comb grey hair. As a man who faced extreme tragedies through the loss of loved ones (both his senior and junior), the baby brother of a Boston-bred clan, Teddy took on more and more legacies with each passing kin. It was with their spirits that he tenaciously embodied the fight for justice and equality. He also became the paternal pillar for the next generation of ambitious Kennedys, acting as a father, uncle, grandfather, and mentor for the entire Kennedy brood. And that's what made him such an approachable guy. It's hard to carry on a family name, and yet he made it all the way to endorse the first African American president, earning him cool points with a generation only slightly familiar with the Kennedy legacy, as well as maintaining the significance of the clan. His lionlike bravado in the Senate, mixed with his family-orientated upbringing and human fallacies, made him a regular people's champ. Even when some of those people may not have agreed with the causes he championed.

R.I.P. Mr. Kennedy. I hope you and your brothers are finally chillin' together again.

Photo credit: ABC News
Quote credit: NPR

Death of Record Sales

If another Jay track leaks we'll have the whole album before the release date. But we're really diggin' this one. Wonder who gets in trouble for snitching out unofficial singles? Although, I can't imagine that this goes on without some consent. Mrs. B keeps her brand locked like Fort Knox. Anything her PR team doesn't want you to see or have access to is immediately effaced, so a blatant YouTube drop couldn't have gotten far past Mr. J. Just waiting to see when the record industry will catch up with the rest of the branded world. Artists establish marketing teams to make sure their image and work (product) are priced, placed, and promoted so that it is accessible to consumers. Meanwhile, record labels have taken a backseat to the talent and forgotten to brand themselves, thus the lack of loyalty. People are more faithful to iTunes than Sony, yet somehow passing down an mp3 just doesn't have the same sentimental touch of your first album, 8-track, cassette tape, or CD. Just a campaign idea. Indulge.

*Update* - As you can see after a whole week and an entire album leak later, the material has been removed from YouTube. I just believe there has to be a better way to safeguard your work. Then again I guess no one's word is bond anymore.