Notes from a Friend's Town

Peace Peace, My apologies for the absence, life has been living me out of sleep and solitude. I'll have some dry explanation soon. This morning, I have only this. May it be sufficient.  W

📸 x  K.J.Jones 1. I've published a book of my writings, mainly poetry, available for purchase here . Buy a copy or 2 so we can fight my hunger together, as a unified force. Aided by your funding, my direction is clarified. 2. Its quite amazing what perspective allows you to handle and assess. In it's absence, I found a certain exchange magnanimous, filled with opaque understandings that were overarching principles preventing me from dealing comfortably with the entire matter. Once I was afforded perspective and thus able to postulate at some motivators, I no longer found myself unable to operate in the exchange. It's clearer now, and for that, I am grateful. 3. The women of my generation make less sense the more I interact with them. I'm sure millions of men before me have said the same thing and if they haven't chances are they weren't interested in women in the first place. No shots fired of course, but I don't believe gay men are ...

Rock the Bells made a tour stop in New Orleans recently. Ghostface & Raekwon performing Only Built for Cuban Links & Mobb Depp performing Infamous all at the House of Blues, one night only. I grew up in the mid 90s so I recall WuTang Clan & their offerings during that era. It was a grimey and dark time. Their descriptions of New York City life during that time reflected said reality. Crack cocaine had spread across the country and those involved were often shrewd businessmen whose patience often was thicker the dirty currency crammed deep into their dungarees. Their music would often transport you to a brutally honest space in time where your life could end for less than the change in your pocket. They were an untouchable group of Super Niggas, determined to make it known that money doesn't alter behavior patterns. They we(a)re WuTang. Sadly enough, they appear to be the same as 40 year old men. The show was an excellent show for the Hip Hop purest, one of the estee...

1. If I owe you, bill me. 3. I've this habit of "reading" people when we meet first. It's as presumptuous as it sounds, on both readings. I've had my assumptions independently verified on several occasions. There remains the strong possibility that I'm guessing very well, very often. 2. For the first time in my adult life, not being able to experience an object of my desires is bothering me. Such that my natural rhythms are off and in routine there exists no solace. 4. Communication technology and it's ability to make the notion of being unavailable obsolete is beginning to take it's toll on my resolve. I have 4 email addresses, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a blog yet none of them resonate with my ethos on communication. None of them afford me the awkward silences that occur when the conversation between people exchanging spent air and long stares reaches an unexpected lull. The moment when you have to jog your memory, not your browser to keep...

1. If the person you're planning to marry comes up in conversation and your speech about them reflects an understanding of them as a role player and not as an active partner in the future that's being discussed, there is a problem. You've reduced the marriage to an objective to be completed, which strips it of it's significance. 2. It's written on my face and you can read it from my psalms. 3. There is something to be learned from a (wo)man who lives a life devoid of significant connection to material goods. It provides an immense degree of freedom & will alter the relationship you have with your living space. It's a bit much for me at this juncture but I do respect those are able to procure the most from such a lifestyle. 4. In listening to what isn't being said, I've been able to better understand what is being said and this deciphering act keeps me from saying much at all which reads to the masses as though I have little to say, if anything, a...

* balloonboyd.tumblr.com is my Tumblr page. Give a gander and hit follow, it'll make my day. 1. I've the urge to place a hole in a proverbial ant hill just to see the ants scramble to repair the destruction. It would be my fortune to kick an empty mound wide open. 2. I grilled ribs for July 4th, prepped them the night before with a rub and everything. When I decided it was time to eat, I had no desire to eat any of it. I hope I'm not losing my affinity for animal protein, its one of the only primitive connections to manhood that remain once you dismiss all things patriarchal (I'm still working on that) . 3. There remains nothing more annoying that unfinished business, especially when it is of a personal matter and readily resolvable. No sense in attempting to bring proper closure to the matter, an ending is an ending regardless of its lack of finesse. 4. I was brought to a place of accepting the obvious this morning. I took on too many projects with my ego convin...

1. My ever evolving understanding of masculinity in the American context, as that is where I am based and where I make my observations, has a recurring awareness of restraints and adherence to limits. The continuing designation between the civilized and the savage is refined when the former exercises restraint where the latter does not. Restraint. 2. Summer fail : Neighborhood bar in New Orleans with a booze sponsored event & a broken AC. Definitely won't tell anyone how to run their business but that's not the way to have customers return. 3. Last week, my pride took a hit. I'm well aware of the absence of respect modernity has fostered amongst us. This decline in interpersonal interactions has in part been aided by the expansion of interpersonal communication systems. You can imagine my disgust when an engagement I arranged was essential canceled within 2hrs of the agreed time. I was only made aware of the cancellation because I need to switch venues at the last...