From Blues :For All The Changes
Sound in Space
It's as if you've been invited to the White House and you know you are going to smile so you want your teeth to be bright and you brush and brush but because you have a partial plate you are mostly brushing your gums and quite naturally since you want to look fabulous and make the first lady green with envy because you have on your only designer suit and a blouse that if you were honest you actually cant afford but the girl in Saks was so nice and the girl who approved the charge heard the panic in your voice and she, after all, had never been invited to the White House and what's more probably never would be so she said: "Why, yes" I will approve this charge but do you think you might want to pay us something this month and you said: "Absolutely" because you do want to pay something it's just that Saks runs up against Nordstrom's and Neiman Marcus not to mention food and shelter so yes absolutely you want to but maybe you will and maybe you can't and that's what's so hard for people to understand...that distance between want and able, you know? and that's what we need to talk about
So, of course, I remember Lena Horne singing "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and my Grandmother being totally delighted with the RCA Victor TV and her saying to Grandpapa: "We better get Nikki up because Lena Horne is on TV" and me not quite knowing who Lena Horne was at that point though now recognizing that she is a great lady who fought long and hard for Civil Rights who is also a lady of Delta Sigma Theta and who looks so fabulous in Gap jeans that all the world now wants to be eighty years old and look that good so The Gap was very smart to ask to photograph Lena in those jeans and who was very kind to me when I began my career and who has remained very kind but that is not the point of her being on TV when very few Black people were on television whether or not they were very talented and haven't we come a long way though quite naturally we have a bit of a way to go but my grandmother , you see, always said : If you earn a dollar save a dime and its not that my grandfather in any way disagreed but he was more casual about needing and having so I'm sure it was Grandmother who saved for the RCA Victor TV and even at that I have to acknowledge that she was so intrigued with Nipper that even if it had done nothing more than show the dog responding to "His Master's Voice" Grandmother would have thought she had made a good purchase though the TV also bought us Lena Horne so Grandmother was a believer and so am I and that too is a bit off the point only because it was Billie Holiday who sang the definitive " I Wished on the Moon ( for something I never knew)" and to hear her sing like even though because of dumb restrictive drug rules that punished some people for some drugs though not others for other she would never be on television which was a total loss to those of us who wished on the moon while observing strange fruits that travel light and we knew hearing Holiday moan that the moon granted wishes so I started singing thinking if I could throw a note high enough and strong enough there would be the possibility that it would be heard somewhere in space and that is what I want to talk about here
Science teaches us that there is no sound in space and I think that's hogwash because if there is no sound in space how will all those wishes get up to the moon and anyone with an ounce of sense knows science fiction is much better than science fact because science fact tried to prove things like Thomas Jefferson wasn't diddling Sally Hemmings and everybody knows people diddle people all the time especially when they can't say no so yes there is sound in space and a large part of it says: I love you in a lot of different ways and when the language is unknown to the hearer other people say things like that is gibberish but love can never be gibberish....foolish for sure...silly you bet but the basis of all relationships is love which is then followed by trust and not the other way around because if trust was the basis there would be world peace and safe international travel but what I want to point out since it is always so important to do something useful is that you should, quite naturally, floss and nickels and dimes have a relationship with dollars and sense but not halves and quarters and machines that tell you deposit more money and Good Luck when it isn't luck that you need but better science which can explain how and why when all it said and done we are left with this density that forces us to recognize the Eagle Nebula is falling into itself and will one day be a planet though mostly we will not be around to see it and then there are those troublesome Black holes which are so totally fascinating though no one can exactly put their finger on what makes them so important and I am here to tell you I know: the density of a Black whole does not prevent light from escaping but rather that once light encounters the black hole it finds such beauty and peace and comfort it no longer needs to search which is another word for love...and I do
Warning: I just began the book so expect more posts on Giovanni
Blame it On The Sun
