Endangered! Whales. Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, October 2008.

Great Pets: Parrots. Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, September 2008.

 SPEECHLESS

 FANS FOR THE WGA

 FANS4WRITERS

Check out Chip Withrow’s new album, Everyday Things.

Chip writes, “These are songs that I hope kids and their parents will dig together – some are fun, some teach lessons, some are heartwarming. From ChipWithrow.com you can listen for free, download the songs or order your very own copy!”  Everyday Things is also available on iTunes.

Are you near Ft. Myers? The launch party will be November 3 at the Fort Myers Imaginarium Hands-On Museum. Music, activities, and art for the whole family start at 11 am, with concerts at 11:30 and 1:00.  Sing, dance, make your own tambourine, and more!  

Here’s the Amazon description:

In this book of life lessons culled from hip-hop culture, author Felicia Pride examines a wide range of hip-hop songs and artists, interpreting life through their lenses. Growing up with hip-hop, Pride has come to realize the way it shaped how she thinks, writes, and reacts, making her the person she is today. By incorporating her own experiences and reflections with the rapper’s message, she focuses on the positive, motivational influence hip-hop has on its audience.

With each life lesson aptly titled after a hip-hop song, such as Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” or GangStarr’s “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow,” The Message explores spirituality, success, love, business, and more through hip-hop. Pride infuses these essential truths with examples from rappers’ lives and music, providing positive reflections on hip-hop culture. For example, she tells you how to study how those with staying power, such as Missy Elliott and Russell Simmons, handle their business and how to incorporate similar tactics into your own life: be creative, diversify, handle your business.

The Message shares the wisdom that Pride has learned from hip-hop, creating what is essentially a soundtrack to the hip-hopper’s life.

My husband Andrés and I live on a pretty busy street corner in Boston, and there is some crime here. In the 4 years I’ve lived here, the worst crimes in a 5-block radius have been a stabbing and a sexual assault, but neither were random acts of violence – the first were students in a bar fight, and the second an ex-boyfriend pleading for a reconciliation, and taking it criminally too far. Once I saw a guy in jeans and a leather coat bend another guy backwards over the hood of a car and hit him in the face with something, and then he just held him by the throat. I called 911, but it turns out the jeans-and-jacket guy was an undercover cop waiting for backup.

Normally, though, we get drunk kids or panhandlers, an occasional traffic stop that alerts police to a warrant for that person’s arrest. Relatively small stuff, but thrilling to watch nonetheless. We’ve struck the perfect balance between an exciting neighborhood, but one in which we feel relatively safe.

Most of the action happens at night, so I turn off the lights in our apartment so it’s harder for people outside to see us. I usually peer out from behind the curtain, or pace back and forth in front of the window so if someone looks up it will seem like I just casually glanced outside while going about my normal routine. If they’re standing directly below the windows, too close to the building to be seen, I go into my shower, which has a window that offers the best acoustics to the sidewalk below. I’m terrified that the accused – or worse, the police – will mistake me for an eccentric old lady.

But Andres has no qualms about openly staring outside, kneeling backwards on the couch directly in front of the window that has no curtain. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him lay on his stomach and settle in, his chin resting on his the backs of his hands, senior-picture-style. He doesn’t care if someone sees that he is watching. Often he gets his police scanner to see if he can hear any details of the crime (yes, we have a police scanner). In summer, when the windows are open, I swear the police are going to hear their police radios is stereo, from their waistbands and, mysteriously, from the window above. Then they will look up and see us staring.

It’s entirely likely they will assume I’m an old lady from the distance and my semi-obscured face from behind the curtain. And then I’ll be forever branded: eccentric old lady crime watcher.

** this is a work-in-progress. I welcome your criticism.**

WORLD PEACE

“I think the problem of lack of World Peace is becoming a tremendous problem in our world. If we can’t have world peace, what can we have? Every day good people risk the lives of themselves. I hope and I pray for world peace, but if we can’t try, just forget about it.”

My mom says the “just forget about it” ending is evidence of our Brooklyn blood… But I think I was simply trying to add extra words to meet the 50-word requirement for the assignment. Luckily I’ve gotten much better at writing to word count without adding verbose filler. If you don’t agree, just forget about it.