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What, oh what could prompt me to write a post while back on campus? I'm certainly too busy to do this & am missing an episode of sytycd (a complete no-no in my book). But I just had to let you know about this beast of a girl that I've added to my collection.

Her name is Janelle Monáe & she's epic. I was perusing Twitter, came across her page, & watched the video it linked to & was immediately infatuated. She's thoroughly unafraid of expressing herself & being bigger than life. Not only can you get into her music passively, but she's also a poet & her lyrics are deeply penetrating... even though her recurrent theme is being an android in the city Metropolis. She does what Lady Gaga wishes she could (& was doing it before her).

The entire EP, "Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase" is awesome. It's the old-school sort of album where the entire thing has a level of coherence that mainstream artists no longer worry about. I've got three tracks that I'm big on... her big hit, "Many Moons"; "Sincerely, Jane" which poetically addresses urban city life for girls like her; & an android aria called "Cybertronic Purgatory." She's just awesome (in the old, careful, un-watered down sense of the word). Suite II is scheduled for 2010, & I can't wait. Sallamomo alayhi wa sallam. [MdG]

The Fastest Year EVER

Yesterday I got an e-mail from the Huffington Post, including two headlines that read "Obama's First Year" & "365 Days and Still Thanking Jesus." I've also seen titles & subject lines that have the same ring to them on other websites. Everybody needs to fall back. Pundits seem over-eager to find some generally irrelevant time marker & use that as a moment to sum up everything the President has(n't) done before the engraving on his towels has even dried. Slow down.

Yes, as soon as CNN announced at 10 PM on Nov. 4th, 2008 that Barack Obama was going to be the next President of the United States, we wished that Bush was float off into the see & someone competent would take the reins. For the rest of that year, in fact, people seemed to turn to Obama to address the financial crisis, international issues, &c. instead of Bush who, unfortunately, technically had the power. But the man's only been in office since the end of January... let's not overstate the amount of time he's had to do this.

In all of these evaluations I keep getting this off-putting "He hasn't done anything" vibe. In 8 months he's garnered a momentous amount of energy behind one of the biggest pieces of legislation probably since the 60's. Yes, he made a lot of other promises &, especially to my gay brothers & sisters, the time for justice is always 'now,' but the alternative is to take on too much, appear to liberal, sink everything early on & then end up with Sarah Palin in office in 2012. Obama is a politician, not Jesus & the American psyche can only handle so much.

That said, put pressure on that him like he owes you money. & next time schedule your march for when Congress is in the building, please. Hadha min fadhle Momo. [MdG]