death of trivial insights

(never underestimate the insights developed on a napkin.)

The other evening a friend played the music of a musician he's hyping. A couple bars into the song, I immediately knew "Yes, this girl could use some singing lessons and possibly a hard-core critique session." Afterall, how is an aspiring artist supposed to progress without some honest criticism thrown at 'em? This musician happened to be Pilipina, which I repeat, does not constitute me to immediately hype her because we share the same ethnicity. When I wasn't feelin' this chick's music, the homie responded, "She's your peoples and you're not feelin' her music?"

Don't get me wrong, I'm constantly throwing my fist in the air and to my heart (physically and silently to myself) when it comes to having pride for my peoples/ethnicity...But it's quite humorous for one to assume that I'm not "supportive" of a fellow-Pilipina in the arts just because I recognize the wackness in their product. Bottom line is, if the art or music is good, then props are given- if they're not good, then I'm going to give my opinion. I only hope people would be open enough to throw me the same kind of critiques. In other words, please, please, please feel FREE to tell me if my sh*t is wack.

In other news, since two thousand eight has begun, it's been a non-stop hustle-of-a-ride for me. Seriously, I feel like a years worth of events have happened within the past thirty days.

And -- In addition to the positive vibes and good people around me, what is also keeping me going is perusing the simple insights shared by some reasonable thinkers. i.e.:

• I think religion is ineradicable. - Ian McEwan.

• It's not who you know; it's what you know. Knowledge is the thread that runs through all the entries. Not Knowledge of the (Divine, Mysterious) Truth, but good old knowledge of facts, (lower-case) truths dug up and confirmed by careful testing—the kind of knowledge that has been steadily accumulating in the human race for thousands of years and is now expanding explosively on almost all topics. With some few remarkable—and much analyzed—exceptions, once we human beings figure something out, it stays figured out. - Daniel C. Dennett.

• Common sense is all very well, but it has many strands, and they aren’t always internally consistent, especially when they need to be squared with the findings of science. This is why philosophers often end up with odd theories. -David Papineau.

• What's beef?/Beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep (don't sleep)/ Beef is when your moms ain't safe up in the streets (ain't safe)/ Beef is when I see you/ Guaranteed to be an ICU (I see you) one more time What's beef? (What's beef)/Beef is when you make your enemies start your Jeep (Start my Jeep)/ Beef is when you roll no less than thirty deep (thirty deep) Beef is when I see you/ Guaranteed to be an ICU, check it (I see you) - Biggie Smalls.

Word to big bird.