Spring Has Sprung

Wow. Days like today make me really grateful that I was able to cop a lap. This is an absolutely gorgeous day. It's about 65, maybe 70, the sun is shining, and I'm in Philly. The only thing keeping this from being an absolutely perfect day is that my lady's not here. If she was, this would be an obscenely great day. As it is, it's a censored great day. Some random observations: There's nothing better than making a purchase, thinking you got a good deal and then finding out that you did for sure over the course of the day. I copped some art markers for about a dollar cheaper than I've seen them in either MD or VA, and then I went to another store and found that the price I paid was 25 cents cheaper than anywhere else in town. That's hot! On days like today, there's one song lyric that keeps dancing in my head. It's the opening line from "I Like the Girls," by Fatback:

Winter time is gone/ and the summer's almost here/yeah, yeah, yeah yeah/ time to get rid of all the overcoats/and let the girls go free/yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

That's what I'm talkin' about…yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! I'm in Rittenhouse square right now, but in a minute, I'm gonna head up to UPenn campus for old time's sake. Sometimes I try to see if I can get on any of my friends' telepathic frequencies, so if I see a girl who's one of my friends' brands, I try to send them an image. So far I don't think it's worked, but I keep trying. I think it's because I keep thinking about sending them the image instead of actually sending it to them. Like I said, we'll keep trying until we figure it out. At any rate, I hafta be wrong and mention the fact that some women need to know how to dress appropriately for their figures. I mean, I should probably be gender-neutral and say people, but there's two problems with that: first, I'm not interested in dudes so I don't really care what they've got on, unless it's a hot t-shirt or an outfit I think would work for me. Furthermore, I don't really analyze their figures carefully enough to know if what they're wearing doesn't work well. Second, most men's outfits aren't really designed to show of the man's figure. There are some, but normally, guys tend to err on the side of caution. Normally. Women, however, dress around their figures. Either they try to show it off, they try to hide it, or they hide some and show some, depending on what they think is appropriate vis a vis their religion, body type, self-perception, etc. So here's some thoughts, most of which are things I think every year about this time. This year, I have a laptop and a blog, so they're getting outside of my head and my notebooks. • Everybody can't wear those low-cut jeans. If your waist-to-hip ratio is too close to 1:1, the look won't work. (As an aside, even though Black women tend to have higher BMIs than women of other demographics, many of the ones I've talked to understand this simple fact: it's not necessarily about the size, it's about the ratio. From the Black women I know, I've heard more complaining about having a flat butt than a fat one.) • Every style is not meant for every size. Thankfully, I have not had to deal with this today, but if it stays warm like this for a few days I will. Even with good ratios, some people just don't need to wear certain outfits. Overflow is definitely problematic. I tease my old lady when she points it out on other women, but for real-for real, I'm right there with her. • What's with these chicks with no butt wearing sweatpants with writing across the back? I saw a girl today, her pants said 'NET.' They were supposed to say 'NORTHEAST.' Another thing I like to do is watch dudes watch women. Now, I ain't gon' lie, I look, but I'm just observin'. None of these birds out there can fade my old lady. (And this ain't brown-nosin' because she doesn't even read my blog regularly.) I can see, though, so whenever I see a good-lookin' woman, I immediately look to see if there are any guys around. Earlier today, for instance, I was behind this bad Asian chick; reminded me of a word I used to use, "superhetrodyne." When I saw her, I slowed down a little bit because I knew guys were gonna act a fool. They didn't disappoint. One dude was with his lady. He couldn't turn his head so he just kept trying to walk slow and move his eyes as far to the corner as he could. A little further down the block, there were two cats posting up against a building. The first brother checked her out a little as she was approaching, but just about broke his neck as she passed. The second brother leaned forward and started breathing so hard I thought he was gonna suck a piece of paper up off the ground. At that point, I got tired of walking so slow, so I walked ahead of her. Two business men came around the corner. "Wow!" one said to the other. If you don't watch dudes watch women, I highly recommend it. It's the cheapest comedy you will ever see. The only thing is, you can't really laugh out loud like you will probably want to. I'll probably make some more observations once I get up West, but 'm bout to fold up and roll. (2:11p) 3:45P I'm sittin' outside the Penn bookstore, listening to this CD I made of some serious MCing. Right now, I'm on Rakim. These kids think these cats today can rhyme, but they don't know the half of the half. Rakim was absolutely amazing. I'm listening to some of these songs 16 year after I first heard them and I'm still floored by the lyrics. Anyway, I went to this used book/record/comic store, wishin' that piece was there when I lived here, and I copped this Walter Hawkins record from 1972. That brother had a perm on the album cover. And when I say a perm, I mean that brother should'a been on the cover of some hair magazine. I know on the Love Alive albums he had a kind of blowout perm, but this piece he has on the cover of Do Your Best, it's just a perm. Snoop Dogg wishes he could get his hair to look like this. Checking out these women has made me think about the difference between looking and lusting. The fact that I bought some art markers so I can work on this portrait of my old lady only adds another level of texture to my thoughts. Having done a fair share of figure drawing, I've seen my share of breasts and booties. Add that to my erstwhile choice of entertainment on weekends and the subject of a report in my dance class while I was in undergrad, and I've seen a whoooole lotta butts and breasts. And from seeing them in those two contexts, I can state with authority that all nakedness is not the same. But the difference is not observable to anybody other than myself and God. When I pick up a pencil (or marker nowadays) and start drawing, I really don't have time to get off on the model. It's like the books always say, draw the planes. When I'm drawing the planes, I can't sit there and think, "Oooh! That's a titty!" I'm too busy worrying about rectilinear and curvilinear, shapes, and proportions. It just doesn't work. So lust while drawing is just…well it's not impossible, but it takes too much work. All the energy I'd spend lusting just takes away from the amount of attention I can pay to the picture I'm supposed to be working on. To that end, I've seen where some Christian artists have suggested that Christian artist not draw nudes for the sake of lust. In this case, I think the artist in question was thinking more of the viewers than the artist himself. My dispute with that is that nakedness does not equal lust. That is to say, nakedness is not a requirement for lust whatsoever. I've known cats who try to check out garbed-up Muslim women, talkin' about, "I bet she got a donkey under there." Clearly, for those dudes, it's not a matter of fabric. That means it's not a question of what's on the woman's body (whether on the street or in a picture), it's about what's on the man's mind. (I like women in suits, myself.) If a dude wants to lust, no amount of clothing is gonna stop him. Conversely, if I was to do a nude of a Rubenesque model, for most of the guys I know, there would be no expression of lust; maybe some disgust or ridicule, but that's about it. So nakedness does not equal lust. Now, when it comes to lookin' at females, I think there's a set line there, but it's subjective too. So for myself, I have a 3 second rule when I'm not drawing. Up to three seconds, it's still appreciation; recognizing the beauty of God's design and being thankful for sight. After three seconds, though, it ain't nothin' nice. That also includes looking back to get a better view. Now that's just something I came up with for myself. When I have conversations about this with other guys, I bring this up, but I don't see it as a normative idea. Some dudes need to just walk around with blinders on. Some others could look for five minutes. It just depends. I think that's the whole point of Matt 5:28. Every person has to be aware of and control what's going on in his own heart. There is no watching what other people do and figuring out whether or not they're lusting (Although some looks you can't help but recognize.) That said, fashion issues aside, some women should just know better. To quote Jeru the Damaja, "sisters with good minds get no respect when/their ass is all out..." I mean, to be honest, I don't mind looking but some women just take it too far. I don't need to see butt cleavage.