Mary Christine Brockert (March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010)

I ain't gonna let you go that easy...
You've got to say you love me too...
I ain't gonna let you go that easy...
I'm gonna give it all to you...

Sleep in Peace Lady Tee...

his royal highness...

i have seen plenty of artists in concert in my lifetime.

none of them could touch prince.

of course there is no comparison between all of the artists i've seen. each of them do their thing and do it well but prince is who he is and brings it as he does and there are just no words to describe how remarkable and talented he truly is.

he danced. he wowed the crowd. he shook his cute little ass. he told us when to and how to clap. he was engaging and oh so sexy.

he performed "adore", "insatiable", "scandalous", "if i was your girlfriend", "the bird" & "jungle love" (by the time). sheila e. joined him on stage and performed "glamorous life" and "love bizarre". he started with "let's go crazy", "1999", "delirious", "little red corvette", "kiss" and "take me with you" oh and i can't forget "beautiful ones".

prince performed purple rain, of course, and during his guitar solo, close to the end, i started thinking...

i love my profession.  i love my job. i work at my church and i love that too. my 9 to 5 work comes easy to me. my church work comes very easy for me too. i have found my niche and my work simply flows out of me. sometimes i get a thank you, some show of gratitude, but most times i don't. and it doesn't bother me. i know that i do what i do because i offer service - in both of my jobs - and i do it well. millions of people are helped and blessed by what i do for my job and i enrich my community with my church work. i feel uncomfortable when people thank me for that sometime because i know what i offer is so beyond me and my capacity - it truly comes from God.

back to prince singing purple rain... the guitar is riffing, he's walking up and down the stage and playing.  and he comes back to the mic and sings "you say you want a leader, but you can't seem to make up your mind, i think you better close it and let (not me) God guide you to the purple rain". i said to myself... he's doing it. he's living and doing what he has been called to do. he touches people with his gift and sound and words. his gift truly is God-given. no wonder he's so shy when people praise him. he can't possibly take all of the credit for that!

and then i cried. truthfully i wanted to let my bottom lip hang and allow my face to contort up uncontrollably as it does when i ugly cry, but i didn't.

there was something so soul-stirring about hearing purple rain. i love that song so much. but seeing it performed live. seeing prince perform it live. seeing prince play that guitar. hearing the strings and cords... i got chills and the 2 people next to me shook with chills too. there's a healing to be found in music and there's certainly a healing to be found in prince's music.

i hated to see him leave the stage. i was so upset that the house lights were up. i can tell he wanted to sing "nothing compares 2 u" for me. i know he did. and he wanted to perform "pop life" too. he actually came back while the house lights were up and performed another 4 songs. it was one of the most beautiful things i've witnessed.

i cried when i saw maxwell. he was performing the hell out of "pretty wings". but when i saw prince, i saw the one who inspired maxwell and that was freaking awesome!

fine man friday... he is legendary

this man must be a slave to his craft... it is embedded in his very being, in it he lives, moves and breathes... he is one of the most talented men and for that he has earned the status: legendary...

i was introduced to him in 1979. and since then we have had an unwavering commitment. he is an artist that i love to love. he continues to write, record, produce and play... for me... and i continue to enjoy and hang onto every note, cord, word.

he feels for me, he told me that i'm the marrying kind, he wants to be my lover, my mother and my sister too... he has promised me that until the end of time, he'll be here for me, i own his heart and his mind, he truly adores me.

there is not a genre that he cannot capture... i believe the world is his influence and his inspiration. he's not just a funk or r&b or rock and he's more than simply a pop artist... last year as me and my friend DC drove from pennsylvania back to new york he serenaded us along the highways... out of my left eye i caught her laughing and i asked her why. she said, damn i didn't know he was a rapper too! yes my man, he's all that and then some.

when i heard he was coming to the north east i threw my request to the universe... well it was more than a request, i staked my claim when i said, "i am going to see prince in concert".  that was back in november. sure enough one of my friends called me last night to tell me he and his wife bought our tickets and tonight i will scream and sing right along with prince at the izod center. i scoured my drawer to find the perfect pair of purple panties to fling at him... i didn't have any :-(

 Prince Rogers Nelson

tonight is gonna be a good night for slow love... i did a post last year, If Prince Gave Me a Private Concert... and tonight... well the concert won't be private... but an experience i will be sure to remember for the rest of my days.

here is where i would post a prince song that i love... i love so many and it's hard to choose. i would put purple rain, anotherloverwholenyohead, or adore or do me baby or if i was your girlfriend and i cannot not put i wanna be your lover but i choose "g.o.d". love theme from purple rain. i chose this because my mother bought this because i loved prince even more after purple rain (the movie and the album) came out. i watched that movie a total of 96 times in one year. i have every line memorized and i could do that iwouldie4you move so good! this was something my mother probably stumbled upon... and the little 45 is even purple. i still have it though i don't own a turntable...

i am...

HARD

at least i've been told that i am. i've been called brutish, mannish, mean. i've been called cold, harsh... a bitch. at times i curse like a sailor and sling insults without guilt. i can muster up all of the grit from my bronx streets in my vocals and unleash.

and i am surrounded by women just like me... my mama is hard, my friends are too. we have been told that we're mean, nasty... aggressive personalities.

yet a couple of weeks ago, while in a business meeting at my church, me and two other aggressive women sat in a circle grilling, mean-mugging and surely intimidating a potential employer,a male potential employer.. only to be punked.  i thought for sure my poker face and cold interior would get us what we wanted. i knew that the older woman among us, the negotiator, would surely lay down the mandates and we'd win. i was convinced that the more aggressive woman, the louder and physically larger one of us would compel this man and he'd fall in line. he did not. what he did was he gave us his final terms, flipped his hands at our negotiations and was just about put his coat on and walk out of the meeting until we were forced to give in...

i won't go on to talk about how us three women and most of the women in my circle are single... i already mentioned how people and especially men call us mean... i was even called an alpha male by one prospect... now before i continue and conclude this post... this is not a whoa is me, i need a strong man who can handle this strong woman tirade... instead i recognize and aim to relinquish the need, want, desire, compulsion to be something i was not created to be. i admit that i am not always mean, sometimes the softer side of me shines through but i've been tough for so long. i've had to handle situations, assert myself in places, make decisions and a sturdy exterior has been produced... this recent incident made me realize that you can catch more flies with honey, not vinegar. we probably could have worked out a deal slightly skewed in our favor had we been a little more sweet tempered. and most of all, i realized that aggressive, to a real man, i really, REALLY a turn off - and this is not just to men. this tough girl can relax herself, the yin, can allow the yang to create balance...

this is one of my favorite songs... by a former "tough girl" mary j. blige...
here is "father in you"...

fine man friday... i've got a jones

i really do... and you know what? joneses make you do things you don't normally do... make phone calls, wear certain types of clothing, go all kinds of places, do all kinds of things...

well this jones of mine... he's an older man. distinguished and debonair. he likes cognac and expensive cars and jazz... we have some things in common... some... but what moves me and what moves him are different... yet... i like that he likes what he likes... feel me?

some days me and my jones barely speak... and then other days we're talking and laughing endlessly... he is someone i feel for deeply... we are connected... we are friends... we haven't crossed the line of intimacy... and we probably never will... but then again heaven only knows... it's not necessary... like i said, we are connected... in a our phones are both busy because we're trying to call each other / we feel each other's gazes across a crowded room / we greet and talk with facial expressions and eye movements kind of a way...it's... special...

there is not much i can offer my jones... he already has everything he needs and he's picky about his wants... but every now and again i think of him and gift him with a little something... i was buying natalie stewart's floetic soul and a suggested choice appeared on the screen... amazon allows you to send mp3 downloads as a gift and i knew my jones would appreciate this...

my fine man friday is none other than...

Will Downing

my jones and will downing actually resemble each other... it's the dark skin and the bald head and they both seem to have a nice soothing baritone voice... below is a link for "a million ways"...

i'm listening to... the floacist

*i recently downloaded some new music and so i've been listening all week....

i went to an open mic night back when malik yoba of new york undercover had a restaurant on 42nd street... all of the artists were seated around the restaurant and i sat next to one... the floacist i believe... she handed me a flyer right before they took to the floor - there was no stage... they tore the place up...

i loved the duo... i remember purchasing the 1st cd for cheap! had to be about $4.99... because it didn't do well... at first... and then they released "say yes", the radios started airing it and the cd price went right back up...

i thought that the songstress was the one who brought the flavor, the softer side... after all she is the singer... but i have listened to her solo venture and while i love her vocals still, there's a little something missing in the music...

the floacist has released her solo project floetic soul... she features artists raheem devaughn, musiq soulchild and, my favorite, lalah hathaway on three songs... the entire cd really is poetic and soulful... without the featured tracks this still would be good but the addition is just the seasoning this project needed...

what i like is that she kept true to what put floetry on the map... she has a song or two that features her rhymability and she's definitely skilled... and then there are some some songs that are really after9 tunes... the ones you throw on when you and your man or woman are done watching tv and talking...

here are 2 favorites below... "come over" featuring lalah hathaway and "need you"...
let me know what you think...

i'm listening to... georgia anne muldrow

i first heard her vocals alongside erykah badu's on "master teacher" on the new amerykah part one release... and then i found out she is a songwriter, producer, and musician...
her music doesn't fit the bill of most songs, some are three minutes, some are only a minute and a half... some have hooks, some don't... most are spacey and dizzying like she might smokethatstuff and then bust out her pen and paper... i say that she is an acquired taste... those who dig georgia like jazz and funk and heavy beats and free-form... she's not your average soul singer...
when i need my balance back... i listen to georgia... when i'm tripping over someone or some issue and i find that i'm about to weaken... i put on georgia... there's something about the hardness of her beat or maybe it's her lyrics that speak to the heart of issues...
her "early" album, in my opinion, is her best! i have to say that if i were to introduce her to anyone, this is the album i would play. her essence is presented but it's softer and easier to digest while her older work is slightly more complex... i read that she recorded most of her tracks on the "early" album when she was in her late teens... i don't know why she has recently released them but as with most things, it was done right on time...

searching...

one day while sitting at my desk... bored... tired of facebook... having read all of the current posts from my favorite bloggers, i set out to search for something new... what better way to find a fresh blog than to look at your own profile, click on one of the interests and see what comes up...

well... i did that very thing and found me... i found an alternative blog i created two years ago. i have very few posts on it because i was a little unsure of what i really wanted to do with it, what i wanted to say. it was supposed to be my raw, peeled back, uncut version... my heart lies within thewordsitype... i created this blog three years ago... out of sincere interest and free time and to have a venue to write freely... to vibe with other bloggers...

i have been journaling but i seldom revisit what i have written... sometimes i throw out my journals (after destroying them) because i feel that i have grown and there's no need to hold on to those thoughts... if i do come across a journal and i read it i feel slightly embarrassed to have had those thoughts and experiences... as if it really wasn't the true me experiencing them... so it was surprising to look back on the blog i created 2 years ago. it's interesting to see how i changed and how i really haven't changed... how my truth is really etched into my being and not just sitting on my surface, easy to be erased or rearranged... i still desire the same things...  and the things i wanted to change, i did...

i suppose the reason why the other blog dropped off, it wasn't too much different from what i post here... just a parallel post with a slight bend to it...

Roy Ayers' "Searching"... you see my friend and i need someone / who feels and needs the same as i... i'm searchin'