where is the cerebral jester?

where is the cerebral jester?
visit him and his friends at the house of dandridge by clicking above

Friday, December 29, 2006

the pursuit of happyness

just came back from seeing a surprisingly excellent performance by will smith and his real life son in "the pursuit of happyness". so happy for will to take on such a powerful role. he hasn't done anything dramatic really since "six degrees of separation" and i don't know why because he proved that he's a wonderful actor in that. he's been playing the same hero type role for a long time (i didn't see "ali" but i guess that was a good one too. the chocolate lover side of me did love the hot shower scene in "i robot" though.

go see "the pursuit of happyness"! it is extraordinary and it is the first movie in a while that actually made me cry in the theatre. it didn't help at all that my sista erin was sitting next to me imitating a water fountain ehhe....i was so close to throwing a penny at her ehehhe.

first porn post

i'll admit...i caught this on perezhilton's blog but i just had to make my debut as a porn blogger just for this occasion. apparently it's gotten "England in a tizzy" so says perez. i'll also admit now that i do visit perezhilton.com pretty often. there's still an italian gossip monger in me...i can't lie.

i just watched a little bit of it and it looks pretty hot. very frat boys caught on tape...the girl must be mortified now....but damn she was lucky


footballer's biatch

check it out! don't know how long it will stay online!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

let's go to turkey!


i just discovered a new website and a new vacation destination! i doubt i would ever want to come home but i must say when people say i look lebanese or turkish...i will take it as a high high compliment. how do you say "bear" in turkish? mmmmmmm

www.kirkpinar.com

da dubya dildo



please check this out for a good laugh

dubya dildo (it comes in different colors!)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

guilty pleasure

yeah i was a big fan back then and i am not ashamed hehe...surprisingly paula abdul's "under my spell" tour was the very first concert i had ever been to....this is paula at her prime!

no idol worship



did you know this? i didn't...

Global Research, December 26, 2006

"Their entry into the church will tarnish it as [Bush's] hands are covered in the blood of the innocent..."


The Spirit of Christmas consists in spreading Peace and Justice. The Spirit of Christmas is when War Criminals are banned from the Birthplace of Jesus Christ.

In April 2003 at the height of the military campaign directed against Iraq, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem decided to ban President Bush and Prime Minister Blair from the birthplace of Jesus Christ.


"They are war criminals and murderers of children. Therefore the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access into the holy shrine for ever,"

"Their entry into the church will tarnish it as [Bush's] hands are covered in the blood of the innocent,”


The Church of the Nativity is under the authority of the Greek Orthodox church.

Of utmost significance, the US News media has not reported this story.

Spread the word to Church parishes in the US and around the World.

Unseat the War criminals.



===========================




BETHLEHEM, April 01, 2003 (Online): The Church of Nativity, widely believed to be the birth-place of Jesus Christ, decided to ban entry each of the US President George Bush, his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw the privilege of visiting this sacred place, which is one of the holiest Christian shrines.

The move came in protest of "the aggressive war these leaders have waged against Iraq," top Clergy of the church said.

The Church Parishioner Father Panaritius made the decision public at a massive protest demonstration organized by Orthodox institutions in front of the Church of Nativity."They are war criminals and murderers of children. Therefore the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access into the holy shrine for ever," the parishioner said.


=========================


AMMAN — Parish Priest of the Greek Orthodox community in Amman, Economos Constantine Karmash, said Tuesday he fully supports the Church of the Nativity decision to ban a number of top coalition leaders from entering the house of worship.

The Bethlehem sanctuary issued a ringing reprisal Sunday of the coalition attack, going as far as barring US President George W. Bush, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw from entering church grounds, due to their “aggressive war on Iraq.”

“The priest in the Church of the Nativity has every right to ban Bush and his supporters since they have marred the teachings of Christ. Their entry into the church will tarnish it as [Bush's] hands are covered in the blood of the innocent,” Karmash told The Jordan Times.

The local priest went on to say that he felt the punishment was not enough. “We need a tougher one to eradicate evil at its very root,” he exclaimed.

The Nativity Church's parishioner, Father Panaritius, said during a rally organised Sunday by the Greek Orthodox community in Bethlehem that Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair and Straw are “war criminals and children killers that will be banned from entering the church forever!”

Karmash explained that the banning was different from an official church ban, or “excommunication,” which requires a supreme church power. If this is done, the excommunicated are no longer considered members of the church and will not be provided any church services such as a marriage or funeral.

Bush and his supporters are not members of the Greek Orthodox Church, said Karmash, hence they cannot be subjected to an official church ban.

“We hope that their respective churches, which condemn the current war, will strip Bush and his supporters from their church rights so that they become ostracised from their church as they have become ostracised by the humanitarian and international community,” pointed out the priest.


Sunday, December 24, 2006

future t-shirt

merry christmas from the vatican



Pope: Gay Relationships 'Dismal'

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: December 22, 2006 11:00 am ET

(Vatican City) Pope Benedict Friday fired a new broadside at same-sex couples warning that politicians who vote to recognize gay and lesbian unions were tampering with nature.

The pope used the Christmas speech to priests in Rome to urge them to rally the faithful in opposition to laws that would support gay and opposite-sex unmarried couples.

He said that those who support gay unions endorse "dismal theories" that strip all relevance from the masculinity and femininity of the human being as though it were a purely biological issue."

The speech came as Italy's left of center coalition government prepares a bill to establish civil partnerships and a day after the governor of New Jersey signed a civil unions bill.

"I cannot hide my concern about legislation on de facto couples," the Pope said.

"And so joining a man and a woman, and two people of the same sex becomes the same," Benedict said. "With that, the ominous theories that deny any relevance to the human person's masculinity and femininity are tacitly confirmed."

But in nearly a decade of denouncing same-sex relationships Benedict and his predecessor have met with little success in curbing LGBT civil rights legislation.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, Canada and the US state of Massachusetts. The Socialist candidate, favored in the upcoming French election, has said that if elected she will introduce a marriage equality bill.

Civil partnerships are available in most European Union countries and in the American states of Vermont, Connecticut and as of February New Jersey. Other EU countries and a number of states and have domestic partner laws.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine on Thursday signed a bill that will establish civil unions in the state. It goes into effect Feb. 19 but LGBT rights advocates in the state predict the law will be only a stepping stone to full marriage within two years.

In Italy the leftist government of Romano Prodi is working on a civil partnership bill similar to that already law in the United Kingdom. Earlier this month the Senate passed a motion calling on the government to bring in the legislation by the end of the month.

This week two members of a small party in Prodi's coalition stepped up the pressure on the government, placing two dolls of two same-sex couples in a nativity scene in Parliament.

Friday, December 22, 2006

leave hevesi alone

Tell Pataki, hands off Alan Hevesi


I was going to take another approach in writing this column concerning New York State Comptroller, Alan Hevesi since Newsday saw fit in their print edition to write of his legal entanglements as if he committed war crimes. Even Lawrence C. Levy (Newsday columnist) wrote a column “Hevesi should police himself and step down” One wonders if Mr. Levy would be as bold as to say that to George W. Bush considering the multitude of laws broken by him. Nah, everyone protects Bush. It is a double standard, if you are a Republican, you are protected, but a Democrat, you are fair game.

As I logged onto Newsday.com tonight, I was shocked to read Pataki ponders removing Hevesi, this article it states that he is cutting short a trip to Hungary “to return to Albany today and decide what action to take in the wake of Monday's Ethics Commission report finding that Hevesi broke the law by using a state worker to chauffeur his wife for more than three years.”

One wonders who paid for Governor Pataki’s trip to Hungary. Was it the tax payers of New York State? Also since he is the governor of New York State, why is he in Hungary in the first place instead of in Albany? I think that is a fair question. Oh wait, he is testing the waters for a presidential bid in 2008 and one wonders if the tax payers of New York State are funding his political aspirations as he travels around to states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. If the tax payers are funding these trips, then I want my money back, George.

I was heartened as I read this Newsday article in which “Hempstead school board trustee Ralph Schneider said.” I think he screwed up. I'm not going to kill him for it." This article also reports that Schneider “was satisfied that Hevesi paid $82,688 to reimburse the state for using a state employee to chauffeur his wife.” He then went onto say "Considering the man's wife was ill, I'm not going to kill him, as long as there's restitution," As far as I am concerned Alan Hevesi did redeem himself by making such a restitution and all things considered his wife was ill. It’s not like he broke a law that sent our brave men and women off to fight an illegal war in which the casualty rate now stands at over 2,800.

In my opinion and the opinion of many Bush committed a class-A felony and Hevesi committed a misdemeanor.


for the rest of the article click here

i'm so stupid


found this on my hard drive and didn't even know it was there...months ago a video file was floating around the internet that was about ten to fifteen seconds long supposedly part of the backdrop screen madonna would have used for her performance of "i'm so stupid". the song didn't make it into the show but i must have downloaded this demo a while back and forgot about it. yep...i've had a lot of free time on my hands lately...finding files i didn't know i had eheh....enjoy...it's pretty freakin rockin!

madonna - i'm so stupid (re-invention tour outtake)

Thursday, December 21, 2006

some original poetry

synthetic smile synthetic smile synthetic smile no more synthetic smile I’ve burned the finest forest
I’ve struggled not to sneeze
But I am a wanderer and I go
Wherever I please I’ve taken all the pills
And swallowed every vial
But I cringe inside this poison frown this synthetic smile synthetic smile synthetic smile no more synthetic smile I am not a soldier
I am not an android
I am full of fuel
I shall fill this void synthetic smile synthetic smile no more synthetic smile
Nothing can stop me
No one can discourage my velocity
I am happy
I am lucky
Diving upward
Submerged in pure ecstacy I’ve recited the alphabet
I’ve answered my temptations
But I traded my reality For these synthetic sensations I shall fill this void I shall fill this void I shall fill this void I shall fill this void I shall fill this void

shaman

Just open up a new file
And let it flow
Don’t be afraid of the light

Don’t be afraid of the dark
Just take this candle
It is lonely and cold and unscented
Waiting for the warmth of your fingertips
You’ll never have a baby of your own
But you can be the midwife to brilliance
Remember that your mother loved you
And went to see you in every show


You’re not a sissy
You’re a shaman
You’re not a faggot
You’re a shaman
A little bit of dusk
A little bit of dawn
A little bit of sun
A little bit of moon


Servings

An appetite cannot be insatiable
Because without a destructive hunger
And without a complete satisfaction possible,
An appetite it is not.
Then what is it that I posess?
An endless need to be vulgar
Sometimes relentless in my carnal pursuits
Often there cultivates a dizzying pain
Only relieved and soothed in a foreign world,
Temporarily
Door locked, the blessed bolt secured,
I become the sexual jester
Worshipping my temporary idol
With offerings of sweat and saliva
Choking on my own fantasy
My heart racing with each consumption
Voracious and jaded
To my slave,
My puppet
My golden calf
I am the slave,
The beggar
The whore

The beast
Each of us feeling and sensing the promise
A promise broken every single time
Without the burden of remorse
The ill-percieved guarantee of perfection
Catching our breath and wiping my brow
Fastening our belts and trading salutations
My blood again is poisoned anew
With the hunger of scavengers
With the stealth of vultures
With the desire familiar
I raise my hand
And hail the canary chariot again

compare the divas

i think i might actually be giving in to the dreamgirls hype...it was inevitable...i'm a faggot hehehe








here's the part where i chuckle...

boys beware!

fabulous secret powers

found this on youtube a while ago and came across it again as i was browsing tonight...so damn funny...

and i said hey yeah yeah...


night of 100 stars

my friend ian left a comment on my myspace page with this video. it is out of control!!! 1985 first of all...second of all...every single popular female entertainer of that time wearing the most insane designer clothing!! and walking around and flipping around and prancing...some are galloping not walking. trust me...you won't be able to stop watching because you'll wonder who's next. wait till you see what ann margret's wearing...fierce!!

relationshipwreck



i thought i'd share with you guys one of my live sessions from back in september of 2004. all the songs that appear in it are pretty timeless so it's still a good representation of my style. it's also the most coherent set i've ever recorded....the songs tell a story about a certian kind of relationship that eventually crashes into oblivion...but with the backdrop of some dirty beats...it may take a while to download it all...but trust me it's worth the wait.
dj chauncey d - trabaje volume ix "relationshipwreck" introduction

dj chauncey d - trabaje volume ix "relationshipwreck" part i

dj chauncey d - trabaje volume ix "relationshipwreck" part ii

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

chauncey treat

this is possibly the best thing queen latifah has ever done in her entire career. it came out in 1990 i believe right after madonna's "justify my love" and when i first heard it on the radio i thought it was a new madonna song. oh how i wish madonna recorded it. it's a relic...and one that i don't believe many people are familiar with. but i have always loved it and just recently found it online again at a high quality bitrate. enjoy!

queen latifah - how do i love thee?

so many things wrong with this one


Wendy Vick, clinic nursing supervisor at Providence Everett Medical Center, takes pictures of Brett Karch's wounds. Karch, a member of the Snohomish High School ROTC team that was manning a cannon at a football game, nearly lost his leg when the cannon accidentally blew up. In the back is Karch's mom, Mary Bissel.

Boy hurt by cannon blast feels twice wounded
Accident in football town elicited threats, not get-well wishes

By CAROL SMITH
P-I REPORTER

SNOHOMISH -- The cannon shot that ripped into Brett Karch's leg, causing a gaping combat-style wound, has also torn a hole in his hometown community of Snohomish.

Karch, whose leg was nearly amputated and who faces more than a year of physical rehabilitation with an uncertain outcome, has been the target of physical threats because of fears his injury will jeopardize the community's tradition of firing the ceremonial cannon before each high school football game and after touchdowns.

For complete story click here

all i can say is that i'm disgusted and just reinstates my lack of love for this country's emphasis on traditions and sports
if you can donate to this kid please click here

what the hell are you waiting for?


hey everyone....this mashup is about two or so years old...back when i was all gung ho about mixing acapella tracks and instrumentals...just listened to it again (it's on my dj myspace page www.myspace.com/discoscientist) and i must say...i'm proud of it....it's pretty damn brilliant (i spent a long cracked out day on it...my birthday as a matter of fact two years ago) hope you enjoy...please let me know what you think...

it's an instrumental of madonna's "amazing" from the music album with an acapella of gwen stefani's "what you waiting for"


gwen stefani - what you waiting for (chauncey d's amazing anticipation mashup)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

top 33 songs of 2006

so i was on a forum recently and everyone was posting their top 50 or top 30 songs of 2006...of course i had to be different and once i got to 30 i thought of a few more so here's my top 33 singles of 2006...in no particular order and styles ranging from pop to electro to alternative to folk...etc. the gossip - standing in the way of control madonna - get together hot chip - (just like we) breakdown imogen heap - hide and seek regina specktor - infidelity goldfrapp - ride a white horse moby featuring debbie harry - ny ny peaches - downtown cicada - the things you say the chalets - red high heels chicane feat tom jones - stoned in love coldcut - walk a mile in my shoes gorillaz - dare prince - love pink - u and ur hand bjork - who is it royksopp - what else is there? andy bell - crazy timo maas - pictures till west - same man audiobullys - i'm in love tiga - you gonna want me robbie williams - rudebox sarah mclachlan - river tori amos - not david bowie persephone's bees - nice day kraak & smaak - keep me home the ditty bops - wishful thinking st. etienne - stars above us hard-fi - cash machine morcheeba - ten men skye - love show van she - kelly

Thursday, December 14, 2006

religion in latin means return to the one


hey everyone...still wondering if anyone is out there at all.

been trying my best to keep this blog up to date but not sure whether i have any readers. i know i have some fellow bloggers out there who have me in their links but not sure whether people click on me either way. if you do come by from time to time please post a comment so that i know i have an audience. meanwhile, i am content with the fact that i am blogging at all. if i relied on having an audience all the time...i'd be crazier than i already am.

i mentioned a week or so back that i had gotten fired from the urge...the gay bar i used to dj and work the d
oor at. it was about time i must say. i had gotten away with being the mouthy rebel that i think i am, even though i don't say what i feel and therefore don't get what i want more of the time, for longer than i expected. speaking my mind has always gotten me into some delicious troubles so why not quench my appetite from time to time. aside from that, typically the way the firing was done was cowardly and pathetic as most pink slips are passed anyway. i went through a lot in my life the past four years working there and i can't say i regretted a darn thing. i went through my last throes of being addicted to crystal meth (so proud that i did it all myself) and although i occasionally dabble in her sister...i am not a fiend for anything anymore other than a nice neat and abundant shot of JD to eventually make me sloppy. my thirtieth year, although much anticipated in my mind, has been a rough one...falling behind in rent...my self-esteem beaten up...and all that jazz related to that saturn's return bullshit. when it comes down to it...i love falling from time to time...because the getting up is always so interesting and exciting.
one thing i've been able to do in this little unplanned vacation is to get back to listening to the music that made me a fan of music to begin with....the singer/songwriter "lesbian folk" or "martyr music" as some have called it. i have recently been so obsessed with electronic music and stuff that i would be able to play at work that i ignored a lot of the beautiful music that has come out in the last couple years. this little break will give me the opportunity to digress so to speak and get back to the one thing that made my padded room so much a paradise. a song.

also i have magically become inspired to write again and am going to do so after i publish this until like old times my face falls onto my notebook and my pen leaves an obscure mark on the page that i made while dreaming. i remember the days i would wake up and if i used a marker of some sort there would be a huge ink spot after the last word i scribbled was. those were the nights....

but a semi-recent musical discovery has been regina spektor. i just found an older album
of hers called 11:11 (big shout out to kindred sister esv) and all the songs are wonderful but i'm gonna post one of my favourites for you to taste...kinda goes along with that lawsuit recently about making the american dollar accessible to the blind (google it)
regina spektor - braille
and a song i share a love affair with with my former boss...a song i will never play for him again accompanied by an unusually sexy picture of th
e goddess herself
tori amos - cooling

and i'm gonna finish it off with a remix of amy winehouse's "rehab" by dj ronifah...i find it refreshingly
fitting hehe
amy winehouse - rehab (dj ronifah)

Monday, December 11, 2006

calling all angels

Tonight was I UNITY Fund's (the grassroots non-profit organization i have been talking a lot about that i am a core member of) fourth annual "Calling All Angels" toy drive and fundraiser. it was held at the skyline penthouse ballroom in hell's kitchen. the event benefited Jacobi Medical Center of the Bronx' Pediatric AIDS Services.

the night went off with nary a hitch. some inevitable sound problems and situations arose but were fixed immediately. i guess practice makes perfrect because me and friends seem to be getting better and better at throwing an event together at the last moment. some people work better that way. my friends eric and brian came to volunteer and my dear brother david came and filmed the event as a favour to me. clips of some of the performances will be available online very soon.

our gift bags were overstuffed with promotional cds and other products, filled to the rim with discount coupons, t-shirts and much much more. one of the items inside the bags was a cd compilation i made especially for the event. naturally for me, it was an "alternative" holiday collection perfect for tree trimming on a night where snowflakes entertain us from the other side of the windowpane featuring old folk classics reworked, some new gems and some other favourites of mine.

go to www.iunityfund.org for more details about the event. Down below is the tracklisting of the cd. Let me know if you're interested in obtaining a copy.



Happy Holidays

Ch@uncey D







1. Sarah McLachlan - River

2. The Postal Service - Sleeping In

3. Yolanda - Angels

4. Alanis Morisette - Wunderkind

5. Marjorie Fair - Hold Onto You

6. Lenny Kravitz - Calling All Angels

7. k.d. lang - Helpless

8. Juliet - Waiting

9. Matt Costa - Cold December

10. Paula Cole feat. Peter Gabriel - Hush Hush Hush

11. Billie Myers - Kiss The Rain (acoustic)

12. Cyndi Lauper feat. Sarah McLachlan - Time After Time

13. Train - Calling All Angels

14. Keane - Everybody's Changing

15. Chantal Kreviasuk - Surrounded

16. Mary J Blige feat. Bono - One

17. Madonna - X-Static Process (Astrolabe Remix)

18. Gene Wilder - Pure Imagination

compiled by DJ Chauncey D

Thursday, December 7, 2006

part of the process


i found this remix of madonna's "x-static process" by astrolabe on limewire recently and it's just so perfect. it's not overproduced it's just been given that slight little trip hoppy kick that the song didn't necessarily need but the accent is lovely

download and enjoy!
madonna - x-static process (astrolabe short cut)

Sunday, December 3, 2006

original poetry


Dirty Laundry on Sin Cycle

back in the dark room
developing photographs that cannot be seen
but only touched and smelled and tasted
dark in the back room
enveloping fantasies from a rotted dream
knees scuffed and promises wasted


a push on the spine of my electric rodent
a pause in time inbetween each moment
a place to find each displacement
a press upon this virtual encasement
mummified in binary threads
sterile with distance of time and emotion
fertile with pseudonymns and synonymns
only blues and greens and reds
to season the design of this digital pot
ion
the reason to fight to never win
chat in the backroom
back in the chatroom

creating prolific profiles of makeshift perfection
sweetened with careless carnal confect
ions
playing pretend with useless pretension
threatened with each expensive invention

a push on the switch to disconnect the light
a pause in the darkness of wrong and right
a place to hide the day from the night
a press upon the tongue and take another bite
sanitized in salivary glands

sterile with the absence of passion and trust
fertile with dirty clowns and balloons that bust
imprisoned in rubber bands
to insure a most productive performance
to ignore the host of sublime ignorance

dreaming in the steamroom
bleeding in the bedroom

crying in the diningroom
dying in the livingroom
dark in the darkroom
dark in the backroom
dark in the chatroom
dark in the bathroom
a light in the operating room
a light in the funeral home
a baby in the wonder womb
a baby in another tomb

oliver

hurry dear
scurry my dear
sneak past me
rush right by
for if i catch you in the corner of my eye
i'll spin my web so fast
your apathy
your adolescence
your gymnastics wouldn't stand a chance
paint me
stain me
colour me with your trademark jaundice
the terrible tint of your virginity
i want to thrive on anything and everything you deprive yourself of
i want to invade you
i want to persuade you
i want to overthrow your majesty with an army of anything and everything that you're afraid to become

i believe that if you believe that i believe in you we can leave this world together whenever we want to
and if you believe that i believe that you believe in me we shall see that forever is however long we want it to be

dangle me
strangle me
please test me for i am ready to fly
for if you forget me and leave me to die
i'll teach myself how to dance
your melody
your cacophony
your harmony wouldn't stand a chance
feed me
bleed me
pour me in your challice
the poison of your insecurity
entrap me in your lattice
the unbreakable cage of your conformity
drown me in your tempest
the violent storms of your heresy
crown me with your crest
belligerant thorns of your legacy

i have sinned but i was forced
naked and shivering
hated and disgraced
misplaced in your misery
until i found myself divorced
from the abomination of my infatuation
i have lied
but i have tried to do my penance
careless and quivering
yet somehow i have survived
with pollution as my only solution

you can never stop the rain
you can never stop the pain
you can only change its name
and all that you choose to ignore
you can be sure
will always return to hurt you
like a boomerang
and the ghosts will always haunt you
so open the door
and bring yourself inside
my lonely whore
forever more



chauncey treat


the demos from the confessions tour have recently leaked and here's the stripped down acoustic version of drowned world (substitute for love). it is closer to the original demo of the song itself "no substitute for love" which leaked a little before the music album came out. the interesting part of this version is just like she put a piece of "intervention" in the bridge of "mother and father" during the re-invention tour, she placed a bit of "nothing fails" at the end of "drowned world" but unfortunately didn't keep that part in the show. take a listen...it's really pretty.

madonna - substitute for love (confessions demo)

oh and by the way...i got fired today...more on that later heheh

Saturday, December 2, 2006

untold story

Found this while browsing for horror stories and ghost stories in New Orleans...kinda made me ill

Doing “Katrina Time”—Torture in New Orleans Prisons

Part 1: Locked Cells in Rising Water

by Li Onesto

1157 Miles. That’s how far New Orleans, Louisiana is from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – in physical distance. But in terms of being a place of horrific torture of prisoners, the two places are very close.

Meteorologists had predicted that Hurricane Katrina would be devastating. But government officials failed to evacuate the city, leaving tens of thousands to suffer—especially the poor without cars or money and the elderly too weak to leave.

A decision was also made to NOT evacuate the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP). As satellite pictures showed a Category 5 hurricane heading toward New Orleans, the Sheriff of Orleans Parish, Marlin Gusman told the press, “We’re going to keep our prisoners where they belong.”

Across town from OPP, the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals packed up their 263 stray pets and got them safely out of the city.

August 29, 2005. The day Katrina hit, there were 6,375 prisoners in New Orleans. This included 670 women; 354 juveniles, as young as 10 years old; and immigrants being detained. A full 60% of OPP’s population, about 3,800, were people in jail for things like traffic violations, parking violations, public drunkenness, begging, blocking the sidewalk (i.e., being homeless), and failure to pay a fine. Many were awaiting trial and had not been convicted of any crime.

New Orleans had an incarceration rate of 1,480 prisoners per 100,000 residents—the highest incarceration rate of any large city in the U.S. The United States has the highest national incarceration rate in the world, and it was double this in New Orleans. Of OPP’s population, 90% was Black.

Water quickly flooded into the prison complexes. Power was lost, plunging people into total darkness and shutting down the electrical system used to open cell doors. Cardell Williams, interviewed in the BBC TV special, Prisoners of Katrina, said, “After the water came to our waist level, the deputies told us to get into our cells, they had mace and shotguns.”

Hidden Story.How many people know that when Katrina hit, thousands of prisoners were locked up and left to suffer, perhaps drown? This has largely remained a hidden, untold story—denied and covered up by prison administrations, government officials and politicians.

On August 10, 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project released a report, “Abandoned & Abused: Orleans Parish Prisoners in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina,” that documents the experiences of thousands of men, women and children who were abandoned at Orleans Parish Prison in the days after Katrina. Based on questionnaires received from 1,300 prisoners, as well as interviews with current and recently released OPP prisoners, the report contains extensive and damning testimony, and evidence of the inhuman and racist torture-like treatment of OPP prisoners—how they were abandoned, then beaten, shot at, and abused by prison guards, and then evacuated under further inhuman and brutal conditions.

Jim Crow, Chain Gang South. New Orleans is in the Deep South. During slavery, it had two dozen slave auction houses and several times a year the ballrooms of its two grand hotels were used as showrooms for human merchandise. Today, Congo Square, where slaves were auctioned off, has been renamed Louis Armstrong Park and the city is world famous for its Mardi Gras celebrations. But the legacy of Jim Crow, chain gangs, and KKK justice is a living legacy in New Orleans. And the present-day effects of this whole oppressive history are especially and brutally alive in the whole system of unjust courts, brutal cops and inhumane jails.

"Abandoned & Abused" recounts, “In 1980 a mob of white cops rampaged through a black section of the city in retaliation for the murder of a police officer, killing four people and injuring as many as 50. According to reports, people were tortured and dragged into the swamps to face mock executions. In 1990 a black man accused of killing a white officer was beaten to death by officers who had gathered to wait for him at the hospital to which he was transported; no officers were criminally prosecuted or administratively sanctioned. These incidents which would be terms a race riot and a lynching if performed by private citizens are merely the most sensational examples of the department’s racially discriminatory practices.”

Locked Cells, Rising Water. Close your eyes for a minute and think about being in total darkness. You’re locked in a cell. Flood waters are rushing in at an incredible rate and within minutes it is chest high. The guards who have the keys to open the cells and the doors to the outside have left. The phones aren’t working and there is no way to communicate with anyone on the outside. No way to know if anyone is going to rescue you…or if you have just been left to die.

Prisoners told of how people were scared and screaming that they could not swim, that they didn’t want to die. They put up desperate signs on the outside of the buildings that said: “We Need Help” and “Help No Food Dying.”

Some who were not locked in their cells managed to free others. “If it wasn’t for inmates somehow getting my cell open,” one prisoner wrote, “I probably would have died.” But others could not get out of their cells.

For days thousands of prisoners were trapped with no food or water and had to resort to drinking contaminated floodwater containing raw sewage. More than half of the over 6,000 OPP prisoners had been on some kind of medication. But this had obviously been of no concern to the prison officials. Some people started having epileptic attacks, others suffered from not having their medicine for asthma or diabetes.

One prisoner reported: “All through the time of this you heard screams of terror, cries for help and no one was answered… Most of us was on meds and didn’t receive them. I myself went without my asthma pump and struggling with my breathing severely, being not able to talk and feeling weak. There was smoke everywhere and all you heard all night and early the next day was gunshots. I really felt inside like I was about to die and was left there to die!!”

One prisoner, Joyce Gilson, wrote: “You wouldn’t imagine that one person would let another human being go through that when there was time to let us out. It never would occur to me that a person could let that happen, even though we’re in jail we’re human beings.”

Mace, Batons, Shotguns, Tasers. When deputies came back into the prison building, they didn’t come with food, water, or any other kind of help. Instead they came with riot gear, shotguns, mace, batons, tasers, and brutality. One prisoner wrote: “Deputies came up firing rounds down the hallways to keep us in the cells… They even handcuffed inmates to bars of the cells.”

Some prisoners started knocking holes in the walls, trying to get out. Some of them jumped from the third floor into the water. Prisoners told of how deputy snipers shot at anyone who tried to get out of the flooded, suffocating buildings. Some prisoners ended up hanging from the rolls of razor wire lining the fences that surround the prison. Ace Martin, a prisoner in the Templeman III complex, said, “One guy jumped out of the hold and they shot him… He fell on a barbed wire fence. They picked him up in a boat and told us to stay in the hole or we’d be shot.”

Lies and Cover-Up. Public officials and the mainstream media had little if anything to say about what was happening in OPP. When a report finally came from officials, it was full of rumors and lies—claiming that the prisoners had rioted and taken over parts of the complex. The City Council President told a TV station that rioting prisoners had taken a deputy, his wife, and their four children hostage—which was completely fabricated. This was in line with and added to the way the media portrayed the masses of Black people in New Orleans as looters and criminals—while not reporting about the many and creative ways that people came together, cooperated and helped each other out under such dire circumstances and in the face of such blatant government neglect.

Sheriff Marlin Gusman says there were no deaths at OPP during the storm and the evacuation, even though several of his own deputies and many prisoners report deaths at the jail. To this day, Gusman claims prisoners weren’t mistreated and that they were given food and water. So how does he respond to the fact that hundreds of prisoners and even many prison guards questioned by the ACLU completely contradict this? Gusman says: “I have 75 accounts from inmates given by lawyers with misleading questions. It’s kind of hilarious to read them… None of it was true. But when you put it in the paper it becomes more credible and it frustrates the hell out of me. Don’t rely on crackheads, cowards and criminals to say what the story is.”

But who were the real cowards and criminals in OPP when Katrina hit? The thousands of prisoners, along with all the other thousands of people in the city, who did everything they could to try and survive—in the face of murderous neglect and racist brutality? Or those who left human beings in locked cells as floodwaters rose, who shot at people trying to escape to safety, who brutalized people with mace, batons, tasers and dogs, and then covered up and lied about all their crimes?

Friday, December 1, 2006

world aids day



please take the time to remember those you have lost to AIDS and send some love beams towards those we know that are currently infected and affected with the virus....

in strong and loving memory of Marcus Rodriguez and Derrick Cherry and Joseph Pinto

toy drive drop off spots

Toy Drive Drop Off Spots (NYC)


please bring an unwrapped toy in its original package for infant to late teens to any of the following locations

*Bio-Scrip Pharmacy 197 8th Avenue @ 20th Street

*The Urge 33 2nd Avenue @ 2nd Street

*Serena Lounge 222 West 23rd Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues)

*East of Eighth Restaurant 254 West 23rd Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues)

*Spirit Cruises Pier 62, Suite 200 West Side Highway @ 23rd Street

*View Bar 232 8th Avenue (between 21st & 22nd Streets)

*Behaviour 231 West 19th Street

*Chelsea Clearview Cinema 260 West 23rd Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues)

*Nowhere Bar 322 East 14th Street (between 1st & 2nd Avenues)

*Children of Light 2672 Broadway @ 102nd Street


"calling all angels"

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

That's right everyone! The legendary Martha Wash has joined our celestial cast of performers for our Fourth Annual Toy Drive and Fundraiser "Calling All Angels" on Sunday, December 10th from 6pm - 10pm at The Skyline Hotel Penthouse Ballroom on 10th Avenue and 49th Street

The show will be hosted by the lovely and leggy Edie and will feature performances by

Sylvia Tosun
Peppermint Gummibear
David Feygin
Adam Joseph
June Bug
Gusty Winds
Jeff Adames
Jeannie Sol
Milan
MINT
Doug Baron

This year's toy drive and fundraiser will be benefitting the Jacobi Medical Center's Pediatric HIV/AIDS Services in the Bronx. Toy Drive Drop Boxes are stationed all around Manhattan. Please go to www.iunityfund.org for a location near you. If you can't make it to the event please make a stop at a toy store and drop an unwrapped present for infant to late teens in one of the boxes. Space for the event is limited so please make your reservations as soon as possible to iunityfund@yahoo.com or call 646-429-9333 now! Sponsorships and advertisement opportunities can be discussed as well. One makes a difference...let that one be you!

i'll be there working the sounds and working hard to make the festivities a success...come and join me!


happy holidays!

future t-shirt

from time to time i will post a jpeg of something that i eventually want to show up on my chest...smacked up onto a nice fresh new american apparel t-shirt...found this while browsing through my hard drive...i almost forgot about it!

Apture

DJ Chauncey D on Facebook