“I hate to say this, but hair is the best thing to happen to rhythmless non-blacks.”
“Did I die and go to simple bitch hell?”
Issa Rae, creator, producer, and star of “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” is hilarious– and onto something.
I became aware of the Awkward Black Girl Twitter account several months ago, but paid it little mind, assuming it was just another funny blog or a random account made for a virtual character (see “@RacistAndre” or “@IRespectFemales”). I didn’t know that Issa Rae, the Stanford grad who also studied at New York Film Academy and UCLA, was co-creating exceptional, hilarious internet television with other California artists.
In a world full of mainstream media such as Basketball Wives, Real Housewives, The Bachelorette, and countless other examples of ratchetness, it’s refreshing to engage in the saga of a regular black girl who isn’t the “sassy black woman” stereotype…or ANY sort of preconceived notion of what a black woman is. She isn’t single and depressed, a baby mama, or a hoodrat ready to fight… J is an everyday woman who goes through things to which most EVERYONE can relate.
The purpose of this website is to shed light on the concept of “Redefining Success,” and Issa Rae and the cast and crew of “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl” are shining examples of such. Issa didn’t wait for a major studio to give her a green light to produce a TV series. She took her skills and used her own abilities to create a fluid, dynamic work of art that resonates with people and is a welcome vacation from the craziness that is the mainstream.
“ABG is…universal. It’s a series with a black female character in the lead role, but at its core, it’s about being “awkward,” which is a unifying and universal thing that we all have experienced in some capacity. With the series, the lead character, J, faces the most mundane and trivial problems, but they are problems that we all have encountered—and that’s where the humor and heart from the show originates.
ABG is simply about embracing the ‘awkward’ person in each and every one of us and learning to accept and love ourselves for who we are.”-Issa Rae on the Kickstarter campaign page.
As I said, she and the ABG fam are doing something right. They created a Kickstarter campaign in the hopes of funding future episodes and compensating the people involved in their production. They could have easily asked for something modest, like $3,000, but decided to go big and set a crazy goal of $30,000.
They raised $56,259 AND COUNTING.
This video is a nice overview of the show, and below I share some of my favorite moments from each episode.
I picked up a box of seitan at Whole Foods on Thursday with Ange. Here are some ways to use the meat substitute:
Seitan Scramble
Ingredients: Seitan, eggs, olive oil and whatever vegetables you like. I used bean sprouts, peppers, and broccoli.
Directions: Grill the seitan and add sprouts.
Add the remaining vegetables. I don’t sautee the veggies for too long because I like them more on the raw, crunchy side.
Add two or three eggs, stir until scrambled medium, and voila.
*****
Seitan Sandwich
Later Friday evening, bokeen brought home Subway. I asked him to pick me up a regular toasted Veggie Delite sandwich with lettuce, tomato, olives, cucumber, and oil and vinegar.
I sauteed some seitan in olive oil, seasoning salt, and Italian seasoning. I sliced up an avocado, and added both the seitan and the avocado to the sandwich.
Easy peasy.
*****
Living Live
I’m not jumping to any new definitive labels of vegetarian/vegan/raw eater, but I am testing the waters and seeing what other options are out there. So far, so delicious.
We’re used to certain foods because we’ve fed ourselves in certain ways for a while and have built up the neuropeptide receptors for our respective addictions. Trying to change any habit (eating meat, being anxious, smoking, drinking, drug use, TV/Internet addiction) is difficult because the receptors in our brains are hardwired to fuel our desires further.
As we’ve learned about addictions, it’s a matter of understanding that our nervous systems are able to change. It’s not like one has to be addicted to gluttony, nicotine, depression or heroin forever– it’s the choice we make to work to build up the receptors for that which we WANT to be addicted to. This is why it’s difficult for people to start working out when they’re used to being lazy. The brain receptors don’t WANT to push the body harder. We just have to push back. Without significant, conscious effort, how can we change?
Anyhow, seitan is delicious and I’m glad I took another step toward learning about a previously unchartered territory. Feel free to share any recipes!
I write a lot about the things I experience, and the lessons I’ve been learning about how this ROLLER COASTER ride/game of life works. While the metaphysical may be difficult for some to truly grasp and comprehend, I transcribed a podcast featuring Max Igan as he speaks about how we TRULY create our reality— the science behind it; rather than my interpretations which may not gel with certain types of mindsets. The audio part one of his explanations can be found here, or you can just read the following, of which I’ve transcribed.
Cheers, and here’s to being the author of your own life.
Interviewer’s question: “How do you stay positive in the face of all this negative information?” (he’s speaking about the decline of society; conspiracy theories, the disintegration of people’s faith in the authorities— the basic lifting of the veils of deception in today’s society that has been happening for as long as humans have been here.) Max Igan’s answer: It’s not negative information; it’s just information. What’s negative is the emotion that people attach to the information. If you see everything as being negative, you create a negative reality for yourself. I see everything as a battle of energy– ultimately, that’s all it is. All these things happen on an energetic level. It really is all about energy.
“When you understand that all that exists is ENERGY expressed as photon light and phonon sound– these energies of light and sound have two different polarities. This can be expressed as any polar opposite you’d like: Light/dark, good/bad, love/fear. The different frequencies of these two polarities are what make up all of reality. You’re simply one frequency of a single consciousness, experiencing reality as the person you are at this particular time. That’s all you are.
“When you understand what the energetic basis of reality and how your body works, and how this computer manifests reality, and how that reality is based on the emotional content you put in the computer, a whole new different way of dealing with things becomes abound to you. This is how I’ve managed to keep myself happy all the time.
I have discovered a newfound appreciation for cooking. Sure, I knew how to cook breakfast, and how to prepare basic meat and starch dishes growing up, but when I progressed into adulthood and lived on my own, the desire to cook waned.
My boyfriend bokeen cooks a lot, and as time passed after we moved in together, I found myself becoming more dependent on him to come up with dinner ideas since he is so passionate about it. He and I have different tastes (he is what you would call a picky eater, and claims to be allergic to things he doesn’t like), so I finally owned up to the fact that if I wanted to change my diet, I’d have to do it myself rather than convince bokeen to make something with tomatoes in it.
Lately, I’m learning more about raw foods and reducing the amount of meat I consume. Earlier this year I became hip to couscous, a very versatile semolina staple food in West African, Moroccan, and other cultures around the world. The first time I tried it was when I was hanging out with my shaman/guru and some other people at the House of Culture in Chicago. The gathering featured a raw food buffet, and it was delicious, filling, and satisfying to every aspect of my being.
The following is a recipe I found at Ochef.com via the No Time to Cook Cookbook: Fabulous Dishes for Today’s Fast-Paced Lifestyles. It’s obviously not raw, but is meatless and very delicious– the mushrooms add that great filling and texture. And it’s easy! Chop up some veggies and saute; boil some water to make the couscous, and voila. Without further ado:
Mushroom and White Bean Stew over Couscous
Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds small whole white mushrooms
1-1/2 cups couscous
1-pound can stewed tomatoes
1-pound can cannellini beans (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1 cup diced onions
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
2 cups water
2 pinches cayenne pepper
For being service providers, airline staff can be pretty fast and prone to saying “no.” At least that was my impression this morning.
Challenge: Level 1
I’m running late. The US Airways self-check in screen says in red font: YOUR BOARDING PASS CANNOT BE PROCESSED AT THIS TIME. I approach the nearest human.
“I can’t check you in,” the US Airway representative says as he clacks away at his machine. Panic sets in as he enters the information from my ID.
“I can run,” I suggest. “I’m not checking baggage.” Desperation. More panic.
“I can’t check you in; the gate already has control of the gate,” he explains, something that makes absolutely no sense to me. “I can’t check you in.”
I look at him. “So, what should be my next step, then?”
“Well, I’m checking you in for a later flight at 9:30; that’ll get you through security and then just tell the people at the gate that you’re one the early flight.”
I look at him and think, You bastard. Why didn’t you just say that in the first place, rather than saying ‘I can’t I can’t I can’t?’Power trip, much?
“Thank you,” I say to him.
“It’s quite all right. Go to F-10.”
He just had to be difficult even WHILE knowing there was a viable option. Weirdo.
