"Maybe I Should Slow Down": The Infamous Weekend Recap

Friday, I got off work early and Bryan and I rolled out to the courthouse on Adams to assist Keenon and Rod with Just the Two of Us. I am also shooting footage for my documentary, King Indie. It's an arrogant title, but hey, Bryan named it that. Blame him. I saw people shooting a commercial. So, naturally, I asked if they need extras. They turned out to be a company from Dallas, and they were shooting one of those law office commercials where they use the actual person. So, it was a bust. But, I got footage. Keenon and Rod pulled up in the middle of me filming that. Keenon forgot the clothes that Sharon Bishop needed to wear. Sharon plays Keenon's mother, and she flew in from out of town. I rolled back to Keenon's apartment. The downtown traffic was horrible, and then there was a train on Southern (what a shock). THEN I had to fight Keenon's dog once I got there. It was tough, but I fought my way past his evil, demonic dog, got the garment bag with Sharon's clothes, and drove back to Adams. Once there, I saw that we were filming with April Hale (The Survivor), the GREAT Michael Travis Stone (Delusions, Ray), and an old friend of mine from my days on WUMR 91.7, Terry "Dee" Draper III. He used to sub for me back on the U of M's jazz station. He says he's pursuing acting now, too. Bryan got footage of me in with the boom mic and talkling to Sharon.

Saturday, Bryan and I were on the set of Divine Manipulation of the Threads. Stone and Draper joined the cast of that movie too as two new fellow thugs. My resident thug homie, Jovan Jackson (Just the Two of Us), was there. My man came in the bulletproof vest. That joint was hot. Forrest Pruett also did a great job as Stone Free Joey. It was real cool. Forrest took pictures of me in my camouflage getup. If I knew how to post pictures, I would show them to you. Hopefully, he'll put the pictures on his journal. I had on a camouflage hat, camoufalge t-shirt, and camouflage Nike shoes. I was thugged out! Bryan also wound up being an extra. We shot more footage for King Indie. We didn't film on Keenon's film that night, so I went to an open-mic poetry set at the Marcus Garvey center on South Main and Lauderdale. I did my Huricane Katrina poem, "World Outside My Window", "My Pen", and a new poem that declares war on gangsta rappers and wack radio programmers entitled, "Shut the F Up". I plan on getting my poems copyrighted and publish a book of poetry. I hadn't performed at a spoken-word set in over three years. Felt good.

Sunday, Bryan, Keenon and I were at the GREAT Michael Travis Stone's apartment downtown to record the implosion of the Baptist Hospital. That was crazy, and smoky. My car was several blocks away, and it was still covered in dust. Then, I filmed a scene for Mail Call, the film produced by John Fuess and directed by Vineet Thapar. I had a funny scene where I try to sell a chess set to a guy. Bryan wound up being an extra in that film. I also shot more footage for King Indie. I then went home to finally rest. That evening, I watched The Untold Story of Emmitt Till. It is a great, powerful documentary showing at the Highland Quartet. Go see it.
I thank God for the experiences that I have had this year. Creatively, this is one of the greatest years of my life. I am living my dreams. It feels unreal. I pray that the new and exciting experiences continue.