Nike Basketball 3 ON 3 Tournament @ LA Live

The largest basketball tournament, the Nike Basketball 3 ON 3 August 3-5 2012 in the Southland ends with its thrilling fanfare while NBC 4 continues with its live coverage of the Olympics. Parking lots, street corners, major streets had been turned to basketball courts with closures of Chick Hearn Court on Figueroa and 11th Street at LA Live.

2012 NBC 4 Olympic Games Village @ LA Live: The Elite Games of Nike Basketball 3 ON 3 Women Tournament between TBA and National. Teams from a group of friends in wheelchairs to series of ladies from the West Coast compete in several divisions for an array of prizes, including cash. Date: Sunday, August 05, 2012. Location: LA Live, Downtown Los Angeles. Image: Ehirim Files Images.

Attempting a free throw in one of the parking lot turned Nike Basketball Tournament court.

Scene at the NBC 4 Olympic Village Sunday, August 05, 2012, which brought in thousands of amateur hoopsters and spectators from all around the country for the Nike Basketball 3 ON 3 Tournament to vie for bragging rights and cash prizes. Image: Ehirim Files Images

Los Angeles Greater Tomorrow Drummers

Siblings brought by their mother display their developing talents beating drum at the Drum Church Circle LPV Art Walk on Sunday, May 27, 2012 after procession through the village. Fela Kuti's protege and founder of the Drum Church Circle Najite Agindotan commences drumming by splashing water on the circles as parts of rituals and callings of Olokun Prophesy. Distinguishing surrounding features: World Stage Performing Arts Gallery, Eso-Won Book Store, Buckingham University administrative offices, KAOS Networks, The Vision Theater, Adassa Jamaican Restaurant, African Treasures Gallery, Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, Zambezi African Antiques, Lucy Florence Institute, and much more; and an exhibition on the last Sunday of every month by local artists, whose work are found in every spot. Ehirim Files Images.

Los Angeles Greater Tomorrow Drummers

Siblings brought by their mother display their developing talents beating drum at the Drum Church Circle Leimert Park Village Art Walk in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 27, 2012 after procession through the village. Fela Kuti's boy and founder of the Drum Church Circle Najite Agindotan commences drumming by splashing water on the circles as parts of rituals and callings of Olokun Prophesy. Distinguishing surrounding features: World Stage Performing Arts Gallery, Eso-Won Book Store, Buckingham University administrative offices, KAOS Networks, The Vision Theater, Adassa Jamaican Restaurant, African Treasures Gallery, Barbara Morrison Performing Arts, Zambezi African Antiques and much more; and an exhibition on the last Sunday of every month by local artists, whose work are found in every spot. Ehirim Files Images.

Summer Jam Afternoon Jump In 'Black Township'

Michael Sessions and trombonist Carl do their thing on the playgrounds as visitors and tourists watch.


Ray Straughter of Cosmic View rehearses at the World Stage Performance Art Gallery for the upcoming opening for the Michael McDonal's Hollywood Bowl Concert.


Folks in the village playing chess and the knockout game.


Dancing to the Najite Agindotan led Drum Church Circle beat, like in a spiritual revival.


The Learning Academy...Kids learn the art trade as part of 'incubating' the village.


Multi-instrumentalist, Wadada sets up his promotional CD and rehearses for the Labor Day Weekend jam.


The game begins -- the Drum Church Circle beats -- and Najite leads.



Tourist possessed by the powerful spirits of the Drum Church Circle beats.

Summer Jam's Winding Down

The beginning of summer could be viewed as the opening scene of a movie. Shots into the night. The crews and casts. The concerts from every recreational park on the goodwill of every city or county's department of culture, and on the sponsorship of the big rollers in today's commerce -- Heineken, Lucky, Los Angeles Weekly, Downtown Long Beach Associates, Budweiser, Jack In The Box, Burger King, McDonalds, Sonoma Vineyard, CVS Pharmacy, Magic Johnson, Korbel, KLOX 95.5 Los Angeles, Amoeba Records, and so on -- throwing in the big bucks, making sure we party animals, pub-crawlers, concert goers and the Hollywood wannabes gets the best out of it. It is winding down and how could one explain it? Fun? Of course.

Besides all that summer jams and blasts, call it what you want, I somehow did something different during the course of the summer jams not letting anything block my way, no matter what. I read some fascinating books while the summerfest jammed all around. I combed through Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck after my daughter reading it and concluding some of the short stories did not have an ending suggesting there might be a sequel as in a movie or to suspend her readers to figure it out. And, also, interestingly, I read Jeanette Hardage's Mary Slessor -- Everybody's Mother: The Era and Impact of a Victorian Missionary published by WIPF & STOCK taking me aback to the civics lessons of Colonial Mentality which destroyed our cultural heritage bringing about modernity that we see today as civilization, and which ultimately nullified our ancient customs rather than reform them. Remember when "witchcraft, trial by ordeal, the murder of twins" for one must be the offspring of a demon and when barren women were derided as ekwesu, evils in our society? As the story goes on, Mary Slessor, the Scottish Presbyterian missionary, at age twenty-eight dabbled into an agrarian and primitive society in Calabar and did all she could as a missionary to leave a mark in the history books.

I also read The History of Black Religion: Your Spirits Walk Beside Us by Barbara Dianne Savage published by Harvard University Press, which narrates the relationship between a prominent black preacher, Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church in Chicago, and his most famous congregant, Barack Obama, who would become the president of the United States. Savage wrote with style here beginning with the early studies of black religion by W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, and Benjamin Mays and ending with a discussion of Obama and Wright. Interesting read!

Now the book is diverting my attention, so I must face the real deal and while summer is just fun. Nothing but fun, so to speak.

From Long Beach to Los Angeles, and from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley, it's all about jazz and the summer jams. From Laguna Nigel to Ocean Side, the sweet breeze met the smooth jazz on several trips along the coasts of San Diego heading back North on the 405 Freeway onto the 5 Freeway jamming the farmlands of Central California. It also echoed on the playgrounds of California State University in Bakersfield, breezing through the beautiful smell of produce in Fresno. It's been a hell of a jam despite the "slowmo" economy. It's the economy really bad?

Then all along the 101 North, heading to Woodland Hills, Canoga Park Westlake Village, it's all about the summer jams.

For instance, the three day Long Beach Jazz Festival was one of its kind in the program's 22-year history. The lineup this year was another event that revealed there is actually no show like showbizness. The festival was dedicated to former NBA player and jazz musician Wayman Tisdale who passed away on Friday, May 15th, 2009. My girl, Los Angeles-based performer, Angie Stone, gave it her best with her fifth studio album "Unexpected" scheduled to hit record stores around mid-October and Stone taking her career to a whole new heights said, "people think there is a fixed sound for Angie Stone, but this will be something different across the board," and acknowledging "... there will be some collectible tracks in there. With the exception of Chuck, I'm working with all new producers. I also worked with Juanita Wynn, my sister in soul for the last seven years and she's incredible."

In Black Township's Leimert Park, the 2009 World Stage dropped its own line of programs on Sunday, August 09, on the Vision Theatre parking lot with a bunch of casts and fanfare even though the event and turnout was way below expectation. I was able to talk to a lot of the performers, and had looked forward to seeing Los Angeles Times veteran photo-jounalist, Francine Orr to show up for the historic community's event which unveiled some incredible talents.

I had also spoken to Leimert Park resident, hand drummer, Marvin "Brother Rock" Rock of the Leimert Park Drum Church founded by Nigerian-born Najite Agindotan. Najite was the Chief Priest, Fela Kuti's hand drummer at kalakuta republic. Najite Olokun Prophesy plays weekend at the House of Blues in Hollywood with his cast of Omo ogun, Rock Samori, N'gala, Sherwood Nat Nyema, Nate Morgan, Charley, Kpapko Adu, Phil Ramelin, Bobby Bryant, Alaah-Deen, Andrew Gerald, Chini Kopano, Ndugu, Makida Anderson, and Carol Abata. Bobby Bryant plays alto sax while joined by fellow windist Alaah Deen on tenor saxophone.

Sitting down with Najite and chatting on the course of Leimert Park projects in reviving its cultural landscape, he said the city hasn't done much to promote the historic park's cultural awareness despite all the efforts he had put to bring back life to the community and his own idea of the Leimert Park Drum Church was to make it a yearly thing as in all cultures and fests.

The summer fests is winding down, for sure, and the reamaining lineups seems to be tempting and would be overwhelming. In keeping funk alive, the Long Beach Funk Fest was held on the streets of Long Beach, on the corner of Pine and Broadway, and it was all explosive, featuring back in the day funksters' Mandrill. Dawn Silva, Charles Wright and The Meters' Experience popped up to sustain the future through pure funk. The jam was on till midnight, Saturday, August 29 to wind it down, and I probably have one more big event to attend depending on my schedule -- the one week two festivals at the 33rd Annual Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival featuring Al Jarreau, Neville Brothers, Rick Braun, my buddy Jonathan Butler, Dr. John and the legendary R & B Revue, also, featuring Tommy Castro, Bernard Allison, Rick Estrin and Janiva Magness. The Jazz and Blues Festival starts Sept. 12 for the jazz concerts and Sept 13 for the blues at Johnson's Beach in Guerneville, on the plains of the wine country of Sonoma County.

It's going to be fun, without a doubt, so stick around as there is more to come and time to deal with the nasty political issues of the day, home and abroad.

DIARY: That Art & Soul Festival In Oakland, California

BY AMBROSE EHIRIM



The last time I was in the Bay Area, I did not pay much attention to the goings on, particularly Oakland from around which I hadn't been anywhere in the city for quite some time. It had been in and out, business as usual, so, not much to talk about in that regard. But this time around, a whole lot turned out differently. I wasn't aware of the turn around of things in downtown Oakland and for not to have checked in for a while, I was impressed. The city changed, indeed!

The raggedy, skid row, home of the Black Panthers and the classless sleep on your door step, ghetto-crawling neigborhood is no longer what it used to be. Oakland is totally transformed, and thanks to Jerry Brown who as Mayor of Oakland saw the necessary steps required to making things happen for folks long abandoned. The story of Oakland and its overnight transformation is overwhelming.

As it happened, the 9th Annual Arts & Soul Festival in Oakland had to be my calling since I have not seen the city in many years, and besides, each time I pop up in the Bay Area, Oakland never crossed my mind for I had thought of where it's jamming -- San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, Saratoga, Stockton, Santa Rosa, the farming-vineyards of Sonoma County coupled with other big recreational neigborhoods in the Bay Area, of the Woodstock and Coachella type -- for the groove and all that stuff.

But nevertheless, this time around, there was an event and I had to be focused to see how it unfolds. Quite fascinating.

August 14: I arrived Oakland and checked into the Ambassador Hotel on the corner of Franklin and 13th Street. A little bit tired, I made some calls to see who is around town. Not much, though, and for Friday night, I couldn't figure out what's it I was going to do before the festival kicks out the next day. I decided to go to bed and get some rest. No, I did not go to bed immediately; I popped up the news networks to see what's happening in my neck of the woods and what the Republican airheads are talking about.

However, it turned out to be the same old song -- the mud-slinging so-called conservatives who only think for themselves and how to protect their ill-gotten wealth negating the fact that under any circumstances in a democratic fabric, that there are people, underprivileged, who will always need help of some sort to overcome their predicament. It is natural and the Republicans and the newly coined Blue Dog Democrats, whatever that is, don't seem to realize and unfortunately they are not getting it. I still don't get it myself and I am not going to be part of a debate that does not make sense at all in a situation a desperately dying fellow should be allowed to die on the grounds of having no medical coverage.

What are we talking about here?

An organized society?

Well, since politics, they say, makes strange bed-fellows, let's believe in the rule of law, upholding and respecting democracy; and hopefully the Republican airheads would come to terms with reality and do the right thing. Cable News Network and all that news-related channels, including Fox, had become a bore.

August 15: I got up fresh and ready like Freddy for the festival. There wasn't much happening on the streets of the high-towered downtown Oakland when I peeped through the window of my hotel room.

At 10:45 AM, I was already on Broadway and 14th Street checking out the vendors, the area's local press and patrons who had showed up with delight for the festival's 9th year anniversary. The streets and sidewalks had already been flooded with the four stages ready to explode with performances of the day. On the stage at 12th and Clay, Loquet, BoDeans and Grammy Award winning artist, Shawn Colvin, were scheduled to perform. The stage in front of Oakland City Hall scheduled Abby and the Pipsqueaks, Jump Street and some local voices. The stage on 12th and Broadway had a Gospel showcase presented by Edwin Hawkins and the Community of Unity featuring Bishop Walter L. Hawkins of the Love Center Choir, Terrence Kelly and the Oakland Interfaith Choir,Sharon Wynn Davison, Sunny Hawkins and the Music Department, Men of Edurance, Derrick Hall and Company, while on 12th and Jefferson it was an all out jazz enssemble. The crowd was awesome and with summer almost winding down the vendors and organizers did the best they could to go with the flow especially in a 'slowmo' economy.

I walked around the four points of the festival and bumped into an artist whose booth had displayed all her finest works with the husband setting up the gallery. We chatted for a moment before the festival rose for the day. She was optimistic the festival "will eventually" be one of the big shows to be talked about in the near future despite its 9th-year of existence. I strolled down to the Oakland Convention Center on Broadway and 14th Street which is about 12 minutes away from the Oakland International Airport. Going inside the Convention Center sits Oakland China Town, The Preservation Park and some shopping complexes. A few short blocks took me to the Waterfront, Jack London Square and the Paramount Theatre which also is blocks away from my hotel room.

At about 7:45 PM, I checked back to my room for some rest before my buddy, South African-born, Berkeley-based sports freak, Johnson Boipelo Andile, comes around for some crazy sports talk and all that follows in a night of showdowns and pub-crawling. Andile had arrived late and we still hanged out anyway, talking about boxing which turned out to be his favorite sports, and he is really crazy about it going back to the heydays when boxing was real and very entertaining.

He talked about how boxing "is" no longer what it used to be and that all the fuss about Dominican Republic born undefeated Fernando Guerrero who now fights out of Salisbury, Maryland, is being overrated towards his upcoming fight August 29, when he meets Louis Turner in the middleweight division at Fitzgerald's Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. I'm not sure if I have been following up nowadays in what's been going on in boxing ever since it was commercialized nobody takes the sport seriously anymore. I had no idea who Gurrero was until he popped it up and on a critical note, he agreed with me "boxing ain't longer what it used to be."

We had talked extensively about the good-old days of boxing when all division were powerhouses. The days of Jeff Chandler, Azumah Nelson, Roberto Duran, Mustafa Hamsho, Salvador Sanchez, Eddie Mustapha Muhammad, Mathew Saad Muhammad, Dwight Braxton, Cornelius Boza Edwards, Michael Spinks, Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas "Hitman" Hearns' "The Showdown," Marvellous Marvin Hagle-John "The Beast" Mugabi duel, Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney race war, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton, Ernie Shavers and numerous other superb pugilists of the day.

After all these talks on boxing greats over some drinks at the hotel lobby, we drove out on San Pablo running through University Avenue where it meets Oxford at UC Bekeley. We found a spot, a bar and hangout, kind of, continuing our discourses on boxing retrieving "The Spinks Jinx," "Thriller in Manila," "Rumble in the Jungle," "Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello 1 & 2," and things like that related to boxing of the profound era when boxing had class.

August 16: It's been fun all over the previous day and I'm already up to deal with the happenings around downtown Oakland. The show continued with style and the performances were all great. Smooth jazz artist Bobby Caldwell had played and the crowd he had pulled was unbelievable. A night of jazz. The two day festival reached its climax.

August 17: I had traveled to Concord meeting Emmanuel Onyeador at his friend's ranch and vineyard. We talked more over some fine wine. David Iphie who lives in Pittsburg had stopped by to join us. Iphie picked Onyeador and myself and we drove to his house in the embrace of his wife and uncle, UC Davis trained agronomist, Humphrey Ezuma, who was visiting the shores of this land for a moment. The usual local politics popped up which I will be writing about in a different essay, while Iphie's wife prepared a delicious ofe olugbo, bitter leaf soup with varieties of meat and dried fish. We talked more and I enjoyed the company.

August 18: Back to the crazy-dubby Los Angeles-Hollywood where every 'damn' soul is really freaking out, and business as usual, I guess. It was indeed a trip to remember, and Oakland, for your excellence in the arts, I think I would like to visit again.

Summer Read

Books, academic journals, newsmagazines, newspapers, your hood free papers on your doorsteps, the freebies we bump into on our way to run errands and the take that, it's free that comes in your mailbox just to get informed in every aspect of life endeavors is honestly what keeps body and mind one. Without that, body and mind will simply rust away.

So as the Summer jams echoes every nook and cranny of our neigborhoods, it becomes clear that reading is not only for information but a resouceful avenue to keep our internal being healthy, and in some other ways to stay away from trouble by being preoccupied reading a good book.

Let's see here. Too many books have popped up on the shelves this summer and a whole lot seems to be fascinating according to the reviews that I have read. I shall begin with a book I had long expected which eventually surfaced and, the reviews seemingly applauds the author's work, and even though I haven't read it yet, which I would, certainly, and based on the numerous articles posted by the author regarding the troubled, fabricated Nigerian state, I believe the critics for lauding Nigerian-born, British trained and United States-based professor, Max Siollun, on Oil, Plitics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture.

Siollun, whose political commentaries on Nigeria, particularly on the military juntas and a corrupt civilian regime is all over Nigerian-related web sites and other publications, covered the fabrication of a Nigerian state to the civilian and military staged coups. I read Siollun coupled with the reviews on his new book meaning that I haven't read the book yet as I write, and other than having a copy in my study, there's not much that I would learn because the story about Nigeria's internal strife has been told in many different ways. And the book's hardcover prize of $33.95 and two hundred and something pages published by Algora is way high, though good in a sense for its revelations.

Like one reviewer noted, "most people probably do not see the Nzeogwu coup as the second attempt at overthrowing the Balewa government by force. While many followers of Nigerian history may know that Awolowo -- leader of the Action Group, one of the opposition parties in the First Republic -- was jailed for treason in 1964, few are aware that it was not a trumped up charge, and that three decades later, Action Group General Secretary, S.G. Ikokwu, confirmed that there was a genuine AG plot to topple the federal government."

I read Chris Mullin's "Diary" on the toxic mess in British parliament he wrote for the London Review of Books in which he came out unblemished and still has his 30-year-old black and white television. Mullin is a member of the British parliament. Detailed and quite some interesting stuff that reveals the digging by the Telegraph after paying a lump sum to purchase a computer disc which had to do with British Parliament's "unexpurgated expenses." The drama, indeed, makes Nigeria National Assembly look like a child's play.

On divinity and spirituality, there are good summer reads. In Martin Luther King Jr. for Armchair Theologians by Rufus Burrow Jr and illustrated by Ron Hill, "Burrow addresses those who see King as 'only' a social activist by showing how King's studies -- particularly his theological studies -- influenced, shaped, and transformed the activist part he pursued during his public life." And there's With God on All Sides: Leadership in a Devout and Diverse America by Douglas A. Hicks which deals with how American leadership bridges two bodies of knowledge -- "religion and leadership studies" which has been destroyed from complex problems. Here Hicks widens the discussion to include overcoming not only religious differences but also socio-economic, political, and cultural divides, according to D. Michael Lindsay who teaches sociology at Rice University and the author of Faith in the Halls of power: How Evangelicals Joined The American Elite.

And check this out. I remember while growing up, My childhood buddies and I hanged out on the beach and most often at Ruga Park playgrounds talking about the Knicker Bockers and the Yankees. Now there's a book titled Knicker Bocker: The Myth Behind New York by Elizabeth L. Bradley and published by Rutgers University Press. Philip Lopate had this to say about Knicker Bocker: "Those who puzzle at the incessant branding and rebranding of New York City would do well to read this fascinating, sophisticated, and witty social history of a myth."

There's interestingly The Making Of A Tropical Disease: A Short History Of Malaria by Randall M. Packard, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. There's The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates by Peter Leeson published by Princeton University Press. There's Love Lessons: Selected Poems of Alba Merini and translated by Susan Stewart, and here the book talks of Italy's foremost poets already known by Italian readers while English readers are about to discover for the first time.

There's Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity by B. Allan Wallace, published by Columbia University Press, and Father Lawrence Freeman calls it "our best selling mind and consciousness scholar boldly corrects the balance bewtween empirical study and religion. There's Einstein's Generation: The Origins of the Relativity Revolution by Richard Staley published by The University of Chicago Press and Times Higher Education Simon Milton puts it this way: "A magnificent achievement and a work of great scholarship. Staley succeeds brilliantly in providing new ground for understanding how Einstein gradually emerged as the central figure within the German physics community."

There's Hitler, The Germans, and the Final Solution by Ian Kershaw and published by Yale University Press. And there's last but not the least, Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt by Hasan Kwame Jefferies and published by New York University Press. Robin D. G. Kelley calls it the "book historians of the black freedom movement have been waiting for."

It's just too many of them books out there to keep you going along with the summer jams. So, people, go out there, sit and relax in any book store, browse some books for highlights and get yourself some good books for the summer read.

A Beautiful Holiday Weekend In Los Angeles

About a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine had talked me into going to the Bay area to watch Stephen Bishop perform at the Intramuros, South San Francisco, in a benefit concert. She had wanted to see the concert so bad. I had been preoccupied in Los Angeles. She wants to play a role in the concert for worthy causes. For the concert, and about our friendship, we are a study of compare and contrast.

She's into old-school -- the Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong and Kenneth Gamble/Leon Huff composition-era. I'm into all vibes, a musicologist. She's a hardcore liberal; garrulous. I'm reserved, a somehow liberal conservative; a centrist. She's a fashion freak. I'm careless, fashionwise. She reads fiction and believes in the Zodiac signs. I'm the non-fiction reader kinda guy and have no faith in astrology. She's Libra. I'm Virgo. She cooks good. I'm a mixologist. She has shoulder length curly hair. I'm ishi nkwocha, shaved bald. She's Tonga, a Pacific Islander. I'm Igbo, an African. She's straight. I'm straight. She loves outdoors, and I do, too. She wears contact lenses. I wear prescription glasses; and both coasts are clear.

To make up for ditching Bishop's concert at the Intramuros, she brought up a set of rules on her own terms and whatever she said was going to be the rules. I said "Okay!" She got her way and ordered me around the house. That was cool!

Her set of rules was specifically for the Memorial Day weekend and that whenever it's all over I could take back my manly stuff and go ahead with my own set of rules she'd not have problems complying with. The rules were set as follows: There would be no driving and Friday which commences the holiday weekend would be set for eating out, perhaps a little bit of home cooking and checking out the movies. I knew it was going to be a hell of a fun since summer was just breezing around the corner.

School is over for some -- my daughter is back and it's going to be a long, beautiful summer, especially her tales of academia and life in the dorm. The weather's quite nice. Lots of sunshine. The beaches are full to capacity. Bikinis. Hot pants. Those fine, dark sunglasses. Beautiful faces sipping cocktails in the sun.

The volleyball tournaments: Hermosa Beach. Redondo Beach. Venice Beach. Rockweller Beach. Santa Monica Beach. The mark of summer.

The eateries and the random popped up in-house restaurants. The real deal and summer jams. Ceccone's on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. Jane's House on Hollywood Blvd. The Standard in Downtown Los Angeles. The Mint on Pico Blvd. in West Los Angeles. Club Tatou on Boylston Street in Los Angeles. O'Brien's Irish Pub and Restaurant on Main Street in Santa Monica. The Amazon Hut Brazilian Juice Bar on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica.

The new arrivals on the bookshelves. "Rinnavation: Getting Your Best Life Ever," by Lisa Rinna on life's amazing journey. "Bad Mother: A Chronicle Of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, And Occasional Moments Of Grace," by Ayelet Waldman.

At the movies as the summer hits pops up in June. "Public Enemies," directed by Michael Mann and starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, the notorious Depression-era bank robber, and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the fedral agent who tailed Dillinger. "The Taking Of Pelham 123," starring Academy Award winner Denzel Washington as Walter Mathau, of a New York transit dispatcher and directed by Tony Scott. Here, John Travolta stars as leader of the gang. James Gandofini appears as Mayor of New York whom Travolta must fear. "Funny People," directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann and Seth Regan. The film is all comedy but Sandler's role as a dying middle-aged man might turn movie goers off.

"Taking Woodstock," directed by Ang Lee based on a true story of Elliot Tiber, an employee at a motel in the Castkills who inadvertantly made Woodstock happen. "Inglorious Bastards," -- another World War 2 story of Nazi occupied France written and directed by Quentin Terantino. The movie features Brad Pitt as the leader of the Jewish-American soldiers dispatched to perform targeted acts of retribution on German troops occupying France. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which opens in all theaters June 24. Michael Bay directed, starring Shia LeBeouf as Sam who becomes enmeshed in a battle between two extraterrestial clans "when he buys his first car and it turns out to be an alien robot in disguise." And, of course, there's Eddie Murphy's "Imagine That."

These, and too many others we talked about. So as it happened, she's the one calling the shots. She wanted some African dish, and I was like, o yeah, again? She did not know what was running through my mind about her quest for African food. She's the one calling the shots, remember? I had to oblige since this great country of ours is a nation of rules, fact why it's organized.

For some reason, she figured I was not comfortable with the African restaurant kind of stuff she's been persistent asking for. We have all the time in the world to eat ofe olugbo, bitter leaf soup (dunno why it's my favorite) coupled with the okporoko, stockfish, eju, snail, dried fish and anu ewu, goat meat, as long as her weekend rules were upheld and respected.

However, on Friday, May 22, she decided we should go whole grain, vegetables and stuff like that. One spot was not too far from our location. We walked down about six blocks to this restaurant on the Westside. It was kind of regular and approximately a nice way to begin the long weekend. The restaurant, recently remodelled had a gracious and attentive service. We ordered some seafoods that was served with chunks of salmon, perfectly cooked shrimp with lotta veggies and other health-related fiber stuff. She loves wholesome sweetners such as honey, maple syrup, sorhum, sucanet and stevia.

A good looking evening, we hopped on the bus to the Archlight Cinema in Hollywood to see Ron Howard's "Angels & demons," starring Tom Hanks which to me should be Howard's last in that category. The movie's full of surprises.

On Saturday, May 23, the rules did not change. No driving, remember? After cleaning up and doing the normal around house work, we concluded it's Metro Line time. We arrived at the Wilshire/Vermont Blue Line Station and hopped on the train. Checking out from the Hollywood/Highland Station, we took the steps and bumped on tourists from all walks of life who took pictures of stars and the accomplished on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Walking further down where Hollywood Blvd. meets Vine Street, and on the south of Hollywood laid the plaque of Apollo 13 -- Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins -- the first American astronauts to visit the moon.

On the north sits the landmark Capitol Records Tower known to have either recorded or marketed from the 50s to date, Frank Sinatra, Nat king Cole, Duran Duran, Richard Marx, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Beastie Boys, Kenny Rogers, Yellow Card, George Clinton, Selena Quintalline, Poison, The Band, Ice Cube, Radiohead, Tina Turner, Billy Holliday, Miles Davis, Grand Funk Railroad, Pink Floyd, Peter Tosh, Steve Miller Band, Maze, Dave Koz, Freddie Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Grace Jones, Kim Carnes, Queen, Eddie Harris and many others.

In continuation of our excursion, we went underground and hopped back on the train to the North Hollywood Station. A girl sitting next to us was reading a book on Andrew Jackson, an indication President Barack Obama's "The New Dawn" is doing stuff for the "era of the common man" and Jacksonian democracy to have replicated in the age of internet. While the train was about to station, I called my friend, Pascal, that we were on our way to his apartment. We popped up at the 5400 block of fair Avenue at the luxury NoHo (North Hollywood) Commons Apartments. We had arrived on time to watch the Los Angeles Lakers play the Dencer Nuggets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. Three other guys and two gorgeous ladies were also visiting my friend, Pascal, and it seemed very much the guys were having a heart attack due to the uncertainties that had clouded Lakers' game during the series.

Our Lakers had pulled this one out to silence the cynics. Even Derek Fisher who had been written off, delivered and helped our Lakers pull a 103-97 victory over the Nuggets. Immediately after the game, we drove in two set of cars to The Echo on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. It's our kind of place. Time is telling. The place had a full bar, a dance floor and more than electric. It's a joint where the 70s and 80s pure funk would blow your mind. It was a blast and by the time it was over, we all realized Hollywood was a city of its own.

On Sunday, May 25, she had asked if I would be going to church. She's a practicing Catholic while I was born a Catholic. A difference. But I had shown her my new religious affiliation. The anonymously written book "I AM GOD: Here's My Message." I told her I would be ordering an additional copy as that might change her thinking on how religion has caused all the world's troubles. She prepared breakfast and we ate.

With that in place, we both agreed it's time to relax our driving restrictions and check out Hollywood proper; where Santa Monica Blvd. meets Western Avenue on the sidewalks women of easy virtue and prostitutes hang out. On the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Wilcox, Dragonfly, the sensational pot-smoking and reggae jams on Thursday nights. Amoeba Music, for all your record albums in any music category, facing the CNN building on Cahuenga and Sunset. The same sex ridden hangouts in West Hollywood on Sunset and Roxbury. After touring Hollywood for a minute coupled with sightseeing we took off for another round at the movies. We saw "Terminator Salvation" at the Mann Theaters in Hollywood. Kind of strange, though, the movie, to me, wasn't anything spectacular. A sequel to the three respective "Terminator" movies. I could not read her feelings about the movie.

On Monday, May 25, the awaited Memorial Day, arrived, eventually. We had been up early. There was the 2009 Los Angeles Marathon which I had never been part of, but have gone to see it, anyway. On this particular day and since all roads had been blocked, we chanced parking around Miracle Mile on the Wilshire Corridor. We had treked about 11 blocks and had stationed on the corner of La Brea Avenue and 3rd Street in Hancock Park. The marathon stretched from da hood through the "Black Township" of the Crenshaw thoroughfare all the way to Hancock Park and finishing up in Koreatown.

We had been almost exhausted and it's time for the last jam to end the holiday weekend. The jam: 23rd Annual UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival on the playgrounds of the campus' Intramural Field in Westwood, California. The previous night, Day 1 of the festival, which we missed as a result of other engagements had Erykah Badu, People Under the Stairs, Leela James and De La Soul take center stage. Day 2 had been slated to run between 12 P.M. until 7 P.M. It went later than that and, as usual, too much of a jam. The line up: Mavado, a.k.a "The Gully God" who performed live for the first time in LA, took the show to another level with his new band. He was equal to the occasion. Other casts in the reggae jam and finale were Michael Montano, Assassin, The Dirty Heads and Morgan Heritage.

Like Woodstock of the hippie-era and a replicated Coachella event in Indio, I had been exhausted from the excursions and partying hard the preceding days, and had laid flat on the field while the ragamuffin vibes transmitted through my head. The stomping UCLA campers and the voices of roots reggae did go through my head, and it was all good.

PHOTOS clockwise from bottom left: (2009 Los Angeles Marathon courtesy of Ian Sephton; MTA Tap Machine; Metro Rail Line; Metro Bus Line 770, Leela James takes center stage and performs "let's Do It Again," courtesy of Singers Room; and the 2009 UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival banner courtesy of The Deli Magazine.)

Seun Kuti To Rock Los Angeles Again

Yes, the youngest son of the legendary Chief Priest, Seun Kuti, will be storming the grounds of UCLA in Westwood on Saturday, April 18, 2009, on the campus' Royce Hall where his dad once performed. Hugh Maskela has performed there in many occasions, and Maskela was his dad's best friend and they did play together. Like his last year's brilliant performance at the California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles, this one at UCLA, and I know, will be another hell of a show.

But on Saturday, April 18, Seun, in his second appearance here in the Southland, will be unveiling more of his father's craft, the one he started learning at age 9, and I will be there live and at backstage to dig it. And, for sure, I will dig it!

LA is the place and it rocks!

Da Week and Da Happening

Whoo boy, what a week that had begun from checking out an eatery and learning a whole lot about the cowardice Yoruba nation that collaborated in slaughtering my kith and kin to ending up in a forum I have been asked to play a significant role in organizing The Fat Waller Musical Show conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz; and musically staged and choreographed by Arthur Faria. The Tony Award winning Fats Waller Musical "Ain't Misbehaving" at the Ahmanson Theatre on Temple Street in Downton Los Angeles will run through May 31, 2009, and then following would be the Summer jams and the line-ups.

Well, it's good to know that Ronke Bernadette, owner of Lagos Cafe, has admitted showing some improvements after my visit there a week ago. She has been paying homage to the local churches here in Los Angeles invoking my write-up that God sent me. Patrons have been flooding her eatery ever since that piece, "Lagos Cafe's Arrogance and Horrible Services is a Culinary Disaster." I hope her customer relations has improved, too, because it was zero during my visits. It's time to appreciate the fine work of investigative journalism even though the dummies who had no idea what they were writing about will never realize that.

There has been talk that Seun Kuti will be visiting the City of Angels again following his fantastic and successful performance last Summer at the California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles. I'm yet to confirm that but when I'm in the know, you surely will get every detail. Seun is just the carbon copy of Baba, the Chief Priest, Fela Kuti, and the flow of his music is awesome.

With a series of activities as the summer jams approaches, a Jewish friend of mine did not find it funny why I missed the Fun and Wacky Passover Adventure at the Shalom Institute in Malibu, California, last week. The event featured Carl Weintraub and music performed by Robbo and Cindy Paley. This guy is a fellow we hold intellectual discourse into the night about the Holocaust six million Jews perished and the pogrom in which the Hausa-Fulanis in collaboration with the Yoruba nation that stinks slaughtered innocent civilians, eviscerated pregnant women, and coerced and stole Igbo properties. Like a Jew learning from the Synagogue that "to forget is to proclaim Hitler innocent," so also is to forget is to proclaim the Hausa-Fulanis and the Yorubas innocent after slautering my people in the most brutal way.

The Twitter nation is waxing strong by the second. It is the real deal. It is the talk of town. Even my good friend, Austen Oghuma, talks about it all the time and how America is a great nation with its brilliant pattern of creativity. That I agree. He is hooked to it and so is everybody. It's Twitter and nothing else. If you follow me, I will follow you. How about that and a way to connect?

For some reasons, I haven't been following up with the few remaining games in the NBA and I'm quite sure it's because of Lakers' inconsistency, allowing King James and his gang to take the lead, overall. But I still pick my LA Lakers to come out smoking, in the long run. We'll see, as the whole drama unfolds. Go Lakers, go!

Oh, before I forget, Ugandan model, actress and performer, Imat Akelo-Opio will be gracing the cover of our debut magazine in an exclusive interview.

Bruce Springsteen who turns 60 in September is now on the road with his E Street Band to support their latest project "Working on a Dream." I haven't watched the guy live lately but I sure do have the ticket for his April 16 jam at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. I will be there. That's my hood and I know it's going to be a hell of a show knowing Bruce for his activism and the way he's loved.

That's da happening and whatever happens keep on twitting. It's good for the soul.

Weekend in the City of Angels

Oh, boy, L.A. is the place, believe it or not. Los Angeles is just a drama on its own, and a whole lot seems to be making the City of Angels the craziest of all metropolis, especially when one becomes a target of who you are, "where you from," your lifestyle (drug addicts, alcoholics, blogaddicts, armchair quarterbacks, basketball fanatics, barebodied hotdog eating football fanatics, aloofed Hollywood wannabes and what have you) you must have done something wrong why someone is for no reason saying something about you (good or bad) for the fact it is a tradition that life goes on, no matter what.

As it happened the past weekend in Los Angeles was something I think I should talk about for many reasons. I had trooped to many places and it's just a whole lot happening the coming months before the Summer jams. I mean, the line up is so huge I'm beginning to wonder if President Barack Obama is just simply a magician. The guy is loved and the press has adored him. Every 'damn' thing is going on well now one begins to wonder why in heavens places George W. Bush and his White House gangsters deliberately decided to destroy the finest place on Earth. But that's over with and definitely "change has come to America." It is a "New Dawn," and without a doubt America is back.

But anyways, it's all good and the pop-ups is a sign of good feelings. The Playboy Jazz Festival announced last week the line-ups for this year's Summer jams at the Hollywood Bowl, and being my kind of hang out, I spoke to many of what should be expected and how "change has come America." Just hanging out as usual, the 31st Annual Playboy Jazz Festival marking its 50th anniversary salute to Miles Davis' class album "Kind of Blue" by Jimmy Cobbs So What Band scheduled for June 13-14 at the Hollywood Bowl became an interesting topic with regards to the "New Dawn." The festival will feature one of my all time favorites and friend Wayne Shorter whom I have watched uncountable times, Kenny G., the Neville Brothers, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Norman Brown, the John Faddis Quartet, the Jack Sheldon Orchestra, the New Birth Brass Band, the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, Cos of Good Music, Patty Austin, the Dave Holland Big Band, Oscar Hernandez and the Conga Room All-Stars, the Anat Cohen Quartet, Alfredo Rodriguez and the North Hollywood Jazz Essemble, and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Jazz Ensemble.

What a line-up!

That's not all. It's weekend in Los Angeles and I had dabbled into Tayo Okulaja and the talk was, again, "change has come to America," and it is a "New Dawn." Yep, a "New Dawn." The Playboy Jazz Festival was part of our gist and the Owambe, Juju music King Sunny Ade is in the list, too. He will be slamming his "Synchro Systems" vibes at the Hollywood Bowl and I'm quite sure he will deliver. As Okulaja and I began to see what is making news in Naija, it came out "Naija still get long way to go" and not in our generation will change come to "Nigeria." Unfortunately so, and who cares, though?

Okulaja, another crazy dude, knows a whole lot about music, too. The legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter popped up. "So you know about my man Wayne Shorter?"

"Ah ah, which one you dey now? Abi you think say man no know what's up?"

"That's not what I mean."

"Wetin you mean?"

"I meant The Playboy Jazz Festival which I have not skipped for the last 15 years and it's becoming better and groovier each year notably as Bill Cosby always serves as master of ceremony."

Interestingly, Okulaja knew much about my man, Shorter who is still looking good at 75. Still energetic and jiving. Shorter, like we all know had started with ace drummer Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, then with Miles Davis' 60's Quintet and Tony Williams, Ron Carter and another of my favorites, Herbie Hancock. When cultural/jazz fussion popped up in the 70's as Modern Jazz Quartet and Creed Taylor's Crew at Kudu Studios began changing the theme of Jazz in what critics called crossover, Shorter connected with Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul in what would be an amazing journey in Jazz music. I love the man and his music is like baked in my genes. The tracks "Speak no Evil," "Juju," "Native Dancer" and "Jungle Stuff" from the days of Weather Report are all masterpieces.

Okulaja kept me talking and jazz had been the theme and I never stopped talking about jazz greats from Satchimo to Shorty Rogers. I'm still not sure who is the greatest sax player. I'll give it to John Coltrane and "African Brass" unquestionably remains my best.

The weekend did not end without Obama being on top. The bailout and all his packages has taken over in every nook and cranny of Los Angeles and people are beginning to wonder why. It's just simple. The guy has vision and "change has come to America." It is a "New Dawn."

And as always, L.A. is the place!

Summer Jam and Santa Monica Pier Fest

The 24th Annual Twilight Dance Series at the Santa Monica Pier, California, seems to be giving me some kind of buzz and I'm really having a blast at this beautiful beach resort. Everything is just happening. I have been asked quite often when I will slow down and stop hanging out like a party animal. My answer: Life is too short. Just play it hard. Yes, play it hard and have fun; and that's what life is all about, like the saying goes: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Well, the Twilight Dance Series in its 24th year of Summer jams is as usual with some line ups that is quite interesting with its opening June 26, showcasing The Bonedaddys and the Crown City Rockers.

I have been paying much attention in the last couple of days to Creed Taylor's production in his Kudu years when legendary jazzy musicians in the likes of Richard Tee, Hank Crawford, Grover Washington Jr., Joe Beck, Johnny Hammond, Ralph McDonald, Bob James, Eric Gale, George Benson and the rest added gravy fusion that would change jazz forever. I'm not sure if today's jazz performers have enough talent to produce in that mood. Whatever it is, they should be given some props.

But anyway, what's more intriguing at this years Summer Jam and this famous pier is the line up and another opportunity for me to see among others, Oliver Mtukudzi who performs live on August 7 alongside Rocky Dawuni who would be opening the show that night. It's going to be a whole lot of fun as 'am already getting exhausted partying and smelling the sweet breeze of this fine ocean. Meanwhile, Mike Farris appears tonight and before it escapes my mind, my favorite record store Amoeba Music which sits in my neck of the woods are proud sponsors of this elegant event.

Adding more flavor to the festival, Toots & the Maytals who added soul seasoning to reggae music will wrap everything up on August 28. That's the one show I'm really looking forward to and I'm quite sure it's going to be a hell of a show because methink 'Reggae got Soul.'

August 14 has Juana Molina, The Midnight Shivers featuring Samantha Crain on the line up while August 21 has Gerry and the Pacemakers before the closing ceremony August 28 when one of my childhood favorites Toots stomps with the showdown. I'm just having a blast and it's all good.

Leimert Park, California

Not too many are associated to Leimert Park located by the Crenshaw Boulevard thoroughfare that rises from the Wilshire District all the way down to Rolling Hills Estate in Southern California's South Bay. Leimert Park and its environs now booms with African businesses from the 4300 block of Degnan Boulevard to Martin Luther King Boulevard where the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza Mall sits. Leimert Park is about 15 minutes to Downtown Los Angeles.

The above piucture showing Leimert Park Gardens and African drums jam sessions where women particularly gets therapy by dancing to the drums all day long. It's amazing how this theurapetic formula works since most women I spoke to say the drum sessions heals their body spiritually and emotionally. Good thing stuff like that keeps the body and soul of women together.

I have been taking a trip to this beautiful park lately. It has been overwhelmed with a whole lot of activities. On August 19, 2007, while crusing down Crenhshaw Boulevard from church, (I haven't been to a church and a friend talked me into it perhaps to save my soul even though nothing much has changed from the last time I thought I was missing something) I popped up just like that at the park, and guess what? Marcus Garvey's birthday was being observed and food was served free to all. Folks were lining up to get some bit of original African cooking with all kinds of vibes from the background.

I took a tour of Degnan Blvd. and the line up was unbelievable. Obi Onyeador's African Treasures, Kumasi Gift Shop, World Stage Performance Gallery, Papa West Breakfast Club, Jamaican Restaurant and series of eateries, gift shops, barber shops, discount stores, hangouts and things like that were scenes that keeps the park alive. Nevertheless, the bad cop image LAPD patrols the entire area 24/7 making this beautiful neigborhood that is now the hub of "Black Township," clear and safe.