Song of the Week: John Mayall


Note to Isaiah Washington and Tim Hardaway,

With all due respect to you and the unresolved irrational hate that lives within you: Gay People are not your oppressors. Direct your anger in the right direction now that it is the time of year when New Orleans comes to mind. It is more likely that most evolved gay people are there beside you in your oppression. I wouldn't worry so much about the gay people who work with you as people who may be working against you because you are black males.

Maureen Dowd had this to say during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.

Who are we if we can't take care of our own?


It means something perhaps that the two of you are seeking help for your unresolved homophobia, in the meantime, please shoot your venom in the right direction. Stop evolving into the oppressor.

New Orleans native, Luisah Teish, priestess of Oshun, resident of San Francisco refers to both cities as "a psychic seaport." Residing in both cities is literally living on the edge. Perhaps it is experiencing the survival instinct so intimately that enhances the psychic element. Teish goes on to say in her book, Jambalaya, "The psychic energies of many people living and dead hover over the city of New Orleans, possibly because of the water. Visitors to the city become tipsy after being there only a short time. Tipsy is the name given to the state of mind that proceeds possession ... I grew up tipsy."

Perhaps it is no accident that both psychic seaports are very gay friendly.

So with the song of the week, Sonny Landreth's "Congo Square" sung by John Mayall, there is a celebration of the once and future New Orleans of the magic that was and is its multi-cultural fabric and there is the hope that soon all will be possessed by the spirit of celebration -- and within that celebration inherent diversity. Survival means acknowledging that human beings do best when they respect each other and pull together. Know who your brothers and sisters are.




Congo Square

(Sonny Landreth)

Might be superstition but some kind of somethin'
Goin' on down there
Might be superstition but some kind of somethin'
Goin' on down there
It's an old time tradition when they play their
Drums at night in Congo Square

You can hear 'em in the distance
And the old folks up the bayou say a prayer
You can hear 'em in the distance
And the old folks up the bayou say a prayer
That's when the voodoo people gather
And they play their drums at night in Congo Square







My eyes were not believin'
What I seen there but I could not turn away
My eyes were not believin'
What I seen there but I could not turn away
They had that mojo in motion
And I seen 'em dance in trance with that snake




It might be superstition
But when I hear 'em in the night I say a prayer
It might be superstition
But when I hear 'em in the night I say a prayer
And that's 'cause I respects tradition
Like the kind they carry on in Congo Square

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