Being that I recently attended my first Bar Mitzvah, when I came across this article it was especially intriguing.  Very interesting topic with some valuable historical information, relevant as we just exited our Black history month which always seems to fly by in a flash.

Article from the Huffington Post

“There is no question about the well-documented history where the Black and Jews have stood together in their fight for civil rights, equality and political power. But not so much is said about the creative alliances in business where Blacks and Jews are and have been forging new businesses and ideas that have helped enable Blacks and Jews to enter the mainstream in American business. These are the partnerships that have and will create goodwill and change the future.

There are many examples of how Blacks and Jews have come together to fight against hatred and bigotry. In fact, as my friend Rabbi Marc Schneier at The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, often states (and he even wrote a book about it called Shared Dreams), Dr. King was an ardent supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, including taking part in efforts to ease discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union and the safety and security of the State of Israel. Dr. King also spoke out strongly against anti-Semitism in the United States. We all know that no segment of the American population provided as much and as consistent support to Dr. King and to African Americans as did the Jewish community.
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by Ajani Husbands

Let’s say you’re an artist. I need you to paint 1,000 paintings for me in one year. That’s about three paintings a day with thirty free days scattered in between. Can you do it?  Is it possible? Your answer to this might determine whether painting for you is a hobby of something you happen to be good at, or if you have the drive to be a definitive reference point in the art world.

Right now I’m in the middle of reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers and the question persists: what does it take to be an outlier? Passion and drive? Perhaps it is one’s circumstances and upbringing? Pure luck? No matter the case, one thing has already one thing has been made clear: Outliers aren’t just talented. They WANT to be outliers.
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An Ipod touch on steroids? Can you see a purpose for it? I’ve heard cases on both sides…what do you think?
Will offer a 3G internet plan for $30/month which is quite reasonable in my eyes…you be the judge..

I came across this article at Ballerstatus.com, never ceases to amaze me the way my man Diddy the entrepreneur is able to slap his brand name on the widest range of products with instant success…you have to respect how he’s able to market himself and his brand to maintain one of the most powerful names in the urban market. Details below…

“First it was Dr. Dre, and then Lady Gaga, and now Diddy has become the latest music superstar to team up with Monster Cable and Beats By Dr. Dre for his own line of headphones.

The hip-hop mogul has been working with Dre and Jimmy Iovine on the Diddy Beats, a stylish in-ear headphones set developed in collaboration with Monster.

“We designed some ear buds called Diddy Beats that will be out next year,” Diddy said of the Diddy-Dre collabo. “We also have an iPod speaker base for your house coming out. That experience as a whole was good, we [Dr. Dre and I] had a great chemistry with each other.”

According to a press release, the headphones will retail for $149, will be available in black or white, with a sleek black and silver chrome finish, and boast the Beats By Dr. Dre bass and sound quality…”

Read more here.

Esface Endorsed music group Fear & Fancy collab with DJ D Sharp to bring you a holiday gift, “the Playlist”.

Click here to Download the new heat.

Fear & Fancy’s music is a jubilant proclamation of the dawn of an age governed by the power of love rather than the love of power. Its sound-scape blurs time and space, swirling sounds of the carnival with the powwow, ‘80s New Wave with ‘20s Pop Standards into a digital potluck of artistic ingenuity that bumps.

Perhaps the ability to move audiences to party and ponder is the mark of Fear & Fancy that distinguishes them beyond the marks of paint that adorn their faces during live performances. Fear & Fancy has already shared the stage with notable artists including Bad Boy Records’ Janelle Monae and Day 26, Konvict Records’ RIZ, platinum-selling French R&B/Soul recording artist Tété, and “Portland’s French troubadour” Eric John Kaiser. Currently producing their debut EP, Fear & Fancy will begin their first tour beginning Spring 2010. More info at MYSPACE, FACEBOOK.

by Ajani Husbands

I read Forbes Magazine… and it is way above my pay grade. For example, the magazine is littered with advertisements for jet cards, which is like a timeshare for jets, starting at $60,000 for 25 hours. The Forbes subscription also comes with a subscription to Forbes Life, which is, as you might guess from the name, a lifestyle magazine for Forbes readers. And, although the magazine features luxury items such as a $180,000 hooded fleece made of pure gold (not kidding here) or a $30,000 stone bathtub, Forbes Life speaks directly to me. Strange, but true. What makes Forbes Life so appealing is that it doesn’t just feature luxury items that seem galaxies away. The magazine focuses on the individuals who produce such items, and all of these individuals have one thing in common:  dedication to quality.

Probably the majority of people reading this blog would describe themselves as young professionals. Maybe you work at Accenture or JP Morgan. Maybe you are a resident in med school or have an entry or mid-level position on capitol hill. Or maybe you are an entrepreneur starting your own NGO or corporation. The idea though is that you are young, full of energy and innovation, and feel unstoppable. That is the first step to a Forbes Life, and unfortunately that’s where it ends for most people.

As we get older, we become more sensible and get attached to security. We by and large find it safer to stick with a company than strike out on our own. We’d rather seek the security of earning an additional degree and a guaranteed pay raise than take a leap of faith into the unknown. Even the fields we go into are exciting at first but are eventually humdrum. Real estate. Corporate law. Government and politics. Consultancy. And we stick with this humdrum reality because we believe it will get us to the point where Forbes Magazine truly applies to our living standards. One day we’ll have the $5,000 watch or maybe the $60,000 jet card.

But just because we have it, doesn’t make it a lifestyle. You can only grasp a Forbes lifestyle when you strike out on your own along a dedicated path. The guy who makes the $30,000 stone bath tubs dedicates his whole life to the process. He doesn’t just chisel bathtubs; he creates an experience. The same goes for the man making the solid gold hooded fleece (seriously… could NOT make this thing up). And that’s what a Forbes lifestyle is, an experience.

Basically what I’m talking about is doing you. In life, we eventually forgo our deepest ambitions and talents and trade it in for security and comfort. And for some of us, our comfort levels reach a level of luxury, and that’s fine. Nonetheless, that luxury often comes at the cost of personal fulfillment.

So what is doing you? Is it your artistic abilities? Photography? Sketching? Your uncanny ability to be innovative in any situation? Your distinct knowledge of World War II era comic books? Doing you is taking what it is you love and doing it at a level of quality that far surpasses the norm. That is the Forbes Lifestyle.

For instance, if I were to do me right now, I’d blend my love for writing and my love for innovation and create the definitive writer’s retreat that would fully immerse writers of all variations (journalists, poets, novelists) into a creative space. That’s just one example (I have many definitions of doing me).  And though I’m not doing me yet, there are steps I’m working on to get there asap:

1) Determine what you love. Often times we do what we’re good at, but not what we love. I love writing, but I work in politics. I may be pretty good at politics (I like to think so), but it’s not what I love.

2) Go Two Steps Higher Than What Exists. Since I love writing, it’d be easy to say “I want to write books.” But what is above that? If I loved basketball, I could be a player… or I could be a coach… or a manager… or design the next generation of basketball stadiums. There’s always more to what we love than what we see on the surface, and we have to fully explore it.

3) Do What Hasn’t Been Done. Jay-Z said “I can’t base what I want to be on what everybody isn’t.” In other words, just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean that it’s not doable. On the contrary, it means that it’s out there waiting for you to do it.

4) Do Nothing Short of Absolutely Perfection. Whoever said perfection was impossible? That person was lying and did not know how to do them. Perfection is what defines doing you and is what will set you apart.

At the end of the day, doing you comes down to being 100% about what it is you love. And you know what… that’s also what defines being Esfac’e.

by Ajani Husbands

If you read my article from months earlier, you know I was initially against Disney’s The Frog Princess, an animated tale featuring the company’s first Black princess. At the time, it was easy to be opposed to the film. The “princess” was actually set to be a chamber maid named Maddy (aka Mammy?) in New Orleans. Well, Disney kept the New Orleans aspect, but finally relented and changed the character to Tiana, the head cook of a white family in New Orleans, who would meet a Maldonian prince cursed as a frog.

Disney has a long history of racism (Uncle Remus in Song of the South and the crows in Dumbo being two prime examples), so it should not come as a surprise that Tiana was originally a chamber maid named Maddy. Of greater concern, though, is how much alike Disney and Bob Johnson, infamous creator of BET, think.

When asked about BET’s destructive impact on the Black community, Bob Johnson simply stated that you have to separate the social from the business aspect. In other words, he’s about the business of making money, not the business of making positive community images. Disney operates in a similar vein. Mike Surrey, one of the animators for The Frog Princess stated:

“I don’t think there was ever a moment when we were sitting there looking at animated scenes in rough form and thinking, is this really representing the African-American community properly?”

Is Black profitable? If Disney can create a whole animated feature film centered on a Black protagonist and not give a thought to “representing the African-American community properly,” is Black profitable? If Bob Johnson, one of only two Black billionaires in America, can create the bulk of his wealth from a cable station that admittedly did not have positive community representations as part of its business model, is Black profitable?

Or perhaps a better question is, how to force entertainment industries to acknowledge that positive images of Black people is profitable? After all, it was outside pressure that forced Disney to make the changes to The Frog Princess and actually make her a princess rather than a chamber maid. What additional impact could outside pressure have?

Maybe the important thing to remember is that the default Black setting doesn’t HAVE to be negative. Maybe it is negative, but it doesn’t have to be that way. As ordinary people we can all do ordinary things to change this default setting.

- Stop attributing daily woes to “Black people” (i.e. “why are Black folk so LOUD”) and attribute them to PEOPLE.

- Turn off BET.

- Write the local news station to complain when you see too many negative images and congratulate them when you see positive images

- Hell, write your congressman

The point is simple. There is no need to endure negative images of Black people as the norm. If you see something that calls to old stereotypes, speak out against it.

 by Ajani Husbands

I initially was writing an article about the use of food stamps spilling over into non-Black America, but given the recent ABC blog article debating Precious versus The Blind-Side, I had to switch gears.  There seems to be a lot of animosity towards Precious and a lot of love to The Blind Side.  And who can blame the masses for that?  The Blind Side is heroic.  It is warm, encouraging, heroic, hopeful.  Precious is the opposite.  It’s dark, twisted, demeaning, depressing.  So why should we even cast a passing glance towards Precious?

For the same reason I purchased a book on lynchings. 
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Chillin’ is back again and Esface is in the building with Holiday Specials and new releases.

180 Painters/Photographers
80 fashion Designers
Video Installations

Live Painting by:
Steve Javiel ( www.stevejaviel.blogspot.com)
Daniel J. Valadez (www.danieljvaladez.com)
Rob Harris (www.cavecreation.com)

Music by:
DJ Deevice (Pirate Cat Radio, GridLock)
DJ Felina (www.djfelina.com)
Dirtyhertz (www.dirtyhertz.com)
Rondo Brothers (www.rondobrothers.com)
LARON (http://www.myspace.com/laronakaswan)
DJ Eddy Bauer (KALX, Go BANG!)
Irene Hernandez-Feiks (www.chillinproductions.com)
+ more

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By Ajani Husbands

Kudos to Chris Rock. He’s a beloved entertainer and casual social commentator that has taken the plunge into social documentary, only to be deeply criticized by those who he represents. Chris Rock is Spike Lee, specifically he’s Lee after the unveiling of School Daze. If you don’t remember, Spike Lee was kicked off the campus of Morehouse College midway through the filming of School Daze and had to finish elsewhere. One of the most poignant (controversial?) parts of the film is the Good and Bad Hair song sequence, which had dark and light-skinned Black women in musical opposition to one another: the jigaboos vs. the wannabes.

Spike Lee became a bit of a pariah after School Daze for airing Black laundry in public. No one is supposed to know we have hair issues and skin color issues, but we do, so why not tell the story? Chris Rock reminds us of this in Good Hair, which he lovingly made to cheer up his daughter who already felt the pressure (unfairly) of having her hair represent her identity. Rock’s film could not have come at a better time, premiering just weeks before Sammy Sosa unveiled to the world his own skin issues.
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