Gordon Chambers :: muzik

so i'm finally getting this album - gordon chambers. i blogged bout my experience *witnessing* his a-mazing set back in July.

when i hear his voice i hear a soft comfort. someting familiar yet still fresh. Though I think this is his first full length album, he's not newbie to the industry with him writing and winning awards for Angie Stone's "No More Rain."

Get the ALBUM!

Dollar-Bill Jefferson Wins Re-election

Hey folks. 

This article on Rep. Jefferson's (D-La.), an influential and under investigation Black congressmen, appeared in today's Washington Post.  The face value of this story is that the FBI has Jefferson under investigation for taking bribe money (Exhibit A? 90K found inside his freezer. hmmm... lol).  But of course in addition to looking at the face value of this story, we also gotta look at the Black perspective.  There are a couple of voices from the community in this article that totally hit dead on Black folks' dis-trust of the government:

"He hasn't done anything the rest of the folks up in Washington haven't done -- he just got caught," said Sharon Williams of Mid-City.

But once again it seems that the specter of homophobia is once again being peddled by Black leaders to push a right wing agenda.  The article mentions that Jefferson used his opponent's, State Rep Karen Carter, support of same sex marriage against her in the campaign.  Whether or not this the was the final nail in the coffin is not clear, but what is clear is that the vote was split along racial lines, where Jefferson got the Black vote and Carter, herself Black got the majority of the White vote. 

I haven't followed this particular campaign - at all - just been noticing it in the last couple weeks as the one of the ten or so undecided elections after last month's huge Democratic-open-a-can-of-whoop-ass Election, so I really can't speak to much about this story definitively (and also I did a scan Rep. Carter website for mentioning of her support for gay marriage to no avail.  not to discount her support, but just for those card carrying HRC grrls out there, put that in perspective!).

But regardless something to thank 'bout.


Jefferson Win Poses Dilemma for Party
His Return After Scandal Could Be Awkward for Democrats and New Orleans
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 11, 2006; A03

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 10 -- Rep. William J. Jefferson may be a pariah in some Washington political circles, but voters in this storm-battered city weighed in over the weekend with their own verdict regarding their scandal-plagued congressman: He's still our guy.

Voters gave the Louisiana Democrat an emphatic reelection victory over state Rep. Karen Carter, even though his campaign had been weighted with revelations that federal authorities had videotaped him taking $100,000 in alleged bribe money, and that $90,000 of it had been found inside a freezer in his apartment in the District. The investigation led House colleagues to dump him from a key committee, donors abandoned him and the state Democratic Party switched its allegiance to his opponent.

But before cheering supporters at a hotel room on election night, Jefferson called his win "a great moment" and said, "I thank almighty God for making it possible." [ continue...]

666 Fifth Avenue Sold!

A read through this NYT article evokes The Onion's taste for dry wit within today's news. But this, 666 Fifth Avenue (a symbol of corporate power where a cigar bar called the HAVANA ROOM for the elite has the building's top floor?!? jesus!), is for real!

Manhattan Skyscraper to Be Sold for $1.8 Billion
By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Records are still being broken as fast as they can be set in New York real estate.

Tishman Speyer Properties, the company that bought Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion in the biggest real estate deal in the country, has agreed to sell the 41-story skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street for $1.8 billion to a New Jersey real estate family, the Kushners.

The price is more than three times what a group led by Tishman Speyer paid for it only six years ago and the highest price ever paid for a single office building in the United States.

The Kushners, who owns 22,000 apartments and more than 5 million square feet of office and industrial buildings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, are relatively unknown in Manhattan. But they are making a head-turning splash buying a tower that has served as a symbol of corporate power and elegance since it opened in 1957.

Brooks Brothers has a store on the ground floor. Tenants include high-powered law firms and bankers. At the top of the building is the Grand Havana Room, an exclusive cigar bar that offers stunning views to the politically connected and the fabulously wealthy who are its members.

"This is a great acquisition for our company," said Jared Kushner, a 25-year-old principal at Kushner Companies, who signed the contract to buy the building on Monday night. "We are upping our presence in Manhattan. It's a logical expansion for us." [read the full article]