A walk in the Heavens
Archive for the ‘Week 31’ Category
I wrote this piece for a writing club I was in – the theme that week was “A song you can’t get out of your head.”
“I Thought I Told You That We Won’t Stop”
Built around a catchy Diana Ross sample, “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” by the Notorious B.I.G. was the unofficial anthem of Summer 1997. The song was inescapable.
Pulling into the local McDonald’s any given night, you could hear the then ubiquitous ditty blaring from no less than fourteen cars at a time. MTV played the hell out of the video—the first single release since the rapper’s shooting death that March. He appeared posthumously on a video screen, flanked by dancing girls, and with Puff Daddy and Ma$e adding extra verses to Biggie’s in-depth musings about the problems of being wealthy. Even in dance clubs you could not hide from that song. Remixers Razor n’ Guido manipulated that three minute hip-hop jam into an eleven minute schizo-techno epic. The local radio stations in central New Hampshire did not play much “urban” music, but the color barriers were forever shattered when the song topped that charts.
One night that summer, I was at my friend Jenn’s house, preparing to go out. She was the designated driver (as she was the one with a car) as we, Jeremy, and Chuck prepared for the night’s festivities. Us guys had all had more than our fair share of Boone’s Farm wine and Mad Dog 20/20, and were dressed in our phattest outfits straight out of “The Source” magazine. We crowded into Jenn’s Dodge Neon and headed down to The Weirs, a lakeside neighborhood that doubled as a teenage hangout on long, hot summer nights.
We finally found a parking spot and spent the evening walking around, meeting up with friends, just seeing and being seen on the teen scene. Puff Daddy was experiencing a banner summer, as not only did he produce the monster hit for Biggie, he had also produced hit records of his own, and for Mariah Carey, MC Lyte, and L’il Kim as well. The man was everywhere. His words spoken over the intro of every song he touched reverberated in my brain like a mantra: “I thought I told you that we won’t stop—I thought I told you that we won’t stop…”
By two in the morning, I was on the verge of losing conciousness from all the booze—on top of what we had drank before we left Jenn’s, I had stashed a bottle of Sambuca under the back seat earlier in the day, and we had polished it off about an hour prior. After going down by the boat launch for some “herbal refreshment”, I had stumbled back up to the boardwalk with an epiphany.
Not only was Puff Daddy completely incapable of an original though or idea (every one of his remixes were built around a catchy sample of a prior hit for someone else), but he HIMSELF was the ultimate remix! Take a sample of Momma Daddy’s DNA and a sample of Poppa Daddy’s DNA, put them into a sequencer for nine months, give or take, and then debut the newest Bad Boy release—little Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs.
It was shortly after this epiphany that I got into the back of Jenn’s car and passed out. However, my thoughts of Puff Daddy’s world domination were not contained to my waking moments.
The world looked the same, but something was different. I was in my room at home, and had turned on the television to see the President of the United Stated addressing the country. However, it was not Bill Clinton on the screen, but President Puff Daddy. He was in the middle of announcing that his new single—the Bad Boy Remix of “The Star Spangled Banner” with his now classic Bad Boy Remix of “Hail To The Chief” on the B-side, would be dropping next Tuesday.
I sat there slack-jawed as he announced his cabinet—a virtual Who’s Who of the hip-hop game at the time, and he had even appointed a special “East Coast / West Coast Diphiphoplomatic Relations Task Force” that would be meeting in the first ever summit between Russell Simmons of Def Jam and Suge Knight of Death Row.
It was as if MTV had merged with C-Span and had produced an illegitimate love child. Vice President Ma$e was on a goodwill mission to England, bringing rhythm (and a very enthusiastic George Clinton) to the pasty white men of Parliament, so that they could, as noted in the New York Times, “tear the roof off this sucker”.
Just as CNN was reporting a billion-dollar national budget surplus due to proceeds from President Puff’s concert/lecture tour…. I awoke, still in the back of Jenn’s car, now parked in her driveway. The sun was up, and birds were chirping off in the distance. From the second story apartment across the street, I could hear the very familiar refrains of “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems.
Even if I hadn’t heard that song at just that moment, I probably would have threw up all over the driveway anyway.
Zombie Walk 2011- Phoenix, Arizona
Wonderland is said to be a different place or an imaginary realm. A portal that leads somehow to a wonderful world of possibilities where the things are larger than life, and whimsical, ethereal, malleable, and perhaps even a bit creepy when you get right down to it but in a place like wonderland you as the character become very real and present
Life is no longer an endless buffet of television, briefcases, cubicles, warmed up dinners, and thoughtless bull shit. No, why quite to the opposite when you are in a world like wonderland why just the site of a new thing before your eyes can invoke an adventure, a new found love or passion, – a wonderment –
Wonder – and all that many uses of the imagination – creation
The stroll down the lane is no longer boring or monotonous – it is daring and whimsical – each thing on the street holds life and in wonderland – these life’s speak to you, they reach out and touch you and fold you into their presence –
The wind is felt as a welcomed friend that comes to sweep through your hair or blow forward your chariot! Or blow, forward you hat- with hidden friends and treasures.
The person you pass on the street is not just some other person to look away from or throw out a half hearted smile – they are a character- a chitty chatty lady with round glasses a squealy voice and head dress? A round bellied butcher with welcome redness to his cheeks and hands as large as a bears? Or!
Prince charming! There- right there- performing for his supper and bed, there- up high in the window of the tower just past the end of the rainbow and over the shire- just ahead there – in the distant and you can feel him and in wonderland
The characters come and they know – and they tell you stories and let you in on secrets and offer you visions – in wonderland you take morning tea with sweet treats you lick honey off the spoon and swallow it down with warm words and friendship – you eat cake at any hour of the day and you frolick, you roll in the open air you enchant – where ever you are
So you see – wonderland is entered through a portal but only by the one that exists in our hearts- the one that we slip through each day as we rise, each sacred morning – the one we choose to embody each day – how the world Is perceived through our eyes –
Choose the wonder- full – there is a reason that the word wonder also precedes the word full – thus suggesting that one who is rich with wonder if also full – up on all of the good thangs’
ha
Generation None
We suddenly find ourselves,
The X, sandwiched between slices
Of booming babies and me, me,
Me; it’s all about me. We fumble
With our own latchkeys chained loosely
Around our young necks – dolled
Out by parents with key
Parties of their own.
We escaped the dim
Of Disney Princess pressed
Identity. Trusted John Hughes
To chronicle our youth instead.
We could have had a prophet
In Kurt Cobain, but he found
His gun too soon. Now, he’s dead.
So, shovel your blind promises, this October
Snow, over our heads and give us
Time to lace up our Doc Martens
Before we plough in to help you
Clean up this mess.
First Thoughts, Are boundless with no fences and full of dreams. Though First thoughts are dreams that will most likely go unrealized they are still the best.
I know I submitted this elsewhere on the intarwubs, but I thought it would be nice for Halloween…
as a precious gift
a memory of love
you gave me
pain
Week 31- Michael Mooney
Posted: October 27, 2011 in Michael Mooney, Week 31Tags: bear, birds, michael mooney, moonartdesign.com, pen ink, seal, silts, the circus, tight rope, twin geekz art project, unicycle, week 31
The Circus
This is the original Pen ink. I am thinking about coloring this in, as most of us know, color and the circus go hand in hand. I am tempted to use marker and color pencil on this. I want to use watercolor however, because of the paper I used, the drawing would be ruined.
Thoughts??
This for sale for $85
This one is part of a project I’m doing to raise money for the local food bank. I’m posting pieces on Facebook, and on any that sell I’ll give half the proceeds to the food bank. (I’ve sold one already!) I’m shooting for a goal of raising $200 in donations. Click the link below to visit my profile and see what else is for sale on my wall.
Ava decided to be Lady Gaga for Halloween this year. At least when she’s not a zombie bride, of course. This hat was inspired by Gaga-ness and a sequenced butterfly top rescued from Grammy’s 1980’s wardrobe.
The Dark Phoenix
My favorite character in the Marvel universe, rendered in Daz Studio and finished in Photoshop.
Base Figure: Victoria 4, V4 morphing bodysuit
bodysuit with Phoenix costume morphs, buccaneer sash applied
Added hair figure & poses, remapped the eyes to all white & applied a dynamic pose
postwork in Photoshop CS 5
finished
TwinGeekz Artz Project 
