My first introduction to African music was by my mother, who bought the 'Pata Pata' album by the great Miriam Makeba when it came out. Now that is an album. What a voice.

Everyone should have the right to go off and do their music or do their books. The people who are in the position to censor they're really not down to reality where that certain artists are coming from.

Please don't think that I am one of those squishy types who can't handle reality. I have plenty of real-world things to deal with all the time. I have deadlines, meetings, I answer the phone, I get turned down, I wait in lines and am forced to pass for normal all the time.

August brings into sharp focus and a furious boil everything I've been listening to in the late spring and summer.

Don't push me I've got a corner at my back I've nowhere to go except over you.

Consumerism is at once the engine of America and simultaneously one of the most revealing indicators of our collective shallowness.

My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.