Amy Winehouse was found dead on Saturday in her home in Camden, North London. I fell instantly head over heels for her brassy, blues and jazz infused voice that sang songs of pain and frustration, lust and love. What saddens me more than the loss of this talent to the world, are the reactions from media outlets and individuals who blame Winehouse for what has happened to her (even as the autopsy report is pending).
The news of her death sparked immediate head shakes of disappointment in the artist’s “wasted promises”, finger wags and twitter tags of “I knew it,” and for a few of us, feelings of deep sadness in the loss of life, a life which blessed us with music that spoke to our souls. Known as “the crazy Amy Winehouse” to classmates, what seems clear both from the blues in her voice and the lyrics that she wrote was that melancholia had been a part of her life for a very long time. The numbing affects and addictive nature of drugs and alcohol were an unfortunate combination which led to her inability to keep up the unrealistic endurance required to live life under the scrutiny of millions. They also inhibited her from getting treatment, but I never once counted her out. I had hoped she’d make it through the fire, like Chaka Khan has.
Though I cannot imagine Winehouse’s demons, in my life I have felt lost and depressed; have lived through times where I had no home, no anchor, and was lonely. Having felt all those things, I know that it is only a blessing that I made it out, both physically and emotionally, intact. That is not the experience of a great many of us, some of whom numb their unbearable pain with whatever will do the trick. I feel blessed to have come out of my experience with understanding for those who live with the kind of depression that makes their body ache on the inside and that makes it nearly impossible for them to experience joy or happiness in the way that others do; understanding for those who live with addictions which are as mental as they are physical.
Blessed to have kept my capacity to be sensitive to the loss of life and sensitive to the mistreatment of others in life and in death.
Thank god tears dry on their own…
https://i0.wp.com/thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/amy83-111.jpg?fit=306%2C380&ssl=1380306The Doctorhttps://thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/White-logo.pngThe Doctor2011-07-25 11:59:172011-07-25 12:05:32Amy Winehouse: We Lost One
A recent trip to Mexico’s Teotihuacan incited a most thought provoking question: “What will we leave behind?” from one of my blog followers. If humans were to disappear off the face of the planet tomorrow, in just a few centuries, the Earth would look as if we were never here. Our plastic would be buried beneath mountains of sediment, our cities would collapse, crumble, or be washed away. And if their facades remained, almost nothing would remain that would identify us or places.
Watching the construction of the new luxury condos across the street from my house, I know those won’t last very long. All the wood and porous cement couldn’t possibly withstand more than 100 years in the swampy climate of Washington, D.C. As a civilization, we tend not to build things that will last very long in the kind of time that the Earth keeps. And even when we do have things left behind from ancient civilizations, we realize how little we can do to delay them from too disappearing back into the earth. Everything is temporary.
In America, we aren’t generally taught to think of Earth as our home, or as our Source, as both God herself and the embodiment of all those things which sustains us. In fact, I’d argue, we don’t even think about the Earth in our day to day lives. We don’t think about it until it reveals itself to us in natural disaster or pure wonder, and then we ask God “why?”. Most of us are so far removed from day to day interaction with the Earth that we forget that it produces everything we need to cure ourselves from disease and to maintain us. This despite the fact that beneath its surface there is chaos, as is the life that lives on it. We believe that “God supplies all our needs according to his riches and glory” but rarely stop to think about how the Earth literally is rich and glorious, able to supply all of our needs. And despite its immense power to destroy us at any moment, it usually doesn’t.
I think about these things not to be morbid, but to meditate on the fact that our Earth is awesome and wondrous. It is no surprise that ancient civilizations and indigenous populations worshiped the Earth, that many still do. If we don’t respect the Earth and what it is capable of, it will make us sooner or later. Like the Gods that folks worship today, the same can be said of Mother Earth herself.
For as much as we seek to contain and control it, we know the inevitable truth… the Earth is more powerful than we are. If we don’t take care of it, it will simply become inhabitable. Then we’ll leave and it will repair itself.
I’d much rather take public transit, eat more vegetables and fruits, use less laundry detergent, take shorter showers, and demand our government invest in clean solar, wind energy, and food technologies so that we can have more efficient (non-genetically altered) means of feeding people.
In other words… the Earth is the Sugar-Honey-Iced-Tea…
https://i0.wp.com/thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/teotihuacan-mexico.jpg?fit=306%2C380&ssl=1380306The Doctorhttps://thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/White-logo.pngThe Doctor2011-07-18 13:08:162012-03-27 22:04:03The Earth is More Powerful Than Us
What’s been going on in the WNBA? Plenty, so let’s get started. Let’s get into the top 3 story lines.
Unfamiliar Faces at the Top of the Power Rankings and the MVP Race
The MVP Race began with a familiar face, Sue Bird, in the lead. Bird wasn’t there long as Minnesota’s Rebekkah Brunson’s past two weeks of stellar play earned her a seat at the top the standings. To be sure, without Brunson’s post presence, the Minnesota Lynx would not be able to compete even though Sigmone Augustus has found her stride.
And Minnesota is on a roll. Not to anyone’s surprise necessarily, but for a team that was the absolute worst team in the league a year or two ago to be sitting pretty on top of the Power Rankings is definitely newsworthy. With no one being able to keep Rebekkah Brunson off the boards while simultaneously keeping the hungry Sigmone Augustus from dropping a couple dozen points, the Lynx have found their stride and with the pressure off of Maya Moore to do EVERYTHING as was the case in her senior year of her collegiate career, she has the time to figure out this game. Only the Los Angelas Sparks has successfully put down Minnesota, even with Moore dropping 21 points on the 15 year player and future Hall of Famer, Tina Thompson. That said Minnesota goes into this weekend as ‘the team to beat’ led by the veterans Sigmone Augustus who has averaged 20 points in the last three games and Rebekkah Brunson who is averaging 14 boards a game, and their rookie, Maya Moore, who when she’s not visibly tired–no doubt that stellar run in Conneticut is catching up to her–is the most dangerous player on the floor.
What’s up with Phoenix?
If you watched the first game of the year for Phoenix Mercury then you were asking yourself, “What are they doing?” They were out of sync and out of their minds as they let the Seattle Storm beat them in the last 30 seconds of the game. After starting the season 0-3, the Mercury’s first win didn’t come easy against Indiana who two years ago gave Diana Taurasi and the Mercury all they could take in the most exciting WNBA finals in history. This time the Mercury’s win came in overtime behind Taurasi’s 32 points. With their most recent win against San Antonio, they look to be heading in the right direction. We’ll have to keep a watch on them as they put the pieces together.
Sweet 15
The 15th year anniversary of the inaugural WNBA game against the Los Angelas Sparks and New York Liberty was Tuesday night and definitely worth watching on ESPN360.com
An amazing game, a great outcome, and a wonderful celebration of the women who have played in this league. Of course Tina Thompson showed out as did Candace Parker and Cappie Pondexter. Thompson is the only player who has played all 15 seasons and is the league’s all time leading scorer with over 6,000 points. In it’s 15th season, the WNBA is asking fans to vote on the Top 15 of “All Time.” Here’s the list. I’ve stared my picks.
*Seimone Augustus *Sue Bird
Ruthie Bolton
Swin Cash *Tamika Catchings *Cynthia Cooper *Katie Douglas
Cheryl Ford
Yolanda Griffith *Becky Hammon
Chamique Holdsclaw *Lauren Jackson
Shannon Johnson *Lisa Leslie
Taj McWilliams-Franklin
Delisha Milton-Jones *Deanna Nolan
Candace Parker *Ticha Penicheiro
Cappie Pondexter
Nykesha Sales *Katie Smith
Tangela Smith
Dawn Staley *Sheryl Swoopes *Diana Taurasi
Penny Taylor *Tina Thompson *Teresa Weatherspoon
Natalie Williams
“I am thrilled to welcome Maya Moore into the Jordan Brand,” said Michael Jordan in a recent press release. “Not only has Maya proven to be a prolific winner on the court, but her hunger and determination to make an impact off the court makes her a valuable addition to the Jordan family. We look forward to working with Maya as she carries her success to the next level.”
Maya Moore, the number one overall draft pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, will play with the Minnesota Lynx alongside Simone Augustus, the 2006 Rookie of the Year who suffered a season ending knee injury last year. Without Augustus, the Lynx had fewer scoring options and in a league where players can go off for 30 points at a time, the Lynx struggled to keep up. This year however, Maya Moore joins the squad and Augustus returns. The duo will have the support of seasoned women’s basketball players, including Candice Wiggins, Lindsey Whalen, and Monica Wright. There’s no doubt that the Lynx will be the team you probably can’t beat this season.
Then again…
Most people, the average person, perhaps yourself, can’t name 5 teams in the WNBA and there’s only 12. I find it fascinating that people know Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, and some know Tina Charles, but have no idea that they can log in to WNBA.com and watch every WNBA game this season or that they can pay about $20 to see their favorite stars in person when they come to D.C. or Atlanta, or New Jersey. They don’t know that there have been equally (if not more) deserving players before Maya Moore worthy of a Jordan deal like Angel McCoughtry, Simone Augustus, Lauren Jackson, Swin Cash, Tina Thompson, Lisa Leslie. Moore is joining a league of extraordinary talent. The WNBA is where the best female basketball players in the world come to play for 4 months after playing full seasons abroad in Russia, Western Europe, China, and Australia. They don’t come to the U.S. play for the money, and they also don’t come for the recognition because they almost never receive it unless it’s on the butt end of a joke. They play because they love the game.
Women’s collegiate and professional sports go largely untelevised, are almost never discussed seriously on ESPN’s Sports Center, or any sports analyst newscast. In the summer, it’s about Major League Baseball and the upcoming NFL season. No one is reporting on the WNBA or it’s trade rumors, player movements, off-season injuries, stats, or MVP race. I think the real issue is not that no cares, it’s because the wrong people care, and the right people don’t. Who do you imagine to be the average women’s basketball fan? Straight men don’t generally show support for women’s sports, but when powerful ones do big things happen. Maya Moore is the perfect example.
President Obama brought his daughter Malia to a Mystics game last year. He also had a basketball game at the White House and invited his favorite basketball players over for a game one of whom was Maya Moore. During this year’s NCAA Tournament President Obama shared his picks for the men’s and women’s bracket. As he wrote in his ballot for the women’s bracket, he shared a story about Maya Moore picking the pocket of Dwayne Wade at the game he had at the White House. A few months later, Maya gets a call from Michael Jordan.
I’ve followed the league for 15 years and I’ve seen great players get airtime. People who weren’t fans of women’s basketball would know the names: Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoops, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, and even Nikki Blue. But that wouldn’t bring people to games, and that didn’t keep the WNBA on television or expand it’s the viewership significantly. The Houston Comets folded a few years after winning the first 3 WNBA championships.
I hope that Maya Moore’s name recognition (among men) might bring some attention to the league, to women in professional sports, to a league that has grown and changed in the last 15 years from one where I was happy if they just made it up the floor on them rusty knees, to a game where you’re constantly asking “how did she do that?” But I’m not convinced she’ll single handedly change the way (mostly men) view women’s professional basketball. They’ll respect her, but not the sport. There needs to be substantive changes in the way that women who play sports are treated, they way that people think about them, and Maya Moore can’t do that alone.
That said
Maya has big shoes to fill, those Jordans, and it will be exciting to watch her this summer as she plays against the best female basketball players in the world in the WNBA. They will be gunning for her. Could she do what Candace Parker did in 2008 and win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same year? Let’s watch and find out.
If you’re really interested in getting to know the WNBA, look here for updates. I’ll keep tabs on Maya Moore’s progress, and other WNBA athletes this summer and link you to other bloggers sharing great WNBA content!
https://i0.wp.com/thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mayamoorejordans.jpg?fit=306%2C380&ssl=1380306The Doctorhttps://thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/White-logo.pngThe Doctor2011-05-23 07:00:182011-05-23 08:25:46The WNBA, Maya Moore, and the Jordan Brand
As my favorite poet once said, “There are no new ideas, only new ways of making them felt,” I want to take a short pause to muse over the fact that Chris Brown and Bobby Brown have had almost the same trajectory in terms of their early career. In other words, Chris Brown is the Millennial’s version of Bobby Brown.
Go with me here…
Chris Brown can dance and so could Bobby. Bobby was a master of his era’s dance moves. As Chris Brown is.
Now let’s think about the way that they sing. If you listen close, you’ll hear something similar. They have that nasally, high pitched man sing. But they can do the deeper man sing if they want.
Bobby was a bad boy, but he started out a good guy. Chris Brown knocked the hell out of Rihanna, but he started out a nice guy. Bobby was probably the worst thing that had ever happened to Whitney Houston, and we could say something similar about Chris Brown as it relates to Rihanna, but she got outta there. Quick. I really want Chris Brown to get some professional help, and once he’s able, he needs to do some outreach to other young men about hitting women and anger problems. In the meantime, I wonder if he’d consider giving some of that money to foundations that do that work.
Organizations Ending Violence Against Women
American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence
740 15th Street, NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC, 20005-1022
phone: 202-662-1000
Website: http://www.abanet.org/domviol/home.html
The American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence website provides information about a wide-range of domestic violence issues and extensive links to other resources and organizations. The website includes listings of ABA policies, training materials, legal briefs, and sample legal forms relevant to domestic violence issues and proceedings.
Asian Task Force against Domestic Violence
P.O. Box 120108, Boston, MA 02112
24-hour multilingual helpline: 617.338.2355 / Tel: 617.338.2350
Fax: 617.338.2354
Website: http://www.atask.org
Based in Boston, the mission of the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence is to eliminate family violence and to strengthen Asian families and communities. Many of their brochures are available in Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, and Vietnamese.
AYUDA, Inc.
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: (202) 387-4848
Website: http://www.ayuda.com
Ayuda’s mission is to protect the rights of low-income immigrants in the DC metropolitan area. We are the region’s leading provider of multilingual legal and social services for low-income immigrants in the areas of immigration, human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Center for Women Policy Studies
1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Suite 450
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 872-1770
Fax: (202) 296-8962
Email: cwps@centerwomenpolicy.org
Website: www.centerwomenpolicy.org
The Center for Women Policy Studies was founded in 1972 as the nation’s first feminist policy analysis, research and advocacy institution. Their mission today is what it was then—to shape public policy to improve women’s lives.
Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women
Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/ovw
145 N Street, NE, Suite 10W.121
Washington, DC 20530
phone: (202) 307-6026 phone
TTY: (202) 307-3911
The mission of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is to provide federal leadership to reduce violence against women, and to administer justice for and strengthen services to all victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. This is accomplished by developing and supporting the capacity of state, local, tribal, and non-profit entities involved in responding to violence against women.
Family Violence Prevention Fund
Washington, DC Office
1630 Connecticut Ave, NW
5th Floor, Suite 501
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 682-1212
Fax: (202) 682-4662
Men Can Stop Rape
1003 K Street, NW, Suite 20001
Washington, DC 20037
Tel: (202) 265-6530
Fax: (202) 265-4362
Email: info@mencanstoprape.org
Website: www.mencanstoprape.org
Men Can Stop Rape mobilizes male youth to prevent men’s violence against women. Their mission is to build young men’s capacity to challenge harmful aspects of traditional masculinity, to value alternative visions of male strength and to embrace their vital role as allies with women and girls in fostering healthy relationships and gender equality.
National Domestic Violence Hotline
Hotline: 800 799-7233
Website: www.ndvh.org
A project of the Texas Council on Family Violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is open year-round. Trained staff provide counseling and referral services to all, free of charge. The staff speaks English and Spanish, and translators are available for 129 other languages. They offer crisis intervention, referrals to domestic violence and other emergency shelters and programs, information and support, and can link callers to a nationwide database on domestic violence. They advise on shelters, advocacy and assistance, and social services programs.
Polaris Project
P.O. Box 53315
Washington, D.C. 2009
Tel: 202-745-1001
fax: 202-745-1119
website: www.polarisproject.org
email: info@polarisproject.org
Named after the North Star that guided slaves towards freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002. Polaris Project is a leading organization in the United States combating all forms of human trafficking and serving both U.S. citizens and foreign national victims, including men, women, and children
Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN)
2000 L Street NW Suite 406
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 544-1034
Hotline: (800) 656-HOPE
Email: info@rainn.org
Website: http://www.rainn.org
Provides information on resources throughout the country, for survivors of rape, abuse and incest. Runs a 24 hour, 7 day a week hotline.
VDAY
Website: www.vday.org
V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery. V-Day is also a non-profit corporation that distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
For a more complete list, check out Feminist.com who I thank for keeping this list!
https://i0.wp.com/thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/BROWNs3.jpg?fit=306%2C380&ssl=1380306The Doctorhttps://thedoctorlane.com/wp-content/uploads/White-logo.pngThe Doctor2011-05-07 13:53:082011-05-09 15:00:04Chris Brown = Bobby Brown 20 years ago
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
Essential Website Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
Other external services
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Nikki Lane. All Rights Reserved. Permission required for reuse.
