Trees, Not Ephemera

Trees.

About Barack Obama’s clinching the presidential nomination, Recently gay Roman Catholic author, Richard Rodriguez, noted in the SF Chronicle, “on election night, (he) found himself in a Houston hotel room weeping after the official announcement had been made. And thought "those tears cannot be forgiveness for everything we've done to African Americans in our culture,...noting further that:

slavery, lynchings and segregation are too embedded in the nation's memory, It will not be washed away with one man's election. There are a lot of ghosts in this country, and ghosts don't get expelled with one election."

This got me to thinking more about our preoccupation with trees and their social relationship to us of the hip hop constituency.
Preoccupation with TREES!? you say.
Yup. Trees.

Particularly us here at Birds Who Like Pomegranate. One thing you would notice upon entering our office- would be the extensive photography of trees throughout West Berkeley. Some in full leaf fro’s, to the strikingly spare. And even some from our recent trip to Peoria, Illinois.
Being that the majority of our supermodels are of the deciduous type, those who’s leaves begin to turn at the onset of the autumn, we have our aesthetic preferences. We admire the stature and branch viewpoints of what goes down in the hood. In the Bay Area, our urban landscapes are not without trees. If they could talk, many a homicide could be solved. Just that notion alone is worth digging a tree. Think about it.

As an aside, how many of you are accustomed to, what I can only relate to as an antiquated African American familial practice of, picking your own switch for reprimand. In other words, picking out your own switch for somebody to beat your ass with. It’s a psychological relay of sorts- meant to intensify personal reflection towards redemption after performing a bad deed. After all, you did something wrong, so you’re about to get your ass whipped for it.
Don’t do it again?

In our December broadcast, we included a phenomenal tune from Malika Madremana who describes how some racist boys she encountered gave her cause to see trees as enemies- no doubt with ties to lynching references. So it’s 2009; how should YOU see trees? Maybe as we see them- as nature’s fly on the wall or as THE barometers of environmental health.

The United States Forest Service National Lichens & Air Quality Database and Clearinghouse is a fine reference for detecting your local air quality- just by looking at trees around your way for lichen. Lichen, are a growth collaboration between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner. Basically, fungi are nature's decomposers and photosynthetic plants make food from sunlight. These two entities come together as one to grow on trees, plants, rocks, fences, and soil, et al. Thriving in various air quality conditions. So if you see some, you can reference the type to get some info on YOUR air quality...for all you alter ego backyard scientists out there in hip-hop-landia.

Sorry folks, the geek come out at light for this particular emcee.

But seriously, I do want to say this, I laid eyes on the most beautiful specimens (trees not lichen) encapsulated in frosty crystalline this past December 22nd, 2008 in Peoria, Illinois. Iced out trees that gave credence to the cheesiest decorative Christmas schmaltz found in any pharmacy after Thanksgiving. Now I understand. In nature it goes down gorgeous beyond belief. I may now be put to rest.

S’go.

(this editorial will be featured in the upcoming BWLP Mixed Media Music Magazine for January 2009, premiering 1/15/09)