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August

August 12, 2004

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that being sick throws everything off . . . What's good, folks? Just trying to play catch up over here before the summer ends. We took The Jalenator to The Bronx Zoo - mad fun. He's been busy riding up and down on his "cootah" this summer. That boy is a clown . . . Have to give a big congrats to my peoples, Kristen and Charles, for the birth of the twins! Chloe and Elijah were born on July 12, so The Starting Five is now complete. Look for the Van1 mixtape tour in your city in 2022!!

- Jason V-ambi

P.S. Fewer birthdays in August, but of no less importance: C-Rock! Little Julia, Nicole G. (hey, miss!), Naim, John, Tiffany, Kimbadly, Crrrricket, Ellen, Mekalia, and the King of Pop (holla at you boy, MJ!). Anniversary shouts to Eric and Joanna and Migdalia and the Captain, and congrats to Malcolm and Kina and Seth and Cat!

"Who's Your Daddy?"

For some reason, when I was teaching, there were always students who would ask me, "What's your Dad like?" I never really wondered why they asked, I just leapt at the opportunity to talk about my favorite guy: "My Dad? Well, I'll put it to you like this: If you needed a ride home from college in, say, Connecticut, my father would come to pick you up." It was my standard response, the clearest image I could offer about how selfless my father is. The inquiring mind's response was also standard: "Me? But, your father doesn't know me." "Exactly."
Trying to explain where this quality of Pop Dukes comes from is a futile task. Believe me, I've tried. It's not something most can easily comprehend - why my father has to put others' needs before his . . . A few years ago, my mother bought a computer, mostly so that my father could learn how to use it. He has struggled to conquer it, and loses much time to others who use the computer for self, instead of teaching him. And yet, he told me that he was so glad to have the computer in the house: "Seeing my three sons together around the computer brought me more happiness than the computer ever could." It didn't make sense to me then, but it's starting to . . .

Early last month, I went into covert operations mode. My objective: find and purchase tickets to Prince's concert in the Garden without Gillian's finding out. Ebay was my vehicle and the mission was a complete success. The evening of the show, under the guise of eating dinner in the immediate area with good friends who were actually going to the show, I surprised Gillian with tickets to see her favorite artist (bar none).
It was obvious from the start how much it meant to her. I only had to think of Big Fees and me at MJ's concert in the Garden three years ago to realize that seeing your all-time favorite artist live, for the first time, was life-altering. But, it wasn't until The Symbol sang ADORE that I understood how serious it was.
For how many of us is our favorite song sung by our favorite artist? For some reason, I feel safe in assuming not many. But, for Gillian, this was the Powerball, the answer to the Final Jeopardy question. And, the look on her face? MasterCard, give me a call - I have a real commercial for ya . . .

One of my former students had a quotation as her signature the other day that I liked (hey, Dom!): "If every word I say could make you laugh I'd talk forever..." Yeah, Pops, I'm starting to get it.