Check out the first piece for my new Suit Your Life fashion column with Black Enterprise Magazine. Enjoy.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/2011/06/17/7-fathers-day-gift-ideas-not-a-tie/
Tell a friend to tell another friend.
Join me on twitter for more news, articles, and updates. A lot of great things on the horizon. Join me @iamGVG
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Monday, February 1, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A Brooklyn Haiku
I slept with the girl of my dreams on the first date
In the morning when I woke up, she was still the girl of my dreams.
When she woke up, I was the guy she had a drunken one-night stand with.
Monday, August 31, 2009
AM I A WHORE BY BLOOD?
I received a call from my cousin tonight which led to a deeper than normal conversation for us concerning our futures and the idea of love. He asking, “Do you believe people truly want to be in love”, spawned all this? Without a breathe I responded with a “Yes!” He responded with an “Oh” that sung out his loss of interest in continuing the conversation with such a “naïve” person. I pushed the subject further out of a desire to have a conversation with one of the only men I hoped could truly understand how I felt since he had the same bloodline as me. I reminded him of how both our fathers died with large bank accounts, numerous homes on multiple continents, closet of tailored suits, custom shoes, and a long list of conquest but none present at their bedsides when the end came. How sad it was that the only woman in my father’s life he trusted enough to help him put his life in order after his stroke in the event he died was my mother. Whom he hadn’t had a relationship with for about 14 years at the time. I continued to speak about how I didn’t want that for myself. How I wanted someone who loved me and that I loved in the same way. He listened impatiently and with every “Uh huh” signaled his lack of desire to continue the conversation. At the end of my long country song with the exuberance of a kid who just got a lifetime supply of chocolate, he screamed out “OUR DADS WHERE WHORES AND WE GOT THEIR BLOOD!!!”
WTF?!?!?!!!
I didn’t know what to say to that. I sat there quietly as he reminisces over “The good times” The Brothers, as we always called them, had with all their lovely conquest. We had this conversation on numerous occasions through the course of our lives each of us, my brother, cousin, and I, all had our Father/Uncle stories. Coming downstairs to find three women standing in front of the dinner table with the dishes they had prepared and my father asking me to choose which of them my fat picky fingers would feast on that evening. It wasn’t until years later that I realized what I had walked into. One of us walking in on a father/uncle receiving what we initially thought was a spirited bedside prayer and seconds later being hit with the realization that there was nothing holy in the act.
I told him of my concerns with my bloodline and how with every relationship I hoped to be the man I talked about being and not the man my bloodline destined me to be. My behavior in the past has lent itself to something my father would have done. I’m not a cheater, but I do love women. I love to flirt. I love the attention and I wonder if I’ll be able to turn that off once that ring comes on. I realized my cousin could not give me the answers I needed or wanted or maybe he was just the person to give me the answers, but I just didn’t want to hear them. I find any excuse to let him out of the conversation he clearly didn’t want to be in. then I was left alone to think and with no one else of value awake, all I could do was let the thoughts swoosh around in my head. Getting bigger with each turn.
Was I destined to be exactly what he proclaimed me to be – A whore? What would that entail? Would I get all the girls and have my kids and nephews talking for years about all the women that laid to my beckoning? Would I die alone wishing I had just picked one of them and made it work?
WTF?!?!?!!!
I didn’t know what to say to that. I sat there quietly as he reminisces over “The good times” The Brothers, as we always called them, had with all their lovely conquest. We had this conversation on numerous occasions through the course of our lives each of us, my brother, cousin, and I, all had our Father/Uncle stories. Coming downstairs to find three women standing in front of the dinner table with the dishes they had prepared and my father asking me to choose which of them my fat picky fingers would feast on that evening. It wasn’t until years later that I realized what I had walked into. One of us walking in on a father/uncle receiving what we initially thought was a spirited bedside prayer and seconds later being hit with the realization that there was nothing holy in the act.
I told him of my concerns with my bloodline and how with every relationship I hoped to be the man I talked about being and not the man my bloodline destined me to be. My behavior in the past has lent itself to something my father would have done. I’m not a cheater, but I do love women. I love to flirt. I love the attention and I wonder if I’ll be able to turn that off once that ring comes on. I realized my cousin could not give me the answers I needed or wanted or maybe he was just the person to give me the answers, but I just didn’t want to hear them. I find any excuse to let him out of the conversation he clearly didn’t want to be in. then I was left alone to think and with no one else of value awake, all I could do was let the thoughts swoosh around in my head. Getting bigger with each turn.
Was I destined to be exactly what he proclaimed me to be – A whore? What would that entail? Would I get all the girls and have my kids and nephews talking for years about all the women that laid to my beckoning? Would I die alone wishing I had just picked one of them and made it work?
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
BOOK EVERYTHING TRAVEL BLOG INTRO AND EP1: PACKING SUCKS OR I SUCK AT PACKING
You may not know this, but my New Year’s resolution (that wasn’t actually done on New Year’s) was to travel again. Travel as much as I can, as often as I can, for as long as I can. I can’t figure out why it was that I stopped traveling, maybe it’s the same reason I never made that big move across the Atlantic, that I’ve been talking about doing for all these years. Anyway, I got to a point where I said enough is enough and just started to book everything that came across my computer screen. I’ve done rather well. I’ve been on a plane at least once a month if not a minimum of twice a month since April. Not all of them have been lavish, far off lands, but all of them great experiences that have added to my growth and fond memories. The most memorable of the trips being my first trip back to Haiti with my brother. We plan to do that one again very soon.
My cousin Stephanie especially, and a few other close friends have tried to get me to keep a journal of my journey’s, but as I’ve seemed to have lost my bug for writing, as anyone who used to reads this blog can attest to, I just didn’t have the desire to write. I needed another way of documenting this experience, I ran into a cool guy one night who told me about how he created a collage with all the things in his pockets and other small random items he collected from his trip to South Africa. Interesting. I came across a blog of a guy who took one Polaroid picture per day since the late 70s and never missed a day. Very interesting. Another friend’s father wrote about the best part of each day for one year, exactly one year. Also interesting. As I encountered all these creative ways of documenting ones life I knew I wanted my own way, but I knew it had to be my own and not the rehash of someone else’s.
I have played around with the idea of keeping a photo journal, but I knew me and how I would have to preface each pic with a story and thought that wouldn’t do the idea justice. Then I had another idea – how about a video journal of my travels. No writing, but I get to give you all the stuff that’s going on with me as its happening. On a good day it could hopefully be insightful, entertaining, funny, informative, and beautiful, on all the other days a complete car wreck, and who doesn’t love watching a good wreck in progress!
This was great. The only problem is I hate carrying stuff, I hated, hated, HATED the idea of having to carry a digital camera, a digital recorder, my cell phone, CrackBerry, extra batteries, more cords, adapters, god it’s hurting my back just to type it all out. I already think we all look like batman wannabes with utility belts on. Then I got a great e-mail informing me that there had been a new operating system update released for my blackberry that would give it the ability to create video – EUREKA!!! That’s it. I could do my video journals with my CrackBerry. All was right with the world and my new video blog was one-step closer to being a reality, now all I needed was somewhere to go.
This brings us to this point. Below is my first official entry of my "BOOK EVERYTHING TRAVEL BLOG" series. The video quality on the phone isn’t the greatest, but I think it’s good enough to get the job done.
P.S. Below that, I added my test run of the CrackBerry video feature.
BOOK EVERYTHING TRAVEL BLOG EP1 PACKING SUCKS OR I SUCK AT PACKING
Click on link for a pic of the finished product
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/photo.php?pid=1523468&id=592097266&ref=nf
TESTING 1 2 3
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