KEKA'S BLOG

Soul food...for lone wolves and wild women everywhere...

Keka

Keka
Location
Arizona, USA
Birthday
March 10
Bio
I'm a former reporter for both the Chicago Sun Times and Arizona Daily Star, published author and optioned screenwriter who spent 8 years on the Hopi reservation as wife of a Hopi artist, and over 20 years as a teacher and administrator.

 

I spent this weekend watching Styx and Michael McDonald.  And if that’s not Boomer Heaven nothing is.

But, I’m not going to talk about the music--or...not just the music.  I want to talk about "my g-g-g-generation."  If you're part of it, you know wha/… Read full post »

 
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
Wake Up, Everybody

I came home a few days ago to find my daughter--who is usually true to her paternal “Don’t worry, be Hopi” roots in temperament--seething. 

I mean, fighting mad.  But unsure where to direct all/

Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
MARCH 21, 2012 3:51PM

For Trayvon and Emmett: My "Walking While Black" stories

 Donna Summer does the "Working Girl Beep"

Young Keka

  Me, back when I heard that beep 'way too often...

I’m not going to comment on the 911 calls, the police negligence or the firestorm that followed Trayvon Martin’s death.

I’m just going… Read full post »

MARCH 18, 2012 4:02PM

Bits and Bobs--March, 2012

A Beautiful “Non-Denominational” Prayer of Thanks for Kids and Grownups, too

My baby girl, her father and I sang that song every night as she was coming into consciousness in her early years. 

It’s a Raffi tune, but we found it, sung by a woman who… Read full post »

Editor’s Pick
FEBRUARY 19, 2012 5:04PM

For Whitney: "Sleep little darlin' do not cry..."

 

 Blurry, shaky cellphone snippet:

  James “JY” Young (Styx), my spiritual survival “guide”

(Yes, that’s me squealing) 

I was too sad/mad to write about Whitney the day she died. 

See, I have friends who knew her back when she

Read full post »

 

MikeMcDonald and Scarlett

  Michael McDonald and one of his REAL loves, daughter Scarlett

Pop quiz.  What does this...

 …have to do with this:

Comment below before reading on.  I really want to hear my OS friends wax poetic about this one.

Now for the story behind… Read full post »

Blue heart 

I got this from a friend named Barbara Hall who is facing the battle of her life this week.  A battle for her life, which could very well be the last battle she fights in Earth School.

She sent it to all of the people who love… Read full post »



 The big "reveal" of Prince Perfect

I recently noticed while channel surfing that there had recently been a Nutcracker ballet competition hosted by Debbie Allen and Nigel Lythgoe (So You Think You Can Dance).

The latter convinced me to watch a couple of the versions via OnDemand.… Read full post »

DECEMBER 11, 2011 12:50PM

Sacred Flash Cards--Divine Intervention

Pres. Roosevelt watches a katsina dance at Walpi (Hopi) in 1913

I’ve been thinking about this since the final installment of my “Common Cold Chronicles” because I know that my “woo-woo” spiritual side may seem incongruous to a lot of folks who otherwise enjoyRead full post »

The lyrics I clung to for solace...

My “unintentional vision quest” began with a young doctor who misdiagnosed one of the most dangerous allergic reactions a body can have as a “common cold.”   And I’ve talked about the the anger, terror, pain and theRead full post »

 
In the second installment, I scared a few people sideways describing the hellish symptoms of my "syndrome" and how I tried to cope with them. 

For those of you who are new to this saga, the "syndrome" is a particularly violent allergic reaction to the goutRead full post »

In the first installment of this sad saga, I explained how two ER doctors misdiagnosed my potentially fatal allergic reaction to allopurinol as everything from a cold to “contact dermatitis.”  

I am typing this at 2 a.m. because I no longer sleep more than one or two hoRead full post »

Dr Doogie
 

A short while ago, I wrote about a battle with gout that had just begun.   Lots of wonderful people wrote back to express concern, so I attempted to comfort them with an update that said I had found a great doctor who was putting me/

Read full post »

Salif Keita 

 When I last "spoke" to you this was just getting serious.  What has happened to me since sent me to the ER three times to no avail, and when I explain how dangerous my situation became after that...well...let me just say that I'm happy to be aliveRead full post »

OCTOBER 9, 2011 12:59PM

Exploring the "Infinite Abyss"


  The Abyss

 

Happens in all those “hero’s journey” movies screenwriting gurus suggest their students emulate. 

The hero(ine) stumbles on or over some kind of “glyph” or other illogical or even irrational hint s/he cannot decipher.  But s/he does  Read full post »

YinYang 

I have never done one of these “bits and bobs” posts before.  But as my life is definitely something of a “Picasso in progress” just now,  all I can do is offer some updates and little interesting things I’ve done and found and discovered. Read full post »

  Screener

 Typical Stock "Screener"

I’ve got the “bug.”   Bad.

You see…I opened a little bitty Scottrade account on a whim.   Just a few hundred, nothing big, to see how the other half live.   On a Lilliputian scale.

And now, I’… Read full post »

The psychotic bastard and wives 

 The "Psychotic Bastard" and Wives

They tried to make it sound almost…like a privilege, this gout* thing.

The “rich man’s disease,” they called it when I hobbled into Urgent Care with my unaccountably swollen and aching left foot.  And then they p/… Read full post »

I watch this show every year.  I've watched it get better and better and better and now...it wins dozens of Emmys and dancers who previously would never have considered competing to be on or choregraphing for a TV show are standing in long lines and begging to have that chance.

Some… Read full post »

JULY 31, 2011 1:57PM

Superlungs: Terry Reid Forever!

I think I must’ve been, like…15 or 16 when I first heard Terry Reid wail.  It was when he opened for Cream in 1968, I think. 

He was all of about 18 or so.   Just this little scrawny English kid—beautiful scrawny English kid, though.  Still, we… Read full post »

 Fourteen or Fight from Wild in the Streets

Sorry Albert.  I’ve seen this “movie” before.  

It was called Wild in the Streets, and yes, that’s Richard Pryor on drums in the first clip and screaming, “Amend, amend, amend” in the galleryRead full post »

Editor’s Pick
JULY 3, 2011 11:51AM

The London "Rock and Roll" Summers: 48 Lancaster Gate

48 Lancaster Gate

My London summer "home away from home" 

Bless Google Earth…there it is:   48 Lancaster Gate, London W2 3NA, UK.

It all changed there.  My whole life.  My outlook on life.  In fact, the rather prosaic life I’d been living gave way to the fast lane/… Read full post »

I don't have anything to say that can match what this song with few real words says all by itself.  Listen as "...a song becomes a thousand songs..."

If it makes you cry...that's a GOOD thing...

 

 

 Say Ladeo, from Vocabularies
Bobby McFerrin
 
Some days...because… Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
JUNE 12, 2011 12:32PM

The World According to Ebert (Yes, it's YOUR turn Roger)

Ebert and Meyer 

 The Roger I knew...with producer Russ Meyer

Okay, let’s go there, finally.

Why does Roger Ebert “tweet” my posts?

Easy but sincere answer?  Damned if I know. 

Not so easy and scarier answer?   I think he still remembers that tiny littl/… Read full post »

Editor’s Pick
JUNE 5, 2011 11:49AM

Horse Sense: Oprah Replacement Therapy

BIG boy Gulliver

Gulliver:  My Oprah Replacement Therapist

I had tried to think of ways to get out of this thing all week. 

This "thing" was an Epona workshop designed to teach volunteers at Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary to handle their most traumatized rescues. 

And I… Read full post »