Brown Condor
Essence of DOPE
Habesha Mailbag
Jan 27th
Welcome to the Inaugural Habesha Mailbag
I am launching the Habesha Mailbag with the help of a few friends who lent me their time and creativity to come up with some questions, enjoy the gursha sewoch.
by Teddy Fikre written: Friday, January 27th, 2012
Well the moment has come for the launching of the inaugural Habesha Mailbag. Yes, I have changed with the time, I still don’t like the word Habesha, I prefer to be called Ethiopian. However, the word is not going anywhere, and if it serves as a bridge for Ethiopians and Eritreans to identify with a common name—well who am I to hold a grudge? So going forward, I shall call this the Habesha Mailbag.
So you ask, what is Habesha Mailbag. Well it was influenced by one of the writers I idolize by the name of Bill Simmons. On a weekly basis, Bill would take questions and comments from his readers and then reply back with a wit and humor that would make me literally make me laugh my Qit off as I was reading the article. Grant it, trying to emulate Bill Simmons is a tall order—after all, Bill was a writer for multiple late night comedy shows. But More >
A Beautiful Soul Named Soledad
Jan 27th
Maybe one day my daughter will end up breaking more glasses than you and when she does, I will tell her to salute sojourners of truth like Soledad.
by Teddy Fikre written: Friday, January 27th, 2012
Time for me to put pen to pad and write about another beautiful soul by the name of María de la Soledad Teresa O’Brien. I am sure you have seen her radiant smile on your television before and High Definition has done nothing but enhance Soledad’s radiance that much more. This lady is DOPE to the bone, no other news anchor captures my imagination more than Soledad each time I watch the news. Seriously, her beauty makes me forget for the moment of the inanities spewing from Newt Gingrich’s mouth or the duplicity forthing from Mitt Romney’s lips. This is quite an accomplishment, who knew that a journalist would be able to gloss over the enmity of the Tea Party.
But let me not minmize Soledad’s accomplishment to mere good looks. Soledad is an accomplished writer, journalist, news anchor, and the conscience of our collective minds. Born on September 19th, 1966, Soledad has gone on to accomplish great feats in such a short time that it makes More >
Divine Model
Jan 26th
I know God is thanking you profusely for all your works and deeds, but let me thank you along with HIM, thank you Aimee for being such a Divine Model.
by Teddy Fikre written: Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Let me introduce you to a divine model named Aimee Velázquez, a DOPE lady of grace who is gracing the pages of the universe. Aimee is of Puerto Rican and African-American decent, this hot mamacita is on her way to burning the universe with her beautiful smile and an equally enchanting soul. Aimee proudly represents both her Puerto Rican heritage and her African-American culture with pride and distinction. From an early age, Aimee was destined to be in front of cameras—she was born with beauty that only Nikon can capture fully.
Aimee is not typical in her demeanor; she is not a spot light chaser for the sake of owning the spotlight. She is an altruistic beautiful angel, she is intent on shedding light on issues that impact too many of our sisters and brothers in dark lit corners—she is champion of Domestic Violence Awareness and countless other efforts to overcome senseless violence perpetrated in our community. She was a presenter at the Domestic Violence More >
Black Virus of Self-Hatred
Jan 25th
I know this article will lose me many friends and followers on Facebook and twitter, but hopefully it will reach and teach a couple of folk to admire and love themselves first.
by Teddy Fikre written: Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Do you know there is a virus more lethal than the Ebola virus and ten times more deadly than the black plague. No, I don’t mean HIV nor am I referring to malaria or some other exotic disease which is being cooked up at this moment in CDC to initiate a black genocide. Nah, this disease I am referring to is a Black Virus more pernicious than any virus a lab technician in Atlanta can cook up in a million years. This black virus is the self-loathing and hatred that black people have for themselves.
I should know about this virus, this germ of self-hatred used to once course through my veins. I once used to close my eyes upon seeing black folks on TV and used to rub lotion on my arms and face continuously in order to wipe off the black; to this day, I still put too much lotion on—some habits die hard indeed. I went though my life More >
Gabby’s Courage
Jan 25th
I thank you Gabby for your courage and your grace, you made me cry last night, but today you restored my smile through your smile.
by Teddy Fikre written: Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
These were the piercing sounds that rang through Tucson on a crisp January morning outside a Safeway parking lot. These sounds would riddle the bodies of 20 people, cease the lives of 6, and echoed through the Gabby Gifford’s head. I am sure that the unending BANGS were the last thing that Gabby heard before she too succumbed to a bullet from a menacing gun held by a lunatic. What we did not know at the time was that the assassin—by the name of Jared Lee Loughner—was a crazed right wing lunatic who had no reason to go on a killing spree other than to seek vengeance from the death of innocent victims.
Initially, the reports were grim. Fox News and MSNBC and countless other media outlets—in a rush to get a scoop—reported that Gabby Gifford was killed at the scene. In the age More >
Lost and Found in Babylon
Jan 25th
It’s HUMP DAY, aren’t you ready to pop your collars and do some eskista to get over this hump day and get your groove on with DJ Banti at Babylon?
by Teddy Fikre written: Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Each and Every Wednesday FOR THE WORKAHOLICS, SOCIAL LOVERS, RELAXATION SEEKERS….
LIVE JAZZ BAND 6-10PM.
AT:BABYLON LOUNGE ….VA.
Happy Hour for the chic and sophisticated! BEST HOOKAH DMV|DRINK SPECIALS|LATE MENU|AMPLE PARKING|GREAT AMBIANCE|40 HD TV’S FOR ALL YOUR SPORTS FIX| VIDEO DJING ALL NIGHT|NO COVER GET LIFTED!!
“There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.” ~Edwin Denby
[youtube]http://youtu.be/_FGXSkLztJE[/youtube]
[click to see Eskista]
Tell Babylon and DJ Banti Brown Condor sent you! Salute!
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Rolling with Martin
Jan 25th
This is a letter from an Omega to an Alpha, we have done it all, from A to Z, we shall spell our own history one letter at a time.
by Teddy Fikre written: Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Do you know Roland Martin? No, really? Let me introduce you to him. Pull up your chair, sip your Ethiopian buna slowly, and read these words about this DOPE journalist named Mr. Martin. You know I have a thing for black intellect, well this black intellectual is the intersection of audacity and hope. Roland is omnipresent, you can catch him on CNN, on his website, and multiple radio stations. He is a man who is on a mission to light dark lit corners with the sunshine of intelligence. He is a man who is intent on shedding the label attached to most black thinkers, he is and has been popping his collars in the hurricane of Main Stream Media for decades.
Roland is a nationally award-winning and multifaceted journalist. He is nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate, Mr. Martin is the author of Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith, and Speak, Brother! A Black Man’s View of America, and “The First: President Barack Obama’s More >
Educate Them
Jan 24th
I am debating two ignoramus trolls about Ethiopia and Eritrea and while I keep extending an olive branch of peace they kept gnawing at my wrist like rabies infected hyenas.
by Teddy Fikre written: Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
I just spent the better part of an hour and a half debating the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea with this Eritrean haftey named Rahel Araya. The debate initially started off light-hearted, but the more we delved into the topic, the more this lady kept becoming nationalistic and tribalistic. I would like to think that I am an enlightened Ethiopian who traveled a long distance from being tribalistic to being altruistic and a lover of humanity above tribes. But funny thing, if one is egged on enough and one’s country of birth attacked enough, one eventually turns tribalistic too.
It was when I realized that I was answering Rahel’s insults with almost equal ferocity that I decided to step away from the ignorant debate and decided to seek the solace of my pen and pad. I won’t lie, my blood pressure is bit peaked at this moment, and I find myself rubbing my ear lobes trying to release the enmity that built up inside my More >
Habesha Mailbag
Jan 24th
Send an email to teddy.fikre@browncondor.com and each week I will reply back with your questions compiled into an article which will be called Habesha Mailbag.
by Teddy Fikre written: Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
One of my favorite writers, Bill Simmons from grantland.com, does this thing called MailBag, where he takes emails from his readers and then he answers each one of them. The whole article is nothing but an exchange between the questions that his readers pose and then his responses to those questions. The topics range mostly on sports but delve into pop culture, politics, movies, etc etc. What ensues is a hilarious interchange where Bill Simmons applies his wit and humor and delivers a weekly column to his readers. So based on this model, I want to take the same idea and apply an Ethiopian / Eritrean twist to it. Email me your take or questions with respect to Ethiopian pop culture, sports, politics and I will take your emails and turn them into a running feature that I will post here?
Want to know where I got the inspiration from? This is a snippet from Bill Simmons’ weekly mailbag:
Q: I’m a Steelers fan. I despise the Patriots and moreso, More >
Livin on EZ Street
Jan 24th
I wish I could catalog EZ Streets astounding feats but alas I ran out of buna and even I don’t have enough words to properly explain just how DOPE this brother truly is.
by Teddy Fikre written: Monday, January 24th, 2012
Listen to that voice, turn up the dial, do you hear that? That would be EZ Street. Nah, I don’t mean EZ Street, the California Band from the 70s who revolutionized music and became “Agents of Misfortune”, I am referring to this DOPE DJ on WKYS who is revolutionizing the way we listen to music and is an “Agent of Fortune”. I am referring to my homie, my brother from another mother but the soul of Africa DJ EZ Street. I won’t lie, I have been listening to EZ Street since I was in college back in the 90s at George Mason. He always made my traffic commute EZ and made my forget the struggles of life—at least for 30 minutes at a time.
It is apropos that EZ influenced me so in college; you see EZ caught the bug for being a DJ back in college himself. He attended college at Kansas State University and became the director and radio personality More >