don't assume i cook tip #51...

if you have a recipe that calls for buttermilk and have none, have no fear!

* milk (just under one cup)
* 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice

1. place a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup.

2. add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line.

3. let stand for five minute. Then, use as much as your recipe calls for.

cheers!

"for a good clean feeling, no matter what..."

in my ongoing pursuit to live a more simple life, i often have to take it back to the old school.

quite a few people i know, me included, are always looking for ways to brighten our teeth. we drink too much coffee, we're smokers, we like the candy just a liiiiitle too much. whatever the reason, there are about a billion different things you can buy to help, from gels to sprays, strips to mouthpieces.

my suggestion: all you need is BAKING SODA AND PEROXIDE. seriously.

baking soda is great for cleaning teeth and it kills bacteria that causes plaque; peroxide kills bacteria in the gums and on the tongue. together, they work well as a whitener.

what to do: put on your toothpaste on the brush and then dip it into a bit of baking soda. no, it's not the most pleasant taste, get over it. after that, floss, if you want to, and then, like you would a mouthwash, rinse with peroxide. no, you won't die if you accidentally swallow a bit. it happens. rinse with water or a mouthwash, and you're done!

tips #1) i bought some baking soda, put it in a mason jar by my toothpaste in the bathroom. that way it's there every time i pick up my toothbrush and i don't forget. lazy or genius, you decide. :-)

tip #2) do it EVERYDAY. you should be brushing your teeth at least once a day, twice for realz, anyway.

top five reasons you may want to try it out:
5) before they had toothpaste, what do you think they used?
4) it's cheaper. maaaaybe $2.99 for baking soda and $1.00 for peroxide.
3) you'll get more for your money.
2) my grandma knows everything.
1) i can damn near guarantee in 1 month your teeth will be whiter.


so that's that. let me know how it works out. go ahead and try. i dare ya. :-)

peace,
nzingha

disclaimer: no, just because i tagged you because your teeth look dingy. well, not all of you :-P and no, baking soda DOES NOT strip away your enamel.

"my blood is a million stories..."

sitting here thinking and wanted to share...

my dad goes before the parole board december 2nd. thinking about my family and the families of other political prisoners and freedom fighters around the world. thinking about you especially, kamel. i am SO truly blessed to come from the family i do. the hearn clan. the shakur clan.

it's a different way of life in many ways, being children of revolutionaries. our parents fought, were imprisoned, were exiled, and died fighting for basic human equality; and all the while growing us in the discipline and knowledge, love and respect for not only our people, but for all people. we think differently; we see the world differently.

i was thinking about the last time i saw mutulu. it's a harsh reminder to me when i think about the fact that i've never known my dad in any other context outside of prison, even back to my first memory. his every entrance into my life since i can remember has always been the same...coming from behind those steel bars, he stops so the officer can take of the chains. i've never seen him for more than 4-5 hours at a time. you only get so many hours of visitation. i've never seen him standing in the sunlight, never seen him standing in grass; i've never seen him in anything other than a prison uniform.

we've never had a phone conversation that wasn't recorded, written letters that weren't read before it reached his hands, or given hugs that weren't closely watched. i've shared every intimate moment with him, with someone else. he's never been able to see all of his children together at once, and now that pac has passed away he'll never be able too.

now mutulu is in florence, colorado. the #1 maximum security prison in the united states. "also known as the ADMAX, Supermax, or The Alcatraz of the Rockies, ADX houses the prisoners who are deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control. it is the highest level security federal prison in the united states, and generally considered the most secure prison in the world. individuals are kept for at least 23 hours each day in solitary confinement." that means he gets 1 hour, by himself, outside his cell in a heavily guarded area. all of our visits are behind glass and he often handcuffed.

these things come to mind as his parole hearing draws near. they have and continue to do everything the possibly can to keep him in prison. his upcoming parole hearing is a fight for due process and his right to come before the parole board and fight for his freedom in 2011.

as "thanksgiving" draws near, i am humbled by those who, like mutulu, saw their difficult path before them and even still chose to stand and fight, rather than lay down and continue to be enslaved. freedom fighters ALL OVER THE WORLD. many of them will not be able to sit down and have dinner with their families, will not be able to tuck their children in at night, and will not be able to hold the ones they love as they fall asleep.

yet they are fighting for our right to do so.

this thanksgiving, i give thanks for the people who fought and are still fighting for freedom and equality.
i give honor to the indigenous people of this country who are still fighting for their basic rights on their own land.
i give remembrance to who i am and where i come from. a people who's blood runs deep in the earth of this country.

...and i pray, so very hard, that we continue to move forward as a GLOBAL community, in love.

my blood? is a million stories. FREE 'EM ALL.

peace.

karma police...

we've all heard, and probably said...karma's a bitch, what goes around comes around. but, that's not really what karma is all about.

karma is simply that we will continue to repeat the lessons, until we learn them. so, it's much like the idea of what goes around comes around, but not quite.

deep example for those of you who need it: one of my lessons is detachment. i detach and lose all sense of feeling and emotion when things get uncomfortably and highly intense. most people think i'm really calm, but i'm often just void. something i learned and has been ingrained in me from a very young age which at that point, protected me time and time again. but it has now become second nature. i don't even know i'm detached most times. and that is neither helpful nor productive. so my lesson is ever how to be present in the midst of personal turmoil. how to live in the uncomfortable as i do in the comfort.

so, i keep coming back to these moments, in many different forms/situations/experiences/people, some more intense than others, but always with same underlying theme. when something hits, i go tend to go void, thus saying and doing outwardly from a void place inwardly. and it's not like 'm always making bad or wrong decisions, which is why i often miss the connection. but, once the smoke clears and things have been set into motion, i think, why did this/that happen? why wasn't it like this/that? did i do something wrong?

side note: bad/intense/frustrating things don't just stop happening. your life isn't going to just change. shit happens, that's just life. sorry to break it to ya. what does happen, and this is where the real beauty resides, is that when we finally get the lesson, We change.

for me, through that understanding, i can then move through my life with a little more peace, a handle my intensities with a little more grace. i can't wait...

basic example for those of you who need it: let's take your average asshole. if you're always an asshole, they the universe will continue to bring you in situations where it triggers your assholeness until you learn to stop being an asshole. capish.

back to deepness: sooooo, not necessarily what goes around comes around, but more what goes around keeps going around and around and around...until you stop it. once you learn that lesson, you step out of that viscous karmic cycle (that could have been following you for many many moons and many many lives) and move to a new level of consciousness and understanding. bettering and bettering your spirit self. ever forward...

karma.

sooooo, i challenge you to think about your karma, what lessons you find that you keep repeating. how can you break the cycle?

peace and blessings / love and light

lots of docs...

soooo, in my effort to spend absolutely NO money this weekend, i did quite a bit of homie house jumpin'. good stuff. saturday afternoon i ended up at allison's house. she and i have recently chatted over our love for the public library. it really is the best place in the world. you can rent movies, get practically any book you want to read, use the internet and sit for hours in silence without being bothered with all your goodies. for free! aaaaaaaand, if they don't have what you want, they'll mail it in from another branch. it's like entertainment to go. yes please, and thank you.

as a producer, when she says she's rented some interesting documentaries, i say yes. and this little trip proved me OH so correct. so here are two docs i highly recommend you see:

1) the jimi hendrix experience: oh my goodness. this is pretty much a taping of a concert in monterey, ca. the doc opens with a random man who seems to be totally lit up on something creating this Amazing mural of jimi on a random street ally wall. it them eases into the concert.

words cannot explain the geniousness of his performance. therefore i won't even try.

get it. got it? good.

2) manda bala (send a bullet): first of all, this film has been banned from brazil. that should tell you something.

manda bala is a new documentary about corruption in brazil. going beyond brazil’s sun-drenched beaches this documentary explores the connections between government corruption and the kidnapping industry in sao paolo. through stunning imagery the doc weaves the interviews of kidnap victims, kidnappers, frog farmers, plastic surgeons (dude made a kidnapping victim a new ear from the cartilage from her rib. and they show it son!), police, and even the corrupt politician jader barbalho. barbalho was accused of siphoning millions of dollars for his own use from Sudam, a development program to help the poor in brazil’s amazon region, into a complex portrait of crime in sao paolo. mandala bala was recently named best documentary in sundance.

this film has a sick, SICK soundtrack as well. amazing brazillian beats from artists like tom zé and jorge ben.


aaaaaaaaaaaaand, it's almost monday. oh, monday...

peace,
z

euna...

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=7119134

i talked to euna right before she left. she was nervous but excited. she has always longed to work on pieces that moved her. that stirred something in her. that were of substance. i didn't know just how dangerous her trip would be.

ruthie and i have been texting and talking our fears. there are so many. the horrible visions/thoughts of what could be happening. what she must be feeling. how she's holding up. and all infused with, honestly, fragile strands of faith...

i got an email from michael. man, i'm going out of my mind here with worry for euna, but i can't imagine what it's like for him. sitting in their house in LA with hana. i wonder if hana even knows what's going on...

feeling quite helpless. no one seems to know anything. even the papers keep saying they're "trying to figure out what happened and where they are."

oh, euna...

everytime...

i hear nina simone sing, something in me is moved. something in me changes.

http://www.ninasimone.com/

peace.