Monday, February 27, 2012

Write Here, Write Now - #ManCandy Monday

Writers don't tend to have the best bods.  (Not insulting, just sayin', it's not easy finding pics of them with their shirts off.)

They're still hot, IMO.  They might be passionate and fiery and tick people off.  Or they might wear glasses, perhaps be a bit shy.  But I've always been a sucker for a man with a huge... vocabulary. One who knows how to use it. *swooning*

There's a good reason poets are famous for attracting groupies.
Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer 1894-1967
Poet, playwright, novelist

Banking Coal
By Jean Toomer
Whoever it was who brought the first wood and coal
To start the Fire, did his part well;
Not all wood takes to fire from a match,
Nor coal from wood before it’s burned to charcoal.
The wood and coal in question caught a flame
And flared up beautifully, touching the air
That takes a flame from anything.
Somehow the fire was furnaced,
And then the time was ripe for some to say,
“Right banking of the furnace saves the coal.”
I’ve seen them set to work, each in his way,
Though all with shovels and with ashes,
Never resting till the fire seemed most dead;
Whereupon they’d crawl in hooded night-caps
Contentedly to bed. Sometimes the fire left alone
Would die, but like as not spiced tongues
Remaining by the hardest on till day would flicker up,
Never strong, to anyone who cared to rake for them.
But roaring fires never have been made that way.
I’d like to tell those folks that one grand flare
Transferred to memory tissues of the air
Is worth a like, or, for dull minds that turn in gold,
All money ever saved by banking coal.
Some poetry, I confess, goes right over my head, but Banking Coal left me feeling warm all over.

Toomer was Old School poetry - how about a new Old School poet?

Sometimes he did some crazy stupid things.  Sometimes he said or rapped some crazy stupid things. Other times, Tupac was incredibly poetic and expressed serious sense in his too-short life:

"Since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman, and our game from a woman. I wonder why we take from woman, why we rape our woman, do we hate our woman? I think its time we killed for our woman, be real to our woman, try to heal our woman, cause if we don't we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, who make the babies. And since a man can't make one he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one."
Tupac Shakur
Big brown eyes, Tupac was a very handsome man, if one of the few I don't enjoy seeing shirtless.  Maybe it was the tats that didn't do it for me.
via Wikimedia Commons
Tavis Smiley.  Author. Talk Show Host. Activist.  Editor. And looks mighty fine in a leather jacket, too.

I admit, I haven't caught his show in a while - I haven't caught anybody's show. (Been writing.) But back when I did watch on a regular basis, I thought his nightly PBS show was one of the best shows on television.  Although often he had the same movie stars promoting their movies and authors flogging their books that every other talk show host had on, he got real depth out of them.

It wasn't all about the latest Hollywood blockbuster, either. Guests were (and are) artists, musicians, politicians, economists, scientists...  Tavis asked provoking questions, and searching follow-up questions. He refused to stay on the beaten path, in terms of allowing the guest to direct the interview to their safe and comfy talking points.  However, I never got the feeling, even if he openly disagreed with a guest's point of view, that he ever disrespected them.  That's not an easy line to walk.

Speaking of not easy, how about being an artist, and illustrator?  Kadir Nelson is a triple threat, having also stepped up to the plate to be a children's book author, as well.  His books include the 2011 release   "Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans" and "WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball."


 











The vibrancy of the colors in these paintings and murals, the action in the baseball and basketball figures, simply amazing, IMO.  I can smell the brick dust stirred up by the slide in the baseball pic, above right; my fingers can feel the silky texture of the braids in the mane of the King's horse, below.  
All that talent, and Nelson's really a babe, don't you think?

Software developer to best-selling author.  Isn't that the path everybody takes?

Maybe not.  Certainly not everyone writes a dozen thrillers that hit the New York Times bestseller list like Eric Jerome Dickey.

I had to put Pleasure on my wish list:
Nia Simone Bijou is a woman who has it all—and is driven by the desire for more. She sets out on an exploration of her innermost fantasies, and embarks on three passionate and forbidden affairs. Each lover teaches Nia valuable lessons about herself and her desires—but how long can Nia play with fire without getting burned?  
Publishers Weekly called the book “a steamy romance” that “delivers its message that saying ‘yes’ to pleasure can also lead to self-enlightenment,” while Kirkus Reviews raved that PLEASURE ”will leave you hot and bothered.”
Not that his picture doesn't lead me in that direction anyway (click here to see it).  *fans self*

Keenen Ivory Wayans.  I fell in very strong like with his edgy, hilarious writing and characters when he launched In Living Color.  Yes, it was often outrageous and offensive... but in a charming way.  He wasn't afraid to look ridiculous, to wear Rick James' Jheri curls or dress in drag.

Such a sexy smile. I guess a man with a biting wit should have big shiny white teeth to match.

If you, too were a fan of ILC - guess what?  It's coming back!  From Deadline.com in October 2011:
Fox is bringing back its groundbreaking 1990s sketch comedy series In Living Color with the series’ creator and star, Keenen Ivory Wayans, on board as host and executive producer. Fox has ordered two In Living Color half-hour specials to air as part of the network’s 25th anniversary celebration in midseason with a series option behind them, meaning that in success, the reboot will join Fox’s schedule as a regular series next season.
They're supposed to air in the spring of this year.  Of course, the shows could flop, but I am rooting for them to succeed, even if they feature an all new cast. I might even have to start watching TV again. Though I will always have deep fondness for the original brothers.


Do you have any sexy writers - be they screenwriters, poets, novelists, children's authors, or somethin' else, we'd all enjoy peeking at?

Please share, below.
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