Friday, August 22, 2008

the thirteenth floor

A lot of people ask me, "What's the 13th floor? Where'd that come from?" Let me break down my love of 13 for you:
  • 13 is my favorite number. In a close 2nd is 7 which is biblical perfection so I wouldn't even say that it's really 2nd. Just another first.
  • I used to live on the 13th floor when I was in the school dorms and met some of the greatest individuals you'll ever meet. Many of whom, in light of recent events, were willing to take it to the square with me and hold me down like a paperweight.
  • 13 has always been lucky for me and my family. It pops up all the time, from making dance teams as dancer 13 to most recently getting a hole-in-one on hole 13 during putt putt the other night. It was about as gangster as it gets.
  • Friday the 13ths are always good days for me. If they're not, I make 'em that way.
  • Many greats have worn 13: Wilt Chamberlain, Shaq (for a while) and Yao in Beijing. Incidentally in Italy 13 is a lucky number and if you're close enough to know my last name you know I identify with that.
All of that supports 13 but this blog is really the namesake of an Outkast song that you need to slap on your iPod if it's not there already: "The 13th Floor/Growing Old" from ATLiens



Conceive true deception multiplied a million fold
Visualize the yin and yang in a battle so intense
that we get 'em confused
The resident evil specialize in misconstruing
We wanna be at a presidential level -- what are we doing?
Fooling ourselves, clowning ourselves, playing ourselves
By not being ourselves
We can't babble no more than we can bob our head offbeat
Nimrod by the time we forty cause we can't get off meat
While we ask no reason for the misplacement of the season
look at the picture that's painted
Tainted as the mind who's blinded to the point
where Sodomites get all the rights
We fall for fights with fisticuffs
Get pissed enough to miss the bus
It disgusts me to see my folks run up on
I say stand up on deception of time all of Revelations
And recognize this mind on the reality of horror
known as mankind
Jesus and his twelve disciples make thirteen
A righteous number of righteous men
Even Judas the Betrayer came true in the end....

I really be love it we are gathered to life
So pissed to lather we come clean
Some issues need to be addressed like envelopes I mean
Oh like Liberty Bells yes them bullets keep on rangin
On fire like the Georgia mass choir we keep on sangin
Bringing our folks closer together cause they severed us from the get green
Light and we ain't gon' stop until we hit the big screen
Psych because no one is free when others are oppressed
So, we hit the stage and then we fly back to our nest
Growing old


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