of hershey homies and p-funk bunnies

Music: Morrissey: Viva Hate Click here to hear the song "Chocolate City"

Jam on it! New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin waged an all out war with the peeps of Washington DC when he proclaimed New Orleans was the official Chocolate City!: "I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." Today he clarified by saying that "New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special." Something special like chocolate! Clearly Nagin's chocolate differs from George Clinton's, a chocolateer who gives a few choice examples of what's in his chocolate box of p-funk whoop-ass:

And when they come to march on ya Tell 'em to make sure they got their James Brown pass And don't be surprised if Ali is in the White House Reverend Ike, Secretary of the Treasure Richard Pryor, Minister of Education Stevie Wonder, Secretary of FINE arts And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady Are you out there, CC? A chocolate city is no dream It's my piece of the rock and I dig you, CC God bless Chocolate City and its (gainin' on ya!) vanilla suburbs Can y'all get to that? Gainin' on ya! Gainin' on ya! Easin' in Gainin' on ya! In yo' stuff Gainin' on ya! Huh, can't get enough Gainin' on ya! Gainin' on ya! Be mo' funk, be mo' funk Gainin' on ya! Can we funk you too Gainin' on ya! Right on, chocolate city!

Now Nagin, his chocolate ain't no Stevie Wonder! No sir. It's Stevie Wonder AND Paul McCartney: "How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about!" Ebony and ivory! Ray Nagin: the Poster Boy for Miscegenation! Y'all dig?

Our boy shouldda stuck to his chocolate guns . . . what a let down for the P-funk contingent! But we can dream!

ADDENDEDENDEDENDUM: I'm hailing now from a coffee shop called the Spiderhouse, which I'm visiting at the behest of a new acquaintance in Austin. As I check my email from the free wifi, I notice Shappy sends link and story penned by Jess Fender, of Front Porch Action Fame. You go girl! Meanwhile, the scene here is tragically hip; I'm in the small anteroom of a converted bungalow, with pinewood paneling, a creepy old oil painting of an old woman with pearls on. In this room on various couches are four others, two women and two men, all of whom are on laptops. There is a calico kitty curled on the couch beside me. None of us are speaking to one another. Oh Habermas! gone are the days of Freemason meetings and chatty, coffee shop politics!