Bronx Obama

Blackgirl on Mars meets Bronx Obama
in Copenhagen

One of the things that I love about life, is that sometimes when you take a chance- interesting things happen. Okay, every time you take a chance, interesting things happen - but sometimes the interesting can be a little too interesting, uncomfortable, like finding yourself sitting in the middle of a shoot-out in a basement party in Brooklyn (that's another story). It is not that kind of interesting I'm talking about. I'm talking about the type of interesting that opens up portals of positivity, personal power, hope and inspiration. As human beings, we have the potential to truly touch each other in these ways. You know that feeling - a warm smile from a stranger, a helpful hand reaching for the dropped bag.  Someone running after you with an item you may have dropped a block down the street. The point is, you never know what unlimited potential there is  that awaits you if you don't go out there.
I hopped on my bike this morning and decided to go for a ride through the many little tree-dotted roads that are available for such a thing here in Copenhagen.  Access to Mother Nature is but a hop skip and a jump from one's self-imposed exile in the land of happy.  There is happiness here, and I will find it! So off like Don Quixote seeking his fair maiden, I take off, my bike Rocinante - as the Knight in Search of the Holy Happiness.
It is not too cold and there is a grey filter that colors all.  The pale yellows and blues and browns of buildings offer a gentle relief to this foggy veil.  I am master on my bike and cycle down the back roads of Christiania, past the tree-lined lake, the foliage that has begun to make its annual retreat from green to brown, the sky that is revealed as a result of the falling leaves. It is quiet because it is morning and there are not a lot of people. In times like this I enjoy this city - it is like having a huge backyard to yourself. It's not difficult to find these pockets of time where the streets seem to be devoid of life due to the rigidness of intellectual time and financial expectations.
I make my way to a local cafe and take a seat outside. I can't decide where I want to open my computer up and begin work.  As I berate myself with indecisiveness I see David.
David is this cat from New Orleans - a trumpet player - and he's been here at least as long as I have.  The funny thing is, David and I hung out about 10 years ago but as time unwound itself into our current future, we haven't had the opportunity to catch up. So David, an amazing trumpet player by the way - and big Clark Terry fan as well - and I started to chat and catch up. We sat in this hole in the wall where beers are open at 9 in the morning and many seem to be in a pre-coffee/hash haze. It's cozy because there are an array of characters you just don't see very often: the hobo-looking types, the down-on-their luck, skid-row types. Peppered by the presence of normality from those who dare to tread its beer-stained floors. Opposite me sat a surly young man who blew smoke in my face as if he were some taunting dragon and in a rush for air, David and I make it outside.
It's not cold at all if you are dressed for the weather. As they say in Denmark, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. I am usually prepared as I am not too genetically far from biologically requiring warmth to function.  Simpler said: My melanin be jonesin'.
Suddenly someone from behind us asks, "Do you mind if I join you?" We turn around and who's there sitting behind us but someone who really looks like President Obama - especially when he takes his hat off.
Picture Obama if he was Boricua - straight up. Louis Ortiz was rocking his thick gold chain, baseball shirt and white sneakers Bronx style topped with the perfect brown leather jacket that declared not least of all, to the world "44th President".
Louis Ortiz is in town to promote the documentary he is starring in entitled Bronx Obama, directed by Ryan Murdoch.  I'm off to interview him later today and hear more about his adventures from unemployed single father in the Bronx to impersonating one of the most famous individuals on the planet. And just how does Bronx Obama use his power? Guess we're going to find out after that interview...
farvel,
the lab