January 15th, 2012 / 10:19 am
 Random

Black Jack Johnson NYC, R-O-C-K-I-N-G.

The title of this post consists of lyrics from one of my favorite Mos Def songs, on his album The New Danger. Many of the tracks on this album are about Jack Johnson, the first ever black heavyweight boxing champion. I could listen to it all day. And it’s in my head this fine Sunday morning because I’ve been catching up on Dexter Season 6, in which Mos Def, I mean Mos, I mean Yasiin Bey, plays Brother Sam, a born again murderer who Dex befriends. I am on episode 4, and I already love this character. I was curious, so I Googled Mr. Bey and I found a great clip from The Colbert Report in which Mr. Bey graciously gives no explanation as to why he changed his name, and from which I learned that Black Star has a new record. And then I listened to some Black Star, which brought me back to the 90s. And then I looked up Yasiin Bey on Wikipedia. Did you know he was born Dante Terrell Smith? My grandfather’s name was Dante. My ex has the opening lines of The Inferno tattooed in Italian on his forearm. I think Dante is a pretty badass name, and I’d probably name a kid Dante, after all of them, if I had a kid to name. Also, my third cousins stole Dante from its rightful owners (me and my siblings) and dedicated the naming of one of their rugrats to my grandfather. Which is a what-the-fuck moment if I’ve ever heard one.

I’ve never wanted to change my name. Have you? Alexis No Middle Name Orgera. It sounds like me. Maybe changing your name is a little like being born again, baptized in the spirit of surrender to an unknown, starting on a new path  (I think Brother Sam says something like this in Dex).

Sometimes I start making lists of the best names in sports, usually basketball since that’s the one I like best, and promptly lose the list, which keeps me endlessly childlike about names because I always have to start over. If I were a fiction writer interested in the endless iterations of character-naming, I’d have a grab bag. Chauncey Billups. Mugsy Bogues. Manute Bol. Rajon Rondo.

And then, some of my favorite lines, from the end of Atwood’s poem, “Spelling,”:

How do you learn to spell?
Blood, sky & the sun,
your own name first,
your first naming, your first name,
your first word.

I’m going out for breakfast.

 

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8 Comments

  1. January 15th, 2012 / 10:49 am NLY—
  2. January 15th, 2012 / 1:47 pm deadgod—

      The names in As I Lay Dying feel almost too perfect.  And there’s L. Boom.  Then, there is

      –Ay me.

      –She speakes.
      Oh speake againe bright Angell, for thou art
      As glorious to this night being ore my head,
      As a winged messenger of heauen
      Vnto the white vpturned wondring eyes
      Of mortalls that fall backe to gaze on him,
      When he bestrides the lazie puffing Cloudes,
      And sailes vpon the bosome of the ayre.

      –O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
      Denie thy Father and refuse thy name
      Or if thou wilt not, be but sworne to my Loue,
      And Ile no longer be a Capulet.

      –Shall I heare more, or shall I speake at this?

      –‘Tis but thy name that is my Enemy:
      Thou art thy self, though not a Mountague,
      What’s Mountague? it is nor hand nor foote,
      Nor arme, nor face.  O be some other name
      Belonging to a man.
      What? in a names that which we call a Rose,
      By any other word would smell as sweete,
      So Romeo would, were he not Romeo cal’d,
      Retaine that deare perfection which he owes,
      Without that title Romeo, doffe thy name,
      And for thy name which is no part of thee,
      Take all my selfe.

      –I take thee at thy word.
      Call me but Loue, and Ile be new baptiz’d,
      hence foorth I neuer will be Romeo.

      –What man art thou, that thus be screen’d in night
      So stumblest on my counsell?

      –By a name,
      I know not how to tell thee who I am.
      My name deare Saint, is hatefull to my selfe,
      Because it is an Enemy to thee.
      Had I it written, I would teare the word.

      –My eares haue yet not drunke a hundred words
      Of thy tongues vttering, yet I know the sound.
      Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

      –Neither faire Maid, if either thee dislike.

  3. January 15th, 2012 / 1:49 pm deadgod—

      The names in As I Lay Dying feel almost too perfect.  And there’s L. Boom.  Then, there is

      –Ay me.

      –She speakes.
      Oh speake againe bright Angell, for thou art
      As glorious to this night being ore my head,
      As a winged messenger of heauen
      Vnto the white vpturned wondring eyes
      Of mortalls that fall backe to gaze on him,
      When he bestrides the lazie puffing Cloudes,
      And sailes vpon the bosome of the ayre.

      –O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
      Denie thy Father and refuse thy name
      Or if thou wilt not, be but sworne to my Loue,
      And Ile no longer be a Capulet.

      –Shall I heare more, or shall I speake at this?

      –‘Tis but thy name that is my Enemy:
      Thou art thy self, though not a Mountague,
      What’s Mountague? it is nor hand nor foote,
      Nor arme, nor face.  O be some other name
      Belonging to a man.
      What? in a names that which we call a Rose,
      By any other word would smell as sweete,
      So Romeo would, were he not Romeo cal’d,
      Retaine that deare perfection which he owes,
      Without that title Romeo, doffe thy name,
      And for thy name which is no part of thee,
      Take all my selfe.

      –I take thee at thy word.
      Call me but Loue, and Ile be new baptiz’d,
      hence foorth I neuer will be Romeo.

      –What man art thou, that thus be screen’d in night
      So stumblest on my counsell?

      –By a name,
      I know not how to tell thee who I am.
      My name deare Saint, is hatefull to my selfe,
      Because it is an Enemy to thee.
      Had I it written, I would teare the word.

      –My eares haue yet not drunke a hundred words
      Of thy tongues vttering, yet I know the sound.
      Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

      –Neither faire Maid, if either thee dislike.

  4. January 15th, 2012 / 1:51 pm deadgod—

      –Ay me.

      –She speakes.
      Oh speake againe bright Angell, for thou art
      As glorious to this night being ore my head,
      As a winged messenger of heauen
      Vnto the white vpturned wondring eyes
      Of mortalls that fall backe to gaze on him,
      When he bestrides the lazie puffing Cloudes,
      And sailes vpon the bosome of the ayre.

      –O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
      Denie thy Father and refuse thy name
      Or if thou wilt not, be but sworne to my Loue,
      And Ile no longer be a Capulet.

      –Shall I heare more, or shall I speake at this?

      –‘Tis but thy name that is my Enemy:
      Thou art thy self, though not a Mountague,
      What’s Mountague? it is nor hand nor foote,
      Nor arme, nor face.  O be some other name
      Belonging to a man.
      What? in a names that which we call a Rose,
      By any other word would smell as sweete,
      So Romeo would, were he not Romeo cal’d,
      Retaine that deare perfection which he owes,
      Without that title Romeo, doffe thy name,
      And for thy name which is no part of thee,
      Take all my selfe.

      –I take thee at thy word.
      Call me but Loue, and Ile be new baptiz’d,
      hence foorth I neuer will be Romeo.

      –What man art thou, that thus be screen’d in night
      So stumblest on my counsell?

      –By a name,
      I know not how to tell thee who I am.
      My name deare Saint, is hatefull to my selfe,
      Because it is an Enemy to thee.
      Had I it written, I would teare the word.

      –My eares haue yet not drunke a hundred words
      Of thy tongues vttering, yet I know the sound.
      Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

      –Neither faire Maid, if either thee dislike.

  5. January 15th, 2012 / 3:22 pm deadgod—

      [Moderator:  I “flagged” both this comment and the following for removal–having gotten a “Comment denied” (or however it was phrased), I regrettably reposted twice.  G’ahead:  delete them both!]

  6. January 15th, 2012 / 4:58 pm mimi—

      one of my great-grandfathers’ name was zisu, his first name  

      one of my great-grandmothers’ name was adolfina    

  7. January 15th, 2012 / 7:29 pm alexisorgera—

      wow. that’s awesome. I have a great-grandmother named Tuttalinda. I don’t know how it’s spelled.

  8. January 15th, 2012 / 9:29 pm Vhs Adventure Blog—

      Rugrats Think Like…

      […] which Mr. Bey graciously gives no explanation as to why he changed his name […]…