Can you say eclectic? If it moves me and I'm feeling it then I love it. Of course what I listen to depends on the mood I'm in. When I'm writing, (which is most of the time), I like jazz. When I finish writing and the evening rolls around and I'm feeling kind of mellow, I like jazz. But I listen to everything. It just depends. here are a few of my favorites. Will Downing, Coltrane, Sade, early Teena Marie,Rick Braun, Chris Botti. And then there's Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs, Jay-Z, Biggie,(it's a New York thang),Jaheim,Talib Kweli, Eric B and Rakim, P.E., And then there's some drum and bass when it's hittin', (now that's a London thing), Shakira, Benny Ibarra, Juanes, Edith Marquez,Amel Lerrieux,Jill Scott, Erykah Badu,Amos Lee, Conya Doss,Jack Johnson, Citizen Cope.
Movies
I like movies but hate how they infringe on my time. Still I have my favorites. Here are a few of my favorites.
Made, Glory, Mo Better Blues, Outta Time, Hotel Rwanda, The Wedding Crashers, Prime, Tsotsi, Shottas andanything with Don Cheadle, Denzel,Jeffrey Wright,Eva Mendez, Angela Bassett and Vince Vaughn
Television
Like movies they infringe on my time so I don't do television unless the NBA Playoffs are on. How about those HEAT?!?!!!
Books
I read everything and don't really like to discuss books and authors for fear of leaving someone out so I'll simply tell you the last book I read and that would be The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara. LOVED IT!!!
Heroes
Redundant...Those would be all the people I'd like to meet.
About me: What can I say about myself? I don't believe it's very difficult to define me. I have an obsessive compulsive personality, (though never diagnosed), and have had it ever since I can remember and even before it became in vogue. I love it. It certainly drives me beyond the norm.
In any case,I joined the Marines at seventeen, taught school for longer than I care to remember, then one day just decided I'd had enough and it was time to travel. So, I picked up, left New York City and went to live in London and then France before returning to the states. Moved to Charleston, South Carolina for a couple of years for no other reason than the sheer beauty of the place. Two weeks ago I returned from Mexico City, Mexico where I spent the past two months, drinking Tequila in the moonlight shadowing my terrace while putting the finishing touches on my fourth novel and my memoirs.
Along the way, I saw my first novel published entitled The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter which I'm very proud of. It's a marvelously, captivating tale of a young, single professional Black woman recently divorced who decides to leave her small North Carolina hometown in her quest to find Mr. Right.
Months later she finds herself in the bustling Atlanta metropolis. Moving at breakneck speed she finds herself on a roller coaster ride complete with all the twists and turns and flips that take her from one stormy relationship to the next. Often times funny, though sometimes tragic it will certainly keep you guessing. And now you're wondering, does she ever find her Mr. Right? Only one way to find out...But don't get it twisted. This is not a simple romance, or even urban fiction. It's a novel attempting to cast Black people in if nothing else a professional light with the everyday struggles that come with men and women and relationships. I hope that it evokes some real thought on some real issues that concern us as not only friends and lovers, as men and women but as a people.
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Bertrand E. Brown is now available online at Barnes & Nobles and Amazon.com. Check it out. Oh, and make sure you type in my name as there is another book out by same name.
The other books I've penned are waiting though not too patiently in the wings for the buzz around this one to flicker out, (though I hope it never does), and whether it does or not I will probably begin another one when the compulsion strikes again.
Anyway, I hope you all get a chance to check it out. I'd love to hear your comments. In the meantime I will be continuing my work with the Literacy Library a non-profit remedial reading and tutorial program I recently founded to aid those so-called at-risk teens to become more literate.
Keeps my plate full and me moving in the right direction.
Much love to all out there in my space for keeping the fires burning.
Bert
..
Who I'd like to meet: Who wouldn't I like to meet?
Gil-Scott Heron, Mahatma Ghandi, Malcolm, Martin, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Billie Holliday, Louis Armstrong, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nat Turner, Muhammad Ali, John Lennon,Paul Robeson, Bob Marley, Haile Selassie, Shakala Zulu, Che Guevara, Diego Rivera, Manet, Monet, Chagall, Picasso, Hannibal, Frieda, Frederick Douglass, Andrew Young, Ron Brown and of course my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
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