The Countess: One Bad Ass Cat

I take pride in the fact that my cat, The Countess, is a difficult cat to love. A friend found her underneath a car on 135th Street and took her home to his apartment. I had been considering getting a cat, and since my friend was unable to keep his newfound feline companion, she came to live with me. That was more than five years ago.

Seeing as she left the litter very young, she has become acclimated to being around people and refuses to take a subservient position as a pet. She is very territorial and anyone who enters my home unaccompanied by me will have a very unpleasant time. I have run out of neighbors who are willing to come to my apartment and feed her.

The more people that are offended by my pet, the more she is exclusively mine. She isn’t here to make you happy, and she knows it. Her mission in life is to eat food, relieve herself in her exclusive litter box, and otherwise make herself comfortable in my apartment. Have a problem with that? Too bad.

Thugs Against Violence

Carolyn Baxter is trying to talk some sense into young people who are involved with gangs. Unlike a lot of rappers, she’s actually done real time in prison. Also, unlike a lot of rappers, she writes poetry, essays and books.

The story of New York, and of America, is the story of people saying “fuck it,” and doing things themselves. You can talk and protest until you’re blue in the face, the government isn’t going to do anything for you. Politicians and activists are in it for themselves, and the media is in the entertainment business.

So Baxter is taking it upon herself to reclaim rap music and hip hop culture for those who know the streets and honestly care about saving young people from going to prison. Thugs Against Violence is her effort to bring some reality in the lives of kids living a rap-fueled fantasy of thuggish violence. Think your favorite rapper is “real” because they were arrested? Listen to someone who did six years in prison.