Rhinos Have More Fun's Page

Name

"Bektemba" is proper; "Temba" is cool, but "Tim" is NOT the business! :-D

About Me

I was born on Chicago's South side during "the war". (i.e., The Vietnam War, the war between the Black Panther Party and the po-leese, the Biafran War...)

By the age of three, I was living in a West suburb that had a name that 99%people I know would probably find unconscionable. ("Indian Head Park"---WTF?!?!)

By seven years-old, I was usually answering a bunch of strange questions for random white people in the LaGrange Public Library, if I didn't happen to be running around my backyard, rolling around in freshly-cut grass. When I wasn't playing Batman and Robin or cops and robbers, I was trying to figure out why my parents had to spend an hour on the road every week just to get to church and why the streets around my house didn't have ordinal numbers like at my grandmother's house....

By the age of twelve, I was rocking Jimi Hendrix's Smash Hits on vinyl, and then I realized that was the beginning of the end...

Somewhere during my freshman year of high school, I fell in love with this Hispanic girl named (ummm, I forget) Mary Johnetta, Mary Jane--or something like that. (I only broke it off with her a couple of years ago.)

The following summer, my dad decided to move his business to California. I attended a bourgeoisie school in South Bay for which there was a mutual hate. In my mind, that would chisel my "lost cause" status in stone.

Despite my ignorance (or was it denial?) of the fact that my so-called "best friend", for the most part, was fucked up, self-centered and insensitive, I think I did okay in the other avenues of my life.

And after I emerged from the wreckage, I looked in the mirror, accepted myself, told the world to fuck off, claimed my Africanness and my ancestral name.

What??

You can be my friend if...

1) you can tolerate voluntary insanity

2) you can tolerate an audio dinosaur...I'm just getting the hang of this mp3 thing, so I don't own more than a handful of them.

Occupation:

Substitute teacher, "Casual" (part-time) Longshoreman, soon-to-be a grad student pursuing another degree...

Technically, I am a composer, percussionist, guitarist and poet. I love creating. But unfortunately, love don't pay the bills. (Wait--I think that was originally intended to mean something else, wasn't it?) But for real, the day that I will be able to support all of my needs (calculate a wife and family in there) with the fruits of my artistic visions, my life will be complete.

Favorite bands:

I hate answering this one because there are always too many to name...Anywho, here are a few more than a few names that I will always have love for:
Boukman Eksperyans, Public Enemy, Miles Davis (especially that mid/late 60's quintet w/Tony, Ron, Wayne and Herbie), Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, James Brown, Rick James, the Jam, the Rolling Stones, Bad Brains, Bell Biv Devoe, the English Beat, Eric B. & Rakim, Bowie, Metallica, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Living Colour, Run-DMC, Smashing Pumpkins, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bloodsugar, Meshell Ndege O'Cello, Terence Trent D'Arby, Helmet, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Stephen Marley, the Noisettes, Junior Gong, Stiffed, the Descendants, Sonic Youth, Skunk Anansie, the Clash, Parliament-Funkadelic, the Damned, The Beatles, Velvet Revolver, Cream, Sevendust, Tamar-Kali, Romeo Void, Korn, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Ozzy, Public Image Ltd., Buena Vista Social Club/Afro-Cuban All-Stars, the Who...

Favorite movies:

Afro-Punk (and I'm not just saying that because I'm here...)
American Gangster
American Me
Any Given Sunday
Bastards of the Party
Bowling for Columbine
Buena Vista Social Club
The Godfather; The Godfather, Part II; The Godfather, Part III
The Great Rock & Roll Swindle
Inventing the Abbotts
Kill Bill 1, Kill Bill 2
Mo' Better Blues
My Fair Lady
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Quadrophenia
Rockers
Shottas
25th Hour

Favorite books:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Another Country and If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Favorite Magazines:

Drum!
Essence
Modern Drummer
Rolling Stone
Rhythm Music
Spin
Vibe

Favorite TV shows:

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
The L Word
Monk
The Sopranos
The Wire
Weeds

Relationship status:

I'll be happy when "engaged" becomes "married".

Orientation:

Straight

Zodiac Sign

Sagitarius-Capricorn. I have no idea what either sign really means, but Capricorn always SOUNDS better....How about "Sagicorn"?

Kids?:

a beautiful, wonderful, 14 year-old genius of a daughter...

Smoke/Drink?

no/yes

Band Question - Record label:

Major