Elisabeth tagged me, so here I go:

1. Pick up the nearest book.

In this case it's The James Brown Reader: 50 Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul, edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds and just out from Plume. I'm reviewing it for Baltimore City Paper.

2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

This is from Vernon Gibbs's "James Brown: Back to Africa--Seventies Style (excerpt)" (Penthouse, 1975):

"In Africa, he is king of all he surveys. An African visit from James Brown takes on all the ceremony usually accorded to a visiting head of state. Indeed, Brown does regard himself as an ambassador from black Americans to black Africans."

Nice--I've already begun reading the book and am only on page 45 (vacation + deadlines + soon-departing girlfriend = not reading fast enough), but I'd thumbed through it the other night and this was one of the pieces I'm most looking forward to reading. Looks like it'll be a good one.

I'm going to decline forwarding the tag, but if anyone wants to grab it, go right ahead.