I Wish The News Covered MY Pittsburgh

It's funny, I used to often talk to friends that aren't from this area about my city and my less than positive opinion of it.  Most of those I talk to a pretty smart and know there way around the internet.  I would tell them about how much I dislike my city and why, while they would see different articles online about how livable or affordable it is.  I would always tell them that its great if you're white, but as a Black person . . . not so much.  The images of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers are pretty much whitewashed on a nationally.  The successful Blacks in the city are primarily athletes that play for local teams (read: STEELERS) and are just passing through.

Guest Blog - Invisible Woman's Take On The Busters *cough* Oscars

OK, after months of speculation, the Oscar nominees have arrived. How many of you were satisfied with the lists?

I, for one, have stopped taking the Oscars seriously years ago; it is such an elitist and "inside" group, and we all should know by now that the politics involved have people winning awards that really have no business doing so. They throw out a bone every few years to someone that is Black, and it is always hailed and regaled as a "victory" to open doors, but afterward we are once again subjected to a few more years of complete and total white-washing. But it has gone beyond that...where are the accolades for Latinos? For Asians? For Eastern Indians?

Hollywood never, ever, EVER seems to understand that diversity makes life (and their lame awards show) interesting. Everyone remembers Monique winning last year, but can you name three others (be honest)?

There is an old saying that I have always remembered, taken from an ancient Chinese philosophy book, and it applies to the Academy in volumes:

"Diversity is actually an important and necessary ingredient, which adds creative spice to a group."

Film is universal! The stories told in ANY film are relevant to a good portion of the population, regardless of race. Until Hollywood and the Academy can get this through their heads, I am down with the mission of AFFRM. If you don't know what AFFRM is, please click here and support! And oh yeah, I will NOT be watching the show this year...cheers!

UPDATE: Please check out CNN's article on this issue...the comments over there are sincerely pathetic and sad, and will boggle the mind. I am convinced, more than ever before, that we are completely unsupported in Hollywood, and must step away from the studios and an intolerant audience in order to have a system that allows us to create and be heard. Racism in conventional Hollywood is apparently NOT disappearing anytime soon, and has zero interest in doing so.

If you would like to read more of Invisible Woman's thoughts on cinema, check her out at Black Cinema At Large.


Thanks for stopping by,

8

A Letter To The Draper Family Of 'Mad Men' From The Black Maid

I am not a close follower of AMC's Mad Men.  I have caught any episodes that have been currently on demand when there is nothing of interest on television.   To tell you how closely I follow it, I didn't even know there was a Black maid on the show.  Ha!  I know that the show has become a bit of a phenomenon and with the premiere of it's fourth season days away I stumbled upon this and thought I would pass it along to you.  Enjoy!

Dear Drapers: A letter to 'Mad Men's' first family from their Black maid

"I have a 3 second break between taking care of your family and mine."

By Kartina Richardson


Dear Drapers,

Season 4 of Mad Men is about to start. My summer was really nice not that you asked, and I'm not looking forward to coming back into your crazy house of sex, lies, and bratty kids (thanks for popping another one out, that's exactly what we all needed). Now that darling Bets is gone, it's up to me to take care of the house and I have a few things to say. I know I usually don't talk, even though we all know what was going on in the Sixties. I think the writers are troubled and don't really know how to address race in a smart way without it taking over the whole story. They probably think:


"The show is about Don, not black people, but let's make Carla extra dignified and sometimes she can show the audience that she is aware of bullshit by giving little grimaces. That way Carla becomes someone who's witnessing. She's on the sidelines but she has the power of judgment. That's even better! That way we can cover our race bases without it getting in the way. Kind of like the black guy in Ghostbusters."


Oh, they think they're so clever. Well I don't buy that dubious explanation. I don't want the power of judgment. I want a full plot line dammit. Maybe Roger has a butler and he and I can get together. I mean really get together, and our hot passionate love affair will bring us on a freedom ride down to Alabama where we will love each other in the sticky, sweaty Alabaman heat... and Sterling Cooper has some business down there and they do some advertising blah blah blah.


But in the meantime I have a few things I need to get off my chest before everything begins again on Sunday.


First, can I get a drink every now and then? Jesus. You all drink a bottle of whiskey every two seconds whenever, wherever, so it's not like I have to be sober to watch the children. Don't even. It would be a hell of a lot easier to deal with whatever new craziness Betty's dad is going to bring to the table if I was a little drunk. Oh he's dead. Sorry. (Not really. He was a real jackass to me).


And by the way Don, thank you for screwing up my life even more with your constant cheating. Now Betty is gone and I'm either
:
A) Going to have to live with Henry and I know his maid and she's a b---- and we do not get along.

B) Betty will leave the kids with you and I'll have to do everything myself and work longer hours.
or
C) You'll fire me (but I'm your only black character and tie to the Civil Rights Movement so how could you fire me?)



I know you don't know who you are and you've got a million identity issues, your dad was a real s--- and... wait, wait, do you hear that? It's the world's tiniest violin playing just for you. Guess what? My family all lives in Mississippi. You know what's going on there? Oh just the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, murders, and an overall air of fear and violence. In fact in June of this year, three civil rights workers will be murdered during Freedom Summer. So cry me a river mystery man (the Klan will probably use it to dump bodies in but no big deal let me fix you a sandwich).


Speaking of Freedom Summer, President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in June and Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Can I get a little freedom away from your family for this? I would like to celebrate with my family. I would not like to be standing in the kitchen, drying my hands on a towel while Sally eats a hot dog and Bobby says "I don't like brussel sprouts." For real you don't like brussel sprouts? You know what my kids don't like? Being black in 1964. Why? Because if you're not on Motown Records it sucks.


Oh and Betty, I hate you. I have always hated you. I've never shown it because I've always thought you were crazy. Like the silent psychopathic type capable of anything. That time you shot the neighbor's pigeons confirmed this. Oh hell yeah I saw that.



Visit TheLoop21.com to continue reading.

Thanks for stopping by,

8

Random Thoughts: Complete Non Sequiturs & Apropos Of Nothing (Vol. II)

If you were looking for a mixtape or music, this entry probably isn't for you.  This blog entry will just be my random thoughts on different things.  Some of these things with be serious and some of them with be strictly "Stuff" That May Interest Only Me.  Basically it's just a brief glimpse into my stream of consciousness. Basically it's my ode to Larry King.  Ready?

Something that I don't understand is that when on twitter and someone has a an account and they aren't even the slightest bit interested in the protected accounts that follow them. I know if anyone with a protected/private account asks to follow me, I definitely want to see their page as well. The lack of curiosity of others just surprises me at times . . . How could "hip-hop" boutiques not carry t-shirts in XXXL?  I mean most of your clientele prefer baggy or loose fit clothing so it seems that XXXL would be an obvious size to carry . . . I previously mentioned how I finally rejoined the army of smart phone users.  Well, I was bored yesterday and decided to test out it's turn by turn navigation system.  It utilizes Google Maps Navigation and requires you to download a text to speech application.  I don't know why but I was surprised it worked as great as it did.  My past experiences with GPS have many times ended with me in a shouting match with the Garmin lady.  She loved telling me to turn at the last minute possible.  We have a love/hate relationship . . . It's odd, but since coming back home I have noticed that people are far more closed off in Pittsburgh than Chicago.  They seem to only want to deal with the people they grew up with and that's it.  I don't think it's a coincidence that those friends that I have made in Pittsburgh post-high school have for the most part not been native Pittsburghers . . . Apparently a man named Thug ticked off a few people this week.  Sadly, some of those people began to take their anger out on the messenger.  I guess these same people never saw an episode of What Chili Wants?  I think the biggest issue that started everything is that people have horrible reading comprehension skills.  He really didn’t say anything that was THAT crazy.  He was talking about the kind of women that he comes in contact with.  One can only imagine the type of women that your average rapper with Thug in his name may come in contact with.  . . . It sucks when you aren't being treated the best by someone who's done a lot for you.  You don't feel the best, but you also know that you don't really have a right to complain at the same time.

Thanks for stopping by and lending an ear/pair of eyes,

8

Guest Blog: Hands On Review Of Apple's iPad

My Experience with the iPad

by Jenali

Since I bought my iPad on Day 1, I've been keeping a list of things I like and don't like about the it. Anytime I thought of something, I whipped out my iPad and jotted it down in the Pages document I started.  So when I finally sat down to write a post about the device I had several things I could talk about.  I'm still keeping a list of things that I want improved or like so there may be future iPad posts.

I bought the 16 GB model of the iPad.  I figured that since I've never used all of the space on my iPhone I would be fine with the low-end iPad. I would keep most of my music on my iPhone so that would free up a lot of space on my iPad.  So far I haven't felt like the hard drive is too small.  I have some music on here but most of the music I want to listen to is on my iPhone. I do like that you can edit your playlists on the iPad. That's a feature I've been longing for on the iPhone. It looks like my wishes are coming true with iPhone OS 4.  The iPod interface on the iPad looks just like iTunes. I'm glad that this was redesigned.  Keeping the iPod interface from the iPhone would have been boring and a poor use of the screen size.  There's only one speaker on the iPad which delivers better sound than I expected.  One thing I would really like to see is the ability to subscribe to podcasts.  As far as I can tell you can only download podcasts from iTunes and there's no way to subscribe to them.  Maybe a future update to the OS will bring this feature.

The first thing I did after my iPad was activated and I had transferred some of the iPad updated apps (Instapaper ($4.99), Evernote (free), Soundhound ($4.99), Newsrack ($4.99), Epicurious (free), Pandora (free), and the Kindle (free) app) was to try typing on it.  I wasn't sure what to expect with the iPad's keyboard. Since Apple is selling a keyboard that doubles as an iPad dock.  I figured that typing on this device must be painful. My initial experiences were awful. I'm accustomed to traditional keyboards and the onscreen keyboard for my iPhone. With the iPhone my fingers have adapted to the small space.  I trust the spell check to understand my typing mistakes, which it normally does very well. With traditional keyboards, I'm used to that physical response from pressing a key.  The keyboard on the iPad is neither small nor going to exhibit that physical response so it took me a little while to get used to it.  Initially I tweeted about an external keyboard being necessary for the iPad.  And true to my tweet, I bought the keyboard dock for the iPad.  When I want to type long emails or documents, I will use the external keyboard.  I don't think an external keyboard is necessary for the iPad but it does make typing alot easier.  I've gotten better at typing on the iPad I would just prefer to use a physical keyboard instead.  Like the iPhone, the iPad has auto-correct when typing. It also has spell check. If you've misspelled a word, the word will be underlined in red.  Tapping on the word will bring up choices for the correct spelling. If you're using Pages, tapping on the word will also bring up the option to find the definition.

The battery life on the iPad is better than I expected. I can use my iPad all day on a single charge. I'm primarily streaming content from Netflix, ABC or Yahoo, reading books, checking email, and browsing the web.  Maybe that doesn't count as extensive usage but either way I'm impressed with the battery life.  During the weekday, I don't use my iPad as much because I'm at work.  I can get by with charging my iPad every two days.

There are some really great apps on the iPad.  This is the perfect device for viewing your photos or any videos.  Any app that effectively makes use of the gorgeous screen on the iPad is on the right path towards making a decent app.  I find that my most used apps deliver video content on demand.  The apps I'm referring to are: Netflix (free download from iTunes but requires subscription to Netflix), Y! Entertainment (free) and ABC Player (free).  I have a subscription to Netflix which means I'm able to manage my queue and watch the titles that I have in my watch instantly queue.  Prior to buying the iPad, I rarely watched anything that I put in my watch instantly queue.  When I sat down to watch a movie, I was usually watching the mail-in I received from Netflix.  There were times when I did feel like watching something from my watch instantly queue but I wasn't near the tv in my room to do so.  The iPad has increased my viewing of watch instantly titles dramatically.  When I come home and I want to watch a movie or tv show while eating dinner I turn to the Netflix app on my iPad (so long as none of my favorite shows are on at the time).  Washing the dishes has become slightly enjoyable because I know that I can set up my iPad nearby and finish watching that episode of Bones I started at dinner.  The interface on the Netflix app is very similar to what you see when you go to their website.  The only issues I've had with this app are minor.  I wanted to star a recently watched movie which seemed like an easy task.  On my laptop I normally click the number of stars I want to give the movie and they turn to yellow indicating that your rating has been applied.  Every time I tried to tap the stars below the "play" button nothing would happen or the movie would start playing.  Another issue I had was navigating through episodes of a tv show.  When I clicked the play button under the Bones season 1 series, it would play the pilot episode each time.  I wanted it to remember that I had already played that episode and it should play the next one in the series.  In order for me to do that I had to go the Bones Season 1 details page and find the next episode I wanted to watch.  It required more clicks than I wanted but less frustration in the end.  The Y! Entertainment app is packed with video clips, entertainment news articles, cartoons, a tv guide, book reviews, and Dear Abby letters.  If I want a quick survey of what's going on locally or even internationally I can count on this app to show me videos clips to provide me with that information.

I also love the NYT Editor's Choice (free) and Instapaper apps. NYT Editor's Choice features a select number of articles from the NYT each day.  Tapping on an article will allow you to read the article in full and email it.  There's no way to share this article via Twitter, Facebook or any other social networking site which is the only downside of this app.  Instapaper is probably my favorite app on my iPad.  I haven't found a killer rss reader for this device and I'm wondering if I really need one.  I'm switching between Newsrack and FeeddlerRSS (free) to browse my feeds and the articles I really want to read I send to instapaper.  Instapaper makes viewing the articles I've saved a real treat.  As with many iPad apps, changing the orientation from portrait to landscape adds more content to the screen.  Opening the app in landscape view you see your folders in the left and the contents of the folder you've selected on the right.  A white arrow indicates what folder you're viewing at that time.  Tapping on any of the articles will cause the app to bring that article to full screen.  Instapaper for the iPad is very similar to Instapaper for the iPhone and iPod touch.  The features are the same but it's designed to use the additional space that the iPad gives you.  If you find that you want to save articles you're reading on the internet, give Instapaper a shot.  You will not be disappointed.

My Final Thoughts:

The iPad is heavier than I thought it would be. It weighs in at 1.5 lbs which on paper doesn't look like a lot. After using it for about 30 minutes in your hands, you will notice the weight. Keeping it on a table or on your lap relieves that issue. I bought the iPad keyboard dock so that typing would be easier. So far I like that it charges my iPad and has special keys that correspond to the iPad home button, lock screen, brightness, search, volume, play/pause, fast forward and rewind. Holding the lock key and home key takes a screenshot like it would if you were pressing those buttons on the iPad. Tapping the home button on the keyboard also brings you to the first page of your iPad apps. The keyboard dock is not a bluetooth keyboard. It is only compatible with the iPad. It's the same price as the wireless keyboard that Apple offers. I chose the keyboard dock over the wireless keyboard because I would only be using this keyboard for my iPad. I have a MBP and don't see myself needing a wireless keyboard anytime in the future. I've thought about buying an iMac and those come with keyboards. The keyboard dock is designed for use with the iPad. The wireless keyboard, while you can use it with the iPad, is not. The wireless keyboard does feature the brightness, play/pause, fast forward, rewind and volume buttons which the keyboard dock also features. It includes keys for Expose and Dashboard, two functions that aren't available on the iPad. I don't know if pressing those keys would cause something else to happen on the iPad or no response at all. If you don't care about the extra iPad designed buttons on the keyboard dock then go with the wireless keyboard. I find the buttons to add more convenience and functionality to the keyboard dock. The only downside I see with the keyboard dock is that I have to take the case that I'm using off because the iPad is flush with the stand portion of the dock.

At first I didn't think I was affected by the wifi issues that people have reported with the iPad. That changed on Friday when I couldn't access the internet although I was connected to the wifi network at my job. The wifi indicator showed that I was getting 3 bars of wifi when I normally get 1. I checked my iPhone and my iPhone only showed 1 bar. When I tried to access websites via safari none of them would load despite having the 3 bars of wifi. I looked into the details for that wifi network and renewed the lease. That solved my issue with the connection. I don't know why it worked but I'm going to look into it more so I can understand what's going on.

There are a few apps that I'm very anxious to see implemented on the iPad. The first being my favorite RSS reader, Reeder ($2.99). Reeder on the iPhone just gets how I would like the view and read my RSS feeds. My biggest pet peeve with RSS readers on the iPhone/iPad was how they organized unread articles. Most of them have organized the unread articles by date which is fine but if there's an article you've already read that was dated before an unread article that read article shows up.

Reeder doesn't group read and unread articles like that. Like Google Reader, if I only want to see unread articles from Mashable it will only show me unread articles from Mashable. As I mentioned earlier, I'm using Newsrack ($4.99) and FeeddlerRSS (free) until Reeder is released. Hopefully it's soon. I also want to see what the OmniGroup develops for Omnifocus, which is my task management app of choice. I believe that Omnifocus for the iPad will be released in June. As of right now I'm using Twitterffic (free) as my default twitter client. This will probably change when Tweetie is released for the iPad. Tweetie is one of my favorite twitter apps on my iPhone. As many may know, Twitter acquired Tweetie designating it as the official twitter app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad.

In the weeks leading up to the iPad's release, I always said that the iPad would not replace my laptop. I continue to say that my iPad will not replace my laptop. I find that I'm using my iPad for email checking & replying, gaming, ebook reading, web browsing and content creation which were all activities I did on my laptop (minus the gaming). So why doesn't my iPad replace my laptop? My laptop holds ALL of my content while my iPad holds a fraction of that. If I'm traveling, I'll probably take my iPad instead of my laptop because it can do much of what my laptop can do but takes up less space. I still use my laptop to sync my music, photos and apps. I never thought that I would really care for wirelessly syncing my iPhone to my computer but with the iPad I would love to do that. It's annoying to take photos with my iPhone, sync my iPhone to my computer to download the photos, and then sync my iPad to my computer to get those photos. There should be an easier way to do this. Apple should use MobileMe as the cloud service that it could be. It's great that my contacts, calendar and email are syncing on all of my devices but what about my photos and music? Now more than ever do I feel the burden of syncing my devices to my laptop. I don't mind doing it with my iPhone but having to do that with my iPad feels very restrictive.

I never thought that the Wifi version of the iPad would be the model I would buy. Initially, I wanted to buy a 32 GB Wifi+3G iPad. The decision to buy the 16 GB Wifi iPad was impulsive but I don't regret it. I have wifi at my job and my home. If I need to check my email, tweet or visit a website I do that from my iPhone when I'm not on a wifi network. Yes, I would like to see the GPS implementation on the iPad but I can wait on that. Maybe the next generation iPad I buy will be equipped with 3G.

So, was my iPad a worthwhile purchase? Do I like it? Yes and yes! I'm enjoying using my iPad for a number of things. I'll continue to write about things I like and dislike about the iPad as the weeks go on.

8 @ The Movies: 2 Reviews/1 Movie

A few weeks ago I went to see Away We Go, which stars SNL alum Maya Rudolph along with John Krasinski of The Office.

Here's a brief synopsis of the movie if you couldn't check the trailer I linked to:

"Longtime (and now thirtysomething) couple Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are going to have a baby. The pregnancy progresses smoothly, but six months in, the pair is put off and put out by the cavalierly delivered news from Burt’s parents Jerry and Gloria (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara) that the eccentric elder Farlanders are moving out of Colorado – thereby eliminating the expectant couple’s main reason for living there." - FilmInFocus.com

The reason I titled this blog 2 Reviews/1 Movie, is because I have ambivalent feelings about this movie. I guess I should give the bad news first.

The Social Review:

I first must disclose that I have a bit of a crush on Maya Rudolph. I think it's primarily because she's funny. I tend to like funny women, so that may taint this review.

Anyway, one of the things that really irked me about this movie was the fact that conveniently her parents are both dead. I say conveniently because we've seen this same song & dance with another biracial actress recently, Rashida Jones. They killed her parents off in I Love You, Man, which is kind of a big deal in a movie about a wedding. Hell, the bride's father typically pays for the wedding, right? The Root, briefly touched on this whitewashing in their article, Rashida Jones & The Hollywood Shuffle.

I feel race shouldn't be the issue in movies, but it should exist. They conveniently killed off her family for the sake of the movie. Both Rashida & Maya's race were the giant elephant in the room to me. At least in Away We Go, they did have a character ask if the baby would be Black in passing. Also, they gave Maya's character a sister in the form of Carmen Ejogo, but she was in and out of the movie in a blink. Plus, her skin seemed to be lighter than I had ever seen it and the character was supposed to be living in Arizona.

I guess I was just hoping for a slightly more diverse cast since one of the leads happened to be biracial. Black actors need some love, too. lol

The Entertainment Review:

It was weird watching the trailers & seeing the movie posters leading up to actually watching the film. Going into it, I really wasn't sure if this thing was a comedy or drama. I know the two leads are known for comedy, but the trailers left me with the impression that the movie was a drama with funny moments. It turned out to be a pretty straightforward comedy.

I saw it as a more realistic and funny Dumb & Dumber. I compare it to that movie because both of the lead characters seemed pretty vapid to me. I know the characters of Dumb & Dumber were full of life, but they were empty headed. These two leads seemed just as empty headed. Why are they living in an shack without heat? Why are they so concerned that his parents are going on a vacation? The soon to be grandparents weren't the sharpest pencils in the box, themselves. A couple in their early to mid-thirties that's expecting their first child decides to live like this? If they have the money to zig-zag across the country, why didn't they use this money for a decent place to live? Why does Maya not want to marry John, but feel he's good enough to be the father to her child? I wanted to shake the hell out of both Maya & John's characters at times.

The road trip that you witness throughout the rest of the movie is pretty funny, but the first couple they visit kind of steals the film. I never laughed harder than when Allison Janney & Jim Gaffigan's characters were on screen. Think Al & Peg Bundy uncensored with Peg on speed & Al drunk.

Overall it was a very entertaining movie, with a pretty dumb ending. When you see the ending the first thing you will say to yourself is probably, "Why didn't they do that in the first place?"

Thanks for stopping by,

8

I'm A Dumbass!

Why am I a dumbass, you may ask? Well, look over to the left of the screen. Do you see the e-mail address that's listed there for contact purposes? It's been there for sometime now. I created that e-mail account in late September, specifically for this blog. I then connected it to my personal gmail account so my blog mail could be forwarded there. I got a verification e-mail sent to the blog's e-mail address so I had known that I had set everything up properly.

As the weeks and months passed I never saw any e-mail from the blog's e-addy show up in my inbox. I just figured that no one was e-mailing me. My blog is a small little piece of the internet so I didn't think too much of it. Although, I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed that it appeared NO ONE was checking the blog.

Fast forward to yesterday. I decided to sign up to comment on another blog with my blog's e-mail address. So I go through your standard procedures in order to register. As what's normally the case, you must wait to receive a confirmation e-mail from the site in order to finally post a comment. After a few minutes I check my blog's e-addy for the e-mail and there's nothing there, yet. This time I go back to the website to have them resend the verification e-mail. Still no e-mail. At this point I'm really curious so I decide to send an e-mail from my personal e-mail address to my blog's e-mail address to see what happens . . . NOTHING!

Finally I decide to log out of my personal gmail account and into the blog's e-mail account to see if it had been deactivated or something. Once I logged in I find that I have 2 verification e-mails as well as over 200 other e-mails, including a Merry Christmas e-mail from The Socialite as well as a few artists who were looking to have their music on my small little blog. :-S

I'm sincerely sorry for any missed e-mails (people who don't reply to messages are a pet peeve of mine). I'm still wading through the ones that weren't time sensitive. Hopefully I will be hitting some of you up directly in the near future to touch base, because I appreciate anyone and everyone who actually takes a second out of their day to stop by and hang out on my little piece of the interwebs.

Thanks & sorry again,

8

p.s. BTW, I have fixed the linking issue.

2 Of My Favorite People @ SXSW

Zadi Diaz of Epic Fu interviews Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine at SXSW.

A Winner's Take On Music/Life's Blood

A couple weeks ago a friend and I were discussing an older blog of mine on the death of physical media (iNightmare). It turns out that she was having a similar discussion with some of her friends. Well, to make a long story short our discussion along with her discussion led to a pretty cool blog piece that she wanted me to share with my readers . . . all two of you (Hi, mom & dad!). Anyway, here's a contribution from one of the coolest people I know . . .

Music Fades

By Fledgling Fashionista

When I first heard Kick, Push I was amazed. I had a burned copy in my car and seriously I listened to it on repeat for weeks on end without blinking. I’ll admit I’m a bit of an orchestra nerd. I played cello for many years and it’s still on my wish list of things to get myself. I fell in love with the strings and horns on the track so much that every time I hear the start of it, I turn up the volume. I get lost in the music of the song. It’s not the lyrics (nothing against them, however). It’s just the music.

Why did I love it so much? Maybe it reminded me of growing up the daughter of a DJ and tapping back into that love of music and feeling like I was a little girl in a basement full of records learning how to use turntables and a mixer for the first time. Maybe it made me realize, I’ve become an “oldhead”, that I miss ATCQ, Leaders of the New School, De La Soul, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Brand Nubian, LL Cool J, MC Lyte, Kid N Play, Salt N Peppa, Eric B and Rakim, and a whole crew of others. I missed music and Lupe’s song took me back.

Back when I was in junior high and high school Friday nights meant come home, eat, change and head to the mall. The highlight of those evenings was going into Camelot Music and coming out with three cassette singles for $10. Sometimes I’d even have enough to buy a full CD or an EP from one of my favorite artists. I can clearly remember the bright yellow, long bodied, cardboard case of BBD’s Poison. I can recall the feel of the REM tape in my hand and my first exposure to The Roots through a CD single of What They Do. Growing up I had a world of music at my fingertips via my father, but there was nothing like having my own collection.

As I got older I would make bi-weekly trips to Record Exchange and build my collection with cheap used music. Now at 30 I’ve amassed about 400 CDS (minus the ones I had to sell to eat in college), but where are they? Sitting in booklets in my office. They are rarely touched outside of those I keep in my car. For someone with music so engrained in her blood why? Well first there were the mixtapes I made when I first discovered Kazaa. Next there was my 2gb Creative Zen, then the 32gb video Zen and now the 80gb iPod Classic. Sadly, for all the good memories I have attached to physically having the music in hard copy, I have become one of the many who download. That’s not to say I do not buy hard copies anymore, but the number has seriously dwindled. I can tell you on one hand the music I bought in store this year: The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley, Shine by Estelle, Rising Down by The Roots…I think that’s it.

Having my students write a paper this semester on where they stand on the issue of downloading made me look at my own thoughts. Do I consider it a crime? Yes I do. Is it a crime that can be stopped or properly punished? Of course not. The recording industry turned a blind eye to this phenomena for so long that when they did act their attempts were purely scare tactics and unreasonable. Me, along with many others, have had so many years and such easy access to filesharing networks, blank CDS and burners that the incentive to change is not there. There are a variety of reasons I download and I’m sure those reasons are shared by more than a few.



Just like I remember the look and feel of the BBD case from way back when, I still do love cover art and liner notes. I’m one of those people who have framed album covers in my living room, who remembers albums sometimes not for their track listing, but rather the picture they’ve left in my mind. I enjoy reading the thank yous and stories that those booklets contain, but convenience and a wide variety of musical tastes have severely disrupted that. Why convenience? Well until I moved to southern New Jersey last year the only available music was at Wal-Mart. I don’t want edited music and I certainly want my choice to extend past the typical blazin’ hip hop and r&b fodder, county and rock. There is such variety and Wal-Mart is not it. Now that I live near an FYE, the pull of LimeWire and my laptop have become too strong to resist because of years of use. I know I can get five blank CDs from Walgreens for $2.00 and next thing you know I have what I want in rotation in my car. I can indulge myself in that random Lil’ Wayne single or burn a whole Stevie Wonder mix in a flash.

Secondly, I wholeheartedly believe there is a lack of artist development. Of course as with everything there are exceptions to the rule and there are wonderful new musicians if you know where to look, but I’ve struggled in many debates to come up with my generation’s Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway or Nina Simone. Do we have one? I’m not really convinced we do. I’ve held conversations about how easily the word “genius” is thrown around in relation to musicians today. How do the artists that are popular now and even ten years ago stack up to their predecessors? Music is ever evolving, but I think I’m becoming one of those “I remember when” types and it’s funny that I look forward to the old school mix at noon. Why? Because I know if I was to buy one of those CDs I would be getting my money’s worth. There were stories and plots crafted into music in previous years that I think is lacking as a whole now. So I will continue to download that new Beyonce single or that Rihanna re-release because it’s about the single and not the album (or the career) as a whole.

So where does that leave us (or specifically me)? I will download the junk and buy the sustainable. I will always buy albums from those artists that I believe put out the best they can for each album, that go beyond working with the next hot producer, that are not changing their image or sound for the sake of sales, but rather evolving from something familiar to something cutting edge. I will continue to buy t-shirts and concert tickets.

As for the industry? Perhaps I would have more respect if they’d sued consumers for the actual cost of the songs and not for more than they can ever expect to collect. There is a possibility I would feel differently if the cost of CDS remained consistent with the quality of music, if there was more artist development, or better relations as a whole with those who fuel this industry. Maybe there is a change is coming with the downturn in sales over the last few years, but only time will tell. What I do know is that some of my fondest memories are based in music; I separate time periods in my life in categories of songs; and there are melodies that can bring tears, smiles or laughter within in the first few notes. Perhaps I have taken too much of a personal stake in these sound waves and beats, but it’s that important to me.

You can roll with this winner at FledglingFashionista.wordpress.com.

Obama Linked To More Mysterious Characters

Last month I told you about Obama and his connections to the Chicago Police department.

Well according to Ghetto Manga you will soon be seeing the President-Elect gracing the pages of The Daily Bugle with your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.



According to USA Today you can expect to see this on the stands come January 14th.

The Blogger Album Project

I know that I am terribly late with this, but I was tagged by everyone's favorite boho, The Bohemian Hippie Chick to list my top 7 albums of all time. That's a hell of a task. Plus, with the exception of 2 of them the other 5 may change from day to day. lol



Here are the rules:

1. Post your list of the seven best albums, the seven bloggers you will tag, a copy of these rules, and a link back to this page.
2. Each person tagged will put a URL to their Blogger Album Project post along with a list of the seven best albums in the comment section here.
3. Feel free to post the “I Contributed to the Blogger Album Project” Award Graphic on your sidebar, along with a link back to this page.
4. Post a link back to the blogger who tagged you.

Is it just me or does that seem like a hell of a lot of work? lol Anyway, on with the show. In no particular order:

Midnight Marauders is the album that made me fall in love with music. I didn't listen to a ton of music before this. I would just basically listen to whatever was on. I wasn't an active listener. I didn't seek out new music or artists until I heard this album. I kinda fell in love with Hip-Hop as a result. I listened to it before, but this album made me care.

Illmatic if you follow this blog to any extent you have already read my thoughts on this one. If not, check out Memory Lane and maybe answer the question I pose there as well. :)

Blowout Comb is a banger from start to finish. Their first album may have had the huge single, but the second album was better as a whole.

Don't Sweat The Technique has one of my favorite song of all time, Know The Ledge. But besides that, the album is a chance to catch the greatest emcee ever at the top of his game.

The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings is definitely an acquired taste. It's a lot of music, but if you are a Coltrane fan I highly recommend this set. It was recorded in four nights in November of 1961.

Hard To Earn has to be my favorite Gang Starr album. It's the best example of the greatest producer ever at work. Guru was and is one of the most underrated emcees ever He was often overshadowed by Primo's sonic genius, but he was & is great in his own right. Although this album is my favorite from the group, Moment Of Truth is probably the best example of Guru's greatness. He literally lays his life out in front of you along DJ Premier's tracks. But, Hard To Earn is my official choice. Mass Appeal alone puts this on my list. lol

Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall is my favorite live album that's not jazz.

I guess this is the part where I name the 7 people that I will tag. Well, previous run ins with tagging haven't gone too well. I was giving stuff away and couldn't get any participation. lol

mindful

Fledgling Fashionista

Canela NYC

Assertive Wit

Lazy Pen

Serenity Life

Bourgie, Esq.

T. Michelle Theus

Leather

Gang Starr Girl

Liz Burr

Stephanie

dmb5_libra

Samax

DJ Gemz

Lola Funk Android & Dena Kali

Synchronicity

TeLisa D.

The New Lisa Turtle

JKEYS

Extended Aim Profile

D.Son

The Listing Addict

Jay

digitalxsunrise

Free2Bee

Yes, I know that was well over 7 people, but I figured this way I may at least get one or two people to pass this along. I'm also interested in their choices, but yeah . . .

Please Help Keep NPR's News & Notes On The Air

Jasmyne Cannick has started a Petition in an effort to try and keep NPR's News & Notes show alive.

Please sign it support her effort and sign it. There aren't tons of outlets for black voices in the media. We need as many places as possible to get news from a black perspective.

A Winner Gets Some Ink! (Parenting After It's Over)

Deesha Philyaw of Mamalicious! recently received a little love from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in regards to the site that she runs with her ex-husband, Co-Parenting 101. On the site they try to shed some light on the issues encountered when parenting after divorce.

Civility and custody: Web sites help divorced spouses raise their children together

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
By L.A. Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Interaction between divorced parents can resemble the Bruce Willis-Demi Moore blissful step-family model, the Alec Baldwin-Kim Basinger divorce-is-a-battlefield example or anywhere in between.

Deesha Philyaw and Mike Thomas have gone the Bruce and Demi route.

Since they divorced two years ago, they've tried to healthfully co-parent their two daughters. They live close to each other in Regent Square, so the children can easily split their time between their two homes and talk almost daily about what's going on with the girls, ages 5 and 9. They even socialize together with their new significant others.

Now, they're offering help to other divorced parents through the Web site Coparenting101.org, which has blog entries, articles, Web links, reader questions and other information for people trying to co-parent after divorce.

They hope the information they offer and stories they share on the site about their post-divorce relationship can serve as an example to others about what's possible.

"Most people are not in situations like ours," says Ms. Philyaw, 37.

The Web site came about because friends and family were so astonished at how sane, respectful and drama-free their post-marriage relationship has been, some joked they should write a self-help or how-to book for other divorced parents. A book proposal now is in the works, and they started the Web site, in part, as research for the book.

"Most people say they would die for their children," says Mr. Thomas, also 37. "This really challenges people to see if they would live for their kids."

Taking on the challenge of co-parenting in a healthy way forces divorced couples to make choices they selfishly might not if they were thinking only of themselves and not their children, he said.

"Once you've decided it's about something other than yourself, it puts the other things in perspective," Mr. Thomas said. "The children didn't ask for this situation ... and I owe them the best possible life that I can provide. Staying together in the marriage wasn't possible, but other things are possible."

It takes time for everyone involved to work through the pain and anger of divorce to achieve the goal of healthy co-parenting.

"From coordinating kids activities on almost a daily basis to taking a vacation as a family each year to playing cards with our respective significant others, Deesha and I had managed to forge a very good post-divorce relationship, by any account," Mr. Thomas wrote in one blog post.

However, despite that fact, some friends and family still wanted to know how his ex-wife reacted when he told her he was engaged.

"Clearly, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the expectation was that an 'ex' WILL lose their mind in these situations, positive relationship notwithstanding," he wrote.

She didn't. In fact, in another blog post, Ms. Philyaw interviewed her ex-husband's fiancee. When people ask her why or tell her she's a better woman than they would be in a similar situation, she asks, "Why?"

"What do you lose in positioning yourself in such a way where you're not only civil to the other woman or the first wife, depending upon which side you're on?" she said. "Children need more than civility; they need permission to like this new person.

"By having a rapport or a friendly interaction with the new person or the ex-spouse, it really gives children permission to relax and forge their own opinion and relationship with their parent's new partner without having to worry about loyalty issues, 'What does mom or dad think?' "

Click Here For The Rest Of Article

I Need Your Help! :(

I happened to be browsing the internetS as I tend to do and I stumbled upon some startling news from Professor Tracey. My favorite radio show/podcast will be going dark in the first half of 2009. I'm sick about this on a couple levels. First, that podcast is the reason why this blog exists. NPR's New & Notes helped me discover different blogs that revolved around the black community and the blogs that I discovered through that show led me to find even more blogs. Odds are if I have visited your blog, Farai Chideya is the reason why, either directly or indirectly. Secondly, her show was my go to source for news from a Black perspective.

Can anyone out there recommend a podcast I can use to fill this void? I prefer to listen to my news & editorials. Please? Anyone?

:(

And The Winner Is . . . Me? *Kool Aid Man Grin*

I would like to thank Shae of HeyShae.com. She thought enough of my little blog to award it the Brilliante WeBlog Award. It shocked the hell out of me! I haven't won anything before. lol I'm always appreciative of anyone & everyone that takes a moment or two out of their day to stop by.

As a recipiant of the award comes some responsibilities:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. The winner must link to the person from whom they received their award.
3. The winner must nominate at least 7 other blogs for the award.
4. The winner must place links to those blogs on their own blog.
5. The winner must leave a message on the blogs of the people they’ve nominated.

Of course I couldn't stop at 7 when 8 is so close. lol

Black And Married With Kids

SerenityLife

Mamalicious!

Leather

Entropy Inc.

Keeping Up With The Huxtables

We Are Respectable Negroes

I Left My iPod In El Segundo

I just want to say thanks again to Shae for the award.

I'd Twitter That!/(I.W.D.H.B.W.)

I love text messages. I love to send them and to receive them. I hate forwards, but I love getting messages from friends & acqaintences. Probably because of the nature of my current job that has me chained to a desk with limited internet access & no real way to bullsh!t to speed the day along. Hell, it's the only real reason I was on twitter.

I always saw Twitter as a chat room hoping to start up a convo with someone. I also use it as a news reader to a degree. There are certain people/twitters I just follow online for links to news stories or blog posts. One person I won't be following is discussed by Ms. Burr for Black Web 2.0. The article is a great peek into what helps a site really take off. Apparently it's mainstream celebs. Check the comments, of the blog. I named a few celebs that I would love to follow.

On a completely different note . . . Can we please get Olivia Munn off of Attack Of The Show & get her on it? Zadi has tons of twitter tips:



Here are a couple of sites & things that I found to feed into my love of texting:

ChaCha.com is basically like ask Jeeves, but on your phone. You can text ChaCha any question and get a text reply answer.

Chikka allows you to send texts messages from your pc.

You can also send text from your pc if you know what carrier your friend is with simply through your e-mail:

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

Mazzulla Falls, HELLO! *In Larry King Voice* (Rambling Man)

I wish the word haters would die & people would stop talking about how they have haters on their blogs & myspace pages. You aren't important enough to hate! You're an annoyance to people, at best . . . McDonald's will be providing free wifi for Zune users. Maybe when I'm in Chicago full time I can meet another Zune user? If it's a woman of age I may buy her a McFlurry . . . I wish someone cool would do something with that Blow The Whistle beat. I love the beat, but I would rather hear Elzhi, Wale, Lupe, Skillz or Mos Def(rapping only) over it. Maybe they would be funny or at least drop some cool or interesting references on it . . . Odds are if you are reading this I have read & possibly bookmarked your blog. I have been addicted to black blogs about music, movies, tech & current affairs. My bookmarking game is CRAZY! I REALLY need to organize them . . . What's the point of Imeem.com? I mean at least Last.fm connects you to people who have similar taste in music by actually tracking what you listen to. It seems that Imeem requires you to upload music for the site to be of any value at all. Shouldn't music social networking be easier than this? I like the look of the site, but I'm still trying to figure it out . . . Why do cats keep the size sticker on their fitted hats? It's not like most of them are paying attention to the size on the actual sticker since the hats usually look 2 sizes too big. I wish I could wear fitted hats, but my nugget is just too large for that. If I could I would be all over these . . .

Hipster Rap

What's the deal with hipster rap? *in Jerry Seinfeld voice* lol

I thought about doing a blog on this a month or so ago, when I saw an article in the Source or XXL. I don't remember they all look a like to me. I just know that they aren't Mass Appeal. I'm still pouring out liquor for that one . . . well, I would if I drank.

Anyway, there was an article about the boom of hipster rap, I thought to myself, "What the hell is hipster rap?" I'll admit that many times I'm in my own head too often, so somethings I flat out miss. I didn't even really hear the expression hipster all that often offline. So, then I began to read the article and it was just name dropping a good deal of the only artist that have come out in the last few years that I like (see: Lupe, Wale, Kidz In The Hall, Kanye & The Cool Kids). I just thought of it as good music, made by (seemingly) and for regular people. Nothing more, nothing less. I didn't see them as a sub-genre, especially Lupe, Wale, Kanye & Kidz. I'll admit that The Cool Kids and few others are a little gimmicky in appearance, but the music is good so who cares?

Why do they need find another name for music that's not about gun-clapping? I love the Clipse, Fiddy & Biggie as much as the next guy, but find another name for THEIR music. Don't try to separate the lighter fair from the label of rap. Just like I hated the term conscious rap, not that anything listed about would be considered conscious, but why not name the other stuff unconscious rap?

Anyway, this video brought this block back to the front of my brain and onto your screen:

What is hipster rap?

read more | digg story

Where Are The Black Tech Bloggers?

One thing I love is discovering new websites & gadgets. I noticed that a lot of my favorites sites don't really tend to have black voices. Now this may or may not have an impact on the news and reviews that I receive, but I do like to see faces like mine involved with things that I love.

Here's a podcast that is a round table discussion on Black Bloggers who are in the technology industry.





Courtesy of Black Web 2.0

Girlfriends In Black & White (Rambling Man)

I saw this blog: The New Lisa Turtle™: I AM NOBODY'S FETISH and two things came to mind . . .

1. The cat in question is b*tchmade! (RE: Censorship - 8thlight is for the children) And for that he gets an L and can be added to the "We need to do better Hall of Fame".

2. I truly wonder, what his definiton of acting like a white girlfriend is?

I just feel that there are qualities and things that you like in a person. Just like there are qualities and things that you don't in a person. I don't, nor should anyone, attribute a positive or negative quality to a race of people. Are somethings more prevalent in one set of people than another? Maybe, but no one owns a particular behavior or act. It's funny depending on what he's looking for in a woman this mouthbreather from the blog linked above maybe looking for the same things another black man is looking for, but the other guy doesn't see those qualities as being black or white and he doesn't say that he's looking for a black girl that acts white.

What do you feel is a black boyfriend that acts white or a black girlfriend that acts white? Have you been called either?

I will probably come back and edit this and make it a little more coherent, but I just wanted to get it up while I was thinking of it.