I LOVE BEAUTY PAGEANTS. This girl rocks my world! I love to see real talent, and this girl is a winner in my book. I'd hate to be the contestant to perform right after that! Although, clearly this girl hadn't picked up the trumpet since the 8th grade. For a while there, I thought she was playing the highest octave. But then I listened a little closer. Honestly I don't understand why Miss Whatever's need to have a performable talent. I'm sure this girl is good at something else, like how to arrange furniture. I dedicate this post to my friend Tam - who's talent act might look startlingly similar to this if she ever decided to participate in a pageant.

FESTIVUS FOR THE RESTUVUS. I consider myself a rather festive person. I acknowledge and celebrate just about all of the major holidays. My personal favorite is Thanksgiving because it involves family and a really good meal, but I digress. In a world that is becoming more and more politically correct, just about every holiday is under attack! I consider Halloween the start of the holiday season, because let's face it - here in America we love Halloween. I think it's cool to take a day of the year to ham it up, and wear whatever you want. As an adult who celebrates Halloween, the inspiration and creativity behind the costumes are what interest me most. However, there are some people who choose not to celebrate Halloween because of it's orgin. It's believed that it was a day to celebrate spirits (bad ones I presume). It used to be called 'All Hallows Eve'. I won't pretend to be well researched on the topic 1- because i'm feeling a bit lazy at the mo, and 2- I don't really care. To me, a holiday is what you make it. Am I ok with devil worshiping? No. I grew up in a devoutly Christian household, but my parents simply introduced Halloween as a time to be creative and dress up in whatever silly costume I could think of. And for doing so, you get loads of candy. Jackpot! Who doesn't want to go to school dressed as a fairy princess? This was my time to shine! To me, it's a day where a kid gets to be a kid and nothing more (As an adult, it's an excuse for more drunken debauchery and for girls to dress as whores. Who doesn't love that?!) On to Thanksgiving. There's the question of whether or not we should celebrate the arrival of the Mayflower since genocide of Native Americans ensued promptly after the meal. This one strikes a nerve as a descendant of disenfranchised people (wait, currently disenfranchised people, my dear AA's) but I do love a good meal, and no one at in my family is thinking about the camaraderie between the Pilgrims and Native Americans when we're hand in hand in prayer surrounding a shiny turkey and a bowl of collard greens. Trust this!! Thanksgiving is about thanking God and each other for being a blessing in your life, and the ability to share it with each other. Moving on the Christmas. Remember that ludicrous attack on Christmas a couple of years ago? "Merry Christmas" was no longer appropriate for retailers. It had to be "Happy Holidays. They even wanted to do away with the Christmas tree by calling it a "Holiday tree". This was just utterly ridic! The tree is just a pagan symbol that somehow became attached to Christmas throughout the years, it has no sacred meaning. So why would it ruffle the feathers of non-Christians? If you don't celebrate Christmas, then you were ignoring Christmas in it's entirety. I seriously doubt that Johnnny Atheist wanted desperately to light candles and sing at Rockefeller Plaza - but didn't do so because that enormous plant in the middle of the Square was being referred to as a Christmas tree. And this movement wasn't brought on by the Jewish because as far as I've seen, they've been quite content with Chanukah for the past forever. So to me, it was all unnecessary media hype that these corporations bought in to. I'm telling you, the media is dangerous (but keep reading my blog). Anyway, I'd guess that less than 10% of my fellow AA's celebrate Kwanzaa. More are leary of it because of the rumor that it was intended as an alternative celebration for Christmas (Not true, by the way). I believe a great majority is indifferent to it, and the rest don't even know what it is. I began celebrating Kwanzaa in high school through a youth organization I was involved with. I don't need to take part in a libation ceremony every year, but I do appreciate the principles that it promotes; unity (Umoja), faith (Imani), and self determination (Kujichagulia) to name a few. I don't know that anyone has a problem with New Years'. Oh, except for maybe the Chinese, who believe it's some time in February. I could go on - Valentine's Day is a scam created for the sole benefit for the card-making companies, Black History Month is now irrelevant and obsolete (you'll hear more from me about this one) and of course the protest of some major companies giving their employees Good Friday off. Who is the hater in your office that is complaining about a day off? You didn't hear me complaining about Columbus day (another celebration of impending genocide) when I was a government employee. I celebrated it as a day to sleep in! Wow this post is long!

NO DEAL!!!: this show drives me up a wall. Why do people on Deal or No Deal get overly excited and make extremely poor decisions? Have these people forgotten that they've come to the show with nothing? If 1 million is still left on the board, the only other amounts are $1, $50, $500 and $1000 and the bank is offering you $609,000. TAKE THE $609K! But that almost never happens. I thought maybe these people were just caught up in the moment and make stupid decisions, but now I've decided that their all just idiots. Or the producers peruse Gamblers Anonymous for contestants. The families that are there for "support" are often just as ridiculous. You know the greedy wife that keeps gesturing for 'no deal' for the husband who can't think for himself, while the people in the crowd are visibly shaking their heads. I was never a huge fan of the show, but after a man passed on 400K and left with $10... I vowed never to watch it again! That is all.

SOMEONE TELL KANYE TO SHUT IT. SORRY THIS CLIP WAS TAMPERED WITH AND REPLACED WITH SOME RAY J & KIM KARDASHIAN GROSSNESS. APOLOGIES TO ANYONE WHO SAW THE CLIP, NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED THERE. OH WELL!! Who else is tired of this brat? For someone who admitted to being a homophobe, he sure acts like the Queen of all Queens by throwing these public tantrums. Aside from the outbursts though, his swagger is ridiculous! I mean, he makes a good beat and all, but comparing his plight to the plight of Jesus? Remember that magazine cover? I bet Jesus' beats are better than his. Here is a clip of an inebriated (not that that matters) Kanye proclaiming to be the "#1 human being in music".

JUSTICE? It's a lot to ask when your Black in America isn't it? However, we're still far from it when cases like the Jena 6 and Martin Lee Anderson are floating out there. Martin who? That's the name of the kid who was killed in a Panama City, FL boot camp in January '06, but boot camp staff reported that he died of natural causes. Martin was in bootcamp for stealing his Grandma's car and joyriding in it. He was sentenced to probation but violated it, so he was sent to boot camp, which is used to "scare straight" kids that show signs of going down the wrong path. All this to say, Anderson wasn't a violent kid. Nonetheless, after the first 2 hours of his first day at boot camp, Anderson was forced to continue exercising after he collapsed during the exercise routine. Drill instructors applied numerous uses of force including pinning him by the arms, slamming him to the ground, applying pressure point applications, and forcing him to inhale ammonia tablets. After this 20 minute struggle, Anderson died. Of course the Anderson family demanded an investigation, so the useless Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced that his autopsy ruled out "trauma or injury". Instead they claimed Anderson died on natural causes related to sickle cell. Knowing that this was pure BS (because an otherwise healthy kid can't die of simply having the sickle cell trait) his parents ordered another autopsy from a reknowned forensic pathologist with the backing of the NAACP. They found: 1) Martin Anderson had sickle cell trait. 2) The repeated blows to Martin Anderson’s limbs and the gripping of his limbs left several bruises but did not contribute to his death. In other words, he was not beaten to death. 3) Martin Anderson’s death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway. Vernard I. Adams, M.D. Chief Medical Examiner^[9] Basically, the camp employees killed him. 7 camp officials assaulted this boy while the nurse stood by watching. It's all on tape. The second autopsy was conducted in February. Martin, who was 15, died in January yet no arrests were made until November. All of them are out on bail. The case is going to trial, but will by all accounts, feature a majority white jury - as is the racial demographic of that region. On top of that, the family has faced an uphill battle to draw attention to this case, and get adequate representation as the governor (at the time) Jeb Bush has remained indifferent. If a white teenage girl was beaten by 7 boot camp employees and died right after it, she would be a household name. I'm so tired of this. Why is it that these stories don't make headlines. Is this not worth discussing, or non-relatable because he's Black?

NOW, 1 MISSING WOMAN - As we all know, missing persons of color don't get equal media coverage. Here are the facts: Stepha has been missing since Memorial Day weekend. She was last seen leaving Pepper's Cafe night club in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on 5/29. She's a 22 yr old college graduate with honors from New York who was visiting her aunt in Miami. She is 5'2, 110 lbs and has reddish bronze hair. If you have any information at all, please call 1.800.crimetv. UPDATE: Sad news. Nailah's body was found on October 3rd behind abandoned buildings a few miles from her car. There have been no arrests and no current suspects. Let's all keep Nailah's family and friends in our prayers. For more on this story, click here.

Native New Yorker and known prick, Bill O'Reilly recently met with Al Sharpton at Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem. This was O'Reilly's first time in Harlem. O’Reilly reported that he “had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful,” adding: “I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.”

Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O’Reilly asserted: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ You know, I mean, everybody was — it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

I just don't know what to say about this... Um, nice that O'Reilly took some time out of his busy schedule to observe a culture which he pretends to know so much about already. Maybe Sharpton took him over to the local Duane Reid so he could see that Black people are capable of standing in line too. Single file even!

Yes it's been a minute since I posted here (actually about a year and a half). Now that I actually have the time to devote to it, I do plan to post regularly. Honest! Since the last post, which I believe was March '06, I've gotten engaged, pregnant, married and unemployed. In that order. My daugther Laila was born this past July ('07) and I'm head over heels for her, and I wanted nothing to keep me from her so I left my gig at Discovery Channel to be a full time mom and a freelance writer/producer. Some of my posts will be short because I steal away to post while she's asleep and she doesn't sleep long by herself. She's like, a level 9 clinger so often times I'm typing with one hand. Advance apologies for the typos! There are so many things to discuss, like: the presidential candidates, wack ass Congress and the unbelievably inept White House, dog fighting in America, and even Britney Spears (yes, hit my baby one more time!) I don't get to the movies much anymore - they don't really smile on bringing infants into movie theaters, nor do they make for the best movie going experience. Believe me, I tried. So you guys are going to have to tell me about the new releases. I'll give you my thoughts on what's hot at Hollywood video. Ok, that' enough for now. Over & out!

CONCERT REVIEW: This is a pic of a Damian Marley concert in September 2006 when he opened for Ben Harper at the Merriweather Pavillion in Maryland. I'm not sure why he's the opening act for Ben Harper and the boring ass Innocent Criminals (although Ben Harper is fyne, how did Laura Dern snag him? One of life's mysteries!). Anyway, tons left after Damian's show. Let me just say, he's absolutely terrific in concert. His show is very spirited yet organized. I love the Rasta who waves the giant Rastafarian flag while running across stage for the entire set. What exactly is this man's title? Staff cheerleader? I always think he's going to hit Damian in the back of the head with that enormous flag pole, but he's acutely aware of where everyone is at all times. Those impressive depth perception skills! He's not that young either, but spry nonetheless. So back to the show - I love Damian; he's an intelligent writer and a strong emcee. You can also tell he's a perfectionist by the way he completely owns the stage. Every last detail of his show is polished; the background singers are flawlessly choreographed, and they sing with such intense passion, you wouldn't believe they do it 6 nights a week. I saw him perform during Howard's homecoming and I was so close I could see that with one glance, or a quick finger gesture, his musicians and support staff knew exactly what to do. You get the feeling the singers are like "Oh Jah, if I don't hit this mark, or if my vocals don't gloriously soar over this melody, Damian is going to take me out back and beat me with reeds... again!" I guess this all this comes with being a professional, but I've seem some lousy shows in my day, and I can honestly say the Marleys give 110% every time, trust! I read somewhere that Damian & company smoke a substantial amount of weed before and after every show. You might smoke too much when 8 lbs has no apparent effect. Towards the end of the show, his brothers Stephen and Julian come out to help sing some Bob Marley classics. I love DM's album, but to me, this was the apex of the show. I know they tend to roll together, but I was still totally surprised. The accompanying clip is taking forever to upload, so hopefully it won't error, so y'all can get a taste. Lata!