The hilarious Sara Benincasa wrote this article for Playboy back in 2014. I read it then, but I needed it today. So funny. So freakin’ true.
#RIPPrince
Rest In Peace, You Sexy MF
Stevie!!!
It’s been well-documented on this site that I. LOVE. STEVIE. WONDER. So when BFF Jenny texted me last week to tell me she got $45 tickets to see him on Groupon in Knoxville, TN (she lives in Chattanooga), I have to admit, I was a little jelly.
But then, sometimes: Jesus.
I got a call from my college agent yesterday and she told me that University of Tennessee Knoxville wanted to book me for a show next month. Because I knew it was not far from BFF Jenny, I texted her this morning to let her know. If I was gonna be within an hour or two of her house, I was definitely gonna stop by. I had no idea when the Stevie concert was.
Turns out the concert is the day after my show and her husband wasn’t gonna be able to come and she hadn’t asked anyone else if they wanted to go yet… And HOORAY! I get to see Stevie with my bestie and get paid.
Thank you, 8lb. 6oz. newborn infant Jesus.
Oooh, babeh babeh
I’m in Cleveland working at the Improv here this weekend, and I trekked over to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame yesterday. Can I just say — AH-MAY-ZING?!?! I spent 4 hours there, So much to see. I’m definitely gonna do another blog/vlog about everything I saw, but the thing that blew my mind the most was this jacket (above). It’s the jacket Pepa wore in Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It” video. Whaaaaat?!?! If you’re a brown woman (don’t mean to exclude other women but…) of a certain age and you didn’t want the outfits, hair cuts and know the dance routine from this video when you were a kid, you did childhood wrong. Seeing this jacket took me back to me and my cousin Mel dancing and trying to learn the words to the song off the cassette we used to tape it off the radio. I wanted to call 10 friends and plan a caper to “Ocean’s Eleven” that joint up out that museum. Exhale…
It was part of the exhibition about Hip-Hop and Rock & Roll. Man that whole exhibition made me so proud. RUN-D.M.C., Public Enemy, The Furious Five, Jay-Z, Biggie. To quote the late, great Christopher Wallace, “You never thought that hip hop would take it this far…” More on this trip later, but this jacket made me so happy I had to post about it right away.
Sextet
Sometimes when there’s a jazz quintet in the Macy’s men’s department playing “When the Saints Go Marching In,” you gotta join in and make it a sextet.
The Greatest Tribute of All
So happy I caught this video in my Facebook newsfeed this afternoon. My friend Joy posted this video of a friend of hers singing a Whitney Houston tribute/medley and I almost didn’t watch it. Don’t make the mistake I almost made. This lady right here… Ms. Shelea Frazier, is a S-A-N-G-ERRRR!!! This tribute was beautifully done and so respectful… Please watch it and share it. With all the talent-deficient superstar “artists” radio tries to push down our throats, it’s refreshing to hear someone with real, pure talent.
That “…for the Bible” in “Jesus Loves Me” sent chills down my spine. Shelea also had a song on the “Jumping the Broom” soundtrack. Also fantastic!!!
Shelea, if you ever come across this, I wish you the very best in your career. And if you have an album, I want 3. Follow her on Twitter here.
You’re welcome.
Quit breakin’ my heart
I am a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan.
Anyone who even halfway knows me, knows that. Many of y’all probably remember a few years back when I used to blog about every Philadelphia Eagles game. I called it the Happy Eagles/Sad Eagles Chronicles and I’d post a different photo along with the blog based upon whether we won or lost. I even had a regular late night call-in segment on WIP 610 in Philly…
But I had to stop doing that. Because I was so emotionally involved in their performance that a loss had the potential to ruin the next 3 or 4 days of my life. I bring all this up because I was scrolling thru some old posts and I found one from November 16, 2008 (the game where we tied the Bengals and McNabb didn’t know the overtime rules) where I wrote:
My mama always told me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say then I should say it loudly and enunciate. So here goes: I DON’T KNOW IF I’VE EVER BEEN THIS DISAPPOINTED IN AN EAGLES SEASON. And no, I’m not exaggerating. When we lost in the Superbowl, of course I was upset about that. But I didn’t feel that way all season. And during the seasons when McNabb was hurt, we knew early that it was gonna be a struggle to compete. I had no expectations. Anything good that happened was a pleasant surprise (i.e. Jeff Garcia). But this year with a healthy McNabb, the addition of Asante Samuel, the promise of DeSean Jackson… we had a 3-win streak a few weeks back and I was sooo excited about this team. But the manner in which we’ve lost the games we’ve lost this year has been hard to swallow. No shut-outs, no poundings… AND no 3rd down conversions… Just not doing the little things we need to do to get it done.
The radio show I was on Friday had a caller who was saying that Andy Reid should go because at some point, a team that’s not winning just stops hearing the coach. Perhaps that’s true. But I don’t think Andy Reid’s suspect play calling had anything to do with Donovan’s three interceptions and all those dropped passes. What we’re witnessing is a team losing faith in itself — not just their coach.
And it reminded me that at some point in every season I’ve felt exactly like I do now. But this year it feels a billion times worse because of all the big-name acquisitions we made and all the “Dream Team” hype (which I have ALWAYS believed is the kiss of death). This season it’s not just our losses that are blowing me — it’s how narrowly we’ve won the two games we won. After last week’s game Andy Reid’s usually brief presser was even briefer than normal. “We need to get better” is all he said. And at 1-4, it’s all he needed to say. Yes, we won this week, but you HAVE to get better, Iggles. ‘Cause my nerves can’t take this anymore. This is gonna be my final post about them for the season, but pray for me y’all.
Beats and Rhymes and also… Life
On Wednesday I went to see “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest” — the Michael Rapaport-produced documentary on my FAVORITE hip hop group of all time. It was playing at the indie movie theatre in DC and I’d heard so many great things about it from my friends in NYC that I couldn’t wait. It followed the guys for approximately two years from the time they reunited in 2008 to some time in 2010. I bought my best friend Rock The Bells tour tickets for her birthday in ’08 the year they reunited and joined that tour. We went to the Jones Beach show, and put in over 12 hours that day but had to leave before Tribe… I KNOW. I don’t even wanna talk about it. Damn day jobs… Anyway, there were tons of hip hop and radio greats featured in the film — faces and voices I haven’t seen or heard much since I left Jersey (and more importantly, NYC radio). I’d read several articles about how some group members (Q-Tip) weren’t happy about how they were portrayed, but you get that with any “reality” project. Plus from what I know about those guys from following them on wax, in print and digitally for over two decades, I think it was pretty true to who they are.
Sidebar, what ever happened to the other Leaders of the New School? My cousin suggested Busta ate them. But I told her that was mean… after I caught my breath.
If/when this movie comes to your town, please support it. Whomever profits from this film deserves your dollars — even if it’s that annoying ass Michael Rapaport. If you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s and you had a radio, chances are you loved Native Tongues and ATCQ in particular. This is what hip hop was… Is. It doesn’t get much better than this:
We don’t want no Brown Santa
So I got an e-mail the other day from one of my ‘fans’ (I hate that word but I don’t know what to use in its place) who saw my Santa video and wanted to share with me an mp3 of a song she had recently written. She writes:
The song is based on a true story….
It’s about a Hispanic friend of ours (Joseph) who applied for a Santa job in a local department store in Oakland, CA. (back in 1990). He was hired on the spot by the Personnel department, but when the racist general manager walked in and saw him, he blurted out (in front of employees and customers), “We don’t want no Brown Santa!” Apparently Santa must be whiter than the Queen of England to qualify…
I listened to the song and thought it was hilarious! Also so well-produced, and it sounded so much like an old-school Christmas song… Since then she’s put some images with it and uploaded it to YouTube and she just sent it over to me. You gotta listen it’s super cute and she even included a photo of me and Chocolate Santa. Go ‘head and watch the video. I promise you’ll be humming it afterwards! ;)