Video Blog!

Hi there! Here's another video blog from me. I am working on stepping up my video game with a web cam so hopefully the shaky cam video will cease soon. Enjoy!

Great video by a single mom about Ann Coulter

While doing some research, I came across this great blog by a single mother. The blog is called Ms Single Mama and the website is www.mssinglemama.com. I found this blog both entertaining and informative. I was browsing through it when I came across a post that she'd written about Ann Coulter's book, Guilty. Well I'm not a follower of Ann Coulter but from what I've seen and read about her, she is very right wing in her views and she has no problem taking direct aim at specific people or groups. While I can't fault her for her beliefs, I can definitely fault her for her tactics. Ms Single Mama posted a video on CNN's website, www.ireport.com about some of the statistics that Ann Coulter is using to support her current attack on single mothers in her new book. This video was very well done and she made some great points. I wanted to share it with you. I'm not a single mother but before my mom and my stepdad got together, I was being raised by a single mother. Although that was a short time period in my life, I saw my mom do her thing with taking care of me and handling her business. I have so much respect for single mothers. Please take a moment to watch this video then visit her blog at www.mssinglemama.com.

Review of Notorious

Earlier today I took some time to check out the newly released movie about the great rapper, Notorious B.I.G. For those that aren't familiar, Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls was a rapper that came to glory in the late 90's and was killed at the age of 24 in 1997. He was the protege of Diddy (who was Puffy or Puff Daddy back then) and one of the early artists signed to Bad Boy Records.

Notorious starts in the 80's with Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls) as a kid in elementary school in the Bed stuy area of Brooklyn, NY. He is attending a private school and you can tell that his mom placed a lot of emphasis on education. The movie moves through his life and shows how he was lured into the street life becoming a drug dealer while in elementary school. By the time he was 17, he was making lots of money and living the high life. The movie goes on to chronicle how he was introduced to Diddy, who was working at Uptown Records at the time, and subsequently became known as one of the greatest rappers of all time at the ripe old age of 24.

I have never been a hard core hip hop fan. In fact, I gave away my copy of Biggie's first album, Ready to Die, because I just wasn't feeling it at the time. I do still have the copy of his second project, Life After Death, that I liked a lot more. In spite of me not being a hard core hip hop fan, I do work in the music industry and I have a lot of respect for hip hop. I am a fan of the way that some rappers are able to use words to create a picture. Biggie was very good at doing that. Initially he created vivid pictures of his life growing up in Brooklyn and being on the block. As he grew, he began to paint pictures of his life as a superstar recording artist, living the good life. I appreciate him for that.

The movie was really good. I think the actors all held their own and the guy playing Biggie, Jamal Woolard, really morphed into the late rapper. I could tell he really studied his movements, rap style, voice and even his different personas. As an artist, Christopher Wallace had to wear different faces. Jamal was able to successfully move between Christopher Wallace, Biggie Smalls and Notorious B.I.G. There were even times when I felt like I was looking at Biggie himself but not in an eerie way. Jamal did a wonderful tribute to a guy that was extremely multifaceted.

Some people saw Biggie as simply a drug dealer turned rapper but he was also a man, son, father and friend. I think the movie humanized him. It did a great job of showing the different aspects of him as a person and making him more real. Before I saw the movie, I only saw him as a superstar that was taken away before he got to truly realize his talents and abilities. Now that I've seen the movie, I can better empathize with his family and friends. I got to a glimpse into his relationship with Diddy (Puffy) and how close they truly were as well as his tumultuous relationships with Faith and Lil Kim.

I recommend this movie to anyone. If you are a fan of hip hop, I definitely think you should check this out. If you are curious about the music industry and how things can go sometimes, you should check it out. In a nutshell, I give this movie four out of five stars. I wish the movie had focused on at least one of his relationships more and gone more into it. From what I saw, Biggie was fiercely loyal and loved hard. I would have liked to see that explored with at least one of the people closest to him. Overall, it was a good movie. Go check it out.

A sexy Marvin Gaye song

This is the song that is playing in the background on the commercial I posted earlier for the perfume, Jadore. I have to say that I stopped by the department store to smell Jadore because I was considering buying it. I did not like it. It smelled really flowery. I was disappointed because with that commercial, I figured it would smell more heady with musky undertones or a hint of sandalwood or something. A scent that's almost masculine but light enough to be a perfume. Nonetheless, I still love the commercial and one big reason is this song. Enjoy!

A New Year...and the adventures continue plus a video!

Happy New Year everyone! It's finally 2009 and things started off really nicely for me. I went to a friend's house and set off some fireworks to bring in the new year. Then we played a serious game of taboo for shots. It was the guys against the girls and we kicked the guys booties! They took a couple of shots while we only had to take one in a close heat in the final game. It was lots of fun and I felt good about going as I sleepily drove home.

After that a good friend of mine had a birthday party at her new apartment the following Saturday. We've known each other since 9th grade and have been close ever since 10th. She loves to have gatherings where everyone comes over, has some drinks, plays spades and chats about things. So that's what she did. She looked really cute and I'm very happy for her because she has two of the cutest little girls and while she was pregnant with her second, she lost her job. Now she has a new job and things are much more improved for her. Well since we went to high school together, her gatherings are often a mini high school reunion. Apparently we are some of the rare people that still actively keep in touch with people we went to high school with. I talk to so many people that may keep in touch with one or two people where we keep in touch with a large majority of our class along with people that were the class before and class after us.

Well this party was no different so the guests were a mix of her co-workers and her friends, some of which are from high school and others from elementary or both. Well one of her friends from both elementary school and high school came and she is six months pregnant. Well me and this lady weren't close in high school but we did cross paths occasionally. She was always very over the top in some of her antics and this has not changed. She came in with a small bottle of Patron Tequila in her purse that she claimed was for the birthday girl, but I have my suspicions. Then she proceeds to partake of the food (which was very cool because she is 6 months pregnant) and the drinks (which wasn't cool because she is 6 months pregnant). The funny thing is that I was disturbed but not overly surprised. Not necessarily because she is a destructive person (which I don't know her well enough to know) but because she has always been over the top. What I've noticed that the way people act in high school doesn't change a whole lot over time. If someone is considered an oddball (which I was), they will still be an oddball after high school. If someone is very over the top and extra (as she was), they will still be over the top and extra.

I actually doubt that she drinks very much because she has three other children and is in school to become a medical assistant. So I see that there is a responsible adult in there but that's not the image she chooses to display and I suppose that's ok. Now what I did find an issue with was a story she told about being arrested. Her being arrested wasn't that shocking because with traffic tickets and some of the over zealous police in Atlanta, it can happen. The bad thing was that when she was pulled over, they discovered she had a warrant in one county and arrested her for that. She proceeded to curse the arresting office out because they only arrested her for the one warrant rather than the FIVE warrants she had in another county. Several fouls occurred here. A mother of three has SIX outstanding warrants and when she escape arrest for FIVE of them, she CURSES out the officer because he arrests her for only one. I'm surprised she isn't still in jail today, goodness.

But then this raised a question with a friend of mine as we recapped the party afterward. Because we were slightly shocked and appalled at the whole situation, we wondered if we were bougie. So it inspired me to keep a running tally on examples of bougieness. I will save that blog for another day. So stay tuned and enjoy my first video. I'll be adding a video component to this blog so I hope you enjoy the upgrade.