A few short months ago I was paying well over 3 dollars per gallon for mid-grade gasoline for my car. Now, prices have dropped to a more affordable price but not nearly to the level it should be. Am I to be fooled into thinking that I should just be grateful and move along? I hope not.
It is not necessary that gas prices be as high as they are today. The American public knows that this price reduction is a diversion to diminish the dissatisfaction with this country's Repbulican leadership. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not so sure there's a significant difference between the Repbulicans and the Democrats. It's really a socio-economic issue more than anything else.
One day, perhaps "the People" in the United States will put someone in office who actually represents the masses and not their own self-interests. I can dream, can't I?
Former Congressman Gerry Studds, the first openly gay congressman passed away on Saturday. He was 69. Studds was outed back in the 1980s amid scandal that he dated a 16 year-old page, had flown the young man out of the country and raped him. Studds was censured, turned his back on his colleagues and was re-elected several terms thereafter.
I vaguely remember the scandal but Studds name became a mantra for the Republicans crying foul in the handling of the Mark Foley issue. Because of my lack of familiarity with the Studds issue I won’t comment except to say that Studds did not deny his homosexuality and for that I respect him. Pedophilia, on the other hand, cannot be condoned. It is bewildering that his constituents would re-elect him but hey, crack-smoking Marion Barry was re-elected to his post as mayor of Washington, DC. Go figure.
The football game between the University of Miami (UM) and Florida International University (FIU) probably didn't interest many folks outside of the Miami area. FIU is a new team only starting its football progam in 2002.UM was expected to win and win they did.
Few will remember the game but the world has seen the bench-clearing brawl with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter. The cross-city teams met for the first in what was sure to be the start of a long series rivalry. With so many local alumni from both schools that was easy to foresee. Who knows what the outcome will be now. not only was it embarrassing for both schools, it subjects all of us in South Florida to ridicule. I mean, we already don't know how to vote in Florida, remember?
Here's a video of the "Mayhem in Miami" as CNN calls it. You decide for yourself. Personally, I think the guilty players should be suspended for at least three games and those kicking, punching and using their helmets as weapons should be suspended for the rest of the football season. Anything less sends the wrong message about sportsmanship and discipline.
I forgot to mention that these shenanigans took place in front of several high school football players who were special guests of UM for the game. How nice.
Project Runway, Season 3 is about to come to an end and if I'm totally honest, I can't say that I'm disappointed in the least. It's one of those reality shows for Christ's sake. So what that means is manufactured drama and tension. Hell-o? Now, that I got that out of my system, let me say that I didn't miss one episode of Season 3 either. LOL I recognize what this show is so I don't trip about it. It is also quite addictive and has taken away far too much of my time which is why I need for it to end. I realized I had a problem when I rushed home to see the original broadcast of the show and the re-runs. What? Now you know that's not necessary. Bravo replays their reality shows oh so many times that I shouldn't stress about it, right? I know, I know, I need to get that checked out. Anyhoo, just to make sure my TV watching time wasn't a total waste, at least I can get a blog post out of it.
Reunion Show
Expected drama and bitchiness during the reunion show and hello, got them both. I did not expect it to be so humorous, that was a welcome surprise. Give Keith an 'A+' for chutzpah. He stood his ground when discussing the episode in which he was unceremoniously kicked off the show for cheating. Keith basically accused the producers of setting him up. Hmmm...moving right along.
I am oh sure that Michael Knight does not win as he was declared fan favorite and won the $10,000 prize. I was so happy for him. I was, however, so disappointed in Michael's attire for the Reunion Show. I mean casual is fine but that was way too. If he wants his talent to be taken seriously he must establish a professional image. I'd hoped he'd 'grown' since we met him during the auditions.
OK, the surprise of the Reunion Show? Bradley sans facial hair! He is really a cutie patootie. What a difference a shave and a haircut make. I'm still trying to get over those wacky sounds he made and the fact that he didn't know who Cher is. I mean really.
Best Designer
The best designer is Robert Best. I expected him to win until I found out about those wacky weekly challenges. This is my first season of Runway. I saw a portion of Season 2's finale only because my brother wanted me to see Santino.
Back to Robert, he is clearly far too professional for Runway. I am still bewildered that he subjected himself to it. For the life of me, I still don't understand how rummaging through trash to find materials for an outfit that is designed and constructed within 48 hours can determine who is the best designer. I mean, let's be real here. Robert was characterized as a boring designer when his work is anything but. He's worked with top designers and his own designs for Barbie, yes, as in the doll, are awesome. No boring for Barbie, Miss Thing is too fabu for that.
Robert Best's designs for Barbie Collectibles, not the pink box Barbies, are jaw-dropping and always classy, chic, elegant. Now if you don't know what a pink box Barbie is, we can get into that another time. For Robert at his best, go to www.barbiecollector.com and check out the Barbie Fashion Model Collection. Serenade in Satin and Symphony in Chiffon from the Barbie Couture collection are also wonderful designs. I digressed, sorry.
Best Garment Construction
I must mention the talent of one Ms. Laura Bennett. Her designs, while they tended to represent her style of dress, were always classy chic and timeless --- all essentials of a designer with staying power. Look at Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, still here and stil kicking butt. This is about garment construction so let me get back to that. Ms. Laura's technique was always tight. I didn't see one garment that looked as if was constructed quickly. I cant say that about the other designers.
OK, this has nothng to do with garment construction...how does she survive with five small children and one on the way? Wait, let me be more accurate --- five small boys! She's a licensed architect and a fashon designer. This woman is awesome.
And the winner is...
I like Michael Knight. He is such a nice guy and so humble. Michael is also smart. When he designs, he thinks about the total package --- outfit, hair, make-up and accessories. Several of Michael's designs can go straight to the rack and make millions for Macy's INC label. I still like that fuschia hot pants ensemble he did for the fashion icon episode. As much as I like him, he will not win. How do I know? That white blouse he showed Tim Gunn with the sequins over the breast pockets and on the sleeve did it for me. It was so over the top, so Elvis Kayne. Tim was kind in his comments. Michael is out. Get a hanky and join me in a group cry.
Unfortunately, I think Jeffrey Sebalia will win. I don't like his personality and it doesn't matter that he's a recovering addict. He's still an a**hole. Jeffrey does bring drama to the show and drama sells. I did find him subdued and almost likable on the Reunion Show. When he had the opportunity to be nasty with Angela, he wasn't. Hmmm? More than likely, Jeffrey has benefitted from his friendship with Season 2 finalist Santino Rice. Santino has probably told his friend that he needs to pull up off the attitude.
Laura has raised a red flag about Jeffrey outsourcing --- can we say cheating --- to complete his garments for his Fashion Week runway show. Tim Gunn said there would be an investigation. Jeffrey said he has someone do the pleats and something else, I don't remember. That's news because apparently that's acceptable. He had no adjustments to make to fit his models? Hmmm? If he wins, a cloud will forever loom over him.
The dark horse in the race is Uli. Her 'beachy' designs are quite lovely. Now, folks, regardless of who is declared Project Runway Season 3 winner --- just 'carry on' and 'make it work'!
Commenting on a 360 buddy's blog made me remember a website that I had not frequented for quite some time --- Uppity Negro. Initially, I was a bit taken aback by the term. I mean, I have been called that before and it was not a compliment. Of course, that usually accompanied ignorant a** comments (never to me directly or within earshot) about high-yellow AKAs but I won't go there now.
When I visited the Uppity Negro website, and read the definition as well as the other interesting pages, I learned that Uppity Negro is a compliment. More important, it very accurately described my personality.
I am an UPPITY NEGRO. My parents are UPPITY NEGROES, my grandparents were UPPITY NEGROES and my friends are UPPITY NEGROES also. I just didn't know it until later in life.
Thank you to everyone who helped make me an UPPITY NEGRO, especially my favorite teacher from junior high school, Mrs. Aura Krueger. She's a short Jewish woman and I didn't know it but she was uppity too.UPPITY NEGRO™
Not a joke. Not to be associated with the stereotypical “FOR SALE” Uppity Negro a.k.a. “bourgeois” or the punk*** social brokers a.k.a. “political pimps”
< GENERATION NEXT VERSION>(syn. MAVERICK) 1. A FEARLESS black person who by social definition is “not in their place”.
2. A black person who knows his or her American legacy, his or her actualized social status, and his or her social and emotional plights with still the identical high regard to self as an equally entitled American due the same privileges, attitudes, concessions, and respectability of THE ENTITLED.
3. Conscious of his or her impressive yet awkward esteemed existence throughout the evolution of America’s prescription to annihilate, denigrate, ignore, placate, satirize, extort, ostracize, and water-down the institution of the Uppity Negro; immune to The Entitled’s reverse psychological guilt of the legacy.
SURVIVOR.
4. Conscious of the debt owed by the country to the legacy.
5. Equally conscious of the debt owed by blacks to blacks.
6. APPRECIATIVE of the expensive price paid by ancestral Uppity Negroes for the presumed entitlement claimed.
ADAMANT. Never whining, never begging. DEMANDING. NEVER ASHAMED. COCKY (rightfully).
7. COMMITTED with imperial passion to define “their place” as equal (if not BETTER.)
Fact: We have been lied to and bamboozled by our own people because of fear and shame.
Ironic: People admit and defend a meaning that was created to destabilize them for nearly 600 years (ago) and counting rather that destabilize the perpetuated meaning. It didn’t mean a bourgeois slave in 1442/1443. It meant a resister to the system in 1442/1443 when the first slaves were taken to Portugal and fought to get back home. It always meant the adage, “You think you are too good”. During slavery it meant the question in intimidation, (Oh, you think) "You’re too good to pick that cotton?"
During Reconstruction it meant, “Oh, you’re too good to buy from me or work for me?” So they, racist, jealous Whites burned our businesses, burned our communities, hung our men, and we defeated and scared again by this new thing, Jim Crow, went to work for them again. We started to buy from them only and teach each other we were worthless and needed them to survive. For decades during Jim Crow it meant, “Oh, you’re too good to walk through the back door” or “You’re too good to give me your land?” Then we found our fathers or grandfathers hanging from a tree. Our people with dignity were called UPPITY.
Then one time, they taunted and terrorized with words, “you’re too good to sit in the back of the bus?” to a nice little fed-up lady. She in turn got UPPITY, talked back, and remained seated.
Rosa Parks wasn’t bourgeois. The lady caught the bus. She didn’t have a driver. She wasn’t rich. She had to go to work like most brothers and sisters did. She was an activist. She wasn’t paid a lot. She was UPPITY though. So were her husband and her mother. I thank her for being an Uppity Negro. She had the choices to not be. She could have just tried to not stand out and she could have taught her family to try their hardest to stay in their place. But it was her husband and mother that all decided together to work as a team to fight.
Martin Luther King wasn’t bourgeois. He was educated though. Education still however didn’t delineate bourgeois identity. Black people playa-hating (i.e. SLAVE MENTALITY) label people and do not realize how criminal they are judging and dividing us. How is it that White people who are educated aren’t coined bourgeois? Are Black people not supposed to defend their manhood and humanity? That gets you coined.
King wasn’t rich. He was poor. He just looked rich because he had dignity in how he walked like a man. He didn’t walk broken. The same was with Malcolm. The same was with Ali. He said the things he said when he was poor. Both men. Ali’s wealth didn’t all of a sudden open his mouth. His celebrity exposed his thoughts to the world because finally he had a microphone putting him on blast. Harry Belafonte wasn’t rich being an activist. He was actor paid only a portion of what his White counterparts made. Yet he gave his money unselfishly and time to the causes activists led in any way he could support and still leave him time for his craft. He was an Uppity Negro that risked the comforts of his growing career to fight injustices for other people.
So did Lena Horne, Bill Russell, Esther Rolle, and Arthur Ashe. These people were not ashamed of their indictments of being coined Uppity Negroes. It was insulting but it was also clarification that they were doing the right thing. Once you’re coined, you are notified of your ironic positive contribution to the entire American community and not just the Black community.
These people made White people better people. If Uppity Negroes didn’t exist, do you really think White people would be this tolerable as they are now? We would still be picking cotton. Maybe not literally but then maybe we just all would be cramped into sweatshops and China would be buying from White American factories still. Reality would have been altered just as reality should have been altered by more progressive moves than has already occurred. We’d still be in tenement buildings while there would be more Robber-Barons. We’d still be walking with our heads lowered in subservience. Hence since the Civil Rights initiatives of the 60’s, public interest groups in the U.S. followed with social movements they dedicate their foray to Uppity Negroes. Other countries as well followed Uppity Negroes lead. Honestly without Uppity Negroes, world history would be different. Uppity Negroes have affected cultural changes worldwide by exposing America and international colonialism. White people would not be as liberal about themselves if not for UPPITIES.
The problem Black people in America faced is the intimidation tactics and fear that made them not to ever want to be considered “too good” and out of their place.
Blacks from the Caribbean were not colonized to the degree that we, Blacks, in America were. We were broken and refused to fix ourselves. We knew fixing ourselves meant sacrifice and we didn’t love ourselves enough to sacrifice ourselves for being the target of retribution that could lead to death. So we got into our place and forever self-monitored our place for the systems.
Black people procreated and taught their offspring to “go along to get along” and to stay in their place. Families for generations grew up stuck in subservience and promoted it to the offspring and threatened them psychologically in holding up allegiance to the subservient mindsets. For some it was survival tactics. And for other families it was their agreement in keeping up with the status quo. Communities were built on it and today we have a dying culture credited to subservience of wanting to fit in, going along to get along, staying in our place, and not wanting to ever be perceived as being too good. Black churches supported and still support the subservience. The American Way for Black people has been the instruction to fit in and not be. It has been the codependent enabler to our speedy, increasing cultural demise.
What Black people hold onto are the same subversion, subterfuge, and distraction the slaves fell for. It is a petty stereotype based on inaccuracy and ignorance that most Black people hold onto that keeps us divided because of jealousy and cowardice to exercise leadership and cohesiveness. It is shameful and unfair. It is unfair to push shame in intimidation onto others that are proud. It is what made slavery work.
It’s deep and psychological. Most people don’t want to admit they too have been affected by the wrong usage of it themselves against other Black people. Most people don’t want to admit the mental and emotional scars slavery left us in legacy. Fear haunts, tortures, and bullies us. Shame owns our future.
NOTE: Various items can be purchased on the UPPITY NEGRO online store at http://store.uppitynegro.com/store.html. Just so you know, I am in no way affiliated with the UPPITY NEGRO website other than just being an UPPITY NEGRO. However, if you contact the owner or place an order, let her know you heard about it here.
A family of four was killed yesterday morning in a isolated area of the Florida Turnpike near Port St. Lucie. The bullet-riddled bodies of the family - mother, father and two children were described as a gruesome scene. The family's car is missing. Their identities have not been released.
It is reported that the mother was in a defensive position as if to protect the two children. The killer or killers shot all of them anyway. Law enforcement is searching the entire Florida Turnpike to find the killer or killers.
We may never find out why this hapened. Prayerfully, omeone will come forward with information to arrest the bastards who did this.
OK, I'm the first to admit that I knew very little of this show, Ugly Betty. First of all, why such a name, Ugly Betty. Not very enticing, I thought, but hey, Vanessa Williams is in it so I should give it a try.
Anyhoo, I must say I love this show. Now I'm trying to cut down on my TV watching, too many things to do, you know. After the first eposode, I think this show will be another cult classic. Kinda like Twin Peaks if you remember that.
America Ferrera as Betty Suarez as is fabulous. I kept thinking, I know this girl's face from somewhere. Then I saw online that she was in Real Women Have Curves. I liked that movie also.
The cast of Ugly Betty is fabulous. I've used that word already, haven't I? Oh, well. Vanessa Williams is a hoot as Wilhemina. The power struggle between she and Eric Mabius as Mode magazine womanizing leader Daniel Meade are sure to be what? You got it, fabulous.
Check out the links below for more Ugly Betty info:
The Mark Foley page scandal is likely to deal a mighty blow to the Republican leadership in the United States. It just may be the tipping point for a Democrat takeover. Foley must be punished for his actions not because of the homosexuality involved but for the pedophilia. It s unfortunate but the two issues have become so intertwined that the Republican Party must ostracize Foley and any others involved. Just how far the political leadership will go to dole out punishment will really tell the tale. Sacrificial lambs will be slaughtered but will the Republican “big guns” be amongst them?
And another thing, I am so sick and tired of the Republicans whining about the Democrat politicians who’ve been involved in similar scandals but not punished nearly as severely as the American public is calling for in the Foley situation. Come on, please. There is no justification for Foley’s actions. Should the American public give Foley a pass because Democrat politicians were perceived as receiving favorable treatment? I don’t think so.
Fans, strangers celebrate O'Neil's life and legacy
DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Friends and strangers alike gathered on Saturday at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil.
O'Neil died on Friday night from complications of congestive heart failure and recently diagnosed bone marrow cancer at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, said Bob Kendrick, marketing director for the museum. He was 94.
Baseballs left on a table at the museum, signed by dozens of his fans, told stories of how he touched their lives. Flowers were clumped on another table near a portrait of the dapper, gregarious man who came to embody the story of the Negro Leagues.
"We lost, obviously, a great piece of not only sports history, but American history with the death of Buck O'Neil," said Kendrick, who smiled when he said O'Neil had rested comfortably during his last few hours.
O'Neil will lie in state on Friday at the museum's Field of Legends gallery, where well-wishers can pay their respects free of a charge. A private funeral and burial service are scheduled for Oct. 14 at a place and time to be determined, and a separate memorial service open to the public will follow. [MORE]
From Black Archives Black Baseball Collection:
O'Neil served as a first baseman and manager in the Negro Leagues from 1937-1955. In 1962, O'Neil became the first African-American coach in the Major Leagues with the Chicago Cubs, coaching future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Lou Brock. He starred in two Negro League World Series and won a Negro National League batting title. As a manager of the Kansas City Monarchs, Buck was responsible for more than three dozen baseball players going to Major League organizations, including Ernie Banks.
Let’s be real, please. Janet Jackson’s new album sucks. Yeah, it does. This is not the Janet that we've known and loved. What happened to the real Janet? The Janet that didn’t rely so much on her sexuality and physical beauty but her raw talent. The one from before she lost weight the first time, after her stint on Fame. Janet, please lose that cooing, whispery voice trying to be sexy and just be.
Now granted, Janet’s not the best singer and neither is brother Michael. They are, however, both great entertainers. I’d like to see a return to the Janet of old. Let's see some of that talent from Rhythm Nation Janet!
I don’t like crowds so it’s rare that I attend a music concert. I did attend Janet’s Rhythm Nation concert in Miami. It was worth the hassle to park and deal with the crowd. My absolute favorite Janet Jackson song --- Black Cat! Miss Jackson went metal and it was the bomb!
