So I saw this video a few days ago and wanted to say something about the incident but I had to marinate on this topic for a bit. The video entitled “Man smacks the soul out of girl on the NY Subway,” has gone viral on You Tube.
Apparently the video shows and I use the term loosely, "a young lady" verbally abusing a male passenger and basically being a hot, ratchett mess.
The male passenger at some point has had enough and says something back to the girl who then in turn hits the man with her purse and that is when all hell breaks loose and the guy hauls off and when I say slaps the black off this girl.
Well it is on and popping as a brawl breaks out between the dude and her posse. They swarm on this dude like a pack of urban banshees.
Now I am southern and old school and have been brought up that men should never put their hands on a woman but these rules seem to very archaic when juxtaposed to women who are not exhibiting very lady like behavior. This chick was no shrinking violet.
Miss thing was a loud, mass transportation riding she beast and a public menace. She was being rude, obnoxious and confrontational. Are men suppose to play by the same historical rules when the players have clearly changed in the game?
I mean if you are going to act like a dude should you not get checked like one?
My belief is that bear spray is non-gender....LOL Your thoughts?
Aretha Franklin the "Queen of Soul" is proving that you are never too old to stay relevant as an artist. Aretha's new album "Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics" pretty much says it all.
You guys know I love me some divas and I am talking about real old school divas not these auto tune, art directed, pre-constructed, rehab every other month wannabe neophyte divas.
I heard Aretha Franklin's cover of Adele's "Rolling In the Deep" and instantly fell in love with the Queen of Soul all over again.
It is kind of fitting and full circle that Aretha would cover Adele since she like so many other young female singers from across the pond have obviously been influenced by seasoned divas like Aretha Franklin.
Aretha Franklin covers a range of divas on her new album including covers of "I Will Survive", "At Last" and "Nothing Compares 2 U."
If you have been living under a popular culture rock and or either tone death to the influence on popular music that Aretha has had, then you will be an instant fan once you hear Arehta cover some classic diva anthems.
You can check out Aretha's performance on David Letterman below!
Hey guys I usually do not get into Disney films at least not since I was a kid and started with Fantasia but something about the Maleficienttrailer intrigued me.
So I went to see Maleficient today starring her royal fierceness Angelina Jolie.
Before I get started you know I always have to share my movie pet peeves. Folks who get to the film late and instead of finding a discreet seat on the side want to march and crawl over you to get to prime seats in the middle.
Also what is up with ushers who want to start cleaning while you are still watching the credits? Hey man I paid for this film so enough with the broom!
Rant over back to review.
Maleficient is a cinematic buffet of visual consumption that lay folks and film people will delight in seeing.
I am a fan of Angelina Jolie and unlike other folks I do not demonize her as a man stealing vixen cause really you can't steal a man who does not want to be taken.
Anyway Angelina Jolie gives such depth to the charachter Maleficient who has historically gotten a bad rap as the Mistress of Evil who curses the King's daughter in Sleeping Beauty.
Well the film Maleficient sets the record straight.
Maleficient is really an innocent fairy, one of the strongest of her kind and lives in a very cool fairyland but one day befriends this young boy who grows up to be a very trifling, backstabbling, no account man.
There are two rival kingdoms and the King wants all the resources of the fairyland. Typical greedy monarchies wanting to pillage other lands for their own greed.
Anyway the King attacks and gets a big old can of fairy whoop asshanded to him by Maleficient and some of her woodland posse.
The King wants to be avenged and who steps up but Maleficient's old boo.
This is where we see how old girl got her reputation but they left out the truth.
The trifling ex-boo basically roofies Maleficent and when she wakes up the next day instead of having her virtue compromised her wings have been severed and taken.
This ultimate betrayal justifiably turns Maleficent into a class "A", pissed off, Diva!
From this point on the story aligns itself with the more familiar tale of Sleeping Beauty but we do get to see that Maleficient begins to watch and nurture the growing child and takes on a motherly role in her life.
Who knew Disney could be so dark and edgy but I like this new look.
Maleficient is a very strong female role in that she vascillates between victim, villian and hero.
It is pretty cool to see a film where women do not need a man to save the day. This is all out girl power!
Disney has definitely flipped the script on their own historical formula. This is a great summer film!
I just saw X-men Days of Future Pastand I am still raw with sensory overload. You guys know how long I have been eagerly awaiting this film!
In X-men Days of Future Past we see "old school meets new school" as X-men teams from past and future work to prevent a war between humans and mutants. What is making this war all the more bleak is the presence of a robotic army of Sentinels. Sentinels were originally created to hunt down mutants but with all creations of mass distruction that is not enough, so humans are also eventually targeted.
I went to the first showing of X-men and let's just say I have been pretty spoiled seeing movies during the day. Who knew a first showing would be so crowded! I do not like people I don't know sitting right next to me; folks talking behind me; people who do not eat anything during the film are suspect and who gets up during the film and never returns except for a domestic terrorist, rant over!
Other folks will talk about the storyline and stuff but you guys know how I rate all of the X-men films and that is by how much screen time my favorite weather diva Storm gets in the film! Again not enough screen time but when she is on, she is fierce! Hall Berry returns (with a new wig) to what is becoming an iconic comic book role as the weather goddess Storm!
I am still waiting on when they will really let Storm kick some elemental special effects butt in one of these films. I saw more elemental havoc in the Into the Stormmovie trailer!
I have read the comic book series of X-men Days of Future Past and was aware of the theory of multiple timelines for the future. But being a staunch and loyal Storm fan I was not prepared for seeing her get taken out on the big screen. I doubled over in my seat! I think the guy sitting next to me thought I was having a stroke....lol.
If I have to give some props to a few new comers in the series then standout action scenes will go to the fight scene in the past as Quicksilver saves the day in an incrediblly, slow motioned, ballet inspired, comedic rescue. Who else added some incredible visual, special effects, flavor to the fight scenes in the future was the temporal displacing vixen, Blink!
Again other folks will cover different aspects of the film but let me just say this film gives you the most superhero eyecandy of any other series.
Yes it's time for an X-Men hunk role call!
First of all we get to see Hugh Jackman reprise his roll as the beefy and surly Wolverine.
I think somebody is on the juice...lol.
There is a shot of Wolverine in all his naked buffness that is worth the ticket price at the beginning. We have Colossus returning along with Iceman but we have a few more new hunks to add to the X-men Hunk calendar. Enter Warpath, Sunspot and Bishop which gives you a We Are the World of diersity version of New Mutant sexiness!
X-Ment Days of Future Pastconinues to explore the historical and complicated relationship of Professor X and Magneto. Just kiss each other and get on with it already guys!
The film also gives much more screen time to the character of Mysique played by Jennifer Lawrence. I understand that they love her character so much that rumor has it she might be getting her own film!
What?
Mystique is not even an X-man!
If one more person gets a film before Storm I am going to cut someday deep with a rusty blade...lol.
You do get to enjoy a kind of class reunion at the end of X-men Days of Future Past, where many of the old gang show up again including Cyclops, Rogue and even Jean Grey! God help us if I have to suffer through her chacter again. One of the only redeeming factors of X-Men Last Standwas that Jean Grey bites it at the end....lol.
Do not get me wrong I love Phoenix but Jean Grey gets on my nerves!
You can always tell the comic book film amateaurs who leave before the credits roll which always reveal some new film sneak peaks! Okay we have two references to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, both in X-men and the last Captain America film. I think something very cool is brewing!
Make sure you stay for the credits of X-men Days of Future Pastbecause there is a pretty cool reveal!
This was a great way to start a summer blockbuster movie experience!
Now who is down for starting a petition for a Storm origin film?
Captain America was not one of my favorite comic book heroes and really the only reason I got into him at all was when he was with the Avengers.
I was not aware of the origin of this movie from what comic book but it was still some good storytelling. I did not feel like I needed a lot of backstory to follow the plot.
First of all Captain America is mad buff in this film! Black Widow kicks some major butt in this flick.
But what I was really excited about is that we have two Black heroes in a big summer blockbuster in Nicky Fury and Faclon played by the equally handsome and hunky Anthony Mackie! Dude is really turning into a new Hollywood powerhouse.
This film starts off with action and pretty much keeps a steady pace throughout the film!
Sidenote you know you are a true comic book film fanatic when you realize you are the only one left after all the credits have rolled to reveal what is basically part of the comic book film formula, the final scene.
I could not suppress a comic book squeal when it was revealed that finally one of my favorite Avenger's, the Scarlett Witch was finally introduced along with her fleet footed brother, Quicksilver!
The Real Housewives of Atlanta's Porsha Stewart who has historically not been the brightest Diva seems to continue to confirm that she may have gone to school on the short bus.
A preview for upcoming episodes shows the divas visiting several historical landmarks including one of the safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to Free states.
Now here is where I think this Diva may have been dropped on her young beauty queen head when she was little.
The tour guide is explaining that still to this day they are unsure how the slaves got in our out to which Ms. Porsha replies, “Well, there has to be an opening for the railroad at some point because somebody is driving the train.”
Clutch the pearls Ms. Thing genuinely thinks that the Underground Railroad had a real train! You know kind of like the Polar Express....LOL. I wonder if she thinks Harriet Tubman was the conductor...lol.
Where did this chick go to school because their accreditation needs to be reviewed?
How do you grow up as a black girl in Atlanta and be the granddaughter of civil rights champion Hosea Williams and not know anything about the Underground Railroad?
“It wasn’t a train, baby,” Phaedra Parks explains. “That’s just a euphemism.”
Phaedra this chick thought there was a real train do you really think she knows what a euphemism is?
Her Housewives reality mates were equally perplexed by Ms. Porsha's lack of Black History.
“It’s almost hurtful to me to watch her be so dumb,” the former Miss USA, Kenya Moore says.
But not to be undone in an effort that can only be compared to the classic scene from The Miracle Worker the Divas metaphorically pump water over the blind Porsha's hands but unlike the film there is not a breakthrough.
“But I know one particular person made it,” Porsha states.
Kandi Burgess can't take it anymore and interjects, “What do you mean made it? It wasn’t a tunnel that’s connected.”
Cynthia Bailey flabbergasted, looks into the camera: “Really?! You thought there was an actual train that took them through?”
“Her grandfather Hosea Williams just rolled over in his grave,” she adds, shaking her head in dismay.
I swear I see Porsha and all I hear is that voice over from the old United Negro College Fund ad that says "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
You guys watch the video and weep for this poor Black History challenged child.....lol
So what seemed like a show celebrating women of color turned into a gripe fest for some on Twitter which spurred the #WhiteGirlsRock trend and comments:
If they had an awards show that said #WhiteGirlsRock black ppl would call it racist.
Now what is even more surprising is that some of the comments came from black folks, WTH?
First of all I am just glad BET actually has some engaging original programming that is not ratchet!
Second there is a White Girls Rock it's called the Grammy's and CMA's LOL
The only reason you have a show like Black Girls Rock is that historically these women are invisible or poorly represented in mainstream environments.
I am always amused when folks can cry racist when marginalized communities just want to be affirmed. Affirming does not mean seperate. If these communities were appropriately recognized and honored in mainstream environments then no there would be no need for such shows like Black Girls Rock but we are clearly not there yet.
Rapper, mogul and entrepreneur Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent will mentor a transgender teen in an upcoming six part reality show series called "Dream School" which will appear on the Sundance Channel. WTH?
The show will highlight a program where youth who have dropped out can find a place to turn their lives around.
Now 50 Cent has come under fire for being historically homophobic which he denies.
There was some beef back in the day with Kanye where he all but called Kanye out as being gay.
50 Cent had a song 'Heartless Monster' that had some pretty homophobic lyrics:
"Niggas from the hood ain't supposed to wear no retro shit/I'm-a
tell my lil' niggas to start kickin' ya fuckin' ass/See ya out there wit that
funny shit on/Look him he's a faggot/Kick him/ Kick his fuckin' ass".
Not only does that sound homophobic but it also promotes violence against LGBT folks.
50 Cent also caught heat about three years ago when he tweeted three years ago, a hateful statement about the tragic suicide of gay teen Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death from a bridge after he was outed, stating:
If you a man and your over 25 and you don’t eat pussy just kill your self damn it. The world will be a better place. Lol.
50 Cent has also admitted publicly that his mother before she died had same sex relationships so maybe he is a bit homophobic because he may thinks it is hitting to close to home.
"Niggas
from the hood ain't supposed to wear no retro shit/I'm-a tell my lil'
niggas to start kickin' ya fuckin' ass/See ya out there wit that funny
shit on/Look him he's a faggot/Kick him/ Kick his fuckin' ass". Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/42341#Py4OG2QC1kQR5olT.99
"Niggas
from the hood ain't supposed to wear no retro shit/I'm-a tell my lil'
niggas to start kickin' ya fuckin' ass/See ya out there wit that funny
shit on/Look him he's a faggot/Kick him/ Kick his fuckin' ass". Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/42341#Py4OG2QC1kQR5olT.99
"Niggas
from the hood ain't supposed to wear no retro shit/I'm-a tell my lil'
niggas to start kickin' ya fuckin' ass/See ya out there wit that funny
shit on/Look him he's a faggot/Kick him/ Kick his fuckin' ass". Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/42341#Py4OG2QC1kQR5olT.99
"Niggas
from the hood ain't supposed to wear no retro shit/I'm-a tell my lil'
niggas to start kickin' ya fuckin' ass/See ya out there wit that funny
shit on/Look him he's a faggot/Kick him/ Kick his fuckin' ass". Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/42341#Py4OG2QC1kQR5olT.99
I have seen 50 Cent on Oprah recently and I was very impressed with how spiritual this dude has become as he has matured and evolved. He seems to be trying to distance himself somewhat from the gangster, thug personna that made him rap royalty.
50 Cent denies being homophobic and explains his position: “I don’t have homophobia. I never did,” Jackson told The Wrap. “When you
actually make music that mirrors the environment, you use the
terminology,” he said. “You use the language. Like if you were making a
painting, and you were painting the American flag, if I told you to do
that, and not use red, not use the harsh terms or the tougher messages,
you would never successfully paint the flag.”
I have always said that as an artist and celebrity you have automony to express yourself any way you want but because you have such a high profile, you cannot cry foul when folks hold you accountable to what you say and do.
It's that same old crap about athletes and rappers claiming I am not a role model but you sale your brand and collateral marketing based on your profile. You cannot sale $200.00 sneakers and then say young folks should not pay attention to what you do and say.
I am not sure where 50 Cent's mind is these days but I need him to pick a character. Mentor to LGBT youth or ganster mysogynistic, homophobic rapper.
It will be interesting to see how 50 Cent mentors and interacts with the transgendered youth, Alan.
According to Shadow and Act, there is apparently another film being directed by Euzhan Palcy, starring Fantasia Barrino.
Now I am not hating on Fantasia but I do not see her voice nor her acting chops paying appropriate homage to the Queen of Gospel music, Mahalia Jackson but Fantasia might surprise everyone.
Mahalia's voice is so distinctive, moving and authentic. She was an absolute God given talented singer. Mahalia Jackson was a christian woman and was committed to gospel music. She rarely sang in secular environments. The only film she ever did was "Imitation of Life" which still brings me to tears everytime I hear her sing in that film.
I dare you to watch Imitation of Life and try not to do the ugly cry....LOL.
I can see Queen Latifah pulling this off seeing as she can both sing and has some serious acting chops!
Another contender could even be my girl Kelly Price, that is when she is not walking around with a bag of timberlands and vaseline trying shank and beat down her reality co starts on "R & B Divas LA"....LOl.
It is about time a film was made that showcases the incredible talent and contributions of this amazing woman.
So you gospel and music fans who would you like to see playing the great Mahalia Jackson?
