Another 10 dimes, past & present

Victoria Rowell

 

 

Monica 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beverly Johnson

Paula Patton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole Ari Parker

Dorothy Dandridge

 

Dorothy Dandridge

Halle Berry

Diana Ross

Amel Lerrieux

Alex Wek

Beyonce

 

Who?

Click here

Romney and his "Amercia"

Oops.
Mitt Romney’s new iPhone app misspells the word “America” and the typo has gone viral.
As Romney clinched the GOP presidential nomination with a victory in Texas last night, his campaign released its “I’m with Mitt” app that allows users to post photos of themselves along with 14 different banners. One of those slogans reads: “A Better Amercia.”
The typo lit up Twitter as various people poked fun at what “Amercia” stood for. One example, highlighted by Mashable, “While #Amercia does have a nice ring to it, Romney’s developers of “his” app may want to begin looking for new jobs.”
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told MSNBC that “mistakes happen.” She said the campaign has submitted a corrected app to the folks at Apple, which has to approve the new typo-free version.
-- courtesy, USA Today

I  was wondering if maybe this was sabotage done by his app developers intentionally, like maybe they were actually working for President Obama, or a freudian slip  Yes, mistakes happen, but shouldn't every American be able to spell America?  Isn't that one of  the words you should  be able to spell? And shouldn't they have proofread it before putting it into development?. Anyway, If  Mittens was installed as the President of a country called Amercia, what rules do you think he would make? What type of people would he get rid of or keep?  We know how the Republicans feel about fetuses; the life they care about is the one in the womb. Once you're out of the womb, they're on their own, but make sure they vote for republicans. We already know there wouldn't be a Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency,  Food & Drug Administration, Welfare, etc.? Would  his country be more or less libertarian?  Mittens  doesn't want to talk about the cult  known as Mormonism, that was invented by a man named Joseph Smith,  a racist,who instituted polygamy so that he could gratify sexual desires in an immoral way, particularly with young girls, and who used his power as a prophet to threaten some potential spouses with eternal damnation if they did not consent to be his wife,  amongst other things. Will he bring back the way of life as it was in the 50s and 60s? Will he force the Amercians to become Mormons as well?
Would you live in Amercia if you had a choice, or would you stay here, in America?

12 Things you didn't know about me



a tattoo of my birth name Alex, phonetically spelled,on my rightarm, in Farsi



I can speak Jamaican Patois fluently.

I'm ambidextrous.

I haven't had a cold or the flu since I was a child. I have never taken a sick day because I was sick.

used to sleep so deeply that when I was a kid my mom once called 911 because she thought I was dead.

I've had an unexplainable obsession with Persian culture since I was about 8. My mother, scared that my best friend John and his family might have been trying to convert me to Islam, forbid me from having anything to do with him, his family, or any other Muslim kids in school. My guess is that her fear of their culture intrigued me more.

The closest I ever got (or will ever get) to Halle Berry was by being her then-husband Eric Benet's workout partner at the MilwaukeeYMCA whenever he was in town. We worked out about a dozen times when he was married to her. Yes, I stalked her through him. Whats the big deal? :)

During my search for my birth mother, I found out that I have an older sibling, gender unknown.

My mom won't discuss it but my older cousin and my aunts told me that my mother knew my birth mother and that she was West Indian.

I used to sleep so deeply that when I was a kid my mom once called 911 because she thought I was dead.

My mother envies my sister's and my ability to cut people off completely, as if they never existed, once they've done us wrong for the 2nd time; alot of my mother's conversations with me involve people who consistently do her wrong.

I have a son  who lives in Venezuela with his partner.His mother hasn't spoken to him since he came out of the closet at 17. That was 13 years ago. I found out when he was 17 that he wasn't my son biologically. His father was a friend of mine, from church.  He denied having had sex with the mom and insisted on getting DNA tests. He was a match. He hasn't spoken to him since he got the results. As far as we're both concerned,  I have a son,  and he lives in Venezuela. And I love him as if he carried my DNA. The way mother loves me.

Because I had a really bad speech impediment, I had gone to speech pathologists from 1st grade through to 12th grade. British and Jamaican professionals who taught me how to speak. As a result, I speak remarkably different from anyone else in my family. The stuttering is hardly noticeable.

Everyone I have ever dated for long periods has returned, telling me they didn't apprecuiate my being nice to them, that  they 'do now', begging me to take them back. I haven't taken back any of them.

BEYONCE

This is for them twenty somethings
Time really moves fast, you were just sixteen
This is for them thirty somethings
That didn't turn out exactly how your mom and dad wanted you to be
This is for them forty something
Well raise up your glass and laugh like a motherfucker
This is for them fifty something
Hey, you're halfway there, baby take it to the head

Mom and dad, tried to hide a word
Said the world is just too big for a little girl
Eyes wide open, came to see
I had my first heels by the age of thirteen
Mom and dad, tried to hide the boys
I swear that just make them want me more
At forteen, they asked what I wanna be,
I said baby twenty-one, so I get me a drink

I'm not a teacher, babe
But I can teach you something
Not a preacher
But we can pray if you wanna
Ain't a doctor
But I can make you feel better
But I'm great at writing physical love letters
I'm a freak, all day, all night
Hot, top, sway
Boy out of sight
And I'm crazy, all day, all night
Who needs a degree when you're schoolin' life

Oh oh oh oh oh....schoolin' life....
Oh oh oh oh oh....schoolin' life....

This is for them pretty somethings
Living in a fastlane, see you when you crash babe
This is for them sexy somethings
That body ain't gon' always get ya out of everything
This is for them bitter somethings
Stop living in regret, baby, it's not over yet
And this is for them triple somethings
That's high old life, baby, put me on your flight

I'm not a teacher, babe
But I can teach you something
Not a preacher
But we can pray if you wanna
Ain't a doctor
But I can make you feel better
But I'm great at writing physical love letters
I'm a freak, all day, all night
Hot, top, sway
Boy out of sight
And i'm crazy, all day, all night
Who needs a degree when you're schoolin' life

Oh oh oh oh oh....schoolin' life....
Oh oh oh oh oh....schoolin' life....

You know it costs to be the boss
One day you'll run the town
For now make your life what you decide
Baby, party 'til the fire mashes, shuts this sucker down

I'm not a teacher, babe
But I can teach you something
Not a preacher
But we can pray if you wanna
Ain't a doctor
But I can make you feel better
But I'm great at writing physical love letters
I'm a freak, all day, all night
Hot, top, sway
Boy out of sight
And i'm crazy, all day, all night
Who needs a degree when you're schoolin' life

Oh oh oh oh oh....schoolin' life....
Oh oh oh oh oh....schoolin' life....

There's not a real way to live this for real
Just remember stay with this
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Don't stop running until it's finished
Yeah, yeah
It's up to you, the rest is unwritten
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Me.

seeing is believing ?

We say, "seeing is believing", but actually...we are all much better at believing than at seeing. In fact, we are seeing what we believe nearly all the time and only occasionally seeing what we can't believe.
--Robert Anton Wilson

Too dangerous/ too small

click here

The good ones

Let's be Nothing

Le'ts be nothing. I hear it lasts forever.

It's official

I'll be here for my next birthday!  I bought the plane ticket this morning!

The whole world's looking at me

The whole world's looking at me
Watching and waiting and seeing
If I fullfill my destiny

The whole world's looking at me
Watching and waiting and seeing
If I fullfill my destiny

Bussa Bus

Friday Flashback

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

If I had the power to cast spells

If I had the power to cast spells ...

• I would remove whatever it was that was preventing Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo from releasing new music.
• Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga and all their imitators would never ever be heard from again.
• Anthony Hamilton, Dwele, Ledisi, Chrisette Michelle, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Amel Larrieux, and Timothy Bloom would not be slept on, 
• Janet Jackson would be in the studio, working with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Rodney Jerkins and Prince.
• Prince would remake Erotic City, this time with Janet Jackson taking over Sheila E's part
• BET would have good quality programming that wasn't the caucasian version of MTV.
• Some famous director would discover me and would want to make movies out of some of my short stories.
• I already have a BS detector. I would want a built-in lie detector as well.
• My ex girlfriend Shakara's brothers and uncles would not believe in Sharia Law. Otherwise I'd overlook that she was Muslim and would marry her.
• Everyone who says they're Christian would behave like a Christian.
• I would go back in time to just before I made serious errors in judgment.
• People would reap what they sow a little quicker.
• I would give everyone things they weren't born with, like empathy, compassion and the capacity to love.
• Little kids don't care if others are black, white, latino or asian or muslim or Christian. They don't recognize race as something that matters. They understand that skin comes in different colors, but the same way hair and eyes do, they take it as just something else that makes everyone different. Some kids' parents raise hatred in their children in an endless cycle. If I had the power to cast spells all adults would retain their child-like innocence. 
• Halle Berry and Janet Jackson would want me to join  them in a threesome ( did I just type that?). And have it recorded.

Happy Birthday, Patricia Louise Holte

 Professionally known as Patti Labelle!

Black films banned in France ?

'Think Like A Man' is banned in France for 'lack of diversity'

 

Think like A Man is arguably the most successful black film of 2012, raking in $85 million in U.S. ticket sales since being released in April. However, the film has been met with harsh criticism oversees, and is banned in France, due to the predominately African-American film's "lack of diversity."

According to Global Voices writer Fabienne Flessel, "Surprising as it may be, the answer lies in the fact that the film has an all-black cast. French cinema is often pointed at for not fairly displaying all components of the country's multiethnic population. Although the recent success of the movie Les Intouchables, which earned French African actor Omar Sy the Cesar award for Best Actor in 2012, caused great pride and hope among French nationals from Africa and the Caribbean, it was not to be the turning point for a deep and lasting change."

This has been the second major race-based controversy in France in just the past few weeks. Last month the first 'Miss Black France' pageant sparked controversy within the French community.Critics of the contest claimed it was "stupid" and "detrimental to French values."
The banning of Think Like A Man in France due to a lack "diversity" is ironic because there are several American and international films with all white casts that have been released in French theaters this year. Titanic 3D, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett, American Reunion, starring Jason Biggs, Tara Reid, and Chris Klein, and Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts, have all hit French theaters in the past year.


courtesy thegrio.com

One comment posted a response I would have said:

By your logic isn't a movie with an all-white cast directed towards a specific community? I saw the movie and it doesn't mention anything specific to race. It just happens to mostly have Black actors.
The argument doesn't hold up.

 

Liars

 My friend Alex Al-Ouadim's current Facebook status:


The light will reveal all evil done in darkness. Sometimes Facebook acts similarly to light.

Listening to ...

In this life

 Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them. 
           --Dalai Lama

if there's a cure for this, i want it

It’s about that moment where you realize someone isn’t at all who you thought they were, and that you’ve been trying to make excuses for someone who doesn’t deserve them. And that some people are just never going to love you.

Even if you think the flame has died, there’s at least one lyric that’ll hit that last hot spot, and then you’ll find yourself as fucked as you were the day you lied and said you never wanted to see her again.

Another Friday Flashback

Friday Flashback

Friday Flaskback

Poem For Donna Summer

                                                              by L.M. Ross

Even though you’re gone,
I am still vibing on
The music, the music
This sometimes
Monotonous
Monotonous
Disco disco
Beat, beat, beat, beat
Giorgio created, but
Then… OH! How you
Completed it!You
Gave it soul, soul
Bounce, bounce
And yes… yes
Even meaning!


The gay club cats in Munich
Were first to latch on to
What was so digable
About you… as you sighed
And cooed
All the way through
“Love to Love You Baby…”
And soon after
This tall brown girl
From Massachusetts named
Ladonna Gaines
So swiftly changed
The world.

Donna, hot like Summer,
Summer. It was always summer
Summer in the clubs. Summer
Summer, it was always Summer
And it was always your simmering
Vocals that sold us
Controlled us… with
That siren
That belt
That urgent alarm
Inside your throat…
Coaxing us to leave our seats, to
Get on the floor
And dance, dammit!
Dance ourselves into a
Luminous sweat. Dance
Under a mirrored ball
So hard and fast we could
Almost forget our lives
Had any cares at all.


Let it be known that you could
BLOW! Yes, yes, yo! Far beyond disco
Disco anthems, anthems
And syncopated, syncopated
Beats, beats… and 70s-80s
Musical repetitiveness.
Hell, you even gave Babs Streisand
A run for her money. Yes! Donna
Summer had pipes for days, and
Could so easily delight with
Her stage presence.
And for a sublime time
From ‘75 through ‘79
Donna Summer ruled
The earth, yo! I do not
Exaggerate much. Such was
The sense of celebration and
Sheer JOY she gave us all!

So this day and in many days to come
I am remembering you
And I thank you
For making me and
Whole generation
Fall willing and sweaty
Victims under
Your spell

Thank you for making us
Dance ourselves into a
Luminous sweat… and to dance
Under a mirrored ball
So hard and fast we could
Almost forget our lives
Had any cares at all.

                                                        Thanks

                                                             Moanerplicity!   from   here

Dim All The Lights: RIP Donna Summer

We lost another music icon this morning.

The Grammy-winning singer, nicknamed the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer lost her bout with cancer.
She had numerous hits in both the 1970s and 1980s, including "Last Dance," "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Bad Girls." Her duet with Barbra Streisand, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" was one of four Summer songs that topped the Billboard Top 100 charts.

Summer was the first female artist to chart with back-to-back multi-platinum double albums.
She appeared in the 1978 film, "Thank God It's Friday," which won the best original song Oscar for "Last Dance." Summer also appeared twice on the 1990s hit TV show "Family Matters," playing Steve Urkel's Aunt Oona from Altoona. In 2011, she was a guest judge on music reality show "Platinum Hit," and she performed with the female finalists on the 2008 "American Idol" finale.
Summer won five Grammy Awards and six American Music Awards, and charted three multi-platinum albums.

In 2009, she sang at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert honoring President Barack Obama in Oslo, Norway. She is survived by her husband, musician Bruce Sudano, three daughters, and four grandchildren.

What was your favorite Donna Summer song?

 Mine were:

'Last Dance'

'Love to Love You Baby'

'Dim All the Lights'

'Could This Be Magic'


RIP Donna Summer

This much I know.

I love her for many reasons, but the main reason is;

Like a catalog I was chosen from a group of other  African American/West Indian/Haitian/Dominican infant boys that were left behind or discarded like trash following their birth.

She saw something in me that my birth mother didn't. She still can't explain what it is that she saw in me at 11 months of age, but she chose me.
She said "no one wanted you, but I did." 

She plucked me out of an office building in Manhattan, and she gave me a home. What her husband felt at that time, I have no idea. Actually, I do. He never wanted me. Neither did any of the Caseys. 
But she did. 

My mom gave gives me love continously.

And  I love her for it.

Just a thought, something I wanted to document.

A Speechless moment

so much betta

Tired of being number 2

I can do what she can't do

So much betta I'm for you

So so much betta I'm for you

Don't need another

I can prove it

Just let me love you

Watch me do it

Believe in this

Make a wish

Come see your girl

I'll change yout whole world

 

Tired of being number 2

I can do what she can't do

So much betta I'm for you

So so much betta I'm for you

Don't need another

I can prove it

Let me love you

Watch how I do it

Believe in this

Make a wish

Come see your girl

I'll change your world

I'm what you've been missin

You might need to jump on this

Damn it, Janet!

Happy 45th birthday to you!

Oldie but Goodie- Angie Stone

I know this is an old clip, but I saw it for the first time today and wanted to share it.


here's the video

Another 10 Dimes

Kerry Washington

Aisha Tyler

Tatyana Ali

Vanessa L Williams

Naomi Campbell

Tasha Smith

 

 

Tamala Jones

Taraji P Henson

Salli Richardson-Whitfield

MISS USA Rachel Smith

Listening to...

The parable of the weeds

I love the show Scandal, which features Kerry Washington as the lead character (Olivia Pope, White House Communications Director). It's my new guilty pleasure.
 Tonight's episode was told in a flashback to the President's campaign interspersed with scenes from the present day as Gideon and David, in separate investigations, tracked the story of Amanda Tanner's supposed suicide. "The Trail" is as apt a title as any for an episode that provided so much information, a "trail," if you will, of everything that has happened to get me to this point as well as where the show's headed next week.
When Billy Chambers, the  VP's Chief of Staff ( played by Matt Letscher),  informed Sally Langston ( played by Kate Burton) who was running for President,  that he had something on Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III (played by Tony Goldwyn who was also running for president), she didn't want to hear it. Fitzgerald Thomas Grant   had just asked her to be his Vice President and so she had to work with him and wasn't competing with him anymore.
Billy Chambers wasn't having it. He insisted that Sally Langston had to use it,  and she told him about this parable, which I had to take note. It's from Matthew 13:24-30, and it says-

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."

The following verses explain the above parable. 

Matthew 13:36-43

³⁶ Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
³⁷ He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. 

Sometimes you have to work with people who don't share your vision, your goals, or your values. I know this firsthand. I'm not going to worry about the weeds-those evil, back-stabbing troublemakers that I encounter in my life  because I count myself among the righteous, and I'm going to shine like the sun.  That's what the Bible tells me. Along the way, God has plucked those weeds right out of my way.

Are you the wheat or are you the weeds?

Shame.

Wednesday Flashback

love's no fun,
when the one you love, 
don't love you...

                       Elisa Fiorello/ Prince

They're keeping with tradition, you see... Staying the course.

As Americans,  antiquated ass-backward red necks from the Bible Belt are entitled to choose their destiny as well as the rest of us. That's their right as an ass-backward red neck state stuck in the Middle Ages. 

And what are the consequences of Amendment One having passed?   The people of North Carolina faced a choice: To etch discrimination permanently into their state constitution by stripping rights away from thousands of families, or to reject bigotry and intolerance and uphold the principle of equality and fairness. They chose the former. Amendment One’s backers actually sought to deny legal recognition and benefits to ANY unmarried couple, straight or gay.
This sweeping and unprecedented amendment will now deny recognition to civil unions and domestic partnerships–legal relationships on which many thousands already rely. Unmarried couples will be prohibited from hospital visitations and refused authority on emergency medical and financial decisions if one partner is incapacitated. Health insurance benefits, currently offered to domestic partners, will be stripped away, denying coverage to children and dependents.
I live in Oregon and I wish I could have voted on this.


 

Agon

u arrived;

just n time 4 a stravinsky composition.

now the anger will pour out of my fists

--

n the form 

of

poetry

( look 
what you started   ).

--alexgeorge

Listening to...

10 Dimes

Emanuela de Paula

Mbathio Beye, Miss France

Halle Berry

 

 

Alicia Keys

Jill Jones

Meagan Good

Gabrielle Union

Sanaa Lathan

Leila Lopes , Miss Universe 2011

 

 

 

 

Malinda Williams