Music & Movies & TV

June 21st, 2012 

Foolishness

I was watching a new reality train wreck (show) on television called Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta. Random thought: does the city in which the tragedy is occurring really matter…like Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta is the location of all horrible speaking, lazy talking men and women who are recently retired strippers with newly administered butt injections turned rapper/actresses? Or Love & Hip Hop: Los Angeles would be a cast of men who are self professed OGs and Gang members and women who adore all things plastic (credit cards, body parts, hair, etc.). I mean the embarrassment transcends locations and infects the nation in a matter of minutes. But I digress…this post is not entirely about modern day minstrel shows being played on television or about how ignorant these people look or about how they are setting the race back a few hundred years. It’s about the mothers’ and the after affect this quick money making nightmare will have on their children.

You would think that the older female cast mates on this show would take the mature role and play the matriarch to all involved but over the last few years each show that has shown a 40+ year old mother with their famous adult child has been the total opposite. The main culprits of this foolishness are Kiesha Cole’s mom, Frankie, Jim Jones’ mom, Nancy and now Lil’ Scrappy’s mom, Mama D.  Each one has survived a life of drugs, men, pimping and all other crimes, yet instead of being positive influences on their children’s lives they are adding to the ridiculousness. I could never in a million years imagine my mother hanging out at clubs, dating younger men, cussing folks out and just acting straight ignorant on TV. Even if hood activities are all they know, it is 2012, we are in the information age…learn new behavior. Just because they may have had a hard life and had to do unscrupulous things in the past to survive does not mean they cannot grow out of that.  That means they don’t WANT to grow out of that…they are clearly holding on to the painful past because it’s more comfortable…more familiar.

Which leads me to the younger mothers’ on these wonderfully scripted “REALITY” shows. I’m so dang tired of seeing these chicks on television talking about how important family is to them and how staying in a relationship for umpteen years is necessary so that the children will have their mom and dad together. If I hear “it’s not about the money, or his status…I just want my kids to have their dad in their lives” one more time, on anymore of these stupid shows, I’m gonna scream. Okay, granted, no person wants to be a single parent but truth be told, if that was regular ol’ John Jackson from the neighborhood who worked at an auto body shop and not the rapper Fabolous…no woman would sit around waiting for him to “make up his mind”. John would have been sat on the curb and his baby mom would’ve moved on to someone else.  Other than the fact that these women are obviously staying in their situations for the perks, I hate the thought of how their children will be affected by this insanity. Love is first displayed to a child through their parents. If all they see is arguing, lying, public fights and no real commitment what will their relationships be like? It is more than evident that the adults themselves have never seen any real successful relationships…so they feel like their drama is how relationships are supposed to go. But shouldn’t they want to present a better example to their children and not the same ol’ dysfunction and racket?  I guess I’m just disappointed in the fact that these women are mothers and the images they are portraying for their 15 minutes of fame will be in rotation forever. It will be a permanent visual documentation of their foolishness.  There’s no excuse for the foolishness…love is not a valid excuse anymore. You can’t just cancel out dysfunction by saying “but I love him”…girl, get out of here with that mess. I can’t say this enough…It is 2012 and if they don’t know, there’s always a church, a website, a book, or psychology specialist that can specifically work with them on identifying and changing their reckless behavior.

March 8th, 2012

Love’s Withdrawal byEric Roberson ft. Omari Hardwick

There is this song that I love right now called Love’s Withdrawal by Eric Roberson ft. Omari Hardwick. The song is basically about a guy who is strung out on a woman who is not paying much attention to him. Now the song is fantastic because the lyrics are dope and Eric Roberson’s voice is beautiful…very soft, sweet and compliments the music extremely well. However, the part that has me loving it so much is about 4 minutes into the song. That’s when Omari Hardwick (he’s so fine) ends the song with a poem. LORD HAVE MERCY ON ME!!!! When I tell you that the poetry elevated this song to a whole new level on my play list…There’s just something about a man with WORDS!!!!

I just can’t help it…the combination of artistry, confidence and passion is what makes a male poet so attractive to me. Watching Def Poetry on HBO used to be a joy every weekend because though the women were amazing…the guys just kept my attention. Truth is…a guy could be not-so good looking but if he knows how to express himself, his sexiness instantly increases. It might sound crazy but honestly, a man’s words or what he says can make or break my attraction towards him (this is the case for most women). If he is fluent in grammatical errors (using words or their tenses incorrectly), curses like a sailor or sounds like a con man…I’m not interested. I don’t expect a guy to be a chatter box either. Actually, I would prefer that he didn’t talk too much but it is important that he knows how to transmit his thoughts clearly. Poetry is just my hopeless romantic idea of how a man should communicate. It wouldn’t be necessary for a man to speak as if he is a part of a Shakespearean play but I would love if he would give me a little Gil Scott-Heron, Langston Hughes or the o-so-fine Omari Hardwick from time to time.

November 29th, 2011

Not a movie review, just a review of how a movie affected my thinking...(inspired by Medicine for Melancholy)

I’ve been thinking…Not always a good thing…but here goes. As I am watching one of my new favorite movies, Medicine for Melancholy, I begin to really think about my past “situations”.
Sidebar: Rarely do I use the word relationship…typically I classify my man/woman interactions as “situations”. And the man usually has no real identity, he is a “Breezy”. (like the wind, breeze in and breeze out).

So, I’m watching this movie and just as the title states, it is the story of a day in the life of a man and woman who find themselves treating wounds with instant gratification. The film starts with a man and woman waking up from a one-night-stand encounter…they are very quiet…and clearly uncomfortable. They awkwardly have breakfast, mostly so she doesn’t feel like a hoe and he is slightly desperate for the company. Anyway, by the end of the movie you know that the cat and mouse game they are playing is because they are both wounded….and the one-night-stand was just supposed to be that…meant to sooth the saddness for that moment.

See, sometimes, I feel that people tend to pursue the idea of a thing and not the reality. Admittedly, I have done this far too many times in my past. When I was younger, out of my own mouth, I have stated that I was just kicking it with a breezy to pass the time. There are some situations that I look back on and wonder, as many of y'all do, “What the hell was I thinking?” lol. The funny thing is that I knew that my situations were temporary fixes or Medicine for Melancholy but I held my breath in hopes of some exception-to-the-rule type of RELATIONSHIP to come out of it. Needless to say, it never happened. I know it will happen, but I know that it will never come out of a “medicating situation”. Those types of encounters are strictly for surface and are not sturdy enough to build a relationship. Wait…Okay…I know of 1 couple that built a loving relationship from a “just passing the time” encounter. It took a lot of time, effort and determination but they are the exception.
The older I get, the more mature I have become in regards to understanding and respecting patience. As a christian woman, most people around me say cliche things like “just be patient” or “wait on the Lord”…which are great mantras in the spiritual realm but in flesh…lol, I must say, it would be nice to at least be in conversation with my “one”.

Now after all of this watching movies, and reminiscing…the conclusion is that even though I have been in quite a few “medicating situations”, they have all contributed to who I am. Though it’s been a rough few days…TRUTH is…I love me some me!!!!! So no matter how long I have to wait…I will wait…I am making a bold statement today, from this moment on….
NO MORE MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY!!!!!!

(if you haven’t seen the movie…definitely WATCH IT!!!!!)