Props to P!

I want to give a shout out and props to my best friend, P.....

She and I have been friends since we met in French class in 7th grade and right now she is touring in France, singing background for some famous (well famous in France) French artist. This is actually apparently a really big deal there. They are doing 3 shows in Bercy, which is the big stadium in Paris and the shows sold out in a matter of hours!! And they just finished 2 weeks of non-stop rehearsals in this little French town to hide out from the French "paparazzi!"

At any rate, I am really proud of P..... Talk about following her passion! She and I have similar "issues," often the creative gets overshadowed by the practical and/or logical. (or you could call it conservative too....) So she has always loved singing and has dabbled with performing since... high school but always ended up just doing it on the side while doing something more practical for a regular paycheck..... (Some might call this the "middle class curse") At any rate, she did fine for herself and ended up working for a couple media companies, in more practical roles of course, that were related to her skill and interest in computers and technology. But, when her husband's company was going through some downsizing, they decided to seize the day and force a life change.... They moved to LA. There, entertainment is a career and not a hobby, like it is in most cities and the environment forced her to get down to business. So, since they have been there she has solely concentrated on her passion!

It has not always been a cakewalk but she really has gotten a chance to take advantage
of some great opportunities..... Which brings me back to the present.....

It is really interesting the opportunities you can make for yourself. Being a married woman with 2 little furry doggie dependants, she had set out some conditions under which she would go on a tour....

1. it would have to pay well (of course!)
2. it would have to have some concert dates in France

Well, little did she know that when she went to an audition for a one time gig in LA in November or December that the people were also looking for background singers for a 5 month tour in Europe.... Coincidentally, the artist was French and she was the only one auditioning who actually spoke French! (I did mention that we met in French class in 7th grade, right? Well, she was also a French major in college!)

So, this has all sort of seemed meant to be..... 2007 promises to be a great year for P. It will be the year where a lot of her goals come to fruition, and all in the first half of the year. Who knows what the second half will bring!!!

At any rate, I am so happy and proud of her that I just had to share!

Bonne Chance, P!!

P and I in LA in 2004

I missed an anniversary!.....

So I realized that I forgot to blog about an anniversary I had recently......

At the end of January, I celebrated my 12th year of locking my hair!!!!!!!! Can you believe it??? I can't...... I still can't believe that most of the people in my life currently have never see me with relaxed hair......

It actually makes me feel a little old..... There are very few things I have done for 12 years.....

But..... I have never regretted it for a second, even during the awkward months/years.... In fact, I hardly remember them!

Here is a little hair retrospective I put together......








1997 - Year 2




















1998 - Year 3


















2001 - Year 6

more 2001





















2002 - Year 7





















2003 - Year 8





















2004 - Year 9
























2005!!!!

(Year 10 - Don't ask!)

Great documentary on PBS

I was flipping the channel yesterday, looking for Tavis Smiley and instead I found this great documentary on the hip hop music today. If you are like me, you were a fan of the poetry of hip hop from the beginning but have been turned off by the direction that the genre has taken in recent years. No longer do there seem to be many voices within the art form but commercialism is homogenizing it into a negative, violent misogynistic one. Independent Lens: Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes talks about the evolution of hip hop and the effect that it has had on society. While it doesn't provide any answers, it does provide thought-provoking perspective.

Check your local listings and check it out!

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/

My opinion on this season.....

So, I have kicked a lot of my reality show vices in the past year or so..... Reality shows are just sorta boring. I am over the hype. But one show that I do still watch, at least at the beginning of the season is American Idol.

So the auditions I just watch because I am always amazed at the nerve of people to get up in front of judges and sing so badly! Like, don't they have any friends?!?!? How could their families lie to them like that? Why hasn't someone else noticed how crazy some of these people are and get them some help!

And then there is the pleasure of hearing the folks who can actually sing! Talk about refreshing.... Honestly, I always wished I could sing..... I mean, on a good day i can hold a tune in the shower or in the car while the song is playing or sometimes hold a tune on my own. But music gives me pleasure and hearing folks who can really sing and are giving their all to a performance gives me joy.

So I continue watching American Idol past the auditions, normally until the voting gets too commercial and they start voting off the folks with real talent for the folks who are prettier or more marketable....

I have to say there is one rule about the show that is really bugging me right now, especially after just watching the performances of the remaining 24...... and that is the rule that there have to be 6 boys and 6 girls in the top 12...... The guys performed last night and, while there are some I like, like that cutie background singer, Brandon, or that fine Brian McNight sounding Jared or the slightly corny new father with the surprising powerful voice, Phil or the multitalented, beat-boxing Blake, none of them blew me away like the girls did tonight! First, the black girls are on point! Some slightly more than others but Stephanie, Sabrina, Melinda, Jordin and LaKisha brought it! They made me smile and LaKisha actually made me teary singing "And I Am Telling You" in true Jennifer fashion (pick your Jennifer.)

Now, I am realistic enough to know that not all of them are going to make it into the top 6..... there are 7 white girls in the top 12 too and the Middle class, Midwest, teenage crowd will vote because someone is prettier and not value the talent that they possess. But it will be a shame....

Careful what you wish for....

So I was buying jelly at the store to go with my peanut butter (well actually it is spreadable fruit because fruit is sweet enough, why add more sugar?) and I decided to diverge from my regular flavor of black cherry and get back to an old standby..... strawberry! However, I saw that they had a seedless strawberry flavor and I thought, even better! Who like strawberry seeds? They get stuck in your teeth and stay around in your mouth way after you are done eating.... Yuck!

So I bought it.

And I have tried it a couple times. It is just, in a word,weird..... Strawberry without the seeds tastes funny. And apparently, the seeds do provide some flavor aside from the texture. Maybe it is a nutty background flavor or something, but this stuff tastes different. And seems mushy.... like baby food or something.....

So I will finish off the jar but I think I will be going back to the regular, with seeds, kind next time!

Writer's block.....

So my blogging experience and having Brunsli ask me numerous times over the past year, "Have you read my blog today?" and reading her post about why she blogs all the time and likes to blog, has made me think about my blogging "deficiencies...." I really have trouble blogging regularly..... I just do. And this is not a new problem. If I think back, this is the same thing that happened when I tried to keep journals when i was a kid. I started off good but then had a stressful or hard day and didnt feel like writing.... and then I forgot about it for a while.... then would pick it back up and write for a few days... and then think it sounded boring and stop.... and then forget about it again..... and then pick it up a month or so later and decide that the whole thing was futile and just stop because it had been so long since I had written that I could not possibly catch up "the reader (like who was reading my journal)" on what I had written and that it was just a futile gesture because I couldn't possibly accurately portray my life and how I was feeling at the time since it had all these big holes in it! So I would quit..... Sigh....... Talk about a perfectionist.....

So have decided that I think i need to just get over myself! I need to not worry about whether what I think about writing is interesting enough or the best way to say it..... I am just going to speak my mind and hopefully, something will resonate with your folks out there who are reading.....