Okay.... I am hooked!!

Wanted to turn you all onto a site that I was recently introduced to by my friend, Q....

I am hooked on www.last.fm!

Basically, it is a cool internet radio and music community site..... but it is more than that! The thing is.... it tracks and learns your musical taste! It allows you to

• share what you have listened to with others,
• make recommendations to friends,
• tag music,
• mark the songs you love,
• listen to playlists of songs by artists similar to ones you like,
• listen to playlists of genres of music that you like
• listen to your own personal radio station (based on your musical listening taste)
• listen to other's radio stations

Here is my dashboard:



Very cool! Most functions are available without a subscription but a subscription is only $3/month so that is totally reasonable. And I have to say that it is really refreshing to hear different kinds of music and be exposed to artists you have not heard of before, especially in these days when traditional radio stations play the same 20 songs over and over again. And, while I have always been a lover of hip hop from way back, seems like the genre it is going in the toilet right now.... Also, the site is British so I have heard some new things that I have never heard before, even some Tribe Called Quest songs that must have only been released in Europe.

I will say, be patient about some of the searches, it take a while to learn to get what you want out of them. sometime genre searches work better than artist searches for some things.

The other thing is the online members have an ability to make it better. By tagging tracks, you help further categorize the music so searches are better....

Try it out, peeps!

Alright.....I admit it!.....

I have no butt!...... Well, not to speak of.....

I mean, not the kind of butt that black men talk about when they talk about butts..... It doesn't have a mind of it's own.... It doesn't follow me when I walk...... It doesn't jiggle and it doesn't clap...

In this age of internet dating, i am finding myself eventually asked if i have a butt.... And I will just admit to you all that this is not really one of my assets.....


Now, don't get me wrong.... I like my butt, I am not so worried about it getting droopy as I get older or anything but it is just not big.....and I am black. We are supposed to have butts, right?!?!

If I was white I would probably like my butt and have issues with other things that I am happy with about myself now....

So, I guess no matter who you are, there is always something that you wish that you can change... But it is what it is..... :-)

Thanks for accommodating my ridiculous rant!

The Big Reveal........

Sporting a luxurious black fur coat and white tipped boots, here she is!

So, she is almost 7 months old now...... Thought I would share how the puppy is growing!! She is looking rather dog-like now! And she is a real sweetheart and a really happy dog (with only a few bad habits ;-)

Unfathomable!!

I just met someone who doesn't really like desserts...... So initially you think...... okay, some people don't like asparagus, some don't like mushrooms, some don't like onions, this person doesn't like desserts and I moved on with the conversation..... But my brain just wouldn't let it go, like it didn't really fully compute.... Desserts is a big wide catagory and I really like a lot of things in it! Like chocolate.......cheesecake......ice cream..........cookies........cakes........ And this person says that they like vegetables!

Okay, so now I just think they are from another planet!! Doesn't like desserts, likes vegatables.... Is this phone being tapped!?!?! Should I get away from the windows before I get abducted by aliens?!??Actually, I have been thinking a lot about the importance that food has in my life, especially as I talk to new people.... And this is not just an emotional eating thing.... perhaps it is more an emotional cooking thing.... I like to eat but I also really like to cook, to experiment in the kitchen and to produce something that tastes great and brings people joy. I have a bookcase exclusively for cookbooks that is overflowing and even with that I routinely look for new recipes on the internet.... I hae developed forensic tastebuds, I am always trying to isolate the ingredients in the food I taste. I get inspiration from food I taste, and ingredient I see, magazines I read, a cooking show I watch and decide to cook something new just for the fun of it........I enjoy grocery shopping........ (What!? Okay now I am sure that you really think I am crazy!) I am excited by vacuum sealers, Danish filled pancake pans and hazelnut oil..... (yes, she is a straight loon!!)

I have loved cooking since I was like 10-11, when i discovered that I could cook dinner for my parents as an anniversary gift and get them to pay for the ingredients! ;-) And if I think back on a lot of my favorite places, or places I have visited, a lot of my favorite memories revolve about the good food I have had while I was there (which, as I think about it, is probably a little unusual).... I was so excited yesterday because I was looking through this coffee table/cookbook I had on food from Italy and there was a recipe in it for Fried Zucchini Flowers, which was one of my favorite things from Florence, Italy when I visited there after high school.....

And I could never be a professional bodybuilder because by nature, to succeed, you need to redefine food as simply fuel and I enjoy food and the variety of tastes too much. I have a friend who competes in amateur body building competitions and when she is preparing for a competition all she eats is plain grilled checken breast and dry salad....... I would be bald if I had to survive on that!!!


I love the variety and diversity of food...... Okay now, what was I talking about.... Oh yeah, well.....more dessert for me!!! :-)

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.....