Big Sole Blog (BSB)

This story reminds me of Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw's movie, Love Story, but this story is true and the people are African-American.I discovered this true love story through a friend who shared it on Facebook via Clutch Magazine. LaKeasha Monique Rutledge-Draft and NFL free agent Chris Draft, the couple in a very moving weding video, were married on November 27, 2011, and one month later,

When a car accident in your city makes national news, you know it had to be horrific. WWL-TV, other local stations, and CNN reported on the I-10 accident that happened early this morning near the Michoud exit of I-10 in New Orleans East. At least 40 vehicles, including 18-wheeler trucks, collided; two people were killed and 59 injured, say sources. The pictures look like an invisible fist reached

First, congratulations to Drew Brees who broke Dan Marino's record of 5084 passing yards in a season yesterday during a game in which the New Orleans Saints clobbered the Atlanta Falcons. As I said on Twitter, "That record couldn't have been broken by a finer person."Second, WOW! to Jerome Simpson of the Cincinatti Bengals. I saw a clip on ESPN last night that blew me away. He flipped over an

The Associated Press and other news sources report that the pleasant memories of Christmas 2012 have been marred for residents of Grapevine, Texas. For the first time in more than 18 months, someone committed murder in the small town. A man dressed in a Santa suit shot to death six people ages 18 to 60 on Christmas morning while the family opened presents, and then the gunman killed himself,

Prince released "Da, Da, Da," featuring a rap by Scrap D, in 1996.The song is on his Emancipation CD, which he recorded after his Warner Bros. contract expired. Listening to this song before Christmas 2011, I was struck by how its lyrics remain relevant today, so I created a little video. You can watch it by clicking this link or the Prince picture above. The video should start automatically. If

Here is a clip from NBC's A Sing-Off Christmas featuring Committed and Howard University's a cappella group Afro-Blue. It's not a traditional Christmas song, but its lyrics certainly hit the spot this Christmas when so many Americans are struggling financially.

In 2012, a documentary based on Douglas A. Blackmon's Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, Slavery By Another Name, will premier on PBS. The book documents the systematic re-enslavement of many African-Americans in prisons in the American South from the Civil War to World War II. Blackmon, a white journalist, calls this form of slavery "neoslavery" and says that slavery technically did not end until 1942

What do people wear to the Zulu Ball in New Orleans? That is a common question that I see coming through my traffic tracker as we near the Mardi Gras season, and so, I edited some video I had of the Zulu Ball 2011 to scenes that would let people get an idea of how some of the participants dress. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club also known as the Zulu Krewe requires formal attire for the

Here is video of Oprah's interview with Prince in 1996 when he released "Emancipation" after he was completely free of his Warner Bros. contract. This is vintage Prince. The man is ever evolving. (See more recent interview on Lopez Tonight)1996: Sleep Around, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Do... by PrincelicousI'd say watch it while you can because I doubt Oprah gave permission for this video to be

I did not intend to mention the Dartmouth Aires again, but as I said in my post about NBC's The Sing-Off finale, I'm catching up with what I missed via OnDemand. Anyway, the Aires's performance of R. Kelley's "Ignition Remix" on Episode 9 had me howling with laughter. As judge Shawn Stockman said, "there were so many uncomfortable moments ..." in the performance, and yet it was fun. Ben Folds

I am on break and catching up via OnDemand TV the shows that I like but missed during the semester. I enjoyed this performance on NBC's finale of The Sing-Off: Ben Folds singing his song "Not the Same" with the Dartmouth Aires and the audience. (I need to contemplate that song's meaning.) Although Michael Odokara-Okigbo of the Aires did not show his chops during "Not the Same," I expect to see

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyBear with me here, readers. Consider Ratigan's rant and the advice that he gave to President Barack Obama during an August show, and then consider Obama's December 6th "Teddy Roosevelt speech."I haven't had much time to watch TV this semester or pay attention to politics. I avoid politics in particular lately because I don't

I would not have missed this Prince appearance and interview in April if I watched Lopez Tonight. *Sigh.* But thank, God, for the Internet. Lopez and Prince talk about not swearing--replacing cuss words with the word artichoke. They also discuss Prince's low-cost concert tickets, auctioning off one of Prince's guitars, his being a vegetarian (Is that why he looks so good?), and his fashion sense,

When I took my family out to breakfast Saturday morning, my son, who should not have been surfing the Net during family time, chuckled loudly while looking at something on his Droid phone. He then showed me the picture of a black man holding up and looking at a bag of Negro, some kind of snack food. I laughed pretty hard, and my daughter laughed as well.The bag clearly had foreign words on it,

I found the video I've posted above at Mashable; it shows a woman being nearly crushed to death as shoppers go wild, knocking down displays and each other at a Wal-Mart in Mesquite, Tex. Similar reports of Black Friday mayhem appeared on CNN's website yesterday, one about a grandfather and a "bloody arrest" at Wal-Mart, and another about a woman pepper spraying people at where? You guessed it!

When my father, age 91, told me a few weeks ago that a woman, born Augustine Lemieux Stevens (a.k.a. Gussie), had died, I shuddered for moment in a spasm of grief. I grieved not because I knew Ms. Gussie but because I did not know her. Born on September 13, 1911 in Vacherie, Louisiana, of St. James Parish, she lived near him when he was a child growing up in that rural town. Vacherie sits on

The list of Oprah's Favorite Things, 2011, is posted on her website now. The list is worth a look, but nothing--certainly not a printed list with still shots--can top the video of people falling over themselves, screaming, and crying on her Ultimate Favorite Things show last year. I did, however, think I may order the Seeds of Life Baby Magnolia Tree you see pictured here. New Orleans could use

Per CNN and other news sources, another woman has come forward saying that Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain sexually harassed her. In the video below, Sharon Bialek, an attractive blonde who lives in Chicago, describes an after-dinner encounter with Cain in 1997 in which the candidate, who was head of the National Restaurant Association at the time, groped her: Cain unexpectedly put

Hillary Adams, 23, the daughter of Judge William Adams of Rockport, Texas, Aransas County, appeared on the Today Show this morning to talk about the disturbing video she posted on YouTube that shows her father and mother beating her in 2004. She was 16 years old at the time of the beating and that wasn't the only one, she says. The video sparked anger and outrage on the Internet. It is difficult

Here are 10 Reasons from Roland Emmerich that explain why he would make a movie that questions whether the man history claims to have been William Shakespeare was actually the bard we know and love. The movie, Anonymous, opens this Friday.

The advertising brains behind the latest SmartWater bottled water campaign selected the sizzling Black Brit Idris Elba to be the product's new spokesman. That choice may be the best visible proof that the SmartWater people are indeed smart. Elba definitely drew my eyes to the SmartWater ad when I visited TheRoot.com today. The company is sponsoring The Root's Luxe List.

With this podcast from Ira Glass and company at the public radio show This American Life, I'm simply sharing something I enjoyed. A great listen, including the music from Oceans 12. The show's teaser says:What do you get when you take a P.I. firm, then add in a bunch of sexy soccer moms, official sponsorship from Glock, a lying boss, and delusions of grandeur?Life as fiction.

My eyes ached. I thought for a moment I had crashed and burned. Aging, damn it, was getting the best of me, and I was waking some days with that blue moon in my eye, but I made it through. Sorry for speaking in code, people, but I've learned discretion can save a body trouble.Time to go back to the gym, too. Missing so many sessions kicked me into the stress pool.Playing Alabma 3's "Woke Up This

When I first heard four hours ago that Steve Jobs died today, I couldn't take in the information. And I still can't take it in even though I knew about his battle against pancreatic cancer and his liver transplant. I figured when he resigned from Apple in August that his health was an issue. So, I'll just place a few links here.Steve Jobs's Stanford speechMy Neighbor, Steve JobsGoodnight, Steve

O.K. This is the kid, Brian Bradley, who was on The X Factor USA Thursday night rapping his song "Stop Looking at My Mom!" or to be more accurate "my momz." Apparently he had an "official video" already on YouTube with more than 80,000 hits. It was posted in October 2010 and it's cute, showing other kids protecting their moms from lusting eyes. You can buy the mp3 at Amazon.com.The video below is

It seems that on Australia's X Factor show, the judges perform the way the judges perform on NBC's The Voice in America. But that's not likely to happen on America's version of The X Factor given that the show's judges here includes two men who are more producers than performers, Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid. I will be shocked if we get to see all four judges (if any) perform here in the states,

Here is a poem that I wrote in 2006, but I decided to record and translate it to video over this weekend. It uses royalty free music from Incompetech.com. The piece playing behind the spoken word vocal is Acralate, a selection with African influences."Stuck in a Blackbird's Groove" is a blues poem about one level of unrequited love.

I'm on Oprah's mailing list. There. I've confessed. I keep an eye on Oprah. Anyway, today, the subject line of one of her emails intrigued me: "Fat that makes you thin." So, I opened it. I think I was hoping to discover some new oil that tasted like butter but worked in the body like fiber. I can dream, can't I? Instead, at Oprah.com, I found this tidbit:Fat to Make You ThinAfter Johns Hopkins

I first wrote about the Troy Davis case in 2009 when the "I Am Troy Davis" campaign was relatively young. Unfortunately for Troy, his family, and his supporters, America is hearing his name today because, as CNN reports, he has been denied clemency. The decision of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole means that Troy will be executed tomorrow.Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of Savannah

This video, "Planking in Motion - New Orleans," had me laughing out loud. I think it may be funnier to me because I live here and the people's reactions and characters caught on film feel so familiar.

As I said on Twitter yesterday, "I was in New Jersey when [the] towers came down. I've written about it before. I don't know if I want to again just b/c of [this] 10 year anniversary." I grappled with whether or not to write anything about September 11 a decade later because it took me until 2004, a whole three years after September 11, 2001, to write anything at all about what I felt on that

I've already written about Slavery: The Game here at this blog, and I updated and posted on the topic at BlogHer.com as well. Now there's a twist that leads us to the promotional video's creators.After contemplating speculation that the game was a hoax, possible protest, or some kind of publicity stunt, I have learned that the video on YouTube and the associated website are part of a promotion

The video embedded in this post is from Democracy NOW! and is about a documentary co-produced by actor Danny Glover. As described on its YouTube page:(the documentary and the clip feature "rare archival footage of Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, Stokely. The Democracy NOW! episode and was) broadcast from Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, the nation's largest festival for

The Reflection in Our New Backyard Pond By Nordette N. Adams 'Twas the season of hurricanes, when all through the land, creatures called "Whodats" scurried and ran to Home Depot, to Lowe's, to Sam's and to Rouses for candles and canned goods and fixin's for houses. They tuned in TVs to local news stations, dreading the word, "evacuation." They counted their children and grandparents, too, and

The following piece has been cross-posted and also updated at BlogHer.com.I am puzzled today and a tad distraught. Through a friend's Facebook post, I learned of a website for a supposed video game that may be real but is more than likely, ostensibly, bogus. It's called "Slavery the Game." While its website requires that you enter an age to verify you're old enough to see the horror behind the

Tropical Storm Lee is in the Gulf trying to start some mess. It's expected to dump possibly more than 15 inches of rain on Southeastern Louisiana and some parishes are are under voluntary evacuation. In the midst of our varying states of emergency, city officials have posted this list of flood-prone areas and streets in New Orleans. Very helpful. H/T to a Facebook friend who posted the list and

Yes, I, too, heard about J.C. Penney's sale of the disturbing T-shirt for little girls with the slogan, "I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me." At BlogHer.com, Shannon L.C. Cate wrote about the controversy expressing the same concern that women and some men all over the Internet voiced as soon as news of the T-shirt broke. The department store has since pulled the

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music, Beyoncé I've been so busy that I haven't had time to keep up with what's been happening around me and afar, except for the marsh fire in New Orleans, but I did hear all the Twitterverse and blogosphere buzz over Beyonce's baby bump at the VMA awards Sunday night. When I got a moment to breathe, I tracked down video of her performing "Love On Top." Yes, in the video,

News sources report that Isaiah Mustafa of Old Spice's "the man your man could smell like" campaign has landed himself a recurring role on Charlie's Angels, ABC's remake of its old hit show. Heaven knows that I've talked about Mustafa enough and to him at times on Twitter and so have my friends. I've even talked about Brigham University library's spoof of the Old Spice ad, and so I thought I

Following Learn Out Loud's lead, I think today is a good day to post Steve Jobs's 2005 commencement address to Standford University graduates, sometimes called the "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish" speech. Stanford also posted the transcript here. As has been reported all over the Net, Jobs, who is an Apple co-founder and the company's CEO, has been battling pancreatic cancer and yesterday he

Watching the romance, the successful marriage of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson known as Ashford and Simpson, gave me as much joy as listening to their music over the years. I've posted this interview and profile with the pair before (when Saturday Night Live spoofed Barack and Michelle Obama with "Solid"), but with the death of Nick Ashford, 70, from throat cancer, I felt I should post it

I will be moving this blog away from discussions of politics and race toward something less controversial, mythology perhaps. Something less personal, too, but what I do not know because existence is personal, is it not? Suddenly I am aware of the many reasons a woman should confine her own freedom of speech to the abstract or less threatening and yet even that decision is political. How will I

Tonight on TNT's Memphis Beat, the show ended with the male characters singing Midnight Train to Georgia--Gladys Knight & The Pips arrangement--in a bar. I thought it seemed mighty familiar. And it was. On Fox's medical drama, House, Dr. Gregory House and two of his male colleagues performed the song one night.

I have read multiple posts and essays that express thoughts on The Help that are similar to mine, critiques of both the novel by Kathryn Stockett and the new movie from Dreamworks based on the book. The deeper objections have little to do with whether Stockett is a good writer or her use of dialect for the black maids in the novel. Here is a list of some of the articles/essays I've read that

UPDATES, March 22, 2012: Multiple news sources report that the Mississippi teen who drove the car in James Craig Anderson's murder has been sentenced to double life. Deryl Dedmon, 19, pleaded guilty to the murder and to committing a hate crime, and on Wednesday afternoon, March 21, Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill told him the following:"This craven act isn't who we are. Whatever excuse

Despite the Dow plunging more than 500 points today, Wall Street trader Ted Weisberg says in this interview with CNN that corporate America has never been in better shape. In addition, CNN's Ali Velshi calls today's trading behavior "irrational." Other news reports on today's big dip:Stocks, Oil Plunge As Central Banks Battle Gloomy Economic OutlookStocks Tumble as Fears BuildFear makes people

Today is President Barack Obama's birthday. He is now 50 years old, and as pointed out at HuffPo, he's still the youngest candidate for president in 2012. HuffPo has posted a slide show of pictures of Obama from a child onward.I'm posting my link to memories of the good times, such as when he was first elected and there was more talk of him being "cool" than of him being a man of compromise.

I am saddened to report that author Leslie Esdaile Banks has passed away. You may recognize her under the name L. A. Banks. I learned of this news through Tananarive Due's Facebook page, but I have confirmed it through other sources. Ms. Banks wrote the The Vampire Huntress Legend series, and I first discussed her fiction in a piece called "The Indisputably Black Vampires of Jewelle Gomez, L.A.

I heard about this video a while back, an education on the two economic theories that influence political decisions, that is John Maynard Keynes vs. Friedrich von Hayek theories. Adherence to one or the other falls along party lines: Democrats tend to be pro-Keynes, who theorized that too much saving makes for a stagnant economy and if the economy stalls, the government may have to intervene to

So far the only event I've seen for New Orleans for National Dance Day 2011 is this one, which was posted at NOCCA's (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) website. July 5, 2011 – To celebrate the 2nd Annual National Dance Day (July 30), Chard Gonzalez Dance Theatre is offering a free Zumba class at NOCCA. Launched by Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer and judge of “So You Think You Can Dance”,

The bombing and shootings in Norway made me remember an experience I had in 2003 when I worked at an airport kiosk and encountered a Norwegian man taking pictures of workers loading a passenger plane. I wrote about the incident at my old blog, Confessions of a Jersey Goddess, in 2007. Here's my recollection as written then:... I worked for a while at Newark International Airport and noticed a

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyWhat I'm about to say may sound like conspiracy theory talk, but it's not. In fact, to many people who study politics, nothing that I'm about to say will be news. But to most of the people who have been obsessing about the Debt Ceiling and deficit debates, the following may sound like crazy talk. I'm referring to the

As I work at putting my life in order, which means doing the things I've always said I would do before my time runs out on this planet, I realize that I'm spending less time online. That's a good thing, but it's also a strange thing given how much time I've put into the Internet since 2002 and even earlier. I should probably elaborate, but I've got someplace to go right now and later it's

Here are Sasha and Alexander dancing to Aretha Franklin's "That's Life" during the Top 12 episode of So You Think You Can Dance on Fox. I agreed with the judges on their performance. Beautiful. Sasha nailed it and Alexander was fantastic. So, I was surprised to see the pair in the bottom three. Unfortunately Alexander was voted off during results Thursday night and so was Ryan, who the judges

I was married and in my early 30s when Lorena Bobbitt, age 24, cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt's penis in Virginia. What level of rage does it take to do that to a man? Today I learned another woman has done it again, Catherine Kieu Becker, 48, of Southern, California. CBS News reports that she "drugged her estranged husband, tied him to a bed, cut off his penis and put it through a

It used to be that if it sounds too good to be true, then it's probably not true, but today the story opens:If it sounds too good to be true, welcome to the world of penny auctions. It isn't a scam, people actually win, but there are things you should know before you jump in." ... Jonathan Mason from Frankenmuth is the proud owner of a brand new $35K Chevrolet Camaro, and you're not going to

I stumbled across this Booknotes TV interview with novelist Walter Mosley. It's fascinating. He's fascinating far beyond his novels. He talks about everything from the birth of Easy Rollins, to his growing up in Watts with an African-American father and Jewish mother, to his vision for making America better. The man is a deep thinker who considers how we can improve the world, which is how he

I just finished listening a Writer's Digest on-demand workshop with Cheryl Klein of the Arthur A. Levine imprint at Scholastic Books. She shared a great deal of wisdom, and I was happy to hear her say that while writers are told "show don't tell," the truth is you need both. The workshop was on plot structure, and she's also a believer in the book map. Klein was also the continuity editor for the

Last night I went to an advance screening of Starz new Torchwood series, Mircale Day, at the AMC Elmwood theater in Harahan, Louisiana. The show's premise intrigued me the first day I saw the trailer on Starz, and with the exception of having to squint due to what seemed to be a bad print that was too dark for viewing, I really enjoyed the first episode. I will watch it again when premieres on TV

National Dance Day is July 30, 2011. As usual, it is promoted by Fox Network's So You Thank You Can Dance and the Dizzy Feet Foundation. The Larry King Cardiac Foundation is also a sponsor. From the show's website:NATIONAL DANCE DAY (is) a grassroots initiative that encourages the nation, young and old, to move! Individuals, families, organizations and communities from across the nation come

So, Japan has digitized commercial spokespeople and holographic rock stars.CreationBy Nordette N. AdamsThe new world comes at us fast:Unhuman creatures, made to last.Pretty zombies of our minds—not of flesh, born of time—will count our days and nightsas we inject nanobots to spiteour blood. Desperate, we fight Deathor God to overcome the soiled breathwe have called life. Dust mocks us to the

Where is he now!I can't remember this model's name. It started with a T. I keep thinking, Thunder. I don't know why.

After reading the depressing New York Times article this morning about recent developments in the DSK rape case, I was glad I found this video. It's called the "world's largest flash mob dance video" produced by Eurovision Song Contest 2010, and I really needed to see something to make me feel better about humanity, at least a way to look at the brighter side of the species.However, I don't think

The video above features Stevie Nicks singing her classic "Landslide" with a contestant during the finale of NBC's The Voice. I watched the show, and liked all the finalists. While I thought Dia Frampton, the runner up, had a more unique voice, I thought Javier Colon, the winner, had better pitch. He also consistently performed well and had a better back story--family and kids, artistic struggle,

I LMAO at Kevin Hart, Bobby Brown, Nick Cannon, and Nelly's BET Awards '11: Real Husbands of Hollywood. I have parts one and two here. Watch more at BET.

Patti Labelle tribute at BET Awards 2011 with Marsha Ambrosius, Cee Lo, and Shirley Ceasar. Patti herself performs at the end. I enjoyed watching the show with my aunt and cousins last night, three generations in one place with a difference of opinion about what is good music. The younger ones were more

I'm joking. I don't think today's census workers would ever write down what this census work did in 1880. Check what's listed as Joseph Jean Baptiste's occupation.Also notice how neat the handwriting is on the snippet of the screenshot from the original document. I doubt this guy was walking and writing at the same time. Mr. Jean Baptiste was most likely a farm worker living on the Laura

This is how my summer's going. I'm spending more time in my brick and mortar life, and so I'm not online as much. That's how I ended up watching Twitter on television instead of Twitter itself. But Jimmy Fallon's delivery of tweets under his #worstsummervacation hashtag made me laugh just the same. Big media and entertainment is really leveraging the social media thing, huh?

In the clip, Broward County, Florida, Judge John Hurley gets "a little choked up" when reviewing the case of a poor woman arrested for leaving her children in a hot car. MSNBC posted:Angel Smith, 41, (left her two children) in a hot car for two hours while she gave blood to earn money to feed them, the Sun-Sentinel reported.She was paid around $30 for giving blood, but when she left the center,

I watched the premiere of the new TNT series Falling Skies last night and enjoyed it. The characters drive the storyline more than its aliens and special effects, and that's always a good thing. So far, thumbs up! (Visit the microsite.)Nevertheless, I could not help but notice the Super 8 clone running around in Falling Skies. "Skitters," as the TNT series characters call one class of aliens in

The President of the United States of America is holding a raffle. I received in my email today a fundraiser promotion from President Barack Obama's re-election campaign offering me and everyone else a chance to win dinner with the the President of the United States. Of course, it didn't say it that crassly, but still it's a chance for me (or you)--an ordinary citizen--to win dinner with the most

Some people will read this article at The New Republic, "Why Can’t More Poor People Escape Poverty?," and without going very far into have a knee-jerk reaction and reject its information because the article can be misread to say that all poor people lack impulse control. That's not what it's saying, but I know that's what that I thought until I realized I was wrong.What the article is saying is

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The white mother in this video is funny. Her complaint is that black people have been inadvertently hiding their skin care secrets from whites, and she wants that to stop. Furthermore, she wonders how many other secrets black people are keeping from whites that could help them. The video description reads in all caps:BLACK PEOPLE TELL US YOUR OTHER SECRETS! LIKE HOW THE HELL ARE YOU 95 YRSOLD AND

I just read a provocative article by John Blake at CNN.com, "Actually, that's not in the Bible," and I left a comment, but with 6,200 comments and rising, I doubt he or anyone else will read my thoughts there. (The article's been shared on Facebook nearly 46,000 times already) So, here is what I said:I agree with this article, but have two considerations. I think the saying "This too shall pass"

It pleases me to announce that ColorofChange.org launched a campaign aimed at Psychology Today against Satashi Kanazawa and the magazine has dropped the evolutionary psychologist as a contributor. Psychology Today is "taking the necessary steps to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again," says the advocacy group. According to an e-mail sent to ColorOfChange.org – the nation’s

I saw this segment yesterday on CNN with Alexandra Robbins, author of the new book Why Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth. I used to say regularly to children who complained about not fitting in at school, "Geeks rule the world," and sometimes I'd end up in a debate about the difference between geeks and nerds. If you check Amazon, you'll discover a lot of books have the word "geeks" in the title, but

Today is Memorial Day, and as I did last year, I remind readers again that CNN has a resource that helps us reflect on the number of soldiers' lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, its casualties map. You can move your cursor over the spots on its map of the United States to read the names of soldiers who have died from those areas.

You know that the spoken word poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron left its mark on America because the title's become a commonplace. For instance, I heard a television reporter making reference to the poem during the so-called "Arab Spring" protests of this year as a point of commentary. He said, "Apparently the revolution will be televised." The title of Gil

Set to Sara Bareilles "Gravity," Kayla Radomski and Kupono Aweau perform a So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 contemporary routine choreographed by Mia Michaels, who envisioned it as a story of a woman's addiction to drugs. I thought the routine was stunning and moving then and I still think it's stunning and moving. Sadly, sometimes romantic relationships with people run this course as

I added this video of the 300 Morehouse men, Oprah crying, and interview with Morehouse president on May 26. Dr. Franklin says that Oprah believes it's cheaper to educate than incarcerate and that since the airing of the Morehouse graduates paying tribute to Oprah and people learning that these men are paying their scholarships forward, donations have poured in.I confess that I have watched all

My aunt in Memphis told me about President Barack Obama surprising students at Booker T. Washington in Memphis, Tenn., on May 16, She said it made her cry. CNN posted a longer video of his surprise visit on YouTube. Obama later spoke at their graduation.

I know people who live in Terrebonne Parish and near the Atchafalaya Basin. Naturally some of them are suspicious about the reasons behind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) decision to open the Morganza Spillway because its opening will result in flooding an area that includes approximately 25,000 people in south-central Louisiana. This event is rightfully described as a modern-day

New Orleans-located infectious disease expert Dr. Brobson Lutz says in the video above that people going to watch the rising Mississippi River along the area's levees should be more concerned about the viruses they could catch from mosquito bites than about encountering a snake. He said that whenever flooding makes the news, you can count on someone to air video with a snake swimming in the flood

Here's video of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's Wednesday, May 11, evening event of Poets at the White House. The president started the evening saying, "The power of poetry is that everybody experiences it differently. There are no rules for what makes a great poem. Understanding it isn’t just about metaphor or meter. Instead, a great poem is one that resonates with us,

On April 26, 2011, the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus held a rally on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge to protest Gov. Bobby Jindal's cuts to higher education. The most urgent matter on the minds of the speakers was Jindal's push to merge Southern University of New Orleans with University of New Orleans, SUNO with UNO.The event was hosted by the Southern University

Updated Wednesday: President Obama says White House will not release Osama bin Laden death photos: "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies"The White House should not make the photos of bin Laden's body available for broadcast. For Americans who want to see the body photos, the government should put the pics in a case at the Pentagon. The morbidly curious can contact the military if they want

I did not think this day would come, but about two hours ago, my son rushed into the living room and said, "Mom, Osama bin Laden is dead!" "What? Was it natural causes?""No," he said. "He was killed." (Later sources reported that bin Laden was shot in the head, shot through the left eye.)I stopped watching Treme on HBO and turned to CNN where I saw that about 30 or 40 people had already gathered

NBC talk-show host Lawrence O'Donnell is on point with his challenge to his own network to force Donald Trump to tell the American public now if he plans to run for president and stop postponing the announcement. O'Donnell makes an excellent case that Trump, by not officially filing for candidacy, is either lying about running for president and using this political flirtation as a publicity stunt

President Barack Obama said that he and First Lady Michelle wanted to express their deepest condolences to families in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and the other states hit by tornadoes earlier this week. "I've never seen devastation like this," the President told reporters as captured in CNN video, and he also assured citizens that he will get the maximum federal help to the ravaged states as soon as

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyClick image for larger View of Obama'soriginal birth certificate.President Barack Obama finally lost patience with birther nonsense, and so, Wednesday morning the White House released the long form of Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii, his birth state."We do not have time for this kind of silliness," Obama told reporters

The L.A. Times and other news sources report that singer Phoebe Snow has died from complications due to a stroke suffered in January 2010. I love her music, which was a large part of my youth in the 1970s. I am saddened at this news. She was 60 years old.The video up top is Snow singing "Poetry Man," and the one below is "Love Makes A Woman" with dancers on Soul Train. A DJ played the latter at

A male student at Riverview High School in Tampa Bay Florida was called out of class to the principal's office because he wore high heel shoes to school, reports Tampa Bay's Fox station. School principal Bob Heilmann decided it was best if the student not where the shoes and told him to take them off. See video below.A teacher notified the school principal and said that the boy’s high heels were

Last week, a small plane crashed at the intersection of West End Boulevard and Harrison Avenue in New Orleans, La. As it went down, it clipped a minivan, but no one was treated for injuries. The plane crashed along a route I travel often, and I would have taken a photo of the wreckage when I drove by hours later and the police were still there, but my adult son and daughter, who were in the car,

The video above shows Michael A. Stefanone discussing the results of a study he and other researchers conducted through the University of Buffalo, "Contingencies of Self-Worth and Social-Networking-Site Behavior" that has been published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Shari Roan of the L.A. Times reports that "a study :on how people use social networking websites

More news on Nicolas Cage's arrest:Cage appeared before a magistrate this morning where his bond was set at $11,000. He was ordered to return to court for a hearing on May 31. A "stay away'' order was waived. (Per Nola.com)And I may have to take back some of what I said suggesting the police may have been overzealous with Cage. He's getting a reputation around here, according to what the Times

After being shown on Fox News, uploaded as cellphone video to YouTube, and then reported on WWL TV, New Orleans, this story's gone viral:Outrage after TSA pats down 6-year-old at N.O. AirportNEW ORLEANS -- Some civil rights advocates are outraged after a 6-year-old girl received an intense pat-down at Armstrong International Airport security on April 5. ... Someone caught the pat-down on video,

I love good music whatever the genre--blues, pop, rock, R&B, jazz, bluegrass, opera--but let's face it, some song lyrics about people in love are really about people locked in obsession and would be labeled more accurately "confessions of a control freak." For instance, you do know that "Every Breath You Take" by Sting and the Police is really about a stalker, don't you? I'm not criticizing the

I do not have the time to surf YouTube all day, and so I thank NPR for bringing composer and choral director Eric Whitacre's virtual choir to my attention.At NPR, reporter Jeff Lunden says: I've been singing in real choirs since I was a kid, so I was intrigued to participate in a virtual one. I recently asked Whitacre how he came up with the concept."Well, it all started with this video — a young

I lived in Augusta, Georgia, for nearly a decade and did not know that Frank Yerby, a famous African-American author, was from there. And I was also a fan of swashbuckler movies as a child, but I had no idea a black man, Yerby, wrote the book upon which the movie The Saracen Blade was based.From the New Georgia Encylopedia, Frank Yerby (1916-1991):Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular

Nietzsche v. Jesus Christ from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo.The video above features Dallas Willard lecturing at Stanford University in 2002 on objective versus subjective constructs. He is comparing and contrasting the teachings of Jesus Christ to those of Nietzsche. From a description from the video's sponsor, the Veritas Forum:"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," Jesus said. "God is dead,"

According to this CNN report, your television may be watching you, sort of, through your cable box: what you watch on TV can give advertisers insight into who you are and what you're likely to buy. Armed with the data collected from viewers' cable boxes about their viewing tastes, an advertiser can send commercials to a television screen customized to the interests of viewers in a specific home

Just something to think about.

In some ways this blog is a commonplace book for me, and so, as I am researching closet dramas and their relationship to Plato and the dialectic or dialogue, I'm storing this definition or summary of closet dramas from The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, Volume 1. Wikipedia is good starting point, too.

Isaiah Doyle, a 28 year-old who confessed to killing a conveneience store clerk in Jefferson Parish, La., during a robbery in 2005, has been sentenced to death. His attorneys argued that he was mentally handicapped in order to save him from the death penalty. According to WWL, "a psychologist for the defense said, 'Without a doubt, he has mental retardation.'” The prosecution offered its own

I awoke this morning to the news that screen legend Elizabeth Taylor had died. According to NPR, "A publicist told The Associated Press that Taylor died of congestive heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 79."As someone born in 1960, I grew up seeing Taylor's movies on television. I remember Lassie Go Home and National Velvet, and also her adult movies. The latter were often presented

Stefano Langone won me over a few weeks ago on American Idol when he sang Smokie Norful's "I Need You Now." And when I say "he sang it" that's an understatement. He slayed it! So, I wasn't surprised at all when he won a wild card slot. He committed to this Norful gospel song like he grew up in a black Baptist church. According to Idol's site, Stefano admires Stevie Wonder.

In the video below, Jay Smooth recites excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" on the topic of extremism. You can read Jay's post at Illdoctrine.com. I listened and thought that we have Talk Like a Pirate day and Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Perhaps we should also have a Speak the Words of MLK Day.

Let me say at the outset that the verses that follow are by Paulo Freire, but in their original form they are presented as prose not poetry in his last book Pedagogy of Freedom, Chapter 3, "Teaching is Not Just Transferring Knoweldge." (The video at the end of this post is one of his last interviews before his death in 1997)As I read this book, I am struck increasingly by how his philosphy had

Below is an effective montage of video footage from CNN of the earthquake hitting Japan, the tsunami destruction, and the aftermath of these two catastrophic events. In the shadow of loss of life--"more than 1,000 feared dead"--and property, the Japanese face another potential catastrophe with unstable nuclear power plants shaken by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. The area around one of the plants

I got up at 5:50 a.m., again complying with my dearest cousin (yes, the same cousin with whom I went to the Zulu Ball) but also with pressure from my son, and went to one Mardi Gras parade, the first of Mardi Gras Day, which is the Zulu Parade. We stood somewhere on St. Charles Avenue between Jackson and Felicity Streets. Scenes from the morning are in the video above.We didn't stay until the end

I have to thank my cousin for encouraging me to go to Zulu Ball 2011, which was held at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Friday, March 4. It started around 8:00, I think, but we skipped the coronation and debutante/Zulu maid and court introductions. We didn't arrive until about 11:00 p.m., and got home around 5:00 a.m.My cousin is a Frankie Beverly and Maze fan to the death, and both

If you grew up on Motown music and love it, then like me you should mark your calendar for The Motown Sound in Performance at the White House. It airs on PBS March 1, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. central time and 8:00 p.m. eastern. According to The Root, this tribute is part of the White House's celebration of Black History Month and the show was recorded Thursday night. Watch the full episode. See more

I love Joni Mitchell so much that I even based an entire post once on her music at BlogHer.com, but my love for the singer did not stop me from laughing at Tina Fey's spoof of Mitchell's musical stylings on 30 Rock (via jukebox), per Huffington Post and Jezebel. Fey sings rather well her "Paints and Brushes" Mitchellesque tune. One of the lines in the Fey's hilarious spoof is that she will not

This video, "Free But Still Struggling," published by the Houston Chronicle about men wrongfully convicted in Texas is very compelling. But the story of one man in the video, Anthony Graves, that Yahoo posted is beyond outrageous:Anthony Graves would have received $1.4 million in compensation if only the words "actual innocence" had been included in the judge's order that secured Graves's release

More on Rankine and Hoagland at WritingJunkie.netI've been trying to get a steady beat, nothing overly elaborate nor sedate, on the poetry controversy involving race at this year's AWP, the 2011 conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Writers met in D.C., February 2-5.The controversy came to my attention when I received a message from poet Jericho Brown on Facebook that

I am happy for the people of Egypt, and as someone trained in communications with experience in social activism who has been online since the mid 90s and uses Facebook and Twitter, I understand how social media can be used as a powerful tool to build a movement. So, on some level I like the play of media soundbites such as "Facebook freed Egypt." I like the warm and fuzzy feel of them, but I know

What I miss about driving less is getting lost in a radio show, specifically narratives on NPR via WWNO here in New Orleans. I can't seem to listen to talk or narratives on radio sitting still in my bedroom or living room because my mind starts to travel to all the things I need to do in my house, and if I try to do chores and listen, I don't enjoy the story the way I can in the car.This Saturday

When I read at the Huffington Post on Monday that CNN's Anderson Cooper did not know how to leave Egypt if he wanted to, I almost wrote a post because I like Cooper, but when I checked CNN's website that day and saw nothing about what he told HuffPo, I decided to wait. Today, however, I had to write something because I heard on Twitter that Cooper and his crew was attacked, that he was hit in the