Big Sole Blog (BSB)

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.