Big Sole Blog (BSB)

"Ain't No Way" is one of my favorite Aretha Franklin songs. In fact, years ago I had a post up at an old blog about the Queen of Soul and that song. I am one of those people who would be hard on anyone singing it, so when I say Sasha Allen sang that song amazingly on this week's episode of The Voice, I mean it. "Ain't No Way" came out when I was eight years old. My mother and aunts were

No Game of Thrones tonight, folks. This parody of the HBO series by Jimmy Fallon (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) nearly makes up for it with a great laugh. The comic production is called Game of Desks, and the show went all out to mimic the GoT, even the opening is very similar and so funny. Looks like they had a lot of fun making this. The verbal argument over the iron desk near the

Coach Shakira matched Sasha Allen ("At Last") with Shawna P. ("Maybe I'm Amazed"), and I think Shakira was sincere presenting that knock-out-round match-up. Sasha won, rightfully so, but Shawna was a fierce competitor. At least Shakira tried to offer a real battle. Coach Adam Levine, on the other hand, played the audience a bit, pitting Orlando Dixon ("All My Life") against the

In the video above, a cute little girl follows the dance moves of one of NOLA's Calypso Tumblers who perform across the street from Jackson Square in the French Quarter.

Endymion's Pontchartrain Beach float is soooo long that it couldn't make a corner turn. The Krewe of Endymion debuted its massive Pontchartrain Beach float at its 2013 parade, three days before Mardi Gras. The float has multiple cars, is 375 feet long, and holds at least 230 riders, and it pays tribute to a local amusement park that closed in 1983. The cars represent different attractions and

This video was filmed yesterday in the New Orleans French Quarter. We were caught in small second line parade and 49ers fans assumed I was a Ravens fan, but it was an all good Super Bowl 47 weekend experience.Unfortunately I have to drive back down there tonight around 10:30 when the party will be insane. I anticipates official and unofficial roadblocks. I got a taste of that earlier today when

Yes, I'm tired of this story, too, about Beyonce lip-syncing the "Star-Spangled Banner" at President Obama's second inauguration ceremony, but since the superstar's in my city, New Orleans, for Super Bowl XLVII, and since she handled the controversy so well, I think it's fitting to post this video. In the video above from her press conference today at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center,

I appreciate many of this season's singers on NBC's The Voice, but I consistently enjoy Nicholas David's vocals of Team CeeLo. In the video above, Nicks sings Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Going On." I've already purchased the longer iTunes release. The Twitterverse is abuzz with comments such as Nicholas David has a black soul in his body." As I tweeted at him (@TheFeelin) after I saw last

In this 1989 music video from Janet Jackson for her hit "Alright," you will see two of today's popular dance moves, PSY's "gangnam style" dance and LMFAO's "shuffle" from Party Rock. Watch and see. And in this 1955 video of Bill Bailey tap dancing, you'll see the move associated with Janet's brother, the late, great Michael Jackson, "the Moonwalk." As Michael fans know, the King

Throw a rock in New Orleans and you're likely to hit a singer/musician, and apparently that's true even if the rock taps the city's mayor, Mitch Landrieu. He did his part Tuesday night at the city's Pay It Forward benefit for survivors of Hurricane Sandy. The Times Picayune reports: During the first of three hours of music at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts on Tuesday,

Most likely, I do not have to tell Americans who Bobby McFerrin is, but an introduction to Richard Bona may be warranted. Bona is an African musician from the country of Cameroon. I enjoyed this video. I needed it as well.

Here's a sneak peek of one of the battles viewers will see this Monday night on NBC's The Voice. It's Trevin Hunte vs. Amanda Brown of Team CeeLo singing "Vision of Love," a song made possible for Mariah Carey.

This blog gets hits daily from people who think it's about shoes, but as I've said many times before, "This blog is not about shoes." Nonetheless, sometimes I can't resist an intriguing shoe photo. Today, it's a great picture of the succulent actor Idris Elba that his fan page shared on Facebook. The photo is a three-for-one prize because it features first, Elba, and second, he is holding

Hats off to BET for this beautiful tribute to Whitney Houston. Her mother, Cissy Houston, performing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" brought me to tears (and quite a few audience members as well), but Monica's performance of "I Love the Lord" also stirred me. Brandy gave an electric rendition of "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," and I'm always happy to see

I love it! Prince fan and artist Troy Gua created the doll you'll see in the video, Le Petit Prince, a tribute to Prince, the singer. I heard about it on Facebook today, but according to the video, the dolls went viral on the Internet back in the spring. Gua can't reproduce this doll for sale, an amazingly accurate likeness of Prince, without the star's

So, I'm home, working on my thesis . . . again. With the death of my father in late April, completion was postponed, but I'm almost done with some rewriting and editing. My thesis is on the diary of Marcus Bruce Christian, a self-trained African-American historian, poet, and writer who was born in 1900 in what is now Houma, Louisiana. When he was 17, he moved to New Orleans. Eventually he ran

On one hand, this whole controversy about HBO's Game of Thrones using a fake severed head of former president George W. Bush in episode 10 of season one is silly. It's something that the GOP blew up to recast itself as oppressed for the sake of gaining more power. How Cersei Lannister of them.On the other hand, I've got to wag my finger at the Game of Throne producers and directors. Really?

I'm pretty sure what was bleeped out on Michael Ealy's interview with Wendy Williams was that he's an "a*s" man so (breasts) cups "don't matter" to him. He said he used to date older women, but now he's more open-minded (as though any ordinary woman reading or writing this blog would ever have a chance with him). The interview was cute, and it seems his co-star from Think Like a Man, the

I love Scandal, Shonda Rhime's hot, new drama on ABC, but I had no idea that it is based on a real black woman, Washington DC fixer (crisis manager) Judy Smith. In the video below, Smith says, "To be a crisis manager you have to be very calm." When clients come to her, they are already in the middle of a crisis and nervous. It would not help for her to be nervous and jumpy as well. She also says

Joshua Ledet of Westlake, Louisiana, performs "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" on American Idol Top 4  Vs. Juliet Simms's performance on NBC's The Voice. Juliet, coached by CeeLo came in second on The Voice Tuesday night. Jermaine Paul, coached by Blake Shelton, won. His holding his wife while singing "I Can Believe I Can Fly" was very moving. Vs. James Brown's original rendition