Another Post I never got around to Publishing… SOUL TRAIN MUSIC AWARDS a couple years ago… TEXAS STABBINGS & EXPLOSION at BOSTON MARATHON

Talk about not getting around to POST… when I finally came back to this blog it was I don’t know how long.  Now, after that it has been several weeks more  …had to add the tags and things.  And finally today here it goes…after a bomber or more…struck at the Boston Marathon today just as the runners started crossing the finish line.

I almost wrote… I’m just shaking my head… but it takes more than that if we ever expect to get a handle on this.  And it goes beyond insanity to some type of morbid inner nothingness that these people have who go out and do these type of things.

Well, nevertheless…. here is another Post that I just never got around to publishing for one reason or other.  After briefly reading through it I thought that I might share it with you…it seems that I felt like sharing some more of myself in it to you… wonder why?

I rarely like telling much about myself… though I must say that you really cannot tell it by reading many of my blogs.  But for the record… I cannot remember at all when I wrote this but it was a while back… so today I am feeling great and the day is sunny and beautiful.

Now, here is that blog which I failed to published some time ago…

Not feeling well today… but I am not complaining.  Because I have had many more days when I didn’t feel bad at all.  And not many people can say that.

I am just a touch under the weather.  And because I am not accustom to being sick… it tends to bother me a little more than most people.

The other thing is… I do not take medication.  Not at all.   Well… almost not at all.  There have been times when I had to breakdown and swallow something… or go in and have them give me a shot or something… but not often.  And believe me when I say… I have to be in an awful lot of  pain and/or discomfort for me to do it.

Otherwise, I just suffer whatever it is that is bothering me… until it goes away.  Not many people can do that… or attempt to do that.  Since so many people rush to go grab up a bottle of this or that at the slightest on-set of something they think may be bothering them… they never even try to fight off anything.

But this is just a little slight cold.  A sliver of dust must have gotten into my system while I was helping my brother move some furniture that he chose to move from my parent’s house into his new apartment.  And since I am allergic to house dust… and it didn’t take much before I started itching then a tickle came into my throat.  But as soon as the dust gets out of my system I will be up and about again.

But this past weekend I had a chance to catch the Soul Train Music Awards.  Needless to say… I did not know most of  acts or  the awardees.  But, of course, I did recognize Anita Baker and Ron Isley as they paid tribute to them.

But I waited around watching because I had never seen Eryka Badu perform before… and boy…oh, boy…  What a disheartening show it really was.

For one thing how can anyone who portrayed herself as being so Afro-centric ever have lighten their skin?

Well, that is exactly what Eryka Badu has done… or so it appeared to be the case to me.  And she looked terrible.  At first I didn’t even notice it… because it was kind of subtle and her face was camouflaged by the hat she was wearing.  It cast a shadow over her face.

We have all read about black women in Africa and the West Indies doing it… but to see that Eryka Badu has stooped to bleaching????

It is insane.  If anything I have always wanted to be darker… but lighter no.  A cousin of mine slipped and started calling me ‘light’ and I totally disliked it.  She was trying to anger me.  And she did the moment she let that slip out of mouth.

Needless to say, Eryka has always been a bit wired and out there.  She likes doing things to grab attention… I guess you could say.   I remember when she first came onto the music scene… everybody thought that the very long dredlocks she was sporting then were her own.  But low-and-behold… over a period of  time we all came to find out that it had been a wig or more than likely dred extensions.   After that I think she went to having no hair at all.

But seeing Erykah Badu with lighter skin… was discussing to me.  Talking about a mindless woman… who evidently hates herself.  I wouldn’t want attention that bad.  And whatever song that was… that she song on the Soul Train Music Awards… if  it was intended to catapult  the re-emergence of  her  singing career?

I think not.  For all it was worth she could have stayed home.  But I must say that I did love the hat… and that was about all I liked about this whole supposed Soul Train Music Awards.

For the most part most of  the music on the Soul Train Music Awards show really wasn’t even ‘soul music’ any more.   But a bunch of that ‘neo-soul’  junk.

So, in watching the Soul Train Music Awards… I began to feel that we are loosing our identity…our musical identity and authenticity.   An identity and authenticity which has marked and ruled… in my opinion the whole music world in this country since we came to these shores as slaves brought to America.  And my did we bring something with us.

Some of the best and most authentic music America has ever had  really came out of a revised culture whose roots were founded in slavery.  Much like the food we developed here called ‘Soul Food.’  Hence, Soul Music… the Blues… Doo-Wop… Gospel Music… Rhythm & Blues  etc… etc.. etc…

In watching the Soul Train Music Awards show I felt that soul music had been replaced by a bunch of  people who neither wrote lyrics  or  played real instruments.  People who only looked black, but were trying very hard to appear as weird and way-out as they possibly could be.   This because it would seem that everything today concerning music is about branding and images… and far less than about true talent… real vocal skills or any skills as far as being a musician or a real song writer.  What happened to artists with the talent of a Little Stevie Wonder or a Prince?

Based upon what I had seen those type of talents had faded far far far away.

None of  them… this group or now generation singers seemed to want to have any connection to the music that put Motown on the charts, or  Philly on the map… or  Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, New York,  and LA.  Or that had made other urban places  hubs for the rich urban soul sound and melodic tones that had come to be called ‘soul music’  or  ‘rhythm & blues”  …or even “gospel.”

While watching the Soul Train Music Awards… there were no Anita Bakers or Ron Isleys awaiting in the crowd to hear their names called for award.  In fact, the only soulful talenst on the show was Anita Baker, Ron Isley, Pebo Bryson, Chante Moore, Rochelle Ferrell, Jeffery Osborne and a few others.  But clearly the ‘soul‘  that had been in the history of  Soul Train is now gone.

Everybody wants to be a cross-over artist… some neutral detergent that appears to be black or African American but actually doing some white thang.

The whole time I sat watching the Soul Train Music Awards… which is something I have not watched in years… or any other music or movie  awards show in years.   As I had long ago felt that they had been watered down to appeal to more less urban audiences.

But it was frightening for me to see  such a lost of what seemed to me to be a vast depreciation of  what has always been ours… our real musical genius and talenst… gifted voices and fantastic lyric writing… such as that of  Barry White and Issac Hayes… Holland,-Dozier-Holland, Ashford & Simpson, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield… etc…etc… all to be turned into something which sounded a lot more like that puff of glitter disco music and digitized junk.  And I must say that I see the exact same thing  happening to gospel music.

In gospel music there has developed a vast desire to be played on something ‘called‘ Christian Radio stations…  which in my opinion is nothing but a bunch of  rock music  stations playing rock music and calling it ‘Christian Music.’

It would be a shame to loose the richness of  our music… and the history that our music carries with it to the junk I bared witnessed to on the Soul Train Music Awards.  Outside of the tributes to some real Soul legends… there was nothing on that show I would have voted to give 1 award to.

One day we will look up and no one will know what ‘soul music’  was or that it had ever been.  They will not know that there had been such groups like Blue Magic, the Dramatics, Delfonics, Temptations, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Manhattans, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Chi-Lites, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Phyllis Hyman, Najee, Kirk Walham, the Sylvers, Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, the Sugar Hill Gang and the list goes on and on and on…  And those are just those from my era there tons more before them.

Who can forget when James Brown first cried-

“Say it loud I’m black and I’m proud.”

Or, “Baby, please don’t go.”

Or when Curtis Mayfield song these words-

“If  I had a choice of  colors.”

Or Nina came with-

“To be young gifted and black.”

Maybe there is no need for such lyrics like these today anymore.  But that can’t true… particularly after what I just said about Eryka Badu and skin bleaching.   But then how about-

“La-la-la means I love you… I love you.”

What about –

“They’re smiling in your face…all the while they want to take your place.”

Will soul music die like jazz has died?

There are no more jazz artists like Max… Coltrane …  Gillipsie…  or Yusuf LaTiff… or Miles …. any more.

Or how about a Junior Parker…  or another B.B. King…  or Muddy Waters…  or Bo Diddley and their special blend?

Now, I must admit that these days I am strictly into gospel music… but having a history in the radio industry it is hard for me to not realize the importance of preserving this cultural history.  It is ours… and our children need to be recipients of at least knowing of that it once was.  We cannot just forsake everything.

These musical forms and artists are long gone…  Well, more or less off the musical scene… the ones I just mentioned above.  And soon along with their names will the memories of Blue Magic, Phyllis Hyman, the Dells, Temptations, Supremes, the Staple Singers and everybody else either before them or who came after them like Chak Khan, Earth, Wind & Fire, Emotions etc. be forgotten too.  To be replaced by a bunch of  people who have forsaken moving bass beats for  neo- tinty sounds that have nothing soul about them.  Music you can hop and jump up and down to… like we used to watch those young white kids do on those afternoon after school dance shows like the Dick Clark Show.   But they can’t really dance to.  And I guess that is really the point… its not meant to be danced to… but just to make some money.

Forget art…   What does art have to do with it?

No wonder the Soul Train Musical Awards show didn’t resemble anything like their old award shows… or for that matter… didn’t come close to emitting anything I would have called ‘soul’… outside of having a tribute to a few past ‘soul’ artists.  What a real shame…a legacy gone to naught…

I hate to say it… but little wonder Don Cornelius took a gun…  When you sell off something your control of it goes too…  Truly the history of Soul Train will never be the same…

Well, God bless… it’s Monday and I have been relaxing most of my day.  Then I started getting calls about an explosion in Boston.

After the stabbings on a Texas Campus last week… and now these explosions in Boston during the Boston Marathon… coupled with the guy shooting up the movie theater and that boy killing all those children plus his mother, in a Connecticut classroom…  Can you really say that we are not living in divers times?

I can’t imagine anybody saying that since they were 9 years old they had had fantasies about stabbing people.   FANTASIES ABOUT STABBING PEOPLE?

When I called my son to tell him about the explosions at the Boston Marathon today, he said to me-

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2013

Add a comment April 15, 2013

Aretha’s diet…losing weight… finding someone

 Didn’t she look good?

Heard her talk about being on a diet…and when she showed up at Barack Obama’s inaugural in her grey suit with her Sunday morning go to church hat…she looked fabulous.

She was most recently spotted here on her way from the White House…pushing a shopping cart in Walmart.  Signed autographs and took pictures…and people crowded around.  I said I wanted to see the pictures…but my son saw them.  And he said-

“Ma, it was her.”

I thought it interesting when I saw that Obama’s oldest daughter made sure she got a shot of Aretha with her camera during the inaugural ceremony.  Those Obama’s are teaching their children well.   She knew Aretha and who it was she was looking at…and she wasn’t going to let Aretha get pass her without grabbing a picture.  Smart girl.

I didn’t know that Aretha had signed up with Jenny Craig back in 2007.  She might have lost some pounds…but evidently had like most…put them back on and then some.  But at the inaugural she really looked great.  And I was happy to see that she had shed lots of that extra added bagage…those dirty little pounds. 

Her plan was this…

I heard her comment on some show that…she eats what she’s suppose to for 4 or 3 days…then on 3 days eats whatever she wants.  I think that is a great plan…because it seems to be working for Lady Re.’  

Now, I have just found out what it really is.   She has a new somebody in her life.  It will make you want to do something… and real quick.   Get somebody…and see if you don’t want to make sure he only has eyes for you.  Oh, yeah…you’ll start losing real quick.  

And don’t have him look good.   Because if he looks good…you will want to look good with him.  No self-respecting woman would think any differently.  And Aretha is the real r-e-s-p-e-c-t woman…didn’t you know?

I just hope that this one is the one she has always been hoping for.  After 3 or 4 prior marriages…a bout with the bottle (many many years ago)…one of her mansions burning down…and some local legal worries.  I think it is about time…for plenty of happiness in her life. 

And I certainly wish you well, Lady Re.’  

One thing about Aretha Franklin…no matter what…you can always say that she has been a class act.  I remember when I had considered her for a concert gig…the price tag, however, was a bit too much for this little ol’ country girl…$65,000.00 with a quarter of it up front…and I think maybe a precentage.  Now, that is business.

But that whole diet thing is mind over matter.  If your mind is not there…then save yourself from the bother.  It won’t work. 

But if you can get your mind there…you have won before you start.

I know some people who did the gastric bypass and a few other things.   Though I must say…my friend who did the lap band raved about.  And she truly did look good.  But she told me that before she did it she went to meetings and read lots of information on it first.  And she said she spoke in great detail with the doctor who was going to handle her surgery…and she too told me she was on her way to the altar once again. 

I must admit to admiring women…and men who don’t want to just lay around with everybody.  And then find out that have nothing. 

Marriage is good…and if you are going to be with somebody then let them marry you.

But that gastric bypass…I have a sister who did it.  She can’t eat anything without getting sick to her stomach.  And the worst part is…though…yes, she lost lots of weight and even though she can’t keep much down…she is still over weight.  And it is all due to not having gotten her mind to where it needed to be.  Sick or not she eats and then throws up some of everything she eats.  I would hate to live like that.

If you really want to lose weight…learn how to put the fork down first.  And believe me…you won’t need anything else.

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/05/30/aretha_franklin_chooses_celebrity_diet_t

http://www.singersroom.com/news/entertainment-story-841.asp

It’s Black History Month…so enjoy…

Wow…the kids do not have anything compared to this.

I hope all of this downloads properly…and doesn’t take too much time. Guess I got a bit carried away.

Enjoy your day…and this weekend. It’s freezing cold outside…but the funny part is that the house doesn’t seem quite so cold to me any more. Guess I must be getting used to it. My father would smile. All of my life I have been cold…because I am extremely anemic. I, in fact, am suppose to be taking iron tablets everyday…and I do when I can remember. But I have to really work on that.

Since, so many people have so much more to take by way of medication…and if I desire not to join them… Well, you know…   I better take what I have to right now. Because based upon what they say having a low number of red blood cells can be very unhealthy.  And I do not want anything to sneak up on me.

Between yesterday and today…it has looked like snow. In fact, there were flurries this morning. Might be too cold…it can’t snow when the weather is too cold. But I guess even in that we are doing okay…because Vee, my friend’s daughter in Chicago…had told me that Chi-town was definitely freezing.

Well, God bless…

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

11 comments February 21, 2009

John Edwards… biggest con job …Hayes & Mac

For some reason I just can’t get out of my head how John Edwards had me completely fooled.

It has to be the biggest political con job in the world.

I will tell you this…if I had known anything about that video footage that that woman had shot of John behind the scene…I would have been able to tell that he was not what he projected in public…on the political stage.

Where I had thought of  him being quiet and comtemplative…in the footage he is chatty and laughs a lot…such as the time in his behind the scene footage  where he is in the car.   He tells how he told the television host that if  he were going to run for President then he would announce it on his show.  In that sequence…you see a John Edwards who marvels at his own craftiness…something that you totally would not expect of him.  Then there is another sequence where he looks into the camera playfully teasing with the woman (Rielle Hunter) and calls her ‘camera-girl.’   Yeah…and that was not all  she was.

 Yes, in that footage of John Edwards behind the scenes…you do see a side of Edwards that you didn’t know was there.

It would seem that the person whom I thought he was…was really just a fake.

Media is a great tool…but you better know how to use it.  And use it wisely.

If you are going to have a camera following you shooting behind the scene footage of you as a mean of aiding in people getting to know you…you better not forget that there is a camera there catching your every nuance and word. 

In fact, if a camera is there…you better remember that you are still on stage.  Something that Jesse Jackson, I think, recently just learned.

But Edwards…I thought he was a family guy.

I thought his wife was his childhood sweetheart…and the only woman he had ever known. 

Well…that is what he made it sound like every time I ever heard him tell the story.

The Nightline interview was a disaster for poor John…whom  in  watching  you got the  distinct  idea that maybe his wife told him  that  she wasn’t going on the show with him.  It was in how when  he tried to explain her not being there…he stammered and stuttered through it…which is something he did through much of  that interview. 

Finally, poor John just broke down saying he was a man who needed to do it alone…talking about the interview.  And I am sure he was right…as it seems he had no problem doing a lot of other things alone…I mean without his wife.

A novice filmmaker whom Edwards met in a bar in New York City, Rielle Hunter managed to land a job on Edwards’ staff during his 2004 bid for the White House.  And he paid her $100,014.00 to do it…to shoot behind the scene video footage???

Hiring that woman…putting her upon his payroll was more than a one time thing…she got to fly around the world with him pretending to just be shooting behind the scene video footage.

For Edwards to claim that being 99% honest is not enough…shows just how far off the mark he really is.

What kind of a dumb statement is that?

Ninety-nine per-cent?

His claims of no affair…and not being unfaithful to his wife…were 100% untrue.  He wasn’t even 1% honest.  So, how could he lay claim to being 99% honest…when he was not being honest at all?

What a con job.

What a con job.

To read and see more on this CLICK the 2 LINKS below and then check out the youtube footage.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9217808&ch=4226716&src=news

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9217808&ch=4226716&src=news

How do you throw away everything just like that?

People do it everyday…they just take everything and flush it down the toilet for something that later on they mostly all come to regret…all for a few fleeting  moments of  supposed ecstasy.

Being in media as a woman you come in contact with a lot of men.  Sometimes it can be quite sickening.  There seems to be something inside men that can’t stop them from trying to chase down women…young and old…no matter what they look like.  And, of course, the opposite can sometimes be equally as true of  women chasing down men…particularly rich and powerful men…or men in the arts and media.

But lets stick with men for the moment…maybe it is a thing of trying to see if they still have it going on.  Who knows.

Sometimes it is just about seeing how many women they can get sexually.

I recall getting into a cab and the cabby telling me out of the clear blue sky that he was not one of those 30 second men.  Which he followed up by asking me to have sex with him.

I acted as those I had not heard him…and never commented on the subject.

He was not a bad looking guy…but why bring up something like that?   Or ask me something like that?

I recall once in New York City having to rush a package to Fed-ex on 42nd Street…as it was the last Fed-ex office open any where in the city at that hour which near midnight…and my package needed to be in the mail and postmarked before  midnight.

I jumped into the cab in the Wall Street area and asked the cabby to rush.

Through the whole ride, from Wall Street to mid-town, the cabby was trying to seduce me.  He would not hear anything I was saying…no matter how many ways I said ‘no.’

When I was getting out of the cab to rush inside Fed-ex…happy to final reach my destination and get out, he took my money asking me-

“Do you want me to wait?”

And I said, “No, it is going to take me a while.”

“That’s okay.  I don’t mind waiting.”

I told him no…but  that cabby waited and waited just outside that Fed-ex office on me.

Once I was through getting my package off…I stood inside wondering what I was going to do…as I could clearly see the cab outside throught the window of the Fed-ex office…he was really waiting on me.

Of all the women in New York…why me?

Luckily that Fed-ex office stayed open through the night.  But also very fortunate for me…I noticed that there was a bus stop right outside it’s door.

A group of people were waiting on the bus…and as the bus pulled up…I dashed out of the Fed-ex office and leaped on the bus taking it to the nearest train station so I could jump the train to Brooklyn.

Talk about ‘Sex n da City.’

But why are men like that?

I once got a job offer to do radio…I forget where really but it was somewhere South.  The radio station manager/program director and I were talking on the phone trying to work out all the particulars for my arrival…when I asked-

“So, where will I be staying?”

“I thought you could stay with me until we can find you a place.”

He went on to tell me about his house and how much room he had.

There went that  job.

That was it for him.  Needless to say…I never set one foot in that radio station or his house.  But thank God he had be truthful in saying what he did…otherwise I may have been stuck. 

Enjoy you day.   and God bless….

UPDATE on EDWARD’S STORY:   It is amazing to me just how many men… and I guess women also…  toss aside a good decent relationship.  They chose trash over class… and seem to at the time be obssessed with what they are doing and who they are doing it with… until it all starts to fall apart.  And they find out they lost more than they can ever hope to regain.  

Below is the LINK to Elizabeth Edward’s story of her final battle with cancer.  But let me preference this by saying… I truly believe that no matter what doctors say… God has the final word.  And I pray that she will yet some more time… and without pain.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_re_us/us_elizabeth_edwards

Oh, yeah.  I’m usually excited about the Olympics but this year for whatever reason I could care less.  Haven’t turned on the television one time to watch anything…and probably won’t.  May regret it…but for some reason I am just not interested.

Can’t believe that Issac Hayes, 65, just died.  And right after Bernie Mack, 50.  They say that death comes in 3’s.

I have 2 funerals this week that I must attend.  Thursday is the funeral for my friend whom I informed you in earlier blogs that we believed that she was in the process of passing.  The following day after she had passed I received a call that a cousin in Florida had just passed, as well.  I am happy for them both to be  released from the cares and pain of this world.  As I know that in the end they both were suffering and had lingered in states that they really didn’t want to be in. 

It is so hard to loose love ones.  But it is exceedingly   hard to see someone suffer…and get so far down that they can  do nothing for themselves. 

My friend whom we had believed was passing had gotten into a state where she could not walk, eat or talk…and could not  even turn herself  having become bed ridden.  It was hard seeing someone who had been so active and alert in that state…someone with whom I had shared some much and her with me.  I wanted to take her out of the rehab center and take her for one last drive around the city…but I was told she was unable to leave.

All I could think about was giving her one last time out in the fresh air.

When I was in LA…one morning we went for brunch on Sunset Blvd at some vegetarian place.  We were seated at the table…and I heard a voice.  The voice caught my hear and it was right beside me.

I knew immediately who it was…I afterall had played his music over the radio airwaves for years.  And at college when his  ‘Black Moses’ album came out…if you worked overnight…or late into the AM…we would just put it on and let  a  whole side play.

When I heard the voice I didn’t dare look over.  I looked down instead.  And there to my surprise was this long leg stretched over near me…with a loose sandal on its foot.

I knew that voice anywhere…and had often debated who was greater…more talented…him or Barry White.

It was of course, Issac Hayes…in my opinion.   He was seated at the table with a white woman…who I thought was an agent or PR person…as they were talking business.

I could not believe that I was in LA…and seated right next to me was Issac Hayes…the Black Moses.  And when I say seated next to me…he wasn’t even 5 inches away.

I didn’t say anything to him…we never interrupted him…as I made everyone at the table aware that I was sitting next to Issac Hayes.

You don’t interrupt the Black Moses.

Then a few weeks after getting back into New York…there was that voice again. He was now on my radio…aiding in doing the KISS-FM morning radio show…Issac Hayes, Linda Tripp and the whole 98.7 FM morning crew.

Sorry, but I don’t have any Bernie Mack stories except I liked his TV show…the few times I had an opportunity to watch it.  It definitely was an intelligent program that not only entertained but tried to pass along a lesson or 2…Bernie style.

There is much death all about.

The Bible says…we know not when…or where.

Thanks for reading.    and pass it on…share this blog address with all your friends and family…and anybody and everybody else…. www.bsmith101.wordpress.com   pass it on…and have a beautiful day.  

Don’t forget that if you are not registered to vote…please get out and get registered…and take everybody with you who you know is not…or bring them back the registration forms to get registered.  And we will see you all in the voting booth come November…Obama…all the way!   © 2009 

Add a comment August 11, 2008