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

THE TIMES…Pastor Zackery Tims and Nicholas Ashford… gone…

First Zackery Tims …and now Nicholas Ashford.

Oh, I know… I know that Nick was not known for writing and singing gospel music.  But no one can deny that he did come from a strong gospel background… that sometimes even managed to show up in his song writing and way of singing.

And what songs they were.  He was gifted… and what he didn’t have …his partner and later to become his wife… Valerie Simpson had.  Together they wrote some of Motow’s best known music.  Songs like ‘Ain’t No Moutain High Enough,’ ‘It Takes Two,’ ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ ….just to name a few.  And I do mean just a few… because their list does indeed truly go on and on.

For a while Val and Nick could be caught holding down the evening drive-time radio slot at WBLS,in New York City.  In fact, 1 afternoon I decided to drop by BLS with the hope of getting in to see Vinny Brown, an old friend and co-worker who at the time was the Program Director for the station.  While waiting …to my unexpected surprise as I happened to look up… standing before me were 2 people I would have had to be totally blind to not to have recognized from the very moment my eyes came up on them.

“Val and Nick,” I heard myself say… as my head jerked back slightly in surprise.

It just kind of eased out of my mouth… I hadn’t realized they were handling BLS’s on-air  drive-time shift at that time.  So, I was really surprised to look up and see them, standing right there before me… close enough for me to just reach out and touch them.  Nick slightly smiled at me… while Val kind of looked off.

From the time I hit college Nick and Valerie had been busy in recording studios.  So, I had looked at and played  just about every album of their’s.  Definitely a sign of the time… because most of the kids don’t even know what an album was …or a 45 for that matter.  But yes …I had played Val and Nick for many years.  And it didn’t hurt for me to be a big fan either… which meant as often as I could I would sneak them in on my music lists rotations.

As the years went on I didn’t have to continue to ease… I just played them… back to back …or however I wanted.  Them and Phyllis Hyman… Donnie and Roberta… Friends of Distiction… Dells… Roy Ayres… George Duke… and whoever else I wanted to program.  Including Motown’s Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye… and just so much good music…  The kids don’t even have a clue… they have nothing like it today.

Nobody writes good music any more…  they don’t even know what it is to have anything called ‘good lyrics.’  They… the kids are too busy buying beats.  A lot of which are stolen from times gone… times that music like that during which Val and Nick came from …and wrote during.

Though they …Val and Nick had long since turned their attention to other things …such as going into the restaurant business… New York’s Sugarbar and I forget what their first restaurant was called …it had been on 22nd Street also in Manhattan.

And whenever traveling home on I-95… as I passed Stamford, CT… my mind would always run across them, as I knew that for a while at least they had made their home in Connecticut.

Having their number I called them once while seeking investors for 1 of my feature film projects.  Though I failed to reach them initially… you will never know to my surprise… how thrill I was to receive a call back from them concerning the message that I had left.  Val told me that they were just getting ready to open up another restaurant… which was to become the Sugarbar.  So, they couldn’t afford to do it at the time.  She appologized and told me maybe the next time.

I hung up not at all feeling let down.  All I could think was… wasn’t that nice for them to take the time to call me back?

This is my all time favorite song by Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford.

While living in Chicago… Millie J… used to visit a friend of mine by the name of

Jean… who was Tyrone Davis’ sister.  Millie had come to town to perform and while talking with Jean… I overheard her say-

“While I was coming through the airport guess who I came across?  These two people walking around holding hands.  I didn’t even have to look twice.  I knew right off it was nobody but Nick and Val.”

They had that something special… kind of like what Michelle and Obama have.  A total appreciation for each other… and a desire to always be in touch with one another… as though they cannot do or bear to be without each other.

Just a few seconds ago, a friend of mine informed me that Nick had dealt with sustance abuse.  Never knew that …or ever heard that.  So, I don’t know for sure.  I have not seen him or Val for years now.  But I know their music anywhere or anyhow I hear it.

Personally, I cannot imagine Val without Nick.  She loved him… and held on to him.  And he loved her… and held onto her.   And together they held on to each other …a profoundly good example of 2 people who truly walked in love with one another.  I certainly pray her strenght in the Lord… and that of their children and other family members.

I had heard his testimony.  And what an awesome testimony he had had regarding how God had saved and pulled  him out of a messed up life of drug addiction… and having come from a home where nobody knew the Lord.   How God had put someone in his path that gave him an invitation… and 1 day for whatever reason Zackery Tims, some 8 or  so years ago… called a man on his job who had invited him to come and go to church with him.  And that night he got saved… and his life was forever changed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20092873-504083.html

A megachurch Pastor having a congregation of more than 4,000 members in the Orlando, FL area… on this past Wednesday, Pastor Zackery Tims was found dead on the floor of his Time Square hotel room.  The first information said… heart attack.  But later information started circulating… that a white powder sustance… cocaine had been found on him.

I had long ago stopped watching him … or some reason or other.  I cannot remember why… but it always seems to me that as you watch some of these television evangelists… you like them in the beginning, but then they begin to shift.  And everything about them and what they are preaching changes.

I cannot say that about Pastor Tims… because I cannot remember what prompted me to stop watching his program. And it might not have had been anything with him… but a time conflict between the show schedule and my schedule.

His eyes lately were watery or shiney… glossy I guess you could say… whenever I would happen to catch the tailend or some part of his show.  And I am not just saying that because I am hoping that after the autopsy is finally released… it will show any drugs in his system.  Because I am not… if anything quite the opposite.

I would hate to think that he would have been drawn back… into something that he was blessed enough to have been released from.   But when you think back to the events that lead to his divorce… you have to think…    Well, maybe.

He was involved with a stripper for a year… that is what the article read.  But if it read a year… then it is possible that it was for a longer time than that.  While he was engaging in adultry with her… it is very likely that he was also indulging in other things too.  And while that relationship may have ended… and who really knows…  But if  he was drinking or indulging in drugs as well… it is not so likely that he also just stopped abusing either.  And do note I said ‘if’… because I don’t  know.

I didn’t know him… or much about him except what most of you who also watched the Word Network knew about him.  But I was watching the day he leaped upon the top of his pulpit  podium to dramatize something he was preaching.  I did think that  was very odd… and all I could think was-

“That is suppose to be holy.  How could he jump up on it?”

But it would seem that not much is still considered to be holy any more in church.  I see preachers with baseball caps and hats on in the pulpit… and sweat suits and sneakers.  Anything it seems  goes today… whatever… however…  whenever.   My, Lord…

Whatever happened to reverencing the house …and the things of the Lord?

UPDATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 2012…As of New Years Eve this year Pastor Paula White has been chosen the Board of Regents of New Destiny Christian Center.  And it would seem that since the autopsy done on the body of  Pastor Tims was never released to the public…that drugs had indeed been found in the blood system of the late Pastor Zackary Tims.

With the announcement of  Paula White becoming the chosen replacement…  Well, it did not seem to sit right with Pastor Tims ex-wife.  Tims’ ex-wife claims that Tims’ and her children are being robbed of their inheritance.  You can read more on that by CLICKING the LINK below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/riva-tims-paula-whites-appointment-process-was-illegal-and-deceptive-66161/

Since I am on the subject of Pastors… and since I did write a blog on it.  Let me just note here that I read somewhere… or heard it… that Bishop Eddie Long quietly settled his cases with the young men who had filed law suits against him, for supposedly taking sexual advantage of  them while they were under his religious leadership as young teenaged boys.

The settlement is said to have been $15 million total going out to the young men in question.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times… but I sincerely hope not.

Visiting with a niece and enjoying myself.   Can’t you tell?

I have so much time on my hands that I decided to take some of  it to write this blog.  I rarely have much time these days.  I am on assignment… and must pick up my pace.  I have to stay busy in the things of the Lord.   And at the end of the day… I just want to be ready when He comes.

And for as long as I can remember that has not changed.

I still love this picture… It is sooooo refreshing looking.

Speaking of which… while talking with a cousin this evening… she told me that they were buckling down for a bad storm that they… the insurance claims agents of the company she works for …are being prep for if  it should hit us this week on the east coast.

Better get out and pick up a few things for just in case.  And no need to wait until the last minute… do it now since you have gotten some advance info.

One other thing… while here.  My niece took me by Dr. Martin L. King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  Took a picture with a tour guide who informed me that every house on his street was bought by the Federal Government… and the only house on the street that is not owned by the Federal Government on that street is the King house… which is still owned by the King family.  But the house is open for tours …which are done on the half-hour. 

It was amazing watching the people… black and white touring the grounds of the King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  And it is all free… parking and everything without any hassles.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a very smart woman.  A woman who was determined that her husband’s death was not going to be in vain… or forgotten.  And I mean she did it… and she didn’t do it half-stepping either.

Well, God bless…

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  ©2011

4 comments August 23, 2011

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

First Lady…Michelle…Inaugural wardrobe

Okay…okay…   I have gotten the message.  

Everybody wants to see what Michelle Obama was wearing today during the inaugral of  her husband, Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America.  There has been so much talk about what Michelle would be wearing and who made it…that…  

Okay.  I too have been bitten by all the talk. 

However, I am not a fashion anything.   So, don’t expect much from me.  But she looked fabulous.

So, here you are…feast your eyes…

 Absolutely stunning. 

There can be no doubt that the President has  much to be proud of when he looks upon his beautiful wife.   What a great pair they make.   No country could have better…or any 2 people more meant for each other.

The yellow suit dress First Lady Obama wore to the Presidential Inauguration was made by a Cuban born seamstress by the name of Isabel Toledo. 

Her gown for the Inaugural Balls was made by a young designer named Jason Wu.

 

For those of you who are really into this fashion stuff…these are Michelle’s  shoes in a low angle shot of her gown…which was made of ivory silk chiffon, embellished with crystal rhinestones and silver thread embroidery…etc…etc…  Really sounds like something to behold. 

http://news.aol.com/main/inauguration/article/obamas-dance-to-at-last-at-first-ball/312613

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/inauguration.balls/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1872698,00.html

Add a comment January 21, 2009

Interesting… Obama…Martin L. King, Jr’s Holiday… History

I think that it is interesting that Martin L. King, Jr’s Birthday Holiday should be celebrated the day before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as President of the United States of America.   It is funny to me just how things seem to line up…as if in some kind of historical order.

Considering the years of fighting it took to get Martin L. King, Jr. recognized as an American hero and then to have a day proclaimed in his honor was no light feat.  Stevie wrote the song…Jesse preached about it…the Black Caucus voted on it…the NAACP said it must be…and black folks agreed upon it.  And finally over time it was done.  The Federal Government of the United States of America proclaimed it to be so…Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Holiday the 3rd Tuesday of every January since 1986, signed into law by President Ronald Regan.

I have decided not to go to Washington, DC on Tuesday…not because I would not like to be there. But to be there simply to say “I was there”…is really not a good reason to be going. But to say…

“I was there to see the manifestation of years of struggle and sacrifice combined with hope come to life…in the life, breath and limb of Barack Obama.”

Now, that would be a good reason for going. I am happy that my family is being represented in the form of my sister…who is definitely going to be one among many to see and hear Barack Obama take his oath and take his place in the corridor of American History as the 44th President of the United States of America. It is exciting.

http://www.thekingcenter.org/holiday/index.asp

Upon having gone down to Memphis this past November for the Holy Convocation of the Church of God in Christ, my son told me how he visited the Lorraine Motel, the place where Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39.

My son said that the day that Martin L. King was shot that the black men around him had refused to allow anything to be touch.  So, the hotel room that Dr. King stayed in was exactly the way he had left it upon leaving his room that day…the cars and everything are in the exact same spot that they were in when Dr. King was assassinated.   And that the site is now a National Museum.

From that time to this…this country has only celebrated the life of one black man though thousands have died through the course of the building up of this country into a nation.  Most of the greatest inventions in this country have been invented by unrecognized fallen black heros and she-ros.  The highest bounty ever put upon the head of a Wanted person prior to the 1900’s  was put upon the head of Harriet Tubman…$40,000 Dead or Alive, in 1852…due to her travels back and forth into the South bringing with her on her numerous trips over 300 slaves into freedom via the Underground Railroad.

When Tuesday comes there is much to be reflected upon…many memories to be thought of.  Some tears I am more than sure…shall be shed.  And they shall be tears of joy…promise…and more hope.

There is much to be thankful for.  I am so happy that Tuesday is coming and I look forward to it with much hope and anticipation for my nieces, nephews and my son…and his and their families for futures to come.

God bless America.

Just found out that another one of my sisters is going…and that she will be taking one on my nieces and nephews.   This is so great…we will talk about it for years to come.   Washington, DC will never be the same…nor this country.  Change is on the way.

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

CLICK LINK  below to hear Bill Cosby speak on Meet the Press regarding Obama.  I read in the transcript of that program that Bill said on Election Day he took with him into the voting booth a picture of his father, his mother and his brother, Russell who had passed at the age of 9.  Then Bill said he pulled their pictures out of  his coat and spread them before him and said-

“We’re going to vote now.”

I think that is so beautiful.

On Election Day…I took my ballot and wrote upon the face of it the full names of my mother, father, my grandmother and great-grandmother…and cast my vote in their names…as well as, my own…and for the sake of our family history in this country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28604541#28604541

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28605356/

Add a comment January 16, 2009