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Posts filed under: ‘Clark Sisters‘

DENSEL… DIVORCE OR NO DIVORCE….

I was standing in the line at the check-out cash register when I happened to spot the magazine that read, “150 Million Dollar Divorce.” And with that notation on the cover of that magazine was a picture of Densel and his wife, Paulette, of some near 30 years.

Needless, to say I was a bit shocked, because as far as I knew they adored one another. And lets face it, based upon all that Densel has said about his family and wife… there is no way that anyone would believe that THAT marriage was not rock solid.

Well, is it or isn’t it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/12/denzel-washington-divorce_n_3586774.html

The answer is… I don’t know. But then is it really for me to know.

Perhaps I should not say this but once while taking some sessions with Spike at Long Island University, about the time that Spike was making Malcolm X. In one of the sessions a young woman, who had worked closely with the production people. A fairly attractive, I guess… white woman began talking about Densel in such a way that I could tell she had great disdain for him.

She claimed he had gotten fresh with her. Maybe more than a bit flirtatious. And she apparently did not like it.

Now, I’m not saying this is true. But it came back to mind when I was reading the front cover of that magazine.

When I initially looked this story up over to internet to see if it were true, I could find nothing on it. Now, it seems that Densel is out and about saying ‘there will be no divorce.’ He is saying that there is no break-up inspite of what seems to not be 1 rumor …but rumors.

Densel Washington today is a top of his game a very high grossing actor… a super big action movie hero and heart throb. His world today is a very far cry since his days on the small screen, as a doctor at St. Elsewhere… or something or other like that, a hospital series that was on TV… some maybe 20 years ago. At his leisure these days Densel commands upward and over $20 million per film.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2011/11/03/hollywoods-most-overpaid-stars/2/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2212271/Denzel-Washington-wife-29-years-Pauletta-look-love-holiday-Italy.html

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/denzel-washington-denies-divorce-rumors

Densel and Paulette started dating in 1977… 3 or 4 years later they married. He was then a struggling and aspiring actor, and she was an actor/dancer, some 5 years his senior. They have been married 29 years… and are the parent of 4 or 5 children.

Since Densel is declaring that his marriage is not over… I guess unlike so many other couples… they both must feel that their marriage is worth fighting for.

Either that or all this talk about divorce really is… nothing but senseless rumors.

And I say bravo… to that. Which ever 1 it is…

The alleged other woman is this… from what I gather, is actress Lanaa Lathan, of that hit movie ‘Love & Basketball.’

Didn’t she used to be Omar Epps’ girl-friend years ago?

Lathan looks good now…and has always been pretty. But Densel’s wife is beautiful. And I know whatever he does… if this thing might be true… Densel is going to be thinking about his kids… and the effects upon them and their mother. And, of course, his pocketbook… otherwise that $150 million divorce article might come true.

At this stage of the game I believe Denzel to be mature enough to definitely not be going through that thing what Donald Trump and Ivana went through. That thing which so many men say they go through. That…that thing… which is actually an excuse for exchange in sexual partners and/or wives… called ‘mid-life crisis.’

Well, God bless… hope you are having a great week this week. I am so happy that the

weather has broke. I needed the relief from all that heat.

I am still nursing my foot. Still trying my best to stay off of it as much as I can.

Again let me say that I want to thank those of you very much who have ventured out and purchased my book… which can be ordered on-line at any number of websites… just google THE BISHOP’S WIFE by Bernadine Smith… and see for yourself. And you can also read excerpts from my book on-line as well at Barnes&Nobles Nook, amazon.com etc…

Add a comment July 26, 2013

A SEASON OF FORGETTING…They do come…

Can’t believe this. I had started a blog about something… can’t remember what… but evidently I failed to save it. It is nowhere to be found among these records of things that I have written. Might be just as well… I suppose…

Alas… Nothing to do but to start another 1… and hopefully I will remember to save this 1. Needless say that over time…these last few months I have gotten a little bit older. So, though I had never done it before it is possible… that I just FORGOT.

Wow, don’t you hate that… when people start tying your forgetfulness to your age?

It can be annoying. Like when you were young you never forgot anything. I used to forget things all the time. In fact, I had to make it a habit to go back into the house… to double-check if I had unplugged the iron almost all the time before leaving for work. Or I would always turn back to look down at the lock… to make sure I had taken the key. Now, don’t tell you have never done that one.

I recall 1 night while in kitchen cooking there was a knock on the door… In fact, it happened to me at least twice but in 2 different apartments that I had once lived in. A neighbor knocked on my door to inform me that I had come in and forgotten my key. Luckily, it happened at a time when you could still find people who were honest… and caring enough to knock and notify you.

What else have I forgotten…

Well, once having to drop off some papers down at the Courthouse… I got all the way down there only to begin digging in my bag only to discover that I had forgotten the papers.

I have also gotten to the gas pump only to remember that I changed jackets leaving my card… and cash at home.

Now, what is my earliest remembrance of me forgetting something?

Well, I cannot remember. But I do know this I have been forgetting things for a long time… and it didn’t just start when I celebrated my 60th birthday the other day. So, if you must lay it something do not lay my lack of being able to retain things to my age… simply say I have soooooo much on my mind. Yes, I think I like that better. Because truthfully that would be closer to the truth than anything else.

For all of my life I have been busy. And busy people are subject to forget things from time to time. Like how I lost my last blog… that I evidently forgot to save. Or maybe I never partially wrote 1 in the first place.

Now, that would be something huh?

Like me thinking that I had done something which I had not. Now, that I believe would be an age thing. Because I can’t remember having ever done anything like that before.

Could it be… I am getting old?

Oh, well… I am informed that if you live long enough you too will grow old. Then I want to see how much you remember.

If I fail to write anything between now and Christmas… let me say it now while I’m still thinking of it : )…. Merry Christmas…

This case of the missing blog reminds of a dispute I had with 1 of my professors. At the end of the semester the professor claimed I had not turned in an important essay assignment. Come on now… as you can tell I do nothing but write. I love to write… and that paper was about writing on a subject giving my opinion. Now, I really like writing things like that. So, then why did that professor say she never got my paper?

It is a mystery to me. As I had indeed given the woman my paper. I never miss class assignments. Well, not since I’ve gotten older. You know how being young is… you are carefree. So, when I was young years ago I was carefree in college… back in the ’70’s I did nothing but stay in the campus radio station. Which might be why I never quite became that lawyer… but a professional radio announcer instead.

Well, everybody doesn’t get offers to go professional in their first year of college… but I did. I never even thought about radio as a profession. But I guess God did. And it has carried me wide and far… and paid my bills for most of my adult life.

But going back to that professor. Until this dispute over my missing grade… because you see she had give me the paper back with a grade of -A. At that time I used to record the grades I got when my papers were handed back to me on my class syllabus. I had recorded the grade… but I was later unable to locate the paper to prove it.

The professor, however, said that she had never in her life ever lost a student’s paper. Which she really had not done… because she had returned the paper back to me.

However, if you have ever seen a teacher’s grading book you would understand how easy it is for an instructor to mark your work but give your grade to someone else. Because the names are all bunched up together. And sitting over a bunch of exams all night and day you start seeing cross-eyed. So, yes the woman probably gave my grade to some student whose name was near mine…either before it or after it. But I never got the grade. And I have never been able to find that paper.

But what was upsetting to me about the whole matter was the teacher’s attitude regarding it. This class was 1 I had taken 7 years ago. So, it was long after my carefree days. At this point none of my classes were any real challenge to me mentally or otherwise. And I have never really been a dummie.

But the lady acted like she had never ever made an error in her life. And that really got to me… because I knew she had.

Having been a teacher there is 1 thing I know… a teacher knows her students. The teacher knows the slackers… and the students who study. The teacher knows the student that struggle with the subject matter… those who half do the work… and those who breeze their way through it. A teacher knows the good students from the bad ones. But for some reason this teacher seemed to have a problem differentiating between the 2. She didn’t know me at all.

I never missed a class… always participated… and turned in all my work… and on time. So, why didn’t that lady know me?

Because she didn’t want to is the only reason I surmise. And maybe to some degree I intimidated her.

Though I was not 1 of those returning older students who took up class time talking about myself… or about how different things were from when I first started college… or ever talked about any of my life experiences or work expertise… or any vacations my husband and I once took… Because well.. for (1) I never had a husband and… (2) I have sat in classes where older students took up a lot of class time talking about nothing… and that nothing did not even come close to anything dealing with our text… or the class discussion if there was one.

My work and expertise in the various fields I have worked overwhelms most people. And because I have done so much… most people wouldn’t believe it anyway.

Then too I have always been 1 who believes that I don’t have to whip out my resume… and in my case resumes… in order to prove anything. A smart person need only listen to how I speak and what I say… and they will gather it for themselves.

So, there was a dispute because due to that paper which that professor did something with my grade other than having given it to me… she marked me down a whole grade for my class final grade. While having to fail to inform me that a paper was ever supposedly missing. It was not until I approached her to asked why I had not received a higher grade than the C+ she gave me… that the woman commenced to tell me about a paper I had not passed in.

Now, as I write this it sounds very shady doesn’t it?

Because I remember being in her class and hearing her reading from her grade book the names of students who owed her papers… and she never once called my name. But this woman had also said at the beginning of the term that she was not going to accept any papers late.

You know what?

I’m glad that I have them in Court right now… because now that I think about maybe it was I who did not know her.

God bless… and I had already said… I definitely hope you have a very Merry Merry Merry Christmas. And do remember to be safe.

Add a comment December 13, 2012

HAS GOSPEL MUSIC GONE SECULAR…the Gospel… and Changes in People Preaching the Word

You might not believe this but I actually completed this blog the night before Martin L. King’s birthday weekend. But I’m just now getting back to it now… nearly how many months later?? But I hope that you still find it to be a good read.

Interesting…

Recently, I got an interview request from someone who wanted to discuss with me some of my comments and opinions… or rather some singular statements that I voiced here on my blog site. Statements regarding a shift in gospel music. In particular they wanted to talk to me regarding my blog entitled… ‘KIM BURRELL…secular music wanna be.’

In that blog I stated my opinions on gospel artists attempting to move away from their musical base…or roots if you will… to chase after what appears to them to be ‘greener grounds’ on the other side. They want larger crowds… bigger audiences… and when you get right down to it… it’s all about “moe money”… “moe fame”… “more of the roar of the crowd”… and “moe money.”

Wonder who told them getting it would be “all of dat…then some?”

Do I feel that Kim Burrell’s decision to try to follow a secular career in music is based upon money?

Yes, I do.

Kim saying that it is about souls…really contradicts Biblical text which says ‘come out from among them’ …not become like them so you can bring them in.

So, when I hear an gospel artist say that they have hipped up their music and performance to reach the masses or the younger generation… it really does not equate. Least ways… not for me.

What it really amounts to is nothing more than not wanting to be labelled as an ‘gospel artist‘ any longer… which Kim Burrell has publically stated.

So, Kim has this burning desire to not just do ‘gospel music’ any more ….or to be labelled as a ‘gospel music artist’ any longer…but something wider…and broader than that. Might as well just come out and say… something more worldly.

You can tell something about Kim Burrell if you have ever watched that show, Sunday’s Best…which I never did. But it was all over the internet …including a youtube upload of the segment that I am refering to… where Kim told someone to get rid of “that gospel sound” … saying, “You’re sounding too churchie.”

Too “CHURCHIE???”

Has Kim not heard of Aretha Franklin?

Sounding ‘churchie’ never hurt Aretha 1 little bit.

Po’ Kimberly.

Well, this kind of thinking may or may not have stemmed from Kim having grown up in her family’s church, singing gospel music most of her life. Until… I guess… maybe all of her life until now.

So, now Kim Burrell wants a secular career. She wants to cross over to do R&B … or SOUL music or Pop Music… or whatever they call it today. And I say that because today all ‘our’ musical forms are under attack… though Pop is not ours. But our music is under attack. Is under the threat of seriously totally disappearing before our very eyes. It is all being re-catagorized into something else.

Coming from the music industry from way back… I can make certain assessments and statements from a point of knowledge that most cannot. Because of my history of being many years in the record industry …namely by way of radio…I do therefore come with some degree of insider knowledge based upon my observations over the years… and they are merely my observations. I have been watching certain changes and themes going on in the music industry since I guess I started listening to music… because it has always been there. And namely because we do not control it… other people do.

Who would have ever thought that there would come a day when black folk would not want to sound black?

We all have heard of Elvis and other white recording artists covering black folks music and trying their best to sound like us. There were those that emulated our keyboard playing… guitar playing… singing …and even dancing. But now there has been a shift… now we’re the ones trying to do the emulating. This is sad. We are now doing what they used to do… and it is especially so in the gospel industry. And particularly among some of the upper tier gospel artists who want to get air time on Christian radio stations.

It used to be that black gospel singers just wanted a contract… get some radio exposure… do concerts …and praise the Lord, while showing forth their praises to Him for the marvelous gifts He had endowed them with. But not today. The atmosphere has changed… and it is not about God. Well, for many it is not… but all about money.

Guess gospel radio stations are about to bite the dust as far as some of today’s gospel artists are concerned… and they are disappearing. Our artist could care less about those small little black owned radio stations that they used to leap at for a chance to get an interview on so they could talk up their latest projects.

In regards to my thoughts on what some so-called gospel artists are currently calling urban gospel music… I really think that it is a shamme. It is truly a shame and disgrace how readily we are so quick to forsake those things which are so uniquely us. And we do it all for nothing more than the sank of a few almighty dollars…that only last for a little while.

And they do it without any consideration to our history and our future legacies.

We just throw it all to the wind…and then other people come in… and they begin to lay claim to it… calling it theirs.

Have you not seen that?

There was once a time when there had been more than just a hand full of black owned businesses in America… and they were large booming corporations. But during the latter 70’s into the mid-80’s there was a big sale off of most of those black owned companies… and mostly they were sold off to companies controlled by non-African Americans. Thoes African American companies were companies that produced products directly for us and by us… and had been birthed primarily because other corporations did not care about us… or what our specific needs were.

There was a time when all the make-up and hair products in the stores were basically geared towards white women and men. But the difference you see in stores today is not there because of anyone outside of ourselves. We began to produce black hair products and make-up etc. for us… to fit our needs… or skin tones… and hair textures etc.

But those African American companies…for the most part were really the beginning of the big sell off. The big money makers like the black hair care and make-up companies followed by publications and radio stations etc. were the first things bought out by white corporations. Today you see that almost all our so-called black radio stations are owned by 1 corporation, Clear Channel. Clear Channel owns almost everything media…black, white, hispanic and etc.

The first cab company here in our town was even started by a black woman… and even that too was sold off.

So, what am I saying?

I am saying that we are good historically at creating then selling off and out everything that we own… and have created… selling out our goods, talents, gifts etc… to other groups of people who almost always end up capitalizing far more off them… than we ever did. And we usually have done so to our own detriment…as a group of people… and to the lack of consideration for our future generations, who have no knowledge of what was… and no vision for what can be for them.

We have lost so much in all of those sell-off transactions. And one of the greatest things we have sold off is our ability to control and determine our own destines…through any sustainable period of time.

This same trend for years has been spreading across the board into everything we have either created or have produced… not just our hair care products and cosmetics, but also in our art and various other art forms such as dance etc. This is not good… and has been a huge determent to our children’s future and their entrepreneurial spirit. Which many of them have none at all.

It is definitely not good for us to forsake our cultural gifts… our diversity and own creativity… and particularly to forsake those things which are uniquely us… such as our music and our other cultural forms of art.

If we don’t preserve them …who will?

If we don’t treasure them …who will?

Today’s artists are greedy. They want more money… and they are just not satisfied with more money… they want LOTS of it. Which, of course, has to mean more sales… wider variety of awards… and all of this translates into creating a wider market.

So, today’s gospel artists do not mind forsaking their old fan base who loved and supported them during their meager beginning… who bought their music before the big switch to sounding like somebody else… somebody non-black… somebody undefined…somebody non-negro …because it is a race thang… or un-black. And many gospel promoters can’t even touch them… because they are priced outside of our reach.

It all has to be a new form of self-hate. And I thought we had gotten way past that.

Our children walk around believing we have nothing… have done nothing… and that they will be nothing… because we have forsaken so much. We have just thrown it all away… all to the wind. Even our own self-respect.

There are just some things too valuable to place a price on… things that are truly worth holding on to no matter what. If we do not… we all loose. There are so few black businesses today.

A few gospel labels are still trying to hold on… like Malaco, Tyscot, JDI, and some smaller record labels and those yet under-ground… companies that we all should be trying to support because they still maintain their integrity by staying close to our gospel core… providing good gospel music while other companies… the larger gospel labels out weigh them with the stellar gospel stars and much much much larger budgets.

The thing that hurts the most … and I can say even worst… is that our children will loose… and loose big for every generations to come. Clearly, they are already suffering when you look and hear what they are pumping out. It neither sounds like us… or looks like us. They have gone ga-ga..

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/evangelisttonyaglive/2011/12/03/ngm-presents-talk-show

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

During the course of my career there has come my way many times that I got up and walked off away from the table… because I was made offers. But money has never wowed me like that. Me… myself… and I… WE ARE NOT FOR SALE… and have never been.

So, even as a sinner… way back then… I got up and turned my back on a lot of things that could have gotten me lots of money… but I chose to say, ‘no’… as I have never elected to do anything that would disgrace me or my family… or my people… or my core beliefs.

So, I have never been a sell-out.

Nor have I ever sold myself out. And as good as God has been to me… I definitely have no intentions of ever considering ‘going for the money’ now.

No, way… I love Him too much. And all our gifts are for his glory.

Money is not worth selling off that part of you that you will never be able to buy back.

How do you sell off your soul?

I have always been called an artists. Most of the time I made a lot of decisions based upon my art… and not necessarily in consideration of my pocketbook. So, I have been in the dark many a times.

Yes, I have had the electricity shut off…more than a few times…. cars repossessed… and bill collectors up the yah-zoo. But I never did anything that went against me… Well, almost once. But it didn’t work out… thank goodness for God. He stepped in.

I do believe some gospel artists are choosing to go against whatever moral standings they may have had… if some of them had any at all. Or maybe it is just that they are not really saved or sanctified in the first place. I have heard comments concerning people we have long held in high regard as truly being people of God… who behind the scene cuss… fuss, use drugs, drink …and show off a side to be anything but holy.

But truly here are some things that we have to take seriously… and very seriously indeed. Putting God up for sale.. or whether we should… or would want to is one of them. And trying to sell it off as a means of winning souls to Christ is another.

Confess and tell the truth.

Today the music industry is going through another re-defining, repositioning, and a transitional period. It is something that the industry goes through periodically. It ususally comes about when they realize that there is more money to be made if we…do this. So, by dangling sparkling trinkets before the eyes of certain artist who may be hot… or have the talent to be very hot. So, these companies feed them a song and dance about how they can make more money if they would… Sell out… because that is what it comes down to.

It happened with Michael Jackson when he was stolen away from Motown and his family group, the Jackson 5. You remember when Michael emerged as the King of Pop… that was the new thing then… a new musical catagory called Pop Music.

This re-catagorization or creation of new music sub-divisions are for the purpose of openning artists up to larger audiences …by making them more acceptable to ‘other people’ in order to rake in more capital. And it has meant the lost of such music catagories as… R&B… and Soul Music… which were converted into catagories called ‘urban‘ and this new junk call ‘neo-soul’ today. And most of the black radio stations became urban radio stations.

When gospel artist decide that they are going to ‘go for the money’ then they should say that… if that is what they are going for.

They really should just say, “I’m going for the money.”

But no… they want to make statements like-

“God told me I needed to go out there to the unsaved. And in order to do that I have do what will appeal to them. That means creating music that speaks to them and will intrigue- Ooops…excuse me. I mean to say help bring them in.”

Such statements speak in direct contradiction to Biblical text… and can never justify anyone going out there trying to cross-over their music in order to reach ‘a wider’ audience outside of the gospel world. And when you think about it… was not gospel music created for the saved… not the un-saved?

They already have their music.

In the mid-80’s came this thing called “POP MUSIC.” It was the beginning of a marketing plan to make black artist… or African American talent more acceptable to white audiences. And it was all about making more money for those artist who wanted to do this thing called ‘cross-over.’ And was the beginning of ridding the music world of anything sounding …or looking like us.

In many cases of the artist’s who wanted to go Pop their whole sound changed… just as we are hearing today in the gospel music industry. The artist moved away from making music or writing songs that brought them to the attention of those who began chasing them, offering more money and bigger contracts.

Those people came up with a plan to do away with certain groups of music… music you hardly hear any more because they set about graying the lines between the music to make it more acceptable to all… Well, almost all.

One of the first types of music that was aimed to hit the bricks was jazz. This began just about the time that many of the real jazz masters started departing this earth… jazz greats such as Miles, Coltrane, Armstrong, Thelonious Monk etc…etc…etc… And if it had not been for die hard jazz lovers who strongly resisted the lost of this musical genre by (1) rebuilding a core of new real jazz music lovers, (2) the emergence of jazz radio station programming it … usually on mostly public radio and/or educational stations where subscribers supported this type of programming, and (3) the creation of smooth jazz radio stations programming a softer more acceptable jazz, 24 hours a day everyday of the week. Though smooth jazz is considerably different from the type of jazz that had been created by the masters like Miles Davis… it did, however, find its nitch.

Now, while half watching… get this… the Soul Train Music Awards show… I noticed a drastic change has happened to Soul Music. While watching it all I could think was… if Don Cornelius was alive (and he was at the time…I just didn’t know it until he committed suicide). During that show I heard terms like ‘urban soul’… and that mess they called ‘neo-soul.’ All mostly foreign to me… as of course do not listen to such mess.

I equate ‘neo-soul’ to the new direction we see gospel music headed in… and it is very sad.

While putting together a gospel music video program… I included a music video by the gospel duo of sisters called MaryMary. What stuck out to me as I was typing in the data for their video… I noticed that it was classified as being ‘urban.’

I realized then that MaryMary did not desire to be pigeoned hold as simply being ‘gospel’ artists… but something more acceptable to a wider audience… which would also mean wider radio and television programming… and/or exposure for their music

Okay…

I guess if that is what you want to do. But the argument on the side of MaryMary can still be made that they have never really totally sold out… they are not afraid to speak ‘Jesus’ or ‘God’ in their music… nor does it appear that they are willing to expose much of their bodies ‘for profit.’ And the focus of their music still seems to be not as far out there as I see where some others have gone lately.

In order to reach the acclaim and match the money that MaryMary has managed to reap… it appears that others have decided to follow MaryMary’s lead… but they have decided to go that additional mile. They have decided to reach further out into the deep waters… by what seems to me to be a casting off of any semblance of anything that remotely sounds like ‘gospel’ music… and/or looks ‘holy.’ They desire to be more like what is being called ‘Christian’ music artists. Which is very much more like rock music… and will drive you crazy if you sat listening to it all day.

In almost all of the music on the so-called Christian radio stations… you have to listen real hard to even be able to deciper that itit is a Christian song… because Christian radio stations do not play gospel song.

So, in order to be heard over Christian radio stations…which are growing while our smaller less popular gospel radio stations are fading, barely able to stay afloat… since many black people are now tuning in to Christian radio stations too., which give them greater Arbitron numbers which means more advertising dollars going to them. So, many of our artists have lost that black sound… or the ethnic sound in order to blend in.

Oh, I know that rock music has it roots in our music… going all the way back to such people like Little Richard and Jimmy Hendrix. But that is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about is this…

Christian radio station is a misnomer… because it sounds like for the most just like another rock station. It is just positioning itself as something else… and that something else is working.

I do not care what they call it… those radio stations pump rock music… and they are rock & roll radio stations at their core, and they are hurting our radio stations. It really doesn’t matter what type of lyrics their songs may or may not have… the basic overall sound of it is still the same as that of rock and roll.

When urban radio stations began playing music like Donnie McClurkin’s ‘We Fall Down’ …or going all the way back to Walter Hawkins,’ Oh, Happy Day’…it did not make those stations become gospel radio stations. Nor did playing Donnie’s song or the Clark Sister’s ‘You Bring the Sunshine’ dictate an overall change in their basic programming format. Their focus was and still is… is on playing supposed urban music… or today mostly that neo-soul mess.

Therein, this leads me to further make my case, urban radio stations used to be soul radio stations… or R&B radio stations… but in the mid-90’s there came about a change. A re-classification change… many R&B artists wanted to follow the king of Pop…Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie and others come from under the rock called ‘black music artist’ tag. They wanted to lean toward another word just beginning to circulate… first ‘urban’…and then it became ‘pop.’

All of it was aimed at reaching beyond the boundaries of our own neighborhoods… from the urban areas to a much wider and broader audiences. Also it was to bring about something which was being whispered at that time… the doing away of the R&B/Soul music categories. And none of this was being done by us.

No, but it was by those who whispered into the ears of the so-called up and coming artists and rappers of today.

It was done by the people who own the labels… the chart books… and who had influence to get things heard and played over the radio. And those people are a lot like the penthouse drug kingpins…and might be some.

You know those guys… the drug lords who never touch the street but reap the bigger benefits… because the drug market is really theirs… and to a large degree it intertwines with the music business. Though this is never spoken of.

Yeah, it is like that. The drug business and the music business are constructed very much the same. Little wonder why drugs are so easily and readily obtainable in the music industry… the sports industry… and wherever else where there are lots of dollars to be made. Anything that makes money is usually owned and operated by the same people when you get right down to it.

When a new radio station signed on in New York City I was looking forward to it. I had read that it was going to be a Christian radio station… in a place that was pumbing everything else but any daily gospel music. But from the moment it began airing I realized that there was something wrong. It sounded more like Z-100 ‘the Zoo’… a local New York City rock music radio station.

The whole thing is really a gimmick to entice hardcore rock listeners to tune into something else which is being passed off as Christian music …but is still very much and sounds just like the music that they love and crave for so very dearly… rock. They have not been transformed.

Thus, were the Christian radio stations birthed. They became a quick sell buying into every market and opening the doors for many of their artists… caucasian singers and musicans to become more widely known and accepted in the Christian/Gospel music market… and more importantly the award shows.

In a very large metro areas such as New York City… which up until the Christian radio station began air… it had no 24 hour …or daytime radio station programming any gospel or Christian music at all at that time… it was seen by many Christian people as a welcomed and long overdue arrival.

But this welcomed arrival… soon became a big game changer too. And they were on the FM dial… which everybody knows sounds a lot better than a low signal AM station any time.

Thus was a desire kindled by some gospel artists to create material which could become acceptable to this new outlet called ‘Christian Radio.’ A large part of this transformation called for those artists wishing to cross over… to first lose their ‘black’… or ‘gospel-ee’ sound. And that is exactlyy what they have done… much like Beyoncé sounding less ‘black’… like almost that whole ‘neo-soul’ movement in what used to be known as the Black Music Division yesterday… to the Urban Music Division a few years ago… and now Neo-Soul. And there is nothing soul in it… or about it …outside of the color of the skin of those who call themselves performing it.

This change you can especially be heard in Tye Tribbitts latest cd… also in much of the Kirk Franklin’s material… as well as in many others who want to jump onto that band wagon. You can say that they have sold out …and it is not for Christ’s sake. But for that all mighty thing called in the Biblical text ‘filthy luka.’

Kim Burrell in her latest cd release has attempted to do the same thing… as well as, Kierra Shear… and Trinity 5:7… and the list goes on… and on.

When I saw Kim baring her shoulder and trying to appear as a sex vixen in a music video produced from a song on her latest cd… it seemed sad to me. I thought… she has eyes but can not see. The video was anything but sexy… nor was it appealing.

Then I saw where someone had posted over the internet a note about the Trinity 5:7’s latest video… saying that she was shocked at their display… asking if it was just her…. or whether or not the video appeared to be leaning towards anything gospel… religious… or Christian at all???

So, I checked out the video. And my answer was…‘NAY.’ ‘NAY.’ ‘NAY.’

One could say that many of todays new brand of gospel music producers and performers are pimping that gift that God has so freely endowed them with … which is supposed to be for His glory… by subverting it for their own benefit… and worldly profit.

Yeah, the kids like it… I guess…must be… for the most part. And don’t get me wrong… not all of it is totally bad. There are a lot of songs that I like by Kirk… and at least 1 by Tye.

I know my son loves Kierra’s latest cd. But when I first heard it I didn’t have a clue as to who it was singing. It was not until sometime later that he told me it was Kierra, Karen Clark Shears daughter.

Kierra’s cd does get there but after a while… but still you can see the direction that Kierra chose to take in an effort to land on Christian radio stations… as opposed to catering to the gospel music brand of those she follows so closely in the footsteps of… namely her mother, Karen… and her aunts… the other Clark Sisters. And of course her grandmother… Dr. Mattie Moss Clark.

Thank goodness most of the gospel artists and especially the gospel quartets have remained true and strong their art form. Chosing to preserve the traditions of an art form that still moves many of us to tears with moving touching lyrics… or foot stomping songs… and hand clapping music that still brings many of us to our feet. Music created in the muke and miry clay of the fields during slavery times… and on up through the years of our history here in America.

Maybe, I should have waited to write this during Black History Month… or Gospel Music Month. Is there such a thing as… Gospel Music Month?

Is there a Gospel Music Month?

If not then there should be. Because our music is the only real American music… as Soul Food is the only real American cuisine. Because it is the only food in which its roots were started here in America. Almost every other food we eat came from some other country… rooted in other cultures and brought here as the immigrants began to flow into this country. But our circumstances being different… forced us to create ‘a new’ everything we eat… said… and did.

Earlier this evening while working on this blog… I had my computer on the Word Network listening to this preacher named Dr. Chris Hill, a pastor of a T.D. Jakes church in Dever, Colorado. I had heard him before and have occasionally watched his broadcast… but to tell you the truth I can only take a little bit of the guy. But tonight as I typed I would occasionally glance over to his broadcast …and it dawned on me as to what it was I found so irritating about him.

For the first thing… it came across my mind that each time I have happened to catch a piece of his broadcast… that the man appeared to be on drugs.

And for the 2nd thing that I noticed was… the guy likes to holler. I have nothing against hollering …preachers holler. So, growing up in the Church… and particular the black Church… I have learned to accept hollering by preachers as being part of their technique.

In the Pentecostal Church whenever the Pastor or whomever is preaching when they got excited they automatically began to holler… or in other words speak very fervently. But this guy… Dr. Chris Hill hollers at numerous places throughout his sermon at varying times… and most of the time as it appears to me… he does it for no other reason outside of him just wanting to do so… or to grab a laugh.

As I occasionally would glance back and forth at him tonight… he reminded me of a stand-up comedian. Appearing comedic appears to be very much Dr. Hill’s forte… or so he believes.

But tonight I felt I have really put my hand on it finally. That is to say… put my hand on exactly what it was that I had been trying to put my hands on about him. And this is it…he appears more like ‘Stepin Fetchit.’

Now, I am really not trying to crack on Dr. Hill. No, I am not. Truly, I am not trying to do that. But he gives me the impression of someone who is more playing with his audience… which is made up of a large number of white church goers. Rather than just delivering a sermon to them. He likes to play with the sermon and them a lot. And he seems to love to do what he thinks will prompt them to laugh.

I don’t know… perhaps I am just toooooo old school… or maybe I’m just being ‘too’ black… first the gospel music… and now this????

Will the church become full of preachers who want to do stand-up comedy rather than preach the word?

I don’t mind humor. I know that humor is good. But the entire sermon turned into a joke… I don’t know????

Or maybe it is that this is the Chris Hill way of preaching. Is the way of a new group of preachers coming up today… to slay them with laughter?

We’ll see.

But there does seem to me to be such an urgency today that wasn’t there yesterday. And that is we are getting closer and closer to the end times… far closer than we were yesterday. And though I definitely know and agree that laugher is good… but preaching salvation and deliverance is of a greater need. And I’m not saying that humor cannot be mixed with it… if you can do it without shading the overall message too much.

So, do not get me wrong. Yes, I believe in laugher. In fact, I hired some comedians recently and brought a night of comedy here… but for everything there is a time and a season. Standing up and humoring a bunch of folk straight through what should be your sermon does not seem to me to be ministering to the whole man… when you are working the crowd like a stand-up comedian rather than a man of God operating in his formal capacity.

It was Jesus who said… “Feed my sheep.”

As of New Year’s Eve Pastor Paula White became the new senior Pastor over New Destiny Christian Church… following the sudden death of their founder and leader Pastor Zackery Tims.

In reading the story… namely the ill feelings between the Broads of Regents over the Church and Riva Tims… the ex-Mrs. Zackery Tims, who filed papers against the Church claiming that she should have been named the senior Pastor since she and her then husband, Pastor Tims, were the founders of New Destiny.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/zachery-tims-fla-church-denies-riva-tims-claim-to-leadership-66085/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/zachery-tims-death-fla-ministers-ex-wife-comments-on-leading-megachurch-56660/

I found it interesting that Paula like Sheryl Brandy just decided to up and leave her church behind. Well, Paula not quite…as it seems that Paula is still in control over her own church still, the church Without Walls International, in Tampa, FL … which Paula founded along with her then husband, Randy White… whom we do not hear much of anything from or about rany more.

As you many may or may not have noticed …but over the course of the last few years Paula has shifted in terms of her theology… it has swung to prosperity. This is extremely evident in her daily television show segments which she broadcasts over the Word Network… and other channels as well. One thing in particular that stands out is Paula’s show’s guest list … featuring a bunch of false prophets and supposed evangelist… and I guess even some so-called Pastors all soliciting sowers on the behalf of Paula White.

It will be interesting to see or read about New Destiny since the passing of Pastor Zackery Tims, who had built up such a vast media following. I can only imagine how greatly vested he was in media equipment and facilities as he had a large television ministry. His vast media possibilities have now availed themselves to Paula White since she has been chosen the new Pastor at New Destiny.

The question in all of this is whether of not Paula White can carry it …or what will she do with it?

Well, tomorrow is Dr. Martin L. King’s birthday. Meaning we all have a day off… and an opportunity to reflect upon the history and legacy of Dr. King. With some states chosing it to initiate state issued Voter ID cards… a trend that can only be seen as a drive by Republicans to lessen minority votes…as well as, to try and weaken worker’s rights, benefits and compensation, medical plans, and unions busting… also changes in Women Rights to abortion etc… as it is all tied in with the power to vote.

This holiday we have much to reflect upon.

Let us not allow the hands of time to be turned back.

It is interesting to think that forty years after the death of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. we have an African American man in the White House, as President of the United States of America. And I love it.

But the other side of that coin is the number of death threats per day that President Obama receives, more than 8 per day… it is the highest number ever in the history of American Presidents. And the number of insults hurled at him publicly by Republican members of both the Senate and Congress… inclusive of being called ‘liar’ loudly during a State of the Nation broadcast… can be surmised as nothing more than pure out and out racism.

Miss Daisy said it best… an elderly woman of over 100 years of age… who said to me 1 day angrily-

“Do you see what they are doing to Obama?”

And man… was Miss Daisy mad when she said it.

Unlike the kids… she saw… lived …and remembered what it had been like years before laws were created to force the change in things… as to how we live… our basic everyday rights… and privileges that were never extended to us before. But Dr. King marched…went to jail and fought that we might be able stand like everybody else in this country… with our back up straight and tall. So, we could stand on the law… and in our case ‘the laws’… there were many and they were long in coming.

Enjoy Dr. King’s day.

Got a little snow the other night… didn’t amount to much and I am glad about that after all the snow we got last year.

But it has been very very very cold these last few days… then 1 day would get mild… and by night fall which to come very early this year… it turns soooo cold all over again. But then it is winter… and I would rather the cold over the snow… or cold and snow.

Well, God bless… and enjoy your week. Just noticing… this is my first blog for this year….2012. Time is truly flying by.

Well, it would have been… had I finished it before now. LOL….

Add a comment July 31, 2012

I DECLARE…It’s my day…

Today was 1 of those rare days. You know the kind of day you rarely ever get. A day you wake up knowing that if you don’t get up at all it will be alright.

Didn’t have to rush to go catch nothing. No buses… no cabs… no car pool… no ride to the store… no NOTHING.

No need to ask my son for the keys to the car.

No need to beg-

“Can I catch a ride with you?”

“About how long for the cab?”

“Will you come by and get me?”

Yes, I woke up not having to go anywhere… or having to do anything.

I could lay there and there… and lay there enjoying the warmth of my bed.

I didn’t have worry about nothing. Didn’t have to rush off to finish this… or finish that.

Today was… and is all mine. ALL MINE… all by myself.

Nobody to say-

“Auntie this…”

Or, “Auntie that…”

Didn’t have to answer any questions.

Didn’t have to worry aboout getting caught out in the rain. Or go searching in my bag to pull out my sunglasses.

Didn’t have to search for my keys… lace up my shoes…. or make sure everything I needed was in my carrying case.

Didn’t have to ask nothing… say nothing… or particularly do nothing thing. Just lay back and enjoy it.

A day all to myself.

Ahhhhhhhhh…..

Don’t you wish you had 1?

When was the last time you could say this?

They don’t come often. And for that reason I am going to end this blog, and continue to enjoy my day… with me… myself… and I.

Well, God bless… I’ve got a few more hours to this day… and I mean to continue to enjoy them.

And whatever your day is like I hope that you are enjoying it too.

Add a comment October 24, 2011

Busy…but not forgotten…

Yes, I have been busy…but I have not forgotten you.

Often, in fact, I formulated blogs in my head. It is just that they have not quite made it to the printed form. And soon those thoughts faded away… lost forever in the recesses of my mind.

It gets like that…getting busy, I mean. You get so caught up in something else that everything else… Well, almost everything else falls by the wayside.

Then just this pass weekend 1 of my sisters had a heart attack. Well, needless to say that can really send you into a tailspin…if you weren’t already into one. So, I have been busy…and now I’m into a tailspin too.

There is something about having to deal with one’s mortality that will force you to view your own…your purpose… life… things done …and things yet hoping to get done. Then there are those things which we don’t want to do but somehow feel lead to do. And to tell you the truth that is what for the pass couple of days I have been wrestling with the most now that all of this has happened.

For a while now I have had a feeling that I am been lead to preach… as in ‘Preacher.’ So, I began to not only read my Bible but I also started to study it. You know that scripture that says…

“Study to show thou self approved…”

So, for the pass I don’t know what…over 2 years or so… I have been studying. And recently I began videotaping a television program for Public Access…a series about learning to study your Bible.

But when my sister suffered her heart attack it now seems that I have just been stalling…trying to put off the enviable.

It is not that I don’t want to do it. No, not that…though that is kind of it too. But I lack the confidence to do it. I can’t remember scripture…though I do believe that as the Bible says…

“He will bring it back to our remembrance.”

Yes, I do believe that. And He has shown me that He does and will do it. But it is just that… I don’t really want to preach.

I mean I have been in radio, introduces acts at concerts, promoted different events… But…but this is different.

So, as busy as I claim that I have been… Well, I haven’t been all that busy. I have just been laying around…low key…thinking about what it is that God is asking me to go out and do. And down deep inside…I really don’t want to do it.

But I feel I must. And then again I am afraid if I don’t… Well, I’m afraid of what God may do to me… or my family. And that is what I think my sister’s heart attack was all about.

I don’t think it was about her at all. But that it was about me …and what I am not doing.

How can you be instant in and out of season if you really lack what you think you need?

I know that God would not send any of us out without fully equipping us to fulfill His need. But yet I can’t bring myself to want to go out into the streets and just start preaching.

How can some people do that?

All of my life I think I have been prepared for where God wants me to be. Somehow He trusts in me. But I have no trust in myself… or maybe in Him as I should.

Pray my strength in the Lord that I decide to walk in the steps that God has ordered for me.

Yes… I have been busy. And maybe later I will tell you all about it…but now I am going through something.

God bless…

If you want to read some excerpts from my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, you can go to my website…. www.bsmith101.com . But before you do just let me tell you that the site is very much under construction. So, it is a long ways from being complete or anywhere near what I want… not even close to it at this time. But slowly…but surely I know it will be something that will meet all our expectations.

So, if you would please bear with me…I would appreciate it very much. But you can at least read some excerpts from my book there. And if you desire to order my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, please do so here in my blog…as I can’t get that link to work.

My book is also available via authorhouse.com, barnes&nobles.com, amazon.com, filedby.com and a variety of other outlets…including ordering it through your local bookstore.

I have not officially launched the sale of my book yet. But while I was down in Charlotte for AIM, our church convention…guess who purchased my book?

Dorinda Clark Cole.

Yes, that is right. ‘THE’ Dorinda…of the Clark Sisters…the COGIC gospel singing sentations.

I still can’t believe it. Dorinda bought my book!

I was trying to give her a copy of my book to give to her sister, Twinkie…and Dorinda said to me…

“No, I ain’t going to give Twinkie nothing. If Twinkie wants your book she is just going to have to come and get it for herself. But I’ll buy your book. I support people of the Kingdom.”

Yes, that is exactly what Dorinda said to me. Amazing.

I only sold 1 book at A.I.M. and it was to Dorinda Clark Cole. Amazing.

Here is my book trailer that I created last summer… Now you get a chance to hear my voice and to see a bit of me as well. And please keep in mind…that by profession… I am a radio announcer…and a filmmaker. It does make a difference.

I’ll tell you more about AIM in another blog…and I do have lots to say. It was so inspiring and fantastic listening and watching all the women and men of God… and speaking with many of them of as well.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale. And remember you can read a few excerpts from my book by going to …. www.bsmith101.com …Thank you.

I am just hearing that Walter Hawkins passed while we were down in Charlotte. I never heard anything about it while I was at AIM, a Church of God in Christ conference. He had been battling cancer my son informed me.

It is hard to believe. I never knew him or met him…but I was quite familiar with his music and that of his brother and ex-wife. Who in the gospel world is not familiar with them?

His brother, Edwin Hawkins and his ex-wife, Tramaine Hawkins…both gospel giants in their own rights as well.

What a great lost to this Kingdom on earth with a the lost of such a tremendously marvelous and anointed voice as Walter Hawkins.

Walter and Tramaine Hawkins, his ex-wife, had 2 children and also some grand-children from their union together

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/07/gospel-great-walter-hawkins-di.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306089.html

What a great lost.

Luckily my sister realized that there was something wrong. I later found out that she drove herself to the hospital where upon checking her out…she was informed that had she not come she would have died.

Her heart was in such bad shape and she did not know it. In fact, just last weekend we were all happily in Philly for a large family gathering celebrating the life of the matriarch of our family ‘at large’… our Great Aunt Kate. But who would have guessed that in the midst of my sister’s chest a time bomb was ticking.

If you would like to know some symptoms of an on-coming heart attack CLICK these LINKS below.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/actintime/haws/women.htm

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/healthmedical/a/womensami.htm

Be safe and keep yourself monitored by getting regular check-ups… and don’t forget to tell your doctor…

“What about my heart?”

It seems they check almost everything else but that when it comes to women. And more and more of us are dying from it.

My mother did. So, if heart failure runs in your family it is never too soon to start having it check.

And lets all start eating a little bit healtier.

Well, God bless…again.

UPDATE: July 29, 2010… My brother just mentioned this to me in passing. I was not aware that the current Musical Director of the Church of God in Christ International Choir, Judith McAllister was even married…or much less that her husband had been indicted for fraud.

One could say that when it rains it pours… Since becoming the head of the international musical department of the Church of God in Christ Dr. McAllister has been faced with one problem after another.

http://www.1800gospel.com/2010/05/husband-of-judith-mcallister-indicted-for-fraud/

There was the issue of Kim Burrell wanting to go secular… and also I think the issue that the music department has lack a certain level of spiritual direction that it once had under it former leaders. None of the songs seem to connect any more. There seems to be a lost in ‘the anointing’ that had long been a marker… a brand specific almost to the COGIC church which it had since its founding, some 103 years ago… being the largest and one of the oldest Pentecostal Churchs in the world.

Last year when I sat in on a workshop held by the COGIC scholars at AIM…my brother spoke on the topic of spirituality in the music. It was something that he said Bishop Mason was very particular about.

In the part of his dissertation, my brother wrote that Bishop Mason, the founder of the Church of God in Christ, wanted the music to come alive and be felt deep down within the soul of the people. That is something that under Judith McAllister the National COGIC Choir seems to have lost. The songs had no depth… no feeling …no emotions… nothing that brings tears to your eyes… or moves you as the songs once had.

I don’t know but someone came up on this site saying that Dr. McAllister has decided to step down from her post as the International Director of the COGIC Choir..though they said ‘removed’. I guess all of this might be following the allegations surrounding her husband… his arrest and indictment. He was a Special Agent employed by the FBI and stationed in Nashville, TN… who I guess you could say ‘decided he wanted more out of life and decided to take it.’

I do not know if it is true or not…that she has stepped down but if so… Her husband is facing 19 counts of fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud etc…etc… which all totals more than 340 years in federal prison. To that…all I can say is I really did not see what was wrong with the COGIC International music Department as it already was anyways.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/tne/pr/2010/May/McAllister%20Press%20Release.htm

Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010

Add a comment July 29, 2010

New Year’s Eve 2009…

I just finshed singing ‘Happy Birthday to you’ to my son. Who as I guess you can tell…that he is a New Year’s Eve baby… Well, not quite a baby any more.

I am looking forward to 2010…not that 2009 wasn’t great, but I just feel like so much more so this coming year.

It is hard to believe that we are 10 years into 2000. Remember all the predictions of doom that were flying about going into 2000? I forgot what they called it now… (K2-Y or something like that)…since nobody ever mentions it any more. But the whole computer system was supposed to crash and much of everything else. Everything was predicted to going be thrown out of whack too. None of which never happened…not one thing. But many people believed those predictions of gloom and doom up until we stepped into 2000 and crossed over into it without a glitch.

I guess it was the fear of the unexpected. We had all after all lived our entire lives in nothing but 1900’s only. So, to be around and step into a new century was quite a big thing. But we made it. And during these past few years at the start of this new time in history, we have witnessed many changes…suffered some losses…and gained some things, I guess too.

For 1, we got our first non-white President in this country that we all love so near dear…and I mean that sincerely. Though we complain…there is still no country like America. And perhaps will never be.

We are not faultness. True we have had our faults. Our share of mistakes…mis-steps…poor judgments…and made some stupid decisions…as well as, many other countries. But then no one is perfect. And with each passing day we all hopefully endeavor, however, to become so. At least it is our hope.

There is still much up-roar around the world…and uncertainty. Much evil and madness… wars… and disputes between various government states… cultures… and religious groups. People suffering from displacement being run off their homelands…drug lords terrorizing and mudering innocent people…religious fanatics targeting anyone or anything unlike them…and then…just some plain lunatics. And they are everywhere.

The days when nations sent out their best and strongest gadiators to do battle for the sank of settling disputes between arguing or warring villages or states…is long gone. The UN had been set up so that men might talk out their disputes and differences…but that too has pretty much fallen by the wayside too. Everybody wants to be a super State…or become a rogue nation.

For some reason man seems through time and development…industralization…and the creation of more superior and deadly weapons, has become more and more violent, and eager to engage in everything but peaceful negoiation.

With 90 more years to go before we enter 3ooo…will we survive?

Will there be anyone left to tell the story…and to welcome in another New Year?

Then there is Mother Nature…global warming…eco-condamination and our overall lack to sincerely considering our place on this planet, as though we can really jet off to another planet…and leave Mother Earth behind once we have finished her completely off.

I don’t know…I didn’t really intend to say any of this. But I guess that even though I don’t really talk about it much…and certainly wasn’t aware that I thought about it to this degree either. Funny…I never realized these things colored my thinking sub-consciously. But then I am a mother…and an aunt of some great and many nieces and nephews, who will still be here long after I’m dead and gone. So, I guess I have to consider what this world be like for them…if not for my own sake alone.

Will there still be clean water…or enough of it for them in years to come?

Or would somebody have dropped a dirty bomb…and nothing will be here by 3000?

I don’t know…but I am looking forward to a great and very busy 2010. And as I go into the New Year I will make certain to pray for our President and his family…and all those people on Capital Hill who make decisions that effect the course of this country and shapes our policies and dealings with foreign governments…and other entities. That they will do so with a calm head…and with a mind that their votes and actions matter beyond party lines. That they have vision…and look into the future to ensure that they do nothing to destroy this place…or the people who live upon it.

I plan on being very busy this year. I have a couple business ventures that I plan on opening up this year. My book, The Bishop’s Wife, of course will finally be out…and I will be going out on a book tour. I also intend to shoot my film…‘LIFE 101 da real skool’…this year. So, I guess you can say that plan on being in labor (as with child) most of this coming year…as I plan on birthing a few things in 20-10.

I hope that you will be busy this coming year too…and that you will reap much success in all your endeavors. And whatever needs you may have… I pray God steps in and works them out for you. Enjoy your New Year’s… and the very best this forthcoming year.

We are definitely in the midst of winter now…and there is no doubt about it. It is freezing cold. But God is yet good. I hope that you keep warm and always remember those who may not have all the comforts that you do.

There are so very many things to be thankful for…so much that we take for granted.

It is good just to be able to get up in the morning…and do for for yourself. To be able to walk outside…buy what you want…do what you want. To drink a glass of water when you want to. To have food in your refrigerator…and in your cupboards. To able to turn your heat up or down…to have hot water…a bed to lay in…and a place where you are safe. So many people lack these simple things. We are bless…truly.

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.

Add a comment December 31, 2009

Percy Sutton a quiet giant…gone

There are generals who pass by and we never take notice of them. They go quietly yet often times they were the ones who stood in the path… made the right decision… yet got none of the glory. Percy Sutton was such a man.

In a chance meeting in a New York City elevator…I got on not realizing that I was going to be in the company of a king. When he got on I was nearing the floor of the executive office of Inner City Broadcasting. I was on my way to try for…I don’t know what attempt on my part to get in to see the ‘chief rocker’ Frankie Crocker…as I was trying to get him to hire me for an air shift…meaning a job as a radio announcer on WBLS.

When he got on we were a couple floors down from the main corporate floor of Inner City Broadcasting…in a building he owned along with the radio station operating in that building, WBLS and WLIB…which were located at the time on 2nd Avenue.

He was tall and striking in his appearance…but what struck me more than anything was how much of a gentleman he was. We conversed, him and me…as if he were nobody special…and he called me “My Dear”…in that voice that he had. He spoke to me in such a way that I felt special just being in his presence…this quiet giant and owner of not only 2 highly prominate radio stations in New York City…but plenty of other real estate holdings about the city…including a law firm…and the world famous Apollo Theater. And somehow through it all he managed to become Manhattan Borough President, and a civil rights activist.

Though he could have sat back and kicked up his heels and thought-

“Oh, how great I am.”

He never did that…he never rested. Never got in a comfort zone. Maybe, it was that he grew up being only 1 generation away from slavery…as his father had been a slave. Or maybe it had been that he had been the 15th and last child born into his family…and most of whom all became lawyers.

How could that have happened?

With a father just coming up out of slavery and him being a man having such a very large family (which during those times was not an uncommon thing)…but raising children in the racist atmosphere of the latter 1800’s into the mid 1930’s and 40’s and the backward thinking of many in a state like Texas…I am sure aided in Mr. Sutton’s political choices and his diligent work as black leader…and the shaker and mover he was later to become in New York City.

I have no doubt that it was his roots…that created the core of who he was…and the things he worked to achieve. A person who was not afraid to put his money where his mouth and passion was concerning his people. Often digging into his own pocket to give…invest…encourage…

I recall calling him and talking him about a business venture that I wanted him to get involved in…something that I was trying to do and take to the next level. He actually got on the line with me and offered me several positive suggestions…challenging me in what I was looking to do. He did not rush me off the phone…but gave me the benefit of his long and highly profound expertise.

I have called a lot of people when seeking investors and

others…or expertise regarding projects I have been working on. Not many of them even took the time to come to the line…but it didn’t stop me from trying. But when they did and shared me as Percy Sutton…all those other calls were worth my trying just to finally get to someone like Percy Sutton…who took the time to hear me and speak into me wisdom…and share knowledge and some of his business savvy with me.

I never forgot that meeting…of me and Percy Sutton alone in an elevator heading up to the executive office. And I had almost forgotten that phone call…I am glad I took the time to call him…and remembered how gracious he was to me.

Mr. Sutton passed the day after Christmas…just days after celebrating his 89th birthday.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121947414

http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=1187

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/nyregion/28sutton.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/nyregion/28sutton.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070501/hidi-sutton.html

I spent Christmas quietly. And all through the day I kept getting phone calls.

It was such a pleasure that so many had throught to call me wishing me ‘Merry Christmas.’ It was as great as them giving me gifts for my Christmas. I loved it.

Last night it rain and rain. Thank goodness it was snow or I would probably be outside right now still shoveling it. But I love the snow…it’s winter. So, it comes with ther territory.

Hope you had a safe and joyous Christmas. Mine was. And though the furnace is still out…God is keeping me.

Well, we are moving to the end of the year…just a few more days. And since coming into 2000…we have seen many changes…suffered some great losses…but yet God is good.

“Happy New Years.”

I hope that you and your family had a very merry Christmas and a good and safe New Years.

I am looking forward to some great things happening in my life this year. Each year has been great…and our family is growing closer together again. I hope it is so with yours too.

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.

Well, God bless…

2 comments December 28, 2009

Jackson Reality…what is the allure? And what women won’t do-3

Talk about a disaster.

I recall being at a party for Whitney…as in Huston…and seeing LaToya along with a host of other people there.

At the time she was still very much cute and quite petite…as she is very tiny.

But when I happened to come across this video of her…I couldn’t help but go back trying to remember what she used to look like. And it sure was nothing like this.

Boob job…lightening of her skin…and she definitely had a hair transplant.

How much could she have hated herself?

Perhaps it was that crazy husband of her’s who smashed in her face. Tore up her nose…damaged her eye…and all that other stuff he did to her…that older white guy who she married claiming… she was trying to escape from her abusive daddy…Joe Jackson.

In the video footage below LaToya looks so old. And a little bit more plastic surgery she will be in the running for a neck to neck race to the finish line for ‘who looks the worst…or the most terrorifying?’ Her or that Lion Woman.

I just don’t get it.

Why would you want to mess yourself up like this?

What some women won’t do.

Germaine is traveling around the world and doing his best to look like Michael…and be recognized as Michael’s all-in-all. Holding his hands like Michael in a praying fashion…and all of that stuff. Even in just how he steps back…then steps forth to speak to someone. Just the way Michael would do. It is all a bit too much. He is really taking it to the bank…and beyond if he can.

But then are they all?

Are they all finally doing in death to Michael…what they could not do to him in life?

And that is take him for a ride…straight to the bank?

My son called me other night saying-

“Oooh, ma. Everybody is calling me. And telling me I’ve got to watch the Jackson’s Reality Show.”

I’m wondering who wants to watch a bunch of over-the-hill…no-real-talent brothers?

But I guess some people do…obviously. And my son was one of them.

A friend did tell me that she loved the Michael Jackson movie though.

I guess when it has all been said and done. He really was the greatest. Like Muhammad Ali was to boxing…and Michael Jordan to basketball. Michael was it to the music and video industry. And there can be no denying it.

In the end it was…what he wanted.

Well, tomorrow it is suppose to be in low 20’s…meaning degrees. So, I am definitely planning on spending my day inside.

What about you?

Have a beautiful day…however you spend it.

And oh, yeah….

I just finished putting the finishing touches to my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE. I can’t wait to tell you when it will be available for purchase…and my web site is up. But rest assured that announcement will be coming very soon. God is good…and greatly to be praised.

Well, Christmas is right around the corner. I understand that it is next week.

Wow…where did the time go?

This year has flown by. It truly has.

While I was out shopping this evening…as I turned to leave I shouted out-

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.”

And I was almost amazed that I got no response back. Times have truly changed. Everybody wants to be ‘politically right.’

What is that anyways?

I would rather recognize the Lord and give him glory…than try to satisfy a bunch of people afraid they are going to step on somebody’s religious beliefs.

Jesus is the reason for the season. And I just hope that you and your’s…or you and your family…and even just you if this happens to be your current situation…enjoy it. I just hope you…and whomever have a very merry Christmas and a good and safe New Years. But I am sure that I will be writing another blog or 2 or 3 before the year is out. You know me…I’ve always got something to say…on something.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale…CLICKon my book cover for the LINK to purchase my book. Thank you.

Well, God bless…

Add a comment December 17, 2009

The God Father of Gospel Music, Rev. Timothy Wright… Jesse again… Mike Steele RNC… First Family date night…

timothy-wright12 I was hoping to go to bed early tonight. Didn’t get in until after 2 AM last night. Had the opportunity to go into New York for the 2nd night of the funeral of the God Father of Gospel Music, Rev. Timothy Wright. And what an event it was. I am still happy that we decided to go.

It was a musical program celebrating the music and musical legacy and influence of Dr. Timothy Wright. So, some of everybody in gospel music was there and performed including a combined choir of 23 choirs…comprising 1,200 voices. So, if you can imagine that…then you have a clue of the kind of evening we had last night…and it was free and open to public. On top of it…it was very well organized…and had a super sound system…and there wasn’t anything outside of what that church already had that could have beat it. And was like being in the Appollo Theater…it had to have been a converted movie theater…the church…in fact, I know it had been theater because it had at least 2 balcony levels if not 3 of them.

So, from Ty Tribbett, to Rev. Milton Biggham, Myrna Summers, Timoney Figueroa, Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship Choir, Vershawn Mitchell, Keith Wonder Boy, Maurette Brown, Judieth McAllister…and many manyothers performed…a host of them. And it was fabulous…each and everyone of them. I am still glowing from that service in honor of the God Father of Gospel Music, Rev. Timothy Wright…a man I really feel was not given the real honor that his music deserved…during the course of his life. But he never complained…he continued writing… producing… performing and preaching to the glory of God. Truly, a fabulous man…and a real lover of his church…and God. Faithful…

It shocked me the Saturday, last July when we woke up to a bunch of text messages saying Rev. Timothy Wright had met with a tragic automobile accident which took the life of his wife and only grand son…leaving him paralyzed and mostly hospitalized until he passed just recently. From one moment to the next…we never know what is going to happen in our life.

Earlier that evening I had stopped by Rev. Wright’s booth at AIM, in Detroit…he logo31 had just been down a few booths and to the opposite of the aisle from Vicki Winans’ booth. He was goldlogo1 autographing his book while cheerfully beaconing passerbyers to stop at his booth.

I will not forget how I had stood there telling him how great he looked…and how happy I was to see that he was doing so well healthwise…as the last time I had seen him was when I had booked him to performed at my summer outreach program called, Ministry Under the Tent. He was not feeling well at all…but yet he travelled from New York to perform before the people here who are still talking about that show…and weekend.

Because I could see that that he was not feeling well that day…as he was dietetic…I said to him-

“If you only sing one song I’ll be okay with that.”

That’s what I told him.

But when he hit that stage with his 30 choir members…you would not have been able to tell how he had been suffering prior to performing. And he kept on going like the Energized Bunny. They really performed…and sounded just like the CD’s.

So, it was good to see him in Detroit doing so well health-wise…and I just kept saying it over and over…and the following morning…

To tell you seriously I felt guilty…as though I had caused that accident myself…having raved so much about how good Rev. Wright had looked that Saturday afternoon. But a car coming up onto the inter-state highway travelling in the wrong direction ran right into his car…head-on… and Rev. Timothy Wright’s life was forever changed that night.

I was shocked…his life had been turned upside down in the flash of a moment. He had just finished performing in a large gospel concert with Mary Mary, the Clark Sisters, Ricky Dillard etc…and in a quick flash of a moment…his career had come to a end. He lost his wife and grand son…and very nearly lost his own life in less than 6 hours since the time I had spoken with both him and his wife as they worked their booth with their grand son.

D.U.I…driving under the influence of alcohol or anything else…is a serious problem…and it is highly dangerous and deadly to us all. The same roadway that that accident occured was the exact highway we had to travel on later in order for us to get back home from Detroit too. Any one of us could have met up with that driver. It should not take until something happens to one of us that we rally to do something about drivers who continue to get behind the wheel knowing that they are incapable of doing so properly or safely.

It is sad to think about what ended up happening to Rev. Timothy Wright and his family due a driver driving under the influence…who also ended up killing himself…by not only traveling in the wrong direction. But also travelling at a very high speed.

Needless to say…I was happy to hear that he was no longer suffering…and trying to deal with his loses. Yes, I was happy that he was no longer suffering from the loses in his personal life…and his physical being.

He was so gracious and so kind…when I called him…he never even asked me to sign a contract…didn’t have to wire him any up-front money…which is highly out of the norm. But that is what he did…just said have the money ready when he got there. And I did…and all cash. I have done many shows…and never had anyone been so trusting.

I have been involved in both concert promotions and other large events as a promoter for both R&B and religious concerts and events…but never had 1 entertainer… agent… manager… or other person that I booked for an event of any type…not require me to sign a contract and to send some money in advance…which is typically the way that it is done. And I am sure that through his many years in the industry…I am sure that Rev. Wright has probably had his share of problems with promoters…yet he did not require me to sign or forward him anything…for some reason. Though I asked him…and he said-

“No, just have it ready when I get there.”

I marvel at that even to this day. And I made sure that everything for him was set and ready for him when the bus I had hired for them pulled into town and they poured off of it.

And I cannot thank enough the Chamblee Bus Company out of Newark, New Jersey…who at 1 AM in the morning the night before Rev. Wright was to perform… they got me a bus and a driver…after the initial bus company I had hired for the job…to pick up Rev. Wright and his choir in Brooklyn…called me to say that they were not coming. I marvel at that too…God worked it out in the wee hours of the morn. And all ended up being just fine…better than fine.

As I sat there listening to all those performers and expeditors…and listened to the new group of radio gospel announcers in New York City now…my mind drifted back to all the years that I have played his music…and still do…and how he had come to perform here at Ministry Under the Tent…and I couldn’t help but cry a bit from time to time.

Following all the singing…Pastor Hubert Powell was allowed a few seconds to speak…and wow did he deliver. I wish I could write it like he said it…but I can’t. But he and the God Father of Gospel Music, Rev. Timothy Wright, had been friends for over 50 years. And I do not think…and would find it very hard to believe…that anybody who ever met him…didn’t meet somebody who they did ot like and love in the person of Rev. Timothy Wright. He was truly a man of God…who got his start up under the Father of Gospel Music…James Cleveland.

As I stated…I had decided not to write anything tonight. I could barely keep my eyes open earlier…but while checking on some things over the internet…I came across a couple of stories which really motivated me to begin to write this blog.

The first was a story on Jesse Jackson. I find him to be so disappointing. Not atall the person I thought him to be. I guess it is hard to accept when people do not meet your expectations of who you believe them to be…based upon your media knowledge of them…meaning news items that you read.

Throughout all the years all the information on Jesse Jackson had been positive…up until the story of the illegitimate baby…and that open mic story hit the news…where Jesse… Well, you know the story (wrote about it in 2 other blogs if you to read that story)…how Jesse said he wanted to cut off Obama’s… Well…you know the story. Until that point my preception of Rev. Jesse Jackson had been one of him being what he actively projected…and that is what it was a “projection”...that he was a dedicated black leader…who sincerely loved and cared for his people.

Now, reading this story further adds to my ever decreasing opinion of Jesse Jackson. Currently, he is being sued for $100,000 by the AEI Speakers Bureau for failing to show up at a speaking engagement in Trinidad…after…now check this out… after he had the conference promoters charter him a private jet to transporthim from Chicago to Trinidad for the speaking engagement…and demanding a fee of $75,000 to come and speak at the event. And I thought Aretha Franklin’s $65,000 fee plus a portion of the gate was excessive. Well, it was a bit too rich for my blood…but at least she was worth the money. I just couldn’t afford it.

Can you imagine that?

Seventy-five thousand dollars to have Jesse Jackson come to speak at a conference engagement. And an engagement in a poor country…run by black people?

And then force them to book him a private chartered jet?

Can you imagine the type of hotel accommodations Jesse must have requested…5 star plus…no doubt.

They deserve to sue him. And I hope they get every dime. What a ridiculously greedy man. He is definitely too full of himself.

For the same event Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin L. King the third were also booked to participate…both of whom who flew regular commercial fligts into Trinidad.

I have to admit to having read years ago while in New York…that Jesse’s Wall Street Summit was nothing but one big corporate shake-down…in the name of black people.

Can you imagine Jesse Jackson getting rich on our backs?

Playing all these years…like something he has never been. Really interested in black people…and the social injustices surrounding them. And trying to get to get them irraticated. When in fact…he has always been out for Jesse…at the pretense of aiding the plight of black people in this country.

The Bible says…what is done in the dark will come to light. Meaning anything that is not true…will in time be unveiled…revealed. Jesse Jackson can truly speak to the words of this scripture…as more and more is being revealed about him.

Now…on to Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National commitee…another foolish black man…along the vain of a Clarence Thomas.

It is sad really.

We are living in a season now… Oh, well…come on lets grow up. We do not have go running around and cow-tauing and bowing down to everybody. Give me a break. I hate ignorance…and particularly from those who want to pretend that are above others…in terms of their intellect…place in life…etc…etc… But they don’t know who they are…or they forget where they come from…or how to love what is their’s…namely their own people while trying to pretend to be somebody else. And also loose their dignity by acting and talking foolishly.

Every group loves their own people…that is only natural. And anybody who doesn’t…then something is wrong with them.

Loving your own group doesn’t mean that you have feel that your group is superior…smarter…or better than any other group…or have ideas of bigotry. No, it just means you are proud in who you are.

But that group called the Republicans…particularly that group of ignorant and narrow minded black folk in that party…like Clarence Thomas, Alan Kayes…and now this Michael Steele. This Mike Steele recently, while sitting in of radio program chatting with a caller who had called in to discuss Barack Obama…Michael Steele made the statement that media created Barack Obama.

What kind of dumb statement was that?

Media did not create Barack Obama…as if he was the figment of someone’s imagination. Media definitely did not create Barack Obama…they chased Barack Obama because he was the story that people were interested in. And that is what media does…they make their living tracking down stories that people want to hear and read. That is the name of the business…or if you will…the game.

Barack Obama is not a splash in a pan…he was not created by a bunch of handlers…any more than Solomon or David was. Media did not create Tiger Woods…or Michael Jordan…or Muhammad Ali…or Jack Nicolas…Princess Diana…or even Dr. Martin L. King, Jr…or Bobby Kennedy or Jack Kennedy, his older brother also known as President John F. Kennedy. Destiny did…and their talents did.

So, how foolish is it for a supposed black man to try to down rate another black man by saying-

“Oh, he wouldn’t be nothing if media hadn’t created him.”

Because that is exactly what Steele said…though he may not have said it in those exact words. But it spoke every bit of envy.

Media did not create Barack Obama…but it could said that it assist in informing people about him. But the same could be said for any movie star…singing star…atlete…or anyone or anything of interest to the masses. That is what media does… it informs.

Too bad Mr. Steele, an ex-governor, is not the kind of Republican that Col. Colin Powell is. Col. Powell is capable of celebrating and appreciating the abilities and achievements…and excellence of those inside, as well as, outside of his own party affiliation and race…and so too Obama.

Too bad the former governor lacks their skills.

I am beginning to wonder if the excitement of the moment is starting to ware off for the Obama’s. Living your life in a bubble cannot be fun. Everything you do…say or wear…gets questions.

Who would like that?

I personally do not understand all the questions about the dog…Michelle clothes…her sneakers…etc…

I am not really a sneaker person…but in New York they are rave…and I guess everywhere else too. But with most sneakers ranging far above Pro-Keds back in the day…which were $10…I feel that all sneakers are seriously over priced. And as far as I can see most of them if you want a good pair are over $100.

So, then I do not understand the problem with the cost of Michelle’s sneakers costing over $500 as most sneakers cost $200 and more. Or maybe…the fuss was just over Michelle wearing those sneakers to some charity event…but men wear Stacy Adams shoes…and other people wear a bunch of expensive footware today…and nobody is calling to question their shoes…or sneakers.

In looking at the pictures of their date night…to think that was the first walk that s-obama-date-night-large11 they have taken together free of anybody being right up on them. I don’t know…but I find that rather sad. The joy of life seems to be stolen from them. It is the cost of fame I guess…and certainly the cost of becoming the President, First Lady and First Family of the United States.

I would take my life over their’s anyday. But it is a sacrifice that they willingly went into…because they felt that they could offer their service to help make this a better country. And for that I applaud them…and feel for them.

Nobody ever questioned the price tag of everything or anything that Jackie Kennedy wore. In fact, the rich never talk about price. They have this saying-

“If you have to ask the price then you really can’t afford it.”

Oh, I know what it is.

Jackie “O” never wore sneakers…only terribly expensive clothes…jewelry…and shoes. And there were no questions about them or their price tags.

Awh…leave the Obama’s alone. Let them have some peace in their lives. And there is no need to keep them up under a magnifying glass 24/7…and questioning every little thing.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977673088&grpId=3659174697241980&nav=Groupspace

http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2009/05/03/obamas-have-date-night-at-citronelle-in-georgetown/

http://news.aol.com/article/obama-date-night/459991

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30548300/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30548045#30548045

Well, since it is now 2 AM again…and I was hoping to try to catch up on my sleep as I am trying to put the finishing touches on my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, promo for youtube…and I am becoming frustrated with my new book publishers. It seems that they can’t get my errors corrected properly for some reason.

Since my book had been back and forth to my former publisher…I did not have many errors this time around. But as few as they have been…I have received the galley back 4 times with almost the same errors not having been corrected. And I mean glearing errors that leap out at you…but evidently they do not to the person who is suppose to be setting my type and making these corrects.

I am beginning to come of a mind…that this whole self-publishing thing is for the birds. That it probably doesn’t matter who you get…there will be problems.

Well, I’ll keep you posted. I really have to get some sleep now. I’ve got to get up and out early…a lot of work yet to be done. And the clock is ticking.

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.

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…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

Add a comment May 5, 2009

He loves her…

Gang Yun my Chinese friend with whom I have an exchange with…she helps me with my Chinese and I help her with her English. It is a nice little exchange…’ni hao.’

We were having a slight discussion one day when we happened to hit upon Obama…whom she had shared with me before that she knew little about since she was not able to vote being that she is an exchange student upon the campus…and had not paid much attention to all the campaign stuff. But to my surprise she did have this to say-

“He love he wife.”

Then she went on to say-

“He love her.”

The one thing that no woman has missed about Barack Obama and that is how much he loves his wife.

Not how much he seems to love his wife…but how much he loves her.

Double CLICK to view the screen below…ignor the text on screen.

There was never a time that Barack Obama hit a stage and his wife was anywhere michelle-and-barack-obama-americas-next-first-couple1 near…that he didn’t have a hand on her.

She never came onto the stage or left it…without Barack Obama kissing her first.

It is so refreshing to see a man who truly loves his wife. And it is not a thing that went pass any woman watching the Presidential Primaries or the actual race to the White House. Everywoman who looked on knew that…and somewhere it clicked into the back of her mind…‘that man loves his wife.’

It has to be nice to know that you have a man who truly loves you. And that he loves you so much that he has to connect with you no matter where he is at.

When Obama finished delivering his acceptance speech in Grant Park in Chicago following him being proclaimed the winner of the prize beyond all prizes…President of the United States of America. As his wife and children joined him on stage…Obama turned to his wife and you saw his lips form these words…

“I love you.”

Michelle had her arms around his neck and listened to him as he continued to speak to her…and then you saw Michelle hug him to her. And you realized at that moment that those 2 people were in for a journey of the greatest magnitude…and that they would only have each other to console and help to hold it together… and to aid in seeing it through to the end.

And without a doubt…she loves him.

And he loves his children and his mother-in-law.

We are blessed to have them. And thank God they have each other.

http://news.aol.com/main/inauguration/article/barack-obama-inauguration/310125

Add a comment January 17, 2009

Trying to keep warm…

As I lay here trying to keep warm…and happy about not having to go outside 09878931 and shovel any more snow. But I love it.

I am so thankful that my parent’s house is still standing…that water is not leaking down through the roof…that the raccoons are blocked off from traveling downstairs to meet me in our back hallway…and that God blocked my parent’s house from going up on the auction block earlier this year in March.

I have much to be thankful for…including not having suffered what I s10610571 thought was an on-coming stroke or heart attack last week when my right hand started shaking very badly, and then just froze up on me. And ultimately forced me to 05191471 have to rush from my class to go directly to a hospital emergency room.

But after having endured that…this past weekend I was out shoveling snow straight up to the day before yesterday. We are buried in it. And I 04800951 am loving every minute of it…and I am so blessed not to have to be spending my holidays in a hospital.

Though the weather is cold…freeeeezzzing to be exact. It looks pretty. No, beautiful to me…because if I take a notion…I can get up and go outside and walk through it…when I know that I should not be able to do so.

But in regards to my warmth…I keep looking at our fireplace wishing I could make a big bustling fire in it. But I am afraid of risking starting a fire in the wall of the chimney since we haven’t used it or had it cleaned out for a while. But a big bright and warm fireplace lighting up our living room would be nice…and especially on days like this. And even more especially since the furnace is still not fixed.

So, yes the house is cold…but not as cold as it should or even could be. Though the oven is on (and I am being very careful monitoring it)…and most of the doors are closed to block off the cold. And I do have a portable electric heater (which I am also keeping a close eye on) which you really have do when you run electrical items overtime. And then on top of it all…I still have hot water.

So, I’m doing pretty good. Thank God for the hot water.

And believe me having hot water is important.

I will not forget how last year this time I was almost in the same situation though the circumstances were different. From August straight through the 1st of January we had no gas. This meant that there was not any hot water either…which is a very hard situation…and particularly for women. Because unlike men…women must bathe. Washing up is okay…but it is not the same. And to do it for months…in freezing cold water…

Well, let me just say it again…women must bathe.

So, I was forced to have to bathe in freezing cold 2 times a day…once in 02430541 the morning before leaving out from the house and again once I got back in. And this I did religously in the freezing cold of the house…and cold water only gets colder as it runs. It was quite quite quite freeeezzzing cold. In fact, it was far colder inside our house than it was at any point outside of it.

I know I was miserable during all those days. But thank God…He brought me through it. And I got through it without a sniffle or a sneeze.

And so though I can’t light a fire in our fireplace…I am not as cold as I should be either…and no where near as cold as I was in this house last year.

I 08623821 am blessed.

And I am finally finished with all my classes and their assignments…I got everything in even though at times my right hand continued to occasionally act up. But I 02393871 made it through…and yesterday I returned to the school library 2 books that I owed them.

So, I am in the house for the duration of the holiday…short of having to go back out to shovel more snow…or throw down some more salt if it gets slippery again.

I can’t imagine what the temperture outside is today. But I know it is in the low something. It looks very cold and dark outside. There is no sun anywhere to be found…nothing but snow upon snow.

It is like a freezer outside. So, I am inside…trying to keep warm. But I am loving it…because God has been good to me.

Remember those who have less than you and who may or may not have a roof over their heads…or a car in their garage…or food in their refrigerator…or in their pantry…or a coat to put on…or electricity…or gas to heat their home. Let us pray for them…and keep them lifted up in our prayers throughout the year. They would love to be in my situation I have no doubt. So, I have nothing to complain about. I’m blessed.

Yes, I am blessed…and very highly favored. And I thank God for His ever loving mercies.

So, whatever your holiday plans are…be careful and enjoy those whom you love. And may God grant you to step into a wonderful 2009. I am looking forward to it…and all the God has in store for me.

And always be mindful…that there is nothing like family. And nothing at all like a good family…definitely worth more than gold.

We pray also for family unity…unity from this point on…in Jesus’ name.

God bless….Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 09241521

And may your Santa give you exactly and everything that you are hoping and looking for.

Praise ye the Lord…for He is mighty in all things. And I am sure He has so much more for you…in 2009.

Well, God bless…and thanks for reading this blog…and 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 ©2008

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