MUHAMMAD ALI… GONE AND I DOUBT THAT ‘THE GREATEST’S’ FLAME WILL EVER BE FORGOTTEN… OR GO OUT… and ORLANDO GAY CLUB KILLINGS…

Well, even his illness Muhammad Ali managed to avoid having passed long ago.   For sure

LOUISVILLE, KY – JUNE 09: Muhammad Ali’s second wife Khalilah Camacho-Ali (L), his fourth wife Lonnie Ali (C), and daughter Laila Ali (R), holding a grandchild, attend an Islamic prayer service at the Kentucky Exposition Center on June 9, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. The Jenazah service was held for the four-time world heavyweight boxing champion, who died on June 3 at age 74. A procession and memorial service are scheduled for Friday. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

some will say he fought a great fight… and perhaps his greatest was out side the ring fighting Parkinson.

I really do not know many people who have had the staying power of Muhammad Ali when it comes to battling the disease of  Parkinson.   And I guess 1 can say Ali fought and won because he managed, regardless of all the shaking… to keep his humor and be able to see the world in a light that most of us have no idea of… and the blessings we all have who do not have to battle to live or do for ourselves.

FILE – In this Oct. 1, 1975, file photo, spray flies from the head of challenger Joe Frazier as heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali connects with a right in the ninth round of their title fight in Manila, Philippines. Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, has died according to a statement released by his family Friday, June 3, 2016. He was 74. (AP Photo/Mitsunori Chigita, File)(AP6_4_2016_000105A)

I will never forget when Ali stood before the cameras and said because he did not believe in killing people based upon his religious belief… he, therefore, refused to be drafted and go to war, and fight in the Vietnam war.  That action caused many who hated this young black kid, who was so skillful in the boxing ring to get the ammunition to really go after him.  But though that action did color his earlier boxing achievements… and ended up with his title being taken from him, Muhammad Ali never let that stop him from being  the regal sportsmen he continued to be until the day he died.

Another time I will never forget is when Ali during his time from being not allowed to box by the U. S. government… came to visit our college campus.  He was in our Black House… the black student organization building… and he came to talk to us.  I cannot remember what Ali talked about… as all I can remember about that day was that there were a number of us black students in the our Black House that day… and Ali took a hundred dollar bill and bought McDonald’s for all of us.  This may not sound like much to you but to a whole bunch of mid-afternoon starving college students it was something truly great.  We were ecstatic that this great boxer was on our campus and we had a chance to  meet him 1 on 1.  Could not get home quick enough to tell my daddy… who was a major Muhammad Ali fan.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness Ali from the

Mohammed Ali

beginning until his end can truly say that he was indeed ‘the greatest of all times.’  No other box has bought to the prize ring the kind of interest and excitement of an Muhammad Ali fight… which was always colorful and full of rhythms such as, ‘Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.’   Or give us a thrill like the ‘Thriller in Ma’nilla.’

Not many have lived to see the greatest basketball player of all times... Michael Jordan.   Or the greatest female sister tennis players of all times… Venus and Serena Williams.  Or the greatest base ball players of all times… Hank Aaron.  The greatest golfer of all times… Tiger Woods.   Or the greatest female vocalist of all times… Whitney Houston… and the greatest entertainer of all times… Michael Jackson.  And Muhammad Ali the greatest heavy weight boxer of all times… from the Olympics into the professional boxing ring.  And what a gift for trash talking

The winners of the 1960 Olympic medals for light heavyweight boxing on the winners’ podium at Rome: Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) (C), gold; Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland (R), silver; and Giulio Saraudi (Italy) and Anthony Madigan (Australia), joint bronze. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

…until 1 day God shut all that down… but did not take his life until now.

Yes, he was pretty.   No boxer prettier… or sharper or more on point than Ali.  And an Ali fight was guaranteed to be exciting and filled with the unexpected.

Watching the funeral on the television and seeing all the religious leaders seated on the stage at Ali’s funeral, and being fully aware of Ali’s own religious beliefs… I could not help but think, ‘If you serve anything other than the 1 and only living God, and his son Jesus… than you can belong to as many religion groups as you want, and be the very best person in the world and never make it to heaven.’

It is my hope that Muhammad Ali’s last and fight battle was 1 he also won… and came to professed that Jesus is Lord, and not a lower prophet under Allah.

Odd how that massive and very powerful man was never stopped by any of his opponents,  who were also big strong  massive heavy weight men with plenty of strength.   But having

U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali poses during the Crystal Award ceremony at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 28, 2006. REUTERS/Andreas Meier/File Photo

suffered so many head injuries brought about a disease that ‘the greatest’ wrestled with for a very long time… and now probably never was overcome by it… but by age instead.  And he went out of here smiling at the ripe old age of 74…smiling because he defeated Parkinson too… but could not overcome age though many have tried.

One thing is for sure …Foreman… Frazier… and all the rest would never be nothing if there had not been an Ali, who allowed them the privilege to claim into his ring…

Well, God bless… and hope you have a beautiful weekend this weekend.  But as I close I cannot help but think about the terrible chain of events that took place in Orlando just this week.

After over a hundred people were shot and more than 50 killed it is insane to me to hear any pastor or supposed religious man laughing and stating from his pulpit that the cold blooded murder who shot and killed those people should have killed everybody who was in that gay club?

I have wonder what Bible are people studying from?

What manner of doctrine are they reading where it says, ‘God hated homosexuals enough to want them all dead.”   If that were the case I am more than sure that God even back in Biblical times surely would not have stopped with merely Sodom and Gomorrah… especially since it is widely known as recognized as almost customary for such things as that among men in Greece during that time.

There is no way that this Orlando gay night club shooting should not be classified as a ‘hate crime’ irregardless of the ethnic background of the shooter and his religion… because this crime was perpetrated solely against the gay men in that club for reasons of hate… due to their sexuality … perhaps because he found them to be attractive… and of interest to his sick perverted sexual desires, which to the shooters ethnic group were both against his religion and ethnicity.   Whom himself frequent that club trying to date many of those men… and met up with Hispanic gay men over the internet.   And there can be denying that this all came about just as we entered into June, which is gay pride month.

Our God has not given unto us the spirit of hate… or hate mongering.   But of love.  Biblical scripture tells us that we are to love one another as we lover ourselves… this comes without conditions or any special exemptions.

http://www.advocate.com/religion/2016/6/14/baptist-pastor-who-cheered-orlando-murders-isnt-alone

I’m off my band wagon for now.   But I pray that God sincerely touch every heart and change ever deprived mind that seeks to do evil.

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 ©2016

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Add a comment June 18, 2016

PRINCE…DEAD????

Last spring while in Minneapolis I can’t feeling I was going to see Prince.   I was going to see Prince… that’s all I would think anytime I was out and about during our church convention, which brought me to Minneapolis in the first place.   But I never did.

While working as radio announcer I clearly remember when Prince first emerged upon the scene.  He was touted then as he still is now… as a musical genius.

His first album… that’s how long ago that was.   Many today have never heard of an album… and most have forgotten what they were.  But on his first album Prince was the only musician.   He played every instrument used in the recording of that album.

The man was brilliant at his craft and as a business man too.   He was a rough negotiator who fought the record company and won… to maintain musical freedom and the rights to all his work.  He was definitely not a dumbie.

I had wondered how old he was after I hear the news late yesterday evening of his passing.   And I thought about Michael and Whitney… and how they had died in their 50’s… that’s when my son came in and voiced exactly what I had been thinking.

They all had died in their 50’s.

I read today that Prince was 57.   Michael had just hit the bit five-‘o.’   And Whitney was in her early 50’s too I believe.

Three remarkable people musically… but dark around the edges.  We are all familiar with Whitney and her battle with drugs and for happiness.   And Michael’s peculiar ways… dipping and dapping into all kinds of things… and his involvement and fascination with little boy children.

But Prince…

Well, back in the day he was always seen with highly attractive young ladies… though he did admit in an interview to being bi-sexual.   I have very deep opinions regarding people who proclaim themselves to be bi-sexual.  It kind of goes in line with Biblical scripture… ‘either they will hate the 1 and love the other.’   Something is going to be more intriguing to them sexually over the other… and that is just the way it is.

In fact, I was surprise to find out that he had once married.  During the early days he lived a fast life… though he always appeared to be shy and introverted… as Michael often attempted to appear as well.  But I think more that a song writer Prince was a musician… and lived as 1.

Though he lived quietly and without much controversy through much of his musical career… except for moving from 1 woman friend to another…  Prince managed to stay pretty much out of the limelight.

During his aging process Prince still looked pretty much the same.  Though a friend told me this morning that he had had a hip replacement and a knee replacement.  I guess that came from years of dropping to his knees while performing… playing his guitar and dancing like James Brown… who was 1 of Michael’s idols as well.

Well, if you are going to mimic someone… mimic the best.   And James Brown was the best at what he did.   Truly.

And though not well educated James… based upon his movie… was a screwed businessman.  Which I guess Prince also learned to be.

In reading an article on the passing of Prince  they alluded to the possibility of Prince having suffered a drug overdose.  I seems to me every time a black person dies they want to tie it to drugs.

Maybe it’s true.   Or maybe not.   But 1 thing is for sure Prince was a decent person who gave back… and was not selfish enough to not open the door for other musicians and/or singer etc.

He refused to leave his beloved Minneapolis thereby forcing the record companies to come to him.   And because he did acts like… Ready For the World… Time… Babyface and L.A. Reid… Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam etc.. etc.. etc.. were introduced to the world.

That was a fete that not many black folk are known for… reaching back or opening the doors for others.  But Prince did and there are a ton of people who can share their stories of how Prince aided them… or  impacted their careers…  or opened a door for them.   And that truly is a great legacy.

In the end, however, there is the question of eternity.   I hope as I had hoped for Michael and Whitney that Prince was able to resolved that with the Lord.

I have no doubt that Princes funeral will be filled with people whom we all know their names… there will be weeping… and fond memories… happy stories of being out on the road.   Or maybe the family may chose to quietly bury him … just as he had lived.

Well, God bless…   It’s Friday and I hope each of you have an enjoyable weekend.

Before closing I ran across pictures of Denise Matthews… better know as Prince’s girl, Vanity.   Whom years later left the music scene and became a woman of God …while also battling A.I.D.S.   Ironically,  like Prince… Vanity passed as well but a few years ago… also at age 57.

Another 1 of Prince’s girl well known to us was Apollonia.  She had been a former cheerleader of some major league team before hooking up with Prince.    And she had won a beauty contest or 2.

Vanity often attributed her battle with A.I.D.E.S. to the life she had lived while running with Prince.

Though in life he wore platform heels to add to his short height… he sold lots of records and made lots of money.  But in the end I hope his arms were not too short to box with Satan… to have ended up on the winning side.

Imagine in 3 short years Prince would have been 60.   Wow…

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 ©2016

Add a comment April 22, 2016

BLACK FOLK AND PLASTIC SURGERY…. ATLANTA PLASTIC….

I see where soon a new reality show is going to start called ‘ATLANTA PLASTIC.’

Truthfully speaking I fail to see why black folk are starting to jump on this band wagon?

I think we watch far too much TV and salivate far too much over all these so-called stars on these reality shows, who now seem to be creating a new standard as to what black folk should look like… by spending big bucks to go up some plastic surgeon to supposedly make them look like whatever they envision in their heads what they want to look like… down to skin color and everything else.

From NeNe Leakes on down it is far too much.  I happened to catch her just the other day on 1 of those networks where people sell their wares… and her hips were far too out there.  And I think she added lips, had her nose fixed, put in more boobs etc… etc… etc…

Why would I want to do that to myself?

First of all you have to consider that your body is in a consistent state of transitioning.  Your body never stands still.  Your face does not look the same as it did when you were ‘say’ 5 years old.  Your nose changed… eyes changed… your lips may have become fuller or more drawn out… but it is not the same and won’t be same when you hit 70… if you happened to be blessed enough to see 70 or 80.  Because we are continuously changing in terms of our shapes and sizes …and looks and even our heights.  Our body does not stand still and nor does our faces or our boobs …or the lack thereof.

My son and his friends love Tamar Braxton… but what is real about her face.  She looks fake… and I think she added boobs and the works too.

Then there is Wendy who wants everybody to believe she just developed naturally into what she looks like today… but if you could only see what she looked like in college.

So, you guys look at this stuff now and say, “Oh, wow…”

There is so much of it now.  And it is all over the place… and more and more black folk are beginning to lend towards it.

But I wish I could put up on my Facebook page of a picture of the woman who used to be a beautician who decided she was going to get some work done to her body.  It left her paralyzed and unable to work …or to do much of anything else and looking like a disaster.  That’s her is this picture here.

I never really liked what I looked like either… but then who really does as we are growing up?

But now when I see me in a mirror I have to marvel… because I am not half bad and certainly not as bad as I thought I had been.  But I have evolved …and I am yet evolving.  And so are you.

But I have never been into ‘self-hate’ and that is what I think of people who go out and destroy themselves believing they can create through the help of a plastic surgeon a ‘better them.’

There was a time when we used to scoff at people who went out to see plastic surgeons to have work done to themselves.  We laughed at people like Michael Jackson for bleaching their skin… changing their noses … or Janet having a rib removed.  But now black folks are running out like crazy and spending tons of money …on these wacko doctors or so-called doctors… better known as plastic surgeon to get all kinds of work done to themselves from belly tucks, cheekbones added, lipsuction, noses done, jawbones adjusted… etc… etc…   Michael even had a clef added to his chin.

And now this…  ATLANTA PLASTIC.

http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2015/07/atlantic-plastic-tv-show.html

smh….(for those of you who didn’t understand ‘smh’ …  I’m shaking my head)

All the wrong things are glorified in our culture today.  Just look at the mess that many people are in with all that tattooing.  So many of them have gone so overboard with it they look like Satan worshipers...  which many may well be.

The same thing could be said about piercing… not just your ears but everything else and in between.

It is really far too too too too much.

And here comes ‘ATLANTA PLASTIC’ to put the final nails to the coffin.

The purpose of this show is merely to glorify an already very growing trend among black folk today.  And it is not just in the secular world but also in the gospel and Christian world as well.  Pastors, gospel singers, evangelist etc… etc… etc.. are all indulging in fixing something about themselves from lightening their complexions to reconstructing their faces.  That Paula White you can’t even remember what she used to look like… but it sure wasn’t what she looks like today.  Juanita Bynum is another 1 who has hadtremendous work done on her face.  Bishop Paul Morton’s wife lightened her skin and did some other things to her face like fixed her nose.  That T. L. Penny …lighten herself, added boobs and did some other things too.  Kirk Franklin is said to have had some work done on his face.  And the list goes on and on and on and on…

And this show coming onto TV is going to push those numbers even further… and that is exactly what it has been produced to do… to create a desire in highly impressionable viewers to rush out and get some plastic surgery done on themselves too.  And hopefully… I guess the show wants them to be willing enough to make trips down to Atlanta to get it done.  So, look out for them to be pushing the doctors and exactly what they are supposedly experts at doing.

But I would say don’t fall for it.  There are things in life we are just made to endure… and becoming a mother causes some  leftover tell-tell factors on our bodies… but does that mean we should seeking to bring our bodies back to what it may have been and looked like before that 4th child?

I think not.

Recently I saw Salt and Pepa on an interview and I was shocked to see that Pepa… whom I always thought was beautiful… and ‘I LOVE PEP.’  But I saw that she too had gone up under some surgeon’s knife.   I won’t say what I thought of the after effects because I have always liked Pepa… she’s a very nice person but I really wish she had not gone to see any surgeon regarding her face… even with age she had to look better than what that surgeon left her.

Not really a big reality TV fan… or much of a television watcher anyway… I have no real idea of what Tamar used to look like but I can see that down to their mother they have all gone under the knife… including Toni.

I wouldn’t play with my face or body like that.  There are far too many disaster stories out there for me to consider going up under some plastic surgeon’s knife to cut or change anything about me artificially.  And I am a believer ‘if you are not sick… stay away from doctors… because they will make you sick if you don’t.’ 

And when it goes wrong… it goes wrong.  And there is no way to correct it after you and they… those plastic surgeons have messed you and your body up.

Talking about reality shows… since the 2nd episode of ‘PREACH’ I have yet to see any more episodes.  Did I just happen to miss them or was that show dropped following the first 2 screenings of it on TV?

Well, God bless…. it Friday and I haven’t really been all that busy this week, but I am now beginning to get back into the throws of things.  And it feels good.

I bought myself a blender off of 1 of those shopping networks.  So, I am shifting my eating habits a bit.  When I get out of here I’m going to go buy me some more bananas… or sometime this weekend.  I got a couple of whole pineapples and a can of peaches I’ve been looking forward to mixing up with some crushed ice… which my blender is quite capable of doing just fine.   And I am going to kick up my heels and enjoy the weekend… and I sincerely hope you do the same.

But I do not want to get out of here without making mention of Sandra Bland or Sam Du Bose… 2 very sad situations in the unnecessary deaths of yet 2 more black folk.  Of which I am highly sadden by… and question… and pray comfort and justice to their families… though nothing can give them back what they have lost and that is their love ones senselessly…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2015

Add a comment July 31, 2015

B. SCOTT…drag QUEEN…

I just happened to come across this person while writing my last blog.  And after watching some footage of him I knew I had to write something on him.

His name is B. Scott and he classifies himself as being androgynous… kind like what Michael wanted to be… somewhere between being male and female.

I have seen few people who have pretended to be as happy as B. Scott pretends like he is.  When I was in ‘the life’ I thought I was happy too.  But I never pretended like I was over joyed with it.  Over a period of time I just came to accept it… which I guess if you finally settle upon ‘this is who I am’ you tend to do.  You just start to kind of accept it.  Which is what B. Scott said he finally came to do.

Though I have seen thousands of gay guys and women who acted like they were super dupper happy being gay.  I had also seen them …many of them in the tears because they wished they could be like everyone else.

When I watched this video on YouTube by B. Scott… the 1 below… it really prompted me to write this blog.  Because there were a few things that he said that really gave me insight as to who he is… and why.

(I’ve got to find the right video)  But in the YouTube video  B. tells of how people used to say to him when he was a little boy, ‘You so pretty you should have been born a girl.’

In hearing that it made me think of my son, who at the age of 13… 1 day broke down and started crying saying to me that I would never be a grandmother.  Then he said that he must be ‘gay’ because everyone told he that.

How could I defeat what he was saying?

At the time I was not saved.  I was speechless and did not know what to say.  I was shocked.

Today I would rebuke that devil and call the devil and liar.  But that day… I was speechless.  I did not know what to say.

I must confess to being 1 of those gay mothers who was seriously homophobic… terribly.  But I never pushed my thoughts nor my fears over onto my son.    Well, I hope not… certainly never intentionally.   But there was a period in my life when he could nothing right.  I hollered at him about everything.  I did not realize that I was doing that though until a woman who was part of my film shoot on my short film… a niece to Florida of ‘Good Times’… pointed it out to me and talked to me about it.  She said, ‘Why are you always yelling at him?’

I never realized that I did.  But I am glad she brought it to my attention.  I might have drove my son away… but thank God that did not happened.  That big headed boy took me out to dinner last night… to very expensive sea food restaurant that we both like.  But I do not love him because he treats me to thing… or buys me stuff…  I love him because he is ‘my son.’  And I thank God for him.

I had never heard anyone call him that… that word… ‘gay.’   Though I think they were careful not to do so while I was around… as I would not have liked it.  Though I must say that at an early age I started to feel like I was seeing certain signs of it.  But here is where I want to tell you how the devil works.

You are not seeing anything that the devil has not put in your mind.  Your young children know nothing about sex… but the devil will toy with your brain and make you believe you are seeing things which are not there.

You don’t believe me????

Let me share with you this.  One night while in my apartment in downtown Brooklyn…. as I was leaving the living room to go towards my bedroom I looked down at the floor.  Upon looking down I saw the floor was covered with large water bugs everywhere.  I mean swarming with them everywhere.  I quickly looked up and said to myself, ‘the devil is a liar.’
I don’t know where that came from… but that is what I said.  Then I looked back down at the floor and there were no water bugs anywhere.  It had all been a figment of my imagination… brought about from the devil knowing that I had a fear of those things.  Which came about by the fact that occasionally I would see a water bug in my apartment…  something that my landlord refused to believe.

But that night the devil had decided that he was going to drive me mad… meaning crazy by presenting to me a ton of those horrible things crawling all over my apartment floor around me… and they covered my entire apartment floor.  But I did not go crazy.  God kept my mind… because He did not let me fall for it.  I merely shut my eyes for whatever reason… (as I did not know it was God’s doing at the time)…  I just started believing that they were not there.  You would have had to seen them.  They were so real.

This is how I know that people can see things… which look as real as anything you can touch or feel… and it not really be there.  It was just something that the devil presented to me… and had made it appear real to me because he knew I was afraid of those things. Of which New York seems to me have quite a few of them.

http://www.glaad.org/blog/oregon-mother-charged-killing-her-son-because-she-thought-he-was-gay

The woman in the above link killed her 4 year old son because she believed he was gay.  The devil truly had her mind that she would have done such an insane thing.  But he does and can plants seeds in your head… and make you see and hear things which are not really there.   And if you are not careful… and  you let them take root in you… you will believe what the devil has planted and will act out in whatever way he wants you to.

One day I heard a friend of mine yelling at 1 of her grandsons… ‘Put that rope down, boy.  You ain’t no girl.’

What does having a jump rope in your hand have to do with being gay?

So, what if a little boy wants to jump rope.  It does not mean he wants to grow long hair and become a girl.

But my friend did not realize that she was planting seeds… that 1 day would grown into just what she was asking for.

I had wanted to badly to tell her that what she and other members in her family were doing to him in regards to calling her grandson a ‘girl’… or saying to him had some ‘girl in him’ was wrong.  But I knew they would not listen to me… so I did not.  But now in hindsight I realized I should have tried …if for no other reason other than for her grandson’s sake.

We must speak LIFE to your children.  And do not let anyone speak DEATH to them… not even in joking.  Calling your boy child a girl is speaking death to him… or your girl child a boy.  Don’t do it.  Encourage them to have fun… let them enjoy themselves as children without you putting all your own sexual hangups upon them.

So, when I watched and listened to the above video of B. Scott I realized just how he had come to be and why.  I understand him… not so much because of what my son had said to me.  But because I understand how little children can become confused as to who they are if people keep pushing them in some other direction by saying ignorant things to them that makes them believe what people are saying about them.  And I guess that does kind of fit directly with what my son had said to me.

My entrance into ‘the life’ was very different… it had nothing to do with anyone calling me a ‘boy.’   Because frankly I never looked like 1… nor did I ever want to be 1.  Though I wasn’t much of a baby doll playing little girl either.  I don’t think I tried climbing trees… but I did try my hand at trying to fix a couple of things when I was young.

But being the oldest my youth was superseded by my having to learn how to do things at an early age… like washing dishes.  I do not know how old I was when my father pushed a chair up to the kitchen sink… but that was the beginning of my years of me being our family dishwasher.  Then I was taught how to cook… and the list goes on and on…

I was introduced to sex at a very early age.  Not via any family members but outside of our home.  Only twice had it happened.  But it happened before I had a voice or knew I had a voice or any idea of what was happening.  That is not to say I was an infant.  I was just a very young innocent child of maybe 6…7… or 8.   And the 2 times it happened they happened at varying times… not close or together.  Maybe a year or so apart… can’t remember that part.

I made mention on 1 of the times in 1 of my other blogs not so long ago.  It was a time that I almost got gang raped… but God said ‘no.’  That was the first time that someone took advantage of me.  But those 2 experiences marked my life forever… and how I think and feel about people who take advantage or abuse children.

But contrary to what many people may say or think… sexual preference many times may not have anything to do with what you were indoctrinated to… or let me say it this way first introduced to sexually.

Though I have spoken to many gay guys and they had the opposite experience… and some women too.  It did lead them into a life of homosexuality.  And a lot of times it happened to them with someone who took advantage of them sitting in some position in the church… lived in their apartment building… was a close friend to their mother or father… and ‘yes’ even sometimes it was a relative… or a daughter or a son of the 1 their parent’s friend.  One of my times was such a case as that.  My mother must have known… as she never went to visit that friend ever again.

But going back to this guy B. Scott in watching his videos I felt sorry for him… because I understood him in ways that many people will never get to.  And I also recognized his gaiety… or supposed happiness… really to be his sadness.

Love you, B. Scott.  And hoping that 1 day God will do a work in your life like he did in mine.  I hope the same for my son…. and the many sons and daughters dealing with identity problems… issues… or sexual confusion.

And I hope your laughter and smiles will become ‘real’… and turn into a joy that surpasses all understanding 1 day.

And that 1 day you will look into a mirror and see how really handsome you are… and start loving the ‘real’ you’ and not that the ones who were agents of devil told you were… but who God really made you to be.

Well, God bless…. I am really supposed to be doing something else right now.  But I just wanted to take the time to do this blog really quickly.  I hope that it falls upon fertile ground…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2014

2 comments April 17, 2014

PLASTIC SURGERY AND CHURCH PEOPLE… AND BLEACHING…

When you look at all the blotched plastic surgeries made to people faces and body why would you want to risk it?

And I mean some real BLOTCHES.

But it appears that plastic surgery and bleaching, lightening your skin color, is growing ever more popular among church people these days.  And especially amongst women in the pulpit.

I was on YouTube recently watching some videos a week or so ago, and I came upon this woman by the name T. L. Penny, whom I think can really peach.  Well, she could at 1 point.  But I don’t think she is as good as she used to be when I first heard her.  But in watching that video something suddenly struck me.  At first I did not notice it… but then it finally hit me.  I thought she had been darker.

So, I went back to look at some older videos of her on YouTube.  Low and behold, I was right.  She had been darker before.

Look at the distinct difference in her nose, her lips and other facial features.  It is not hard to see that Pastor Penny must have decided to go all the way, and did not just stop at the bleaching of her skin.

The peculiar part about T. L. Penny is this.   I had gone up over her website when I initially ran across her over the internet… which  is something I just do… and often.  I like to check out various websites all the time as I come across them and/or their links.

I like checking out my competition… meaning other graphic artists work… their layout and designs etc.  So, while viewing T. L. Penny’s site she had this picture of herself.  Which, of course, there is nothing big about having a picture of yourself on your site, as everybody usually has a picture or 2 if not more of them-self on their websites.    But, however, I though it a bit peculiar at the time, because the picture looked nothing like T. L. Penny.   It looked nothing like the woman in the video, whose link I had just come across on YouTube.

So, yeah it struck me as being odd that someone would have a website and would have posted a picture that looked nothing at all like them… with not 1 other picture of herself on that website anywhere of her otherwise.  But at that time I just rationalized that T. L. Penny liked that picture so she posted it.  This mind you was long before her plastic surgery and the bleaching of her skin had taken place.  That picture at that time, however, is today very close to what T. L. Penny has managed to have transformed herself into looking like… thanks to some aid from a surgeon somewhere.  So, I guess at that time that I saw that picture, she was speaking it into the atmosphere… and had been saving the money to get it done.

http://obnoxioustv.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/checkout-what-t-l-penny-wore-to-her-daughters-wedding/

This had been about the third time while watching something on YouTube  that I have happened to notice that somebody in ministry… mostly women… had become bleachers… and/or had otherwise gone under a plastic surgeon’s knife.  And the list seems to be growing.

Not too long ago I noticed this about a very prominent Bishop’s wife.  I could see that she had both bleached, and also had some plastic surgery work done.  That was Bishop Paul Morton’s wife, Debra B. Morton.  She appears to have made herself younger… lighter, and also had some things done to enhance her looks.

Also, a while back.. a few years back to be exact… I had noticed that Paula White, Pastor Paula… had also gone under the plastic surgeon’s knife.  I saw it right off when first began transitioning from what she used to look like to what she looks like today.  In fact, shortly after that transformation I had read that both Paula White and her husband at the time, Randy White… had both gone under the knife, and were then being investigated for misusing church funds to do it.  As well as, having made numerous other type of purchases with church money.

It is amazing to me that these people profess to love the Lord… and all that He has done.  Can quote how when God finished His work in Genesis.  How He called it all good.  And then at the very end of all that He had done He called it all ‘very good.’

Then if God feels that when He has created something that it is good, who are we to believe we can come behind Him and improve upon what God has done?

Don’t they believe that God has created them as He would have them to be?

And let me ask you this question…

If God has created it…  should be messing with it?

And I mean anything… everything which God has created… should we messing with any of it… believing we can do it better… or enhance it?

Man has corrupted all of what we now eat.  Our water… the rain… the ground… the food… the cattle… herds… produce…  the atmosphere… EVERYTHING.   And we cannot undo it.

None of the food or vegetables we eat taste like what it used to taste like some 10 or 20… or 30  or 40 years ago.  Man has tainted everything.  And man has done it believing that he can out do God.  Which is impossible.

So, here are some prominent church people… and they believe that their plastic surgeons can improve upon what God has already done.  Let us see what time will have to say about this matter.  Because just like Michael Jackson… I believe there will come a day when these people will not be able to walk out their front door exposing their faces.  Because they will come to look so hideous.

Our faces and even our bodies are in a constant evolution.  They do not stay the same.  They are not the same as they were when we were born, and they will not be the same when we die.  So, if the aging process continually is changing our faces, how can surgery on your face or body at a any point in your life not also be subject to life changes?

They have to be aware of this.  So, being aware… because they have to be aware of this.  So, being aware of this they still want to subject themselves to the possibility of ending up 1 big grotesque mess.  Because they played with something they should not have.

Me… I would not do it.  I just would not do it.  And that is not to say that I ever liked anything about me.  But over time I can see where time has made a pleasant difference in my overall appearance.

I never realized that even Kirk Franklin had paid a visit to the plastic surgeon.  And who knows who else.  There are so many of them… many in the recording industry.

Pastor Jackie McCullough appears to have gotten into the bleaching swing.  Something which many in Africa and in the West Indies seem to be indulging in.

Like Cindy Trimm and Juanita Bynum many women of the Cloth are electing go up under a plastic surgeon’s knife and/or bleach their skin in order to achieve something they undoubtedly longed for.  Beauty.  And don’t mind paying for it.

But beauty is elusive.  And it is not long lasting… and desire of it really stems from vanity …and also covetousness.

It was Solomon who spoke of vanity.  I guess he was not called the wisest man for nothing.  There is truly a lot to be said about vanity… and it is going on in the pulpit.  And these plastic surgeons are reaping the benefits of it.

To bad all that money is not going towards feeding the poor… or trying to clothe them.  Or maybe even trying to aid in supplying housing for the needy… the fatherless or the motherless.

What does this signify for the church?

Or to the young women in the church… whom we are supposed to teaching ‘to love themselves?’

I came across this picture of T. L. Penny and had to include it.

This apparel strikes as something contradictory to real gospel teaching.

What could have possessed this so-called preacher to dress like this?

This is the dress she wore as the Mother of the Bride.  Not only were her breast exposed… but take a look at how short the skirt was.

I don’t know what I’m talking about.

SKIRT???

She has on no clothes… as my father would say.  She really isn’t wearing anything up top.

I’m just wondering if  was she out working on getting herself a husband?

Or just looking for somebody to go home with?

Definitely not somebody who I would turn to for ministry… or even to attempt to correct me.  Or try to show me how to live.

I just keep coming back to this picture.  I can’t believe that any woman who calls herself in service for the Lord would wear such a thing.  I am also wondering if you got implants, as well, to her breast.  Can’t think of any other reason to want to dress wearing something like what she has on in this picture… unless she did.

Now, that I think of it… it reminds me of another YouTube video I saw.  It was video of a prostitute… with her nipples exposed talking about the Lord.

Unbelievable…  Truly diverse times.

Well, God bless…  I’ve got to move on my next blog now.  Because I don’t want to get out of here without commenting on what I have got to say next.  But hope you stick around to read it.  And I hope you are enjoying your week… and may it continue to be a good 1 for you.

But again 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…

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

9 comments July 29, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who can forget when James Brown first cried-

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

Or, “Baby, please don’t go.”

Or when Curtis Mayfield song these words-

“If  I had a choice of  colors.”

Or Nina came with-

“To be young gifted and black.”

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

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

What about –

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

Will soul music die like jazz has died?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Add a comment April 15, 2013

First Michael… now Gary Coleman… Blanche… and the oil mess… Boycott BP

If seems that fame brings about a lot of  problems that many of us would really rather not have.  But so many only see the glitz and the gleam of the big bright lights…and nothing else.

They clamor to be in the videos, on the cover of the magazines, on the big screen, sitting on the Oprah show… or on somebody’s reality show.  They want it… want it… or 15 minutes of  it… if  that is all they can get.

Some people have committed various acts… including murder… shooting up high schools …bombing buildings …etc…  all in order to get their name in print and/or picture on TV.

Many have sought it… and many who found it have also turned and tried to run from it.  Because all that glitters is  really not gold.

If  many knew what that life was really like I doubt that they would pursue it.  It is a life filled with lots of ups and downs.  And plenty of  its own uncertainties… and always lots of money and work woes.

There are some things in the video clip above that you should play close…very close attention to.  First of all, is the lack of any real care or concern by the woman who claims to be Gary Coleman’s wife.

Second of all, when she finally does start talking to him…listen to how she speaks rather…barks at him like she is talking to a little misbehaving child instead of a bleeding and near dying husband.

Third of all, how she announced to the operator that her name is Shannon Price…and not Shannon Coleman.

And Fourth of all, how much more concerned about herself and what she can’t stand and what is going on with her… which seems to be of  far more importance to her than a bleeding Gary Coleman.

Is it possible that Gary Coleman may have fallen prey to a person he should have chased back and away from him…instead of marrying her?

After several episodes of  run-ins with fans who seem to have gotten too close to him,  where Coleman had been noted as being mean and evil towards them.  And often it ended up with him punching 1 or 2 of them in the face.

Then how did he hook up with this woman?

Is it possible that she allowed Coleman to lay there bleeding until he was near death…and then decided to call 911 for emergency assistance for him?

Is it possible that she may have hit him or… somehow or other brought  about brain hemorrhage  that brought about his death?

Is it possible that she ever loved Gary Coleman at all?

Not if  you go by what you hear during that 911 call.

Gary Coleman’s burial has been postponed… though the article said ‘cancelled’ …hmmmm…

What does that mean?

At any rate Gary’s parents have sent their people to step into the picture between that woman and Gary…on their son’s behalf.   I really feel for them.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/06/exclusive-todd-bridges-ex-manager-begged-gary-colemans-ex-wife-not-pull-plug

I had always thought it sad when Gary went into court with his parents, who are really foster parents to him.  But I guess the only parents he ever knew.  And after it happened, I had always hoped that time would have healed that wound between them. 

It does happen sometimes in families.  In fact in many families it does happen.  Most families experience some type of  falling out one time or other.  But then there are those families that go to grave not ever speaking again after whatever happened came between them.

Those family members who mature and/or come to know that ‘there is nothing like family,’  they learn to but aside differences in order to not to continue to tear the family apart.  Many times it is hard but you have to do it ‘for the sake of the family.’   Otherwise, there will be tons of  regrets on both sides years later… and usually well after it is too late.

I had to learn through the grace of  God to put aside some things dealing with family issues in our family.  The things that set us at each other, and all the name calling… finger pointing …can’t override the value of keeping the family together.  You have to work at keeping the family together… because no amount of things or ill  will or words can compensate for it…family.

Family is important.

Unfortunately, Gary Coleman may have elected to turn his back on the 2 people who may have well loved him the most… to run into the arms of people who filled him up with a bunch of  ill advice and evil counsel.

On the other hand Dana Plato’s, the young girl on Diff’rent Stroks, foster mother struck me as being much like Patty Duke’s family and aunt, who saw her as being a gold mine.  The same could be said about the father of  the star of  the movie  ‘Home Alone,’  McCaulay Culkin.

It is sad imagining any child who has to endure a life among people who really do not love them… or who value more what the child can earn for ‘them.’  At some point I guess this is exactly what Gary began to feel… though I must say I never believed it about the people who called him ‘their son.’

Personally, I think there should be an autopsy done on Gary Coleman.  Something just does not sound or smell right.  It is kind of  like how I still feel about Michael Jackson’s death.

I think it was murder.

And it would seem that he… Gary did still have  some money.  Look at what he was driving.

Michael Jackson was a young teen boy when people got in between him and his family too.  Over time and perhaps even out of  some degree of  necessity on both parts… their’s and his… they slowly came back together.  Because at the end of the day…family is all you have when you get right down to it.  All you have got to depend upon.

Perhaps, near the end of  Gary’s life he realized that too.

Going through pictures of  Gary Coleman, I can see that there were times when he wasn’t doing so well healthwise.  I produced a documentary on dialysis a while ago.  Before it I had never heard the word dialysis before or even knew that there people who could not urinate on their own due to problems with their kidneys.

But I had an aunt who started needing dialysis treatments due to her diabetes.  Through her I came to find out about the illness and how it ate away at  those who had to depend upon it.

In this picture you see a darker Gary Coleman.

Well,  that is one of the side effects of  dialysis.  Another is the obvious swelling of  his face… and the ashy-ness of  his skin tone.  Do you notice how his eyes appear to almost  be shut?

He does look sick doesn’t he?

With so many health issues due to his kidneys since being a young child and straight through his life… which also stunted his growth greatly… and other problems… it is not hard to see why Gary Coleman was as he was.  Though such adversity in the lives  of others has caused them to not only raise above their circumstances…but to truly go for the stars in ways that Gary did not.  They turn their circumstances around by working to benefit the lives of  others.  But it seems that  Gary could not rally that kind of strength.

He seemed to be alone in the world… and the 1 person left for him to depend upon wouldn’t even help him in his final hour of  need.   What a tragedy…for him …and maybe even for us.  As none us tried to help him either.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/04/gary-coleman-funeral-canceled/

If you would like to read the 911 call put in by Shannon Price, you can CLICK on the LINK  BELOW.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/04/gary-coleman-funeral-canceled/

I will never forget watching her taking some award where she graciously stepped to the mic  to said a few words to the teacher who told her that she would never make it as an actress.  It is amazing the things we remember.

Of course like millions I too sat watching nights of  Golden Girls.  Who didn’t love ‘ma’  Estelle Getty…or  Dorothy her larger than life daughter.  And that ditizy Betty White… and that over-aged sex kitten Blanche.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/arts/04mcclanahan.html?src=me

I had a lover… someone I lived with for over 9 years who loved to watch television.  She stayed in front of  it.  And Golden Girls was one of  the shows in the evening she would tune in to.

So, of course, over time I became quite familiar with them all.  The sassy Blanche, the dim-wit Rose and   Ma… and Dorothy.

One by 1 they are slowly departing this place.  First Estelle Getty, then  Bea Arthur,  and Rue McClanahan and leaving Betty White.  All of them better known by their character names… Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia…the Golden Girls.

And then there was 1…

Early this week Rue passed too…leaving Betty White as the lone survivor of  their lively cast.

Betty is lively as ever…spunky… and I guess you can even say sassy at times too.  She is hard at work on another series… and really hasn’t stopped working since her Golden Girls days.

Today there are reality shows… and shows about people trying to win a million dollars.  It all became so boring to me that I stopped watching TV a while ago.  And truthfully… I have not missed it.  Besides, as an adult person my schedule is way too busy for me to be sitting down and watching television.

Didn’t intend to write so much.  Now, I have a movie that I want to watch.

So, you have a good night… and a beautiful day tomorrow.

Update Saturday, June 5th:  I awoke this morning having left my son’s laptop up on some news items on the oil spill in the Gulf.  Listening to it… 1 news broadcast on the oil spill after another… the impact of  the breath of  this oil spill has finally really hit home to me.

The British people in the upper level of  BP really were such big liars.  They lied about everything… saying that they had it contained…that it was not going to hit the shores…and that it would not impact the local environment.   In the beginning that BP top guy was passing the buck of  responsibility on to someone else… some other company… and that it was not their oil rig at fault.  Their oil rig that had failed to have all the safety measures that by law they should have had in place. Yet other lies by BP.

Now, the oil slick has hit Florida and is on its way out into the Atlantic Ocean if  the clean up  doesn’t speed up and can’t contain it any better than BP already has.   It all makes me think about the Republican Convention during McCains’ run for the Presidency against Obama.  Where they walked around with ton of signs and cries of-

“Drill, baby…drill,” could be heard all over that convention floor.  The Republicans were excited about going out and digging more oil rigs… even stating that they would go into protected environmental areas to do so.

This is the video new items that awoke to.  And believe it became crystal clear to me that what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico right now is surely going to impact us all.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1499276788

It seems to me that we should all be boycotting BP gas stations.  And it is upsetting to me that this company is not even an American company.

How is it that a British oil company owns oil rigs in our own home waters… while we are seeking oil from foreign shores of countries such as those in the Middle East?

If we have oil right here in America then we should be producing it and controlling it for our own use.  And particularly since these oil rigs are so dangerous and can impact us in such a way as this gushing BP oil rig in the middle of  the Gulf of  Mexico.

Yes, I am advocating that we all boycott BP…it is time that they started feeling it in their pocketbook.  Perhaps then BP might realize that they can’t come into America and treat Americans any kind of way…or endanger us without a hefty price.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37463005/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf

God bless.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…

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

Add a comment June 5, 2010

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…

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

Add a comment December 17, 2009

Skin and color issues… on being black and beautiful

Happened to come across this on youtube and it touched me.

You’re pretty for a black girl???

In this the 21st Century…I would have hoped that we were far from the backward thinking of yesterday…all of  us.  But particularly black folk…or so called black folk.   You know when we walked around trying not to be black…afraid to show our napps and kinks.

You do remember yesterday?  

You know the time when …when if  you were white  you were alright.  Light and you could  just get by…or wasn’t as dark as the brown paper bag…and your hair wasn’t too short…too kinky…or your lips too big.

After all these years…and throughout history we have yet to get over not loving who we are.  And what makes it so really bad…we can’t even see that the rest of world wishes they were us.

If  the truth be known…for better or for worst…we set the fashion trends…style…language patterns… music…dance… and almost everything.   And not only here in this country…but around the world as well.

Western Culture…is definitely highly rooted in the black culture of this country.

So, then why do we feed in to this…I hate me…or can’t find a good black man… or can’t  find a good black woman lie?

It is a lie…because I am a good black woman…and I know I’m not all by myself. And I also believe that there are just as many good and decent black man.

I will never buy into the hype that the reason so many black men and women are preferring to date outside of our race…is because they can’t find someone good in it.  That is a lie.  

I would really like to know just where they have been looking?

The bars…and  prison?

If you seek out junk…then you will find junk.

And if  you seek junk…don’t expect it to step up…to being anything else.   But junk.

I know someone…a black woman…a bit younger than myself…who I used to think of as being smart.  Until one day she said to me that she was  involved with someone who is an addict…and he has been this way for years.

Now, she has her own business… is in the church…but.   She says she loves the guy….that he is a good person.    She says…she is willing to wait on him with the hope that he will straighten out his life.  

And with God’s help…that could happen.

But has anybody ever heard of  being  unevenly yoked?

What if  he never gets his life straight?

And there you are…sitting around all these years…hoping and praying…and sexing it up with somebody who may never be able to be anything real in your life…outside of what he already is.   An addict. 

I don’t know if this is still true or not…but when this whole thug culture was being hyped up…I could not believe the number of decent women…and who I thought were intelligent black woman… talking about they wanted a thug.

“I want me a thug.”

What????

Were they crazy?

A what???

A thug?

I guess that is what Vivica Fox wanted when she hooked up with half-a-dollar.

It got even worstt when I went to hear Nikki Giovanni…and she flashed her tatoo…a large…very large…marking…a tattoo on the inside of  one of  her arms reading….”THUG LIFE.”    At 60 something years of age…I felt she had lost her mind talking about celebrating that lifestyle.  Of what...men beating their women…neglecting their children…etc…  And having sex with anything moving…and dis-respecting women with a bunch of  misogynistic lyrics…loaded with the N-word from start to finish…and a bunch of  other filth.

What is there to celebrate about someone playing like he’s a thug?

“Ahhh…come on now, Nikki.”

In the above video Oprah says that 70% of  black women are not married because “there are not just as many black men out there.”  Meaning that the earth is populated with more black women than black men.   I debate this highly…simply because it is not true.  Since we were created by God…and He is and has always been a God of  balance.  He would never have created more of one sex over another.  And particularly since He…Himself  said-

“Be fruitful and multiply.”

And He would not have said that…to go against His own laws against adultery and fornication…by creating a shortage of any one sex to the other. 

All through nature there is balance between the sexes.  Why would it be any different for man?

I think that people make all kind of excuses to accommodate their choices.  In the earlier days of  black stars in this country (of which most of them had white husbands or wives)…they claimed that it was that they could not find anyone black equal to who they were…being that great singer or actor or actress… or musicans etc.  that they were.   Today they  certainly could not make the same claim since many African-American people excel in all areas from business to sports to entertainment to entrepreneurship…and ministry too.  

In churches all across this country today there are plenty of  black millionaires lining church pews and pulpits…and not  just in the church.   (But doesn’t Pearl Bailey and Queen Latifah look very much alike?)

So, nobody can tell me that there are not enough good or decent black folk around…of both sexes to go around.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was at a very large church convention called AIM in Tampa, Fl…and I never once saw an im-balance between the black men and women…or teens…and children that were there of   either sex.  And they packed the Tampa Bay area coming from everywhere across this country and outside of  it.

I think that media is to blame for starting the rumor that women out number  men.  Since in the beginning…media like most of everything else was male dominated.   Men love to justify certain behavior.    So, why not create a lie like saying-

“Women out number us.  So, therefore we are allowed to have as many of them as we would like.”

All through history you see women being used as sexual objects…and with men having multiple wives…or harems.   Yet, when you see pictures of those times, art, and readings from early times…they do not reflex a lesser number of  men to women.  If anything…it seemed as though the opposite were true. 

So, shows like the above  segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show only legitimized that lie for many people.  Vast number of people have always believed  it.  But now because Oprah said it…that makes it true.  Not so.  

It is very much the same as saying that there is a ‘gay gene’ …therefore, gay people can’t help being gay.  That too is a lie.  There is no ‘gay gene.’   Gay people are not a freak of  nature.  But there are some scientist who claim that this is true…and falsely want to lay claim to this based upon some bogus laboratory discovery.

What it rally all gets down to… is  what do you want to believe?

You can choose to believe lies…falsehoods…or choose to believe the truth. 

But no matter what…black is beautiful…even for a black girl.

CLICK the LINK BELOW to see the video…it is sad to the level of  self-hate due to their dark conplexion.

http://www.mwza.com/tyra-banks-show-black-women-their-children-bleaching-their-skin/

It is amazing the number of women, men and children is this country and abroad…from the Caribbean Islands to Europe…and Africa…who are running to blench their skin.  Many without any knowledge of the vast risk to their health or  life…not to mention that  the chemicals in the blenching creams are toxic and can destroy the person’s face and body over a period of time.

It is a mystery how many of  us would have loved to have been born darker…and those darker…some of  them least ways…and I guess many…since the blenching cream market has grown so big.  It is truly a shame that  so many would want so badly to be lighter.   And would destroy their beautiful natural complexions trying to undo what God has  so richly and generously blessed them with. 

In listening to the videos above…it all mostly stemmed from feelings that they felt that lighter skin meant better treatment…better jobs…status etc…   All of  which really stems…from lack of respect of  yourself… your capabilities… and how you preceive yourself.   Preception of  one’s self  is a great thing…it can hinder you …or sky rocket you into excelling high levels in life…whether others believed you could…or not.

Personally…I have never felt that anything was more beautiful than being black.  I may have never liked what I personally looked like (in terms of my facial stuff)…or my size…but I have always liked being black…and black features.

Beauty…is us…in all of  our  varying shades.   It’s really what makes us so much more interesting than all the other group of people in the world.  We’ve got variety, baby…and lots of it…and in all kinds of ways.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/08/celebrity.race?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/africa_have_your_say/8095882.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7244374.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8148719.stm

They say a picture says a 1,000 words.  If  this picture could speak what would it say?

I think…it would say-

“I’m not happy.”

In comparing this picture with some of  Michael’s earlier pictures before any of the surgery… you can see that he not only hated his skin color…but his lips…hair… nose…chin… and I guess just about everything else about himself.    How very sad.   And even worst…what he did to himself  thinking he could improve upon what  God had already blessed him with.

Thank you so much, Aisha for posting your video on youtube.  You are not only pretty…but fasinatingly beautiful…and a highly intelligent young black woman.  Your husband must marvel every time he looks…at his queen.  I know you must be an equally wonderful mother…because you possess all the right tools to having a beautiful and  successful loving family.

Take a peak at Ethiopian Sara Nuru…Germany’s next top model…and perhaps the world.

And yes…I’m still plugging  my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.    In fact…I better get some sleep now…so I can get up early in the morning and get out to go work on my book trailer some more…which I will post here as well as on youtube.  Soon and very soon…   It  is coming.

 Well, enjoy your day tomorrow.  Finally…some sun…but  lots of  humidity too.  Plus I have hot flashes…oh, well… 

God bless…

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

 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. 

6 comments July 28, 2009

Micheal’s death…the concert… and Palin

Finally, I am up and out.

We just flew back in from Tampa on Sunday afternoon, and I have been drained of  any energy every since.  I have barely eaten a thing.   All I have wanted was sleep…and more sleep.  But finally today I decided that maybe I needed to get out and get some fresh air to clear out the cob-webs from all that compressed air I was forced to breath in during our flight down and back from Florida.  And maybe…just maybe…I was right.

I feel better already.

Florida was beautiful.  It rained most of the time while we were down there.  But I loved every minute of it anyway. 

My plan was to write my blogs during the evening while laying around in the hotel…as we were in Tampa for the AIM conference with our church.   But our hotel did not have a business room where I could access a computer for free.   Instead they had an UPS store with computers that could be rented at a rate of  59¢ per minute.  Needless to say, I was livid.  And my son had failed to bring our lap-top computer on the trip. 

So, it meant that during this whole Michael Jackson thing…and Palin resignation…and the whole of the 4th of July weekend…I had been computerless.  And unable to voice any opinions on anything to anyone accept to the walls of  my hotel room…how boring.

So, alas…I am happy for this opportunity to be able to once again feel the rugged curves of  the keys of my keyboard.  And now able to voice my voice…but I have forgotten what it was that I had wanted to say.

Though through the whole week last week…I had much to voice…I now, however, find that maybe I am just too tired to say anything.  Though I did think that Palin has committed political suicide…not to mention that there most be something bigger behind her quick decision to resign at this time.   And then… frankly, I believe Michael may have been murdered.

If  Michael was in the mental state that those around him claimed that he was in…then any contract signed by him for 50 concert dates would be null and void…as he was not mentally competent to sign anything.  My other point to this is…is this.   When an artist signs a contract…and particularly an performing artist like a Michael Jackson…the promoters would have insured him.

I am curious just how much the owners of the Staple Center in LA had Michael insured for…as they were the ones promoting the 50 concerts in England.

My second point…is this.  No talent in their right mind would have ever signed a contract for 50 consecutive concert dates.  Most entertainers can barely make it though a couple weeks of  performing without becoming exhausted. 

At 50 years of  age there was no way that any out of shape performer who had not been on the road or on stage for at lease 8 to 10 years…such as Michael… could have possibly pulled off  the 50 concerts that Michael Jackson was said to have been booked for.  Not without battling complete exhaustion and/or possibly killing himself  by dropping dead on stage while attempting to do it.  

It was simply an impossible fete that even the King of Pop would not have been able to pull off.

Had Michael died during the time of  his rehersals for his 50 concert gig…it would have meant a big pay day for the promoters of his supposed 50 concert dates.   Had he died while on the road or any time during his 50 concerts…also meant a big pay day for his promoters.  And having died while under contract…which Michael was…also meant a tremendous pay day for the concert promoters of his 50 concerts.

But had Michael gotten up on the stage and not been able to fulfil his concert dates…for reasons due to exhaustion…burn-out…fatigue…drugs…etc.    This would have meant financial disaster for the promoters…and demands for rememburstments for all tickets of the shows which had to be cancelled.  Something which no promoters wishes to ever face.

http://www.michaeljacksonlive.com/memory.php

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29676050

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29676991#29676991

Michael Jackson’s untimely demise has left many questions.  And among them are questions as to whether or not Michael superseded the law in the aquisition of  his children?

In perhaps, the biggest baby-mama drama ever…if  Michael had aquired the first 2 children, Price Michael and Paris, legally…then why had they not been legally adopted by him?

No legitimate lawyer would have allowed that to get pass him or her.   He or she would have counseled Michael on the merits of  legalizing those children as being his.  And it would have had to have gone through Probate Court.

Then there is the issue of  Blanket.  

What happened to his mother?

Why is she not named on the birth certificate for the child?

Was this legal?

Since Blanket had to have come from some woman…or girl…somewhere…who was she…and what happened to her?   As  Blanket did not  just materialized out of the  air and just came to be.  Why was his mother’s name omitted from her son’s birth certificate?

I have never heard of any such a thing before…and the matter really sounds quite fishy to me.

The lawyer…or lawyers involved in Michael’s acquisition of  his children really should be questioned…because it seems to me that they…or he…or she…overstepped some boundries of the law.   Even though California laws vary so much from other states…perhaps it was all legal and aboard board.   But I think not.

Having money you get whatever you want.  And I think that Michael Jackson having money managed to find the right people who for a nickle or a dime would deliver to him whatever he wanted. 

And in the end…it is those very people who you cannot ever trust.

So, it is not a mystery to me…that papa Joseph is crying foulplay in the untimely death of  his son, Michael Jackson.  It is sad and becomes highly unsafe for anyone who becomes worth more dead than alive.

We await the autopsy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196332/Michael-Jackson-Debbie-Rowe-biological-parents-of-children.html

Hope that you are enjoying this weather.

I got up early this morning to read my Bible on my mother’s very large front porch.  The sound of the birds chirping and feel of the early morning breezy on a beautiful sunny summer morning…made it an absolutely beautiful experience.  Just me…my Bible…and the beauty of the Lord.

Enjoy your day.

I am still twiddling my tumbs waiting on the publishers to finish…but the hold up this time is kind of my fault…in that because of the money I had already put out to publish my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.  You know when I gave over 2 grand to Xulon Press…which I go into more in-depth in another blog…and got nothing back in return.  So, when I finally decided upon another company…I had to do it on a payment plan because I just did not have all the money to pay for the printing of  my book all at once.  Which was really one of the main reasons I chose the company that I finally decided upon. 

Four payments in the amount of $175 for the package that I chose…which with a special they were running gave me 20 advance copies of my book for free.  And they should have given me something out of the deal…as I had done all the work for my book including designing  my cover and the layout of my interior pages…plus the editing of the my text, as well…which what has been the hold up. 

I just keep finding another error…and I am such a perfectionist.  It would kill me not to put out a work that is not quality.  So, please continue to bare with me.  THE BISHOP’S WIFE will soon be out and available for your purchase soon.    the time when my book will soon be made available for sale.  God is good…I am so happy to finally  have gotten it done and out…and into the final stage of the process…besides getting out to aid in selling it.

And I am still working hard on my book trailer for ‘youtube’ too…and my radio promo.  All of  which I shall premiere right here on my blog site first.

 Well, enjoy the rest of your day and I have so much more to tell you.  It’s coming. 

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

 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. 

2 comments July 14, 2009

The shot heard across the world…Michael Jackson gone…

They say that it always comes in 3’s. 

First…Carradine

Then…Farrah

Then…Ed McMann

Now, Michael?

I had thought about writing today…then got tired and decided not to.  But then the phone rang…and word came of  Michael’s passing.  And I have been in conversation after conversation trying to find out exactly what is what.  And all the while thinking…how sad.

I had heard about Farrah earlier today…but then had forgotten about it.  She had battled hard against cancer…but perhaps it was her battle with drugs…that had taken a bigger total on her.  Once the body becomes weaken…there is not much that it can do to ward off  too much of anything else.  And drugs had definitely weaken her.

Classical example of  ‘bad boy/good girl.‘  From the time she became involved with the wrong man…she just never recovered.   Though she had proven that she ‘really’ could act…all of  it  was blown to the wind when drugs became to her…a soul mate.

Michael at 50, just days away from his next birthday,  had years ago began  fighting his own addiction…surgery to his head, body and face.  It seems that once he got started…he could not stop.  It became perpetual.

Then on top it…I guess the injuries…to his back and knee… that he suffered while shooting that Pepsie commerical and after falling off stage…just never went away either.  So, down went the pills…and on came the addiction.

It is sad really…a life filled with so much promise should have such an end.  One can not help but to think about how much he seemed to romance the  idea of  becoming  ‘the next big thing’  behind Elvis after death.  So, much so that he even married into that family.   The King of  Pop vs  the King of  Rock & Roll…knocking at heaven’s gate.

But it is sad when you reflect and think back on Michael’s life…how he just never seemed to connect with life.   Somehow, it all seemed beyond him…just out of his reach… a real life… with any kind of  normalcy.   How he just never appeared to have felt comfortable being who he was.  How much he must have really hated himself… to ruin his face and body in the way that he did.  How sad he and lonely he must have  really been…that he only sought solace among young children.

How sad a life Michael had.  Never was allowed to be a real child…growing up in school…with real friends.   Once he had been sitting on top of the world…but over the course of years that world began to crumble from under him. 

He was king…because he wanted to be.  He could dance and sing his way into anyone’s heart.  And he did for years… years ago… but today was a new day.  Though…yes, he still had plenty of adorning and loving fans…who remembered Michael ‘when.’

Amid years of allegations of  child molestation…Michael lost most of all he had behind one legal battle after another.  And like R. Kelly…quietly paying parents off.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31554982/ns/entertainment-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1&beginChapter=1&beginTab=1

It was not hard to see that Michael had problems.  Much of  it started when Michael started listening to the handlers who caused him to separate himself from his parents and other sibling.  Filling his head with big ideas… how he didn’t need them.  And how he could make it on his own.

And he did.

He made it on his own.  And blew up…and became as large as life.

But through it all…all the money…platinum records/CD’s… sold out concerts… big record breaking contract deals… large real estate holdings… etc… he… he lost it all…and was hoping for a final horrah with plans for a final tour.   But it was not to be.  

Even when it seemed that he had it all…way up there on top of the world…you sensed that he was not happy.  And no amount of  famous names collected around him…or who he had managed to encase himself with…seemed to off-set that fact. 

Yes, Michael was never really happy.  Which is why he probably poured himself into his musical projects… and his talent the way that he did.  To some degree working… and performing… became hislover… the seat of his happiness.  The place where he forgot… he was Michael…isolated…and shut-up away from the rest of the world.

But he seemed to like being shut-up and away from the rest of the world…much like Howard Hughes.  But then life comes closing in on you.   It did for Elvis…it for Howard…and I suspect it did for Michael Jackson, as well.

Al Sharpton following the corners reporting…called Michael Jackson a trail blazer.  And that he truly was.  With more than 750 million albums/CD’s sold worldwide…13 Grammy’s…and tons of  other alccolades.  Eccentric at times…even down-right weird at others…he was nonetheless Michael Jackson…and perhaps the greatest entertainer of all times.

The whole music video industry would be nothing without the vision…foresight…intuitiveness and creative energy of  Michael Jackson.   He saw how music and videos could be merged and used as a creative medium and selling tool. 

Then there was his music…and with the on-slant of pop music…   Yes, I guess you could say he was the undisputed King of  Pop. 

Who could beat him?

Who could move like him?

Who had perfected their art the way he did?

During the MOTOWN 25th television special he stole the show with a single move…called the ‘moon walk.’ 

They say…he was frail.  

They say…it was the medication.

They say…it was the addiction to the pain pills.

I say…he found this world cold…and unaccommondating.

Elvis may have  impersonators…but Michael Jackson has spawd a slew of  ‘would be shinning stars.’

I am just sorry that I could not do anything to helf  him.  What a great loss.

One can truly say-

“He gave his life to his profession.”

http://www.popeater.com/music/article/michael-jackson-dead-at-50/544453

http://www.spinner.com/2009/06/25/artists-reflect-on-michael-jackson?icid=main|main|dl2|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spinner.com%2F2009%2F06%2F25%2Fartists-reflect-on-michael-jackson

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31552029?gt1=43001

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31555400#31555400

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31562509#31562509

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31552029/ns/entertainment-music/

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529103,00.html

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31568341/ns/entertainment-music/?GT1=43001

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31568341/ns/entertainment-music/?GT1=43001

I am still twiddling my tumbs waiting on the publishers to finish.  I am counting down the time when my book will soon be made available for sale.  God is good…I am so happy to finally  have gotten it done and out…and into the final stage of the process…besides getting out to aid in selling it.

I am working hard on my book trailer for ‘youtube’…and my radio promo.

 Well, enjoy the rest of your day and evening. 

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

 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. 

Just DOUBLE CLICK to see the videos BELOW…and ignor the text which will appear.

1 comment June 26, 2009

Giving Thanks….Sarah Palin (hopefully for the last time)

Well, today is the day before Thanksgiving.  And if you are like me, I am sure that you are looking forward to it.  Though I will probably be up all night cooking…I am still looking forward to it.  Even though by the time we finally sit down to eat…I will be too tired to want to eat much.  I will still enjoy it…and look very much toward Friday…the day after.  And not because the following Friday is a huge shopping day…but because the leftovers always taste better.

I definitely hope that your Thanksgiving will be a joyful one and that you will remember those who may not have all of what you have…or even a portion of it.

Hopefully, if you are a person who feels that there is nothing to be thankful for…but if you have the leisure of reading this then that in of itself is a reason for you to be thankful. 

Many times, I have found that we do not take the time to appreciate what we have.  Falsely, we are oftentimes too busy thinking about what we don’t have or what we think we want, and therefore we forget or minimize the things that we do have.  I have come to learn that this can be a shortcoming and a vast fault in human nature itself.  We all from time to time have been quilty of it.

There was a time that I never loved myself.  Hated the way I looked…my size…my hair…etc…etc…  I never at all minded that I was black.  In fact, I have always been thankful to be black…I’ve even always thought that I wanted to be darker.  A thought I had last night when Michael Jackson ran across my mind…not about being darker but…just about being black. 

Imagine if Black folks wanted to be white.  Today that technology does exist.  I believe that Michael believed that he was going to set a trend in that direction.  But it didn’t happen.

For years and years African-Americans, black people had been told that they were too dark.  They were called ‘black this’ and ‘black that.’  They were made to feel that their lips were too big…their noses too flat…their butts too big…hair to nappy etc.  All of which modern technology has made possible for those people who criticized and told black people that their characteristics and facial features were just not acceptable…and in many cases just plain downright ugly.  They degraded us not only for those things but also because of our skin color.

Now, these very people…they spend millions upon millions making surgeons richer than rich to get big lips, wide hips, big butts, sun tans…and some even braid or have dread their hair…all for the sake of trying to look more like the very people they once  supposedly scorn. 

Though I am sure that they would certainly not say that they were opting to go up under all that surgery for the purpose of trying to get ‘black’ or even…that they have or have had any deep hidden desires to look more like black folks.  Whatever their driving force the things that they claimed to have hated and dispised about black people’s features and everything else…today they don’t mind shelling out plenty of money with the hope of duplicating.

But that trend has not been in the reverse…though as Michael Jackson proves that technology does exists too.  But very few of us have choosen to rush out and change our noses, lighten our skin or shrink the size of our lips. 

Sorry, Michael…I guess way down deep inside we really didn’t buy all that stuff after all.  Which is maybe why James Brown’s hit “Say It Loud…I’m Black and I’m Proud” was such a large hit among black folks in the 70s.  And then he hit big with “Sex Machine”…and he had to be talkin’ about us when he wrote that one.

But going back to what I was trying to say in the beginning about myself…I never used to love myself because…well, because I just never thought of myself as being ‘pretty’ or ‘attractive’ and certainly never ‘beautiful.’  And of course…every woman wants to feel these things.  

I have most been amazed when I have run upon people whom I felt were not  attractive…but for some reason they seemed to have a far greater sense of being then me…thinking of themselves ‘more’ handsome or ‘more’ beautiful than anyone else.  I suspect that these things really are a matter of perspective…and definitely dependent upon who is looking at who.  And of course how you perceive you own self. 

Over time I have truly come to realize that beauty really is skin deep.  And that we all should be very much thankful for what God has given us.  Whether it be family, family members, siblings, car, house, job, even our problems…or our perceived problems. 

No matter the situation…there is always someone who is in a worst state of being…who has a worst family (or no family at all)…worst siblings…car that is in worst condition…or house in greater disrepair etc…  Or even those who think that she or he is not as smart as…or as pretty as.  It is all a matter of perception.  If you perceive yourself as being beautiful…then you will be beautiful.  And the same thing goes for being smart.  

It is kind of like that Scarecrow in the moive the ‘Wizard of Oz.’  Just by receiving that piece of paper (that degree) his whole perception of how intelligent and smart he was changed…and he became confident in the knowledge he now felt he possessed.

Everybody is attracted to confident people…who are sure about themselves and are grounded in who they are…and exhibit high standards of personal quality.

So, I guess you could say it is a mind thing.  Today in my mind my view point of myself  is very different from what it had been.  I do love myself.  Today, sometimes when I a reflection of myself…I smile.   I feel I am growing into my looks.  And I am highly confident in myself…in my skills, who I am and certainly about the gifts that God has instilled in me.  I didn’t have that before…and I never felt I was all that good in anything that I did…though I was told the opposite.   And told it often by others…many whom who sought me out to do so.   But I just thought that they were being kind.

I love me now.  I still may not think I am the best looking…but I feel I have a lot more going for myself than mere looks. .and I really really really…really do.

And you know what? 

But this above all I do have…the love of God.  I  am a good person…who will do nothing for money.  And I have never valued money over people.

This is what I think of beauty today…when you want to find real beauty in this world…it can be found in those who have true humility…and those willing to give of themselves for others.  That is real beauty to me. 

Wow…do I wish I had humility…even just a piece of it. 

I have had the pleasure of being in the presence of at least 2 people who possessed true humility…and I have never been the same nor stopped enving them because they possess it and I did not. 

True humility has to be the greatest of all things that any person could possess.  It far exceeds good looks…it is something with resides on the inside.  And there is something very calming and peaceful about it…and those who possess it.

In a few words…  ‘Happiness in this world is what we make it.’  We can either choose to be unhappy, sad or depressed all of the time…part of the time…or none of the time.   But it is a personal choice…and languishing over such things as physical beauty is an absolute waste of time.  As we are in a constant state of evolving…what we looked like 20 years ago is no more and is forever gone.  But personal and mental growth is something which we should all always be in search of.

Be safe this holiday season and enjoy your Thanksgiving.  Always seek to do good over evil…and stay encouraged. 

Now, can I go to Sarah Palin, at least one last time?

It seems to me that the world celebrates mediocrity in ways that it never did before. 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6189621&page=1

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27853608/

On the heels of suffering a lost as Vice President of the United States, Sarah Palin is being hit with a slew of offers from film to television to books.  She is reportedly close to closing a $7 million book deal about her life.  But the problem that I have always had with Sarah Palin is that she was below the standard.

She was a governor from a very large yet isolated state, not populated by very many people.  She had a 17 year old daughter who was and may at this time still be pregnant, and out of wedlock.  And in my personal opinion, she was a woman who cared less about her family and home life than her own political ambitions and being in the lime light.

I really don’t know many women who when they were pregnant and their amniotic fluids leaking would risk their baby’s life by flying off to conferences or any conventions, as Sarah Palin did.  Knowing that her last child was already going to face challenges it is inconceivable to me how Palin would have risked further danger upon her then unborn son, Trig.  Who ended up being born at least 2 months early…you can read more on this story as I wrote on the topic in more detail in an earlier blog on Palin….@ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com.

Though I have never thought much of Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential pick…I have certainly thought even less of her as a mother.  When you compare just how her children even the baby was dressed when they were paraded out on the world stage..or even the McCain kids for that matter.  There was a sharp contrast to them and how the Obama children have looked and been dressed. 

There is something which can be said for parents who pay close attention to not only their own attire but also to that of their children as well.  It shows up…and speaks volumes about those people and the type of  parents that they really are.

My parents were somewhat well off.  My mother stayed in the stores…she loved to shop…but she also was hard working, as well as, my father.  They had 8 children and they worked to ensure that we had everything we needed and most of what we wanted. 

My mother had plenty of furs and the best of women’s church apparel.  She was attactive in our church and a big giver in many ways.  

My father equally…he was top shelf too…and always maintained himself very well down to his mustache and the shine of his shoes…and his shoes always shined as he took the time to ensure it before putting them onto his feet.  He didn’t just wipe his shoes…he bluffed them…shoeshine rag and all. 

But my parents never forgot about us…my brothers stayed in the barber’s chair…my father’s.  And we stayed up under the comb or curling irons.  Our clothes were always clean crisp…as my mother washed every day.  She also cooked every day and usually mopped the kitchen floor once everyday…besides hold down her own job as a nurse supervisor.  This she did up until the time I became of age and was able to take on certain responsibilities around the house as well.  But when Sundays came or special events that called for us to be presentable…we were and without fail…from head to toe. 

That is the nature of parents who not only care about themselves and how they look…but also take pride in their family as well.  And my parents certainly did.  They took great pride in us…and it showed in their care of us but also in the great amounts of money they spent on us.

Enjoy your family…and your friends.  Happy Thanksgiving.

And whatever your plans may you be safe…and please remember those who are less fortunate than you. 

I don’t know about you but we Smith’s have an awful lot to be thankful for.  We truly…truly do.  And I for one certainly thank God for everything…and His many many blessings unto me and my family thoughout all the years.  I hope that you can say the same.

God bless…   Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share this blog with your friends, family and…and just everybody.

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com

God bless…and thanks for reading ©2008

http://www.youtube.com/user/barackobamadotcom?ob=4

Add a comment November 26, 2008