Friday Flashback: Sharon Brown

This is a classic dance cut from 1982! Enjoy!

A sleepless night and a great cover

For some reason I couldn't sleep last night. So I decided I would listen to some music. I listened to a bunch of radio stations throughout the night and at about 5am I tuned my local Pacifica station. And right at the top of the hour they played one of the best cover songs I have ever heard. It's Al Green's classic Let's Stay Together covered by Tuck & Patti.. Check it out and let me know what you think! And now I think I'm going to try and get a couple of hours sleep.

Amy Winehouse (September 14, 1983 – July 23, 2011)

Wow, is what I thought when I read the headline 'Amy Winehouse Found Dead'. I'm not sure why since I think most of us saw it coming. Maybe I was surprised because I had become used to Amy being the butt of jokes in the media. And when someone is considered a joke they are dehumanized. So despite the fact that the writing was on the wall with regard to Amy's untimely death most people, myself included, didn't really process how serious her drug problems were. That even after seeing the evidence of her problem as recently as a few weeks ago when video of Amy performing under the influence showed up in the media. Again, there wasn't much sympathy just more jokes.

So if there is a lesson in this I think it might be that we should not allow the media to dehumanize us simply for a jokes sake. Amy was a deeply troubled person. That's how she should have been viewed. Not as a joke. Had she been then maybe the outside pressure would have helped her to get the help she needed.

In the end she may have begun to see herself through the lens of her celebrity. If so imagine how sad it must have been for her to feel like a joke. And if that was the case then this is a tragedy that we all may have had a small part in by consuming but not pushing back against that kind of media.

The Royal Wedding!!!!

(What Royal wedding did you think I was talking about? Ha!)

I'm still around. I guess I'm on an extended blogging break. Mainly I'm waiting for my blogging mojo to return. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing okay. I hope no one has been affected by the crazy weather in the mid-west and south.

I'll stop by your blogs soon! Take care.

Happy, Happy, Happy 30th Birthday Alicia!!!!!!

Baby Alicia

Teen Alicia

Alicia at the very beginning of her career. I have this as a framed poster.

Alicia Keys turns 30 years old today! Alicia has been my favorite singer for a very long time and except for a little tiff I had with her about something that I won't go into now, I absolutly adore her and think that beside being a stunning beauty she is a true talent.

Happy birthday Alicia!

Does African American mean anything?

President Barack Obama is constantly in the news these days. He seems to take up a lot of space in the blogisphere and in the corporate media. Much of what's been said about him recently has concerned race as this past week the nation remembered the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

One thing that I've noticed that continues to bother me concerning race and the President is that he is almost universally referred to as African American by bloggers and corporate media. This makes me wonder if the term African American really means anything or is it just a simple descriptor meaning Black?

For me the term African American refers to Black people that belong to a particular ethnic heritage. I've always thought that African Americans are descendants of Black Americans who were both enslaved in this country and those who suffered under Jim Crow.

The President is a direct descendant of an African man from Kenya. None of the President's ancestors suffered enslavement in this country. Although it can be said that his father briefly lived under the thumb of Jim Crow laws when he was a student in the late 50's here in the U.S.

So I do not think of the President as being the first African American President. Being African American, in my opinion, is not about simply being Black. It's about a cultural heritage rooted in the atrocity that enslavement was in this country and then being forced to live as second class citizens after slavery was outlawed.

The President is indeed Black but his particular ethnic heritage is different from most Black Americans. He has no direct blood ties to enslavement except that his wife is African American.

Am I the only one who cringes when Barack Obama is referred to as being African American?

Hopefully at some point the distinction between being Black and being African American will be more clear to people in general. In the meantime I hope that at least the decedents of people who were enslaved in this country will make the distinction for themselves.

What do you think?

P.S. I'll post about my vacation soon. It was really nice. ;-)

Happy birthday Aaliyah and Sade!

So, somehow I have never realized that two of my favorite singers have the same birthday. It truly boggles my mind that I didn't know that Aaliyah and Sade share today as their birthdays. Aaliyah was born on this day in 1979, she would have been 32 today. And Sade was born on this day in 1959.

So today I remember Aaliyah and all of the music that she left us and celebrate Sade and all of the music that she is still giving us.

Happy birthday Aaliyah and Sade!