Before I get distracted by something else, I'm going to do five things I'm digging while they're on my mind. 1. TV One's Big Daddy Kane "Unsung" special: If you read my June 19th blog, you already know the argument I got into about positive hip-hop artists. I've seen Big Daddy Kane perform live, and it's a phenomenal thing to see. I was awed to see him a few years ago teaming up with MC Lyte, another artist I absolutely adore and had the pleasure to interview. I liked how TV One portrayed Big Daddy Kane as before his time. I still don't think "hip-hop fans" are really up on the accomplishments he made and how he's your favorite rapper's rapper. Do your homework. I'll be listening to my "cassette tapes" and CDs in the meantime. BTW, goodness gracious Young Kane was freaking gorgeous. I *heart* chocolate.
I'm falling behind on these things but determined to stick 'em out. I have plenty to say about the 2011 BET Awards so I'll cheat and do that even though this should've been done on Thursday. 1. Kelly Rowland's "Motivation" performance: She went harder than her dancers. I was so impressed and so happy for her.2. AP's summary of the BET awards: I'm really irritated with the Reuters version, which made it seem like the Awards was just pouring out criminals left and right. An article written with 100% negativity is no longer reporting. It's just an op/ed. AP, on the other hand, stayed on point, which is a little disheartening because I usually like both Reuters and AP stuff. Read AP's analysis of the BET Awards for an accurate rundown.
Updated 6/27/2011
Sometimes people are a little surprised that I don't like erotica fiction. Never have, never will. I think too much of it is for shock value and using nicknames for private parts over and over again and giving in-depth details about who is doing what in a sex scene is a waste of space to me. So why are people surprised that I don't like erotica fiction? Because I'm quick to talk about safe sex in raw detail. Before I go into why, I do want to point out that I'm not against sex scenes in a book. I just cringe through sex scenes about characters I don't know. I can't stand opening a book and there's a sex scene in the first paragraph. I have another reason, too, but it involves a graphic scene in a ghostwriting project that I thought was absolutely repulsive. If I gave away that scene, you'd know the book (maybe) so I won't. But I will say I think sex scenes in books should be done tastefully, and we should actually know the characters and be excited they're doing "the grown" because we're invested in the characters. I also think it wouldn't hurt if books mentioned safe sex and STDs more. (No, I'm not about to go into a promo about "Round Trip.")
I missed the Taste of Chicago last year so I made sure to get tickets this year, and on my way back I ran into a crossing guard who started walking towards me. I thought it was odd that he wasn't paying attention to cars, but I shrugged and kept walking until he stopped to say: "Take your time walking across the street so I can take my time looking at you." *cringing* *coughing* *shaking* Ugggggh!
Fellas, I don't know who these creepy lines work on, but it sounds so incredibly thirsty and even worse coming from a guy who could clearly go to my father's high school reunion. Some women love older men. To each her own. But I prefer dating guys in my age group, but for whatever reason I always get approached from guys double my age. What in the world is wrong with dating women in their own age group? And even for women who do like older men, please cut out all the desperate pick-up lines.
Update 9/4/2011: Don't get me wrong. I love writing. I still "live to write" like my third tattoo used to say, but this is ridiculous. After less than three months of having my fifth tattoo (same spot), "Write" is starting to peek through the bottom set of leaves. Oh my gawd, seriously, this damn tattoo just will not go away. The book left. The "live to" left, but "Write" didn't disappear any of the four times I got laser surgery, and even though it temporarily disappeared when I got the fifth tattoo, it's back again. This time around, I'm not touching it. It'll just be there. I'm going to own up to this one. No matter what job I take (copyediting, web editing, print editing, transcribing), I always circle back around to write something so maybe I should just take this as meant to be because clearly my body is not letting that small piece of ink on a very big tattoo go.
Original June 18th entry below:
1. Real Men Cook for Father's Day: I mentioned how much I like the festival in a recent Ten @ 10 Stew blog, but I also completed previous interviews about how RMC got started and talked to the owners. I love this event. Click here for Kofi Moyo's interview or here for Yvette Moyo's interview. 2. My tattoo artist Bobby Sox at the Tattoo Factory: I know some folks (including my mother) think I've lost my mind for getting a fifth tattoo on the same arm, but after four laser surgeries, $1200 gone, four more to go, being told I'd have to use skin lightener to get the ink to remove quicker, a Tribune op/ed piece on the trials of tattoos and hiding my arm for two years while I thought about it, I was fed up. The tattoo looked like a glob. I kept hiding my arm even when I wasn't at work, and it's too hot outside for all that. I can't spend the rest of my life hiding my arm, so I shopped around with four tattoo artists before I finally found one I was comfortable with (price wise and quality wise). Out of the three I've gotten tattoos from, Bobby Sox is hands-down the best. I love my new tattoo, and I have no desire to ever remove it again. If I tried it, my arm would probably fall off anyway.
All right, folks, two very important days are here, and I hope you make the most of them. I'll be supporting Real Men Cook for the third year in a row after finally convincing my regulars we should go. I think I look forward to Father's Day more than they do just so I can go to RMC. Keep in mind I'm also looking out for the most useful, educational and positive thing I can do for Juneteenth. And while we're at it, let's pay homage to Black Music Month, too. Here are a couple of examples and interviews of stuff I've done for both days in the past: Juneteenth:Celebrating Juneteenth with Canadian HistoryCelebrating Juneteenth 2010 at IMAN's 'Takin' It to the Streets' Urban International FestivalFather's Day: Real Men Cook Chicago Co-founder Yvette Moyo Gillard Talks About Father's Day and ChicagoCo-founder Kofi Moyo and Other 'Real Men' Discuss 20 Years of Real Men Cook Chicago
Dating a Daddy's Girl
Time got away from me so I didn't do this last Thursday. I'll be doing two this week to make up for it. I have no idea how many people actually read these things. My website visits constantly shoot high and then sink low and it looks a bit like someone having an asthma attack when I look at my numbers. Breathe hard. (Up.) Steady breathing. (Steady.) Drifting off. (Low.) But doing these five things is important to me mainly because I'm a realist. I had a debate with a guy a couple weeks ago about the difference between a realist and a pessimist. We already know that an optimist looks for the brighter side of things. A pessimist always looks for the negative things. A realist is stuck in the middle. While she may like to look on the bright side, she's level-headed enough to realize stuff just doesn't always work out that way. There's no point in looking for the negative things all the time because clearly good things do happen, so the realist is a bit of a gambler--What are the odds that this will turn out good?
The reason I like doing these five things I dig isn't just because I'm vain enough to believe that what I think should matter to hundreds who read this. It's just a time when I can't complain about something and I'm forced to look at things I like instead of things that could be better. It's those times when I can just say, "Hey, this worked out for me." So here are my top five things for the week of June 12-June 18 (and I'm timing it this way since I'm doing two).
During my freelancing days, besides writing for Yahoo! Contributor Network I had a lot of fun and a lot of success writing the Chicago Relationships Examiner page. However, it was an ongoing joke with close friends and family about me writing that and being the serial dater (read: usually not in long-term relationships). The thing is that the column was so easy to write because I'd dated so many different types of guys so it was easy to see the pitfalls of dating and gush about some of the best guys I've dated. I brought a lot of personal stories into the mix without naming real names. However, I did call some folks out (read: Online dating nightmares). One thing that I was content with was the amount of people who were in relationships who had to admit that so much of my advice was right. You don't need to be a plumber to know how to use a plunger, but when I got into topics that I knew nothing about I made sure to call in the experts and do interviews instead. However, there's some stuff about dating that should be common sense.
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