You have to bring that up, how we died in Cleveland?

Ben Stiller was destined to be funny. Have you seen his parents? I've watched all the episodes so far...

"They threw cutlery." LOL!

On A Purple Day in December...

Prince sure knows how to draw out the anticipation, doesn't he?

The line-up will include:

Janelle Monae

Esperanza Spalding

Maceo Parker

Leelah James

Cassandra Wilson

...and MORE!

Looks like we'll be taking a trip in December.

Dang. Whip it.

 I tell ya, boy, Big and Little are building an empire.

A colleague and friend of mine shared this song with me yesterday.  Upon first listen I thought the repetition would give me a headache, but I listened a second time. The production is crisp, the vocals are promising and the content is age appropriate (even if the delivery of a few lines is SUS). Then, the pop kiss-of-death: a few hours later the song was in my head. And the longer it stayed in my head, the more I wanted to dance to it.

Grammys: High Notes, Low Notes

Yes, this is another awards show post.

I didn't even intend to watch the Grammy's. I did't know they were airing this weekend until a coworker hipped me to it on Friday before I left work. Generally, I'm into the TV and film awards more than those for music, but I decided to check it out. Not that what I think has any baring, but here are my personal high and low notes for the 52th Annual Grammy Awards:


High Note: Lady Gaga and Elton John opening the show. Loved it.

Low Note: Lady Gaga not receiving album of the year.

High Note: Pink’s performance.

Low Note: Anybody sitting underneath Pink’s wet n’ wild extravaganza.

High Note: “Earth Song” tribute. I love that song, and I think it actually made me fist pump like a champ.

Low Note: This wasn’t so much a low note as a rest or refrain. Beyoncé’s performance was solid but derivative. Why do I feel like I’ve seen in before? Because I have; talk about déjà vu.

High Note: Tarantino calling Em and Wayne “glorious bastards”.

Low Note: Well, everything else Tarantino said.

High Note: “21 Guns” performance with the Broadway cast = awesome

Low Note: Taylor Swift’s performance. Having Stevie Knicks was cool, but Miss Swift was off key and out of breath most of the time.

High Note: Bon Jovi. No fist pumping here, though it would have been appropriate, no?

Low Note: The sound kept crapping out during the Drake/Wayne/Em performance. Did the sound techs go home, or was that just my TV?

High Note: Maxwell – and with Roberta Flack, no less!

High, High Note: Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli. It was beautiful, and Mary holds her own with anybody. That’s diva.


What's with me and the lists? Good grief, Teresa, would it kill you to writing in cohesive, thoughtful paragraphs once in a while?

Twinkle, Twinkle, Movie Star

20 Reasons I LOVE Awards Shows (not necessarily in preferential order):



20) I love movies, even more now than when I was younger. (I was a serious kid, too serious.)

19) The attire. I admit it; I sit on my sofa like Caesar and issue a thumbs-up or down for every presenter and winner as they come on stage. It’s fun, too, to check out the internet the next day to see who agrees with me or not.

18) The opening – especially with the SAG awards. When the actors say their little intros it feels like an inside joke. Who doesn’t want to be on the inside of a movie/TV star’s inside joke? (PS – This year, Eddie Falco’s opening was hilarious.)

17) I love being right – when the nominee I think should win actually does, I get a little giddy.

16) I don’t mind being wrong – when the winner is a surprise to me, that’s okay too.

15) A hearty addition to my Netflix queue. Last year I actually watched the Oscars with pen and paper in hand; it’s necessary when some of the nominees haven’t even hit theaters yet. Crazy Heart? Congratulations, Jeff Bridges, now what was that about?

14) Invariably, somebody gets played off for talking too long – always funny.

13) The totally-scripted-but-act-natural dialogue that occurs between presenters before they actually get to announcing the nominees.

12) When cameras cut to the faces of the nominees who did not win.

11) When a winner is genuinely shocked and tongue-tied at the podium. Drew Barrymore was a bumbling mess at the Golden Globes and the SAG awards; I like her more now than ever.

10) Listening to laymen talk about their predictions; for a brief moment, everyone turns into a grad student studying film. (Like me, for instance…)

9) I get to imagine the wonderful, talent friends I have who will someday be at such glamorous events.

8) The announcer is usually a woman. (Take that, various commercials for goods and services who think that a male voice equals authority!)

7) When the host is great (I’m looking at you, Ellen DeGeneres).

6) Texting my friends during the show with such 140-character-or-less gold as “I don’t care if she DID win, I’m still not going to see it”, and “Clearly somebody called in a favor.”

5) I like cheering for the actors who I think are probably good and interesting people in real life. (Yay! Michael C. Hall!)

4) For the brief amount of time that the camera cuts to the audience, I like watching the inter-generational mingling of Hollywood past, Hollywood present, and Hollywood future.

3) The soapbox moment – there’s gotta be at least one.

2) Watching the movie awards is more productive than watching an actual movie because I can get things done during commercial breaks.

1) Helps me visualize for when I get there. You know, as a nominee, guest of a nominee, an announcer, an usher...whatever - I'm flexible!

Picture That

Can they do that?

In two days I read about two separate instances of the President and First Lady’s images being used for advertising – without their permission. First PETA uses Photoshop to put Mrs. Obama in an ad, and then Weatherproof finds a photo of President Obama on the Great Wall of China (that’s “President”, NYT, not “Mr.”) and they blow it up and throw it up on a billboard in Manhattan – 41st and 7th Ave.

According to the Associated Press, the coat company paid them for use of the image, but it was up to the licensing party (in this case, Weatherproof) to obtain the necessary clearances. So here we go passing the buck. Associated Press says, “we thought you were gonna do it!” Weatherproof says, “Huh? We bought it from you; we thought you were gonna do it!” Meanwhile a larger than life President Obama is endorsing this press-mongering coat company against his will. (Sure, he looks dashing, but that’s not the point.) Not to mention, for a short time Weatherproof marketed the coat on their website as “the Obama jacket.”

One thing I can say for Weatherproof, at least they used an less familiar image where Obama is actually wearing their merchandise, and not an oft-seen, official press photo. Hello, PETA? Are you listening? The photo of Sister First Lady in her sleeveless, black shift dress with a double string of pearls has been everywhere! Not to mention in the PETA ad she is the one woman standing completely face forward. Were you trying to get caught, PETA?

I know it’s been a long time since the nation has had such a young, vibrant and attractive first family, but this feels really irreverent to me. What’s next? Somebody takes photos of Sasha and Malia and puts their faces on a box of cereal? Sure, the Obamas want to be/appear accessible and of the people, but respect the office and personal privacy. Plus, they seem cool enough – you probably could’ve just asked.

One girl's New Moon is another girl's New Edition

Ah, boy bands. Is there anything more wonderfully corny and tweenaged? I’ve had my share of fixations with these well groomed groups of “Tiger Beat cover boys”, to steal a phrase from Ocean’s Eleven. Their melodramatic lyrics and polished choreography have haunted the dreams of PTYs long before NSync/Backstreet Boys. (I always confused them, sorry.) Here are some of the groups I think of, when I hear “boy bands”…though none of them really play instruments – that’s curious. This is by no means an exhaustive list, as there are many groups that came before and many more who will surely come after, but I have a soft spot in my heart for these fellas:

Oh Ronny, Bobby, Johnny, Ricky, Mike and Ralph. (I know Johnny came much later, but that sequence sounds best.) These guys were equally coveted as boys and men. We LOVED New Edition in my house – from “Cool It Now” to “Can You Stand the Rain”. How serious was it? Well, when “Can You Stand the Rain” came on Video Soul, we sang the song in 5 part harmony. There were 4 of us at the time.


More near and dear to the hearts of me and my sister were The Boys, ABC (Another Bad Creation) and ultimately Immature. Don’t judge. “Dial My Heart” and “A Little Romance” are the sweetest songs – even today. So lovey-dovey and yet so age appropriate; I appreciate the latter more in hindsight. My crush was the lead singer. He was the second oldest brother; I was the second oldest sister – we were kismet.


ABC was a little more street, but no less cute – and again with the age appropriate lyrics. “At the Playground” and “Iesha” were their biggest hits, and every girl with a 3-syllable name that ended in “A” was happy to put herself in the song. (“Te-res-a! You are the girl that never had, and I want to get to know you better…”) After all, what good are boy bands, if you can’t convince yourself that they’re singing to you?

As mature, junior high school students of a certain age, we discovered Immature upon seeing them in House Party 3, though the group had released an debut album by then. The 90’s trio was so inappropriate. Their first hits (to me, anyway, since my personal catalogue begins with album #2), “Constantly” and “I Will Never Lie”, were chock-full-o teenaged melodrama. That was fine, but the bird chest of a shirtless Marcus Houston was a bit over the top. (That’s right, Marcus. Some of us remember). But they were cute, and not so grown up as Jodeci or Genuine, so we listened. We listened all the way to “We Got It”. (And man, did they.)

In occasional fits of frenzied nostalgia, I go to YouTube and listen to all of them - never fails to put a smile on my face. Not as innocent as Jackson5 but less pornographic than…well, most recent stuff (I’m looking at you, B2K and Pretty Ricky), these R&B boys struck a happy medium with the little ladies and the Powers-That-Be who bought the CDs and posters and concert tickets. Being an ex-tweenager who may one day find herself buying such posters and concert tickets, I really appreciate the happy medium. And the happy memories.

Honorable mentions: Soul For Real, Mystic, 112...and the list goes on

Once more for the road

So long, Summer. It was pretty touch-and-go for a minute there anyway, huh? I figure this is a proper send off, and any excuse to play the feel-good classic by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince is fine by me.

Until next time...

Truth is,

I hadn’t been listening to you recently.

You were like milk –

fortifying me in my youth,

but less tantalizing as I got older.

Sure you were still important,

but I needed you less and less…

Still you were a part of me,

as familiar and requisite in my world

as the building fund, alter prayer

and aluminum foil at the tips of cornrows.

Maybe I should have

shook my head in defiance

instead of in shame

because maybe you didn’t do those things you were accused of?

Should have been more vocal

instead of lending my silence to the swell

of rumors, cruel jokes and accusations.

When the news came, I didn’t believe.

But when it was confirmed,

I retreated into my catalogue and let the whole thing play.

You never miss the water…

or in this case, the milk.

I’ve kept my sadness to myself, mostly.

Not really wanting to join the throngs of mourners

whose sincerity is only outdone by their amnesia.

Could a little more kindness have saved your life?

Yes, you have Gone to Soon.

Yes, I Want You Back.

Yes, those are very clichéd things to say –

I guess that means I’m just like all the others.

But you are not, and you never were.