A Flurry of Readers

Thanks to that Feedjit to the right>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I happen to know who is looking at this here page, what they're looking at and what country their radio has been detected. 'Bout two months ago, traffic was slow - pathetic to say the least since I seemed to be the only person looking at my bloody page. Which is cool with me.

But bada boom bada bing - what do we have here? Humans from across the globe. Wow. No, this is not another one of my narcissistic trips. But I'm a little surprised and wonder how this might have occured. Perhaps google image searches are leading people into the realms of my Unspoken Word. Ah don' know but it's nice of you to pop in. Whoever you are. Enjoy my blog, add it to your feeds, subscribe PUBLICLY if you like because the only two people following me is me and ole boy Lenny who introduced me to blogger.

Freddie Catches a Fire

Have my prayer's been answered oh Lord...can it be true?

Freddie now plays for the Chicago Fire. Wow.


Fredrik Ljungberg - Chicago Fire Designated Player from Chicago Fire Soccer on Vimeo.

Okay, those commentators need some tutoring...who on Earth is "LOONBERG"? Can somebody please explain the silent consonant rule to 'em, seriously. It's good for a laugh though, have to say that.

Otherwise, you know I'm just glad to know that I might get a chance to get closer to that sexiness called Freddie. Maybe even find out where he lives, shops, eats, gets his takeaway, buys his sneakers, purchases his suits and ties...you know? Just for knowledge's sake.

Zimbabwean on the X Factor

Even Simon Cowell was impressed "a million percent". Let's see how far she goes...all the way to the end maybe. To make history for Zim.

Some Femist Critique on "Inception"

Reading
Feminist Music Geek's review on Inception brought to light a slight issue I grappled with whilst watching the movie. The way in which the wife was represented. It smacks off that quintessential crazy male author's and directors tend to create within their female characters. Note: Laura's mother in The Glass Menagerie. Friend of mine thinks Tennessee Williams might have had some "mummy issues" - I think so. I always hear statements uttered by chauvinists around the order of "Women are crazy."  Well, I wonder where they've been getting these thoughts from. Back to the Inception commentary:

Rather, she plays as a manifestation of feminist film theory’s complaints against cinema’s conception of women and its applications of psychoanalytic thought via the scopophilic gaze. Cotillard does what she can with the role, but it feels like she’s representing, say, Tania Modeleski’s criticisms in The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory. This may have been Nolan’s intention, but by rendering Mal as an archetypical femme fatale who Cobb must overcome, he only enforces the notion that female movie characters are not fully realized as complex people but instead mere ideations from the auteur’s mind.

My thoughts exactly. Well almost exactly.

XXXO

Obamas Living Lavish

Royalty Recognises Royalty

That's what I like to see!

In Simplicity...

One can find true beauty. I could feel exactly where she was coming from with this song before there even was a video

So you think I'm alone?
But being alone's the only way to be
When you step outside
You spend life fighting for your sanity

I'll let the song speak for itself.

Inception

Yes, quite a few people have been raving about Inception which is incredibly imaginative, smart and visually mind-blowing. A feast for the intellect. Highly recommended.

Scored a Free Blackberry Today

Proabably the most exciting and fortunate thing that has happened to me in a very long time. I won a brand new blackberry 8250 through a rapping contest. Yes, it's time to start taking this thing seriously. Lol, maybe not. But hey it got me a new phone. Life is dope right now. Ooooh! Oui, oui!

Big Boys Do Cry

Ask Clint Dempsey. A Real MAN!

So passionate and expressive. So sensitive. You just feel that urge to want to comfort him. Hell, I know I'd want to. There's just something so appealing about a man who lets himself cry in public.

She Makes Me Want to Hit the Gym

Madonna looking absolutely fabulous and fierce. She is the dopeness; even those who can't stand her secretly acknowledge this fact to themselves.

The Eternal Bachelor is Not a Good Look

I just have to say that there is nothing that frightens me more than a man who reaches past the age of 40 without having settled down and married SOMEBODY, ANYBODY! Look at it this way, you have had 20 years of experience in the dating world to seriously find someone. Why haven't you done so already? I think it's that old notion that keeps some men thinking that their age will not become a major deterring factor when it comes to spusal determination. But it does. There is no amount of money that will keep you young and bustling all the way into your 50's. It's best to just settle down as quickly as you can. But for some reasons, very odd ones at that, men seem to find easy access to young flesh and more so, the wealthier and more "powerful" they appear to be.

But for some reasons, very odd ones at that, men seem to find easy access to young flesh and more so, the wealthier and more "powerful" they appear to be.

Gross. That's all I can say.

Transactional Sex: groupie love & book deals

Seems Karrine Steffans of Confessions of a Video Vixen fame has a young protege of her own. A young woman called Kat Stacks who has, as did Steffans hersself, entwined herself in numerous broiling sexual encounters with some famous rappers - Nelly, Bow Wow, the Young Money clique including their most successful member, Lil' Wayne and others she refuses to name in the video below in lieu of the imminent release of her very own tell-all book on the ways in intricacies of the life of a hip hop groupie. Whether she is doing it for her own financial gain or for her own personal empowerment is not something I can make proper judgements of. She is entitled to revel in a very basic human right called "freedom of speech" in whatever vernacular and with as many cuss-words as she so wishes.



This violent repurcussion from two of Bow Wow's crew members should come as no surprise. We should expect this sort of ire to emanate from a disgraced young rapper who feels, living in a society steeped in patriarchy, that as a famous and somewhat monied recording artist he has earned the right to as much "hot pussy" as he wishes to get without having to suffer the public humiliation brought forth by the blatant telling of his bedroom antics. All this including an admission of his palpably insufficient girth from any groupie with whom he may have copulated with i.e. Madame Stacks. Rappers of this variety aspire to reach a position in which their status will afford them easy access to submissive and willing women. They know that without the power that fame affords them, they are next to nothing and are relegated to the status of ordinary men who believe they must endure great pains and lengths just to get laid. Yet I feel that it is so much more than this. That this is a power-game and the sex is purely transactional. Groupies are paid for the power that these men are afforded in commanding control over these women sexually. It clearly does not end at that. Some groupies wish to earn a further and more lofty pay-off for their stories through book deals or cash settlements as a way of ensuring silence.

Surely, the boys who approached Kat Stacks in the club should know this by now. There is no keeping a groupie silent in this day and age without ignominy or a collosal decrease in one's bank balance.

"Pimps Up, Hoes Down" by T Denean Sharpley-Whiting

This book gave an excellent account on the multiple ways in which commercialized hip-hop culture, ever-influenced, by patriarchal ideals has worked against the positive growth and development of young black women in a post hip-hop era. For anyone curious to learn more of the way in which feminism and hip hop intersect.

Seattle's Pigs

News has spread wide and fast about the problem with police brutality. Of course, this is something that's been known for years. Cops are not to be trusted. It leaves people with a sense of ambivalence however, since these are the people that have been assigned to wipe the streets clean of society's wrongdoers and lawbreakers yet much of the brutality the commit only adds to ever-present violence that pervades communities already.

This is all just very sad to me.

The "Indestructible" Black Woman Myth...Again

My heart pounded as a watched this video. It reminded me of the physical fights I have gotten into with two male family members who saw no problem in partaking in a physical confrontation with me. Neither one apologised for their behaviour and the female members in my family proceeded to defend and justify these men's actions. One of the males even went on to say that he "understands" why such a physical reaction would have emanated. All this without a word of concern about any sort of emotional distress the fight could have caused or again, even a simple apology. I firmly believe that my being black gives them reason to falsely believe that I am incapable of feeling and therefore make the perfect punching bag.

Yes, there is a double standard. People feel more guilt causing harm to white women than they do to women of colour especially if one is black. Since we are that special group of "chicks who just happen not to have dicks", men find it easy to punch, push, strike and hit us without any inherent guilt or remorse. It is sad. Truly sad. That people are still very much incapable of understanding that black women are not as tough as society aims to point us out to be. That we are neither punching bags nor scapegoats for the satiation of the insecure others fragile id. We were not to be used by others in a way that will grant them a portal to attain a sense of power. It should be known that our bodies are sacred temples around which proper boundaries are put in place to prevent physical harm that those who fail to recognise our humanity wish to cause.

But here is where I am slightly ambivalent about this whole dichotomy. White women are apparently considered more womanly than the rest of us and deserving of courteous behaviour. As plenty of people have noted in their analysis', a man should not strike a woman under any circumstance so the ease with which the cop in question hit this young woman is reflective of a racist belief in a black woman's apparent "masculinity". Yet do I necessarily want to be viewed as weak and in need of protection? Not at all. Neither do I want to have someone engage in unwarranted physical confrontation with me. There must be a middle ground. Digressing to each extreme is neither good nor healthy in attempting to assert a real sense of equality.

Plastic Horns and Defeaning Sounds

It's World Cup African Style Y'all!

Kudos to Gawker for this one. Now we know who's raking up the profits for that darned plastic horn. As a commenter noted, this is NO long-standing tradition. The first I heard about these "charming" little instruments, during PSL Saturday soccer matches about 14 years ago. The sound was annoying to say the least but we South Africans have become so acquainted with it and its association with local club soccer. It's the rest of you that were taken by surprise and we knew people would complain instantly. I guess it takes a bit of an acquired taste. Plenty of getting used to. But after Wednesday's humbling defeat, streets of Cape Town have been awarded with a little more peace with the burgeoning realisation that South Africa will not make it to the second round as we all merrily predicted. Those of us with objective viewpoints that is.

Carelessness and Folly

Probably the worst oil-spill we have seen in years could have been avoided with a little less greed. How about that? If they had anticipated the $20B they would have had to fork out as a result of not heeding to adequate safety measures. But humans...you know?

BP also apparently rejected advice of a subcontractor, Halliburton Inc., in preparing for a cementing job to close up the well. BP rejected Halliburton's recommendation to use 21 "centralizers" to make sure the casing ran down the center of the well bore. Instead, BP used six centralizers.
In an e-mail on April 16, a BP official involved in the decision explained: "It will take 10 hours to install them. I do not like this." Later that day, another official recognized the risks of proceeding with insufficient centralizers but commented: "Who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine."
The lawmakers also said BP also decided against a nine- to 12-hour procedure known as a "cement bond log" that would have tested the integrity of the cement. A team from Schlumberger, an oil services firm, was on board the rig, but BP sent the team home on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight the morning of April 20.
Less than 12 hours later, the rig exploded.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/documents_show_bp_cut_corners_in_O6pXzORydS7VUkhLVsvmKO/1#ixzz0qumV86AG

Gotta Love Her, Honey

In the mood for Old School Neptunes

Back in the day, remember when Kelis had kaleidoscopic curly hair and Pharrell wore those trucker caps constantly and made an appearance in every video for evry song he produced. Humble Chad was never visible. God bless him. He's responsible for half of all of this unyet he never bothered with the limelight like his playboy, Peter-Pan-never-wanting-to-really-grow-up-settle-down-and-have-kids (I mean even original Peter Pan himself MJ had kids, Pharrell). But it was good times you know. Any time you heard that "neptune sound" that Jigga refers to in 'I Just Wanna Love You' and you knew just exactly who made that beat. Ah early 2000's - that was an era in itself.