Autres Femmes

I just sat and watched all of Beyonce's B-Day videos in a row. (Yeah, I know I'm late. Whatever.)

I'm glad I watched "Flaws and All" last because it's the most interesting by far.



Made me crush on that girl all over again.

The poster for Shawn Parker's almost done. I bit the style from this glorious French film by Claude Lelouch called A Man and A Woman.



I'll post up our poster soon.

Miss Universe Pageant on Monday. What a great way to celebrate Memorial Day. My money's on Miss Angola.



But I've been wrong before. After all, I thought Melinda was going to win American Idol.

I never thought I'd say this, but: GO JAZZ. Because nobody wants to see another Spurs-Pistons Finals.

And you know this, MANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Time

Time
Needs another minute, at least
Take your time
But you've got a limit
-- Sly and the Family Stone, 1971

I was thinking a lot today about time. And why I never seem to have enough of it. And why, when I do have it, I don't make the best use of it.

I was looking at the New Yorker earlier today and came across a new short story by Zadie Smith, who is one of my inspirations. (I probably wouldn't have even written Somewhere Between Here and There if I hadn't read White Teeth.) It was okay. Wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it's always a pleasure to read her work. But it got me thinking about my own neglected short stories, both written and unwritten.

But who can think about that when I have at least three television synopses (2 sitcoms, 1 drama) that I owe people which remain unwritten. I'm supposed to be rhyming again over The Apprentice's track for a song called "Salvation." I keep telling him it's done, but it's not.

One thing that is done is the poster for my movie. Well, almost. The template is nearly done -- by my good friend and graphic designer extraordinaire Travion Loftis -- we just have to get it printed. But we're still on San Francisco! If you can join us, here's where you can get tickets.

I have a poster now, sort of, well, I have a person to design it at least, and he has everything. Watched my Pistons beat Cleveland in game one of the Eastern Conference Finals the other day. We held LeBron to 10 points and still barely won. Our energy wasn't really that great, but we'll take the win. Ilguaskas was KILLING us, though, man. If someone had told me that LeBron would be LeBroke, I'd have thought we'd have won by 23. But apparently not.

Was watching some of the shorts on BETJ Sunday. Saw 3D, which was Pete Chatmon's thesis film at NYU back in 2000, which starred a young (er) Kerry Washington in one of the lead roles as Angie. It was good, you could definitely see the Spike Lee influence. Thinking of sending Shawn Parker to the BETJ Best Shorts competition. And I may send my old short, Straight from the Heart, as well.

A lot of people have been asking where I go to get into the music that I've been into lately. Well, I listen to Gilles Peterson a lot, especially at work.



I really love when he interviews producers and asks them about their work, while playing his usual ill tracks. The show has done a great job of getting me hip to a lot of British bands and singers that I wouldn't have known much about. So there goes the reason for my sudden British turn (for those who've wondered, and for those that I've forced to listen to my 4hero and Nostalgia 77 CDs).

Listen to Gilles pick the brain of legendary producer Larry Mizell

Gilles and Pharrell

Gilles and Mark Ronson

I guess that's it for now. Say hello to your new American Idol:



I was pulling for Melinda, but Jordin's so talented and cute and... tall, I can't even hate.

Toledo hip hop, folks.We got next.

walking on sunshine

I guess I spoke too soon.

I got an email this morning informing me that How Shawn Parker Fell in Love was selected to screen at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. So I've pretty much been on cloud nine ever since. I called my wife, my mom, sent emails to the cast and crew. What's crazy is that it would've been on my dad's birthday. Now I'm in a mad dash and scramble to get a trailer together and get a poster and fliers. If you know someone that's good with posters and fliers, holla at me.

I don't even want to talk about Detroit right now. But I was checking out the Spurs-Suns game last night and I saw this....



That was crazy. Today they decided to suspend Amare and Diaw for 1 game as well as Robert Horry. I understand the logic behind the rule, but I think the suspension on the Phoenix players was suspect. You telling me that if your teammate gets crosschecked right in front of your bench, cats is really just gonna sit there and not do nothing? That ain't 'hood.

But I won't let my team's suspect play dampen my mood. :) I got a lot to get together
for Frisco.

Thank God for Saturday

I slept in a bit this morning, for the first time, seemingly, in years. Got a little more work done on the two pieces I'm proposing for Wax Poetics. They're rediscoveries of Maze's debut album and Pretty Purdie's debut, Stand By Me. I just bought the latter at Ameoba a few weeks ago. I'll probably do about another draft on each and send them. We'll see.

I need to wash my dirty car. And my wife's car is dirty, too, so I couldn't just wash my car and bounce. That'd be wrong. Funny, but wrong. The Cavs-Nets and Spurs-Suns playoff games come on today, so I'll have to check those out too. Wifey and I are supposed to finally buy a new mattress for our new bed too.

Not a whole lot else. Except I found the following jewels on YouTube. It will be a sad day if they shut that place down. Holla.

Luther Vandross and Gregory Hines -- "There's Nothing Better Than Love"



Marvin Gaye -- "What's Goin' On"/"What's Happening Brother" (live -1973)



BlackStar feat. Common -- "Respiration"

back in the saddle again

I hope to update things around here a little more regularly, now that it seems things have calmed a bit. I'm always trying to figure out what I want to do here and once I lost sight of that, I didn't really have a reason to post. I haven't really been taking a lot of pics lately, so not much to update on that front. But I'm working on some writing stuff that you may want to be aware of.

I'm in the middle of rewriting the first three chapters of my novel, Somewhere Between Here and There, through a correspondence class I'm taking with the Long Ridge Writers' Group. This is my second class with them and it's one of the best decisions I've made. My teacher this go-around, Kris Franklin, seems real cool. The point of this class is to do your first three chapters, plus a synopsis and have it be presentable enough that some agents might show you some love. My time at the Iowa Summer Writing Workshop two summers ago taught me that the opening of the book is weak. And with a weak opening, you're finished. Writing problems are like roaches: if you see two, there's probably six. Restructuring the opening helped me to come up with a stronger structure and points of emphasis for the rest of the book. I just sent my renovated first chapter to him last week and I'm proud of it. It is infinitely better. What I'm saying is that I've finally figured out what I'm doing.

I'm working on a few things that I'm trying to get into Wax Poetics. And I volunteered for the L.A. Film Festival at the end of June. Shawn Parker was submitted, but it's not like I'm holding my breath. I've gotten, like, 12 rejections. I have some theories as to why, but you just learn and move on. Meanwhile, I feel like I'm starting from scratch in some areas, particularly film networking. Hence the volunteering. I'm looking forward to it.

Three of my scripts are out, at the Nicholls Fellowship, and in the hands of a producer who has mostly done plays, but is looking to branch into film. And I also applied for the Project:Involve mentorship program. Any or all of these popping off would be, I'm sure, a rewarding opportunity.

Did a review on Joe's new album at ThaHipHop.com, and I have Stephen Marley's new CD on my desk at work, awaiting its fate. I just finished my latest Intrepid Media article. It'll be out Monday. It's on my love/hate relationship with working out.

The playoffs? Bananas. My Pistons are looking so loverly, I can hardly stand it. I'm proud of Golden State and this series with Utah is looking quite phenomenal. It sounds blasphemous to say, but I like this Utah team. I've liked them ever since I saw them dismantle the Clippers earlier this year. (Refer back to my December '06 post.) I just really like Deron Williams' game, man. I like it a lot. If he keeps playing the way he did tonight, I don't think the rest of the planet will be too far behind me.

It's getting late and my cough syrup is kicking in.

Outro.

for those who wondered

wrote this rhyme on the freeway
me and the DJ
went our separate ways
can't believe they did say
I couldn't rock a microphone
on every rhyme I'm on
taking hits for my music
like a xylophone
praised for being me, but on the real
they only like a clone
crush a nigga's hopes
if he on the stuff that I be on
but still I rise
so even when my doubters died and gone
I'm still gonna be J
until I reach His mighty throne