faboo mama

The song is called The People and I lerve eet!

Great video for a great song.

Philadelphia poetess-turned-songstress, Jill Scott has a new record coming out next month. Naturally, she’s doing all the press junkets for it and one of the most interesting interviews came from Essence magazine. The interview by Terri McMillian covers Ms. Scott’s divorce, love, body and of course, her new album. You can also check photos of the gorgeous woman on the site.

Here’s the video for Scott’s single from the record, Hate on Me:

Jill Scott is also the featured artist this week on Vh1’s SoulStage.

I took the kids to the doctor last Thursday and had to drive down Melrose Ave. There was a little backup in traffic between the Vine American store and Highland Ave. Once we got closer we could see 3 Parking Enforcement cars driving slowly barely rolling in the right hand lane. Turns out there was a naked man running down the street, holding what looked to be a hyena.

I’ve been wondering since then, what the hell kind of animal was the guy holding?

Since I somehow managed not to do a FotD yesterday, here’s double your fun.

Sign this petition to urge Congress to do more about actually cleaning our skies. Not that Orwellian bullshit Clean Skies of the Bush Administration. You can also send a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency to urge them to do something. Now.

Sudanese Supermodel Alek Wek has a memoir out about her 30 year life. It seems pretty interesting from the snippet of the first chapter available on the Today Show site. Click the link to read it. Apparently, she’ll discuss the upheaval in her life due to Sudanese rebels.

Caitlin Upton who’s video I posted here, got a second chance at her embarrassing answer on the Today Show.

The questions was something like, “Why are most Americans unable to locate the United States on a map? Her reply ran:

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as, uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”

Lord help me, it looks even dumber in print. On the Today’s show website there’s an explanation for the babbling:

Upton admitted that she totally froze on national television last Friday during the Miss Teen USA Pageant. Asked why a fifth of Americans could not locate the United States on a world map, she stammered out an answer that made Paula Abdul’s worst “American Idol” moment seem like a model of cogency. (ed. note: I think the American Idol thing is funny if you’ve seen American Idol. I had no idea Paula Abdul was on there, so this is news to me)

I can understand. It did look and sound like she caught off-guard by the question and no matter how much we mocked the answer, the fact is that most of these girls in these beauty pageants are pretty fucking smart.

Held up on the Internet as the quintessential dumb blonde, Upton was an honor student in high school who played varsity soccer for four years. This summer, she traveled to Germany with an elite soccer team that placed second in a tournament involving teams from a number of European countries. In her junior and senior years, she was her school’s president of SkillsUSA, which describes itself as “a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled work force.”

Upton came in 4th in the contest. At least she got a second chance to answer the question.

“Personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on a map,” she said. “I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. If the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so people will learn how to read maps better.”

But still…the first answer was funny.

I’m always in awe of people who want complain about children’s books. I mean, I got other things to worry about. If I spent most of my time complaining about books that sucked (Coulter, Hannity and O’Reilly sludge come to mind), then I’d have no time for important stuff. As far as kiddie books are concerned, it seems to me that most of them that receive complaints are usually pretty good books, but leave it fringe groups like AFA to focus on the stuff that doesn’t affect them directly. The book that received the most complaints so far this year is titled And Tango Makes Three, a true story about two male penguins who kick it together all the time and raise a baby penguin.

I’m sure you remember the book hoopla from MA about parents being pissed off about the book being available. I immediately got the book and couldn’t see what the fuss was about. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t read the book as having “homosexual undertones”, I saw it as two guys, best friends who did everything together. I’m sure I’m in the minority in that view. Now, reading the article, you have people being utterly “polite” in the, “there’s nothing wrong with being gay, as long as they don’t flaunt it” stripe (I hate those people). But this is American, where nutjobbiness abounds and they call that the Republican base. Here’s some tripe from a “concerned” parent:

My wife unwittingly sat down to read it with the kids, halting the story midway. We later found out that our 6 year-old had already read it. We spent an hour undoing the damage (ed. note: HAHAHAHA) and it ruined not just storytime but the whole evening. My 6 year-old readily understood that the book was wrong. In fact, he knew when he read the book that it was talking nonsense and that it wasn’t right. My daughter was unnerved to discover that same-sex couples, apparently in all species, can adopt children.

Oh noes! Teh gays are raising kids! What will we tell the children? Idiots like this kill me. I mean, the kids of gay parents understand what’s going on. Why would it be so hard to explain it to their own children? Are their kids such complete and total morons that they can not understand the concept of two mommies? But read the passage this guy wrote. What kind of twit just starts reading a book to their kids without reading it first? I may be busy, but I’ll be damned if I just start reading crap to my 4 year old without vetting it. Okay, I’m running into rant mode…Anyway, there are idiots and this guy is clearly in their ranks. Maybe Grand Dunce or something.

I think that I’m pretty lucky to not only have LGBT friends, but many of them are in loving and long-term relationships. My kids get to grow up seeing different types of relationships and learning that people can love each other and be different than one another and still get along. Despite all the gender conditioning she’s getting at school (I can’t stand that crap either), my daughter completely understands that Todd and Frank are together just like mommy and daddy. That’s all she needs to know right now. She’s 4. As she gets older, then she’ll get a little more information. That’s the root of the problem. You’re not going to teach your 4 year old about birth control, so I don’t know why these people act like they have to get into detail about gay couples. Silly.

I got this (snipped) email from Drinking Liberally today:

Dear friends,

This is an invitation to the Los Angeles premiere of “When the Saints Go Marching In” this Tuesday at 7pm — the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Robert Greenwald and Brave New Foundation will present an advocacy video for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, who — two years later — are still fighting for their homes.

WHAT: “When the Saints Go Marching In” Los Angeles Premiere
WHEN: Tuesday, August 28th 7PM
WHERE: Fais Do Do
5257 W. Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016

Why wait until the ultimate last minute to notify people? Typical, typical, typical.

But here’s the video on the Brave New Films site:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95XH7pTPg2U&rel=0]

The song is called The People and I lerve eet!

Great video for a great song.