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THE BLOG FAMILY

In-your-face observations of art, entertainment and the world at large from someone who cares. Can you handle the truth?

NOVEMBER 19 | Only the Super Negro Sells Movie Tix in Europe

NOVEMBER 18 | Sarah Palin Says Newsweek Photo Is Sexist

NOVEMBER 16 | Anthony Sowell's Victims: Drug Addicted, Expendable and Murdered

One man's opinion on very nearly everything. It's hard but it's fair.

NOVEMBER 16 | Heather Ellis: Not That Innocent

NOVEMBER 13 | College Education Is No Longer an Option ... Is It?

NOVEMBER 12 | Hasan: Who Shot Ya?

Manners and mores in modern life? It's about way more than where the fork goes.

NOVEMBER 17 | Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind

NOVEMBER 9 | No Present Like The Time

NOVEMBER 3 | My Cheap Best Friend

From finance to foreclosures, layoffs and lack of opportunity, a daily journal of the economic crisis and its effect on black professionals.

NOVEMBER 19 | Should We Be More Afraid of Identity Theft?

NOVEMBER 18 | The Cost of Celebrity Isn't What It Used To Be

NOVEMBER 17 | Calls For Job Growth Grow Louder

Smart, up to the minute takes on politics--from the state house to the White House. Pull up a chair.

NOVEMBER 20 | Dems to Obama: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way

NOVEMBER 20 | Delaying Cancer Screenings May Not be Best Option for Black Women

NOVEMBER 16 | It'll Take More Than a Tantrum to Stop Gay Rights in D.C.

Engaging commentary, interviews, and reviews that delve into and beyond the world of books. Get read.

NOVEMBER 19 | Reading List: The Poetry Edition

NOVEMBER 12 | Publishing with the Stars

NOVEMBER 6 | Producing Precious

A daily conversation on hot topic culture items. From Zora to Zane, True Blood to Tiny & Toya, TEWW covers high art, low-brow culture and everything in between.

NOVEMBER 17 | Beyoncé's Video Ho, er, Phone

NOVEMBER 13 | Oprah to Robin Givens: "I apologize."

NOVEMBER 12 | Illiteracy Begins and Ends at Home

'S BLOG ROLL

    ARCHIVES

    2009

    Rihanna Gives Love the Middle Finger

    November 5, 2009 at 10:32 AM

    I don't think I've ever actually heard Rihanna.

    Sure, she's a singer--someone who makes their living hocking their vocal chords---yea, OK, fine, whatever. But unlike MJ or Elvis or Whitney, I can't call up Rihanna's voice in my head and imagine what she'd sound like ordering greasy Chinese at 2 a.m., cussing out the cable guy after waiting for six hours, or maybe reciting Shakespeare. So as I watched the snippet of the pop star's 20/20 interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, which airs in its entirety this Friday at 10 p.m., I was surprised to actually hear her voice, her real voice. The one Robyn uses when she's not Rihanna and the one we've been waiting to hear since both women (the real one and the one we've imagined) were attacked by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown--a chatty Cathy if there ever was one.

    The voice I listened to this morning was more powerful than the one we've all heard ululating about umbrellas. It cracked from time to time--especially when Rihanna said Chris' name as if he were the Lord Voldemort of domestic violence--but it was clear, crisp and confident, too. Instead of being rehearsed, her answers were real. "I didn't want people to think I fell in love with that person. That's embarrassing," she told Sawyer. "It's completely normal to go back. You start lying to yourself the minute the physical wounds go away," she continued, sounding not like a girl or a victim.

    Then toward the end of the teaser video Robyn and Rihanna seemed to merge--a real woman giving some bad-ass advice. "I will say that to any young girl going through domestic violence, don't react off of love. Eff love."

    --HELENA "I am strong" ANDREWS

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    The 'Wait is Ova'

    October 14, 2009 at 12:52 PM

    The “Wait is Ova Nov. 23.” That is what was announced on Rihanna’s official Web site and Twitter page. What this actually means can be left up to one’s own imagination. Whether or not she’ll be releasing a new album or a single is unknown. But I am sure that all of the Rihanna supporters/ fans cannot wait. Unlike Chris Brown, Rihanna has not spoken publicly about the night that he landed in jail and she wound up in the hospital. Maybe instead of going on Larry King, Rihanna has opted to use her music as a platform to express her sentiments on the ordeal.

    Despite all of the madness and speculation that ensued after she was beaten, Rihanna has not gone into hiding. She has been in music videos and heavy on the fashion scene. Yet, she has almost been mute in public, and I don’t blame her. Rihanna is not obligated to sing about her relationship with Chris Brown. However, I think she should. If nothing else, it will send her fans running to iTunes and Wal-Mart to buy her album. And if it matters, it will make her seem more human.

    She has already made albums with songs like “Unfaithful” and “Rehab,” but when these songs came out people on the outside did not have a battered image of Rihanna in their brains. The outside world knows too much to not want her to pen at least one track about her relationship with Chris Brown. Now should fans expect Rihanna to come out and blatantly say Chris Brown's name in the song or give the play by play about what happened in the Lamborghini? No. But I guess we will just have to wait until Nov. 23 to find out.

    —EBONI FARMER

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    Domestic Abuse Among Black Folks

    September 4, 2009 at 9:14 AM

    I'm sure you've noticed domestic abuse has dominated the news lately.  In People Magazine Chris Brown claimed Oprah made an unfair jab at him on one of her domestic abuse-centered segments.  You know, after Chris went over to Africa for Oprah and sang at her school.  Oprah responded and said thanks for the song, but hitting Rihanna was crazy.   Yesterday, writer and Facebook-friend Tayari Jones posted an update about a 22-year-old black man in Brooklyn who dragged his wife through the street and shot her while dozens looked on.  The wife allegedly implored the gawking pedestrians to help her.  Nobody did until the husband dragged her into the middle of mid-day traffic.

    It makes me wanna throw up both my hands and insist men and women take a break from each other.  Take a breather and find some alone time.  Now I know women are looking for her Denzel and biological clocks are ticking and men want to get married as long as they can watch ESPN 24-7, blah blah.  Sounds like a bunch of recycled hoopla.  Folks, there's a big ol' elephant in the room.  I call it:  the lack of self-love and insane coupling expectation.  Don't get wrong, a brother supports marriage or unions or... sleepovers.  But can folks spend a little time with themselves and face their crazy head-on before dragging somebody else into the madness?  I can write a three-volume book on the number of folks I know who will knock over the grannies to be "in a relationship" and then a year later somebody's cheating, screaming, hitting or completely unhappy.

    I'm certain I'll be a dusty artifact one day.  The guy who sought self-love and self-empowerment rather than self-validation [or power] through a relationship.  But, for now, I'm alive and kicking and I think men and women need a time-out.  I think men and women need to start singles counseling in the FIFTH GRADE.  I think men and women should live apart for a CENTURY and then reunite for some healthy whatever.  I'm being a bit ridiculous, I know. But it's the only thing I can do to keep from screaming about the amount of violence and unhappiness and selfish expectation in this institution called modern relationships.

    Anybody else have any thoughts?

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