A Jill Scott song I like that comenter Jeri posted last week.
Lyrics:
Some of them wanna break you down, steal your crown
Use and abuse you.
Some of them smile in your face, cause they heard it some place,
You got more then their used to
Some of them want to steal your love, ooh
Cuz they’re jealous of …how you’re living and giving.
I keep
Moving forward, pressing onward, striving further
I keep
Keep on laughing, keep on living, keep on loving yeah
I keep
Keep on dreaming keep on achieving, keep on believing
I keep
I keep smiling when I come thru …and I cry when I need too.
Some of them, oh they stab you in your back, cuz it’s love they lack.
Some of them won’t even try …to see the good inside.
But I ….
I keep
Moving forward, pressing onward, striving further
I keep
Keep on laughing, keep on living, keep on loving yeah
I keep
Keep on dreaming keep on achieving, keep on believing
Hey. Oh oh oh
I keep on , keep on living, keep on learning , keep on smiling ooh ooh yeah
Keep on laughing, keep on living, keep on loving yeah
I keep
Keep on dreaming, keep on believing, keep on achieving.
I keep smiling when I come thru, and I cry when I need to
(Adlib below)
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yea yea yeah
I keep on , keep on keeping on.
Yea. I keep ,keep on keep keepin on keep keeping on
Note: Some of this post might not be strictly true: most of what is written about her is in French and my French is not very good! So corrections are welcomed.
Aïssa Maïga (1975- ) is a French actress who was born in Senegal. She is not just charming, beautiful and talented, she is also the highest-paid black actress in France and a regular at Cannes.
Some of her films:
“Les Poupées Russes” (2004) made her name in France. She plays the lover of Romain Duris.
“Paris, je t’aime” (2005) – she starred in this. See below for a bit of it I found on YouTube. Watch all the way to the end.
“Il faut quitter Bamako” (2006) showed that she can write and direct as well as act.
“Bamako” (2006), almost the same name as her own film, is probably her best performance to date. She played a bar singer, who always seems to be pictured as crying. Danny Glover was an executive producer, by the way.
As beautiful as she is, she is almost completely unknown in the English-speaking world. She does not even have an article in the English Wikipedia as of June 2009. I had seen her face before on the Internet, but I had no idea who she was until a commenter on this blog, Asha, brought up her name. Thanks, Asha!
Maiga was born in Dakar in Senegal. Her father, a journalist, came from Mali. Her mother is half Senegalese, half Gambian. The family moved to France when she was four. Her father died when she was eight.
After high school she did not know whether to study sociology or theatre. But then one night she saw “L’important c’est d’aimer” with Romy Schneider and knew she wanted to be a comedienne. So she chose theatre. A few months later, though, she dropped out of school and became a waitress. She thought the courses were heavy on theory, light on practice.
Her aunt, it turns out, was a comedienne and was able to train her. At 17 Maiga was acting in a musical comedy, “La nuit la plus longue”, something she did for three summers.
In 1996 she got her first part in a full-length film, “Saraka Bo”. It is a police drama that takes place in a black part of Paris. That led to parts in police dramas on television, something she did for years, but it also got her noticed by directors, like Claude Berri.
In 2005 she appeared in “French Beauty”, a television show that asked some of the great beauties of French film, like Bardot and Deneuve, what it is like to be a beautiful French woman.
Blacks in French film: Just like in Hollywood, most of the few parts there are for blacks play to stereotypes. But on top of that blacks are often seen as foreigners in France even when they grew up there, just like Asians in America.
She lives in both France and Senegal. She has two sons by her one-time boyfriend, Stephane Pocrain.
For Thanksgiving in November 2004 we flew down from New York to Texas to visit family and friends. We saw Houston, Austin and Dallas. We spent a day or so in each. Dallas was the best of the three.
Texas is big, flat, hot and has few trees. Snow is so rare in Houston that they stop school so everyone can go out and see it. It last snowed there eight years ago. January and February in Texas are no worse than October and November in New York. In fact their trees still have their leaves, which only now are turning colours – almost two months behind New York. Their grass is still green and even growing. No one sells road salt or snow tires, so ice and snow brings their cities to a standstill: the police turn back New Yorkers foolish enough to leave their house to drive in the snow.
Austin is the most like what we are used to: it is at the edge of the plains of south-east Texas, next to hill and lake country. It has a computer industry: Dell, IBM and the University of Texas, one of the top ten computer schools in the country, are there. It has even drawn in people from Silicon Valley. IBM is designing a new computer chip there. Because it is the place in Texas where people from New York and California prefer to live, it has the bluest political views – a blue patch in the middle of the red Bible Belt.
Houston is as flat as a pancake and vast. It has more kinds of Spanish music on the radio than I knew existed. They were playing Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” to death. Houston is right by the Gulf, so its summers make you sweat under your clothes, but for the same reason, they barely have a winter. Of the three, Houston is easily the biggest, about the size of Philadelphia from the looks of it.
Dallas reminds me a lot of Atlanta – just flatter and warmer and with much fewer trees. It is much bigger than Austin, but maybe only half the size of Houston. It has hot summers, but it is a drier hot than Houston. The summers in Dallas are bearable so long as you have air conditioning.
The houses in Texas are way cheaper, but they have little land and few trees. Of the ones we saw, most have just one floor with a high ceiling. An attic, no basement. Because of the heat, most houses are built of brick. You have to look at the roof to tell how old a house is. Some houses have what is caled a game room – a play room with three walls and no door. Four bedrooms are rare. Bigger houses have a media room, a room just for watching television.
Of the people we know who moved down there from New York and Philadelphia, none of them are sorry they did it – they just wished they had done it sooner!
Ki Toy Johnson (1983- ) is an American video vixen, best known for being the leading woman in OutKast’s music video, “The Way You Move” (2003). She is the one in the black bikini at the beginning and the end dancing with Big Boi. She has been in King, XXL, Black Men, SSX and Smooth magazines.
She won the Ki Toy Johnson vs Buffie the Body contest put on by XXL. In 2004 her name was put up for Vibe magazine’s Video Vixen award. AskMen.com called her “one of hip hop’s best booty shakers”.
Seeing her can make a man walk again: she says that one man was told by doctors he would never walk again after an accident. But then four years later he saw her in “They Way You Move” and started walking again.
She had a Wikipedia article, but it was removed in June 2007 because she was not “notable” enough.
She has a pretty face, a thick figure and a nice round bottom. She is 5 foot 2 (1.57 m) and 135 pounds (61 kg). Her measurements are 36-22-36 (91-56-91 cm), giving her a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.61.
She says that what you see is what God blessed herwith, maintained through exercise.
Women come up to her all the time and ask how she keeps her figure. She says exercise. She shows them how she does her squats. She says, “Even though you have a big butt, if you don’t do your squats, it’ll sag.” She exercises five days a week, leaving Wednesday for rest and Sunday for church. She gets up at six in the morning to work out at the gym. On Saturdays she speed-walks five miles round Stone Mountain in Georgia.
Because of her amazing body people wonder if she has ever been a stripper, a hooker or a porn star. She has never been any of those things nor does she ever hope to be. She is nothing like that. She has a degree, goes to church and helps children.
Her bottom grew out before the rest of her body, so in high school she was called Duck Booty.
She has done some acting. She was on a television show with Trina, “With Friends Like These” (2005), which never made it. She was in “Beauty Shop” (2005), starring Queen Latifah, and a few other films. She was also in an ad for Boost Mobile.
She was born in Peoria, Illinois, went to high school in Natick, Massachusetts and now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
She got an accounting degree at Clayton State University near Atlanta. She applies her accounting to two companies she owns with boxer Vernon Forrest: First Class Enterprises, a construction company, and Destiny’s Child Inc, which helps those who suffer from autism and schizophrenia to live as independent a life as possible.
She has a 13-year-old foster child.
Her sister has two of Big Boi’s children.
She was once a commentator on WAEC, a Christian talk radio station in Atlanta.
[Intro: Beenie Man]
You want a proper fix, call me,
you want to get your kicks, call me
You want your G’s fixed, call me,
mi have the remix, call me
From di odda day
It’s like a play some bwoy a play
Mi hear di girls callin mi
hear di girls bawlin mi hear di girls cryin out
She seh Beenie………
[Chorus: Ms. Thing]
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will tie me to the fan,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will do me in his van,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
[Verse 1: Beenie Man]
Gal, if yuh love holla at mi one time (Hey!)
Holla at mi if yuh waan di wickedest wine
I know It’s been awhile but baby neva mind
Cause tonight tonight mi a gi yuh di whole nine (Hey!)
Yo! satisfaction a every girl dream
Mi love fi put it on when dem wiggle and scream (Hey!)
Well, mi get a call from sexy Maxine
She left a message pon mi answering machine she seh Beenie….
[Chorus: Ms. Thing]
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will tie me to the fan,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will do me in his van,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
[Verse 2: Beenie Man]
She waan a man fi put har inna trance
A man who know fi tun har round and mek she belly dance
Rudebwoy lovin wid a little romance
She waan to get wild but she neva had a chance
When, she seh she neva had it so deep
So right now I’m di man she definetly wanna keep
Har ex bwoyfriend use to come and drop asleep
Dat’s why when mi pager start beep she seh Beenie……
[Chorus: Ms. Thing]
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will tie me to the fan,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will do me in his van,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
[Rap: Shawnna]
You know I’m use to sippin that Grey Goose
And pushin the grey coupe I’m fever like trey deuce
Huh, He wanna see me in Prada
But I be stickin to my wife beaters and pretty panties under my dickies
Now! I need a dude with a wickedest legs
And a, we can do this and a, we can do that
Then grind your body down to the floor
When I, I make it hurt till he don’t want me no more
Ok, when ya wanna ride with a runner call me
When ya wanna slide in the Hummer all day
I’ll be in your life be your lover always
Tellin you no lie we together you’ll see
Murda, workin that body body
Got to hurt a, jerkin that body body
Shawwna from D.T.P. on the remix
Wine to the beat can’t stop I say Beenie, what’s up?
[Chorus: Ms. Thing]
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will tie me to the fan,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will do me in his van,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
[Verse 3: Beenie Man]
You heard what she preferred,
she waan a man weh mek she fly like a bird
She waan a real man she don’t waan nuh nerd
She waan yuh gi har it good mark mi word
I’m not a perv but mi mek she serv,
she waan di rockula well until it curve
Har ex bwoyfriend ain’t got di nerve
Have har a wait and she nah get served,
so she seh Beenie…..
[Chorus: Ms. Thing
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will tie me to the fan,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will do me in his van,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
[Verse 1 repeated: Beenie Man]
Gal, if yuh love holla at mi one time (Hey!)
Holla at mi if yuh waan di wickedest wine
I know It’s been awhile but baby neva mind
Cause tonight tonight mi a gi yuh di whole nine (Hey!)
Yo! satisfaction a every girl dream
Mi love fi put it on when dem wiggle and scream (Hey!)
Well, mi get a call from sexy Maxine
She left a message pon mi answering machine she seh Beenie….
[Chorus: Ms. Thing]
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will tie me to the fan,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
I want a dude with the wickedest slam,
I need a one, two, three hour man
I want a dude who will do me in his van,
a thug that can handle his biz like a man
John Edwards (1953- ), a Democrat, was a one-term senator from the state of North Carolina in the American South. He ran for president in 2004 and became John Kerry’s running mate. He ran again in the 2008 election but dropped out at the end of January.
By the middle of January 2008 he was running third among Democrats, far behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He is well to the left of both. He does not have Hillary’s money nor Obama’s star power.
Of the three, his positions and policies were far more thought out. That alone has already forced Obama and Clinton to take stands close to his own. So even if Edwards does not make it to the White House, some of his ideas might:
End the war in Iraq and pull out most of the American troops.
Cut poverty by a third in ten years.
Provide universal healthcare.
Take back the Bush tax cut.
Raise the minimum wage.
Edwards is for abortion, stem cell research, capital punishment and the Patriot Act. He is against same-sex marriage.
He was for going to war in Iraq in 2003 but changed his mind in 2005.
Edwards has good looks, charm and a silver tongue. He even seems to mean what he says. But he has little experience, even less than Obama.
Edwards has modelled himself after Robert Kennedy, who ran for president in 1968. Like Kennedy, Edwards is for ending the war and ending poverty. He is a rich man standing up for the other America where people are not rich at all, the America he came from.
Edwards was born in South Carolina but grew up in North Carolina. His family was not well-to-do: he was the first to go to university. He got a law degree and practised personal injury law. He took doctors and big companies to court and won millions for the harm they have done. Since he got a cut of the money from every court case he won, he became rich.
Then in 1996 his 16-year-old son died in a car accident. It shook him. He left law and stood for public office. In 1998 he became a senator.
In 1999 he defended President Bill Clinton at his impeachment trial in the Senate. He was so good Al Gore put him on his short list of possible running mates in 2000.
That got Edwards to thinking about running for president himself, which he did in 2004. John Kerry beat him but made him his running mate.
In 2004 doctors found cancer growing in his wife’s breast. They cured it, but then in 2007 they found it growing in her bones. There is no cure for that.
Edwards started running for president early in 2007 when he stood next to a house in New Orleans that Katrina destroyed. He courted labour unions. He spoke about the “two Americas” and how he will fight against the big companies and special interests.
“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2004) is a film about a 1939 that never was. I loved it but others say it was terrible. At IMDb.com it gets a rating of 6.4 – good enough to watch if it comes on television, but not something you would want to pay to see.
It stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Angelina Jolie. It even brings Laurence Olivier back from the dead thanks to computers magic.
Jude Law called the film “‘The African Queen’ meets Buck Rogers.”
Paltrow, a newspaper reporter for the Chronicle, finds out that top scientists are disappearing. She and Jude Law go across the world to find out what is going on. They are brought face to face with the evil Dr Totenkopf (played by the dead Olivier). Angelina Jolie does her bit as commander of a British flying fort.
On paper it seems like a wonderful film – it has good actors and used what was then state of the art film-making. But it did not do well. At the box office it made back only half of what it cost to make.
It was one of the first films to use a digital back lot: creating the backgrounds by computer – the buildings, aircraft, attacking robots, all of it. The actors acted on an empty blue set, the computers filled in the rest later. It has become common now, but back then it was ground-breaking.
It starts out in New York in a 1939 that never was. One where ray guns, King Kong and Shangri-La are real, where Hitler and the Second World War never happened but instead New York is attacked by giant robots; where the design principles of Norman Bel Geddes and Hugh Feriss become the reigning fashion.
A past that never was but is painstakingly created for two hours.
For example, the RP or British English of Jolie’s character is no longer heard these days but it was common among the rich of Britain the 1940s. The way people act is how they did back then – at least according to the films of the period, like “The Thin Man” (1934).
But then again everyone calls Nanjing “Nanjing” and not “Nanking”, as it was known in the English-speaking world in those days.
It was the first film of Kerry Conran and so far his last. He spent four years on his Macintosh computer creating a six minute short for it. It was incredible and persuaded some of the top people of Hollywood to make it into a full two-hour film.
Conran copied many of the elements of the old 20-minute serials that ran in the 1930s and 1940s. But he forgot to copy one thing: the length. What works in 20 minutes does not necessarily work when stretched to two hours.
Most reviewers liked it and it even won some awards. Cinema-goers did not agree: Paramount, which put out the film, lost a fortune on it – even though Conran cut costs by using computers to make it.
Abagond 