I Love the 90s Friday: Zhane

Zhane had vocal chemistry out the yin-yang. I would love to hear new material from them, but it looks like they're each doing their own thing. Here are my favorite Zhane songs.

La, La, La

This is one of my all-time favorite songs. The harmonies are beautiful, especially Jean's crystal-clear singing voice.
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how many men I meet (brings me back to you)/There's something about you, something about your smile that makes me weak (brings me back to you)/When you call my name, the sound of your voice, it lifts me off my feet (brings me back to you)/If music were love, the thought of you would always make me sing...la, la, la...//You're on my mind (you're on my mind baby, constantly)/I'm in a daze (I'm in a daze so won't you rescue me)/You're in my dreams (You're haunting me, boy you're haunting me)/You're all I need

Crush

This was my favorite Zhane song for years until I heard La, La, La. I had the CD single (remember those?) when it came out. I had no idea there was a video for this song until this year. I actually hate the video. You know how it is when you imagine a video for a song and get mad when it doesn't match your vision? Yeah. I imagined floaty dresses, the entire video in black and white, by the ocean, etc....not two women dressed in their Sunday finest, randomly staying at some dusty hotel in the middle of nowhere sexin' up muscular, chocolate twins. That's not what the song is saying at all, Zhane. Epic fail.

Sending My Love

This video is so 90's. That is all.

Aurora Borealis

Images found at National Geographic

I have to see this before I die. I hate cold weather like Americans hate not value-sizing their fast food meals, but I have always wanted to experience this natural wonder. The colors that are created against the night sky; so ethereal. My mother remembers as a wee Bohemian Bookworm I was always staring at the sky, and pointing and saying "Moon? Moon?" Yes, that makes me sound a litte "special" but shut up. I just know this would be an amazing experience for me, probably the closest I will come to a spiritual experience.

The Aurora Borealis, or northern lights occur in the northern hemisphere in Spring and Autumn months. I think I would want to visit Alaska or Finland to see this. For more scientific tidbits about this phenomenon, click here.

Also, I can't find a video clip; but here is dialogue from one of the funniest Simpsons episodes:

Principal Skinner is hosting Superintendant Chalmers for dinner:

(Skinner walks into kitchen, kitchen is on fire, he walks right back out)

Skinner: (faking a yawn) Well, that was wonderful. Good time was had by all. I'm pooped. Chalmers: Yes, I guess I should be -- (notices kitchen is on fire) Good Lord, what is happening in there?

Skinner: Aurora Borealis?

Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

Skinner: Yes.

Chalmers: May I see it?

Skinner: Oh, erm... No. (Skinner and Chalmers walk outside)

Agnes: (screaming from inside the house) Seymour! The house is on fire!

Skinner: No, mother. It's just the Northern Lights.

Agnes: (screaming) HELP! HEEEEEEEEEEELP!

End scene. Ah, good times.

Feeling Blue-Black

Sade - No Ordinary Love
Uploaded by hushhush112
I gave you all the love I got, I gave you more than I could give...gave you love/I gave you all that I had inside and you took my love, you took my love/Didn't I tell you...what I believed...did somebody say that...a love like that won't last/Didn't I give you...all that I got to...give baby//I keep cryin'...I keep tryin'...for you/There's nothing like...you and I...baby

Down, where I'm going is down...cause you danced me around...made me too dizzy to see/Down...boy did you let me down...there's a permanent frown where my smile used to be//Down, I'm the fool of the town...someone send in the clowns...that song's about me//Down, my heart makes not a sound...it's somewhere on the ground...breaking beneath...my feet

Please don't ask me where I'm going...cause I don't know...no I don't know...anymore/It used to feel like heaven...it used to feel like May/I used to hear those violins playing our strings like a symphony...now they've gone away//How come that nothing feels the same, now when I'm with you/We used to stay up all night, in the kitchen, when our love was new/Ooh love am I a fool to believe in you? Cause I don't know...no I don't know, anymore//Nobody wants to know the truth...until their heart's broken/Don't you dare tell them what you think to do...til they get over/You can only learn these things from experience/I just wish that someone would've told me

My mind says move on, my heart...lags behind/But I don't love you anymore, I'm so insecure, never knew that love did this//I can't remember the last time I felt this way...about somebody/You've done something to my mind...and I can't control it/But I don't love you anymore--yes I do, I think/Loving you is wrong//Never knew that love could hurt like this/Never thought I would but I got dissed/Makes me feel so sad and hurt inside/Feel embarrassed so I want to hide//I hope it's not too late, too late, too late, too late, too--/Feelin' insecure, love has got me sore, I don't want no more//It's too late/I'm sorry, I love you, at first it was cool/You told me you loved me too/Then you lost your love, oh then you lost your love, ah then you lost your love...wanted me to go away but I can't go/See, I can't leave, it's too late/I can't leave, it's too late/I can't leave, it's too late/I can't leave, it's too late/Just make love to me...just one more time and then you'll see/I can't believe I made a desperate plea...what's with me//Don't you wanna be strong with me...you told me we had a family//Never knew what a friendship was...never knew how to really love/You can't be what I need you to...and I don't know why I fuck with you//I know I love will never be the same...but I can't stand these growin' pains

Clock Spider

Enticed?....Frightened?...Peeing your pants?

Click here to see what's behind the clock, IF YOU DARE! *evil laugh* This pic is from Australia.

Be sure to read the comments following the picture. These comments from the site pretty much sum up how I feel:

*I woulda removed the clock.. not by taking it off the wall, but by setting my house on fire and never living anywhere near that location ever ever again.

*ok then. i'll be back after i shower compulsively for 2 hours and make sure it's not on me./getitoffgetitoffgetitoff

*After reading the comments I've decided to never come within 200 miles of Australia.

Black or African-XXXX?

I was going to do a post on this once I got the time, but the Black Snob has tackled it. She asks if people identify as black or African-American. Here is the comment I left:

I identify as black, sometimes black-American. Not every black person in America is African-American, and not every African-American is black. I also think the term African-American helps feed into ignorant people's notion that Africa is a country, not a continent.
Yes, we have an ugly history in this country, but like Snob said, most of us are so removed from our African ancestry, we don't have any relatives that we know of where we can track what country they came from. My grandmother is Bahamian-American, and that branch came from mixed black-white-native ancestry....but that's only one sliver of my ancestry that I happen to know. I do not identify with the term African-American.....it's all socially constructed anyway, but I am black-American.

So how do YOU identify? This question is not just for Americans. If you are black and live in Europe, how do you identify? If you are bi-racial, how do you identify? If you are Asian, do you identify as Asian, or as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean-American, etc.? How about Hispanic (which is totally a made-up category amongst made-up categories, but that's another post)?

Happy Monday!

I Love the 90s Friday: Remember the Time

Michael Jackson - Remember The Time
Uploaded by hushhush112

DO YOU REMEMBER, GIRL? ON THE PHONE! YOU AND ME! TIL DAWN! 2 OR 3 (which is so not dawn, Michael)! WHAT ABOUT US, GIRL!

AT THE PARK! ON THE BEACH! YOU AND ME! IN SPAIN!

Lol, love this song/video. I know ya'll remember doing the Egyptian dance at the end. This video was so cunty, from Eddie Murphy, to M.J. spinning into gold dust, and beefcake guardsmen, and baskets-o-snakes. Awesome.

Dreams

I read this online article yesterday that lists common interpretations of dreams. Since I was a child, I constantly have had nightmares about spiders or snakes (and sometimes other bugs), mainly spiders, and often wake up screaming because I think they are physically in my bed or on the wall by the bed, etc. Here is what that article had to say:

Bugs
Bugs in our dreams—ants, spiders, moths, gnats, flies—could mean a number of things.
Miller says bugs are an indication that a “disgustingly revolting complication” will arise in your daily life.
Dream Moods takes bugs more literally, as in something is bugging you. To dream of bugs suggests you are worried about something and are filled with anxieties and fears.
A third interpretation is the bugs may represent your sexual thoughts.

Muy interesante....so have disgustingly revolting complications risen in my daily life since childhood? Has something (or many somethings) been bothering me my whole life? The sexual interpretation is very vague; so I have no idea where to go with that one. They kind of dropped the ball on that one. Anyhoo, I have always wondered why I have these recurring dreams/nightmares that date back to childhood...maybe I'll know one day.

Live Puppies

When your day is going shitty, just visit this live feed of fat, nommable, awesome puppies. Keep an internet window open at all times.

Here they are!

I Call For Self-Sterilizing Robots To Serve Fast Food

Mr. Bohemian Bookworm and I went to a Chick-Fil-A last night for fries (me) and a shake (him). There were a bunch of unprofessional young adults in the cashier area. As we were waiting at the window of the drive-thru, we observed one guy (wearing the headphone thingie) scratching his head underneath his Chick-Fil-A cap. I mean, he was scratching like there was something terribly wrong in his hair. Mind you, this is with bare hands. Another guy was drinking a milkshake. Mr. Bobo saw the hair-scratching guy dig in his ears. The girl who took our order WIPED HER FUCKING NOSE WITH HER BARE HAND AND THEN PUT OUR FRIES IN THE BAG. I, horrified, pointed this out to Mr. Bobo who then requested our money back and that we no longer wanted the food. Snot-girl asked if we were sure, and tried to give us the food and shake for free. I imagined boogers and little booglets dancing and doing a high-school musical type show on the fries. We refused. We went to Whataburger, where the cashiers are ghetto as all hell, but they respect your fuckin' food.

When I saw the one guy with the milkshake behind the counter, that made me watch them a lot more closely because if you are comfortable enough to do that (it's against the rules in many fast food restaurants and cafes) then you will probably be lax with hygeine too. This turned out to be correct. The way all of those nasty mo-fos threw hygeine out the window IN PLAIN VIEW OF HORRIFIED CUSTOMERS lets me know that they must have been doing this for a while, to be that comfortable. Mr. Bobo said he probably needed to disinfect his credit card too. I said the hair-scratching/ear-digging guy probably swiped his card betwixt his ass cheeks trying to get an itch. You best believe we will be complaining.

I hate everything.

Prop 8 Reveals Hate

My issue with banning gay marriage goes beyond my agreement/disagreement with those who voted on this. My issue is, the people should not be voting for this, period. You should not have to vote for civil rights. Underneath all the joy and wonder regarding Obama's election to President, something is still fundamentally wrong with this country when you can vote to take away somebody's civil right. What an ugly, hypocritical irony that the black population, specifically the black RELIGIOUS population who fought for their civil rights, voted to deny another group their own civil rights. A double-scoop of WTF on top when it sinks in that these people VOTED (which they had to fight for the right for) a half-BLACK man into the presidency (many civil rights leaders could only dream of this). Add a hefty sprinkle of bullshit when these religious black people point to the Bible to justify their hate.......that same Bible that was used to justify their slavery.

Marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman, is what they say. Where are they getting this from? The Bible? What about separation of church and state? This is not a Christian nation, no matter how much they want you to believe it is. If marriage is so sacred, why not vote to ban divorce? Supporters of this ban disgust me.

I Love the 90s Friday: Maxwell

In honor of the Maxwell concert tonight that I won't be going to *stifles sob*, here are my favorite Maxwell songs (that happen to have been released in the 90s).

Submerge: Til We Become The Sun

This is one of my favorite all-time songs. The melody, the lyrics, his voice, the entire song is so haunting, sensual, relaxing, erotic, and just lovely. I love the dark notes of the piano in the background contrasting with his falsetto.

Softly, Softly

You can't go wrong with Sweetback producing on the track....you just can't.

Til The Cops Come Knockin'


There's an actual video for this song but Youtube won't let me embed it. It's for the best though, as the song is much more sexy without the video of Maxwell crawling around on the floor like he took some bad shit.

My favorite music style includes songs that combine lounge, electronic, ambient, and erotic tones, so Maxwell seamlessly blends these elements and the results are beautiful. I hope his next album drops soon; it is apparent by all these sold-out tours that his fan base is stronger than ever.

What A Magical Time

I truly feel like a global citizen after last night. Seeing the reactions around the world is amazing. People in the United States are often living in their own created bubble, they wonder why would other countries care who our president is?

I participated in this piece of history. I see the tears in so many people's eyes; tears that reflect so many memories and hopes and it makes me tear up in turn.

The way Obama looked when he was giving his speech last night almost gave me chills. The gravity of this, the enormity of it all seemed to register on his face. He is taking this seriously and people need to know and see this.

This beautiful family is representing our country....it truly is amazing. What a magical time.

Visit The Black Snob for many more awesome photos of the First Family.

Michael Crichton

I am sad. Michael Crichton had died. He was one of my favorite authors; he was such a great writer. He was the creator of ER which was one of the most awesome shows years ago...now, not so much. My mother and I used to tune in every Thursday(?) to watch it. He also wrote and directed Twister, one of the most broke movies that I love to this day. ("We have debris!....DEBRIS?!")

My favorite book of his is his non-fiction book, Travels. He talks about being disillusioned with medical school, and describes the trips he has taken around the world. The vacations don't turn out how one would normally expect and he put a hilarious and realistic perspective on vacations. He describes climing Kiliminjaro and how horrible it was, but how everyone pretends it's this great feat.

I grew up with Jurassic Park and The Lost World. They are so much darker, more haunting, and more fascinating in book form; I have re-read them so many times.

I also loved Prey and State of Fear; nobody did the thriller genre like him.

These books were comforting to me; when I wanted to relax and unwind throughout the years, I would pick up one of my dog-eared copies of his books and get lost in them. I am sad this voice is gone. He died of cancer. I had no idea he was 66 years old. There is something very admirable about people who have terminal illnesses and don't broadcast them to the world. I hope his family were able to have some nice moments with him at the end.

Giraffes?

I need someone to upload the Giraffes video from Saturday Night Live this past weekend. Please and thank you. I was crying laughing at the end of it! I love extreme, unnecessary humor as applied to ordinary things or situations. I am twitching like a crack fiend right now, I NEED THE GIRAFFE CLIP NOW! WHY ISN'T IT ON NBC.COM WITH THE OTHER VIDEOS? YOUTUBE? SOMEBODY!!

**Edited**
HERE IT IS!

Pretend To Care About Politics

This is a little late in the electoral season, but it's never too late to pretend like you give a what and have some intelligent-sounding answers to those who ask you about the election.

Pretend You Care About Politics @ Yahoo! Video

Scary Movies

In honor of Halloween, here are my favorite horror/terror movies:

The Mist (this movie has scarred me for life)
Carrie (the music alone especially at the end was terrifying)
The Descent (sleeper hit, I really enjoyed it)
The Birds (one of my favorite all-time movies)
The Ring (when she climbs out of the well....I can't)
The Exorcist (the backwards climb down the stairs....I can't)
Child's Play 2 and 3 (pure comedy gold)

What horror/terror movies are your favorites?

Ghetto Twins-Responsibility

OMG, I have been waiting for this video to pop up on Youtube. I know a lot of Houstonians remember this song, but not like I do! My cousin and I knew THE WHOLE SONG and I must say, I still remember the lyrics.

Yes, the video is broke as hell and the twins are indeed ghetto, the lyrics are actually pretty good, and a positive message for young girls out there lurks underneath the sunglasses, blue lipstick, swoll-ass twins walking toward the camera, fur coats, and such.


If GB don't hustle then my kid won't eat/My kid don't eat/Then Mama won't sleep/I have no time to sit around/See what his dad gon' do/He ain't do shit from the start/What the fuck he gon' do....Now he prayin' for forgiveness cause his luck messed up and/His kid growin' up and/Don't know what's up/Responsibility, have you ever heard of it baby/I'm a strong chick and you will never worry me baby...Your baby son is growin' up/Baby mama's blowin' up/If I catch that tail, I just might leave it swoll'd up (LOL)/In this world to make a child it takes a man to raise one/Boy you just made one/Too stupid to raise one/And these youngsters think you cold, let em' know you ain't ___ but a ___/When it comes down to this real ____ (some of the song sounds better with the censor)/Responsibility he couldn't take/And that was one of the many things that made him fake/You really think you's a man/Hey busta you's a lie! (LMAO)/Strong women survive/FAKE PLAYAS DIE......fake playas die

Well if I didn't write rhymes/Where the hell I'd be?/And if I don't pay rent/Where the hell I'ma sleep/I ain't dependin' on my man cuz he ain't worth it/And if I did depend on mine I'd be a stuck out chick/I keep my eyes on my riches/Women do the same/Ain't no love in this game/Ain't a damn thing changed....I give them girls the finger who ain't bout makin' dollas (ROFL)

The first thing you must do is stay true/Dependin' on your man leave you stuck like glue.....Only thing he wanna do is screw/Lord knows that's the truth/Now your rent's past due/And your man's sayin' it's through/Who gon pay the bills, now where you live, we guess it's all on you/But you totally disagree/Now your kid's up on the street/It's all about your salary/Use your best ability and you'll see

So many things to do/So many places to be/It's my/Responsibility/Responsibility-ee

Am I ashamed for still knowing most of the lyrics? A little. But stop hating. This post is dedicated to my cousin and loving, devoted husband. :-)

I Love the 90s Friday: Halloween Special!

In honor of Halloween, here are some creepy rap videos from the 90s:

Geto Boys-Mind Playin Tricks On Me

Houston churns out some of the most....intriguing rappers. I don't think I know too many people who don't recognize the opening bars of the music and remember the lyrics: At night I can't sleep/I toss and turn.....My hands were all bloody from punchin' on the concrete.......this song, lyrically was kind of awesome. The video goes very well with the song.

Bone Thugs N Harmony-Crossroads

This video always used to get to me with it's imagery of death. The deathy dude comin away to take souls and turn people's eyes black....graphic! Nice lyrics on this one too. I remember the funeral scene at the beginning always struck a chord with me, but looking back on it I wonder why Mr. Death was all late collecting the dude's soul at the funeral....shouldn't he have already scooped his ass up when he died? Was he just trying to traumatize the poor family member who saw him? Anyhoo, this song/video was AWESOME!

Tupac-Hail Mary

I remember my cousin and I used to think this video was SO. SCARY! Now I see how very very broke it is, but that's ok though.

Socks On Your Feet

I think people (or at least I) underestimate the physical warmth socks on your feet provide, at home, in your lounging clothes, when it's cold outside. Especially if you are feeling a little under the weather (what is the origin of that phrase? I need to look it up). I feel so comfy and toasty while also exhausted. It's kind of comforting.



Sometimes it takes a stranger's view of your life to put things in perspective (or at least more so). One of my students congratulated me on my promotion and we talked about career counseling because she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. I told her I recommended it because I wished I had been more aware of those services earlier on in my undergraduate career. She asked about my studies and I told her about my bachelor's degree and that I am now a graduate student. She said, wow your life is really good; you know what you want to do in school, you got promoted, *she glances at my ring* and you're married...she sounded kind of in awe. I think people tend to brush off these kinds of remarks but I believe you need to kind of soak this stuff in. I realize how my life looks to others (even strangers, or people who look up to me, like my students) and even if it's a careful presentation of self that we offer, I am aware more and more every day of the stage I am setting for my life. I am tired all the time from work and school, but the future is becoming clearer every day as well, like a pinprick of sunlight that gradually gets brighter. I am comforted by the love in my life and feel a certain peace right now at this moment in time.



To undecided voters at this juncture....really? You're undecided? Still?



And for absolutely no reason at all: