Hold on to your baggy pants and baby hair because the biopic for TLC is TONIGHT at 9 pm EST on VH1!!! Now, when I heard about the cast, I was a little…naw ALOT…leary!!! The cast includes: KeKe Palmer as Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas…Lil Mama as Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes….and Drew Sidora as Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins.
I can admit when I’m wrong, the trailer looks REALLY good!!! The biopic, which is appropriately titled, “CrazySexyCool”, will of course show the rise and fall of the biggest selling girl group of all time. Sip on this trailer….
Recently T-Boz and Chilli and the cast of Crazy, Sexy,Cool sat down to talk to Wendy Williams, sip on this interview (skip to #7 on the Playlist):
I have already planned out my snack and I can’t wait until tonight. Will you be watching?
Here’s a lesson to you boys and girls, never stand in front of fan. Your hair may get caught!!! That’s exactly what happened to Beyoncé, during the Mrs. Carter show in Montreal. As she was singing “Halo” her hair got caught up in the fan that makes her so whimsical. But, just like the professional that she is, she just kept on sangin’ while security tried to untangle her hair. Here’s the video…
Beyoncé took it all in stride and re-wrote the words to Halo and posted it on her Instagram….
Let us not forget that Mrs. Carter is no stranger to mishaps on stage. For we can’t forget this epic fall, during one of her tours a few years back…
The lady is a true performer…for neither tangled hair or falls will keep her from putting on a great show!!!
The journey to see Beyoncé started back in February. Just like so many of you, I squealed like a Drag Queen at a MAC Cosmetics Convention, when she announced that she was going on tour. There was much chatter from family and friends who claimed they wanted to go and how we should get all diva-fied for the event and etc. I remained silent for I knew that there was only one person in my life who was serious and would go after those tickets like a hungry eagle stalking for prey. Who is that person you ask? None other than my BFF since our sophomore year in college, Tiffany!! When we learned that we could get the tickets BEFORE it went on sale to the general public, she was relentless. Presales are a gift from God because if it wasn’t for that, I would not be writing this blog. After hours of being on the phone, Tiff got our tickets. Soon after, I obnoxiously taunted those who did not have tickets on Facebook and for the last 5 months, that was my form of demented entertainment….hopefully those who were offended, we can hug it out later.
Finally, the day of the concert….Saturday, July 20, 2o13. Tiffany and I arrived at the Palace of Auburn Hills at approximately 7:30. Fans of different races, ages, and stilettoes, slowly but surely filled the Palace to it’s capacity. Even while the lights were still up, you could feel the excitement. Her opening act, Luke James, did a really good job. I have never heard of him before, so I was pleasantly surprised. After his set, the stage crew quickly cleared the stage and set up a huge curtain, that adorned a backwards B. Even seeing that, the applause of the audience was almost deafening. Because we knew that once that curtain dropped, our lives would be forever changed.
I don’t know what Tiffany and I were talking about, but all conversations stopped when the lights went off. It was as if we were all teleported to some sort of camp ground because the lights from the cell phones mimicked the stars in the sky. Immediately the crowd erupted in screams, cheers, and applause and right when we all were at the point of hysteria, the curtain dropped, smoke and lights went crazy, and there SHE was….BEEEEE-YOOOOOOONNNN-CEEEEEEEE!!!! The catchy drum solo from “Who Runs The World” started and Mrs. Carter started that up and down shoulder and head dance that she does and I quickly realized that we were no longer in Auburn Hills, but in this unknown kingdom where Beyoncé is clearly the Queen, and well….we are her subjects. By the way, I LOATHE “Who Runs The World”, but I can watch her perform that song any day, all day!! One of the highlights of her show was her tribute to Detroit. As she beautifully belted out Sam Cooke’s signature song, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, behind her was a video of what makes Detroit so beautiful…the Spirit of Detroit, Joe Louis fist, Hitsville USA, Motown Artists, Aaliyah, Eminem, and even frickin’ Kid Rock!! The song and video was so fitting and right on time. Somebody in Beyoncé’s camp got their ear on what’s going on and deserves a raise, because what we have been going through in our city, we needed that pick me up.
In between the times where she changed clothes we were entertained by avant-garde videos that I didn’t quite understand. I remember asking Tiff if she knew what was going on and she didn’t either. Nevertheless, they were entertaining to watch and apparently too deep for me to understand. One video, however, that I DID understand emphasized how precious time is and the importance of making everyday count…we saw footage of her travels, her rise to superstardom, and that doll baby Blu Ivy. The videos were definitely great fillers as Mrs. Carter changed outfits. I don’t know who was helping her get dressed, I can only assume that Clark Kent was somewhere back there. We were also entertained by her phenomenal band, notably her lead guitarist BeBe and pianist, Rie Tsuji. I absolutely have to mention the now infamous afro wearing twins, Larry and Laurent, that simply go by the name Les Twins…they are from France.
Oh, did I mention Beyoncé had TWO stages??!! How did she get to the second stage? I’m so glad you asked that question. Girlfriend, got on this thing…look folks sorry I can’t adequately describe it…that zip lined her over the crowd and onto the second stage…we screamed for that too!!! Once she got to the second stage, with her sparkly royal blue cat suit on, she immediately went into “Irreplaceable.” Mrs. Carter evoked audience participation by letting people from the audience sing the catchy hook, “To the left, to the left…” She also sung “Love On Top” and “Survivor” then she got back on the thing, zip lined back across, and made it safely onto the main stage.
She didn’t perform her controversial song, “Bow Down”, but she did do “Grown Woman” that is highly influenced by all things Africa…the clothes, the beat, the dances, the animals (no there were no lions on stage, just in the video). She ended the night with ” I Will Always Love You / Halo”. For almost two hours we were in a trance as we watched the making of an icon. Her commandment of the stage and her ability to connect with the audience was almost at the level of Michael Jackson…almost, let’s not get crazy here. Beyoncé teeters on the soft and sensual and the hard and rough and it’s so seamless we don’t even know when one ends and the other begins. Whether you love her or hate her, you cannot deny that she is a force that no one has been able to reckon with for quite some time. If you don’t believe me, just try typing in her name…spell correct automatically puts the accent over the ‘e’.
I make it no secret that I am a Reality TV-aholic. I both love and loathe the antics of the various “characters” who choose to have their lives filmed and documented for the whole world to see. Reality TV provides the drama that I don’t have in my life and makes me constantly question the morals of human beings on a consistent basis. Even with that, I still indulge and since I don’t want to be the only one under the bus…WE all indulge. However, even as we satisfy our curiosity of how others live their lives, I find it disturbing that when relationships between men and women are at the forefront….love is taken out of it’s purest form and becomes demeaned and misconstrued.
There is no other show that stomps on love and drag it through manure than the ironically titled VH1 hit reality show, Love & Hip-Hop:Atlanta or as I affectionately call it, Days of our Ratchet. My question for Mona Scott -Young, the creator of this show, is how can love be in the title…but not live up to it’s definition? Since I will probably never get an answer from her, I venture to say that in this show love is simply the noun…and not the verb.
Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud…
Take the definition of love and do the opposite of what it says and you have the socially acceptable form of love. Just by watching Love & Hip-Hop:Atlantait is a road map of what they are trying to force us to accept. As these relationships play out we learn that:
LOVE IS PREDICATED ON MONEY
Stevie J is one of the most disturbing characters that I have come across on Reality TV. He openly flaunts his promiscuity with other women, by maintaining a relationship. His kind of love teaches that if you have money and status women are disposable and you can get them to do whatever you want. Case in point, the dysfunction that is Joseline. This relationship, for lack of a better term, is tumultuous and lacks substance. She’s trying to be a rapper, he has the connections to make that happen…so basically she’s selling her body for a beat….nothing more than a recording industry prostitute. As they continue on in their relationship, their fights are constant and both are using each other for profit. Then we have Stevie J’s, Baby Mama, MiMi. I don’t know her, but I am convinced that she suffers from self-esteem issues, that can probably be traced back to her Father….just a hunch. Her love can be bought. MiMi has so many issues, when it comes to love, that I can dedicate an entire blog just on her stupidity alone.
LOVE CHEATS
The love triangle Lil Scrappy got going on with Erica and Shay is a mess. I must give honor where honor is due, at least Erica had sense enough to break off the engagement, once more issues between her and Scrappy arose. However, instead of trying to make it work with Erica and proving to her that he is in it to win it…he goes knock, knock, knocking on Shay’s door and what did she do…let him right on in. She is the quintessential side chick who confuses her role in Scrappy’s life as something more. Her misguided feelings for Scrappy that she called love was doomed from the start. Once Scrappy showed his true colors, then she wanted to be hurt? Apparently she didn’t listen to Maya Angelou who said, “When people show you who they are…believe them!”
LOVE WILL GET YOU SPIN-OFF SHOW
Kirk and Rasheeda…just by me typing their names I rolled my eyes. Here we have a husband who is so consumed with fame that he is willing to abort his baby that HE made with his WIFE??!!! Kirk’s selfishness is so mind boggling that it almost seems cartoonish. I hope that my assumptions are wrong and that the sanctity of marriage is not up for sale. However, it seems as if Rasheeda and Kirk’s relationship has taken a turn for the worse on purpose. Kirk being in the hot tub and the show suggesting that he had a threesome, c’mon now!!
The sad part about this whole thing, the three examples I just gave, are just the tip of the ice berg of the things that goes down on that show. Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta, is it art imitating life? Love has already been defined and it is pure. WE do things in the name of love, when we really are out of our mind with lust. Which begs the question: In our own personal relationships or even people we know…have we lost touch with what love stands for? I shutter to think….
The BET Network is slated to take it’s first stab at an original drama called, Being Mary Jane. By the trailer, this blogger is quickly made aware that the “Mary Jane” that this show is referring to is not the one Rick James delightfully sang about in his infamous song.
Being Mary Janestars the talented and beautiful, Gabrielle Union. Union’s character, Mary Jane Paul, is a successful News Anchor. Just like us, she tries to juggle her career, relationships, and family woes. The same writers who brought us the hit shows, Girlfriends & The Game,are behind this project.
Being Mary Jane, airs tonight –Tuesday, July 2nd at 10:30 EST and will be two-hours long. Why so late? I don’t know, maybe it’s some “not suitable for children” stuff going down in china town. After tonight’s movie premiere, it will come back as a series in January, 2014, with an eight-episode run. Gabby, she told me I could call her that–no she didn’t, has been quoted as saying that they have already filmed Season 1.
From the looks of the trailer it seems like they are overtly, or to some subtly, playing on the character’s name by contrasting the extreme highs of her career and the lows of her personal life. A storyline that we have come quite familiar with. This same storyline has drawn us to Scandal and my personal favorite Sex and the City so why can’t it work for Being Mary Jane? The only thing I can see that can go wrong is if the writers of this show attempt to insult our intelligence with obvious plot twists (I’m looking at YOU TYLER PERRY!!!) and not try to reinvent the storyline. If this happens, we will immediately become disconnected. Today’s viewer is intelligent and does not want the obvious. Shonda Rhimes got the memo, I don’t know what’s taking everybody else so long. Once again, I have hope. I will be in front of the TV, with a snack…probably those little Totino’s Pizza Rolls…and praying for a “clutch my pearls” moment. Fingers Crossed…
EnJoi the Tea 