Debarges ain't nothin' but trouble.

I'm sure all of you have heard (not so) "Young" Debarge's claims (and subsequent retraction) about Janet Jackson's secret spawn with his brother James. You know, these Debarges are making it even harder for me to defend my inexplicable love of El.

C'mon, he was cute. In a greasy sort of way, but cute nonetheless. I also think he has a better falsetto than Michael Jackson (we've discussed this before...you all sit there with your mouths agape like Josie thinks someone's better than Michael Jackson? To which I respond that El and Smokey technically have better falsettos than MJ, but even if El's is better, I like MJ's more...but MJ can't touch Smokey). Anyhoo - he is/was really, really talented. In October of 2003 (it may be two years ago to the day), I saw El perform with his brother Chico and Jon B. It was a great show...Patti LaBelle even came on stage and sang "If Only You Knew" impromptu. The only thing that detracted from the performance was how ridiculously inebriated/high El appeared to be. He was sweating profusely, shaking - it looked like he forgot he was on stage a couple of times. There was one point when he sought out a young lady from the audience (Can I come down there? Oh, wait, wrong pop star) and after announcing that he had "enough lightskinnededness up in [him]self" and thereby dissing yours truly (of course I'm not bitter!), he told his chosen lady that she was a "pretty little thing...your name is Jessica...so dark you like you're from Af-riiiii-kahhhhhh."

*cue awkward silence*

So, yeah, ol' El wasn't all there. And judging by the way the rest of his family has been behaving, they're not doing much better in the sanity department. I guess this is a lesson to us all - never trust a man with a sister named Bunny and prettier hair than yours.

WeRoqq signs Chilli

Rozanda 'Chilli' Thomas Hires WeRoqq Publicity and Promotion as Agency of Record

CrazySexyCool star signs with up-and-coming PR firm.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 24, 2005 -- As Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas embarks upon her solo career, she is pleased to announce that she has hired WeRoqq Publicity and Promotion as her official agency of record. WeRoqq (in conjunction with Erin Burke of Erin Burke PR) is dedicated to furthering the already stellar career of the R&B superstar.

“We are excited to welcome Chilli to our roster,” says Josie Zohny, Director of Entertainment for WeRoqq. “She is truly an icon -- in music, fashion and fitness. The sky is the limit for Chilli and we intend to launch her into the stratosphere.”

As a member of the best-selling girl group of all time, TLC, Chilli sold over 40 million records and won numerous Grammy, MTV Video Music , Soul Train and American Music Awards. Currently in the studio with some of the biggest and brightest names in music, she calls her forthcoming album “happy, upbeat dance music with a positive message…what people have come to expect from me, but with a twist.”

WeRoqq Publicity and Promotion is a full-service public relations firm that specializes in the music, fashion and general entertainment industries.

For more information or to request interviews, please contact:

For WeRoqq Publicity and Promotion -

Josie Zohny - Director of Entertainment
917-742-3777

Shukmei Wong - Director of Music
718-510-3046

Samantha Worrell - Director of Lifestyle/Fashion
917-549-6591

For Erin Burke PR -

Erin Burke
917-689-4975

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So...yay. My first order of business was to dispel some rumors. And I'll be doing a lot more of that soon. I spent the weekend in DC trying to explain to my father who Chilli is by holding up my Ooooooohhh...On the TLC Tip TAPE (yes, that old school) and pointing to the 'C'.

I was in DC for my mother's 56th birthday (Happy Birthday, Mommy!) and, to a lesser extent, to see some friends at Howard U's Homecoming. No run ins with the same ruffians who bothered Killa Cam. I talked to Scot for a while when I was waiting at the MVA to renew my license (I look 5 years old in the new pic). And then I re-read "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" on the trainride back. Such an exciting life.

I'm not a lush (really!), but...

Your life is incomplete without this stuff. At least two bottles of it.

In professional news, I just signed a big client to WeRoqq so keep an eye out for a press release detailing the exciting things about to go down. I'm ecstatic about it, actually. This person is someone who was relatively iconic to me when I was younger - who would have thought I would be doing publicity for them now? I'm also moving over to the International department of Putumayo where I'll be handling non-Latin-based publicity/promotion. I have to brush up on my French and Arabic hardcore. There's also the little matter of me learning some Asian dialect, so I'm going to be busy.

I've put grad school on hold for now. It just doesn't make sense for me. The way I look at it, there are a couple of reasons to go to grad school - (1) you want to end up teaching eventually, which is great for some people, just not for me or (2) you need to learn more of what you began in undergrad in order to have a fruitful career. There are a couple of areas that I would love to learn more about - social anthropology and ethnomusicology topping the list - but I'm not prepared financially or emotionally to go back to school right now. I can still read everything I get my hands on about the two subjects, I don't need a controlled learning environment. At least not now, anyway. In a couple of years if I'm over doing publicity or writing about indie rock (does anybody else find it amusing that my heart belongs to soul, but I'm covering mostly punk?) , I may reconsider my decision and we'll take it from there.

In other news:

• Disregarding the sanctity of life (isn't the Bush administration supposed to be big on all that?), airstrikes kill dozens of civilians in Ramadi area.
• Ashkenazi Jews are apparently smarter than the rest of us, but also have a higher susceptibility to certain genetic ailments.
• And can we talk about the fact that Michael Jackson's daughter's stomach is out of control toned?
  

Thug My Guy

http://www.thugmyguy.com/

I don't know 'bout y'all, but Trick Daddy makes me hot...

Click on the image below to find out more

The first MAN who fills my room up with these wins my hand in marriage.

I'm serious as a heart attack. Or diabetes.

Boy crazy throughout the years.

The first time I remember seeing MJ, I was three years old and until I was about 12, you couldn't tell me I wasn't going to marry him. He was so pretty circa '87, too.













Ralph Macchio! Daniel-son. The love for all things guido began early.















Jason Priestly, better known as 90210's Brandon Walsh. I fancied him a kindred spirit. A well meaning dork. I even sat through that God-awful Calendar Girl movie for him.
















Yeah, I liked Romeo from Immature. What of it? I'm not ashamed. Let me take you on a ride to a place where the ladies freak your mind. Only Romeo knows where the honeys go, say I got the freak of the week...












I still think Leo's dreamy in Romeo & Juliet, damnit. Now I think he's a couple years away from becoming the next Brando - but not necessarily in a good way. Josephine DiCaprio did have a nice ring to it.




If I haven't already told you the story about how Maxwell rode into my thigh on 3rd & St Mark's, I'm sure you'll hear it soon. I'd so have his babies, but something tells me he'd only be up for a turkey baster conception...







Wentworth Miller. I have a friend who thinks my current obsession with him is a form of narcissism since the two of us more or less fit into the same box(es). I don't think so, but whatever the reason for my love of him - I'm willing to girlfight Mariah Carey for his affection.

Oh, Bouncy.

I'm at a loss for words, so check out The Cynical One's take on some of the "revelations" in the Beyonce Vanity Fair interview.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Beyonce like the second black person to grace the cover of the mag in the past 20 years? And just think, she didn't even have to bathe in cow's blood or consult a witch doctor!

RIP August Wilson

Playwright August Wilson passed away from liver cancer yesterday at the age of 60.

Read the New York Times obituary.

The first time I ever encountered any of Mr. Wilson's work was during my "Theatrical Ethnicity" class at NYU. It was the first and only class I took about theater (despite my mother's flair for acting and playwriting, I lack that talent). I read "Fences" first and I loved it.

..."He was a giant figure in American theater," the playwright Tony Kushner said yesterday. "Heroic is not a word one uses often without embarrassment to describe a writer or playwright, but the diligence and ferocity of effort behind the creation of his body of work is really an epic story....

He wrote of Pittsburgh, painting a better picture of the place of my birth (how many of you knew?) than my own eyes and memory could. He wrote plays, yes - but he was a poet. Dialog between characters bounced along with a melodic flair like the Bessie Smith records he credited as his inspiration. Broadway dimmed its lights tonight in his honor and I imagine his beloved Hill District in the Steeltown doing the same. He deserves one last standing ovation.

Some questions

1. Should I apply to grad school?
2. If I apply to grad school, should I do the straight to PhD program NYU has for Ethnomusicology, Creative Non-fiction at New School or refrain from drowning in debt and doing something totally useless (my mother's words, not mine) like Social Anthropology (continuing the whole Race and Ethnic studies component of my B.A.)at Hunter?
3. Should I just stop fucking around and apply to Law School instead?
4. If I have no desire to do any continuing education, why am I fretting like this?

I feel like I should be back in school. I feel almost guilty not being in school - how am I going to be least educated person in my immediate family when I've had the most opportunity? I don't even like school!

Two things I liked about my time spent in higher ed:

• Asale Ajani's classes, The Politics of Experience: Women of Color and The Human Rights discourse. I don't think that Asale particularly liked me, but I loved her classes. Admittedly, I came off as a bit of a flake in those classes because I didn't want to get myself worked up over some of the stuff said. Random Student to Josie: "I dunno why you consider yourself a woman of color, I mean, I'd just look at you and think you were Puerto Rican." Because, of course, Puerto Ricans are...Aryan?
• Remembering how much I like to write. High school damn near killed any joy I got out of it.

There are tons of things I hated about it, though: the politics, the egomaniacal professors, the students and faculty that talk endlessly and pointlessly just to hear the sound of their own voices, the backstabbing, the housing (!) and taking variations on the same class over and over again (Thanks, Dr. Moore!)...

I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. Luckily, I took the GRE and the LSAT last year so I don't have to worry about that. I'm hoping to have an epiphany any day now.

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Addendum - I finished On Beauty by Zadie Smith. Good. Predictable - but good. I agree with this assessment of it...

On Beauty is a portrait of a family doing what all families do, in one sense or another: fall apart.