Soulful Sunday

I'm finally back with another Soulful Sunday after a long hiatus from doing this and I have to say I miss doing it so I decided to up a mini-mixture of songs I've been listening to lately. Anytime I put together a collection of songs I have to first ask myself, would I download this and the answer this time at least a resounding yes. These are quality songs from quality artists and it's the best 30 MB that you could possibly take up from your computer's free space. Trust me.

Musiq Soulchild - Millionaire
Eric Roberson - Def Ears
Bahamadia Ft. Dwele - Philadelphia
N'Dea Davenport - Whatever You Want
Crustation - Purple(Jay Dee Remix)
Erykah Badu - Times A Wastin
Blackstreet - Before I Let Yo
R.Kelly - When A Womans Fed Up

Download HERE

The Michael Phelps You Didn't See After The Race Was Won

Whoever made this video is clearly working on a higher more enlightened level than the rest of us.

"Vibe Won't Put Me On Their Cover Because I'm White" - Robin Thicke

Even though Robin Thicke has been coined a "blue-eyed-soul artist," joining the ranks of Jon B and Justin Timberlake, his blue-eyed soulness wasn't enough to get on the cover of Vibe Magazine. According Robin Thicke, the magazine has a strict policy against having "white" artists on the cover !

While promoting his forthcoming album earlier this summer, an interview with Vibe went wrong according to the "Magic" singer. During the interview Thicke reportedly asked why he could not cover an issue of the magazine --- their response "We don't put white artists on our covers.."

Since the release of his breakthrough album "The Evolution of Robin Thicke" featuring the hit singles "Lost Without You" and "Can You Believe," which both charted well on the R&B and pop charts, Thicke has garnered quite a following amongst R&B and Soul music fans. So what's up with the cold shoulder from Vibe ?

Recalling the situation with Vibe Thicke says "This is a magazine I love. If there's one magazine that I'd want to be on the cover of, it's Vibe. The only white artist they've had on the cover was Eminem. I guess if that's what it is, it is what it is."

Even though he got the cold shoulder from the magazine when it came down to the cover, Thicke says "I respect that because I live in a house with a black woman. I won't use the word racism. I will say it's a tough -- but rewarding -- fight. I look at Mary J. Blige, somebody who has had only a few pop hits and yet has changed culture, generated new sounds and inspired leagues of artists. She's now a worldwide phenomenon. And it's because of what she stood for; she never gave up."

With the upcoming release of "Something Else," Thicke's new album, the singer plans to focus on issuing quality music. "You can't always expect people to be as color-blind or open-minded as you want. What you can do is keep giving your heart and soul, like Bob Marley did. His music became so overwhelmingly loving; it was a relentless love in a sense. Keep beating them down with love and they can't stop you."

In related news, Robin Thicke's feature in Billboard Magazine titled "White Like Me" has been placed in this week's issue of the popular magazine.

Robin Thicke's "Something Else" is due for release September 30th.

Vibe Magazine is now officially trash to me and I speak as a black reader of 10 years or more. It's disgusting to find this out and I'm sorry to hear Quincy Jones feels that way but even sorrier that humans act this ugly on a daily basis. I'm sorry for VIBE, even if they aren't.


Also make sure you go pick up his new album at the end of the month. I know I will.

John McCain Picks Sarah Palin As His VP

Seriously?

This is what you got?

You're selecting a 44-year old woman you've met two times prior to today as your vice president whose been elected as governor in Nov. '06?

Would this candidate even be acceptable if she were a man? This is serious business here, if an international crisis happens, and you aren't there, who will lead this Carol Brady impostor?

The only thing about her that isn't new is her ideas. They're lock in step with McCain's (Don't believe me, check her voting record). She's not really exceptional. Her only value is that she's the front page news McCain was looking for where he sees an opportunity to knock Obama's historical evening and week long unifying event down a notch.

This may work in the short term and this could only be seen as a short-term gimmick, much like the gas tax holiday he proposed during the summer, but in the long term, when everyone has a couple weeks to comb her over and when she has to stare down Joe Biden and he finishes picking her apart, what then? If she can't hold her own against him than how can she be expected to on the world stage with Putin and Ahmadinijad and Kim Jong-Il? This election is interesting, like the last Batman flick but just as that movie ended, so shall this election, with the Dark Knight still standing.

Afghanistan Runs An Entire Family Out Of House

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan has been forced from their home after a poisonous spider hitched a ride back with him and apparently killed their pet dog.

The camel spider's bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.

Lorraine Griffiths and her three children, aged 18, 16, and 4, moved out of their house in Colchester, southeast England, and are refusing to return until the spider is apprehended, the UK Press Association reported.Griffiths told the East Anglian Daily Times that the spider appeared after her husband, Rodney, returned from a four-month tour of duty in Helmand province, the arid southern Afghan frontline in the fight against Taliban extremists.

"My son Ricky was in my bedroom looking for his underwear, and he went into the drawer under my bed, and something crawled across his hand," she told the paper. She said their pet dog Cassie confronted the creature, which they identified on the Internet as a camel spider, but ran out whimpering when it hissed at her."It seems too much of a coincidence that she died at the same time that we saw the spider," she said.The desert-dwelling camel spider, actually an insect rather than an arachnid, can run up to 25 kilometers (15 miles) an hour and reach 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. Its bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.

Damn, I shouldn't even laugh because I don't fuck with spiders myself but it's just wild that the spider ran an entire household out of it's house. Damn I hate spiders.

Unbelievable Obama Invesco Field Scene In 3D

Go here.

Incredible Scene.
-------------------------------
In other news via the good folks at Barack O'Blogger: Funny how Karma works isn't it? The Conservative Group 'Focus on the Family' prayed for "rain of biblical proportions" to come down during Barack's speech tonight at Invesco Field.

But the skies here are clear, sunny, and blue.

Instead we have the strong possibility of another Gulf Coast hurricane during the Republican convention.

Fat Joe Earns Some Respect

It's not often that I can say something nice about someone that I, at least to a marginal degree, detest like Fat Joe (mostly because of his unyielding insistence upon saying 'nigga' and it somehow being okay, even though he's never actually made an argument that supported his right to say it) but I have to say that the guy earned some stripes today when he smacked down Daddy Yankee as a sell-out for endorsing a candidate that doesn't speak to the benefit of latinos in John McCain. Fat Joe was right to do this because as he put it, there are certain young people who will be influenced by someone like Daddy Yankee and trust he's leading them in a direction that's beneficial to them. Some of the quotes from MTV.com:

"Put this in the MTV News headline: 'Fat Joe Says Daddy Yankee Is a Sellout,' " the MC said via phone from Denver, where he's attending the Democratic National Convention. "Just like that! I gotta go in. I'm talking to little cousins that like [Yankee] and all that, and they're starting to believe that John McCain is [the best candidate]. I can't have that."

"I opened the newspaper and got sick to my stomach," Joe continued. "I felt like I wanted to vomit when I seen that. The reason why I called him a sellout is because I feel he did that for a [publicity] look, rather than the issues that are affecting his people that look up to him. How could you want John McCain in office when George Bush and the Republicans already have half a million people losing their homes in foreclosure? We're fighting an unjust war. It's the Latinos and black kids up in the frontlines, fighting that war. ... We over here trying to take the troops out of Iraq and bring peace. This guy immediately wants war. If not with Iraq or Afghanistan, he'll start a new one with Iran. I feel real disgusted that Daddy Yankee would do that. Either he did that for a look, or he's just not educated on politics."

"Like I said, with me, my whole philosophy on blacks and Latinos is: We're all one," he said. "We're in the same ghettos, same inner cities, and we're suffering from the same problems. Every problem the blacks have, the Latinos have. There's two systems of health care: the one for the rich that's really good, then there's the one for the inner city, where they leave ladies in the emergency room unattended for 24 hours until they drop dead. ... People don't even check on her hours after she's dead. This is normal stuff. This is what's happening in the U.S."

"My own sister — to me she was murdered by doctors," he claimed. "She was having a baby in the Bronx, and they gave her an epidural — a normal procedure that was supposed to numb her from the waist down. They numbed her from the waist up, because they had amateurs learning in the Bronx hospitals. Not even real doctors — students murdered my sister in the inner city, in the Bronx. I love what Barack is doing with the heath care system. Once he gets universal health care for everybody, then we gotta step up our system to make it the best in the world."

I must say bravo to the man. He's on the right side an issue for once.

Full story here.

What Michael Jackson Would Look Like If....

If he weren't a middle-aged Asian woman, Michael Jackson as a 50 year old Black man would look like this:

Dumb Quote Of The Day

"Barack Obama will be our first hip-hop president. I can only imagine how the world will embrace the leader of the free world when he introduces other foreign leaders with, "give it up for my man Vladimir." Giving "props" for joining us in a treaty. Or the first lady Michelle talking about "my man" the "daddy of my babies" when referring to the president. That should go over well everywhere from 10 Downing Street right on down to the streets of the Middle East...

....After a few months on the job he can refer to his cabinet members as his "bitches." Hey don't get angry at me. Take a listen to any hip-hop song, and that is the type of endearing language you will hear. A group of playas that have no respect for the country. The same country that affords them a lifestyle most people only dream of, and all they can do is endlessly complain about it."

- Craig Smith, WorldNetDaily.

We highlight this kind of poorly veiled bigotry to shed a light on it so it can scamper away back to it's darker confines in quarters befitting of it like a roach when light catches it carousing out in the open where it has no place. You can't ignore this kind of garbage because that says to it's authors that somehow it's okay. This is stupid, Craig Smith is stupid and nobody should waste his/her time ingesting that kind of stupidity on the internet.

Special Note For The Week

As we all know, those of us that follow politics closely and also those of us who have historically not been as involved with or monitored the daily happenings of politics as closely as others, are witnessing the Democratic Party make history all this week in nominating Sen. Barack Obama as the first African-American selected by a major party for President in United States history and in a grander sense Western Hemispheric history. As you can imagine I'm soaking every waking moment in and every speech, heartfelt moment and special guest's recorded dialog as it were my job so the posts this week will be thin. There are much more important things in life, greater than my blog and this is one of them. So when I do post it will be about Obama and if you're not for the Obama posts you're kind enough to endure them for the time being until this week blows over and I get back to regularly scheduled programming next week. Anyway, tonight was Bill Clinton in the finest speech I've ever seen him give. This was the Bill Clinton I remembered and revered from back in the 90's. For just one night, the Michael Jordan of politics laced up his sneakers one more time, soared gracefully above everyone else, shot the three as he'd done so often in his prime and showed us that his jumper is still money. We've seen the worst of Bill Clinton these past few months, Tonight, we saw the best.


"People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."

Thank you Bill (and Hillary), you've been giants...

Mid-Day Funny - 'Fuck FOX News' - Crowd Outside of the Democratic Convention In Denver

This is just great. Anytime Fox gets cursed out, it's a wonderful site to behold.

11679-82501

Aaliyah Dana Haughton

R.I.P

".... with every breath like it's the last, with every blink like it's a freeze frame of a precious moment, with every touch to record how we were once human, we are destined to be something more..."

Al Green - I Wish You Were Here

Obamas Vice Presidential Choice: Joe Biden

I like this. I like this alot.

He's gullier than Joe Liebermann and John Edwards (the last two Democratic Vice Presidential Candidates) and in the vice presidential debates he's going to eat Mitt Romney's lunch and start on John McCain's.

Obama getting someone like Joe Biden on his team is something akin to the Dallas Cowboys getting Deion in '95 and then winning the Superbowl, they certainly know how to win on their own but adding someone with that kind of swagger reinforces their gangster; the defense is immediately bolstered.

I haven't known about Biden for forever but ever since like '03 when he became a regular on Bill Maher's 'Realtime' show I've liked his sensibilities and reason and marveled in his presentation; very intriguing and entertaining guy.

Just look at the guy, you just know that finger isn't pointed at someone because he agrees with them. There's almost literally nobody the Republicans can put up as a ticket thats going to match that Obama/Biden ticket. It's going to be utterly laughable. Look for them to go with that standard old tired stiff and stale presentation they always go with.

It's about to go down.

Update:

Biden showing his attack dog instincts when Bush was in Israel earlier this year alluding to Obama being an 'appeaser'...


LOL, Romney's going to be shining his shoes.

Mid-Day Video

"Same sword they knight you they gonna 'good night' you with
Shit that's only half if they like you
That ain't he even the half what they might do
Don't believe me ask Michael
See Martin, see Malcolm
See Biggie, see Pac, 
see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas
See Ceasar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide, it's a suicide
If you succeed prepare to be crucified" 

So as you, like I, watch another day of people
hating on Obama and bringing up dumb unfounded
ways of tearing him down just remember this
verse and look back and reflect how it rings
true.

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

LeBron knows what's up.

Nike Basketball Commercial Featuring Marvin Gaye and the USA Basketball Team

One of the best commercials I've yet seen. Made me put my Kobe hate aside for a moment even.

Wednesday's Woman: Kreesha Turner

Via Wikipedia:

Kreesha Turner is a Canadian R&B and pop singer. She cites R&B acts like Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and D'Angelo, Hip-Hop acts including A Tribe Called Quest, Andre 3000 and Common and Rock acts like the Foo Fighters and Our Lady Peace as her inspirations. She has been dubbed the "Canadian Rihanna" by the media.

Beautiful singer I came by via MTV. I always say it's a shame certain singers hail from Canada because they'd be so much bigger if they'd come to America. That's probably a bit biased from my vantage point but I know I personally wouldn't mind if she live don my block.

Anyway, she just dropped an album last week titled Passion, it's supposed to be a decent listen I'm told. I'll have to check that out anyway, here's to her success.

Top Ten: Olympic Women In Beijing

I personally love the Olympics. It's a real shame they don't come around but once every four years. Anyway, as you can imagine this list is extremely hard to comprise given the high concentration of focused dopeness in one place at one time. Unfortunately there was just too much beauty to narrow down the list down to ten and so I narrowed the list to thirty wherein the Top 10, The Wives if you will, are the absolute dopest, the second righteous 10 are the girlfriends, and the last 10 are the Jump-Offs (still nice looking mind you). I assure you it's not real sign of disrespect to be in any category below the gold because at least your name came up in the list from so many women to choose from, just in case one of the athletes comes at me weeks from now and starts hulking out.

So anyway, here goes. I did the best I could.

(Gold Medals) Wives

Alicia Sacramone

Naide Gomes

Katerina Bad’urova

MeLisa Barber

Marta

LoLo Jones

Carol Rodriguez

Leryn Franco

Robyn Ah Mow-Santos

Jacquelyn Johnson

(Silver Medals) Girlfriends

Jaqueline CARVALHO

Amanda Beard

Tairia Flowers

Ana Paula Connelly

Stephanie Rice

Hyleas Fountain

*Huggling Jacquelyn Johnson (from the Gold Ten Above) crying as I was when I saw her ass too*

Misty May

Torri Edwards

Alexandra Orlando

Jessica Ennis

(Bronze Medals) Jump-Offs

Catherine Osterman

Ivet Lalova

Romy Tarangul

Adriana Pinto

Guo Jingjing

Sanya Richards

Camelia Balint

Yelena Isinbayeva

Silvia Lucimara

Queen Harrison

So there you have it 30 up, 30 down. You wouldn't believe how long this post took to accumulate. Having to look through all the athletes from all the countries and skim through all the pictures to find what I thought were the most flattering images. A lot of work, a lot of time and so you to take 3 minutes to skim by and go on about your business. I'm clinically insane. I must be. Anyway, Enjoy. Let me know if I missed something or somebody.

Update: As I knew I would, I left one out,
Ms. Keila Costa of Brazil.
Let's just say she's on the Gold list for obvious reasons.

Damn I need an R. Kelly song to fully express how I feel about her: