Kanye West and All Things Grammy

Another Grammy Awards show has come and gone. I just tortured everyone on fb with my status updates on all things Grammy but I just wouldn't be able to remember it all for this blog. I don't have much more to say, but please, allow me to expand on those updates. Before anyone gets on me for what might be considered incoherent writing, I'll give a few disclaimers: 1) It's midnight 2) I'm expanding on fb statuses. Since when do those have to be coherent? 3) Most of the show's dialogue was incoherent so I figure I'd just continue the trend.

Grammy update thus far: Lady Gaga and Elton-YES! (tops Prince and Beyonce from a few years ago) Pink KILLED IT! Maybe I'm a sucker for bright lights, crazy outfits, and robot looking things but I liked both Beyonce and The Black Eyed Peas. Beyonce should have left Alanis alone though. I'm about ten minutes behind in the show...I'll be back :-)

Yes, Lady Gaga did her thing. I must admit, I didn't always get her. Actually, I still don't. But once I got past her always trying to shock people, I realized that she's actually really talented. Good call performing with Elton John- I mean really, whoever came up with that combo is a genius. Pink- AMAZING. I don't think she gets enough respect. Beyonce, I still want you to put some clothes on but I understand. You're afraid that if you leave anything to the imagination they won't want to buy you. Yes, I said "you" and not "your music." Oh yeah, I saw you almost fall down the stairs. Way to hold it together! Alanis, what are you thinking right now? Wouldn't it have been amazing if Beyonce had brought you out on stage?

Doug E Fresh and Slash made sitting through Jamie Foxx's performacnce worth it. Not sure that I'd like to sit in a venue where they're playing, but the Zac Brown band is pretty amazing! I can't stand Taylor Swift so I don't really care about what's about to come out of her mouth. Well, really I can't stand her acceptance speeches...maybe I'll give the performance a chance.

Jamie Foxx...thanks for making your old song new with two amazing musicians! Zac Brown Band, I might make you a Pandora station but that's about as close as I'm going to come to hearing you live. I'm not sure your fans will want to party with me :-/ We'll get to Tay Tay later. For now I'll just say that Stevie Nicks, minus her outfit, was great.

3D t.v. when you don't have 3D glassses is not okay. please tell me there's a second MJ performance!

There was no second MJ tribute. The artists in the first one were great but who could concentrate on anything but the 3D? Apparently I'm not the only one who didn't know Target was giving out 3D glasses for free. #grammyfail

oh snap 3T made it to the Grammy's!

Yes, Michael Jackson's nephews Taj, Taryll, and Tito Joe were on the Grammys. I suppose they were there to protect Paris and Prince, but really I think they just wanted people to know that they were still alive. 3T, you once asked " Why does Monday come before Tuesday ? Why do summers start in June ? Why do winters come too soon ?" I don't know the answers to those questions but I ask you, "Why won't you give up on your singing careers?"

grammy update: a) i promise i'm trying to keep these to a minimum, but i can't help it! b) i heart jennifer nettles from sugarland. c) mos def needs to lose the facial hair. he can't be my boo with all of that. d) cant handle rihanna's voice or really most anything about her. but i'm glad she made it to the grammys this year. #poortaste?

i just don't like rihanna. the end.

Dear Mary J. Blige, Please release an album called "Duets with Mary J." I love listening to you sing just about anything. But I really, really, love when you sing duets. For example, "What Child Is This" w/Andrea Bocelli, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" w/Andrea Bocelli, & "One" with U2. I think you're on to something.

Mary J. has come a loooooong way. She was great way back when, but she's stellar now. Release a duets album Mary. Trust me!!!! Anyone who doesn't like you now will love you then. Well, make sure you pick the right people to sing with. In other words, don't sing with 3T as my friend Sabrina suggested. That will just be a mess and a career killer :-)

Can't handle Roberta Flack's "neck brace"

Roberta, I know you're getting up there, but you can make better decisions than that. What would Donny say?!

Dear Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Drake, if the censors have to bleep out this much of your performance, maybe you shouldn't be doing it on t.v. Also, please tell your boy Quentin Tarantino that polka dots don't work on him, and tell Taylor Swift to sit down since she prbably doesn't understand what the heck you're saying anyway!

Do better men. Taylor, sit down!

Dear Kanye, Taylor Swift was doing alright on her own, but you did AMAZING things for her career!

Kanye West, you singlehandedly won Taylor Swift the Album of the Year. I could use this moment to explain all the ways you made this happen, but it would lead me down a path of more social commentary than I care to make right now. Maybe another day...maybe the next time a crazy Black man interrupts a helpless blonde haired all American girl's acceptance speech on live t.v. Awwww shux...I did it anyway. Whatever. I'm not denying that Taylor is talented. But I am suggesting that maybe she shouldn't have won over others in her category. Stop. Before anyone suggests anything crazy, I don't think Beyonce should have won. Just putting that out there.

Well, that's all I've got. My favorite parts of the night were not the performances or the awards themselves. It wasn't even Ricky Martin (yes this is sarcasm, although I did stand in line for hours during my senior year of HS to see Ricky at Tower Records). Truthfully, I just enjoyed seeing the musicians in the audience who if given the chance, I would go see in concert right now even though I am deliriously tired. Who are these people that I would allow to deprive me from my slumber? Obviously Carlos Santana and India.Arie! Oooohhhh...they should release a duet album! Man, I love music when it's good!

They Call Me Mr. Tibbs...or something like that!

Yesterday I was reading a news blurb about an incident that happened at my high school. I won’t mention what the blurb was all about because as much as I hype up and LOVE the “school with the tall white tower,” I dare not air its dirty laundry or make anyone think less of it. Pause. I can hear the gripes and groaning of alumni particularly of the “colorful” persuasion from all parts of the country, so allow me to address this issue before I get to the point. As much as people may want to hate on their time at P-P-P-O-L, you’ve got to admit that it did prepare you for a whole bunch of things: a) You were ready for college. Whether it was one of the old colonial colleges, a major research institution, or a very competitive liberal arts school that enrolled more people from New York and New England than you really cared to be in school with, you were ready for college. b) If you hadn’t learned how to deal with ignorance before, for many (mostly the guys I suppose), those walks from the 95th street train station were a great classroom. c) That Sweet 16 or Bar Mitzvah invite that got lost in the mail taught you that “you’re a really good friend, but…” d) You learned how to drive. Not from driver’s ed, but from watching WHAT NOT TO DO from the bus drivers on the 6:00. Isn’t it weird how different they drove on the 4:00 vs. the 6:00? ( Shout out to the Flatbush/Dyker Heights route drivers- Miguel, Leroy, Marty!) I digress. Back to the point.

So after reading the news blurb I started thinking about my dear old school and that got me thinking about all of my former teachers who are now my facebook friends. I have a dilemma- I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO CALL THEM! There are a select few who I’ve always called only by their last names and that will never change- Khan will be always be Khan, Bishop will be Bishop, and to them I will probably always be Stretch. But I didn’t have that last name-nickname relationship with everyone and I find myself uncomfortably stuck between my adolescence of yesteryear and newfound adulthood (I guess it’s not so newfound anymore). I want to be bold and call them by their first names, but I just know better. Just because I’m an adult now doesn’t mean I was always an adult, right? I don’t call my aunts and uncles by their first names, so why would I do it to my teachers? But, it feels weird for me to write “Hey Ms. InsertName! Love the profile pic!” on their fb walls. I guess until they ask me to do differently, I’ll defer to my good senses and upbringing and use their last names. I mean really, if I saw them on the street I wouldn’t dare call them by their first name so why do it online? Besides, I would hate for one of them to respond by saying, “They call me, Mr. Tibbs!” I know that has nothing to do with education, but it’s such a good line that I had to use it. I suppose I should use the more appropriate Sidney Poitier quote instead- I wouldn’t dare call my teachers by their first names because I would hate for them to say, “You will call me Sir or Mr. Thackeray.”

I was raised right so I guess I should act like it.

Tweet This!

Yesterday, one of my students created a twitter account for me. Her reason is that it’s really cool, but she also felt that I couldn’t commit to this blog and tweeting would just be easier. So, with all sarcasm, @justsami10, thanks. Honestly, I don’t even know if I used the correct twitter style to write that #generationaldifference.

I guess there are a few reasons I’ve been missing in the blogoshpehere. One, I feel incredible pressure to be witty. We’ve discussed that already so I won’t go any further. Two, until Tiger and all of his prey, there really hasn’t been anything too interesting that I felt like writing about. Since I mentioned it, I’ll share a few thoughts on the Tiger situation: 1) Elin, since we have yet to see Tiger I take that as proof that you kicked his a$$- good for you!; 2) I really don’t care how many companies drop or keep Tiger as their spokesman- Tiger, you’re filthy rich and if you never pick up a golf club again you’ll stay filthy rich- that is of course as long as you don’t have multiple children by all the women you were messing around with. If that’s the case, man, you better be prepared to put a whole lot of babies through the best schools!!!

Back to the reasons I haven’t been blogging. My main excuse has nothing to do with pressure or lack of interest- it all revolves around a crazy decision I made about a year ago to go back to school for my doctorate.

Anyone I have met who is in a doctoral program (particularly a higher ed program) is constantly encouraging others to go back. “You can do it!” “You should do it!” “It’s worth it. If I can do it, so can you.” Right, so I listened. I, like the people in the Jonestown Massacre, sipped the Kool-Aid. What the heck was I thinking? TRUST ME blog friends…I will not be one of those people who encourages everyone to go back to school for a doctorate- at least not this month and maybe not even a few months from now. Perhaps it’s because I’m working full time, maybe it’s because I wasn’t ready for the economic theory laden higher ed finance class I took, or maybe it’s because I chose the wrong topic for my first literature review and research proposal, but school is hard! It kicked my butt. It hurt my feelings. It made me question my intelligence. It made me question my career. It was CRAZY! School was so crazy, it made me not realize that there were tons of great things to blog about for the past four months- the balloon boy and his crazy father; Taylor v. Kanye; the fact that Kanye is nuts; the fact that Jermaine Jackson has a son named Jermajesty; Whitney’s comeback; etc. etc. etc.

So, this first post in a few months is an attempt to recommit myself to blogging. Of course, I only have a few weeks before classes start again and I voluntarily torture myself to learn about the history of higher education and organizational theory in higher ed. Maybe this twitter business won’t be such a bad thing- between getting things done for work and running to class I might be able to quickly say, “Jermaine Jackson, why is your child’s name Jermajesty? People already think your family is crazy! #hotmess”

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year-Or is it?

I've always loved the Staples commercial that features Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." This commercial shows parents pushing carts full of school supplies through the store with their kids in tow and has always been one of my favorites. I've loved school probably since my very first day (well, not during my brief stint at Phyl's Academy when I was traumatized by the teachers and some of the students, but I still got a great education so whatever) so of course I think that going back is one of the most wonderful times of the year!

Anyone who works in Higher Education will tell you that this time of year is go time. We have all types of programs and events throughout the year, but mid-August really is the most high energy, fast paced, and truly exciting. I spend my days during this week of first-year move-in, orientation, and the start of classes, directing parents to resources, talking up my office ad nauseum, using the bathrooms in my building that the new students don't know about yet and therefore haven't made disgusting by 10 am, containing my frustration at people who slow down driving and foot traffic on campus because they have no clue where they're going, and "venting" with colleagues about the overall madness of opening. Note that venting is in quotes in the above sentence, because the truth is that that "venting" is really just a roundabout way of talking about how much we love what we do.

Aside from all the annoying parts of opening, I also spend my days in this first week assuring students that they'll be okay. To the ones that look like deer in the headlights, I tell "you'll know how to navigate campus in no time." To the ones who are homesick I say "just watch, you'll eventually forget to call home." To the ones who are nervous about classes I remind, "you wouldn't be here if you couldn't handle it." And yet, I find myself two hours away from starting my first doctoral class at NC State and all the advice I regularly give students just seems like lip service. I don't think I'll ever know how to navigate campus...no matter how many people I ask about parking, I just don't think I'll find the lot or my way to the building after I eventually get there. I'm certainly not homesick, but right now I would love to be sitting on the couch in my mom's livingroom or even at my desk at work...it's safe, it's comfortable. And, how the heck am I going to handle classes?!

I realized today that I feel like a freshman all over again! (Higher Ed folks, give me a break on the use of the word freshman.) I totally get why they look at me with crooked smiles and doubt filled eyes when I tell them they'll be okay. The educator, the realist, the optimist in me knows that I will be okay- I will survive going back to school just as I have so many times before. The little voice in my head however, just wants to tell Andy Williams to shut up!

My Ten...Well, Thirteen

A couple of hours ago someone asked me, "So, did you even listen to any Michael Jackson in the last fifteen years, you know, before two weeks ago?" I was elated to not only tell him "yes" but to also share that HIStory Volume I was in my home stereo the day he died. While I was elated to answer him, I was really more than offended by that question. I realize that a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon and others are rediscovering their love with Michael Jackson...I however, am not one of them.

I shared with some friends that for some years now, I have had a list of about 10 people who when they die, I will be devastated. MJ was the first on my list to go. To avoid obnoxious questions like the one I was asked earlier, I've decided to share my list with you. In no particular order:

-Oprah Winfrey
-Robin Roberts
-Diane Sawyer
-Janet Jackson
-Bill Cosby
-Whoopi Goldberg
-Whitney Houston
-Diana Ross
-Charlie Gibson
-Bill Clinton
-Nelson Mandela
-Barbara Walters
-Fidel Castro

I recognize that some of these people are controversial, but they are still on my list...they've menat things to me for some reason or another in life. While I don't wish any of these people death anytime soon, I want to go ahead and say for the record that when these poeple die and I am mourning, it is not to be a part of the fad.

RIP Michael Jackson

Too Much To Take In

Everyday has a big news story that is unfortunately overlooked by the majority of people. Occasionally, there's a story that's big enough for people to latch onto and chat about over lunch or with strangers in the grocery store. And, every now and then the "big news story" revolves around some common interest and will really only be the topic of conversation in a small group of friends who share that interest.

I woke up yesterday fully expecting my big news story to be the NBA draft. Stephen Curry was going to the league and I, like most every other Davidson Wildcat waited in anticipation for 7:30 to get here so that we would know where our golden child would end up. However, as I participated in my morning ritual of watching Good Morning America and eating my standard bowl of cereal, Barbara Walters announced to Diane Sawyer that Farrah Fawcett was in her final hours and would likely not make it through the day. Now, Barbara is an experienced and fairly responsible journalist so I knew she wouldn't make a declaration like that had she not just communicated with someone from Farrah's camp, so I prepared myself to let Farrah be the big story of the day.

I was born the year Charlie's Angels ended and was spared going through adolescence during the height of Farrah's popularity. I didn't have to experience the awful duality of having low self-esteem because I didn't (and never would) look like this iconic blonde beauty, and idolizing the woman simply because that's what women did. But, she was Farrah. She was an icon. And it was going to be sad that she died. I was ready to listen to her friends talk about their memories and watch endless media outlets play video tributes to the life that was.

Farrah died...it was all over the news. That is until MJ stole the show as he had done so many times in his life. Suddenly the big news story was major. Bigger than grocery stores, bigger than your small group of friends. It was global. There isn't much that we can honestly say the entire world has in common. Yes, there is religion and if you're "lucky enough" to be Christian, Muslim, Hindu or not religious at all you can probably go around the world and find someone who shares your religious beliefs (or lack thereof). If you're really lucky, you ascribe to a religion that isn't one of the "big dogs" and can still find someone who shares your beliefs. There are also those simple things we have in common like the need to eat, sleep, have shelter. But music, we all share music. Music is global. And there are very few entertainers who were as global as Michael Jackson.

Let's fast forward to 7:30pm. The NBA draft has started. Eventually, Stephen Curry is picked 7th by the Golden State Warriors. What the heck?! They stole him from the Knicks. I've got little more to say about that because the truth is that my attention had already been diverted. I half-heartedly followed the draft and could only briefly hate on Golden State and the entire state of California because I honestly couldn't handle this MJ news.

Thank God for what I once considered to be one of the worst television features created- Picture in Picture (PIP). As I sat waiting to hear where Steph would go, a small corner of my television showed me the scene atop the roof of the UCLA Medical Center, the crowd gathering outside of the Apollo Theater, and of course, fan reactions around the world. This was devastating. But then I got to thinking. We lost Michael Jackson that day, but when you consider it, we had lost him already. So many of us have been holding on to the music of a man that could unite strangers simply by hearing the first 15 seconds of a song. But he was already gone. He was distant, strange, troubled. So, as I mourn the passing of the great Michael Jackson, I realize that I am saddened more by the fact that he is no longer physically with us, because somewhere in me I believe that Michael Jackson left us a long time ago.

So, there it was. Whatever you thought or planned your big news story of June 25, 2009 to be, it likely changed. My friends interested in the draft will probably talk in a day or two about how Steph got stolen by Golden State. Maybe ABC will replay the 20/20 special that Barbara Walters prepared on Farrah Fawcett (interestingly it was originally scheduled to and did air last night). But, this Michael Jackson story will be with us for a while. June 25, 2009 was just too much to take in- "it makes me wanna scream!"

What's In a Name?

It should be witty. It should be straightforward, mirror my personality, reflect my passions and be mysterious enough that people will want to read on.

Maybe to a lesser degree but certainly significant enough, I toiled over what the name of my blog would be the same way parents might toil over what to name a newborn. After talking myself away from a name that would prove my unyielding love for my hometown of Brooklyn, New York (and show that although I've lived in the South for years, I am still in fact a Yankee), I decided on a line from a short but thought-provoking poem by the great Langston Hughes. As I said, the poem is short, so I won't write or summarize it for you. I will however tell you that for being so straightforward and simple Impasse stirred something in me.

So, what's in a name? We live in a fast-pace, instant gratification society. We live in times where people feel incomplete if they can't immediately share with hundreds of friends, what they ate for dinner (Dexter wants you to know that he doesn't need Outback because his wife can make bloomin' onions), their unmet desires (Bobby wants to see Transformers), and their team loyalty (Gerard wants everyone to GEAUX TIGERS!). I appreciate the good facebook status update and am even guilty of posting a few updates a day myself. Truthfully though, I only care what you ate for dinner if it was the bomb and you're about to share the recipe. I only care that you want to see Transformers if there is some significant life factor that is preventing you from getting up and going to the movies. And, I only care about your sports team if it happens to be mine too. This is the beauty of our time...we can choose what to share and what to keep private, we can do it as quickly or slowly as we want, and, people can choose to be interested or not care at all.

So, what's in a name? I still don't know the answer to that question and actually have no desire to come up with a clever response. However, I'll use this blog as an extended facebook status of sorts. When I eat the bomb dinner, if I want to tell you, I will. When I see a great movie (or just really want to), I'll let you know. Or, when my team wins or loses, I'll celebrate with or vent to you. There will probably be some more serious posts too...commentary on the state of the world (revolution in Iran), opinions on a stupid decision made by a politician (hmmm, Governor Sanford of SC), and thoughts on major societal issues like teen pregnancy (did anyone see that Primetime special last night?). The point is "i could tell you if i wanted to..." and occassionally I will. The great news is that you could choose to not "give a damn." READ THE POEM!