Don't buy a single record!!! Make them pay!!!

I swear I will never buy another CD again and will make bootleg copies of everyone I come across and give to everyone I know. I listened to the recently released song by Eminem, " The Warning", which is a diss song to Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon and a rebuttal to Mariah's song, "Obsessed". Forget its vulgarities, obscenities and sexually charged allegations, my questions is: "Is this what the music industry has come to?" What the hell? For the longest time,I have been so tired of the so called, "Beef" between rappers in the industry and now that cancer has spread to singers. And for a singer on the caliber of Mariah Carey to fall into this trap of deception, is totally unheard of. In a time when so many people turn to music and use it as an aid to deal with the uncertainties of life and when many of us use music as a harmonic device to unite people regardless of age, ethnicity and social background, these people are making it blasphemous, savage and inhumane. Music is a gift from the Creator and should be used to inspire, heal, praise, glorify, unite, express and deliver and so many parts of the world, it is used as such. But the powers that be that spearhead the American music industry, with all it's exploitative, disrespectful regard for the arts and relentless greed is assisting to deny an entire generation the fundamental right to accept and enjoy one of God's most precious treasures, good music. I truly believe that the industry play off the "Beef" factor because they know that our society, that is so driven by and attracted to chaos and violence finds the division and disorder more entertaining than the music itself. You can call it a marketing strategy if you like, but to me it's good old fashioned exploitation and if we can't see it, then like Minister Louis Farrakhan said, "There is no saving us." To me, this "us" he refers to is people. All people. Because believe me, we are all in this together. This war against our society in which the forces of evil would like to conquer and divide. Remember when Michael Jackson called former Sony CEO, Tommy Mattola, "...very, very, very devilish"? Now I see why.

Straight Outta The NYC (with a knife in your back)

I hear that the Bloomberg administration is giving away free one-way airline tickets to any homeless family to anywhere they wish to go. The project was started to hopefully deplete the costly expense of homeless shelters in the city, which cost about $36,000 a year per family. Since 2007, more than 550 families have left the city and all it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.

This stinks to high Heaven. What are these people thinking? I use the analogy that if I am the parent of seven children and because times get hard, I tell any of my children to go live with another family if they would like because my money is little low. Where is the loyalty? This is so wrong on so many levels. What do you think?

Katherine Jackson Releases Official Statement

"Damn What You Heard, Mama Don't Play That"! This might as well have been the words straight from Katherine Jackon's lips before or after releasing her official statement today. Read it for yourself:

Mrs. Jackson continues to serve as her son’s most trusted and loyal advocate even in death. In an effort to gain more facts concerning a suspicious circle of relationships, unnotarized will and an undisclosed trust, both drafted in 2002, which grant the executors and trustees thereunder very broad powers, Mrs Jackson has sought formal discovery of the temporary special administrators of her son’s estate. The Court has made clear that it will consider Mrs. Jackson’s demand for expedited discovery, and all other serious issues relating to the estate, on August 3rd. We are confident that at that time the court will allow Mrs Jackson full discovery.
To be clear, neither Mrs. Jackson nor her representatives seek to re-write her son’s will. Her concerns are and remain the welfare of her son’s surviving children, the preservation of his legacy and the protection of his estate. Unfortunately, and contrary to their public statements, lawyers for John Branca and John McClain have either denied Mrs. Jackson access to critical information or insisted on such onerous and unreasonable restrictions on her access to and use of such information as to be tantamount to an outright refusal of certain agreements, such as the AEG agreement . The contract in question is of great potential significance to the estate, and the matters currently before the Probate Court, and yet the confidentiality terms presented to Mrs. Jackson by the temporary special administrators and AEG would have required her to accept greater confidentiality obligations than the temporary special administrators and greater than what her son agreed to. This was unacceptable. Such unreasonable demands, coupled with the special administrators’ apparent concern for protecting AEG at the expense of Mrs. Jackson, raise serious concerns. Mrs. Jackson is looking for transparency in terms of the administration of her son’s estate. Because this transparency has not been forthcoming, she was forced to resort to making formal discovery requests. Such measures will not be necessary if Mrs. Jackson is appointed a co-executor of the estate.‬ She was the only person who served as a trustee and/or co-manager of Michael’s business interests at the time of his death and over the past four years. The will expressly allows for an appointment of the vacated third member. No one should deny Mrs. Jackson the right to help preserve and administer Michael’s legacy especially those whom had almost no contact with Michael for numerous years prior to his death.

I know Joe Jackson is sticking closer to her now, than a mouse on a glue trap.

Question

Q. What do you call a woman that can keep it together, hold it down, make it happen, work it out, pull it through, utilize, multiply and still always smell good?

A. A Mother

LeBron James - The Dunk Hype

By now, I am sure you have seen the video footage that was allegedly confiscated of LeBron James getting dunked on by 20 year old, Jordan Crawford at LeBron's skills camp. Supposedly, the Nike corporation seized all the video there. For whatever reason, you draw your own conclusions. Every gossip blog on the world wide web has posted it and making it seem like it's this really big deal. The young guy just dunked on him, nothing more, nothing less. This goes back to a posting I did a few months ago where I talked about how we as people, are so quick to place people on untouchable pedestals, so when something "human" occurs in their lives, WE are devastated. I got news for all of you, LeBron James is human. Forget the commercial endorsements, the cartoons, the hype even the playoffs. At the end of the day, LeBron James is just like you or I. We wake up each morning, we pee, we do our best to appease people on the street with our appearance, we work, eat, breathe, pray and then lie down at night in hopes that the almighty will show favor on us to see another day to attempt to get our lives in order before we face Him. So while everyone is saying LeBron got dunked on, did anyone bother to ask maybe he just let the guy have a moment? No, because it doesn't make good press. Now on the flip, Nike was dead wrong. I do hate the Nike corporation like I hate beets, but that a story for a blog posting at a later date. Anyway, Lebron, you are still cool in my book and if it makes you feel better, just last year, my 5 year old nephew beat me really bad playing Pac-Man on PS2. So I did what any other 40 year old would do in that situation; I smashed the gaming system against the t.v., flipped his chair, told him he cheated and to get out of my room. What?

Welcome Back, Ms. Houston

Now I can officially say that Whitney is looking good these days and that this is supposed to be the cover of her upcoming CD titled, "I Look To You". What do you think?

It's Been A While

I know it's been a minute since I did a posting, primarily because I had company visiting from out of town this weekend. Isn't it a blessing when you can see friends after a few years and fall back in where you left off. Wow! The laughter, the food, ranking on each other (Bobbie Jean), it's just like a long party that you never want to end. If you are fortunate enough to have good friends, cherish them...I mean real friends. Not the ones that are around when you get paid, when you get that insurance check, when you are having a party or when you drink so much you buy drinks all night long. But I mean the types that insist that you not do the dishes, that say, "No, let me pay for it", the types that tell you what is right no matter how bad the truth hurts or the kinds that put up with your dogs no matter how bad they stink and act like they don't smell them. And lastly, the types that will sit on the toilet with the door open and hold a conversation with you (I am still adjusting to that one) but won't get mad when you walk to the door with air freshener and spray like crazy and then shut it. Friends, I tell you are the best assets to have in life. Get you some good ones.

But there has been a lot going on since my last posting that I will catch up with this week:

• Joe Jackson is still putting his foot in his mouth
• Chris Brown issues a formal apology
• Whitney and Mariah's albums dropping within a week of each other
• The bailout stimulus could ultimately cost the US $23 TRILLION
• A new poem I wrote especially for you
• Michael Vick has been released from home confinement

and

• My 68 year old mother is throwing up the peace sign from a moving motorcycle (Sweet Jesus, please send a Biker Angel to protect her)

Who is music's undisputed "KING"? Elvis vs. Michael

Since Michael Jackson's passing, I have been hearing more and more discussions about who was the better overall entertainer, Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson? Well, I have decided to do my very own poll from my readers. Look at the videos and use the comments section (if you like) to tell who you think should take the overall "KING" title. Don't forget to vote to the left side of the screen

Mr. Presley, you first:

Very good, Mr. Presley.

Mr. Jackson, you wanna take the stage and do your thing now?

That was wonderful Mr. Jackson, but it's up to the people to decide, who the real reigning KING of music is. Let the comments/ voting begin (voting is done via the poll to the left). Voting ends on 8/29/09, which is Michaels birthday.

The Real "Action Jackson"

LaToya Jackson has recently been quoted as saying,

“Michael was murdered and we don't think just one person was involved. Rather, it was a conspiracy of people. I feel it was all about money. Michael was worth well over a billion in music publishing assets and somebody killed him for that. He was worth more dead than alive." She went on to say, “I know who did it and I won't rest until I nail them….a couple of years ago Michael told me he was worried that people were out to get him. He said, 'they’re gonna kill me for my publishing. They want my catalogues and they're gonna kill me for these!”

Joe Jackson feels the same way, but no one is taking him seriously or paying him any attention. Get em' LaToya!

MOVIE REVIEW - "Bruno"

It's 10 minutes before the movie starts. I am sitting on the fourth row, after paying an admission price of $9.50, another $11.50 for some nachos and a coke and the theater smells like week old pee, I am thinking to myself, "I should have got this on bootleg." To make matters worse, in walks a group of teenagers, laughing and talking loudly followed by another group. You know the kind that makes their own soundtrack. My now, I am in that, "I need to get my money and get out of here" mode". But then, the movie starts and the first 5 minutes is so disgustingly funny, you can't help but wait to see if Sasha Baron Cohen can outdo himself. The movie is disturbing to say the least, but equally as outrageous. Part scripted, part pranked the movie had me laughing the entire time. Bruno is a gay character that comes to the United States in hopes of becoming a celebrity but uses a madcap stage of anonymous situations to persuade his unsuspecting victims to fall right into his trap of hysterical embarrassment. People like Paula Abdul and former Presidential candidate, Ron Paul. It's a wonder Sasha Baron Cohen was not seriously hurt in some of these scenarios, or worse killed. I won't give the movie away, but I will tell you, it was one of the funniest movies I have seen all year (I know it's just July). Was it worth $9.50? I'd have to say yes and would be willing to watch it again for the laughs, but from the comfort of my own sofa, if you know what I mean (wink). I'd give it a B+ for cutting edge comedy, but would not recommend watching it anyone under the age of 18 or your mother due to its explicit nudity and scenes of graphic sexuality, unless your mother likes that kind of stuff.

Interesting Article About the Black Church

The following story comes courtesy of www.livesteez.com. It is very interesting but I know some people that favor Mega-Churches are going to want to beat me with bibles and tambourines then smother me with choir robes and stuff me in the broom closet right outside the fellowship hall, but I didn't write it, I just though it was interesting.

Where is the $420 Billion in Tithes and Offerings the Black Church has Received Since 1980?

LiveSteez research shows that Black churches, in aggregate, have collected more than $420 billion in tithes and donations since 1980. With a Senate investigation into the finances of several mega churches underway, the “Prosperity Movement” has been the target of mounting criticism from inside and outside the Black Church. Specifically, the affluent ministries of The Reverend Creflo Dollar, Bishop Eddie Long and others have drawn the attention – and ire – of some clergy and laypeople alike.
Researcher Henry E. Felder’s study of Blacks’ donation habits demonstrated per capita spending of $508 per year in 2009 dollars. Another source, Tyler Media Services, estimated that Black Church revenue approached $17 billion in 2006.
One church, the Reverend Dollar’s World Changers, reported $69 million in 2006 income, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Mainstream politicians and Black community leaders are demanding a better accounting of the “return on investment” offered by churches to the communities that fund them. Meanwhile, legions of faithful churchgoers defend their pastors and accuse their detractors of applying a double standard that ignores the largesse of wealthy, white televangelists, while underplaying the economic development and social service functions provided by the Black Church.
“The church has gotten caught up in materialism and greed, a lifestyle. Many ministers today want to live like celebrities and they want to be treated like celebrities. In other words, instead of the church standing with the community, the church has become self-serving. It has strayed away from its mission” according to Dr.Love Henry Whelchel, professor of church history at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
Few people – not even the ongoing Congressional investigation by Senator Chuck Grassley accuse the mega church pastors of outright larceny, and congregants generally approve of their pastors’ luxurious lifestyles. However, in a blatant recent example, a father-son pastor team, 76-year-old Richard Cunningham of Moreno Valley and his son, 52-year-old Philip Cunningham of Laurinburg, N.C., pleaded guilty to felony grand theft and fraud charges. The younger Cunningham also pleaded guilty to forgery. Over five years, prosecutors say, the Cunninghams stole from Calvary Baptist Yorba Linda Church and School bank accounts and used the money to buy time shares in Hawaii and Palm Springs, golf club memberships and a Cadillac. Prosecutors say the men have paid $3.1 million in restitution to the church.
LiveSteez’s investigative series will take a forensic editorial approach to quantifying the return to Black America for the $350 billion in tax-favored donations it has given to the Black Church, examining the arguments on both sides of the pulpit. In this series we will seek answers and advisory to the following questions:
- How often and how much do church leaders take advantage of the faith of poor black people?
-We will investigate and indentify the churches they are showing a strong return on investment that goes beyond inspiration.
- What does the black community have to show for the $350 billion in tax free dollars?
- Expert analysis on what could potentially be done with such a huge amount of money and how it could improve the state of our communities.
- Why do some church leaders refuse to participate in the Grassley congressional Investigation, which requested the financial records of several mega-churches.