Pearl Bailey

1918-1990

Do any of yall remember Pearl Bailey? Man I used to love to watch her on television and in movies. She was sooo funny and could sing too!

See yall might not remember television back in the day when there weren't that many black people on it. I don't know how we knew when someone black was going to be on, but it would spread like wildfire. And believe me everybody would be in front of their televisions. Yes in front of them because there were no VCRs. oooh my I know yall think I'm old...But really it wasn't that long ago that VCRs came about...And now we have DVD recorders.

Time stops for no one I guess. Anyway, If you don't know anything about Pearl you should rent one of her movies or something. I think you'll enjoy her personality. A good one to get if you can find it is Hello Dolly. She won a Tony for her performance in that on Broadway. She was also in Porgy and Bess. She also had her only variety show: The Pearl Bailey Show, in 1970-71.

My great aunt God rest her soul claimed that she was friends with Pearl and they went to school together. Hmmmm I don't know, cuz Pearl was born in Virginia and my great aunt was in Maryland. Who knows maybe Pearl moved to Maryland at some point in her young life, cuz I know my aunt lived in Annapolis all her life.

Don't let me get to talking about that aunt. She was one sharp lady...dressed her behind off and was full of life.

Some other things you might not have known about her is she was Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations under the administrations of Presidents Ford, Reagan and George Bush.
Returned to school in 1978, and received a bachelorÂ’s degree in theology from Georgetown University at the age of sixty-seven, as well as an honorary doctorate degree from the school.

So no matter what you think about some of the movies you see her in....this woman was no dummy.

Why?

Why is it that when you need to attend to a task and then put it off because you say to yourself that you'll take care of it later. An event takes place that forces you to take care of it immediately, whether you feel prepared or not. There's an old saying, "If you want to make God laugh, make some plans."

Well I don't know if God wants to laugh at us, but I do know that when things you plan don't come through like you expected somehow you get stronger. Somehow we always kick into another gear of tenacity. Well that is the hope anyway. Anything else could be quite dismal.

Why don't we ever learn to take care of the things that we need to take care of before they become a bigger problem? I guess that's what corporate America means when they tell you to make sure that you have balance in your life. It's disgusting the lies that corporate America tells the world.

Well how in the world can you have any balance when they continually pass on more and more

responsibilities in your direction. If you do not perform to their expectations you are deemed an under achiever.

Anyway, me and my unexpected toothache are going to go to bed and try to make sure that I make a dentist appointment tomorrow. Lawd how much is this going to cost me?!?!?!

OWWWWWAH!!!

Thank You Noah's Arc!

This probably one of the rare times that anyone will catch me eating my words. I must say that I completely enjoyed Noah's Arc tonight!!!! I laughed, empathasized and was connected to the characters tonight. As my manger at work says..."There's always room for improvement. With that being said, although you are doing a wonderful job, I can't give you the highest rating for your Performance Review." The same goes for Noah's Arc..but I must say the improvements have jumped by leaps and bounds compared to last week.


Some of the characters are still sort of YT-ish. However, they were at least believeable this week. I think some acting classes have been taking place. The main thing that stood out for me was that the characters are developing more depth. Bravo!

I'm looking forward to next week show!

Just a joke

I don't have anything to say today so here's a joke.

A woman called her boss one morning to tell him that she was not coming in to work today.

He said, "What's the matter?"

The woman replied, "I have Anal Glaucoma."

"What the hell is that!" he said

She said, "It's I can't see my ass coming into work today."


I wonder if my Management would buy that from me???

Remembering An Icon

Rosa Parks has passed away of natural causes. I recieved a phone call from a friend of mine in New York not too long ago asking me if I heard that Rosa Parks had passed away. What!? Was my response as on some level I guess we think that the people who have done anything significant in this world are supposed to live forever. Unfortunately that is not the case, physically at least. Her name will be spoken and remembered for her act for many many years to come. The significance of her act I believe have diminished over the 50 years since her arrest. However, One should realize that if not for her efforts the racism and segregation that is so covert today would not be at all. Can you imagine someone telling you that you must come through the back door of anyplace that today you walk into so freely.

I had the pleasure and extreme honor of meeting Rosa Parks at a Black History Celebration at my company. Mrs. Parks was our keynote speaker. The event was held accross the street at the Hilton Hotel to hold all of the employees and other spectators that attended. The feeling that came over the room is indescribable. The event took place almost 10 years ago and to this day I still can not articulate the feeling. Many people in the room immediately wept as she made her way to the podium. When she introduced herself, the applause was the real definition of thunderous! Awe is the only word that comes to my mind when I think about the experience.

I want to leave you with these words from Mrs. Parks.

At a celebration in her honor, she said: "I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace."

As on the day that I met and briefly spoke with Mrs. Parks I have no more words.

Roll Bounce

WOW! Have you heard the Roll Bounce Soundtrack. Well I love music and it is really nice. Now I'm not the biggest fan of Destiny's Child...but I must say that Michelle and Beyonce did an excellent job of the songs they sang. Check them out...you can hear a little bit of it on Amazon.

I was listening to the cd while putting my clothes back in the closet. No, I wasn't washing clothes and putting them away. Friday morning I was on my computer doing some work and needed to get something from out of my bedroom. To my surprise, all of my clothes were sitting on the floor of the closet!

I think this was a sign that I might have waaaaay too many clothes. Well it is spring and that is when I normally go into my closet and give away clothes. I thought I had given away a lot earlier in the year and cleaned a lot out. I guess not! My closet say differently. I be donating my clothes to a worthy cause. Any suggestions on a deserving charity let me know. I'll be asking around myself as well.

So now what does one do when your closet is a shambles? Get a closet organizer. California Closets? Naw it would probably take weeks before they would even give me an appointment and cost thousands. So off to Ikea I went on Friday afternoon. They have a really cool wadrobe planner that helps you determine how to configure your closet. 15 mins later I was shelling out a few hundred bucks for my new closet to be delivered the next day.

Here is the lesson of the day. When you buy a new article of clothing remove something from your closet. Oh yeah I love my new closet. It took all day to put it up, but I had help from a good friend.

Why a Blog?

A friend of mine Frederick Smith author of Down For Whatever conducted a creative writing course a few weeks ago that I attended. I really enjoyed the class. Frederick told me that he thought that I was funny. Ok for funny. Well anyway, so I figured that if I did want to write a book or something I probably should get some practice. Hence, here I am creating a blog that so far not many people are even looking at. LOL oh well it's thereapy for me as well.

I just wanted to share one of the things I wrote in Fredericks class. Mind you we only had about 10 mintues to write this stuff with a pen and piece of paper. Isn't it weird how difficult it has become to write with writing tools now that we are in the age of the computer. It was such a slow process.


Ok I'll stop stalling, here's the examples. Frederick gave each of us 2 1st lines from already published books. We didn't know what the book was but were asked to continue from that 1st line.

1st lines 1
I guess the whole mess started around my birthday. My phone rang and it was Pearl calling.

“So what time do I pick you up”, she said.

“Don’t I get a hello or even a Happy Birthday! I yelled into the phone.

Oh yeah Happy Birthday Baby! I’m sorry I’m just so excited about today and I forgot that it’s about you.

I sighed, thinking here we go again with the same old Birthday routine. Pearl picks me up and then the rest of the gang and off to Magic Mountain. “I guess around 10am.”

“Cool I’ll see you then”, and hung up to get everyone else in place.

So here we are, all in Pearl’s Navigator on our way. Jason and Arthur arguing as usual about Jason flirting at the club, Sylvia eating Oatmeal Raison Cookies her favorite breakfast treat, of all things, Pearl driving by Braille on the freeway and singing off tune and me sitting here wondering why I’m alone.

1st lines 2
The only reason I’m sitting on a toilet in the handicapped stall of the ladies’ room is because I’m hiding. He’s always chasing me, so I think this is one place he won’t look. I come to the Recreation Center every week. Sometimes he’s here and just looks at me from across the room. That’s when there are a lot of people around. Other times, if he catches me alone in a hallway he’ll make some lewd comment to me like “I would eat your shit for miles just to see where it leads”. Now he tries to touch me. He’s a grotesque, pimply, smelly, overweight white man that owns the grocery store where my mother shops. My under arms sweat every time she sends me to the store, praying the whole 2 blocks that Mr. Slocomb will not be there today. As I walk into the door my heart begins to beat as if it’s about to jump out of my chest. My mouth is dry and breathing gets faint.

I know they are short but we only had a few minutes. I might expand on the sencond story. Of course I'll have to change the 1st line cuz that is not my writing. Maybe I'll just start with the 2nd line.

NBA Dress Code Bans the Bling

"I feel like if they want us to dress a certain way, they should pay for our clothes," said Philadelphia's Allen Iverson. "It's just tough, man, knowing that all of a sudden you have to have a dress code out of nowhere. I don't think that's going to help the image of the league at all. ... It kind of makes it fake. The whole thing is fake."

Hmmm now I maybe wrong but is his salary close to $16,453,125.00? Buy your own clothes Allen.

To get paid that much money talent, skill or not, they all should put on a flowered hat if they ask them to. Think about it, if sports weren't such revered activities in this country and others, what would most of these guys being doing. Sad to say but one does wonder.

Yes, I do think that much of this ban is racially motivated. Here's how I think it all came about.

White wife of a big time sponsor: I just love coming to banquets like this. The flower arrangements are so beautiful. Oh my I dear I think we are about to get robbed a thug just walked into the room!

White husband: Hahaha on no precious angel, that's Allen Iverson one of the Top paid NBA players in the sport.

White wife: I don't care how much he makes, I don't feel safe and he scares me. Has he ever been to jail?

Fade to Ban on the Bling.

Here's the flip side.

Basketball Player: Business Casual?!?!?! As much money as I make for these sponsors I should be able to wear whatever the hell I want!!

YT: You vill do as I say! Hiel Me

What did you think of Noah's Arc?

Well Noah's Arc came on the Logo channel tonight for the 1st time. What did yall think? Well I saw the DVD's and saw it at the Film Festivale and still think the same thing. Good concept but weak acting. Not only do I think it's weak acting it also lacked any real Afro-centricness. Is that a word?? Well even if it's not I know you know what I mean. There are plenty of educated African American SGL men who are in situations such as the characters on this show. However, I'm just not quite sure that there are many brothas that can relate to these characters. 1st of all don't they all sound pretty white? Well except for the token large set effeminte brotha. Now I know there are all kinds of brothas walking around this big world, but I don't think many fit the characteristics of the men portrayed here. I'm sure for those brothas who do sound as white as the characters on this show, this was a big triumph. For me it wasn't. I know some very educated brothas and none of them sound a bit like anyone I saw on this show. The closest to my real world were the two finest brothas on the show below. What are your thoughts people?

New to the Blog World

Ok here I am blogging just like so many other people. What I say here may come as a surprise to many, but then again, it might just be refreshing. Everytime it will be MY TRUTH.