Beyonce's Baby Bump Performance: Look at the Joy! (Video)

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music, Beyoncé

I've been so busy that I haven't had time to keep up with what's been happening around me and afar, except for the marsh fire in New Orleans, but I did hear all the Twitterverse and blogosphere buzz over Beyonce's baby bump at the VMA awards Sunday night. When I got a moment to breathe, I tracked down video of her performing "Love On Top."

Yes, in the video, the bump is obvious even under the shiny jacket, but her performance is so strong that I was not focused on the little bulge. However, I can see why her many fans probably watched every inch of her move given that the pregnancy was announced pre-show. She opened her performance with a reference to the baby, saying that love had been born inside her, and then, striding through the glare of bright lights obscuring her image at times, she launched into the song.

I won't spoil your watching the video by saying much more, but I will add that what happened at the end of the song with the other celebrities jumping around on the sidelines, including her husband Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga, was the highlight of the segment. According to the Washington Post, the announcement was the most memorable part of the evening.

Flashback to 2008: See Beyonce on Ellen denying baby rumors. Her fans have been waiting a long time for this Bey baby.

Look for Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa, On Charlie's Angels

News sources report that Isaiah Mustafa of Old Spice's "the man your man could smell like" campaign has landed himself a recurring role on Charlie's Angels, ABC's remake of its old hit show. Heaven knows that I've talked about Mustafa enough and to him at times on Twitter and so have my friends. I've even talked about Brigham University library's spoof of the Old Spice ad, and so I thought I should at least give people a heads up that Mustafa may be spotted this fall on ABC.

If I get a chance, I'll take a peek at the show because I used to be a fan of the 70s original when I was younger and because Drew Barrymore is one of its producers.

Steve Jobs Resigns. Here's His "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" Speech to Stanford Graduates in 2005 (Video)

Following Learn Out Loud's lead, I think today is a good day to post Steve Jobs's 2005 commencement address to Standford University graduates, sometimes called the "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish" speech. Stanford also posted the transcript here.

As has been reported all over the Net, Jobs, who is an Apple co-founder and the company's CEO, has been battling pancreatic cancer and yesterday he resigned. However, he will remain as Chairman of the Board at the company. Bloomberg ran a special report on the news and HuffPo has that video of reactions from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Apple employees. Over at BlogHer.com, the news already has more than 40 comments, and a retrospective at TechCrunch has more than 160. "Steve Jobs" is also still trending on Twitter.

I hope the best for him with his health and that we learn whatever his life thus far has to teach us.

R.I.P. Nick Ashford of Ashford and Simpson

Watching the romance, the successful marriage of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson known as Ashford and Simpson, gave me as much joy as listening to their music over the years. I've posted this interview and profile with the pair before (when Saturday Night Live spoofed Barack and Michelle Obama with "Solid"), but with the death of Nick Ashford, 70, from throat cancer, I felt I should post it again.

The video covers how they met. Nick, who was homeless at the time, walked into Valerie's church. The relationship was first a writing partnership and friendship and later blossomed into a romance. She wrote the music; he wrote the lyrics.

Below is video from the pair's entertainment club, the Sugar Bar in New York City, earlier this year that shows Valerie singing "Happy Birthday" to Nick.



And I admit that I'm weeping here as I watch this video of "Is It Still Good to You?" I remember when I bought the album.

A Brand New Day

I will be moving this blog away from discussions of politics and race toward something less controversial, mythology perhaps. Something less personal, too, but what I do not know because existence is personal, is it not? Suddenly I am aware of the many reasons a woman should confine her own freedom of speech to the abstract or less threatening and yet even that decision is political. How will I go on?

TNT's Memphis Beat Borrows from Fox's House

Tonight on TNT's Memphis Beat, the show ended with the male characters singing Midnight Train to Georgia--Gladys Knight & The Pips arrangement--in a bar. I thought it seemed mighty familiar. And it was. On Fox's medical drama, House, Dr. Gregory House and two of his male colleagues performed the song one night.

What's With Negative Critiques of The Help, Movie and Book?

I have read multiple posts and essays that express thoughts on The Help that are similar to mine, critiques of both the novel by Kathryn Stockett and the new movie from Dreamworks based on the book. The deeper objections have little to do with whether Stockett is a good writer or her use of dialect for the black maids in the novel. Here is a list of some of the articles/essays I've read that cover why some educated black women disapprove of the book and movie.

• "Kathryn Stockett is not my sister" by Duchess Harris, Ph.D., J.D.
• "The Help: a feel-Good movie, but for whom?" by Laina Dawes
• "Love The Help, but please stop asking me to do the same" by Rebecca Wanzo
• "The Truth about the Civil Rights Era: Martha Southgate on The Help"
• "An Open Letter to Fans of The Help" from the Association of Black Women Historians
• Melissa Harris-Perry: ‘The Help’ movie ‘ahistorical and deeply troubling’
• "Black writers in a ghetto of the publishing industry's making" by Bernice McFadden

I add that I am not surprised at the number of white people who simply love the book and long to see the movie, but I have been dismayed at the number of black accommodationists popping up to chide black women who are critical of the book. However, I've noticed that those chiding the loudest appear to be invested in promoting and marketing the movie for fun, traffic, and profit. I've shared more thoughts on that at BlogHer.

What's disturbing is the attitude of those who are advising black people to buy and read the book or buy tickets and see the movie with words such as "Don't critique by osmosis. Make up your own minds." These people are encouraging black people to give money to the publishers, writers, and movie studios that insult them for profit. Reading their comments and supposed "reasonable advice" is like watching the House Negroes Parade. The Help is, after all, not unique. It's a rerun of white revisionism. And they want us to pay to read and watch it again?

Hate Crime in Mississippi: White Teens Run Over Black Man (Video)

The video above is disturbing. The ringleader expresses no remorse. The white teens involved drove to a predominantly black section of Jackson, Mississippi, in search of a black person to hurt.

From CNN:

James Craig Anderson, 49, was run over and killed on June 26. Authorities say a group of white teens targeted Anderson because he was black. The suspected ringleader, Deryl Dedmon, Jr., 18, has been charged with murder. Dedmon faces possible double life sentence for the murder.

This is indeed a sad story, more proof that we are not in a post-racial society and possibly the story further refutes the common thesis that young people today are not influenced by racism. Nevertheless, there is a glimmer of progress. Mississippi authorities are not trying to cover this murder up or claiming it was not motivated by hatred as they would have done in the past.

Wall Street Trader: Corporate America Has Never Been in Better Shape

Despite the Dow plunging more than 500 points today, Wall Street trader Ted Weisberg says in this interview with CNN that corporate America has never been in better shape. In addition, CNN's Ali Velshi calls today's trading behavior "irrational."



Other news reports on today's big dip:

• Stocks, Oil Plunge As Central Banks Battle Gloomy Economic Outlook
• Stocks Tumble as Fears Build

Fear makes people stab their own children in the dark. Let's hope Wall Street stops trembling. Today's fall is the lowest dip since 2008, say news sources.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President! Obama Turns 50

Today is President Barack Obama's birthday. He is now 50 years old, and as pointed out at HuffPo, he's still the youngest candidate for president in 2012. HuffPo has posted a slide show of pictures of Obama from a child onward.

I'm posting my link to memories of the good times, such as when he was first elected and there was more talk of him being "cool" than of him being a man of compromise. Lately, a lot more people are writing him off as a one-term president. Unfortunately for all of us in America, it's doubtful that anyone could have done any better. The world has changed, as Obama tried to tell people in his State of the Union address this year, but I don't think some people are ready to hear that message and how America fits in a global economy or what the conservatives' push for privatization is doing to this nation.

Leslie Esdaile Banks, Vampire Huntress Author, Has Died

I am saddened to report that author Leslie Esdaile Banks has passed away. You may recognize her under the name L. A. Banks. I learned of this news through Tananarive Due's Facebook page, but I have confirmed it through other sources.

Ms. Banks wrote the The Vampire Huntress Legend series, and I first discussed her fiction in a piece called "The Indisputably Black Vampires of Jewelle Gomez, L.A. Banks, and Octavia Butler." That Examiner.com article includes video of Ms. Banks addressing a science fiction group in New Jersey.

If you follow HBO's vampire series True Blood, you may have also seen the author "featured as a speaker on the HBO Special on Vampire Literature and Legends as a prelude to the True Blood premier," according to her bio. That HBO special is also available on YouTube.

From Galley Cat's report:

Leslie Esdaile wrote many novels under different pseudonyms, but published her popular Vampire Huntress Legend series and the Crimson Moon series under the name of L.A. Banks. The writer will be honored at a memorial event on August 6th.

That event was apparently planned before her death and was partly a fundraiser to help with the author's growing medical expenses as she battled adrenal cancer. See the Philadelphia Liars Club blog for more information about the gathering.

You may check the author's Facebook fan page and possibly her website for more information about the memorial or funeral arrangements. In addition, you may donate to the fund to help her family pay her medical expenses here.

This news has really shaken me because I didn't know Ms. Banks was ill.

Update, August 3: Her obituary at Philly.com.