The Life of A Ladybug

Whatever happened to ...

... MC Brains???  Come on, y'all - don't tell me you forgot!  Sing along with me!

Oochie coochie, lalala

I am the Brains and I'm up to par

Quit actin' brand new - I know you're fruity

'Cause when you're walkin', you're shakin' that booty ...

What happened to that dude?  He was extra cute!

The whole darn East Coast Family has just disintegrated, hasn't it?  BBD - pretty much done (though New Edition is trying their damndest to make a comeback).  Boyz II Men - Mike done up and left and he was the best part.  ABC - all grown the heck up and nowhere to be found.  I know it's some other ones ... a group of R&B White dudes, maybe?  I seem to remember that.  Some girls thrown in there somewhere???

Michael Bivins has been relegated to judging Diddy's latest Making the Band season and Boyz II Men is trying to hold on with only three members, by making Motown remakes.  Darnit.

Blast from the past: "Computer Love"

Today, riding into work, I was listening to "The Steve Harvey Morning Show".  They were talking about music from "back in the day" and how it compares to today's music.  And, suddenly, they played "Computer Love" by Zapp & Roger.  Oh, my  God.  Can I tell y'all how much I love that song?  (And "I Wanna Be Your Man" since we're on the subject.)

My mind immediately went back to, I would guess it was probably the beginning of 1997.  Susquehanna, UMBC.  Women of Diversity floor.  Me and Meloni are roommates.  We're performing our nightly ritual of gossiping while listening to "The Love Zone" on 92 Q.  And what should happen?  I have a song dedicated to me.  And that song was "Computer Love."  I had just gotten off the phone with K.  At the time, I still had a boyfriend (though there was no love on my part), but K and I had been flirting, outlandishly, for a couple months.  He'd called to ask what I was doing.  "Listening to 'The Love Zone' and chatting on the computer," I replied.  Okay, he'd call me back.  Well, instead, he called 92 Q and dedicated the song.  He knew I had a boyfriend and that folks I knew would be listening, so he used his middle name and my middle name in the dedication.  I was thrilled ... then freaked out.  I called and reamed him out about dedicating a song to me when he knew I had a boyfriend.  But I was pleased and he knew it.  After I finally broke up with my boyfriend and started dating K, "Computer Love" kind of became our song.  And I still love it, though my relationship with K is way in the past.

Hey, K ... should you ever come across this ... "Who ya wit!!!!!"

My new bellydance beatbox boyfriend!

This past weekend, we danced at Rakkasah East in New Jersey. Of course, it was a weekend of fun, festival and dancing! In the midst of all the shimmy shenanigans, I fell in love.  Onto the stage came this band and in the midst of this band was a skinny little dude. He proceeded to pick up a mic. I expected him to start singing something Middle Eastern-y. But no. Instead, wonder of wonders, he started to beatbox. Like hell, you say! Yes, indeed ... this skinny little dude is a beatbox wonder. He boom boom katted for bellydancer after bellydancer and, over at my table, a happy little dancer named Makeda (that would be me) popped and locked and shimmied to her heart's content.

I could not contain my love for him and declared him my new "bellydance beatbox boyfriend" at that very moment. One of my fellow troupe members actually went over and told him and he came over to introduce himself to me and give me a big hug. I then bought two of his CDs and he signed them: "To Makeda, with love from Pete ... Your bellydance beatbox boyfriend". SIGH.

See the attached pic for my new love. He's on the right.

This song is ri-dic-u-lous ...ous ...ous ...eh, eh, eh!

For real?  I think that "Umbrella" song might be the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  Rihanna is no great shakes at singing, at any rate, but she has, at least, had better material than this.  I don't know who wrote this song!  Was it her?  Whoever it was should be ashamed - and those who've bought it should be, too.  I can't believe that this song is #1.  What is that really saying about the state of American music?  And now it's been remixed.  I'm not exactly sure who the dude is on it - it sounds like Chris Brown to me.  Poor Chris Brown.  Does he need a hit this badly?

Bitter no more

Last night, as I was driving home, I heard Joe's "All of the Things Your Man Won't Do."  You know how it goes: "Baby, I wanna do ... all of the things your man won't do!  I'll do them for you!"  I had an instant flashback.  When I entered college, I was dating L.  He had been my high school sweetheart.  We were together for over a year.  When I went off to college, he went off to a military academy.  We grew apart, of course, not only from distance, but because his personality changed.  His military training made him a man used to having his orders followed and he tried to boss me around.  Nuh-uh.  Not the kid.  He had to go. 

Enter KJP.  I couldn't stand him in the beginning, yet slowly, but surely, he grew on me and we wound up diggin' on each other.  I finally broke up with L. and KJP became my new man.  The whole time he was trying to woo me away from L, he would sing that Joe song.  He even dedicated songs to me on the radio.  Anyway ... hearing that song made me think about him for the first time in a while.  I remembered how young I was while we were together (though I felt grown).  I remembered the newness of it, the fun of being his girlfriend, how very strange he was (LOL!).  For once, I thought abou tall the great things in our relationship and not about how badly it ended.

See, KJP wound up cheating on me - in a big way.  We'd been together over four years and we'd talked about getting married.  And yet ... it ended really, really badly.  I was heartbroken.  I tried to run him over with my car (I'm not proud of it).  For years, I stayed bitter.  I could not or would not forgive him for how he'd hurt me, after all that time together and all the plans we'd made.  But last night ... I felt none of the old hurt, anger, or unforgiveness.  All I felt was nostalgia - I had fond memories of a young man who loved me (as only a teenager/early 20something can), who was my friend and confidante.  I thanked God for those memories, freely forgave KJP for any hurt he'd caused me, prayed for forgiveness for any hurt I'd cause him and let it go.

So ... I know it is a snowball's chance in hell that he'll ever read this.  And I doubt that anyone who knows him (and still stays in contact, Mel!) will, but I believe in intention.  The intention of this post is to let him know that I forgive him and that I pray that he's found the love in his life that I've found in mine and that, if he hasn't, it'll reach him.

I'm not swole anymore, dude.  Hope you can feel that.

It's only just begun!

This fool is fine, do you hear me???  Yum!  Back when he was on American Idol, I got excited on the regular.  I have a thing for dudes who look a bit grungy and like they could be found on a Harley at a moment's notice.  Chris Daughtry is such a dude.  And now his "It's Not Over" is all over the airwaves and the video is in heavy rotation on MTV and my crush has been renewed.  I have no idea if I'm going to like the CD, but I am buying it.  Oh, yes I am.  Tonight, when I go to Target.  Seriously.  If the music isn't any good, I'll lick the pictures - at least I won't have wasted my money.  (Okay, I won't actually lick the pictures ... just drool on them.)

Minstrel rap?

Is today's music coming too close to the minstrelsy of old?  (Listen up, Flavor Flav.)

Minstrel rap?

Worst Christmas song ever!

The Christmas Shoes or whatever that dreck is called.  The one that's the story about a poor little dirty boy who doesn't have enough money to buy his mama some shoes to wear on her deathbed.  "I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight."  Um ... yeah, ho ho ho and mistletoe to you, too.  Goodness gracious!  Way to kill the Christmas buzz, folks! 

What the heck, 'Tasia?

I heard Fantasia's new song on The Steve Harvey Show this morning.  It's called "Hood Boy" or "Hood Boo" or some junk like that.  I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish with that mess.  It sounded like MC Lyte's Roughneck sang by the chick whose mama is the choir director so she always gets to sing the leads in the church choir.  In other words, a hot mess.

He brought sexy back - yeah!

Ever since Nipplegate, I have had contempt (and probably even some hatred) in my heart for Justin Timberlake.  Yeah, Janet Jackson was the one with her titties out all over national TV (and DirecTV, much to the delight of millions of rewinders).  And yes, her titties were adorned with some sort of medieval-looking rings that would not have looked wierd on Xena, Warrior Princess (which was strange, in and of itself).  But I've felt that Janet has been unfairly raked over the coals and hung out to dry in the media, as if she took out a gun and opened fire on people during the Super Bowl Half-time Show, which, if we think about it, may have caused less of an uproar.  Yes, her titties were out there, but for real ... who ripped the bra off and set 'em free?  I've always felt that there have been both racist and sexist aspects to this whole thing - that the Black woman had to pay the price, while the White man got away scot-free.  Justin didn't seem like much of a man during all this - not standing up saying, "Hey - I deserve some blame for this, too!"  It was much more, "I had no idea she intended to pop her boob out ... I'm an innocent victim in all this!"

Ever since it's happened, I've decided that I have no love for JT.  He used to be one of my secret celebrity boyfriends, the one I would choose to make my love slave, if given the chance.  But I couldn't get with a dude who would leave a friend hanging out there like that.  I stopped listening to JT's first CD and my *NSync CD.  I refused to watch his music videos.  But, lately, his music has been all over the radio.  "Sexyback" is awesome, but "My Love" is my JAM!  Poopie told me that the CD is great, so, knowing that I am a hypocrite, I bought it and listened to it on the way home Saturday.  I swear ... that CD reminds me of why I wanted to make Justin my love slave in the first place.  That CD is pure sex music.  And now, I've started coming up with all kinds of rationalizations for why it was okay for Justin to sell Janet out.  Ericka told me that listening to Justin is way better than listening to R. Kelly (which I still won't do) - that at least Justin hasn't done anything to anyone, while R. Kelly is a pedophile.  Yeah, that's true. And it's enough to make me feel fine about buying JT's CD.  Which is all I need.