Runaway..

This past Saturday, October 22nd, Kanye released a short film, Runaway, that was featured on two channels, BET and MTV.
This 34 minute short film was about his failed relationship with a Phoenix. I'm not the biggest fan of this "new" Kanye but I must admit that this video was well put together. He leaves so much room for ambiguity and abstract, what I consider a real artist to be.

I Choose Me

This is just something that I was thinking about recently and decided to write it down, while I was supposed to be paying attention in class, but that is another story for another day...
I hope you enjoy it because it is from the heart and I'm putting myself out there and exposing my vulnerability.

five years
committed to you
i mean, like, my body, soul, my heart
you took me that cold, rainy day
&i submitted, became your slave
silly of me to think that that would change you
so i decided to change me
maybe if i altered me a little it would get better
eventually, hopefully... one day
was available to you whenever you called
no matter the time, weather or place
you took note of this &took full advantage
they say that those that love the least controls the relationship the most
the more control you took the weaker i became
broken and weak, i slowly diminished
i wasn't the same anymore
i wasn't the same Natasha that smiled &was happy
NO...
every night i crawled deeper &deeper into a hole of darkness &depression
but as i was buried deep there inside of that dark tunnel
i saw a bright light that shown down &told me to start digging free
that light told me to dig closer to freedom &away from you
so i did
i dug for what felt like ions
but i broke free
built up all the strength i had once lost
&told you that i was done &it was over
said i was done loving someone who didn't love me the same way that i loved them
i was done trying to change someone who did not want to be changed
i was done putting you 1st when i wasn't your #1
how hard was it to commit to someone who you had been involved with for almost 6yrs
i was done being your fool, your rag doll
i deserved real love from someone who was capable of giving it to me the right way
i can no longer wait for you to get your shit together
my time is valuable &precious and so am i
so, i choose me...

Boys With Girlfriends

I must start this post off with an LOL, the male species are a hilarious bunch! Why do guys, well let me rephrase that, why do people in general lie about having a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you are really in love or "in like" with them WHY lie about them?! And at the end of the day you WILL be found out AND exposed! It will happen! But any way, I thought this song fit perfectly to the situation! Enjoy

Children and Food Ads

Okay, so I have an assignment for one of my Child &Family Studies classes, The Psychology of Food and we have to look for advertisements with children in it. As I'm searching Google I come across that Burger King commercial, from 2009, promoting the new Spongebob Squarepants kid's meal. When I first saw the commercial I was confused because they were after all promoting this as a KID'S MEAL but it was a lot of booty popping going on. It just didn't make any sense, this commercial was too sex-drived and they had the nerve to promote a children's show with it! Who were they really aiming this commercial towards, children or people my age?
It's not that I didn't think that the commercial was funny but Burger King and Nickelodeon chose the wrong audience to aim it at. It was pretty inappropriate and I'm sure that they probably received a lot of complaints from parents.

Jamaica

I'm pretty sure by now that every one has heard about the crisis happening in Jamaica right now! It's honestly really sad for the innocent people dying in the crossfire. I am particularly sad and in fear for my family members who live 10-20mins away from the war zone. I am in fear for their lives, Downtown Kingston is in shambles and it isn't safe for people to leave their homes at all. They're telling people that it is still okay and to continue to go to work.
All of this stress and headache is over Christopher "Dudus" Coke, don of Tivoli Gardens in downtown Kingston. He is being extradited by the US for his illegal drug ring of marijuana in the US, mainly New York. But the people from Tivoli are who are dragging out the process. They just don't want to give him up and I completely understand where they are coming from! The government isn't helping them pay their children's school tuition when it's due, the government isn't protecting them from the crime and gun men, Dudus is. He helps to keep the place safe and orderly even if he IS using "dirty money" to keep the streets safe.
The people are even comparing Dudus to GOD!! That, I think is a bit much. "He is next to God," one demonstrator said. "Just like how Jesus died on the cross for us, we are willing to die for Dudus," said another. I completely understand that he helps the town out but really, you're gonna compare him to God?! I can't even speak too much because I am not living in their condition where I am constantly worrying about where my next meal is coming from or how I am going to feed or clothe my children. Approximately 13% of the Jamaican population, and although it is not very high, it is one of the higher percentages in the Caribbean. So I completely feel these people's pain but I am not sure how sorry I feel for them while they are allowing sooo many innocent people to get hurt and/or die just to save one man!
All I can do is pray for the country and hope for brighter days!

Single Ladies!

Earlier this week, a video of five 8-9 year old girls popped up on YouTube of them performing to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" at The World of Dance competition on April 10th and by the time I had watched the whole routine I was amazed! These little girls are incredibly talented and I wished that I was able to dance like that, they looked like they weren't even trying especially the dark-haired girl, who was in the center for most of the dance, pure talent.

But I don't think that anyone was as focused on how great these girls were dancing or how talented they were as much as they were focused on their outfits. I partially agree with the general public in that they were exposed way too for their age even if their tops were not showing their stomachs it would have been a little nicer. Or they could've mirrored Beyonce's video and have worn leotards but just jazzed it up some to reflect off of the flashing lights on stage. My 4 year old niece is doing "Single Ladies" as one of her routines this June for her recital and they are wearing leotards but they are really colorful and shiny.

The parents obviously had no problem with it so why has it spiraled out of control the way it has. I was taking a Child and Family Studies course this past semester and it says that the children learn bias or that something isn't "right/acceptable" from adults it's the way that we react to things that makes them biased or think it's wrong. the little girl probably thought of it and I can't swear for their parents or the dance company, "Precision Dance" but I don't [want to] believe that these people intentionally said, "Yes, let's put them in some sexy revealing outfits and see how the crowd reacts!!"

At the end of the day it doesn't matter what they had on because if they would've worn the same black leotards like in the video the media would've still complained about the style/kind of dance that they were doing. "As a coach for national champion competition dance teams at the high School level, I blame the coach. This is completely inappropriate even for high school girls."

Here is the link for the article on line.
[ http://www.popeater.com/2010/05/14/single-ladies-little-girls/?icid=main|aim|dl2|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2F2010%2F05%2F14%2Fsingle-ladies-little-girls%2F ]

Janelle Monae

So, I have been following Janelle Monae on twitter and she has been talking about her new album coming out May 18th and about her new song Tightrope featuring Big Boi. She has been talking about this song and retweeting other people's response/commenst about the song and I actually decided to listen to this song and I must say that it is actually a really good song. It's really different but her music is something that I could actually listen to, I'm actually thinking about getting her album...

Promise..

This has got to be one of my most favorite videos from Ciara as well as just in general, I love the sexy vibe and it doesn't look like she is trying tooo hard either. My favorite part is the beginning when she is dancing with the mic stand!

The Boondocks

This past Sunday, May 2, 2010, was the long awaited first episode of Season 3 of The Boondocks, "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman". I'm NOT sure how I feel about this episode as I am not a dedicated fan of The Boondocks but I do watch from time to time and used to read the comics in the newspaper before it became a TV show. But, everyone has their own opinions and I don't really have one at the moment so watch and let me know what you think..

Ride

So I'm pretty sure that by now everyone has viewed Ciara's new video... I actually like the video, it's a been a little while since we have heard from her and it's nice to see her back and STILL dancing! Her last album, Fantasy Ride, didn't do so well, so I'm hoping this one will do a lot better!
After watching this video and talking about it with some friends, I got a lot of mixed reviews, most of them negative and of course they were mainly from the females with an exception of like 10. "She's going too hard!, She's going IN for no reason!, She needs to eat, why is she soooo skinny!" And of course the guys had no complaints! Now matter you do in life there will ALWAYS be someone who will have something negative about what you are doing, but that should never mean that you should stop what you are doing. You can listen to what they have to say or just completely ignore it and move on because at the end of the day if YOU are happy with your accomplishments that is what matters, because those same people are going to be around when you succeed but most importantly they are going to be around when you fall to laugh at you and say, "I told you couldn't do it!"
This just goes to show you that you can't win with people! No matter how much you compromise, no one will ever be fully satisfied! But as long as you are, that's what matters!

So, here's the video!
Ciara featuring Ludacris - Ride

Nervous

If you know me pretty well, you would know that I absolutely LOVE to sing. But here is where the problem lies, I hate HATE to do it in public!!! Its just sooo nerve wracking and I get sooo nervous almost to the point where I want to cry!
But any who, every year my school hosts its version of American Idol, Stony Brook American Idol, I always look at the signs up for the locations to try out but never go. But this year a really good friend of mine, who is an RA and one of the judges for the preliminary round, called me and told me to come try out! I fought and argued with her for a while until I finally made my way over there, I wasn't prepared and it was so last minute, what song was I even going to sing?! I slowly made my way over there and got up on the stage so nervous to the point where I felt like I had to pee even though I had just finished using the bathroom.
I got on stage and was about to start singing when I forgot the words to a song that I had been singing for YEARSS [I'm Going Down by Mary J. blige]!!!!!! LoL! As I looked out at the judges and slowly got it all together, sang my heart out and quickly ran off the stage forgetting that they talk to you and give you feedback! As usual they told me that I needed to work on my stage presence. Later that night my friend called me to tell me that I had made it to the semi-finals!!! Ahhhhhh!!!
About two weeks later was the semi-finals round, this time during my three hour class, so I had to leave an hour early to get there. As soon as I walked into the room they were calling my name to come up and sing! Talk about being in the spot, but I went up sang and surprisingly wasn't nervous at all! Once again, I needed to work on my stage presence, even though I was feeling the song I needed to make the audience feel it too, make them feel the pain that I was singing about in the song!
BUT, in the end, I had made it to the finals round and they were in TWO days!! The problem this time was that I had work at that time and I usually have to call out at least a week in advanced but thank God my Supervisor, Jenn, was so understanding AND nice!!
It's Wednesday afternoon now and I'm sooo nervous, I'm trying to find so many ways to calm down, drinking tea, chewing gum, but NOTHING is working! then what kills me is that we have to pull numbers out of a hat to decide our order, and just my luck I pull the number "2" out!! :-( I'm sad because no one is going to get to see me sing but deep down kind of happy no one will just because I'm soo nervous. But then I start to think that if no one I know is in the audience who is gonna vote for me ?!
Well it's my turn and I get up on stage and sing the best way that I can and take my seat, I messed the song up a little bit but it happens...
Long story cut short, I placed sixth out of six people! I walked away very upset, I missed an hr and a half of work, it's HOT and people who placed higher didn't really deserve it!!
But in the end I thought about it long and hard and I was proud of myself, I had placed sixth out of the ENTIRE school but most importantly I had gotten up in front of a huge audience and sang! I was slowly breaking out of my shell and out my shyness and sang!
Moral of the story, don't let your talents go to waste! Use them wisely before they are taken away!

A SPECIAL thanks to Melissa Mayard!

Put It BACK!!!

LoL ok so the superbowl was this past sunday [02.07.10] saints vs colts and they played the funniest commercial i've seen in a while.
this little boy was sooo rude but sooo hilarious at the same time!!

Money To Blow!

so this video isn't exactly new nor is it old either, but i really love the beat, its like a song you can play in your car while you're driving.. LoL