Losing Jacob

Jacob Lusk, our gospel great, has been eliminated from the American Idol stage. I will never forget when he sang "God Bless the Child". This song has been sung hundreds and thousands of times before, but it wasn't just the way he took us to a place of goosebumps and awe, it was when he collapsed into the arms of his family when he was done. It had taken everything out of him. Many people say, they "left their heart on the stage". That was the true definition. He sobbed when he was done, knowing he had given the judges all that he could give and it was one of those moments that will live on in Idol history forever. Randy himself said it was by far the greatest audition on Idol, and he's been there since the beginning, so there is no disputing that. I'm sorry to see Jacob go. We haven't seen anything like him since Fantasia really. His voice was raspy yet light, powerful and booming in the lower register, silky and adventurous when he sang high. I heard every time his gift took him out the atmosphere, which sometimes led to his losing his way. He was sometimes pitchy and wild (ie."I Believe I Can Fly") but he was the kind of contestant that garnered just as much love and adoration as he did negative comments and criticism. Unfortunately, unlike Fanatsia's "Summertime", Jacob never had another "God Bless the Child" moment on the voting stage. After a few weeks of him passionately taking us to church, Jacob began to reign himself in, maybe for fear of losing control completely. He landed in the bottom three week after week until he was finally sent home. I think we all saw it coming. But I pray and know in my heart that we haven't heard the last of Mr. Lusk.  Jacob will be on tour with the rest of the top 11.  I'm sure he will continue to make music and hopefully sell many albums as his career continues to blossom and evolve, just as his voice and his knowledge of self should.

Seeing Is Believing (or is it?)

So everybody wants to see Osama bin Laden with a bullet in his head. Well, at least 56% of Americans according to a recent poll. The White House says the images are gruesome and could incite adverse reactions, but the people still demand to see "proof". The movement behind the want to see bin Laden with his brains blown out says that without that picture, no one will believe that he's really dead. The White House has shown us photos of blood soaked linens, they've given us video of the bloody aftermath, but America wants to see the body before, during and after. The proof will always and forever be in the pudding. But just like with Obama's birth certificate, not everyone will be satisfied once it is revealed. Just hours after our President was forced to prove that he was a citizen of this country, born in Hawai'i, as American as apple pie, they say; the "birthers" flooded the air waves. They argued that President Obama's social security number had been changed and that the document presented was not an official birth certificate, rather, a certificate of live birth... (take a moment to figure that one out and then let me know because I don't get it either.) Trump decided he would do a complete 180 and begin to question Obama's scholastic skills. He claimed he heard it through the grapevine that Obama had terrible grades and wanted to know how he got into the prestigious higher learning institutions that he attended. So you see, you show the picture and the conspiracy theorists will say it's photoshopped and that's not really Osama. They'll say he's still alive, like Tupac and Elvis. They want to see the body being dumped into the sea, but then they'll say it was a dummy, just a prop used by the government to dupe us once again, like they did at Roswell. It's a common human trait to question what we cannot see and then turn around and dispel any substantial validation. It's been rooted in us since the beginning. Just ask God himself... if he does indeed exist.

Toni's Tears

The girls and their mother, Evelyn, are all gathering in L.A. to be together when Toni Braxton accepts an award from an organization for Lupus. Lupus is a disease that affects your immune system. Toni actually suffers from this condition but amazingly, not everyone in her family knows. Toni decides she is going to use this time to let everyone in on her true suffering, and that includes the public as well. The girls arrive at Tamar's "L.A. home" ready to hang out and spend some quality time, but Tamar puts a damper on that idea immediately, handing out a set of ridiculous rules and ordering her sisters around as soon as they walk in the door. The rules included directives such as : everyone must shower before sitting on any furniture, they should wash their hands as to stop the spread of germs, and everyone must go to sleep when Tamar goes to sleep... I couldn't wait for the show to get to the more serious and substantial plot, Tamar is just silly and I have to believe that she's just playing a character for the cameras. If not, then at this point, I'm just glad my last name isn't Braxton. The girls' brother, Mikey shows up as a surprise guest and the entire Braxton family are all under one roof for the week. They engaged in many tasks and errands, (filler for the hour-long show I would say). Tamar takes her mother to get Botox and fillers, then they gang up on oddball Traci and make her go to charm school. Tamar must have called her sister a hoodrat at least 5 times. "She was raised by a pack of rats. Hood rats." All of this leads to a poignant luncheon attended by Tamar, Trina and Toni. Tamar decides she is going to confront Trina about the intervention they held when they were concerned about Trina's drinking. Tamar asks why Trina shot her down every time she spoke. Trina tries to explain why she doesn't appreciate Tamar's take on the situation, and the mood changes further when Toni arrives and Tamar begins to bash Trina for still charging their superstar sister whenever they perform. Tamar says it is selfish of Trina to ask for a salary because family doesn't do that. I tried to imagine if I was a famous star and my family went on the road with me and actually performed a service. Would I pay them? I guess it would depend, but I think if I had the money, I most certainly would. It's obviously a hard call to make being that I'm not in the situation, but family or not, they have to make a living too. Toni reluctantly agrees with Tamar that when it comes to finances and taking care of their mother, Tamar is the only sister that has contributed. This opens the floodgates and Tamar beings to dramatically state that she has NEVER asked Toni to be paid. Toni becomes visibly upset by this subject. As we know, she has declared bankruptcy and has fallen on hard times. The arguing doesn't help either and she tells the girls that it literally makes her sick. We find out later of course that she is stricken with this disease Lupus and stress is not her friend. Later we see an emotional Tamar sobbing at the news that Toni is sick and then the entire Braxton family attends the event where Toni is presented with a special award. It was an emotional episode and yet again succeeded in raising familiar family issues. Whether you come from an affluent lifestyle, or are just a regular middle class group, the foundations of family pretty much remains the same. When times are tough or even when you're flying high, family should stick together and be there for each other, in sickness and in health.

Hip Hop Over & Out

All good things must come to an end and the same goes for Love & Hip Hop. Last night's finale was somewhat uneventful, especially after the nail biting last couple of weeks. Chrissy is still rationalising the lackluster result to her proposal to Jim Jones. Jim obviously doesn't want to get married and thinks he has just the answer to quell his lady's looming nuptial plans. Jim writes Chrissy a song. It's actually a very sweet song, he seems to love her very much. After being together for six years or so, they're sure to have plenty of memories, good and bad and he raps about their life together beautifully. Jimmy invites Olivia to sing on the hook and voila! Wedding diverted. Jim takes Chrissy out for a romance filled date, (roses and hotel room included). But when he plays the song for her, Chrissy's reaction knocked all of us girls living in fantasy land right back down the the cold and unreliable earth. "He's written songs for me before", she shrugs. It reminded me of Faith and Biggie's characters in the movie "Notorious". Whenever Biggie was in trouble with his girl, he would beat box her name and make a little song and she would forgive him every time... except for the last time. Chrissy's not going to leave Jim any time soon, but his song, which would have melted any unknowing girl's heart, is not enough wool for Chrissy's eyes. She sees right through it. She wants to be a wife, and a mother, and she wants a five year plan. I just hope she can handle the fact that a ring sometimes really "doesn't mean a thing". Another ring-less girlfriend (or "stylist" depending on who's telling it) is Emily. After Fabolous stood her and their kids up for a family photo shoot and blamed it on the tv cameras, she still doesn't seem to get it. She keeps questioning their relationship, all the while having to chase down rumours of his infidelity and keep the foundation of a crumbling home together in her head. She says things like, "I shouldn't be mad because I know it's not true" and "When we're home together, we're so happy." And I don't know whether to feel sorry for her or just throw my hands up and tend to my own business. She just might be a lost cause. I'm sure the other girls profiled on the show see the pattern but choose not to come right out and say it. Olivia's still singing about being a jilted mistress in the ho hum tune, December. (Yawn). Meanwhile,  her manager confronts Somaya "Boss" Reece regarding comments she made about the singer on a controversial hip hop website. Somaya holds her own against the verbal assault, I'm sure she's been cursed out and called a bitch before. The whole thing was ridiculous and based on Olivia's manager's fear and paranoia. He declared during the "December" video shoot that he was paying for everything out of pocket because he "believes in Liv". So the idea that Somaya bad talking Olivia online was messing with his money came from a place of nerves and emotion. We last see Somaya packaging her mixed tape and making some speech about how she's going to take over the world (or something like that). Love & Hip Hop ends with Chrissy, Emily and Olivia at a slumber party, complete with pajamas and ponytails (and more make up and cleavage than a rap video). Chrissy plays her song for the girls and Emily can only wish Fab would do the same for her. The girls then raise their glasses and toast to.... that's right you guessed it -- love and hip hop. And thus the short lived series ends.

NeNe Loses It, the Rest is Hopeless

The task this week was to put on a hair show... but wait, before the teams could even branch off and begin to brainstorm, NeNe Leakes shows her truest colors. She towers over the rest of her team, explosive and irate. She complains that Star is manipulative and "backstabbing". She states that Star dictates who the Project Manager will be each week and everyone just bows down to her command. She calls Hope a puppet and says the rest of the team may be afraid to stand up to her, but she will. However, with all that being said, NeNe still tells Mr. Trump that she will take the job as PM. So even if Star is all that NeNe says she is, looks like it's working. I still don't understand why NeNe was so upset. If she didn't want to be Project Manager, she should have just said no. Calling her teammates puppets and weak players wasn't exactly the best way to start off a challenge, but to me the worst offense was doing in front of Donald Trump, THE CLIENT and the men's team. NeNe was classless and laid it out there for all to see, unprofessional and loud, she displayed all the traits of the stereotypical angry black woman. It was hard to watch. She should have been fired on the spot, I say. This may be reality TV, but what prospective employee would act like that in front of her potential boss, and what respectful employer would observe such nasty behavior and not show the offender the door? But firing NeNe wouldn't make for good TV, now would it? Fast forward to the task at hand and you'll find the men working well together. John Rich and Lil John have a great bond, and their minds are creative and work fast. For example, John Rich picks up the phone and calls Nikki Taylor, an ex-member of the girls' team, and asks her to model in their show! Brilliant. Meanwhile, on the other side, Hope remains quiet and doesn't defend herself, Star is devilishly smirking, knowing that she is on the right track... the track to winning the whole show. NeNe seems stressed out, but being miserable usually leaves you that way. Shoot to Trump's office, and who should saunter in but Latoya Jackson. She's back to ask for a second chance, and Trump, admitting that he's "never done this before and will never do it again", obliges and puts her on the men's team! After the hair show performances, the men's team wins and NeNe promises, as she had throughout the entire program, a blowout of a showdown in the boardroom. So I pull up my chair (not literally, I was on the couch) and I get ready to witness NeNe embarrass herself. I expect her to scream and carry on and use the word "backstabbing" as an adjective. But, stop the presses! A crawl appears at the bottom of the screen that the President has an announcement to make and will be doing so very shortly. I never imagined this mystery message would take place in the middle of the boardroom deliberations! Of course, the news comes to us that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan and sadly, we were never returned to our regularly scheduled program. The president, by the way, never took to his pulpit until after Apprentice would have been over, but the networks broke in to the show anyway to recycle the same news over and over until Obama finally confirmed it to be true. *sigh* American media: "You gotta love 'em." I do have to admit, the irony of the President cutting Trump's tv show short after all that birth certificate nonsense was fitting. I learned later that Hope was ultimately fired. That leaves Star, NeNe and Marlee on the women's team and Latoya Jackson, Lil Jon, John Rich and Meatloaf on the men's team. I'm almost afraid to see what's going to happen next week...

The Mob Ties That Bind

*pheleshia's weekly review keeps us up to date with the latest 'Mob Wives' drama! Are you watching? Tell us what you think!*

The second episode of Mob Wives takes us back to the ending of the first, when all hell was breaking loose at Carla's birthday party! We saw in a sneak peek, Drita's expression of anger towards Renee, through strangulation, we then witness the art of editing at it's best! Oh, how they tricked us into believing that it was Drita putting her hand around Renee's neck......shame on them! I have to give credit where credit is due though, the editing is what got most if us, including me, to tune in for the episode!  As the argument fizzled we moved on to exploring other relationships among the wives. The interaction between Renee and her ex-husband seems to mimic that of relationships we observe on a daily basis. I define it as two people co-parenting....the only difference is that the Mob is a part of their lives. I am just a bit concerned about the relationship between Renee and her son. Their interactions, quite truthfully, seem strange!  She seems to depend on him more than he can depend on her! Therapy needed? (#imjustsayin') Next we see the impact of being married to the mob life.  Drita and her husband, who is incarcerated, spend time in this episode arguing via telephone. I empathize with Drita's anger....she just wants her husband home! I would feel the same way especially if I kept being given different dates of my husband return.  As she continues to battle it out with her husband, she finds comforts in the relationships with  the other ladies....minus Renee (I can't wait to see how their relationship gets back on track!)  One of the most interesting relationships for me right now, minus Renee and Karen, is the "friendship" between Drita and Karen. Now you might be saying why did I say "friendship" as if it may not be real.  Well, I believe it's not to some extent!  How many of us have come to realize that while Drita is saying she is so happy about her relationship with Karen, and being able to discuss her issues with her husband, Karen is behind the scenes saying that Drita and her need to talk. She feels Drita was wrong for dating her previous boyfriend and then marrying him.  All the while never leaving out the part that Karen and Drita's husband were dating and living together for seven years! My vote is that they are NOT really that close.  We will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this took place, Carla kept to herself for the majority of this episode. I don't blame her because we all have our own drama that we deal with so why get involved I'm others?  As we prepare for next week, we see that the FED's make a first appearance and shake up the story line! Or is this what they want us to think? Will editing play another role in the upcoming week? We will just have to wait and see. Until next my lovely Mob fanatics!

A Time to Kill

It was announced last night by our president, Barack Obama, that Osama bin Laden was dead, killed in a covert military op by this country's finest Navy Seals. Osama bin Laden. The name synonymous to most in this country with evil itself. The man who incited such sentiments as "death to America" and introduced many of us to the idea that death was nothing to fear as long as it is for and in the name of God. There is not one person who cannot remember where they were and what they were doing the day planes started flying into buildings and crashing into the earth. The surrealism of that day, September 11, 2001, still remains to be one of the most outrageous, unexplainable, unpredictable catastrophes we have ever seen in our lifetime. And the man who claimed the fame and stood behind it all, was Osama bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda, minister of all things noxious and vile. Therefore the American military has dedicated the last nine and a half years to finding and killing him. They say to kill the snake you have to cut off the head. So the cult has been beheaded, but we all must surely know that terrorism is not dead and will not die suddenly with this singular act. I guess my reaction to this is more than slightly opposite of the massive crowds that gathered last night. Once the news spread, Americans took to the streets, waving flags and chanting, "USA!" They danced, they wept, they celebrated and I watched them, never once feeling victorious or proud. Our troops had a mission and they completed it almost flawlessly, and for that I can acknowledge an actual accomplishment. I would never diminish that. 3,000 people died on 9/11. I will never forget. But what now? What's next? Osama bin Laden was one man with plenty of influence. We may have cut off the head, but I wonder if instead of withering away, will the rest of the snake repair itself, sprout a new head and carry on even stronger or more determined to strive? If we think Al Qaeda is horrendous, what about the "extreme" extremists? There are always the members of a group who stray a little more to one side than the other and when you're carrying out your deeds in the name of your God, it's almost as if anything goes. So I will not be dancing in the streets, on the other hand, I won't be self-righteous and critical of the difficult positions we must face in this war on terror either. I will be watching and waiting cautiously for the next chapter and  no matter what the government tells me, I will always be on high alert.