my reality

Cameroonian photographer Mario Epanya did what should have been done years ago. In hopes of getting Vogue publisher Conde Nast to see the potential in Vogue Africa as a competitor in the world of fashion magazines, he created fictional covers for his dream and the dream of many black fashion lovers. Although Vogue Italia has featured beautiful black models and fashion in their "all black" issue, I think theres still a need for a magazine catered towards paying homage to black beauty. The covers Epanya shot were gorgeous and although they can't be found on the shelves of your local newsstand, the art speaks just as loud as any other Vogue cover.

current playlist:

adele: chasing pavements
destiny's child: emotions
destiny's child: if
monica: just one of them days
adele: make you feel my love
mariah carey: my all
mariah carey: i still believe
musiq: don't change
mariah carey: we belong together
mariah carey: angel's cry
mariah caerey: don't forget about us
beyonce: if i were a boy
chrisette michele:if i have my way
melanie fiona: it kills me
monica: everything to me
monica: why i love you so much
keyshia cole: trust


now going in a corner to cry

?

confused.

music mondays

Monica: Just One of Them Days






Dondria: You're the One For Me

do some ho shit

blah

it's saturday night. i'm home alone. somethings not adding up. blah.

now its just crumbs

wish we were friends

who's better?

sam edelman or jeffrey campbell?
i can't decide. i love them both.

the ghost of christopher wallace

new jay electronica. go download now.
(Click here to download)

next big thing

hello kitty better watch her back because fifi lapin is making a name for herself as the cutest and most fashionable creature out there...

here's her bio: "Hi, I'm Fifi Lapin... I was born one of 257 brothers and sisters but sadly there was an outbreak of myxomatosis when I was just one year old... I was the only one that survived. My parents are therefore incredibly protective of me and spoil me rotten. I'm an hare-ss to my fathers fortune which he made playing fast and loose with carrot and lettuce shares on the international stock market. There are a lot of rabbits out there eating carrots and lettuce so I guess he just struck gold (or orange you might say).Some people think I’m just a socialite but I think there is more to me than just an extremely stylish clotheshorse!"

check out her blog for more: http://fifi-lapin.blogspot.com/

on to the next one

many of you have probably already heard the buzz surrounding jay-z's latest video "on to the next one"... after reading many blog posts and youtube video comments i have decided to do some research on my own (basic research however because i do have a life)

so... many are claiming jay-z to be a mason/anti-christ.
anti-christ is a term i am familiar with, however, masonry is not (at least not in the way it is being used to label jay).

i decided to quickly wikipedia "masonry" or "freemasonry" and this is what i found:

"Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around 5 million, including just under two million in the United States and around 480,000 in England, Scotland and Ireland.[1][2] The various forms all share moral and metaphysical ideals, which include, in most cases, a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being."

so of course, being the skeptical person that i am, i hate and rather not take things for face value. it would have been easy for me to jump on the anti-jay bandwagon because of all the fuss surrounding him on an important topic however i choose not to.

first and foremost, based on my initial research, freemasonry membership is characterized by belief in A supreme being (not THE supreme being; leaving definition of that being rather vague and ambiguous). that "supreme being" is not defined as the devil.

upon intake in the organization, "candidates for regular Freemasonry are required to declare a belief in a Supreme Being. However, the candidate is not asked to expand on, or explain, his interpretation of Supreme Being".

so why can't jay-z's declaration of a higher being be God?

"Freemasonry's central preoccupations remain charitable work within a local or wider community, moral uprightness (in most cases requiring a belief in a Supreme Being) as well as the development and maintenance of fraternal friendship --"

service and scholarship to community sound good to me.

"A candidate progresses through degrees gaining knowledge and understanding of himself, his relationship with others and his relationship with the Supreme Being (as per his own interpretation)."

The three degrees of are those of (i.e. BP 1, 2, and 3):

1.Entered Apprentice – the degree of an Initiate, which makes one a Freemason;
2.Fellow Craft – an intermediate degree, involved with learning;
3.Master Mason – the "third degree", a necessity for participation in most aspects of Masonry.

"The degrees represent stages of personal development. No Freemason is told that there is only one meaning to the allegories; as a Freemason works through the degrees and studies their lessons, he interprets them for himself, his personal interpretation being bounded only by the Constitution within which he works"

i always liked the concept of thinking for oneself; developing one's own thoughts and interpretations... so dare i say masonry is sounding good to me thus far?

now the only thing about masonry that i feel compelled to call into question at this time came to mind as a read through the general requirements for membership...

General requirements

1. Be a man who comes of his own free will.
2. Believe in a Supreme Being (the form of which is left to open interpretation by the candidate).
3. Be at least the minimum age (from 18–25 years old depending on the jurisdiction).
4. Be of good morals, and of good reputation.
5. Be of sound mind and body
6. Be free-born (or "born free", i.e., not born a slave or bondsman)

now, as i previously mentioned, there is one thing about the whole concept of masonry and jay-z's connection to it that i will call into question. NUMBER 6. last time i checked, jay-z was African American and I can not see why he might desire membership into a fraternity that still, in many jurisdictions, denies membership to african- americans??? thats like desiring membership in the KKK in my opinion... "i used to drink crystal but them fuckers racist" hmm... so are many of his alleged frat bros.

"Freemasonry explicitly and openly states that it is neither a religion nor a substitute for one" AND therefore, i will not go out on a limb and call jay the anti-christ.

i'll finish by saying that many people shun what they don't understand.
with that being said, please feel free to enlighten me if there is something i'm not understanding. like i said before, my research was basic. until next time, i'm on to the next one.

p.s. to all the people so whole-heartedly claiming they're faith and denouncing others, putting your time and effort into defending christianity thru mere online discussions, please remember "faith without work is dead". go do something productive with your lives.

...and he said it best "grow the fuck up, come and let me coach you"

and thats exactly what this video is working to do... raise such a heated topic for discussion to help enlighten the mind of some that fall victim to what i'll call "auto-tune" (being brainwashed into thinking something because someone presents it to be fact)

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE...