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...

for my number one

mark my words. or robin thicke's.



"its your body you can yell if you want to
loud if you want to, scream if you want to
just let me love you lay right here girl dont be scared of me
give you sex therapy, give you sex therapy
its your body well go hard if you want to
as hard as you want to, soft as you want to
just let me love you lay right here i'll be your fantasy
give you sex therapy, give you sex therapy"


i am so impressed with how classy this video is and how it brought about the same "good thoughts" as trey's "invented sex".

p.s. i could have been the long legged girl in this video.

NYE plans

have a happy and safe new year everyone.

10 Ways to Bond with Your Guy During the Holidays

I ran across this Cosmo article and thought I would pass it along...

1. Do one tiny thing together each day. Our recommended option: Shower together in the morning. Not only is it a sexy way to kick-start the morning, it gives you a few moments together that are guaranteed to be relaxed.

2. Help your shopping-challenged guy get it all done. Come to his rescue and you’ll not only have a grateful man on your hands, you’ll also score more couple time. Hit the mall super-early or late (when it’s less crowded) and steer him toward appropriate gifts — and away from the remote-control cars he thinks everyone likes as much as he does.

3. Make each other playlists of songs you love right now. Listen closely as you drive from one family obligation to another; one study found that a person’s playlist can tell you a lot about him.

4. Won’t be together on the 25th? Pick a day to have a “mini Christmas.” Make a delicious dinner, open a bottle of wine, and exchange gifts. The intimate celebration will feel even more special than if you celebrated with a room full of people.

5. Ask him to write an X-rated wish list for you. Then do the same for him. It’s a great way to confess naughty desires you might be uncomfortable telling each other face-to-face.

6. Shamelessly belt out holiday tunes. Doing something ridiculous and laughing together is a great way to bring you closer. Plus, it’ll force you to stifle your inner Scrooge.

7. Pull him aside at a party and make a private toast. Creating a quiet moment in the middle of a crowd can help you reconnect when you’ve both been making the rounds.

8. Drive around just to look at Christmas lights. Not only is it pretty, but guys tend to open up more when they don’t have to make eye contact. That makes sitting side by side in the car the perfect way to trigger a meaningful talk.

9. Stay connected in high-tech ways. Text random, funny pictures as you go about your days separately, Skype via iPhone, or, if you’re apart for multiple days, use your Xbox to stream Netflix and watch the same movie at the same time. Pick a grown-up Christmas flick like Love Actually and call each other whenever you feel like commenting.

10. Save money and stay in. Pick up a couple of blobs of frozen pizza dough at the grocery store and a variety of toppings and make your own gourmet pies. To really ramp up the fun, try doing it wearing nothing but a couple of aprons. Within minutes your bodies will be covered with flour handprints.

i thought the article was cute, hope you enjoy also.

used & abused

lets redirect our attention from chris brown & rihanna to tiger woods.
domestic abuse, it can happen to ANYONE right?

well... yes. although 85-95% of domestic violence cases involve a female victim, there are the few cases in which the male is the victim.

current case up for discussion that falls into that 5-15% : Tiger Woods.

according to news sources,

"Tiger Woods got into a car wreck around 2:20am Friday morning. He wasn’t ruled as “under the influence,” so what caused him to ram into a fire hydrant less than 30 feet from his driveway?

Sources are reporting that his wife, Elin, got uber pissy with him after that story of the him cheating with some chick hit the net. She scratched his face up after a verbal argument (despite reports originally concluding the scratches came from the accident), he tried to speed away from the house, Elin chased and banged his car down with a golf club, and then the wreck occurred."

if we believe this to be true, why is it that Elin is getting much praise for her actions?

chris brown took to twitter saying this: @MechanicalDummy: the world is so onesided... case closed? just like that.

Elin ABUSED Tiger but people aren't running to every online social networking site, gossip blog, etc. to criticize her actions... instead people are saying

• succeeded at the biggest come up of the decade; reworkin their pre-nup agreement so that Elin had to stay with Tiger for 2 years (which she’s already done) to get $300 million rather than the original 10 year/$20 million agreement
  
• On a scale of 1 to chris brown I'm Elin Woods mad
• Elin has just released her own line of golf clubs.... the only clubs you can beat tiger with

i agree 100% with chris.

yes, i am aware that Tiger cheated and she acted out of vengeance but does that excuse it?

in my opinion, no. abuse is abuse and no one has the right to put there hands on another person in attempts to do harm, be they man or woman. why does this double standard still exist?

growing up, i was always told that a man should never hit a woman and i believe this to be true. but do women have the right to act abusive towards men? i don't think so but i want to know what you guys think so chime in.

CHRIStmas LIST

Most Wanted List (in order)

• Steve Madden Immense Boot in Cognac (SteveMadden.com @ $199)
  
• Marc by Marc Jacobs Stainless Steel Logo Watch: black (Saks.com @ $125)
• Marc by Marc Jacobs Totally Turnlock Pouch: Black (Saks.com @ $68)
• Marc Jacobs Lola Solid Perfume Ring (Nordstroms.com/Sephora.com/Saks.com @ $42)
• Wii System for my apartment (anywhere that sells a Wii @ $199)

this is a rough draft. ha.

boredom

things i do when i am bored

• organize my closet
  
• read old magazines
  
• paint
  
• look through all of my tagged facebook pictures
• grocery shopping
  
• word search app on my ipod
• polyvore.com
• online shopping... particularly saks
• write poetry
  
• web cam pictures of myself
  
• search new recipes online
  
• goggle calenders
  
• take on extra shifts at work
  
• makeup new cutesy nicknames for my mommy (i.e. jugga jug & kissy poo)
• make flashcards for classes
  
• plan out the next 5 yrs of my life... sometimes 10
• try new nail polishes and designs
  
• worry my boyfriend :]
  

idk.

i still don't know how i feel about this whole situation.

i find no peace

I find no peace, and all my war is done.

I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice, 

I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise,

And naught I have, and all the world I sieze on.

That looseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison,

ANd holdeth me not, yet I 'scape newise;

Nor letteth me live nor die at my devise, 

And yet of death it giveth me occasion. 

Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain;

I desire to parish, and yet I ask health;

I love another, and thus I hate myself; 

I feed me in sorrow; and laugh in all my pain. 

Likewise displeaseth me both death and life,

And my delight is cause of this strife.

-Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

broke it down and now i appreciate it. poetry is a beautiful thing once you understand. 

art.

i only appreciate fashion when art is involved.