Something about a denim jacket and a unibrow

I love all of the face Al B. Sure! is giving in this video. One of my fave jams when it comes up on the iPeezy. I sweddagod, lightskin was kind to the brothas back in the 80s. It was obvy powerful enough to make the ladies forget that this dude had a Bert brow poppin’ off! Real talk, Al would have Been way hotter if he’d just have showed us that patch of skin between his eyebrows. Exponentially hotter. Of course he’d probably just tell me not to sweat myself (on the strength). *shrug*

My Personality DNA

Got this browsing over at Diary of a Mad Therapist. It’s one of those personality test thingamajiggers. I liked it because it was more interactive than just clicking some little bubbles althoughI don’t know how accurate I was with it.
According to the site, Personal DNA, I’m a Designer and I relate to others as a Free-Wheeler, making me a:

Click HERE to see my personality report.
While I think the part about me is pretty accurate, the way I relate to others is spot on. If you do your own personality DNA test, be a doll and leave a link in the comments. I’m interested to see how they turn out.

More freaky furniture

So after you’ve spent Black Friday shopping for your chaise lounge Tantra Chair, you might need a “foot stool” to complete your naughty decor. Promising to “take the gravity out of sex,” the BodyBouncer is a sex gadget that will take some stress off of your body while you’re getting busy without freaking out your mother if she busts an unexpected visit.

According to the Daily Bedpost: He lies under it, you sit on top, and the handy hole lets you, er, connect. […] “Just the slightest flexing of her thighs sends her gliding up and down–gently and sensually–yielding an erotic connection with astonishing potency.” In other words, sex that doesn’t leave you feeling like you just spent an hour on the Thighmaster.

Ohhhhkay. I have to say that I find this pretty strange. I mean, he puts his, um, well… put it through the hole? Not only is that just plain weird, but you miss all of the good skin to skin contact. Then again, if you’re worried about skin to skin because you’re super paranoid concerned about safe sex, I guess you couldn’t go wrong with a condom AND a BodyBouncer! Still, for $199, this thing is testing the pockets in a recession. Wonder if I can find something similar at Ikea and use a cookie cutter to get the hole popping off? Check out the site’s “Groove Gallery” for all of the bizarro nifty ways you can use the thing.

Friday Fun

One of my commenters brought this flick to my attention a while ago. After another friend reminded me of it and the sheer ridiculosity of it all, I remembered that I hadn’t put it on the blog. So on your Black Friday, I bring you Will Hatcher’s “Yung Dick”

Turkey Day

1. Nope. No plans. Sitting home by myself. I think throughout the day, as things come to mind, I might add to this post. The very first thing I thought of was how I prefer the canned, jellied cranberry sauce to the “real” stuff. Not very bourgie, I know, but my whole life, I’ve had canned cranberry sauce. On occasion, I’ve had the opportunity to taste someone’s homemade sauce and I just hate it. It’s too chunky, too tart, and where are the damned RINGS? Sorry, but that canned stuff just goes so well when you get a little bit on your fork with some stuffing or potatoes or turkey. Of course you don’t have to let it sit there, straight up looking just like a can. A proper presentation requires the log of sauce to be sliced! Get jazzy, even, and cut it up into little triangles! A friend told me he’d bring me a plate by later. My only request: Do not being me any “real” cranberry sauce!

2. So I’ve been seeing folks’ tweets on Twitter about how they’re getting ready to eat. It’s like nearly 6pm right now! Back when my family used to do Thanksgiving, we’d be eating by 2pm or somebody was going to get shot. My grandma used to go all out. We’d do the traditional Thanksgiving stuff. She’d also make what seemed like a grillion pies. We never got around together and sat at a table. We only had a small kitchen table with two chairs anyway. No dining room at all. Folks would just mill about in the kitchen, making their own plate and then catch a seat wherever they could. It wasn’t bad though, there weren’t a lot of us. Most you’d have would be my grandma, mom, me, aunt, uncle, and give or take a couple of boyfriends/girlfriends of those folks along the way. There was so much food and so little space to set it out, that my grandma would set up the ironing board against a wall in the kitchen and then set pots and platters on top of that. Yep, we’d eat rather early, then sit around and chill. Maybe eat again later. When I got a little older, the early “dinner” was good because it gave me time to go around to my friends’ houses and eat there. Funny, when I was young I could eat Thanksgiving dinner like 4 times. Now, after one go I’m out for the count.

cool stuff

The Concerto Table from lovegrove & repucci is super cool. I really want one. It wouldn’t go with my apt now, but I’ll get a new place just to compliment that table. According to the website,

The Concerto Table seeks to transform the experience of the modern dinner party by combining the use of a dining table with the elegant curvature of a grand piano.
Adapting the visual sensibility of an old baby grand piano, the table cleverly accommodates the issue of the many forgotten piano lessons of youth by providing a docking slot for your iPod. Simply download your favorite music onto your iPod, plug it in and instantly the Concerto Table becomes both dining surface and dinner party background music at once. The Concerto Table comfortably accommodates space for the home office as well as still leaving room to eat and listen to music as you work. Finished for the day? Simply place your laptop and papers in the center tray and close the lid. Plug your iPod into the dock, lift the soundboard lid and let the music fill your space. Use the table for a pre-dinner cocktail and hors d’oeuvres spread. Then enlist the guests that arrive first to set the table for dinner. They won’t mind at all as your cutlery are neatly tucked into the Concerto Table’s drawer. Too bad it goes for $1400. Also available in black. They have some other cute crap too. Sheesh!

Lowered expectations/just grow up/catching up with old friends

I’m wondering if some of us are looking for something in relationships that is just plain unrealistic and which does not exist? Maybe we need to get real and lower the bar a little. But how do you do that without feeling like you’re settling?

I had the pleasure of catching up with an old friend tonight. My girl called me up and we talked for over 3 hours. We’ve known each other since 6th grade, but we became friends in 7th grade after she got into some fight with another chick who was beefing with me. She’s been married for about three years now. As we were catching up, the conversation got around to who I was seeing and all that. I said no one and we started talking about dating since my last relationship (which was nearly two years ago). All of that led to a discussion about what’s more important and what to look for in a partner.

I was telling my girl about a couple of really good guys that I know. These guys are what you would call the practical choice. They’re smart, independent, doing well in their respective careers, family-oriented, funny, sweet, and most importantly, they deal with my crazy ass. On paper, they stack up pretty well and if you were hiring for a husband, well you’d definitely invite them in for a second and third interview. Still, there is something holding me back from seriously trying to build anything with them. There’s a piece missing. I always say it’s a certain je ne sais quoi. I guess I mean there’s no spark. Isn’t there supposed to be a spark?

By that I mean isn’t there supposed to be some kind of passion there? I was having a similar talk with another close girl friend who was telling me about a guy she knows who just gets under her skin every time. He’s totally in her system. The problem is, he really ain’t shit. That’s when I realized that that is the way it always seems to go. I can definitely identify. I’ve met men who, just the thought of them, could get me excited, make me smile and make me think back to… well, shared moments. Usually, it’s the guys who really get you going (usually for some reason you can’t even explain) are the ones who lack all of those other practical qualities one would want in a partner. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to combine those men together? Can’t you have a man with all of those practical, stable, desirable qualities who you also can’t stop thinking about for a single day? A man that gets under your skin? A man that makes you feel silly and giddy and girly?

I’m better than everyone

at least everyone else in my Advanced Criminal Trial Advocacy class. Those losers can’t hold a candle to me. I know I’m kind of biased, but there are only like two other students in that class who I’d even consider placing on my team one day. Otherwise, those kids are hacks.

I had my final trial in ATA today and killed. Not surprising, because I always kill at those things. Granted, they’re “mock trials” but I have a pretty good record with my real cases too.

The problem I notice with most folks is that they’re trying cases like they’re trying to get a part on Law & Order or The Practice. They show no restraint and always ask one question too many. No matter how many times they’re taught, they just don’t get that it’s better to lead a witness to the desired conclusion, but do not draw the conclusion for the jury. You’re supposed to ask questions so that the jury can’t help but draw the conclusion that you want them to and in closing, you make your argument for that conclusion. That’s when you bring it all together for the “Aha!” moment.

I’m a closer. If working on a team, I always opt for the closing. I’m just sure I can do a better job of it than anyone else I’m working with. No matter what happens duriing a trial, you always have the closing argument to tell the story the way YOU want it to be told. It’s super important not to fuck it up. One thing I noticed tonight is that I kind of black out when I close. Meaning, I don’t pay attention to the other counsel. i don’t pay attention to the judge. I just get into a zone and start making my argument, looking the jury in their eyes, making a connection and bringing all of the evidence together. Those other lames were reading their closings and stumbling over their words. Amateurs.

I’d have to say that after preparation, the most important part of trial advocacy is presence. You’ve got to have it. You’ve got to have a good and commanding voice, a demeanor that will relate to the jury, confidence and a command of the room. You’ve simply got to look and sound like you know what you’re talking about. The jury doesn’t know the law, and if you look like you know it, they might see it that way too.

While you might not think so, I think it matters a LOT how attractive you are. If you look nice and well-groomed, if you have a good suit on and you look comfortable in it, if you have good posture and don’t do shit like pace or nervously move your hands about, well then I think you have a good chance of making your opponents look like newbies. I’m telling you, whenever I have a trial or arbitration, I have to at least feel like I look good. That’s half the battle. Sounding good is the other half and you can almost always bullshit your way through most of it and then kill ’em in the close.

I don’t really think I’ll go into criminal trial work, at least not anytime soon. Still, if I did, you’d be in good hands with me. I’m just sorry for you all that the majority of the folks in my class will for sure be working in the DA’s and PD’s offices next year.

This doesn't really apply. I just thought it was funny.

BHurt On: Hip Hop. Manhood. Anti-Sexism.

Y’all know Byron Hurt? I’m late on homeboy, but he’s a filmmaker and an anti-sexist activist speaking out on gender violence prevention and helping to examine our ideas surrounding manhood – particularly Black manhood.

If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I have an interest in this type of stuff (gender roles, gender violence, yadda yadda). Peep these clips from Hurt’s documentaries. The first one is pretty straight forward, an intro to Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The second is interesting because it “contrast[s] styles of manhood exhibited by Barack Obama and Rapper/Mogul Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent.”

I don’t really know how I feel about 50 being used as an example of how Black manhood is commonly viewed. I mean, I can see it, but it’s hard since a lot of my friends generally take 50 for a joke. However, I’m sure a lot of people out there do see him as the kind of guy who would run up in your crib and steal all your credit cards. *shrug*

Southern Fight Songs

Inspired by a post over at Feminist Law Professors and the #1 College Basketball team in the country, I present to you UNC’s fight song. Well, technically. Apparently, a trip to the UNC Music Library page revealed that there are tons of school songs we never sang. At every football and basketball game we could be sure to sing the fight song “I’m a Tar Heel Born” which makes up the last verse of the school’s alma mater, “Hark The Sound.”

Hark the sound of Tar Heel voices
Ringing clear and True
Singing Carolina’s praises
Shouting N.C.U.

Hail to the brightest Star of all
Clear its radiance shine
Carolina priceless gem,
Receive all praises thine.

I’m a Tar Heel born I’m a Tar Heel bred
And when I die I’m a Tar Heel dead!
So it’s RAH, RAH, Car’lina ‘lina
RAH, RAH, Car’lina ‘lina
RAH, RAH, Car’lina ‘lina
GO TO HELL STATE! (or DOOK or who ever we’re playing)

Enjoy this March ’08 Franklin St (memories!) clip with drunk students celebrating a victory over Dook and singing Hark the Sound starting around 0:15. Honestly when I watched it, I got hype on my sofa although I’ve never hopped over a fire.