This clip from a 1969 episode of the ABC variety show The Hollywood Palace featuring Diahann Carroll and Stevie Wonder chased my blues right away this morning! The song is “Pretty World,” and was originally recorded in 1966 by bossa nova master Sergio Mendes. Enjoy!

Do you know what a contronym is? It’s one of my favorite grammar terms and means “a word with two meanings that are opposites.” One such example is the word “perm,” which means two totally different things depending on cultural context and can create a “Who’s On First,” type of situation when our hair is the topic of conversation in the workplace. Where does one even begin when an innocent white person asks if you got a perm because your hair is suddenly curly?

Part of being old school is the belief that whatever the kids are doing now is weak, wack, nonsensical, and just no good compared to what we had going on in our day. It just so happens that The Stanky Leg, The Ricky Bobby, and The Crank Dat Whomever are weak and wack, but it’s a classic oldhead foible to believe that we were doing so much better fifteen years ago because, sadly, we weren’t.

Case in point: The Tootsee Roll. How did the 69 Boyz convince the world that there was a significant difference between The Butterfly and The Tootsee Roll?

I’ve always believed that one of the biggest sitcom television bamboozles was the replacement of the original, BROWN, sassy, theater-voiced Aunt Viv with the bland, ALMONDY, acquiescent, merely capable Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

My son is turning 16 and really wanted Lil Wayne to perform for his birthday gala. Unfortunately his schedule will not permit him to make it. I need a Lil Wayne impersonator desperately.
Here is the kicker my son is blind so you do not need to look like the rapper just sound like him.

If it weren’t for his pronounced overbite, John Lafayette would just blur into the crowd for me. I’ve always had a thing for men with overbites, so I only recently put his career together and realized that he’s old enough to be my father -  nevermind his salt & pepper hair and tendency to play dad-types. His powerful voice and presence have made him perfect for bit parts in procedural dramas like The Closer, Cold Case, and Without A Trace, usually playing a concerned parent sick of the police giving him the run-around.

If you choose Law & Order over HawthoRNe don’t feel guilty about not “supporting” black television; aside from being not a very good show, HawthorRNe is not at all a black show, either.

So much to write, so little time and willingness to hit the ‘publish’ button… in the meantime, check out some of my favorite stuff from other sites!

The photo above is from what Brokey McPoverty has named “possibly the most awesome book ever.” As usual she analyzes the pure crazy with panache, and even treats us to a mind-boggling excerpt from this wildly foolish example of misguided Negroness. Laugh riot.

On this day in 2007 I realized that my desk job just was not going to cut it intellectually. At the time I was suffering from “the curse of brilliance” treatment at the hands of my then-employer (in other words, I didn’t have enough work to do and was too smart for the work I did have). I was stuck in my own head following the end of a relationship because I was spending time alone for the first time in a long time. I realized that I knew stuff most people don’t know, and that at the very least my friends and family would enjoy a few cross-country laughs with or at me, so why not start a little blog?

“Underrated” is one of the more overused words on this blog but I have to fight the good fight and salute ridiculously underrated performers like T’Keyah Crystal Keymah. We know her best from television where she demonstrated her strength in comedic timing and impressions on sitcoms and sketch shows such as In Living Color, Cosby, and That’s So Raven. T’Keyah also has a particular talent for cartoon voices, which has led to her extensive voiceover career (Pinky and The Brain, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child).

Stop The Presses: What happened to Tyra Ferrell?

Bringing her theater background from New York to Los Angeles, Tyra Ferrell wet her feet with numerous small roles on early 1980′s kid shows like Square One (a favorite of mine) and the notorious Afterschool Special. She also performed alongside late-80′s bigtime actors like Denzel Washington and Sheryl Lee Ralph in The Mighty Quinn and had a recurring role on the larger-than-mainstream-life drama thirtysomething. Perhaps the crux of her career was the combo punch of roles in School Daze, Jungle Fever, and Boyz N Da Hood.

I would just have to kill myself. Real talk.

My current landlord (who could never be worse than my last one), keeps trying to out-think me regarding the mouse problem in this apartment. I’ve seen these critters up in here on multiple occasions and have caught enough of them to know that there is a steady supply of rodentia coming through my spot. When I tell him that he needs to handle it better he shrugs and says that he cant figure out where they could possibly be coming from, implying that the problem must be all in my head. Hunh?

Nope, I do not understand Jamaican-talkin’, and as usual I am tickled by what idle hands and the internet will do.

My take on this week in black pop culture!

Is this really necessary, T-Pain? I get so irritated at myself for paying this kind of mess any mind because that’s just what this autotunin’ fool wants, but to spend $410k on an almost-humorously redundant chain without it actually being funny? It may be the struggling writer in me talking but that really fries my rice! I haven’t seen anything this ridiculous in a long minute. Hate.

My list of the best television dramas of all time reads like an HBO promo spot; I loved all aspects of The Wire, Six Feet Under, and The Sopranos, but since those ended (with the exception of True Blood) HBO has left me wanting more and badly. The network’s chief competition in the realm of premium cable original programming, Showtime, has tended to offer less expert, more salacious fare in the past with the exception of the deliciously quirky Weeds and The United States of Tara; the L Word, Californication, and Dexter lack the complexity of HBO’s banner shows and are more comparable to the intriguing but one-dimensional Oz. Fortunately, Showtime scores a big win with Nurse Jackie, premiering tonight on Showtime and also available online.