A year ago today I hadn’t thought much about what happens when you die, or even what could happen when millions of people who feel a connection to a man like Michael Jackson suddenly lose him.

Today is Prince’s birthday, and in spite of all the years of musical enjoyment he’s provided I’m kind of mad at him right now. The first fit of anger is toward the fact that he’s fifty-two years old and looks so silky smooth. The second is because the old fogey won’t let any of his videos stay on YouTube for more than a few weeks. It’s super annoying and kind of mean! I should be able to drum up any Prince video I want to, don’t you think?

I was just talking about the song “Diamonds and Pearls,” with…

{Editors Note: David Mills was a journalist, television writer, and blogger who died suddenly on March 30. He was part of the WWTD family, very brilliant, and only 48. The loss is tragic and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones. I admired David too much to not add to the wonderful eulogies from close friends and colleagues, and I hope that you either join me in remembrance or learn a little bit about a great talent that we

A few days ago Dj Stylus shared this video on Facebook and I haven’t been able to shake it since. He quipped, “I’m surprised that I saw this before Thembi, aka the mistress of all things obscure and Negronian.” Yeah thanks, but courtesy of this video I’ve developed a mild phobia related to brown leather and fringes. I’d never seen Fox’s Celebrity Duets let alone this performance, but there is so much squatting and doing-the-most-ness on the part of Alphonso Ribero that Chaka Khan’s trademark extraness is almost a mere distraction. Just watch

I know I’ve been slipping with timely posts of the quiz, but I keep realizing that I have to make them harder. Yes, you read that right. Here are this week’s standings…

“The Grio’s 100″ is a comprehensive list of black influencers from ten fields: sports, education, business, science and the environment, media, service an activism, politics, health, pop culture, and the arts. The list is driven by the need to highlight the next generation of history-makers. We’d expect to see Oprah Winfrey listed as a leader in business and Lebron James at the top of the sports field, but are you familiar with Derek Pitts? As Chief Astronomer at The Franklin Institute he has the potential to make a major difference in the Science and Technology realm (he…

Let’s just say that the first round of scores were great, and that with enough luck and brainpower anyone can still take the lead or certainly place. I’m going to have to make these questions harder!

It’s hard to believe that twenty years have passed since Nelson Mandela was freed and the African National Congress decriminalized as an organization, but February 11, 1990 began a new era of multicultural democracy in South Africa. I saw Nelson Mandela speak a few years ago and as inspirational as his talk was I couldn’t stop reminding myself that this man had endured twenty-seven years of imprisonment for challenging the unjust racist system of apartheid – while the world watched.

Whenever I see Christopher “Kid” Reid on VH-1 or in a random commercial I ask “where is Play?” Play is the one I had a crush on, the one who was *really* cute, and, frankly, more than 50% of the Kid N’ Play equation. Although I missed them on the Mo’Nique show I’d previously heard that Play (Christopher Martin) married and divorced Shari Headley of Coming To America fame, almost died in a car accident, and became a born-again Christian. Whatevas, I just wanna see Blade Brown do that dance and hear some nice clean buddy rap…

I almost didn’t bring back the Black History Month Pop Culture Challenge this year. To be honest, I’ve been hit with a wave of winter malaise that’s kept me from being as enviably sharp as my usual quick-witted pop culture genius self. There’s still just enough random trivia floating around in my head to make this fun, so here goes nothin’…

I started the Black History Month Pop Culture Challenge in 2009 as a way to shake some of the staleness off of February. Sure black cultural phenomena from 100 years ago and history makers that live today are…