mariah was on fiya

I LOVE Mariah Carey! I saw her perform for a sold out audience at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on Friday and she was amazing. She sings so well, I think that's obvious but she literally sounds exactly how she does on her albums. She was very playful with the crowd and made jokes about her now infamous drunken speech, by taking "splashes" of her champagne. (When I say her champagne I also mean that literally. She is coming out with her own champagne people!) She sang some good hits including "Make it happen," and "My All," and surprisingly only a few from the "Memoirs," album, but to be frank I didn't mind because "Memoirs," wasn't her best. She did do a few wardrobe changes and although her face and hair were flawless she looked a little stuffed in all of her glamorous gowns. Like I said, I love mariah but she looked a little square and here gut could not be hidden. Either way she is so talented and put on quite the show and was well worth the money. I can't wait for her next tour because I will for sure make it out. xo

erykah badu's oakland concert

So I finally have time to come do a little blogging and I would really love to talk about one of the best soul singers of our time, ms. Erykah Badu. She played at the Fox Theatre in Oakland and I don't know if it's the fact that I am getting older and love the grown and sexy vibe more or the fact that she is just a dope performer but her show was one of my favorite concerts (and trust me I grew up in the teeny bopper days of *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys so I've been to my share of concerts.) She doesn't have any new music out but it was really fun to take it back and hear her hits from Baduizm and other albums, she sang a few Michael Jackson song, which really got the crowd going and she showed off her floetic skills and rapped a little Cali gangsta rap. She is the type of woman that can literally just stand there and sing and still put on the most amazing show. Her sequined silver leggings and tall black top hat did help keep my attention but her voice is one of a kind she is a true artist, someone who stayed true to herself and went against all the hype. I am really into soul and r&b right now so anyone like corrine bailey rae, lauryn hill, adele, my favorite amy winehouse and of course erykah is who I consider true soul singers because they get to your core and you can feel what they're singing and really experience an emotion when listening to them. So as you can tell I give Badu's show two thumbs waaaay up. If you ever get the chance to check her out please do so because it is so worth it. i hear she is coming in the summertime for the lilith fair now that will be a concert I will mos def be blogging about, til next time xo I'll be back in a few days to report about one of my favorite divas Mariah Carey! =)

social sites

I am a big fan of social networking,I love Twitter and Facebook and am one of those people that check it constantly. I guess the nosey journalist in me wants to stay in the know of all things that happen in pop culture and in my friends' lives but I had a really interesting talk with a former professor and one of my good friends about what these sites have done to society.
Posting pictures, statuses and allowing the world, or who u accept as a friend or follower, to enter your personal life and know facts about what you do and who you do with them is like a show. It's a competition to show the world you're happier than the rest and you're having the time of your life, but what I have come to find out is what may seem picture perfect is really imperfect. I never noticed until my professor pointed out that taking pictures these days is no longer for our own keepsake but instead it's to make it into a default pic on a page. Think about it, when you take a picture with your significant other, friends or family how many people say I'm putting this up on Facebook, or how many times do you take a picture over so it could look perfect online? I'm guilty of it and like my professor said I posed to show a scene I wanted the world to see not one that was natural. I had lunch with an old friend and when we were catching up she told me about all her marital and financial trouble and I asked her 'but you seem so happy on facebook' her response? 'I want to look happy I don't want anyone to know the truth. Everyone is always watching you online and judging. But posting pics means not a damn thing.' I took that to heart because I have been judgmental and jumped the gun and thought a million things about people because of pictures I've seen and in the end it was all fake. A lot of people's lives involve proving to the world or sharing personal business as if we were characters off "The Hills" but like that show our displays our unnatural. I try and figure out why proving to everyone that I'm good and not in any distress is so important to me, or even why I have to post anything at all. I could easily erase everything and live life to be happy and move forward but some magnetic force pulls me back to stay and play this game. There was no real big point to be made but just food for thought.

post grad life

When I was younger I was fortunate enough to have a supportive family who taught me that education is a priority and something that I needed to take advantage of. I have always been a studious girl and kept up with my classes. I got through all my private school training and even made it through college with a degree in journalism to show for it. But as wonderful as that sounds and as proud as my family and friends are of me I am still sitting at the desk of the same job that got me through college. Unfortunately, I am not alone and post grad life is a phase that I have found to be discouraging. There have been various blogs and news segments on how the class of 2009 is the smartest of all time but going into the worst job market in history and I guess I have never felt something to be so true. I am a driven individual who has been emailing and applying every and anywhere and like running as fast as you can on a treadmill it's gotten me nowhere. The editor and chief of my college newspaper seemed like she was on the road to journalistic success and just the other day I saw her slaving away at the same retail store. Old friends with different majors are struggling to pay rent because they haven't found any other careers or full-time jobs. Just about everyone I know still lives at home and they are all in their mid-twenties, I remember the days where living at home when you were 24 was pathetic now it's the norm. It makes me sad to think that I worked so hard to achieve something that was supposed to make this "adult life" a little easier but instead just threw me into an epidemic that still makes me feel dependent upon my parents.
So in this job market what is there to do? Of course the obvious answer would be keep your head up and keep trying but when will the trying pay off and what measures must all these young twenty somethings take to be successful again? People used to be afraid of the out of college kids who were eager and hungry to take on careers and climb the professional ladder, now us kids are stuggling grasp the bottom of that ladder. Truth of the matter is this economy feels like it's getting worse. It is so bad that colleges are denying students because of it's budget cuts,so we can't even use this time to get more education, people are lining up for a job as a cashier at See's candy and it seems as though time has stood still and no one is progressing. Hopefully, we see a change but until then what?

gender roles

Gender roles are something that people have connected with society. There are so many strong opinions on what is "normal," what is right and what things should be like, but in this day and age, with all the open minds out there we still try and fit into this certain mold that is instilled in us since birth.
As a lesbian I often battle with the topic of gender roles. I am what the lesbian world calls a femme. I'm a girly girl to the core, I always played with barbies and my favorite color is pink, I love make up, dresses and all things that fall under that girly stereotype so I feel that because of my appearance butchy, studly or masculine women approach me more because they think that's what I would go for. I once went on a date with a stud and she wouldn't let me pay because she said that girls aren't supposed to pay. The first words out of my mouth were "but you're a girl," I ended up letting her pay because she was so pushy, and hey it was a free meal, but I didn't like the feeling of being so conformed. Underneath her baggy jeans and white tee there was a woman with curves. Although I'm feminine, I love to pay for dates, and send flowers and open the door for a girl and a lot of people find that surprising because the automatic reactions I've gotten is that it's not normal, I should be the one who is treated like a girl. I will admit I am attracted to that stud look and a lot of boys I met don't understand why I just wouldn't be with a man but when it comes down to doing things behind closed doors you're doing things with a woman and it's a completley different experience and connection.
I will admit that I have caught myself trying to fit into the social norm and I think it plays into that manly and girly gender molds I thought and still sometimes think I have to fit into. I find myself feeling like i have to be a little more girly around women and label myself as this "wifey" type of girlfriend because I naturally felt like I had to be paired with a more masculine woman to feel more socially accepted. Most of my friends and aquaintances are coupled up in that stud and femme pair some have even use the word, "wusband" to symbolize who was the "husband" in the couple and when one sits back and thinks about it it's rediculous because A, it's a stupid word and B, even in heterosexual couples it is beginning to be a normal thing for the woman to go out and be a successful career woman, while her man holds down the fort and does things like cook dinner and take the kids to school. My dad does a lot of the cooking and decorating in the house and I love that because it shows me that I'm not a failure for being in my twenties and not being able to make a meal for my future life partner. At the same time my dad is a traditional man who would argue with me almost every night because he says it's a woman job to pick up the man's plate and to wash the dishes. He would tell me how I should be for my husband and how being domestic was top priority. Eventually he saw how much of a feminist I have become and he backed off a little but being told how you are supposed to be, act, think dress and live by not only your parents but the media gets to a person and gives people mixed feelings on acting how they really want to be.
In conclusion,gender roles have such a huge affect on society and even the most liberal type of women and men are subconcsiously migrating towards "normal" social behavior. I think that everyone should check out my friend's documentary based on gender roles it's really amazing and gets you thinking. So, please enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P2uM-qK7Aw