Things that make me smile

Over the past two weeks, I have been on an emotional roller coaster. As some of you know, my dad just underwent pretty major surgery to straighten out his spine, realign some discs in his back that are now being held in place by rods and screws and to fix some spinal compression he had in his neck. It's going to be a long, painful road to recovery for all of us and I thank you guys for your prayers, positive thoughts and well wishes for my dad, my family and me.
My brother and I have been going at it since he got here, there have also been a few personal issues that I don't care to discuss anymore and add all that to the fact that this is PMS week. With all of that, I'm in need of a serious smile, aww Hell, I need laughter. And this got me to thinking, I should compile a list of the Top 10 things that make me smile and or laugh hysterically.
I'm gonna do this VH1 style and start from the bottom and go to the top. But I'm not gonna give 'em all to you in an hour or less, you gotta come back for the rest of them later.
So starting from No. 10, here we go:

10. Tyler Perry as Medea. Say what you will but this is funny to me! Everybody feels some kinda way about this dude and him dressing up in drag, but it's funny to me!
*Take that Rocky! :-P*

9. Reese Witherspoon in "Freeway." If you've never seen this movie, slap yourself and then go rent it! This movie came out when Witherspoon was unknown and my sister and I discovered it in the middle of the night while we were on summer vacation. It came on Cinemax so you know we had NO business watching it as 12 and 14-year-olds. Still, it's funny as crap!

8. The Cosby Show Reruns always make me smile if not fall out laughing. My favorite episode is when Cliff had a nightmare that all the men were pregnant. Another favorite is the Gordon Gartrelle episode and the ones where they performed for their grandparents. I could use one of those right now!


7. "Life" with Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac, Guy Torry, Anthony Anderson and er'ybody else! When I pop this DVD in I watch it like I've never seen it before. It's a combination of the funny ass lines and the way the actors portrayed the characters. Claude and Ray as old men still holds up and 10 years later, this movie is still hee-larious!

6. "Harlem Nights" with Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Della Reese and others. This is another DVD I can pop in and laugh all day long. If ever there were kings of comedy Pryor and Foxx are definitely among them. My favorite scenes in the movie include the exchanges between Redd Foxx and Della Reese because they sound like the old married couple who love to hate each other but would never get a divorce.

Today, I'm sad.

One of my favorite shows met its demise last night around 10:04 EST. *sniffles* Showtime pulled the plug on "The L Word" and I am not over it. Honestly, I'm not sure if I will get over it.
First of all, if you weren't watching "The L Word," I don't know what you've been doing with your life for the past six years. Let me try to explain.
I happened onto this show by pure circumstance. Toward the end of 2003, one of my best friends from college asked me if I'd seen this new show that follows the lives of a group of lesbian friends.
The convo went a little like this:
TQ: Have you ever seen that show "The L Word" about this group of lesbians?
Me: Hell no! Why would I want to watch that?!
TQ: If you can make it through the first episode, it's a great show.
Me: I'll have to take your word for that one.
TQ: For real, it's a good show. Did you watch "Queer As Folk?"
Me: Yes, but that's different.
TQ: Why? Because they were men?
Me: Yeah. I don't want to watch women in sex scenes together. *shudders* Ewww.
TQ: *laughs* Just make it through the first episode and it's a good show.
To make a long story short, I was living in Tennessee in an apartment that had Showtime on Demand. It was one of those days where there was nothing on TV and I had seen every movie that had come on Lifetime that day. I decided to take a gander at what TQ was talking about. I was bored, I didn't have a damn thing else to do, so I watched. That Saturday afternoon, I was introduced to a show and a cast of characters I won't soon forget.
I won't front, at first, the show was a little hard to watch. Not only were these beautiful women making out (I hate that term) and having sex, but I couldn't get "Flashdance" out of my head whenever Jennifer Beals character "Bette" was in a scene.
I have to admit, TQ was right, once the initial episode was over, I had to keep watching it because the storyline was freakin' awesome! The writers on that show wrote such great stories that I had to keep going back to watch it.
After about the third episode, I stopped looking at the characters as "lesbians" and they became characters in a show that I liked. They were just regular people who go through the same crap everybody else does.
They became like any other cable TV drama. There were characters that I loved, like Dana (Erin Daniels), Kit (Pam Grier), Shane (Katherine Moenning) and Tasha (Rose Rollins). Then, there were characters I loved to hate, like Marina, Tonya, Jodi and in the last two seasons, Jenny.
As a side note, I have never in all my life of watching television hated a character more than I hated Jenny Schecter in the last two years. Kudos to Mia Kirshner for being a helluva an actress!
Anyway, my point is, this was an awesome show that I'm sad to see head off into the abyss of great shows that I wasn't ready to see go. Farewell to "The L Word." You'll be in great company with "The Cosby Show," "A Different World," "Ally McBeal," "Six Feet Under," "Queer As Folk," "Noah's Arc" and "Soul Food."

Must See TV

I know that it is no secret that I watch a lot of television. I have to put you guys up on a great new series on my new favorite channel TV One.
First off, they've got all the great reruns of some of my favorite shows like "Martin," "Living Single," "Good Times" and "Roc." They also play some great movies starring wonderful black actors of the past and present.
In addition to all of that, they manage to put on awesome shows like their latest series, "Unsung." Let me just go on record as saying this is the best musical documentary series I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, I like "Behind the Music" and all, but these shows are just better to me.

The title says it all, they are highlighting the careers and lives of some of the most unsung artists in music. From what I gather from the website and the shows, there are four episodes thus far. The first was about the incomparable Clark Sisters from music mecca Detroit.
I did a post during Black Music Month talking about how much their music has really touched me in my life. Being a fan< I only saw what was on the surface< I had no idea that they had such a fascinating story.
Of course I knew their historic gospel music lineage through their mother, Mattie Moss Clark, and I knew that they'd split to work on solo projects. I had no idea about all the things they endured just to get the music out.
In fact, the same can be said for Donny Hathaway and DeBarge. Their episodes came on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. If you guys have TV One in your area, I strongly encourage you to watch these shows. I hope they make it apart of the weekly line-up, I would love to see stories on The O'Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Babyface and so many others..

A whole month ...

... and you guessed, people are still crazy! Thank God that it is the kind of crazy that is hilarious and not horrifying. Brace yourself, this is going to be long. I haven't been by in a while.
First and foremost, is anyone disappointed that Rosie has finally left The View? I know I'm not. She's been nothing but trouble since BEFORE she got there.
I know you guys remember when Star started losing all that weight, she talked about her so badly that it wasn't even funny. Then when she got there, she turned it into "The Rosie O'Donnell Show featuring a couple of sidekicks," starting fights and offending folks along the way.
Let's go ahead and get this out of the way, if she had any pigment in her skin at all, she would have been let go after that "Ching Chong" incident where she was picking at Asians. And now the childish brat is saying that she'll never speak to Elisabeth again.
I have absolutely no idea why they kept her around as long as they have. I don't know who the hell she was supposed to appeal to.
They've got the Hasselbeck chick for the young housewives, Joy Behar and Barbara Walters (when she goes to work) for the retired women, they lost their minority when Star left and no one for the older housewives.
I give The View one more season before the network pulls the plug. It's had a good run, up until last year, and they need to go ahead and put the show out of its misery. That fight between Rosie and Elisabeth was the benediction.
Next subject, I know everyone saw Miss America fall. That was freakin' hilarious!!!
Oh my gosh you guys, I saw it earlier today and I was having a bad day, but that clip was definitely a pick me up! I know I shouldn't laugh at others misfortune, but that was funny. I mean, the whole world was watching that pageant and she fell.
~still laughing and tearing up~
OK, I'm OK now.
Can we please move on from LiLo and her drinking problem? I mean gosh, the girl has been in Hollywood her whole life and is finally old enough to party like a rockstar. Leave her alone, let her battle her demons in private.
And last today, but certainly not least, who do I have to threaten to get a decent season/series finale?
I know that some of you guys are as into TV as I and you have been watching these god-awful excuses for season finales. Some of these shows aren't even coming back and they did not tie up the loose ends. Now, ya'll know I love to support my people of color on network sitcoms and dramas, but the networks are really making it hard to do.
First off, last season, they got rid of Half & Half and One on One when UPN and WB merged. They kept All of Us, made it decent and are now taking it off the air without a series finale. Then, they also kept Girlfriends, got rid of Toni, made the show SUCK, and had what could have naturally been the end of it all.
ABC got rid of George Lopez and added Ugly Betty. Great add, but why did they take away George? I just don't understand anymore. Where are they getting these freakin' test audiences from? Is it that they don't want to see how people of color live or are they afraid that we appear "too human?" Or is it that Americans have such a severe case of ADD that we don't care what happens to our characters anymore?
I tell ya'll man, it's almost enough to make me stop watching TV all together - almost.