The Pink Project - Brad Pitt Interview with Larry King

Brad Pitt on Larry King podcast (1)

Brad Pitt on Larry King podcast (2)

Brad Pitt on Larry King podcast (3)

Brad Pitt on Larry King podcast (4)

Brad Pitt on Larry King podcast (5)

Brad Pitt busy making it right in the Lower 9th Ward

Brad Pitt is my hero.
At the center of a buzzing construction zone in the heart of the worst-ravaged corner of the Lower 9th Ward, movie megastar Brad Pitt took a break Sunday afternoon to imagine the future.

Strewn around him a half-mile in every direction were hundreds of enormous pink blocks, 8-foot-high boxes and huge triangular wedges, representing the uprooted foundations and dislocated roofs that littered the area beside the Industrial Canal for months after Hurricane Katrina.

"Right now there are scattered blocks, like they were scattered by fate's hand, symbolic of the aftermath of the storm," Pitt said as crews installed more of the metal-and-tarp structures. "But we will be flipping the homes, essentially righting the wrong."

In his first extensive one-on-one interview since moving his family to New Orleans last year, Pitt shared with The Times-Picayune on Sunday details of this next phase of his $12 million "Make It Right" project: a vast public art display to be unveiled today as a fundraiser to expand the project beyond its initial goal of 150 homes, and possibly into other neighborhoods and parishes.

Pitt, 43, also spoke of his years-long love for New Orleans, which he thinks will thrive again despite the propensity of some public officials to let the city "die on the vine," and his hope that national leaders will use the ongoing disaster as an impetus to retool public policy with an eye toward the poor.


Katrina "illuminated the brutal truth that there's a portion of our society that we're not looking after, that we are marginalizing. And that shouldn't be," said Pitt, who watched the horrific televised images of the flooded city in 2005 from Calgary, Alberta, where he was filming the 2006 movie "The Assassination of Jesse James."

Green-friendly homes

• Hear the interview

Steering the conversation away from himself, Pitt focused on Make It Right's efforts to build affordable, environmentally friendly, storm-safe houses for residents of the Lower 9th Ward on the same lots where their old homes once stood. In announcing the project in September at a meeting of world leaders on global warming, Pitt and philanthropist Steve Bing pledged $5 million each to jump-start the project.

"This cannot be about me," he said Sunday from inside a trailer at the project site. "I am fortunate to have a big spotlight in my hand, and I can point it in a direction."

Today that place will be the section of the Lower 9th Ward best-known as the spot where a barge came to rest after floating through a fractured levee. Pitt is slated to lead news reporters on a tour around the area's conglomeration of pink art pieces, then to issue a public call to corporations, foundations and church organizations around the world to "adopt" the blocks, for $150,000 each, to support his project.

Donors also will be invited to make smaller gifts -- from $5 to $45,500 -- to sponsor the individual elements of the houses' eco-friendly designs, such as fluorescent bulbs, low-flush toilets and solar-panel installations. More information is available at the project's Web site, www.makeitrightnola.org.

With the average house slated to cost between $100,000 and $174,000, planners expect participants to contribute some money, including insurance and Road Home proceeds, toward construction. But they expect most homeowners will fall about $70,000 short of paying off their new homes. To fill the gap, Make It Right plans to offer forgivable loans of as much as $100,000, with the caveat that applicants must have owned a home or lot in the Lower 9th Ward before Katrina.

Pink 'screams the loudest'

Eventually, Pitt said, planners will turn the all-natural pink fabric covering into novelty items, such as bags, that will be sold to raise more money.

"Why pink? For me it screams the loudest," Pitt said. "It says that this place, where so many people thrived, is still sitting there like a barren wasteland, and we can change that."

In addition to being a tool for fundraising, the giant pink pieces will, Pitt said, become the ornamentation for a nightly driving tour in the style of City Park's annual "Celebration in the Oaks" festival, albeit with a more somber focus. Expected to open to the public Tuesday evening and extend for five weeks, the tour will feature the large pieces interspersed with 1,000 smaller bulbs representing the residents who died in Katrina. All the lights will be solar-powered, he said.

In addition, the whole installation will be laid out in the precise pattern of the constellations as they glowed on the night of Aug. 29, 2005, he said.

Though the vast work of art aims to draw attention to the Make It Right project, Pitt said it also reflects the "vitality" of the city that he first visited in 1994 during the filming of "Interview with the Vampire" and adopted as his home a year ago, when he and his partner, actress Angelina Jolie, bought a house in the French Quarter.

New Orleans is "the only place that we could do something as crazy as what you see out there and it not be considered so crazy, that it (could) actually be fun," he said. "This is the place of Mardi Gras. This is the place where I had a parade going by my house yesterday. I have no idea what for. It was at noon. I have no idea, but it made me smile."

'We love it here'

Saying he plans to spend the next several weekends in the city, Pitt reiterated a point he has made before: that New Orleans offers himself, Jolie and their four children uncommon tranquillity.

"We love it here," he said. "And for some reason we can have some semblance of a normal life here. The folks treat us so well and give us space and let us be a family. We don't have that luxury in other major cities."

A prime focus of Pitt's work in the coming months will be helping a team of nearly 200 planners, many working for free, turn Make It Right plans into reality. Tom Darden, the project's executive director, said 13 architecture firms from around the globe that lent their efforts pro bono have finished schematic designs and are working on blueprints.

Eight pilot families have been chosen, all with lots in the three blocks of Tennessee Street between North Claiborne Avenue and Galvez Street, Darden said. Construction is expected to begin by the end of March.

"I am telling you, there are going to be families returning into homes, they'll be spending Christmas here next year," Pitt said. "They won't have to spend another Christmas away from home. Next Thanksgiving: turkey dinner."

Pitt acknowledged that even as Make It Right nears groundbreaking on its pilot homes, the project he first pitched to residents in February has faced hurdles, including the deep skepticism of a community where residents lived for years amid abandoned properties, failing public schools and escalating crime fueled by the illegal drug trade.

Cautiously optimistic, residents demanded full participation in the project. And they got it by way of weekly meetings in their neighborhood with architects and planners. Each time architects returned from their drawing boards, residents have said, their plans included more of neighbors' suggestions, from the inclusion of backup fuel sources for solar-powered appliances to wheelchair ramps to reach elevated first floors.

"I come from Missouri," Pitt said. "They call it the Show Me State. I grew up with the same nature. When you know the story here, (can you) question that the locals here would question some outsider coming in?

"Look at the way the freeways are laid in," he said. "They're just laid right on top of neighborhoods. It's so clear some of them were laid out for the needs of a few and not the needs of many."

'A social justice issue'

Aiming to even the balance, Pitt -- a professed "technology junkie" -- has steered his curiosity about advances in environmental design into a requirement that any Make It Right house incorporate such items as energy-efficient appliances, south-facing roofs laden with solar panels, outdoor space for composting, and interior finishes made from products that are not harmful to residents' health or the environment.

"This to me is a social justice issue, too," he said. "They're not getting the crap materials that give your kids asthma, increase your health bills. They're not getting the cheap appliances that are going to run up your bills and keep that burden on you. It's a respectful way to treat people."

Broadly, Pitt said he hopes such issues will be raised during the 2008 presidential campaign. He also wants candidates to address directly the ongoing struggle of hurricane victims across the Gulf Coast.

"I would challenge all the candidates to focus on what's going on down here, what's not going on here," he said. "We're going to build some houses here, but there are bigger issues that need to get answered here, such as education and health. These need to be major factors of the campaign.

"My point is: If you can't get it right down here, you're not getting it right anywhere. This is the place to do it, and there's definitely a need for it right now. I hope to see it become one of the major issues of the upcoming campaign, not as a tool to beat the past administration but as a real focus on the problems of this country."

Even as Make It Right revs up, Pitt said he remains concerned about New Orleans' future and criticized the failure of local leaders to make clear decisions, such as which parts of the city will be rebuilt and how.

"Someone said that it was like it was being left to die on the vine, and I couldn't put it any better than that, meaning there's no real effort either way," he said. "There's just been no clear line drawn."

Public officials say, "'We want you to come back, but we're only going to give you a little bit (of money) to come back.' It just hasn't been a strong enough, clear plan of direction," he said.

Nevertheless, Pitt said residents' resilience will pull the city back to its feet.

"The thing is, I don't believe it will ever die on the vine," he said. "There's just too many seventh-generation families. They're not letting this place go under."

Michelle Krupa, staff writer December 02, 2007
Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicyune.com or (504) 826-3312.

The Long Journey of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Sharon Jones "It's a Man's World" Encore!!!!!

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are a funk/soul band. They are signed to Daptone Records, where the Dap-Kings are the house band. They are widely thought to be spearheads of a revivalist movement that aims to capture the essence of funk/soul music as it was at its height in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. Part of the way this is achieved is to shun modern digital recording methods in favour of using traditional analogue recording equipment. The type of instruments used by the band may also be considered limited to those that would have been available up until the mid seventies.

Daptone: a new label and the birth of the Dap-Kings
In 2000, due to a growing difference of opinion, Lehman and Roth decided to go separate ways and both set up new labels. Philip Lehman set up Soul Fire Records (now defunct, the back catalogue is handled by Truth & Soul Records). Gabriel Roth went on to start Daptone Records with Sugarman 3 saxophonist Neal Sugarman. The Soul Providers split and a new band, the Dap-Kings formed. The band was consisted of label owners Roth AKA Bosco Mann on bass and Neal Sugarman on Saxophone, plus original Soul Providers: guitarist Binky Griptite, organist Earl Maxton, percussionist Fernando Velez and trumpeter Anda Szilagyi. Joining them were original members of the Mighty Imperials whose album, Thunder Chicken, was the last release on the Desco label: tenor saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinwess.
Having secured a summer residency at The Boite, a club in Barcelona, Spain, the band recorded an LP, Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings in 2001. A few hundred copies were pressed, so that sales during the residency would provide financial backing on what would have otherwise been a financially disastrous trip. With promotional copies reaching notable funk DJs and reviewers, the album gained a significant reputation and was officially released as the first LP and CD on Daptone Records in 2002 to universal acclaim amongst enthusiasts. In their review at the time, quarterly hip-hop and funk magazine Big Daddy (defunct) suggested that it might be the best new funk album ever, credited Roth with being "one of the best analogue producers there is" and stated "this LP is a major triumph and a new standard has been set".

An exhausting schedule of international shows then followed to promote the album and it quickly became clear that promotion of Sharon Jones would be key to the success of the Daptone label. Whilst trying to build upon the revue style stable showcasing and trying to record other groups and artists on the label, other projects have to a certain extent been sidelined in favour of building on the success of Sharon Jones. Expected albums from Lee Fields and Naomi Davis have so far been victim to a lack of time, funds and energy a small independent label has. Neal Sugarman's own band Sugarman 3 who have themselves released several popular albums including one on the Daptone label, Pure Cane Sugar, have also been somewhat sidelined.

Following the album, three 45's of note, not included on the album where also released. "What If We all Stopped Paying Taxes", released in 2002 just ahead of the U.S. Election, was a militant anti-war statement denouncing the Iraq War. "Genuine (parts 1 & 2)" in 2004 was an uncompromisingly hard funk record which firmly kept the interest of enthusiasts and their cover of "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", released in 2005 but which was apparently recorded for a KFC commercial in 2002 but was never used.

Desco: the early years
The original incarnation of the band, the Soul Providers, were formed in the mid nineties by Philip Lehman and Gabriel Roth AKA Bosco Mann. The Soul Providers began recording an album consisting of James Brown inspired instrumentals and vocal collaborations with Deep Funk legend Lee Fields. It was during these sessions that Roth and Lehman discovered vocalist Sharon Jones after she recorded backing vocals for one of the Lee Fields tracks. They were impressed enough to record a solo track with Jones entitled "Switchblade", a track that had originally been intended for a man to record. This track along with another Jones solo, "The Landlord", were included on the Soul Providers debut release Soul Tequila, released circa 1996 on the French label Pure Records (defunct). Lehman and Roth then started a new label in Brooklyn, New York. Desco Records was born taking its name from Desco Vacuum, a vacuum cleaner store in West 41st Street underneath which they utilised the basement as studio space and an office to administer and distribute the label. Sugarman 3 organist Adam Scone just happened to live upstairs in the same building. The Soul Tequila album was then reissued as a vinyl only LP renamed Gimme The Paw. The record, which featured Lehman's pet dog Spike on the cover, only kept one of the Sharon Jones collaborations, "Switchblade", omitting "The Landlord".

Having established a scene in New York of performers, Desco aimed to showcase a stable of artists with revue style shows and concentrated on releasing vinyl 45 records by a number of artists including Sugarman 3, The Daktaris, The Mighty Imperials, Naomi Davis & The Knights of 41st Street, Lee Fields, Joseph Henry and Sharon Jones, who backed by the Soul Providers who had become the Desco house band, released three 45's on the label. Desco Records were gaining intrigue and reputation for quality amongst soul/funk collectors and enthusiasts. Many people who bought the early records were unsure that they were modern recordings as recording dates were deliberately omitted from the labels and were often marketed as being released in the 1970s. Two other Soul Providers albums were released, an instrumental soundtrack to a mysterious Sam Lung Kung-Fu film, The Revenge Of Mr Mopoji, credited to Mike Jackson And The Soul Providers and a Lee Fields solo album Let's Get A Groove On where the Soul Providers provided the backing.

Personnel changes
By this time there were a few personnel changes, as organist Earl Maxton and trumpeter Anda Szilagyi officially became members of Antibalas, a New York based afrobeat band. Whilst Maxton was not replaced on organ, Trumpeter David Guy was recruited on trumpet. Also from the Budos Band, Thomas Brenneck, a second guitarist was added. In 2003 the Daptone Recording Studio, complete with a sixteen track analogue tape machine was open for business. It was originally intended to record two albums back-to-back to speed up the next release process. However during the final sessions of the first of these albums, Gabriel Roth suffered serious eye injuries in a car crash on his way home from the studio. This led to a break in the recording process and ultimately plans to limit the sessions to only one album. Their second LP and CD, Naturally, was then released in 2005. This album was a more broad based album than the first (which almost completely consisted of funk numbers) and included a mix of both soul and funk influences. The sleeve notes, written by Gabriel Roth, provided some insight into the vision behind the music, "Somewhere between banging on logs and the invention of M.I.D.I. technology we have made a terrible wrong turn. We must have ridden right past our stop. We should have stepped down off the train at that moment when rhythm and harmony and technology all culminated to a single Otis Redding whine. That moment of the truest, most genuine expression of what it means to be human." The production and recording values of this album were also noticeably crisper than that of the first - attaining a sound similar to the kind of production standard achieved by James Brown at his height, rather than the slightly duller "scratchy 45" sound of the original album. With, again, international acclaim amongst enthusiasts and a steadily growing base of both fans and now imitators, the band embarked on more extensive international tours and promotion of the album.

Leon Michels left the band soon after the release of Naturally to help start a new label Truth & Soul Records on the back of a solo LP that was originally intended to be released on Daptone, Sounding Out The City, credited to El Michels Affair. The label would also fill the void left when Philip Lehman closed the Soul Fire label and moved to the Bahamas, leaving the scene altogether. The back catalogue of Soul Fire would then be handled by Truth & Soul Records who, along with Soul Fire often used many of the same artists in their stable, such as Lee Fields, Homer Steinweiss and Thomas Brenneck but of whom Leon Michels had been the biggest collaborator. Michels replacement in the Dap-kings came as Ian Hendrickson-Smith, a local saxophone player who has released several jazz albums under his own name.

Collaborations
The Dap-Kings were then hired as session musicians on a number of projects associated with New York based DJ/producer/recording artist Mark Ronson. Most notable of these is their extensive inclusion and somewhat unheralded contribution to Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black (2006). Six of the album's eleven tracks feature various members of the Dap-Kings with two notable hits from the album, "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good", extensively featuring the Dap-Kings. A further engineering credit goes to Gabriel Roth and several tracks recorded at Daptone Studios are mis-credited as "Dapking Studios". Again various members of the band feature on Ronson's second album, Version (2007), providing contributions on all but one of the album's fourteen tracks. The Dap-Kings then became the backing band used on Amy Winehouse's first U.S. tour. In 2007 the Dap-Kings worked with British singer Ben Westbeech to record a new version of his song "So Good Today"; it was released to mark the first anniversary of Brownswood recordings, the label Westbeech is signed to in the UK.

Charity: Water

charity water ball with adrian grenier and jessica stam

Estelle - Wait A Minute [Just A Touch] (live at Later...)

Estelle Live!

John Legend on Radio One
Estelle. The British singer-rapper-songwriter-producer's "Shine" will be the first release on Legend's HomeSchool label through Atlantic Records.

"Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" is the lead single from the project, slated for release Feb. 12, 2008. Executive-produced by Legend, "Shine2" features production by Wyclef Jean, will.i.am, Swizz Beatz and Mark Ronson as well as Legend, who also has a cameo in the "Wait" video. Guests include Kanye West (on the track "American Boy") and Cee-Lo.

Asked about other artists on the HomeSchool roster, Legend tells Billboard.com that no one else is signed yet and the label is non-exclusive. "This isn't a blanket imprint. There will be some artists a label partner may like and some they don't. I'm doing this one at a time."

Estelle, whose music draws comparisons to Lauryn Hill, was born in West London. She's previously released material through her own label, Stellar Ents, including the album "The 18th Day" and two "Da Heat" mixtapes. She first met Legend several years ago at Roscoe's chicken and waffle eatery in Hollywood; he and West were taking a break from working on the latter's "The College Dropout" when Estelle came up to their table and introduced herself.

The now New York-based Estelle will be visiting major cities starting in November, according to Legend. She tosses aside concerns raised about the failure of many British R&B/rap artists to connect with stateside audiences, saying "I'm just going to be me, and keep my mind on what I do. I think people will get it."

Legend agrees. "It's all about the songs and music. British soul artists haven't come with the right music. Estelle has the right music and producers; her music will speak for itself. She's undeniably a star."

As for his next album, Legend says he's three songs (one of which features will.i.am) into what he's planning as a summer 2008 release. In the meantime, he's just returned from Zanzibar and Tanzania where he shot the video for his latest single, "Show Me." It was directed by Lee Hirsch, the filmmaker behind the 2002 South Africa documentary "Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony."
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Gail Mitchell, L.A., Copyright 2007, Billboard/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved

James Blunt - 1973 (live at Later...)

Michael Slezark, from “Snap Judgment”, wrote a scathing review of James Blunt’s ‘1973’ single which was hilarious. He wrote: Granted, there's a strong chance I'm still suffering from a case of post-"You're Beautiful" Stress Disorder (PYBSD), but hearing Blunt's slippery mewl on this mid-tempo track makes me want to snap my ears off.

It appears Michael may not be suffering from PYBSD, but WMHD (Whining Male Hater Disorder). It’s baffling how some men can turn a blind eye to misogyny but have a whining fit when other men express their sensitive adoration towards a woman. Sure, there is no problem with a man crush submissive towards an athlete, but the adoration or frustration due to a woman is their Achilles heel. Seems to me, Michael was channeling Vincent Van gogh, and James Blunt is his Rachel/Paul Guaguin. Never the less, it’s beautiful music to my ears, even if Michael might be deaf. James Blunt’s Ode’s to his loves are like icing on the cake, which makes me salivate. Keep it coming and coming and coming James.

James Blunt

4STARS

Barak Obama Speech Covered on Hardball

Change and Hope has become something Americans have forgotten. Most Americans understand that we must preserve the planet, improve our economy, increase the value of the US dollar, and rebuild global trust as a country. It’s ironic that we are less safe today, because interest groups and corporations have utilized our government has bully and oppressed other nations with little regard for diplomacy or respect. It is clear that our government’s efforts to ensure our nation’s security have more to do with corporate greed than national security. It appears there is a need for leadership that will help preserve the planet, preserve the freedoms and wealth of the country and not allow it to continue to erode, as the world turns against us for our infamous deeds.

I agree with Obama, engaged citizens working at the grassroots level can change the world. He said, “It’s not the magnitude of our problems, it is the smallness of our politics” the pettiness and greed. I too still believe that with all of America’s faults, there isn’t a better country on this planet. I’d like to keep it that way. In the past 6 years we have allowed the country to slowly topple; fewer jobs that pay the entire mortgage, bad healthcare coverage, no retirement and Trojan horse congressional acts which have become inadequate laws to protect our liberties. Essentially, we are becoming Russia. We can not allow this to continue to happen, as men and women have died for our liberties, great grandparents left their mother countries to come to the US for their liberties. We need change. The Chris Matthews Obama coverage in the clips below brings HOPE.


Barack Obama gives speech, Hardball interview (part 1)

Barack Obama gives speech, Hardball interview (part 2)

Barack Obama gives speech, Hardball interview (part 3)

Interviewpoint with Charity: water's founder Scott Harrison

Scott Harrisson is the founder of Charity:water. Through awareness Charity: water will becom a movement. A movement for stainable life on this planet. One bottle at a time.

CHARITY: MISSION
Charity: is a nonprofit organization stimulating greater global awareness about extreme poverty, educating the public, and provoking compassionate and intelligent giving.

Charity:Water
1. EDUCATION & AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS
charity: believes both widespread education and awareness are essential for global change.

charity: campaigns present issues like water and sanitation, hunger, AIDS, and preventable disease in compelling ways to promote higher understanding. Through field research and the use of new technology, charity: produces multimedia exhibitions, events, public service announcements, and grassroots activities. Through a strong web presence, charity: creates and empowers a growing community of compassionate citizens.

2. PRODUCTS THAT GIVE.
charity: believes education and awareness are not enough.

charity: seeks to spark giving by restoring faith in low-level donations. Campaign-related products are developed and sold. 100% of all proceeds directly fund humanitarian programs. In an age of billion-dollar philanthropy, charity: believes that even small gifts can have great impact when spent wisely in the developing world.

3. CLOSING THE LOOP - PROVING ITcharity: believes there is power in showing results.

charity: proves the work done in the field, using Internet technology and volunteers with cameras to bring stories of transformed lives and communities back home. In real time, donors are able to see the difference their gifts have on those in need.


Scott Harrison on The Inteviewpoint pt 1

Scott Harrison on The Inteviewpoint pt 2



Scott Harrison's Story
Just more than two years ago I left the streets of New York City for the shores of West Africa. I'd made my living for years in the big Apple promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part living selfishly, thoughtlessly. Unhappy, I desperately needed a change in my life.

I asked myself.... What did the opposite of my life look like?

Service aboard a floating hospital with Mercy Ships, a humanitarian organization which offered free medical care in the world's poorest nations. Through surgery ships. They'd been doing it for more than 25 years, producing astonishing results and I'd never heard of them.

Top doctors and surgeons from all over the world left their practices and fancy lives to operate for free on thousands who had no access to medical care. The organization I soon found to be full of remarkable people. The chief medical officer was a surgeon who left Los Angeles to volunteer for two weeks - 19 years ago. He never looked or went back.

I was offered the position of ship photojournalist, and immediately traveled to Africa. At first, being the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court felt strange. I traded my spacious midtown loft for a 150-square-foot cabin with bunk beds, roommates and cockroaches. Fancy restaurants were replaced by a mess hall feeding 400+ Army style. A prince in New York, now I was living in close community with 350 others. I felt like a pauper.

But once off the ship, I realized how good I really had it. In new surroundings, I was utterly astonished at the poverty that came into focus through my camera lens. Often through tears, I documented life and human suffering I'd thought unimaginable. In West Africa, I was a prince again. A king, in fact. A man with a bed and clean runningwater and food in my stomach.

I fell in love with Liberia - a country with no public electricity, running water or sewage - Living in a leper colony and exploring remote villages, I put a face to the world's 1.2 billion living in poverty. Those living on less than $365 a year - money I used to spend on a bottle of Grey Goose vodka at a fancy club. Before tip. Our medical staff would hold patient intake "screenings" and thousands would wait in line to be seen, many afflicted with deformities even Clive Barker hadn't thought of. Enormous, suffocating tumors - cleft lips, faces eaten by bacteria from water-borne diseases. I learned many of these medical conditions also existed here in the west, but were taken care of - never allowed to progress. The amount of blind people with no access to the 20 minute cataract surgery that could restore their sight - all part of this new world.

Over the next eight months, I met patients who taught me the meaning of courage. Slowly suffocating to death for years and yet pressing on, praying, hoping, surviving. It was an honor to photograph them. It was an honor to know them.

CHARITY:

For me, charity is practical. Sometimes easy, sometimes inconvenient, always necessary. It is the ability to use one's position of influence, relative wealth and power to affect lives for the better. charity is singular and achievable.

There's a biblical parable about a man beaten near death by robbers. Stripped naked, lying roadside - people pass him by, but one man stops. He picks him up and bandages his wounds. He puts him on his horse and walks alongside until they reach an inn. Checks him in and throws down his Amex. "Whatever he needs until he gets better."

Because he could.

The dictionary defines charity as simply the act of voluntarily giving to those in need. The word comes from the latin "caritas," or simply, love. In Colossians 3, the Bible instructs readers to "put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

Although i'm still not sure what that means, i love the idea. To wear charity.

Join us as we explore living differently.

– Scott Harrison

Tracy Reese 2008 Spring Collection

Tracy Reese’s mastery of the dainty chiffon creation has become her signature style. Like the “little black dress”, Tracy’s collection evokes the beautifully simple pleasures of being pretty. Her signature style is fresh, crisp with perfect lines and as utterly identifiable as Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, or Donna Karen.

I absolutely love her use of retro organic colors, extraordinary texture and clean geometric silhouettes. Her remarkable use of chocolate, canary yellow and taupe colors made the garments ravishingly sophisticated. The Lavender swim suites brought a sense of Zen to the runway. The Tracy Reese 2008 spring collection was absolutely impeccable.



In the Elle interview below, Tracy describes her customer as adventurous, a lady whose personal style is noticed as it shines, and she appreciates the care and detail in her wardrobe. I think the Tracy Reese collection exemplifies the classic style of Impetuous 30Something Cosmopolitans.

Noteable SPRING 2008 Collections

Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week had some noteable collections and some forgetable ones. I won't mention the forgetable collections because I can't remember them. Although not so forgetable, I was disapointed with Baby Phat's 2008 Spring collection. I am not into the "Tramp Chic" look, and it's way too excessive. Caroline Herrarra had wonderful silhouettes but those god awful prints ruined it for me. My absolute favorite was actually Tracy Reese, however the notable runner ups were Luca Luca, Mui Mui, Armani, Monique Lhillier and Zac Posen. There collections were superbly fresh and beautiful. Elle featured their shows below:

Luca Luca Spring 2008

Double click bottom Arrow. (Source: ElleMagazine)

Mui Mui Spring 2008

Double click bottom Arrow. (Source: ElleMagazine)

Giorgio Armani Spring 2008

Double click bottom Arrow. (Source: ElleMagazine)

Monique Lhillier Spring 2008

Double click bottom Arrow. (Source: ElleMagazine)

Zac Posen Spring 2008

Double click bottom Arrow. (Source: ElleMagazine)

OM. What? OMMMMM. Que? OMMMMMMMMMM

Yoga is the union of our physical, mental and spiritual selves. Yoga encourages us to focus our minds and become more aware of the internal flow of energy. It is said that the holistic doctrines of yoga are the result of thousands of years of experimentation and observation by great sages, enlightened gurus and ordinary people.

OM means oneness with the Supreme, the merging with the physical being with the spiritual. The Om (or Aum) sign for the Hindus & Buddhists is the primordial sound, the first breath of creation, the vibration that ensures existence. OM is the mantra used during yoga and meditation in the quest to obtain enlightenment, self realization, and union with the individual self and the universal self. True Blissfulness can be obtained through enlightenment.

Simply stated first, OM is chanted during meditation to relax, clear the mind, and experience absolute nothingness. The nothingness brings one to a level of consciousness which allows one to tap into one's internal and external energies. As a result, the skill of successfully reaching a metaphysical state of being allows for one to reach a level of controlled calmness. This is helpful in dealing with the challenges one faces in daily life.

30Something are plagued with stress from increasing responsibilities and demands. Yoga is a very helpful tool in managing and maintaining balance in ones life. OMMMM.

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE

I read both of Barak Obama’s books, “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope”, Thought on Reclaiming the American Dream. In doing so, one can clearly understand who he is, learn of his pesonal development to manhood, his high level of integrity, reveals his incredibly hight intelligence, his willingness to listen, compassion, patience, and objective to preservng human life, help families create the american dream with his plan for the future.

The MICHIKO KAKUTANI 2006 New York Times review of the “Audacity of Hope” states my sentiments exactly, a poignant moving and genuine book about himself and explain his perspectives on life, humanity, the world, peace efforts, the war, and the American dream with no spin, all heart.

Michik wrote:

His 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” written before Mr. Obama entered politics, provided a revealing, introspective account of his efforts to trace his family’s tangled roots and his attempts to come to terms with his absent father, who left home when he was still a toddler. That book did an evocative job of conjuring the author’s multicultural childhood: his father was from Kenya, his mother was from Kansas, and the young Mr. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia.

And it was equally candid about his youthful struggles: pot, booze and “maybe a little blow,” he wrote, could “push questions of who I was out of my mind,” flatten “out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.” Most memorably, the book gave the reader a heartfelt sense of what it was like to grow up in the 1960’s and 70’s, straddling America’s color lines: the sense of knowing two worlds and belonging to neither, the sense of having to forge an identity of his own.

Mr. Obama’s new book, “The Audacity of Hope” — the phrase comes from his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address, which made him the party’s rising young hope — is much more of a political document. Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech, and the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq.

But while Mr. Obama occasionally slips into the flabby platitudes favored by politicians, enough of the narrative voice in this volume is recognizably similar to the one in “Dreams From My Father,” an elastic, personable voice that is capable of accommodating everything from dense discussions of foreign policy to streetwise reminiscences, incisive comments on constitutional law to New-Agey personal asides. The reader comes away with a feeling that Mr. Obama has not reinvented himself as he has moved from job to job (community organizer in Chicago, editor of The Harvard Law Review, professor of constitutional law, civil rights lawyer, state senator) but has instead internalized all those roles, embracing rather than shrugging off whatever contradictions they might have produced.

Reporters and politicians continually use the word authenticity to describe Mr. Obama, pointing to his ability to come across to voters as a regular person, not a prepackaged pol. And in these pages he often speaks to the reader as if he were an old friend from back in the day, salting policy recommendations with colorful asides about the absurdities of political life.

He recalls a meet-and-greet encounter at the White House with George W. Bush, who warmly shook his hand, then “turned to an aide nearby, who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president’s hand.” (“Good stuff,” he quotes the president as saying, as he offered his guest some. “Keeps you from getting colds.”) And he recounts a trip he took through Illinois with an aide, who scolded him for asking for Dijon mustard at a T.G.I. Friday’s, worried the senator would come across as an elitist; the confused waitress, he adds, simply said: “We got Dijon if you want it.”

In his 2004 keynote address Mr. Obama spoke of the common ground Americans share: “There is not a Black America and White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.” And the same message — rooted in his own youthful efforts to grapple with racial stereotypes, racial loyalty and class resentments — threads its way through the pages of this book. Despite the red state-blue state divide, despite racial, religious and economic divisions, Mr. Obama writes, “we are becoming more, not less, alike” beneath the surface: “Most Republican strongholds are 40 percent Democrat, and vice versa. The political labels of liberal and conservative rarely track people’s personal attributes.”

Mr. Obama eschews the Manichean language that has come to inform political discourse, and he rejects what he sees as the either-or formulations of his elders who came of age in the 60’s: “In the back-and-forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004,” he writes, “I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago — played out on the national stage. The victories that the 60’s generation brought about — the admission of minorities and women into full citizenship, the strengthening of individual liberties and the healthy willingness to question authority — have made America a far better place for all its citizens. But what has been lost in the process, and has yet to be replaced, are those shared assumptions — that quality of trust and fellow feeling — that bring us together as Americans.”

His thoughts on domestic and foreign policy try to hew to this consensus-building line. Some of his recommendations devolve into little more than fuzzy statements of the obvious: i.e., that America’s “addiction to oil” is affecting the economy and undermining national security, or that the education system needs to be revamped and improved. Others echo Bill Clinton’s “third way,” methodically triangulating between traditionally conservative and traditionally liberal ideas.

Mr. Obama writes that “conservatives — and Bill Clinton — were right about welfare as it was previously structured: By detaching income from work and by making no demands on welfare recipients other than a tolerance for intrusive bureaucracy and an assurance that no man lived in the same house as the mother of his children, the old A.F.D.C. program sapped people of their initiative and eroded their self respect.”

He uses the Bush administration’s tough language to talk about national security in the age of terrorism (“if we have to go it alone, the American people stand ready to pay any price and bear any burden to protect our country”) but adds, crucially, that “once we get beyond matters of self-defense,” he is “convinced that it will almost always be in our strategic interest to act multilaterally rather than unilaterally when we use force around the world.”

He assails President Bush for waging an unnecessary and misguided war in Iraq and for promoting an “Ownership Society” that “magnifies the uneven risks and rewards of today’s winner-take-all economy.” Yet he also takes the Democrats to task for becoming “the party of reaction”: “In reaction to a war that is ill-conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action. In reaction to those who proclaim the market can cure all ills, we resist efforts to use market principles to tackle pressing problems. In reaction to religious overreach, we equate tolerance with secularism and forfeit the moral language that would help infuse our policies with a larger meaning. We lose elections and hope for the courts to foil Republican plans. We lose the courts and wait for a White House scandal.”

This volume does not possess the searching candor of the author’s first book. But Mr. Obama strives in these pages to ground his policy thinking in simple common sense — be it “growing the size of our armed forces to maintain reasonable rotation schedules” or reining in spending and rethinking tax policy to bring down the nation’s huge deficit — while articulating these ideas in level-headed, nonpartisan prose. That, in itself, is something unusual, not only in these venomous pre-election days, but also in these increasingly polarized and polarizing times.

Chrisette Michele performing on the David Letterman

AMAZING!!!Chrisette Michele performing on the David Letterman

Chrisette Michele

Meet Chrisette Michele

Chrisette Michele's CD, "I AM" is gracefully moving, remarkably complex, intrinsically passionate and incredibly soulful. Her voice is a mix of Billy Holiday and Lauren Hill. Her music style is a mix of Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Washington and Diana Ross. Yet she resembles a corpulent Kerry Washington. "I AM" is a refreshing through back to the days when music was beautiful and it touch the soul.

FOUR STARS!

Here is what January 02, 2007, Billboard magazine had to say.

Singer Gets Religious With Hip-Hop
By Ayala Ben-Yehuda, L.A.
It was after church on a Sunday, and Chrisette Michele had God and hip-hop on her mind. The 23-year-old Long Islander was on her way to a studio to write and record the hook for "Lost One," the first single off of Jay-Z's album "Kingdom Come." She hadn't heard the rest of the song yet, but the deacon's daughter wondered if it might be too explicit for her strong moral code.

"I was preparing in my head how I would say, 'I'm sorry, I can't do this,'" says the singer-songwriter of her meeting with the hip-hop mogul.

But after Jay-Z played the track, which deals with commitment, friendship and death, "I looked at him and said, 'Yo, this song is spiritual.' This song is about self-respect." Chrisette pauses for a moment. "He's a preacher."

That's quite a statement for someone with a family full of clergy, who led the gospel choir in high school and college but never got a CD until she was 17.

Still, Chrisette Michele describes herself as "a kid of the hip-hop culture" who didn't have MTV, but sang and freestyled in impromptu rap circles at school.


She also has a neverending stream of songs in her head that she attributes at least in part to attention-deficit disorder, a condition that she calls "a gift."

But it wasn't until the day a high school track coach stopped her in the hallway -- Chrisette had been jogging down the corridor singing -- that her artistic fate was sealed. The coach gave her a CD of Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz' "The Girl from Ipanema," a song that would establish her love for mixing jazz melodies with what she grew up with: gospel vocals and hip-hop beats.

"I went up to my jazz teacher in school, and said, ‘I need you to give me some more of that,'" she says, recalling the discovery of a cabinet full of classic jazz music. "Every day after that, at lunch period, I would go into the piano room and practice those songs."

With Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday as newfound heroes, Chrisette went on to major in music at 5 Towns College. A show at New York City's Village Underground led to opening gigs for India.Arie, and eventually a contract with Island Def Jam. "Lost One," her collaboration with Jay-Z, has been climbing Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop songs and Hot 100 charts, where it now stands at No. 21 and No. 73, respectively.

Chrisette, who is finishing up her own album on IDJ, was featured on the Heineken Red Star Soul tour this fall and performed onstage with Jay-Z at his Radio City concert.

She also wrote and sang hooks on Nas' album "Hip-Hop Is Dead," including on single "Can't Forget About You," a nostalgic reminiscence that's bubbling under the R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart.

Being on Nas' album had particular significance for Chrisette, whose mother was raised in the same Queensbridge housing project as the rapper.

Childhood memories of her own, particularly of the homeless women and girls her family took into their home, inspired her own album. Themes include self-esteem, commitment, and abstinence.

"I don't want to come off preachy, but I'm not afraid to be a Christian in this industry and to really believe what I believe in," says Chrisette a stance made easier to take with respectful and respected artists like Nas and Jay-Z behind her.

"He curses," she says of the latter, smiling audibly. "He didn't say the curses when I was in the room, but he curses. But that's okay."

Meet Barak Obama

ENOUGH SAID!

Sorority Sisters.

When we were college students with fresh faces and fresh ideals about the world, we believed in service to the community and cherished the times we spent making a difference on our campus. We were leaders, we were dreamers, we were believers. By the time we graduated, we knew we would be friends for life, bound by the serenity of sisterhood.

Fast forward 15+ years, a couple more degrees, the careers, the marriages, the children and the new memories have simply given us more to talk about. Even when those old memories start to fade, we get together and reminisce about those days on the hill when the youth of yesterday had the promise of tomorrow shinning so brightly before us. TJ Butler, author of the novel Sorority Sisters, writes so vividly about the complexities of the simple days of Sorority life. The book was a clear depiction of how Sorors struggle to discover their future. I think TJ Butler should write Sorority Sisters II, the 10 year reunion, and III the 20 year reunion.

Recently, my line sister was in town on business. Another Gamma Mu Soror and I met her at Bus Boys & Poets in DC. Of course we talked about our men, her children, the days on “the Hill”, Gamma Mu chapter, and our 2008 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Centennial Anniversary Celebration hosted in Washington DC. There will be thousands of Sorors converging on DC in July 2008 to commemorate 100 years. Considering the next centennial will not be in our life time, this centennial will be a once in a lifetime experience.

Life as I know it.....An introductory thought

I’m a behaviorist who happens to be a voracious reader, with an inquisitive itch, and incredibly strong opinions. Frankly, my friends and colleagues would rather have their wisdom teeth pulled without novocain rather than listen to my random rants. On any given day, I have shared my thoguhts on subjects like human rights, world peace, preserving the planet/global green, the womanist movement, religion as philosophical literature, eradicating poverty/One campaign, relationships, the concept of "Love not Hate",when to procreate, academia, urbanisms and suburbanisms, child rearing and child development, the markets, hedge fund maniacalism, the UN and it’s baby sitters, the corporate manifesto, the concept that life's contradictions represent the human condition, ……yada, yada, yada…..and the list goes on.....so here we are. Life as I know it………..TO BE CONTINUED.