Good Friday Evening...

Friday!

GLORY!!

And the ONLY thing that would make it a better Friday is if this was PAYDAY!

Alas, it isn't. Oh well.

It is HOT in my beloved ATL. It was just cold as all get out earlier this week.

The confusion continues.

Our beloved President is in town today. I left to go down the Curb Market for lunch, which is 6 blocks east of where he will be speaking.You would think that that would be up out of the way of all the traffic mess. It sort of was, but you best believe they had a bunch of police cars posted up at EVERY single intersection. UGH!!

Keep him safe. We don't want NUTHIN' happening to him in the ATL.

NUTHIN'!

Get in, get out.

That is all.

This has been a decent enough week. I'm just glad that it's Friday.

Thoughts on President's first 100 days. I haven't thought much about his first 100 days. Of course he hasn't fulfilled all these vainglorious promises. And nothing has convinced me that he takes it all that serious. I think the gravity of it all is starting to kick in, and with that, hopefully they will get the ball rolling.  Until then, and now, I will pray for our president. And keep it moving.

I don't watch a lot of news about it because it is so doggone negative. I am doing my best to keep my mind on positive things. The constant negativity is quite draining. So that is a goal of mine.

There is no CD of the week. BUT, Mary J. Blige came out with a new CD today.

Strength of a Woman

It is an interesting CD.

Why?

Because she is going through a divorce right now. And she spills much much tea on this CD.

One part in the song "Set Me Free" had me a bit... wide-eyed.


Tell me how you figure that you made me
And you gave me what I had before I met you
And gonna have it when you gone?
And how you fix your mouth to say I owe you
When you had another bitch and taking trips and shit with my money for so long?
You must've lost it!
Nigga, you won't get a dime!
Bout all you gonna get
Too bad I can't get back my time
Wasted all this time,
But I'm gonna be alright
Gonna be just fine.


Chorus:
Wooooo, there's a special place in hell for yooooooouu.....
You gonna pay for what you did to me...
I'ma tell you,  because the truth will set thee free.!  

*blink blink*

DANG.

That sounds like some rap lyrics, but she was crooning the cheese out of those words. 

That whole "there's a special place in hell for you" refrain... that is some anger right there. But what I can most identify with in that song is the loss of time. Time has been lost. And it will take time to get over the lost of time. 

A bit depressing, it is. It was NOT what I needed to be listening to when I am half sleep on a Friday morning.

And it is probably not meant to be depressing, but moreso introspective.

You know what it puts me in the mind of? Her second CD, My Life.

Do you remember that CD? That was a CLASSIC.

And she was all strung out over KC of Jodeci fame at the time. So it was full of angst. Full to the top.

I remember my friends and I thinking "She all strung out and pressed over some dayum KC? DANG!""

I guess she have to get all her stuff out in the open. Back then, some 23 years ago on the My Life CD, and now, with this divorcce.

I can appreciate that. I have been divorced, and yes, there are a lot of seriously complicated feelings involved. Best to get it out.  This is her avenue for expressing herself. And I respect that.

I will probably listen to the CD a few times this weekend so that I can properly digest it.  I may need to go pull the lyric sheet and read it, because the CD is highly conceptual.

I love Mary. We are the same age, and her career has spanned some 25 years.  So I remember being a 22-year-old, on the bus with my Walkman and headphones listening to cassettes and identifying with her. I was working at a Sunkist plant during the summer,  and I remember talking to a dude I worked with about that My Life CD and how it made me cry.

Mary and I are the same age, but there is a huge difference: she has to go through her messes in the public eye, and I go through mine in  private. I ponder this very point every time we are sitting around discussing some superstar's  private life. I secretly am thankful that I can deal with all my personal issues in private.  We ALL can deal with our issues privately.

Hmmm... There was a semi Food-for-Thought wrapped up in there.

And with that... I think I will put up my FAVORITE Mary J. Blige song. It is from the How Stella got Her Groove Back. It came out the year I got my PhD, some 19 years ago. (WOW has it been that long).

I remember because I turned my dissertation and the required copies (on cotton paper) into the graduate office. Then I walked up to the CNN center to see How Stella Got Her Groove Back. I was so doggone happy that day, sitting in the dark theater, smiling ear to ear. I'd finished school. I was "Dr. LadyLee".

Enough Reminiscing... Here is the Song of the Week: "Beautiful"



Okay... one more song since I am reminiscing: The song "Reminisce" from 25 years ago!!



 *lee chair dancing HARD*

And why do I know every single word to those songs? LOL

With that said, have a great weekend, on purpose.