Uptown & The Strangelove Below

Harlem is on the come-up. First Starbucks, then the MAC store (both on 1-2-5) and now the Imagenation Soul Cinema. Just like the Tribeca Screening Room, this uptown art house will screen independent films from the African Diaspora-- supposedly it's the first in the country. And even though it doesn't open until 2006, like any and everything else here in Gotham in search of legitimacy, there's going to be a press release and requisite launch party to mark the occasion (so what if the ISC isn't opening for another year, there's plenty of photo opportunities right now?!?). So on Thursday night I took my spiritual mother to what I thought would be another crudité passing, chardonnay sipping, long speech having affair. But lo and behold these imagenation folks are not playing. The event was held at Lincoln Center in the Kaplan Penthouse -- a huge room with a ton of windows, a wraparound terrace and amazing views of the Westside. In one word it was Decadent, but with an urban twist. They even had FOOD-- good food too. I'm talking collard greens, fried chicken, tuna noodle salad and corn bread. There was wine but there was also cognac for the serious heads. They showed a few shorts that were all exceptional (especially The Bet by Whut's Up Budweiser director Charles Stone) and there was even live music. Tamar-kali, who is officially my favorite unsigned artist-- actually one of my favorites period-- performed. As usual she killed it and left the headliner Guru to perform in a half empty room. I mean I like Gangstarr and all but at that point we had grubbed, saw 4 great shorts and just had our wigs blown back by songs like this... not to mention all the liquor that had been guzzled. There was nothing else for folks to do but go home and embrace the Itis and sleep. It was a hot night and if that's what the ISC is about (soul food will be served at the concession stand!) then I can't wait! I'm loving this whole Independent Movement-- music, film, and of course books. This has got to be the Love Below that Andre 3000 was referring to and thank god it looks like it's on the come up.

Talking about love and flicks... I finally saw this classic last night and loved it. Peter Sellers is a comic genius. It's all in the subtleties of what he does. Kubrick made movies that required you to pay attention to detail. That's a beautiful thing-- a needful thing... a lost art now. I'm hopeful though and am seeing signs everywhere that independent artists are on the rise making some serious noise creating a little strangelove of their own. Uptown baby... it's in the details!

Reading Is Fund(wo)mental

So what if the title of this post is a tad corny, it's the most appropriate for my rant today. How weird is it to discover that your man is reading your books? Not very, you say. Okay but what if that book is He's Just Not That Into You. A lil' weird, huh. It's one of those books that I usually find myself reading in the little grrrls room (btw-- the best room for reading ever!) and this morning when I went to the shower I noticed the book on the bathtub ledge opened to Chapter 9: He's Just not That Into You If He's Disappeared on You. Being only up to chapter 7 myself (the he's not into you if he doesn't wanna marry you chapter, duh) I quickly turn the shower on and skip ahead to see what my friend has gleaned from what I consider to be grrrls-only reading. You feel me? So like every other chapter the authors-- Greg and Liz-- have some examples that are half 'oh so common' and the other half are of the totally ridiculous sort like "my boyfriend of 6 months went to visit his mom in Boston and he never called me. When I called his mom's to speak to him, she says that he is visiting friends in Florida. I never ever heard or saw him again." Wow. Not being into you is an understatement. You were his chick on the side, his NYC amusement whenever he was in town and bored. All of these thoughts are running through my mind when suddenly the steam from the shower not only clears my nasal passages but gets me open to the fact that today my boyfriend of six months tells me he is going to visit his mom in the Hamptons today for a few days. Is he trying to figure out how to play a disappearing act without alerting me to the dead giveaway signs so clearly illustrated in this book of grrrls gone wildly delusional who need this book, a hobby and a hug? Not too worried that I'll become a footnote in chapter 9 I take my time to shower-- exfoliating, shaving and all. Afterwards I casually ask if he found the book interesting. He says that he thinks the book is dead-on and that he didn't know grrrls could get so serious about one date or one phone call or even a Weekend Getaway. Basically it's a Mars/ Venus thing or rather, a "If I say it is, then it is so" thing. My friend explains that if a man does NOT say he's into you, and that he wants to spend the rest of his life with you then no matter what, his actions are probably a crock of ish. (Of course I know a couple of guys who say all the right things just to get you open and of course, that aspect of The Game my friend does not discuss) He also said now he felt bad and had a ton of remorse for the women, he now realizes were probably making up excuses for his former flaky behind. Huumph, serves him right. That's what he gets for reading chick lit. Needless to say he called me while on the highway and once he arrived. It's good to know, that as of this writing, he's so into me! Aaahh this new Mariah song I just added to my playlist is up—It's Like That. Later!

To Be or Not B-Girl? Now this is our Dilemma...

Well according to all astrologers this is supposed to be a huge month for us Aries. April is the month where we will begin to see ourselves differently-- a time for reinvention, definition and progress. Clearly something is in the air with the flood of hiphop meets feminism meets empowerment campaigns that seems to have taking over the stratosphere of all things bling. From Essence's long over due Take Back The Music campaign to the Hip-hop and Feminism Conference in Chicago to the claims of sexual harassment by former Source Mag VP's to this summer's B-Girl Be Symposium in Minnesota either most women are Rams or grrrls everywhere from Spellman College to Minnesota are taking off their Dior frames and seeing themselves and their daughters and not liking the reflection-- credit cards being swiped up our booties, fifth grade girls giving head to their classmates, and my favorite, our bosses excusing their sexist behavior with counter claims that allege we deserved such treatment as a result of us being sexually promiscuous in the office. And in the midst of this crap, there's Lil Kim and Foxy Brown and Jackie-O lying and fighting and for what? What's up? I thought it was about Ladies First. Guess not...