DearEvette

I am doing a re-read of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Well, not the whole series, just the Nightwatch books. I just started with Guards! Guards! totally hysterical, Added bonus, I am listening to them on audio (already read em' twice) and the voice actor who does them, Stephen Briggs, is wonderful.

So apparently there is a change.org petition to get Jesse fired from Grey's. But then that was counter-pointed by another change.org petition to keep him. in the aftermath of this, Shonda tweeted: Heh.

Man, that hour went really fast. Hate the opening credits... sorry. I am not a fan of the cartoony look. But loved the pace and everything else. - Pree's expanded role in this was everything. Nice to see what he can do when he is not just handing out drinks with sage advice. From his calling everyone 'sweetie' to his "dying underwear" to his funny/convenient "marriage" to Johnny he was perfect. And so damned pretty!! - New girl Clara? is a fun addition. She feels like a continuation of the steampunk elements that the show dropped in here and there last season underneath all the hard science fiction stuff. Of course her gun-arm has a name and it liked Johnny! His milkshake brings all the AI girls to the yard! - Funny moment when we see inside D'Avin's head as he is fantasizing kissing Dutch, complete with the schmaltzy music and we cut to him humming it and dreaming with a stupid smile on his face while his doctor-torturers look upon him like "what the....?" - The "Black Root" seem to be, heh, mostly black guys. LOL - Khlyen is such an enigma. And so supremely hot in his long, sexy coats. Whatever he is doing, whatever game he is playing or whatever cards he is holding...it is like it is the longest of all long cons with life and death consequences. He always feels like he is several moves ahead of everyone. And I am here for it. I love a complicated ...villain? antagonist? anti-hero?.... whichever one it is, he is definitely it. - Dutch kinda looked like Rihanna in that wig/weird eye combo outfit she had on when they were rescuing Clara. - Oh my poor Fancy! Please still be on our side in some way. If it took him becoming a Level Six to increase his screen time, then so be it. - So glad they mentioned Pawter and Alvis. Good to know they'll still be around this season - And finally, one of Pree's aliases is Paris O'Malley. Ha!

I think it all depends on how she feels about her own identity, tbh. Some of it yes has to do with how people perceive her. But a lot has to do with how he chooses to identify and present. My roommate in college who was pale, sandy haired, freckled and light eyed and could easily pass as a white girl even though both her parents are black, but she was adamantly black. So she was always part of the black community. Her strong commitment to presenting as black made us forget sometimes that she didn't look black. I think it is easier for a biiracial person who is very light/near white to be accepted by the black community than it is for a biracial person who doesn't phenotypically look white to be accepted as white. Mainly because of the deeply entrenched one-drop rule and also because black folks are more cognizant of the ranges of skin hues within the black community and just are more accepting. Probably why Rachel Dolezal could front so easily. On a related note there is this very good documentary called Little White Lie about a woman named Lacey Schwartz who grew up believing she was white. Her mother knew she'd had an affair with a black man, but passed Lacey as her husband's child. The entire family kinda committed a conspiracy of ...delusional silence. Her somewhat tanner skin was attributed to her Sicilan grandfather. But Lacey discovered the truth and embraced her black roots. There was a point in the documentary when she goes to college at Georgetown fully identifying as a black woman and is embraced by the black students there. She talks about a sense of homecoming. It is very fascinating actually.

I have to agree with Orphan Black. I could barely manage three episodes this season. In retrospect I should have given up last season. First two seasons were fun as hell. I really wish it had just been about the clones and maybe just about their creators realizing they were too dangerous to be running about so they were trying to round them up and kill them all. That's it. The introduction of the male clones just about killed the show for me. It feels like they've lost control of the story. I watched about three episode of season 3 of Orange is the New Black and felt absolutely no desire to pick it up again. But then i thought maybe I'd just relegate S3 to oblivion and start fresh with four. Nope. Read too many spoilers. So bye bye OINTB.

See I thought his name was Panda and kept wondering if he was also a designer. I literally had no idea the song was titled Panda until much later.

Yeah, it wasn't like I was counting or anything. But it is one of those things where I was watching (i did watch live) and realized it wasn't, well, interesting really outside of Bey and the Prince stuff. And that I was just waiting for the Prince stuff. And then figuring out why it didn't feel interesting. It was because most the non-Prince acts seemed almost interchangeable. And then realizing that was because they were mostly male rappers. It wasn't necessarily a conscious thing like I was keeping score. More like a subconscious thing. I mean, Andra Day was there and she was a nominee and she's having a moment too she could've had a slot. So really just a lack that felt problematic to me after the fact.

He literally made me stand up in my own living room, waving a paper fan (metaphorically) saying Amen. That speech surprised the hell out of me seeming to come out of nowhere and spoken in such direct language. Hell yeah, indeed.

Between him preaching and and J.Hud, it was like church up in there. For like 10 minutes anyway. Seriously, like you said, I wasn't ready. That shit was some powerful truth and he looked damn mad. I think somebody on twitter said the first time he smiled all night was during the Sheila E. set. LOL. I actually just listened to him on the Denzel Washington is the greatest actor of all time period podcast a few days ago (it is such a fun podcast series, btw) and he is woke even when talking about Denzel. But also, somehow they got on the subject of Zoe Saldana playing Nina Simone and Jesse just laid it out so succinctly. He went off, but he did it so elegantly. Anyway I highly recommend a listen. I did like them showcasing the new acts over there in the corner. Those two sisters on Bey's label were interesting. Nice to see some experimental and different music coming from black acts and not just rap, pop & R&B. That one talk-sing guy was... kinda strange. But overall the BET awards were interminable, filled mostly with male rap acts and Usher. Bey & opening was excellent. But really the only other female artist performing their own work was Alicia Keys. That is terrible. Also they only gave out like five awards and most of them were also male skewing. The Prince stuff was really the only reason to keep watching and I do admit they came through. From Bilal to Maxwell (Dayum!) to Janelle to Sheila they all did a great job. Even managed to get Jerome to put in an appearance -- no Morris tho.

Yeah, that was Bilal. Neo soul guy. I thought he got the voice just right. But yeah there is much more to come. Sheila E, Maxwell, etc. so I think they started low key and plan to get more hype. Not feeling all the rap stuff. I just don't get the newer rap groups these days. Yes, I am an old. The performances have been feeling a little male-centric.

Beyonce and Kendrick Lamarr were fan-fucking-tastic!!

Rip Bernie Worrell. Flashlight by PFunk is all him and one of the P-Funkiest jams ever!!!!!

She did a web series called The Misadventures of an Awkward Black girl It is a good little series. A little bit of cringe humor and some good personalities in her supporting cast. I could see this on par with Aziz Ansari's show. The web series was a very diverse comedy built around the foibles of an African American woman, but her blackness isn't the central issue. Some of the comedy uses racial referents but it isn't the central theme. She has an Indian best friend and later in the series a white boyfriend. Funny her name is Jaye and her boyfriend's name is also Jay and he is referred to as White Jay. I would say it is more workplace and relationship comedy with lots of 'observational' stuff thrown in. Why she had such a problem getting this on air baffles me.

Trailer for Queen Sugar is out. EW has a look here http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/22/oprah-ava-duvernay-queen-sugar-first-teaser also Ava Duvernay tweeted out the photos of the directors for each episode. All Women. Mostly WOC.

Ha! Ok, that is a pretty damn funny response.

I really enjoyed that article on SyFy. I know female representation in Science Fiction is relatively low compared to male representation, but I just can't get excited about white women in lead roles because I have never seen a dearth of them anywhere else so their lack of leadership representation in SF just doesn't translate well for me. So I will gravitate toward shows that skew toward WOC representation. I admit I started watching Killjoys solely for Dutch -- because dude, I check out at least one episode of anything that features a WOC especially a black woman in a prominent role -- and have come to really enjoy the sheer fun/crazy space opera aspect of it and am looking forward to S2 so much. I didn't even know about Dominique Tipper as Naomi Nagata in The Expanse. I checked it out because I am a fan of Shohreh Aghdashloo but was extremely pleasantly surprised by how awesome the Naomi character is. Also i just completely jones over the sheer diversity of the show -- all sorts of brown folk and WOC in every area of the narrative. I wasn't able to get into Dark Matter because that one character (youngish girl with the purple hair) in every promo just annoyed the ever loving heck out of me, but I caught a couple episodes late in the season and got sucked into it and have seen the S2 promos they've added Melanie Liburd as a main character. So I plan to go back and watch the early eps and get caught up and add it to my rotation. It helps that I am a total blerd, so this is so much win for me!

I remember watching Frank's Place, like a million years ago and Frank wanted to join a men's club but he had to pass the paper bag test. I recall that because I was mentally looking around wondering if we should be airing our dirty laundry for all to see. Of course I was in my living room alone, but you get the drift. And I want to say that maybe A Different World but I might have imagined that. I do remember an episode where they talked about Whitley's family owning slaves.

There is this great interview in Glamour magazine several years ago with Peggy Lipton, Rashida Jones and Kidada Jones. And it talks about the different experiences Rashida and Kidada had growing up because Kidada was darker skinned that Rashida. When they were kids they went to an all white school, where Rashida blended better and Kidada felt alienated. When they got older, Kidada had really embraced her blackness and felt more accepted by black people. Rashida, otoh, had the more betwixt & between experience as they got older. Interestingly after Quincy and Peggy got divorced Kidada lived with Quincy but Rashida stayed with Peggy. You get the sense that even though Rashida never, ever denies being biracial she does feel a bit more connected to her Jewish side. Anyway, it is a fascinating interview and delves into the issues of identity as experienced by these two women in a much more complex and nuanced way than I could begin to summarize.

Yeah, i think that is the happiness glow making people blind. I think she is an absolutely brilliant singer and her Tony was well deserved but that dress was a hot mess. It felt like it should have been a curtain in a very fussy overstuffed Victorian parlor. Just a bit too much. I meant to mention the super funny Titus Andromedon Hamilton audition commercial. OMG. I loved his little "shady" and the salty expression on his face coupled with the head scratch that moved his whole wig when he mentioned he got no audition materials. Too funny! Tituss Burgess is a treasure!

Yeah. Agreed. But Hamilton was a juggernaut. I think only Cynthia Erivoo could've realistically won against them in her category. I also wouldn't have minded Lupita winning, but can't get too mad at the Jessica Lange win.

I am seriously pleased with all the winners. Very rare for me and awards shows.

I know Lin Manuel is leaving soon so I would not be able to see him in it, but I hope if I get the opportunity (and I am actively trying) that at least Daveed Diggs, is still there. His leonine head of hair feels almost iconic for me with this show. LOL.

Man, Marlee Matlin does not age. She looks fab.

It just confuses me.

Ok, The Color Puple cast....Dayum! Just shut. it down. So fab. Loved the standing Ovation they got. Man, this is the best Tony Awards telecast in a long time so far.