AyeshaTheGreat

I don't know why this came to my mind so quickly but when I read this comment, I immediately remembered that Fred Jones was with the Pacers when he won. After I looked it up, it seems he won in 2004. Overall, I didn't care for All-Star Saturday. The newly formatted Skills challenge doesn't work for me and the 3-Point Shootout lacked consistent shooting. And we all know the dunk contest fell flat. The Sager Strong tribute saved the night and I loved it when it got to Reggie bringing everyone in to help. The game hasn't be interesting for years but I did like the intro. I haven't watched the halftime performance but it looked like it was good. As for the trades, I am not up to date with the NBA so I will see what the guys have to say on Inside the NBA.

While I definitely see an argument for DeVante being #1, I can see K-Ci in that spot as well. I actually was going to say they are a tie because of their different yet important contributions to Jodeci. I am not sure if you saw a recent social media debate after the NE story but it was about which group was better, Jodeci or Boyz II Men. I have always liked both but I've been firmly on the Boyz II Men is first camp for a long time. It's things like '90s R&B that gets me going so I am so happy this was a part of the storyline. If I am not mistaken, on a later season episode of Martin, there was a character named "Aquanetta". The joke turned on the surprise that she was white.

Considering Dre is naming his son after the man behind Jodeci's sound, I am going to say the name is spelled "DeVante". The funniest part of this naming to me was that DeVante Swing's real name is Donald. And when Bow said he was the least important member, I said "Dalvin" around the same time as Dre. And my last point on Jodeci: Bow deciding to rank DeVante as 3rd most important member when he is at least the 2nd most important. I did want to hear her list of the 4 '90s groups better than Jodeci. I can say Boyz II Men and EnVogue but then it gets murky. Further to the name thing, I probably used to judge people for their names. Then I realized that it was mostly fellow Black Americans that were being judged and decided to stop. No one questions the meaning of the stereotypical lily white names. Those names are actually greeted with an expectation of success. Of course, Dre would go all the way with naming his son but I do not think parents, especially Black parents, should go looking for "safe" names if that is not a name they really want. We all know that "respectability politics" do not tend to work for Black people. While, the naming concerns were true, I don't think Dre was "wrong" or even "whiny" about it. He recognized the challenges of such a name, decided against doubling down and gave DeVante the middle name of Matthew. Overall, this episode was back to what I have expected from the show. Jack trying to help Junior but realizing he wasn't ready. Diane trying to hang with her older sister, even ending up in Zoe's room unnoticed. The office stuff was good as well. Episodes like this make me glad I haven't quit this show.

Overall, I didn't view any of the white people as "heroes" or "saviors" but since folks were cheering when Costner's character did certain things, I guess the director achieved what he wanted. To me, it was more of the not caring what happens to others until it affects you. Costner's character didn't care about the bathrooms until it came into his sphere. Nope, he gets no claps from me.

I echo those who really enjoyed this miniseries. I have been watching the repeats because I just can't get enough. The kids were awesome and really set the bar for the quality to come. I can't get "Holding On" by LTD out of my head. Between that and "Stop...", those youngsters were bringing it. Caleb almost makes me want to watch "Stranger Things". As for the older version of the group, everything was fine until they got to "Poison". (Yikes!) Loved "Can You Stand the Rain". And I can't forget that transition from the kids to the older guy. You can tell that the people involved from BET to the outside production had a real care about presenting this NE story right. Personally, New Edition was my J5. The first album I purchased with my little money as a 5/6 year old was "New Edition". I was so proud to own that record and played it so much until I scratched it up. These guys will always have a special place in my heart. Even when they all went their own way, there was still success to be found. And I have never loved a replacement member as much as I love me some Johnny Gill. NE is all six members to me. Lastly, from watching, it is clear that Ralph was not interested in sharing all of his truth. I do not fault him. Everyone doesn't have to be ready to share at the same time. But I was also surprised by Ricky's drug use. Well, maybe not the actual use but the fact that we didn't really know about it until this movie. Great movie and I am ready for what other biopics BET has in store for us (I hear Nas is next.). #NE4Life

The show has also picked up three NAACP Image Award nominations: "Outstanding Drama Series", "Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series" for Sterling K. Brown and "Outstanding Performance by a Youth" for Lonnie Chavis. http://www.naacp.org/latest/naacp-image-award-nominations-announced/

Apparently, the creators were inspired by a Detroit academy for the initiation exercise and the founder of the academy is not happy about it: http://blavity.com/did-nbcs-wildly-popular-new-series-this-is-us-copy-this-viral-video-from-a-detroit-academy

Yvonne Orji ("Molly") was on the Breakfast Club: I thought the interview was very funny yet very informative for people like me who are just becoming familiar with Yvonne.

Damn Daniel......

I, too, just saw this movie on HBO and felt the same as I was watching. About half-way through, I started to wonder what was the plot/point of this movie. Maybe if DeNiro wasn't playing the "magical old guy", there could have been time to develop an actual story. As it was, I was not offended by the movie (since I didn't see it in theatres), but I thought it would be better.

I am not that great on names but I believe Maxine is the girlfriend and the mother's name is Cynthia. As for this season, I am still enjoying the show though I may not be laughing as much as I did last season. I do agree that Loretta and David are the absolute best part of the show but then I realize how much longer they have been doing this than the rest of the cast. One thing I hope they do is have more guest stars or just random interactions outside of the C6. Since it is an updated version of a Norman Lear show, I would like to see them around other people a little more often.

I saw this movie with various members of my family. It was a solid movie but some of else felt it dragged a bit. I will admit that it was hard for me to watch since I generally followed this story as it unfolded in real life. I remember the "Jacked Up" segments on ESPN as well as the "Outside the Lines" interviews with Dr. Omalu. Overall, I think Will Smith is a great actor and he didn't disappoint here. I hope he gets recognized and I am glad that I was able to support the film.

This was a wacky episode and the final two presentations really was a lot to take in the same episode. Spretz: As mentioned, I am not sure why anyone would really need it. I can't imagine that my hands are so in need of cleaning that I can't get to a sink. Or, that I would rather put a masking agent over it. Basically, I don't use mouth spray and definitely not interested in hand spray so I was not surprised at the lack of offers. Hungry Harvest: I had heard of this business in anticipation of his appearance. I am happy he got a deal but thought it was interested that he wanted to hear more deals after Robert gave him an offer. I almost thought Robert was going to lose another one. Controlled Chaos: As this pitch continued, I began to wonder if the company name was referencing the presenter instead of those with curly hair. As others have mentioned, this market is very saturated so I expect Lori to hock a few of these on QVC and keep it moving. Not sure an update will be needed. LumniAID Update: I remember this pitch and was happy to see the update. I don't totally remember the business model but it is not to see that the product is working in relief situations. EZPZ: Crazy eyes and tilted head, yet I didn't notice the too short for her dress. She was all over the place yet was able to receive two offers. I still can't believe the offers the Sharks were making on this episode. Once she turned it down in the most nonsensical way she could find, I remembered that she had to be there for the publicity and not really interested in a partner. Overall, this was a wild episode. I guess the last two pitches were saved by the fact that they actually received offers from the Sharks.

I only remembered Bombas socks and that might have been because of the recent mention on a past episode. I was wondering who those companies were as well and trying to figure if I had missed a bunch of episodes a few seasons back. Apparently, Robert and Kevin have seen a similar pitch some years back on Dragons' Den by "Beardowear", so that may have caused some strong hesitation by Robert. I was wondering about this as well but this product may be on the downside of the trend. As others have mentioned, I was surprised to see Geek My Tree get a deal. I was pretty sure he was leaving without an offer due to the ridiculous price and strong competitive market. While the natural market is crowded, I think the deodorant ladies may be able to develop a niche market. Interesting that Barbara was motivated by beating Lori and not necessarily working with the ladies. I will look forward to an update on this one. Lovepop was very active on social media during the episode so I was aware of the company before the pitch. Not surprised they got a deal but I am pretty sure I am not their customer. Nice product though.

I had read the comments of the skeptics and heard the pleas to go see it. Since my parent wanted to see it, I decided to go. It was much better than I expected. It reminded me of a more gritty School Daze. The satire was very apparent but I thought the true/serious message was still there. This was about the pleas of people of color or living in poverty to have their lives matter and not forgotten. Of course, it was timely, and name checked many of the "police involved deaths" that had happened in the last few years. The solutions of jobs, hospital and trauma center touched on some important things lacking in many communities. Lastly, they also discussed mass incarceration as a the "New Jim Crow". It was basically a movie dealing with the struggles of this time. The "sex strike" was just one way to tell this story.

I am looking forward to this production. The main cast has me excited and I may even recognize some of the members of the ensemble. As for the costume, I will wait until I can see them in motion. I was not really feeling Scarecrow's costume and Tinman's costume design is going to have to grow on me.

As for Maxine being "half-Jewish" versus Muslim, I figured it was more about her being biracial than professing any religious belief. Not sure we have been told the ethnic make-up of her parents but I guess one of her parents is ethnically Jewish. I enjoyed both episodes as well. As a religious person, I have known couples of different religious/spiritual beliefs and it is something that I always ponder if I could do. With the Guns episode, I was on the "edge" all episode because I kept waiting for the gun to go off (or at least thinking about how it could go off). I thought it was interesting how Jerrod got rid of his gun where his mother wanted more of them. And the closeness the father (for some reason, I am blanking on the parents' names) came to shooting Nakeisha kind of dampered some of the jokes about owning at gun.

I am enjoying this show as well. I am really surprised that I like it as much because I knew nothing about the show when I first watched. Both recent episodes were great to me. Maybe the discussions are just hitting really close to home but I can relate to some of the familial dynamics in the show. "Gender" literally had lines that seemed like something I heard/said before. And the Health episode reminded me of how I view my relationship with my parents as they get older. This show also has some funny lines that are usually said by Loretta Devine or David Alan Grier. I hope the show does well enough to get another season. I also hope they'll be able to have more people coming in and out of the mix. Sidenote: I heard the show advertised on the Tom Joyner Morning Show yesterday as "something to watch on TV". Maybe some extra people tuned in out of curiousity.

17 Really Surprising Things About Shark Tank and Success (Updated) http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/17-really-surprising-things-about-shark-tank-and-success-updated.html I knew some of the things on the list but found #7 the most interesting as the show has grown in popularity: 7. Your odds of getting on the show are about 3 in 1,000. Both Tecco’s analysis and mine show that 49 percent of teams received at least a handshake deal during the first five seasons. Of course, that just means that contestants get to the point of trying to get through due diligence. Simply getting on the show to begin with is a much harder slog. During the last season, 35,000 people applied to be on the show, and 157 were invited to pitch on film. Of those, about 112--meaning .3 percent--actually made it to air.

I caught the Sunday encore presentation of this show and had no thoughts going in. I knew David Allen Grier was on here but didn't realize Lorretta Devine was there until I heard her voice (reminding me of her time on A Different World). As I was watching from a distance, I didn't recognize Tiffany Haddish. Also, I never heard of Jerrod Carmichael and spent some time wondering how he came to get his own show. As for the actual show, I enjoyed it. Actually, my whole family enjoyed it. I definitely understand the comparisons to a Norman Lear production and since I liked those shows, I hope this one is able to find its footing and last. The second episode was really good, though I missed some of the middle. The first episode was good for the humor. I can't say that I laugh out loud often so this show got my attention that way. I look forward to watching the remaining episodes.

Thanks for the article. While Troy Carter is listed as Lady Gaga's manager, I know him because he used to manage the actress/rapper Eve. So I am pretty sure he will be filling in for Daymond (if you know what I mean). Since they are all active investors, I guess it makes sense. Eventually, every shark besides Cuban were going to have to take a break no matter how successful some of their investments were. I look forward to new sharks and a hopefully more diverse panel.

I just watched this episode and it is crazy that this season is going to be filled with the "business" side of The White Sistas. I thought we were done with that mess. I didn't know they were actually trying to pitch it for a full-blown feature. And of course no one engaged an attorney before starting. So what if all of them are veterans in the entertainment industry. I guess they figured it would be a better storyline this way. Overall, Paula, Forrest and Golden annoy me. Lisa does as well but not as much as the others because I think she is just following the reality show script. Paula's mother, though, continues to bring the real. She has no problem telling the truth about her daughter's situation.

I didn't get to see this episode; however, I've been following The CraigLewis Band for years and just saw them sing live recently, so I viewed their performance. I also started following Ryan Shaw and to say I am surprised that either of these acts were on the show would be an understatement. Obviously, The CraigLewis Band has done well so far but Ryan Shaw's peformance did not go over as well. I did not know Ryan Shaw was a Grammy nominee, and while it is an achievement, I do not think it signals a successful singing career. But I did hear of Ryan Shaw from being on Broadway in Motown the Musical, playing "Stevie Wonder", among other characters. That achievement made me believe he should have taken a different route to reboot his singing career. Even appearing on The Voice may have been a better option. Lastly, like Michael Buble, I didn't like Ryan's song choice. Looking at his youtube page, I see he has sung this in the past but I thought the performance was underwhelming.

Glad to know I wasn't the only one less than impressed when the mural was revealed. I am happy I was not there because I would not have been good at faking my true thoughts. It just seemed so tacky and out of place. And it was so big that I can't imagine picking out custom furniture at that location. As for this episode, the furniture is not something I would buy but I did like the family business. Also, I like that Stevie seems to really want to work at the business and his struggles were not because of lack of effort or desire.

Yes. I just can't get into this show. While I don't really mind the boring scripted nature of the show, I have others watching and it becomes much more notable. As for this episode, I really couldn't get into any of the follow-ups. I guess Ryan's business is doing well but Mom is really the one running it yet is not well enough to handle that task. And there were far too many tears this episode. Overall, I would have liked to see how these founders are actually running their businesses. I know they do not talk to the sharks so I'd prefer to see the point person they actually work with introduced to the show and carry on like a normal running arrangement. I hate seeing them meet with the shark and springing info on them that would already be known to an investor. I think the show was a good idea but the execution needs major help. For me, I don't feel it is as much of a learning experience as Shark Tank,