SIDE BY SIDE - YEAR BY YEAR

Today, June 21, 2011 my lovely parents are celebrating their 25th anniversary. So, I wanted to dedicate this post to them. I'm blessed to have them both of them in my life in the same household. It is truly beautiful to witness their love for one another. It's cute how they manage to match almost every time they go out. Like any couple, they have their ups and downs but being able to overcome those moments year after year is an achievement that I wish I can experience one day. I wish my parents many more years of happiness and love! :)

The music video to Dontchange by Musiq Soulchild always reminds me of them.
I love the bridge of the song:
So don't waste your time worrying about
Small things that ain't relevant to me
'Cause to my understanding your all I want and need

See what I'm gonna say is I'm here to stay
And as long as your love doesn't change for me
Baby darling, I swear, I swear I ain't going nowhere, no

Musiq Soulchild shares some wise words at the end of the video,"If you find someone that you know you love, just love that person and God will see you through the rest of the way."

LAST THOUGHT: "Love seems swiftest, but it is the slowest of growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century." -Mark Twain

FALL SEVEN TIMES, GET UP EIGHT

Somewhere between January and now I lost my motivation for many things but I've been working on rebuilding it. I just wanted to share three of my current motivation songs. I came across this upcoming 18-year old rapper from Philly by the name of Tayyib Ali in Nylon Magazine's July 2011 Music Issue. They described him as "cloaking the deadly mic skills of a serious Nas devotee in the breezy, laid back cool of Kid Cudi." I had to check him out after reading that, so I downloaded his latest mixtape, Keystone State of Mind. The first song, Get Up became my motivation song mainly because of the hook:
I don't wanna cry no more
I don't wanna try no more
They tell me give up, give, give up
But I can't it's time to get up, get up, get up
Cause I can
Just reminded me to get up and get motivated because I can, nobody can hold me back but myself. Check out the rest of his mixtape for yourself below. Some of my favorites are I Won't Stop, High Definition, California Love, The Outcome, Keystone State of Mind, etc., I like the whole album basically.

Tayyib Ali - Keystone State of Mind by Thissongissick.com


My other song is Bravo by Ledisi. I heard this song in a commercial for the television series Unsung on TV One. I wasn't the least bit concern with the show but I love the song. It's the perfect song if you had a rough semester and you finished strong or graduated college (s/o to the Class of 2011).

Yeah, we celebrating life.
It don’t matter who you are (or where you from)
If you been working hard,
give yourself a round of applause.
Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. Come on clap for yourself.
Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. Yeah. Yeah.

Bravo by ledisi

She has another song called Shut Up off of her latest album, Pieces of Me. It's a song that for haters or any other negativity in your life. I don't believe I do but its still a good song to jam to.

I want to tell them shut up
I moving up
No time for the haters
You got to be greater
They need to shut up
I'm flying up
This is my calling
I don't see myself falling
So shut up

LAST THOUGHT: "He who hesitates is lost." -Joseph Addison / "Carpe diem" - Horace

WRAP IT UP

One of the latest trends has been turbans/ headwraps. It's not a look I'm brave enough to try but one celebrity I believe that does a great job at rocking this trend is Solange Knowles.

Although, Erykah Badu has wore numerous hairstyles, the headwrap was indeed her signature look at a point and she wore it well.

Some people say a women's beauty is in her hair but, if she wraps it up nicely, where is her beauty then? :)

LAST THOUGHT: "How can I control my life when I can't control my hair?" - Anonymous

LACKADAISICAL STATE OF MIND

Closed books. Let summer break begin!

Since, I've been back home all I want to do is relax. It has been lazy day after lazy day and it feels great! My theme song has been "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars, written by rapper, K'naan. I enjoy the video, which features America's Best Dance Crew's Poreotix in chimp masks. It kind of reminds me of that nursery rhyme with the monkeys jumping on the bed for some odd reason.

The chorus is exactly how I feel in the morning:

Today I don't feel like doing anything

I just wanna lay in my bed

Don't feel like picking up my phone, so leave a message at the tone

'Cause today I swear I'm not doing anything

In my opinion, nothing is wrong with a lazy day or week long as you actually plan and attempt to do be productive afterward. More power to you if you are successful!

LAST THOUGHT: "Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things" - Robert A. Heinlein

FRECKLE MANIA

I have a thing for freckles because they are as unique as zebra stripes. I just wanted to take the time to highlight my 2 favorite freckled models:

Sabina Karlsson, Swedish model

Nikia Phoenix, U.S Model

LAST THOUGHT: "A girl without freckles is like a night without stars" - Anonymous

BEHIND THE CAMERA

"I like to do a picture which, instead of depicting a single incident or single moment in time, traces the course of an action over a period of time. Here one can see that the salesman got out of his car, took off his clothes but not his shoes (his feet are tender), spread a newspaper on the grass, and laid his glasses on it; then, at the water's edge, took off his shoes, waded in and just before submerging carefully laid his lighted cigar on his shoe, ready to be puffed the minute he emerges from the stream."

-Norman Rockwell, 1961

I got the chance to check out a collection of his artwork at the Brooklyn Museum, which ends April 10. Norman Rockwell wasn't your typical painter/illustrator. As cameras became more advanced, he would work with photographers and directed the shoots carefully to capture the details of his paintings that he would later combine.

In this particular painting, Swimming Hole, Rockwell poured buckets of water over his model's head to get the idea of how his reflection would look in the water.

Other works:

LAST THOUGHT: "Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative" -Norman Rockwell

JUST LET IT BE

It's that time of year when lovers cuddle and loners sulk. Yes, it's almost Valentine's Day. There is no reason to wonder about what's next in your relationship or wonder when you will find the "right" person. It's best to just let it be and remember that everything happens for a reason. A good oldie to listen to the reiterates this message is Let it Be by The Beatles

Thanks to my awesome KiD CuDi station on Pandora, I came across a song by Dyme Def also entitled Let It Be that sampled the original 70s hit. The Seattle hip-hop trio's version expresses the emotion of a hard-knock life. I can't relate to the lyrics but its still a cool song.

LAST THOUGHT: "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." -Albert Einstein