This girl is serious business!! Kai Davis, 17, is a junior at Central High School. She is a young and active poet. She spends most of her free time writing, and is an editor for her school’s literary magazine. Kai is an honor roll student and a member of the National Honor Society. After attending college, she hopes to return to Philadelphia to work with youth poets in order to better their lives and improve the community around them. Source Flip the page to watch Kai perform her fiery poem… More On Bossip! For Discussion: Is Drake Crossing The Line By Constantly Dating His Peers’ Ex-Girlfriends? Galleries: Draya And Her Amazing Rack Have A Happy Birthday [Photos] Reality Love Friend Triangle: Evelyn Lozada GOES IN On Ex- BFF Jennifer “Purple Contacts” Williams, Her Relationship With Nene Leakes And Says “BEYOTCH You Will Never WIN!!!” This May Take A While: A Gallery Of Alllll The Men Rumored To Be Romantically Linked To Rih-Rih’s Red Hot Cakes
This won’t come nearly close to matching the poetry witnessed throughout last week’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy premiere giveaway contest (or the tense, masterful symphony of the film itself, chock-full of your favorite British thesps and “Pillow lipped chameleons”), but: “Thanks to all who played/With odes to Tinker, Tailor …/Winners after the jump!”
Most critics praise film’s visuals and performances, although some take issue with its length. By Eric Ditzian Asa Butterfield in “Hugo” Photo: Paramount Pictures We’re big “Hugo” fans here in the MTV Newsroom, as we make clear over at Movies Blog , calling Martin Scorsese’s 3-D film a “love letter to cinema” and “like nothing you’ve ever seen from the Oscar-winning filmmaker before.” We’re not the only ones raving about it. Critics are celebrating the movie’s bold visual style and strong performances. The only issue anyone seems to have with “Hugo” is that there’s just too much of it: The story — following the young orphan Hugo’s (Asa Butterfield) adventures in a 1930s Parisian metro station, his battles with the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his friendship with a girl (Chlo
At this year’s Urbanworld Film Festival poet, professor and co-founder of the Black Arts Movement Sonia Sanchez screened her documentary Shaking Loose Memories . The film is directed by Jamal Joseph and combines interviews with Sanchez and performances of her poems by Amiri Baraka, T.C Carson and others. TheUrbandaily was given a few minutes with this living legend on the red carpet and she had words of encouragement for today’s poets and MCs. “I am completely always in love with Rakim , Talib , Mos Def and Ursula Rucker and a whole generation that have continued what we were about because they do things in a positive fashion.” RELATED POSTS: 2011 Urbanworld Film Festival Recap [PHOTOS and VIDEO] Mario Van Peebles Takes Shot At Tyler Perry At Film Fest [PHOTOS]
Holly Holliday revisited the classic made famous by Stevie Nicks on latest episode. By Aly Semigran Gwenyth Paltrow on “Glee” Tuesday Photo: FOX Gwyneth Paltrow is back, Gleeks, and she’s brought the legendary Stevie Nicks with her. After weeks of waiting, the Academy Award-winning actress, who has more recently been spending her time performing onstage at various awards shows, including the Oscars and the Grammys , finally returned to reprise her “Glee” character, flighty substitute teacher Holly Holliday. During her turn on Tuesday night’s (March 8) episode, titled “Sexy,” Paltrow, who made a lasting impression last time around thanks to her giddy (and squeaky-clean) take on Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You,” took on an entirely different sound when she sang the moving Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide.” Accompanied by twangy guitars and a banjo, Paltrow drew on her country music chops (heard most recently in her 2010 drama “Country Strong”) as she covered the timeless tune. But even before getting the “Glee”/Gwyneth treatment, “Landslide,” written by Nicks, has long been considered a treasure of the Fleetwood Mac catalog. In 1973, 25-year-old Nicks penned the song during a stay in the snowy mountains of Colorado. Although there have been various theories regarding who — or what — the song is about, the singer set the record straight during a visit to VH1’s “Storytellers” in 1998. “Everybody, everybody seems to think that I wrote this song about them — everybody in my family, all my friends, everybody,” Nicks said on the show. “And my Dad, my Dad did have something to do with it, but he absolutely thinks that he was the whole, complete reason that it was ever written.” She went on to explain just how the song came to be, “[Bandmate] Lindsey [Buckingham] and I went up to Aspen and we went to somebody’s incredible house and they had a piano and I had my guitar with me and I went in their living room, looking out over the incredible Aspen sky and I wrote “Landslide.” The song, which includes such lyrics as “I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills/ ‘Till the landslide brought me down,” would become a turning point in the careers of Nicks and collaborator Buckingham, who was also her boyfriend at the time. As she told the “Storytellers” audience, “Three months later Mick Fleetwood called on New Year’s Eve 1974 and asked us to join Fleetwood Mac.” “Landslide” was initially released on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album, but it wasn’t actually released as a single (despite being a fan favorite) until 1998, when a live version of the song appeared on the Fleetwood album The Dance and hit airwaves. It peaked at #10 on Billboard ‘s adult contemporary chart and hit #51 on the Hot 100 that year. The sentimental and deeply personal song, with its simple, yet effective guitar chords and lyrics like “Well, I’ve been afraid of changing/ ‘Cause I’ve built my life around you” found its way into the hearts and onto the records of other inspired artists, most notably the Smashing Pumpkins and the Dixie Chicks. The Smashing Pumpkins released their version of “Landslide” on their 1994 B-sides album, Pisces Iscariot. The cover went on to be one of the rock band’s most-beloved tracks and even had the approval of Nicks herself. As she told fans during a 1998 online chat with SonicNet, “There’s nothing more pleasing to a songwriter than [someone else] doing one of their songs.”[‘Landslide’] also led me to being friends with Billy [Corgan] and the possibility that we’ll work together,” she said of the Smashing Pumpkins frontman. “Over this song, there’s been this incredible connection … he reached out … I believe that my poetry is really meant for everyone, no matter what age.” Nearly 10 years later, chart-topping country trio the Dixie Chicks created their own rendition of “Landslide.” Released on their 2002 album, Home, the trio’s cover also became a favorite among fans. With its debut on Glee, “Landslide,” proves that it continues to be a song that speaks to many generations, moving listeners years after Nicks first shared the song with the world more than 35 years ago. What did you think of Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Glee” cover of “Landslide”? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Gwyneth Paltrow
It’s tough being the wife of the most powerful man in the world, just ask Michelle Obama. Carla Bruni, who seemed to reveal her distaste for the First Lady in previous pictures, reveals Michelle’s whiny comments in her recent book [Aside: why is a sitting world leader’s spouse writing a tell-all? What tawdriness.] Anyway, here’s what was allegedly said: Michelle Obama thinks being America’s First Lady is ‘hell’, Carla Bruni reveals today in a wildly indiscreet book. Miss Bruni divulges that Mrs Obama replied when asked about her position as the U.S. president’s wife: ‘Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’ Details of the private conversation, which took place at the White House during an official visit by Nicolas Sarkozy last March, emerged in Carla And The Ambitious, a book written in collaboration with Miss Bruni. Well, of course the job is difficult-prepared meals, jet-setting, specially designed clothes, lecturing the American people on eating apples is exhausting work. Also, it’s awful. Not out-of-a-job awful. Not repo awful. Not foreclosure awful. Not hungry awful. But, yeah, being First Lady is awful. Michelle Obama and that husband of her’s just don’t quite cast an empathetic image, do they? NPR kvetches about this problem : Is President Obama too rational to be likable? Obama comes across as so self-contained that his personality almost seems like a bubble around him – perhaps even more so than the bubble that surrounds any president, thanks to the Secret Service and all the trappings of the White House. “Obama’s analytic style of decision-making and his unwillingness to show emotion makes it hard for people to relate to him,” says Stephen J. Wayne, a government professor at Georgetown University. If a president is in power during hard times, his relative likability won’t matter so much as his overall job performance. But every president gets judged to a greater or lesser degree according to his personality. Perhaps no president would be doing well in the polls with unemployment near double digits throughout his term. But Obama’s inability to connect on an emotional level with many people has been an additional drag on his approval ratings. Oh yes. It’s the President’s cerebral nonchalance that’s making connection so difficult. How about this idea: Michelle and Barack Obama just don’t care. When an entitled person feels perpetually ripped off, they tend to feel less empathy for those they perceive as ripping them off. So, that lack of empathy; that attitude of being put-upon? That’s genuine no matter how the lib press wants to rationalize it away. Stories like these, from the Politico help nothing: The White House is fighting back against claims its offshore drilling moratorium will cause dramatic job loses along the Gulf Coast with a new report that says most jobs aren’t gone forever. Only 8,000 to 12,000 jobs will be lost along the Gulf Coast , and most will return once deepwater drilling resumes, says the report to be presented to a Senate panel Thursday. That’s right. ONLY 12,000 families will face the desperation of a lost livelihood and face the stress and strain of keeping their homes during this economic crisis. ONLY. Do the Obamas not grasp the gravity of the economic situation in America today? Do they not grasp their enormous educational, cultural and social privilege long before they ever lucked into the presidency? Or, are they so brainwashed by their own imagined persecution complex that they simply cannot see their remarkable lives for what they are: lucky and fortunate. Michelle Obama is not burdened. The woman doesn’t know from burden. And Barack Obama is not mis-perceived by the American people. They are seeing his cold nature for what it is: hard hearted. No amount of fawning press can obscure what is becoming more obvious. UPDATED: Michelle Obama’s office denies Carla Bruni’s revelation .
Craig Wieland never set out to write a book of poetry. “I’m a contractor,” he said with a chuckle. But what began as family dinner-table conversations to help his daughters understand social issues in America have culminated in a book of poems and cartoons about conservative ideas. Wieland, the owner of a nationwide construction contracting company, proved you don’t need a writer’s background or even a college degree to communicate your beliefs. Wieland said he catered to his daughters’ love for Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein by putting stories poetic form. “If you put it in a rhyme and use poetry, all of a sudden it becomes unique,” Wieland said in a telephone interview with the Culture and Media Institute about his new book, “Pointed Poems: Tools for Teaching Conservative Thinking.” In the book, Wieland combines poetry and cartoon-like illustrations to convey the differences between conservative and liberal viewpoints on both economic and social issues in America . The book’s 280 pages touch on everything from industry to patriotism to taxes and incorporate over 400 graphic illustrations by Dennis Preston to “give the poetry a little more punch.” “Pointed Poems,” which Wieland described as “unique,” and “fairly provocative,” discusses social issues, such as compassion, the role that personal responsibility plays in government and the problem of social programs that “help” parents raise their children. Wieland said his main message is only hinted at subtly in the book. Wieland hopes his poems show readers “the hypocritical stance that people have of criticizing the very things that they’re using.” For instance, in the poem, “Just Give Us the Outlet… and Nothing More,” protesters of electric generation prevent the construction of a new power plant but soon show their dissatisfaction in the following lines: “So that’s what happened to our little city. The planned power plant was not built… what a pity. But people got mad when their outlets grew quiet. And when it got hot, they started to riot.” By exposing this hypocrisy, Wieland further hopes to knock liberals off their assumed “moral high ground” on issues like green energy and limited government—topics which liberals use to push their agenda as the “correct” viewpoint. To help conservatives understand the differences between the conservative and liberal viewpoints on a variety of issues, each chapter begins with a brief explanation of the poem and issue, followed by the poem itself and illustrations. Wieland also highlights the “Teaching Tool” for each chapter, a single summary statement of the issue. Following the “Teaching Tool,” each poem starts with a cartoon of a father and son carrying a conversation about politics and American values. The father responds to the son’s questions by giving simple answers that reflect conservative thinking. This father-son exchange further strengthens its use as a tool for teaching conservative values to middle-of-the-road adults as well as the next generation of Americans—children and grandchildren.
Link: http://www.runleiarun.com/lebowski/ Adam Bertocci's Shakespearean adaptation of The Big Lebowski entitled, “Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.” The dude doth abide.
