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The Snob has left Blogspot! (No hard feelings, Blogger. It was great. Really. The way you just put the Google Ads wherever you pleased and I couldn't get rid of them. I LOVED that. Never change!) Please check us out at our new, fancy-pants, Obama Era digs! Just click blacksnob.com to continue to read my complaints about everything! No fuss! No muss! Love, peace and Sparkle Ponies!
Tu amiga,
Danielle Belton, aka "The Snob"
Remember! The Black Snob is moving to Squarespace! The new site will officially be "live" on Inauguration Day, featuring sign-up memberships, my personal journal, The Secret Council of American Negroes blog, new "Hot Topic" discussion boards, easier access to the Snob store, a new layout and design, more interactive options and more!
If you are an RSS feed subscriber, sign up for new "Snob Blog" Squarespace feeds at here. The site's main blog feed will also continue to be available through Feedburner.
The site can also be accessed at the blacksnob.com address, as well as theblacksnobblog.com and daniellebelton.com. You can currently go to the new site now via those addresses.
PS. You will be able to read most old comments and all the old posts on the new blog, and come tomorrow (crosses fingers), this blog will automatically point to BlackSnob 2.0. Thank you for reading and making this site possible. Because of you and your donations I am able to take the site to the next level! Let's keep the ball rolling in 2009!
In light of my most recent post on interracial dating I found it hilarious that my grandmother, the unsinkable Granny Snob, (pictured on the left) called me early this afternoon to inform me (yet again) that I needed to have children. This is not the first time she has done this. This is part of an ongoing series in conversations with her where she reminds me of how old I am and how I need to give her some grandbabies.
Now mind you, she has tons of grandchildren and great-grandchildren on account having nine children of her own, most of whom married, then had kids who in turn produced children as well. But none of her eldest daughter's children, my dear Mama Snob, have kids. We're not even married. And for some reason she enjoys yelling at me about this, but not my sisters.
But what was different about today's conversation was the "Rainbow Coalition" tone and the new Barack Obama spin on today's conversation.
GRANNY SNOB: So how's the boyfriend coming?
THE BLACK SNOB: What? I don't have a boyfriend.
GRANNY SNOB: Didn't you say you were dating some preacher's son or someone you went to school with or something?
TBS: Um ... no.
GRANNY SNOB: I thought you or your mama told me that?
TBS: Unless you know something I don't, I don't have a boyfriend.
GRANNY SNOB: Well, what's the matter? What's taking so long?
TBS: I just haven't met anybody.
GRANNY SNOB: Well, I need some grandbabies!
TBS: You have grandbabies! I'm your grandbaby!
GRANNY SNOB: No. I want to see your baby. I want to see you have a baby that looks just like your father! We need another (Papa Snob)! And don't wait around for some black dude. If you can't find a black dude then just marry a white!
This was the point at which I was somewhat surprised, considering I'm pretty sure Granny Snob still uses the word "Peckerwood" with high frequency and for decades has been the opposite of enthusiastic for interracial coupling. But as the conversation continued I was able to see what may have sparked this "revolution" in her mind.
TBS: OK.
GRANNY SNOB: I mean it! The white women are taking all the crazy black dudes. I don't know why.
TBS: Well, if they're crazy then they can have them.
GRANNY SNOB: There are white men out there marrying black women. And I don't know why you didn't get Obama! You should have gotten Obama!
TBS: I'm pretty sure I was elementary school when he met Michelle, Granny. I don't think I had a shot at ten.
GRANNY SNOB: He's not that old! I heard he was only 40!
TBS: He's 47. And when was I supposed to meet him? I was still wearing Wonder Woman underoos.
GRANNY SNOB: Well, you should have gotten Obama, but I guess that's too late.
TBS: Um ... yeah.
GRANNY SNOB: Don't waste time. You need to find somebody. I'm afraid you're going to wait until I've taken my final rest for you to have a baby and I want to see it!
And I hate it when she does this because I really do want her to be with us if I get married and have a family, but does she have to play the "I'm 80! I could die tomorrow!" card all the time? She's been pulling this card since she turned 60.
TBS: OK. I'll try.
GRANNY SNOB: I don't care what Mama and Daddy say. They want grandbabies too! And don't wait for a black dude. Marry a white if you have to! I'm serious! I don't know what's wrong with black folks.
TBS: OK. I love you, Granny!
___________________________
I pretty much giggled through the whole conversation because what were the odds that this week would be the week she would unveil her new "marry a white guy" strategy to get some great-grandchildren out of me. But with a biracial president and Granny Snob reading the same dire statistics as every black woman, her obsession with me producing a preferably male child who resembles my daddy (who she adores without question) is paramount.
I still don't know how I was supposed to snag Barack in my Garanimals, (and if I could've, he'd be in prison, not president!) but this is my grandmother. I love the fact that she thinks I could have been the First Lady even though I'm not from Chicago and there is a 16 year age difference. Love that Granny Snob. She thinks I have the skills to mack on the president. Now if you don't mind, I have to go stalk some men and ask bluntly on first dates "Are you going to give my grandmother some grandbabies who look like Papa Snob, because if not, you're wasting our time. She's 80. She could take her final nap any day now!"
I wonder why she had to announce it? She's on TV everyday. You can see that she's gained the weight back. Wait. She has a magazine to sell. Never mind. (Read her story here.)
That said, as a person who also struggles with weight and diet, I feel for Oprah. (All that rich just won't buy her thin!) This also reminded me of one of my internal conflicts in regards to weight and the black woman. Obesity is a huge problem in the black community. One of the most common stereotypes of black women are that we are loud, unladylike, rude and horribly fat. Even though most people judge me by my intellect and charm, with me not being a size zero there is always a voice in the back of my head telling me not to lose weight because of my health or because I'll feel better, but because I don't want to be the stereotype.
Once again, everything about blackness is woefully political. Even my fat cells. Very, very annoying. I try to remind myself that I'm already refuting a stereotype by existing. I don't need to be a size two to drive the point home. But the psychology of being black in America and dealing with negative images often means you spend a lot of time fighting the ignorance clogging up your own head.
That, and the public has issues with fat people to begin with, so it's pretty easy to develop a complex and about ten or twelve eating disorders.
Paint the White House black! This and other things I pondered while I was away. (Read about the "Black House" ad here.)Planning. Pondering. Procrastinating.
The Snob spent her two quasi weeks off from the blog working a job she semi-hates for cash; applying for better jobs that will hopefully (cross fingers!) come with health benefits; writing a pilot for a potential TV show (details to follow if anything materializes); discussing taking one of my screenplays and giving it the graphic novel treatment, a la "Watchmen," with a graphic artist buddy of mine; occasionally updating the blog and my Facebook page; looking into Web hosting and a new design for the site and planning towards the site relaunch deadline of January 20, 2009.
It was a good use of my time off and while I'm officially back and blogging, things will be getting up to speed gradually with the help of some guest posts from a friend of The Snob. It might be a second before I'm rapidly posting six times a day as I was during the last two weeks of the election. Mostly because I want to be able to finish those new projects and keep the blog updated.
I'll post some more this afternoon, but, if you weren't on Facebook and missed what I was reading and talking about, here's are a few of the big issues that popped up while I was away.
Barack Obama: The House Negro ... Seriously? (Associated Press)
CAIRO, Egypt – Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies.
Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.
In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect — along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice — "house Negroes."
Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house Negroes."
The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.
It always fascinates me when people from other countries crack open some books and learn some of the racially explicit history of America and the terms that come with it. So, um, hearing a non-black American call a black American a "House Negro" is a little hilarious. You know? Where I want to say, Hey? I didn't notice you on the plantation, Zawahiri! Where you picking cotton or tending to the horses? I suppose the "world" could be a plantation, but I think we're giving the Masters of the Universe, aka the G-8, a little too much credit here.
(A)l-Qaeda didn't say this to influence us Negroes in America, but other Muslims internationally, specifically the ones who may be impressed by Obama and his election. It's not going to help them any if people are debating the merits of the Western world again. They work best when they've convinced everyone that we live in an amoral, racist wasteland with no soul, driven only by selfish desire and money. They're trying to a win a propaganda war for the "hearts and minds" of the people. You can't do that if people are all impressed with the cool black guy everyone else is talking about.
Michelle Obama in Paris Match Magazine
Nice. Very nice.
Alan Keyes won't stop his Captain Ahab routine (Georgia NBC affiliate)
SACRAMENTO, Calif.- A former opponent of Barack Obama's has come back to haunt him over questions regarding Obama's citizenship.
According to a press release from the American Independent Party, former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and other members of the party have filed suit in California Superior Court in Sacramento to stop the state from giving its electoral votes to President-elect Barack Obama until documentary evidence is provided to prove Obama is indeed a natural born citizen of the United States. A copy of the writ can be found here.
This is a joke right? Why, Alan, why? Why go down this rabbit hole when it's dunzo? The man is president. He's a US citizen and it's hard to get all Jean Val Jean on the frickin' president of the US. Are you going to bust down a citizen's arrest on President-elect O-Man? You're worse than the "Bill and Hillary Clinton murdered people in Arkansas" people.
Considering (Keyes) couldn't get to the top of the Republican ticket and neither the Constitution Party or Libertarian Party wanted anything to do with him that should say something. I want to write Keyes and tell him that he obviously freaks people out and should consider a new line of work that doesn't involve winning a popular or electoral vote count.
Barack and Michelle: The New Brangelina? (Washington Post)
Have Barack and Michelle become the Frosted Lucky Charms of the media? Everything they touch turns into ratings and revenue.
Perhaps it was the announcement that NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled "Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story." Or that ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election. Or that HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama's campaign.Perhaps it was the Newsweek commemorative issue -- "Obama's American Dream" -- filled with so many iconic images and such stirring prose that it could have been campaign literature. Or the Time cover depicting Obama as FDR, complete with jaunty cigarette holder.
Are the media capable of merchandizing the moment, packaging a president-elect for profit? Yes, they are.
What's troubling here goes beyond the clanging of cash registers. Media outlets have always tried to make a few bucks off the next big thing. The endless campaign is over, and there's nothing wrong with the country pulling together, however briefly, behind its new leader. But we seem to have crossed a cultural line into mythmaking.
"The Obamas' New Life!" blares People's cover, with a shot of the family. "New home, new friends, new puppy!" Us Weekly goes with a Barack quote: "I Think I'm a Pretty Cool Dad." The Chicago Tribune trumpets that Michelle "is poised to be the new Oprah and the next Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -- combined!" for the fashion world.
Whew! Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed "Generation O"?
Between being on the cover of every newspaper and magazine at home and abroad and all over the TV I'm starting to think that if you just stand in the general vicinity of the O-Man and the O-Woman and click your heels three times God will begin to rain down whatever you've had your heart set on. Like men, money, actual rain. (Esp. in the case of California. You think they'd run out of spots the burn, but I lived there for five years. Sadly, they don't.)
SNL totally doesn't need people of color to accurately spoof a multi-ethnic Obama Administration (Entertainment Weekly)
SNL hired some new folks. No big. Just some more lovely white ladies. Maybe one of them is the next Tina Fey. Maybe. But you know who neither of them will be? Michelle Obama in any sketch about Obama over the next four-to-eight years.
Let's put aside the fact that SNL often has trouble figuring out what to do with its black actors (Eddie Murphy famously hovered in the background of his first sketch) and rarely hires black actresses (only Rudolph, Danitra Vance, Yvonne Hudson, and Ellen Cleghorne made it to the cast in the show's 33-year history). Are we really supposed to believe that in the two years the Obamas have been in the national spotlight SNL hasn't been able to find actors of color who can portray them—in addition to being funny and versatile on the rest of the show?
Maybe all of this eye-rolling is premature. Maybe there's an announcement coming soon from Studio 8H that they've discovered this apparently rarest of species: funny black people. We sure hope so. Otherwise, it's going to be a long, dry four years.
I'm fine with SNL hiring whomever, I'm just really, really, really, really hoping Fred Armisen's impression of Barack improves exponentially to make up for the light brown-face.
Seriously.
Although I had to laugh at the EW writer's last line making it sound like "funny black people" are this rarity when in American comedy the only thing bigger than "funny black people" are "funny Jewish people."
Biggest sitcoms of all time were The Cosby Show and Seinfeld. The market has spoken! Jews and blacks got comedy on lock! Now find me a black Jewish comic and sweet merciful Moses, all hell-larity would break loose. Jewish black mother jokes? Getting Jay-Z at your nephew's Bar Mitzvah? Both bagel and fried chicken jokes?
I'm so there.
PS. A reader asked me if Whoopi Goldberg counts as the magical black Jewish comic. I say ... she's pretty close!
It'll be over come Monday. (For the Glitter n' Chuckles-askance, your pain is measured only in a matter of days!)
I've been working hard at my pathetic for pay job as well as trying to come up with ideas for the blog relaunch in January. (The deadline is for the new redesigned site to be up by Jan. 20 when Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States.)
I'm likely going to make the move to WordPress and fork over some dough to get some Web hosting. A few of you have offered to help, which is awesome and I will totally be contacting some of you in regards to your advice. Others of you have made great suggestions and requests on everything from what hosting I should go with to which individuals I should use to write about for a revamped "Incognegro" series. I am totally taking in all your feedback and if I'm slow in getting back to you (or I don't get back to you) it's because the response was so overwhelming. I appreciate that so many of you feel so strongly and positively about the site which is obviously still in a growing phase.
One thing I'm going to hate to do, but realize I have to do is follow the law in how I reproduce photos. The site is a victim of its own success and I can't run around like a renegade forever like no one is reading this puppy but my sister and my best friend, so ... there will be a lot fewer photos on BlackSnob 2.0 until I either become:
1) So insanely successful that I can afford a better picture service (least likely to happen)
2) Part of a larger publication that pays for the photos
3) A cheaper press photo service emerges similar to WireImage, which does only celebrity photos (boo!)
I'll still have photos, but I probably won't be as reckless when I put them up on the blog. I write this because during the final week of the election my readership doubled, including an extremely high spike on election day -- a record high of 13,000 visits -- and it has remained surprisingly high throughout my vacation and I'm not even busting out six posts a day. That and there has been a steady drip of attention from people with way more clout and credibility than me, therefore I need to clean house.
BlackSnob 2.0 will still mostly focus on pop culture and politics but I want to write a lot more about minorities in the media. I realize that a segment of you enjoy my unabashed stalking of CNN Weekend's TJ Holmes but I'm actually fascinated by almost all media figures. (I think I've written repeatedly that I'm in love with Ann Curry on NBC and created an award for hot journalists in honor of Ed Bradley. I miss you, Ed!) TJ's just on a short list of ones I find extremely attractive. But someone has to keep track of all the minority anchors, reporters, talking heads, pundits and politicos running about. I'm just going to appoint myself chief black/brown/Asian media stalker-gawker. Send your news to me. And if you're a brown person in the media, send me tips and photos about yourself. I KNOW YOU READ THE BLOG!!! I promise to be discrete.
I will also write more about random lifestyle issues, color issues, gender issues and whatever else I deem rant-worthy. The title "The Black Snob" is a touch misleading as the blog really isn't about traditional "snobbery." A joke wrapped inside another joke, it refers to internal class issues within the black community and isn't necessarily an endorsement of "Our Kind of People" (nor a diss). Mine is more of an intellectual snobbery, as in, my head almost exploded while watching a Tyler Perry film earlier this year and I think DL Hughley has no business on CNN. In real life I'm a nerdy, self-described hobohemian -- a broke, over-educated artistic drifter with a laptop. But "The Black Artistic Hobohemian Nerd Intellectual Snob" just wasn't as pithy.
That said, keep the ideas, suggestions and love coming. Thanks to everyone who's donated a dollar or more to the blog. On the right side there is a panel listing all the donors who have contributed (the "Snob All-Stars" list). You all rock!
Back to my vacation (sort of)!
Danielle B. aka "The Snob"
Hey ya'll! The Black Snob is on vacation so Nick and I are babysitting her page! Yeah! This is going to be fun! It's going to be all butterflies and rainbows until Danielle comes back! I love it.
Danielle says Nick and I are the hotness because everyone writes about Jay-Z and Beyonce but she's long grown bored with them, especially since they don't take pictures as wild as Nick and I do. No, Danielle, aka "The Snob," loves the drama and ever since J. Lo went and got herself domesticated all she has left are me, Naomi Campbell and Kimora Lee Simmons keeping it insane in the streets!
So until she comes back from her little two week holiday you'll have us hosting The Black Snob Open Thread. You can discuss us (I encourage it personally. We are the only thing that matters!) or you can chat about the news du jour! Post links! Ideas! Tips on how Nick and I can keep the homefires burning! Comments on how sexy I look, all sexy like a Lisa Frank notebook cover meets a Playboy centerfold meets and bedazzled biracial unicorn.
Or ... you can answer Snob's "Questions of the day."
BORING!
Or talk about sexy my ass is. You know? Important stuff. I mean, my ass is the hotness, right? That's not a 38-year-old's ass. That's an eternally young booty of forever sprinkles and rainbows tightness. I'm turning myself on, it's THAT SEXY. Nick loves it. But I've already said too much.
Seriously tho. My ass. HAWT.
Anyway, boring stuff now. Blah, blah, blah. The Snob Question of the Day is --
Who are going to be the NEW hot power players in an Obama administration? Long-time Obama family friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett is in charge of the transition team and you know she's gonna get a glittery tight position in the White House. Who's gonna be a star in the starchild's administration?
Keep it sparkle ponies!
Love,
Mimi
Dearest Black Snob readers,
Did I tell you guys that you're the best?
You're the best. You've made this small blog the little blog that could this political season and now after enduring this historic presidential election, I'm taking a brief respite from the blog.
I won't be staying away completely (I'll still drop in occasionally), but for the next two weeks, no more six or seven posts a day.
Sorry!
I need the break. But this seemed like the best time for a rest (even though I feel bad for leaving all the newbies in the lurch. May I suggest you skimming through the archives? Got a lot of TJ Holmes news in there.) Plus, I haven't worked on my fiction in months and I need to start hatching out "The Black Snob 2.0."
The details are still being worked out there, but I want a new site (with Secret Council of American Negroes incorporated into the larger parent site). I want to retool things to return the site to some balance. Sure, I'm still going to write about President-Elect Barack Obama, the Obama family and politics, but I've gotten away from my other passions of pop culture, music, entertainment, art, history, international affairs, ethnicity and gender. I've set the redesign launch date for the Inauguration, January 20, 2009.
I'll be working out my ideas (and looking for your suggestions) on "The Black Snob 2.0" on Facebook and on this blog. Feel free to send me your opinion via my email or on Facebook. And I'll continue to drop in and say a thing or three, but for the most part I'm going to try to really, really, really Focus On My Career 2.0 and Sleeping In A Lot 2.0.
Oh. And until I come back full-time I'll put posting random pictures of my new "friends," Glitter and Chuckles, who I find myself loving more with each passing day. They're pictured here above in London. Notice how Glitter is making the photo all about her.
Yeah. Work the paps, Mimi. Work it!
Yours truly in blackness,
The Snob
1) No more George W. Bush.
2) No regrets.
3) I'm going on a blog vacation/hiatus after November 8. I'll be taking a break to rest and to retool the blog which has been almost wall-to-wall Barack Obama for months. I'll still drop by, but the updates won't be regular in any way, shape or form and I'll keep everyone updated on Facebook. (If we aren't friends on Facebook yet don't you think it's time?) But The Snob, re: Danielle C. Belton in real life needs a break. I'm exhausted. Plus, I need to figure out the next step for me, my career, the blog and the numerous screenplays and half-finished novles I've neglected due to The Black Snob. The site also needs a bit of a redesign and I need to design some new Black Snob swag to sell on my Cafe Press account for the holidays.
That said, I appreciate every donation I get because, for real, I am a poor person. And I couldn't do this without your support. Please continue to send me your hope and your change (the kind that jingles and folds) into ye olde PayPal account.
Once again, friend me on Facebook. I'll be tossing out ideas on the site, looking for feedback. I want you to be part of the conversation!
That said, back to the election! CNN has called Vermont for Obama and Kentucky for McCain. Dem. Mark Warner is being projected to win the senate seat in Virginia.
Boy, this brings back memories of Black History Day programs at Keeven Elementary in North St. Louis County. I was the narrator almost every year (because I wanted the most lines and to be on the stage the whole time) and I was in the choir. And our choir was the hotness. If only all of elementary school had been choir and Black History Day programs and not me constantly being called a wannabe white nerdlinger who called the teacher "Mommy" that one time. Sigh.
(Don't get me started on how confusing all thirteen years of primary and secondary schooling were for me. The world seemed to have this love/hate relationship with The Snob where The Snob was totally lame ... until you needed something. Then everyone liked The Snob. Will you sit next to The Snob on the bus? Hell no. Do you immediately pick The Snob to be your lab partner? Of course. Nothing like being reaffirmed that you're talented then being trashed for being "different" when you no longer pose a use.)
This, by the way is video of students from Atlanta's Ron Clark Academy performing "You Can Vote However You Like," (a parody of rapper TI's "Whatever You Like"). For the lyrics, (because some of those little tykes are enunciating) are here under the information tab on the YouTube page. These kids were all over CNN earlier in the week. They remind me of a Christmas program we did once at Keeven where the boys sang "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas" while rocking backwards baseball caps and sunglasses. Good times.
In other Sarah Palin related humor, Jon Stewart told Gov. Palin to go perform an unspeakable act on herself this week for inferring that small town America is the only real America. Not that "fake" America Osama bin Laden took the time out to bomb. You know? The one Stewart and many of you grew up in. I'm left to assume she's including me as well, a suburban born, urbanite.
Mama and Papa Snob are from the "real" America, rural Arkansas and Texas. Strangely, they don't distinguish between the two other than in St. Louis they ditched the outhouse. Granny Snob, still living in "real" America says it was really air conditioning, LBJ and indoor plumbing that stopped "real" America from being a complete hell hole.
Below are clips from Stewart's harangue in Boston followed up with a continued rant on The Daily Show Monday.
Sorry for the zero-out-of-zero updates Friday. The Snob is pooped. I will be taking a brief respite over the weekend. The short version:
1) I took on a part-time job that is working me like a full time one
2) Random family medical drama (we're all fine now!)
I might put up some posts over the weekend, but check back Monday for something closer to my normal schedule!
I want to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday this week. You are guys are much too much. You always give me so much love and incredible feedback. Since January you have given me more than 236,000 hits to prove your snobby devotion.
If you're a new reader of The Snob -- bievinedos! Welcome! So glad you are liking what you read. Lately it's been wall-to-wall politics, but don't let the smooth taste fool you, I actually have a more diverse palette of interest, but the politics is mas sexy right now (and mucho, mucho dirty) that it's hard NOT to resist writing about it. From the absurdness of the McCain campaign to the absurdness of some over-the-top Barack Obama lovers, the whole thing is like a chocolate covered trainwreck. But for long-time readers here's a brief rundown of the other things I like to ruminate on for The Black Snob:
Incognegroes: Black people who don't look like black people
White people who look like black people (I'm talking about you Jeffrey Toobin and Bob Barr!)
Profiles In Sexy: A look at people who are sexy, why and why not and why they're on my nom de plume, Athena LaTrelle's Great Wall of Sexy page on Flickr
The color line within the black community
Google Stalking TJ Holmes: My love for the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of TV News
Black entertainment and celebrities
Real life drama series like "Mothers and Daughters" and "Doomed Romance"
Media personalities and the print/television news media
The Limits of Blackness, nee: things that are "too black" (or too stereotypically black) for me.
Race and gender issues
Sexism within the black community
International relations
The bougie, suburban experience
St. Louis, Mo. and my own, personal jihads (for those who don't know the word jihad simply means "struggle." Not kill the infidels.)
Fashion
And much, much more ...
When the election finally reaches it's climax, I will still write about politics, but I will return to my old format of mixing it up more.
Until then, enjoy The (Almost) All Barack, All McCain Variety Hour Blog, starring Barack "Hopey McChangey" Obama, Michelle "La Femme" Obama, the Obama girls, John "Johnny Mac/McMaverick" McCain, Cindy "Cougar Billionairess Barbie" McCain, Sarah "Punky Brewster -- Cheerleader-In-Chief" Palin, Mad Dog Joe Biden, Todd "I'm a Pimp" Palin and a cast of thousands!
I'm also going to try to figure out why this page is so slow in loading (unlike the SCAN blog which has three columns, but pops up relatively quickly.)
Tuesday night my blog play cousin sites, Black and Married With Kids, AverageBro.com, ClutchMagazine, Blackness Defined and myself are hosting a live chat of Obama v. McCain II. (The folks at Black and Married with Kids put the chat together on their site.) Feel free to join in as the fun starts 7:30 p.m. CST (8:30 p.m. EST), a half hour before the big show. The chat will take place at Black and Married's site at blackandmarriedwithkids.com/debatechat.html.
We'll be watching the debate together and commenting away! You can jump in as well with your quips and comments. The more, the merrier!
I have a new part-time job to attend to that's early in the morning. (The job is unremarkable in so many ways that it's not worth mentioning.) Nothing new will get posted until after 4 p.m. (I know! I know!) I'm going to work out a schedule so there will be updates to read by noon. Things will be cool. No worries. Please continue to send me tips and links to keep me abreast on the day's events.
Toodles,
Danielle Belton aka "The Snob"
I've regularly posted befuddlement at The Retro Kids wondering what they did for a living (besides go to NYC parties) and if their high top fades and braided gold chains were meant as a homage to the Hip Hop style that existed before the industry started pumping millions into the Rap Industrial Complex. Or if they were making fun of folks of my generation (teens and preteens of the late 80s through the 1990s).
Where they making fun of The Snob and my long hair, fully curly and crunchy to the side (with a banana clip -- of course, circa 1990, wearing a vertical stripped dress* to my sixth grade banquet where I was one of the two keynote speakers. Where I unveiled my hard earned dancing skills (I practiced in the basement for weeks with my more agile little sister, Deidre the Baby Snob, who went on to be a theater and dance major.) There at the banquet I busted a mean Roger Rabbit to some Bobby Brown after the award's dinner at Hazelwood East High School. Because I can't tell if the Retro Kids are making fun of that. That night was not funny to me.
Since kindergarten I'd been teased mercilessly for being different. By sixth grade everyone had calmed down and accepted me for who I was. I'd sat on my "cute" pair of glasses the night before the banquet and rather that wear my old hideous pink/purple plastic old lady specs from the fourth grade I went to the thing blind and specs-less. To my shock, everyone responded to me like I was the hottest chick in the room. I was "that girl" from the cheesy movies where you take off the glasses (and develop somewhat of a figure) and suddenly I was hot. That begot four years of bitching to my mom to get me contact lenses. So that night of 90s tackiness is a night of wonderfulness for me. Don't mock it, Retro Kids. Other than that -- Rock on. (From kanYe West Blog, via reader Whitty)
*I have got to dig up that picture. I swear to God. I was the hottest 12 year old in the game that night. I wouldn't feel that way again until college in my sorority days. (Left: My seventh grade ID from the former Kirby Junior High School in St. Louis County. Check them bangs. I was the hotness and no one even knew it.)
Also, scary. I can still do all those dances in the video. I made Baby Snob teach me all of them. Baby Snob has crazy skills. She had the Janet Jackson "If" video dance down pat. It was incredible, but she's always been awesome in that way. She's the official "Hot Chick" of the Snob sisters.
Because I was interviewed for the radio there.
Yeah, I don't understand anything on the report but my own comments in English but ... I've gone international, ya'll! We talked about the style of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain. My interview is the second story on the page reporter by Audrey Erath. There's a picture of Michelle and the girls next to it. The whole page is TOTALLY in Swedish so you need to get up on some Google Translate just to understand how to listen to the report.
Scandal! TJ allegedly has some sort of "girlfriend." According to the blog Scene in Atlanta, at opening night of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, TJ Holmes arrived with "his gorgeous girlfriend Marliee." The picture is woefully small and grainy. I may contact the owner of the blog, Jill Lerner, to see if she can hook The Snob up with something larger and more revealing.
Wednesday I went on NPR's News and Notes for their bloggers' roundtable with Shawn Williams of Dallas South and we had a lovely time. It was there we discussed racism and voting; the OJ Simpson tragicomedy that we both agreed is pretty much a non-story this time around. (No sex. No Othello/Desdemona race angle. No angry Goldmans. No news.); and how a man's views on gender roles can affect his pay.
I'm still not quite sure how that last one works, but the study said what the study said. Go figure!
If you didn't hear it live, take a listen now!
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