OUT 27

Happy 2006 to all of my cyberfans. Its been good and hope that you all are still on your New Years resolutions and havent broke any of them yet. One of mine is to make this blogsite one of the hottest sites in the Lou. Another is to keep my blogs more concise and reader friendly. Those who have been keeping up with it say that they enjoy it and want me to keep pushing the envelope with it. And as they say in America, as well as the O'Jays, give the people what they want!

Well for starters, I didnt do too much on New Year's Eve. I chilled out and didnt go celebrating as some club. One of my friends, Ramey, says that his lady went to Chi-Town and peeped out Teena Marie for New years. I'm sure that was hot to death. OK lets get all into it.

Last week, I started my journey last Friday when I attended the Black Rep premiere of the Tony Award winning play, "Caroline or Change" about a black maid, Caroline, played excellently by Anita Jackson, who works for a Jewish family, The Gellmans in the 1960s and her inner turmoil of being a maid (the pic of the play is the one in the center). This play, has to be the best play that the Black Rep has put on its stage ever since Ive been reviewing plays for publications five years ago. And I am not putting that out there lightly. The 10 plus cast also includes Jazz diva, Denise Thimes as Dottie, Caroline's friend; local gospel singer Karen Hylton, as The Moon; R&B chanteuse Coco Soul as The Washing Machine; and new sensation, Naima Carter, who plays Emmie, Caroline's oldest daughter. Great singing, great story and dramatics goes on in this 2 1/2 hour extravaganza. Opening night was packed to the raptors from the balcony to the floor! I wouldnt have minded seeing this play for all of its run (until early Feb). I would not be surprised that this play would be the one to beat at the Black Rep's annual Woodie Awards. To check it out, call, 314-727-0888 and tell them that Ma'at recommended you see this play! Afterward, I went to a house party for a guy named Darrin at a loft on Washington downtown who was going away to be a fireman. Well, I hope that he doesn't breathe on the fires that he puts out cause homeboy was sho-nuff lit with octane when he left the party. But congrats to him. It was about 1:30 in the morning and I decided to meet up with my boy Kameron to catch the last few minutes of First Friday that was held at the Ritz Carton in Clayton. I need to get there as extremely late again cause for one, its free after midnite and everybody is still hanging out after the party is over. I saw a few celebs like Fox 2 sports guy Rob Desir and rapper Chingy. And speaking of Chingy, he has been bulking it up at Ballys in Clayton for the past two weeks. Its so funny to see him without his hip-hop drag cause without it, he looks like a little boy trying to lift weights. He was chilling with three guys in his posse trying to get him in shape. It has been interesting cause with him being so skinny and the guys that he hangs wioth being buffed and ripped, I'm sure Ching a ling must be intimidated. It was also tripped out when Chingy and his boyz left out one night and the Bally music machine started playing his rap vamp on Houston's song, "I like That." That was too funny.

On Saturday, I checked out some of the Health Fair that was going on at the America's Center. My boy Kameron was at the Ballys booth giving free 10 minute messages for people. I have never seen him in action, but my boy had foilks hypnotized with his messages. They were in a trance! It was too deep. I checked out the scene a little bit seeing who was there. I saw SIUE buddy Damon Green who was there with his organization, Missouri Foundation for Health. he was rappin to me about his idea to create an artist development company in the Lou. Yes! Yes! Yes! That is definitely needed!. I was telling him that its so many people in the LOu who look at Nelly and Chingy and say, "Hey I can do that." But they fail to realize that it takes more than a dream to get in teh game. It takes, skill , drive, and longevity--and a gooooood lawyer. Okay. I also saw Annie Burks of Flymusic. She just had her baby (A beautiful baby girl) and she was at the Oxygen Network booth who was giving 30 minute messages and a aerobics class to its patrons. She said that she was trying to raise ends for her trip to USC to go to film school. I'm glad she is still grinding. She also had a spritual experience after her message when she bursted out crying!. She was like it was the first time that she has had some time to herself since her child wa sborn and to have a message like she had was movinbg for her. Whoa! That's heavy.They also had other health related booths like 24 Hour Fitness, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Lupus Foundation and Wild Oats Market. Eternity Restirant was also there giving away free samples of their veggie dishes. They also had a mainsatge going on giving talks about various health issues like diabetes. What was funny , well, shall I say unfunny was when the host of the Mainstage, comedian Thor Ramsey was bombing more than Iraq! If my mamma would have saw him, she would had said, Oooh, I'm so shame for him. He had one funny joke when he said, why is it when you go to a brand new Wal-mart, its clean, but when you leave, its dirty. Now that got a chuckle out of me, but after that---flatline. The health fair's celeb that day was wrestler, Diamond Dalls Page (who is pictured on the right of my blog), who I hear is suing Jay Z for the Rockafella symbol. He was giving tips on yoga and to pub up his new book, "Yoga for Regular Guys." It was interesting to see a man who is famous for screaming at his challengers try to speak to "civilized" people about a quiet sport of yoga. I also met an interesting brother and sister team, Andrew and Allison Zanowsky who was promoting a tasty protein shake called Max Muscle. They were stationed right next to Ballys. I struck up a conversation with them (Allison was giving you light skinned black girl for real) and they are building a Max Muscle shop in front of Ballys in Dorsett in February. Kudos to them 9and to Allison for wearing that string thong while getting a message from kam--ooops!) Later on that night, I checked out the new Jazz Loft on Washington, catacorner to Club Seven and next to the Amoco there> I was really feeling this spot. When I got there, they had a b-day party for the Capricorns there. It was free to get in and everybody was getting their elecrtic slide on . The first person I noticed there was my boy Pete Foggy and his cuzzo up in there chillin. I barely recognized him cause my sunglasses started to fog up from being in the chill outside, but I wa sable to maintain and started my way through the crowd. I also ran into gospel singer Joseph George was clean as a sheet of paper with that white Lutha suit he was sportin. he was up in there serenading the b-day girls up in the joint. And he then said to me, "You;re a bad man." I didnt know what he meant by that, but I took it as a compliment. I then walked to one of the VIP areas and ran into Christiaan who was chillin with his friends. He told that Joel" Mr Theater" King was also up in there and I saw him getting his Fantasy Slide up in there (Too much playing) I talked to my buddy Curtis (what's up with the white Hummer dude!)who was coming up in therr with his out of town buddy Paul. We all chilled up in the VIP like the VIPers we were. I tried calling Kam but he didnt answer his celly (He was probably poope dfrom all thos emessages he was laying down earlier that day). It was hella up in there and the Dee-jay up in there, named Sounds, was mixing hip-hop and house giving yopu straigt up Chi-town up in there. American Idol finalist and East Boogie boy Deandre Perryman (hope I'm spelling your last name right) was up in the building (damn dude, you staright up diesel with the muscles now!) who serenaded the Capricorn sistas up in there with "Happy Birhday" (the traditional one not the Stevie version). Now my thing was like, he was doing his thing, and some fo the crowd started to boo! Now what was up with that. That was not cute. That was ugly! Fortunately, the claps drowned out the boos. He then came up to me and asked how he performed and I told him he was on the mark. Keep up the good work and tell your manager to send me that info on your upcoming stuff! We all left out of there and decided to go to another spot, but I jetted cause a brother wa sgetting hungry at 2 in the morning, so I trekked to Club Illusion to get that dirty rice and fried chicken, awww, talk about finger lickin!

TIDBITZ. Next Wednesday, I will be doing a photo shoot for Anhueser Busch's Brewery Tours for their billboards and mags in the STL area as well in markets such as New Jersey, and Florida... Check my stories on author JK Dennis and the Black rep at www.westendword.com.... Model Carlos Mclaurin's Busch spread in mags and bilklboards will be up next month. The local movie Pieces of a Dream, (you can get mor of a descript at imbd.com and type in Pieces of a Dream) that was filmed in Alton , Ill, last fall will be premeiring ion Chi-town in February and St, Louis in MArch from what I hear. it was the flick directed by Alton born Skee Skinner and starred some of STL's actors inclduing Joel King, Dennis Lebby and kid actor Tre'von Griffith(who can now be seen in Caroline or Change).... The Adam's Mark and the Pavillion hotels will be the site for the Martin Luther King Celebration. Celebs like Judge Mabeline and Omar Tyree will be in town on various panels and a hair show that will be going down thsi coming up weekend. For more info contact Gary Boyd at 314-514-0678 and peep out their website at stlmlkdream.com.... Kudos to East Boogie native Reginald Hudlin for his new gig as head of programming at BET. I can see it now, a marathon of all the flicks he and brother Warrington directed or produced on the network. I hope he can do more original programming to uplift our people beside the Laffy Taffy videos and gutter comedy.... Much love to St. Louis American Entertainment Editor Bill beene for holdinghis won when he rebuttled a member of the Slu Crew on Sunday Morning Live last Sunday on a segment called "Responsibility of the Media." It all started when Beene talked about Big Will, a rapper from the Slu Crew, who went on 106 and park (he was also the one who battled Scooby at the Jay Z concert at the UMB Bank Pavillion two years ago) and he was winning the show's Freestyle Friday segments (he has now retired and has become a 106 and Park Free style Rapper Hall of Fame inductee) and Beene wrote about Big Will saying he is good but therr are other rappers doing ther thing as well and he isnt THE ONE. Well, Big Will didnt like what Beene had to say and he made it known to him at a Unity PArty that STL rapper Ebony eyez threw at Dreams Shante threatening Beene to not write about him the way he did. Well, Ive been knowing Beene for years, even worked with him, and I know Beene wasnt going to stand for that. A Challenge! Thats what hip-hop journalism is all about.. Well, he did and thats what brewed up the debate on Deneen Busby's Sunday Mornming Live show. I say that it was good dialogue. More stuff like that should be addressed and it brings more attention to the ST. Lousi Amerian, Bill Will and Slu Crew, and as they say in the biz, "any publicty is good publicty!."

A HUH FOR YA? What was up with a sista on the Tony Scott Breaking Crew Show this Thursday who was reppin her shop, Butterfly Braids, during the Crew's remote show and said that she can braid hair faster than those Africans! Huh? What was up with that? Sista, arent you African, I mean, your ancestors came from Africa. See, that is too much playing and for her to say it on air was downtright puzzling!

Well, that will do it for me. Until teh next time, Stay in teh mix in 2006 (God thats corny).