Thursday, October 26, 2006

OUT 104





Hello again my friends. Ma’atology here one more week for ya.


Herre’s some local, national and international bitz for ya this week:

How bout them St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series? They are currently 2-1 over the Tigers. I stopped being a Cards fan since 1999, when management started letting go their star outfielders like Brian Jordan, Royce Clayton, and Ron Gant and flip flopping with Ray Lankford. But I must give it to them for making it in the Series. The attention has brought St. Louis yet again in the spotlight this year (the other recent sports highlight was the Spinks fight earlier ) everything from the pine tar controversy involving Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers, pep rallies in downtown St. Louis, scalpers and counterfeiters of Cards merchandise.


But the current drama going on right now is Game 4 was rained out in the STL on Wednesday and their has been talk that the game could have went on but the callers waited to late to call the game resulting in people waiting two hours for no game. As of this writing, it was iffy if the Thursday game would be played too because of supposed rainy conditions as well. It isn’t sure when the games will be rescheduled (I now hear this weekend) This is a mess on many levels, from the ticket holders (especially those from out of town who came here for the game) to the advertisers.


And what’s up with the music coordinators at Busch Stadium music artist choices to perform “America the Beautiful/God Bless America?” For Game 4, country singers Billy Ray Cyrus (and his daughter , Disney star Miley) and Jo Dee Messina were planned to perform! If they were going the country route, why not Gretchen Wilson, who is at least born across the river from the STL! Cyrus and Messina are not from the St. There are many St. Louis based artist that could have performed from Chuck Berry, Michael McDonald, Sheryl Crow, Fontella Bass, or even jazz singer Denise Thimes who could have killed America the Beautiful. I am still scratching my head about this one.
Can the Cards win the Series? It’s possible. But I think it will go the whole seven games and it will be a close call with the Tigers edging out the Cards………….

In other local stuff…


Did anyone hear Flava of Love star Flava Flav on the Dee Lee Morning Show this past Monday? I heard he was a hot mess. If anyone heard it, e-mail me and let me know how it was…………………………….. What was up with St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown taking his time to step down as mayor after getting indicted last week after he pled guilty in federal court to charges of soliciting and accepting a bribe from a prospective vendor to purchase digital red light and speeding enforcement systems to the city? Was he trying to still clean off his desk before the next city hall meeting? Based on his history in office and how he got there, I am not surprised of his actions (check out

http://www.stltoday.com/ to find out how all this action went down in the first place)…………………………...Therre is also controversy going on with the Michael J Fox commercial which endorses US Senator hopeful Claire McCaskill and her wedge issue, Embryonic stem cell research to cure certain diseases like Fox’s Parkinson’s. Critics say McCaskill is taking advantage of Fox’s disease to make a point. Well, I beg to differ. In the commercial, Fox is shaking all over the place and it is Fox who is not on his meds. Fix didn’t have to go on a commercial and shake. He is doing that on his own—to make a statement (And a strong one at that). Anti-stem cell celebs like former STL Rams player Kurt Warner will be featured in a commercial for people to vote against stem cell research or in their words, “The Human Cloning Bill.” Enough already. Therre are many more issues that hit Americans more closer to home like health care, low gas rates, minimum wage and safe streets. Ya feel me?


On a national tip:


There have been a lot of buzz about Illinois Senator Barak Obama running for prez in 2008. He hinted about it when he was on Meet the Press last Sunday. Now of course the same buzz was on Jesse Jackson in the 1980s when he ran twice, and Colin Powell in the 1990s, but is America really ready for Obama or is this just a set up for him to jump at the bait? Some critics say he needs more experience in government, others are saying strike while the iron is hot and you got US who are telling him “BE CAREFUL.” (This reminds me of that joke Eddie Murphy told on his 1983 special Delirious about a black president during his My fellow Americans speech and him running back and forth away from the podium to dodge a bullet.) He has strong opinions about the War in Iraq, Dubya’s job in the war and the genocide in the African country of Darfur (where he visited earlier this year). Yes, he’s charismatic, but I’m sure Obama is no fool and will do what is in his best interest (even Dubya tryin to give him some advice talkin about him to be careful!) ……………

Madonna was on Oprah's show this week via satellite from her home in London to talk about her controversial adoption of an African baby boy and the Malawian government protesting such action. She said to Oprah that she and her husband, Guy, had met the boy's father in court and said that he said it was OK for the Ritchies to adopt him. The adoption has caused a storm of controversy. Final approval for the adoption order is expected in 18 months. Critics of the adoption say Madonna used her fame and wealth to put the process on a fast track. Uh yeah. I don’t have no qualms about somebody wanting to give a child a better living through adoption, but to me it seems as though it is always trendy for Americans, mainly mainstream upper class and white, to help black people from developing countries (anyone remember USA for Africa?). It’s the whole manifest destiny-Monroe Doctrine-save the natives syndrome.. But I’m sure in the end, Madonna is “keepin her baaabaaaaay.”……………..Did y’all hear that if you eat more green veggies you will stop the memory loss process and if you drink two drinks of alcohol you will curb heart disease? Yeah, okay. I am so tired of these studies that come out regarding ish like this. With all the pesticides and e-coli that are used and are spotted on green vegetables these days, if the poisons from that won’t kill you I don’t know what will and regarding alcohol, I guess all drunks should be able to run marathons day and night if they consume the devil’s juice.
Internationally…………................................Dubya, had some I’m-about-to-interrupt-y’all soap-operas-for-a special-speech report on Wednesday talking about how Iran and Syria should be able to back up Iraq while the US of A backs back (in other words “cut and run.”) . Sounds like Dubya is trying to bust out of the tinder box…….........................This month has been the deadliest month in two years of the number of people killed in Iraq. More than 80 people have been killed. Critics are saying its because of the peace-filled Muslim prayer and fasting period Ramadan (which began Sept 23 ended Oct 23) that the killing s were increased to prove a point to the U.S. To me it seems as though until after the November elections is when talks of pulling out of Iraq will come into fruition. Y’all know that anytime there is a war, someone is making ends from it and during an election year, you know both elephants and donkey parties are gonna accuse the other for not doing their job. I wonder what Paris Hilton gotta say about all of this? LOL


And now onto my weekly travels….


Last weekend was slow for me. The only thing I did was go to the urban stageplay “The Man of Her Dreams’ that was held at the Fox Theatre (POSTER PIC SEEN ABOVE). I called up my girl Jewelanda Hodges to see if she wanted to go and told her I would meet her up there. I called myself getting an early start of getting there. I left out of the crib around 7 to make the 8 o’clock curtain call and midway on 64-West there was this one-lane-only construction going on. That delayed me for about 10 minutes, so, I was driving pretty steady after that, but then therre was more orange warning signs saying 2 right lanes closed ahead. Great, this was all I need. It was going on 7:30 and the traffic bottlenecked during at the 64/55/70exit area wherr you had three sets of lanes converging to one lane. So you know this was as messy as trying to eat a taco.

I called Jewelanda on the celly to ask her if she was already there and she said that she wasn’t. I told her I would be a little late getting to the theatre and told her to call me when she got therre. It was going on 7:45 when I got on the MLK Bridge to get to St. Louis. I then swung a right to try and get on Broadway. As I waited for the light to change green there was a homeless brotha on the curb with a sign and a plastic cup getting his hustle on asking for change. I was about to take his pic and all, but the light changed green.

I took the scenic route to get to the theatre as I drove South on Broadway and then West on Market Street, then took the ramp leading to the Grand exit on 64 west , and made a right on Grand. It was now 8: 10 and Jewelanda called me and said that she just passed the theater and that US were just going into the theatre, so I didn’t feel too bad, I hate going to scheduled events late cause I gotta be therre so I can get together to write what I see.


Anyway, I got a parking space on the very packed (and very free) Vaughn Cultural Center parking lot (at a handicapped spot) and walked up Grand Center Square to find Jewelanda. She call’d me and said that she was walking behind me. I greet’d her with a hug and we proceeded on to the theatre. We got there about 8:20, walked to the Box Office, got my tickets, asked Jewelanda (who told me that the cast was staying at the Embassy Suite in downtown STL) for some lotion for my hands and we walked into the theater.


As we walked into the near bare lobby, there was this sista who was an usher before we even entered the theater and asked for our tickets and said, “I see that no one is helping y'all, just go through the doors and an usher will help you.” I found that to be funny as in peculiar cause we knew where to go. But I guess she was just being sure that we were helped.

Our seats were in the third section of VIP near the stage where the band was and the play was already starting. On stage were the lovely Keisha Knight Pulliam and another actress talking about their man problems. When we got our seats, I saw St. Louis Post’s Kevin Johnson and we greeted each other briefly. FOXY 95 personality Garth Adams was sitting in front of us.


As far as the play itself, well, it is what it was. The play was your typical urban stage play where you had old school R&B singers and some headliner urban actors on stage talking about relationships and solving their problems with God with some good old R&B and gospel songs sang by the cast members who can saaaaang.


As far as the plot, the play was about Senator Gordon (portrayed by actor Clifton Powell) who was running for re-election -- and from a tryst 18 years earlier with his wife's estranged sister, Louise (portrayed by Emmy Award winning actress Jackee Harry) moved back to town bringing college-bound daughter Chania (played by Cosby Show’s Keisha Knight Pullium) with her (who thought she was adopted) , and was invited to move into the Gordon home by the senator's wife, Margaret (played by “Playa’s Club’s Chrystale Wilson). Chania was the product of their affair, unbeknownst to Margaret or anyone else.


Is it juicy enuff? Well, there’s more…..


Chania then fell for the Gordon's recovering-alcoholic son Tyrone (played by Steve Vaughn who looks all like Booby Brown for real), and the couple was engaged before they learned they were actually brother and sister.


YIPES!


Also living in the Gordon home was the grandmother matriarch, the mother of Margaret and Louise (played by R&B-cum-gospel singer Shirley Murdock in an iron straight silver wig), who learned a secret of her late husband's past that shook her faith, but reconnected her with Louise. Marcus and Margaret's daughter, Erica (played by Taj Enphiniti), was a sexually active two-timer who got her comeuppance not once but twice (and ended up pregnant). Her conquests were Kevin (played by actor Tyga Graham who was also in the STL-based gospel play, “Every Dog Has His Day” and Tyler Perry’s’ “I Can Do Bad by Myself”) and Jamal played by R&B singer Christopher Williams.
The developments led to plenty of opportunities for the gospel message of forgiveness, and the admonition to bring your burdens to God when there's nowhere else to turn. The writer of this play, Donald Gray, played a pastor who helped the families mend their estranged problems.
In the end, neither woman got the man of her dreams.

AWWWWWWWWW.

The script offered several R&B/gospel songs. One of the best-received songs was "Love TKO," performed by Christopher Williams. The production provided local references (Don’t they always?)There were many references to St. Louis and the Cardinals that got the crowd hyped. The best comic relief came from the Gordon family butler, Cletus, played by Buddy Lewis (who was more like a male “MAdea” without the old lady wig and dress).

The final scene was more like a cliffhanger to a Dynasty plot. In Margaret's hospital room, the family ended up in a violent confrontation, halted in freeze-frame by a prayer from the family pastor. I heard on some tour dates it was announced by stage announcers that the crowd should be advised to stay tuned for "The Man of Her Dreams: Part Two," in a future tour. It wasn’t, however, said in St. Louis at the Fox (well, not during opening night).

Overall this play was entertaining. I have seen so many of these type plays that I can pretty much predict what is to be expected. It was refreshing to see Keisha Knight Pullium and Jackee, who are greenhorns of sorts to this type of genre, but other than that, the play was an R&B soap opera on stage. There were many hilarious moments when the characters broke the fourth wall and responded to the crowd’s responses to their dialogue on stage. One instance was when Vaughn’s character asked Pullium’s character in regards to the future of their relationship and when a heckler in the audience responded to their argument, Vaughn broke out of character and said, “Shut up.”

In regards to the character choices, I was wondering why Wilson was playing much older and Harry was playing much younger? It was not believable seeing Wilson playing someone in their late 40s (and conservative) with two 20 something children and Harry playing a loose woman in her mid 30s. They should have switched roles. I am wondering how long can this genre of stage play go on? It's the same plot, same nuances and the same old song. At $26.50 - $39.00 per ticket, I guess US aint tired yet.


After the show was over, Williams and Graham were in the lobby taking photos with eager female fans that were willing to pay bills for their keepsakes (CHA-CHING). I was able to tap Graham by the sleeve to shake his hand. It looked like he may have remembered me from my working as stage manager on Jewelanda’s play Every Dog Has His Day play in 2004, but he was so occupied in the moment, it was hard to tell.

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On Saturday, I planned to go to either the new club Mercury off Spruce or the private party VIP Halloween Bash at Westport. I was invited to go, but I decided to chill out and look'd at some telly . Speaking of telly, did anyone see the latest episode of Damon Wayans’ sketch comedy show, “Underground” on ShowTime? I think he has reached the limits even for Showtime. He did another cooking show from famined Somalia and showing his ass to the camera (literally) and exposing a long prosthetic penis from behind, then one sketch had a guy playing a Protest Milk stripper in a grocery store who gave both women and men lap dances and pouring milk on himself, then cast member Aries Spears (who has gained a ton of Elvis weight these days) playing a store manager who also takes his clothes off and pouring milk on himself.


To top it off, they had a parody of the animated show, “South Park” called “South Bronx” wherr a black Cartman was trying to figure out how to bust a nut. He did it by looking at Kevin Costner’s “Dances with Wolves,” sticking his thumb up his ARSE and penetrating it, then getting a lead pipe and hitting his family jewels! I was too outdone with this episode. It’s trying to be Chappelle Show, but Wayans is taking the easy way out with the smut factor (and he got his oldest son Damon Jr, on the show too which is creepy!) I’m all about creativity, but this show is just not funny.

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On Tuesday, I checked out the CD release party for 15 year old rap phenom Jibbs (SEEN IN POSTER PIC ABOVE) at the newly opened Club Dolce located at 200 N Broadway (corner or Pine and Olive).On the same day, I got the invite from his New York publicist Teresa Sanders who call’d me on my celly to invite me to this (via Post’s Kevin Johnson). So I rearranged my supervisor schedule duties at the Water geyser to accommodate the invite.


Before I got there, I went to the gym at Bally in Clayton to get my work out on. I got therre a little after 8 p.m. and I circled around to the area where the club was (There was a big white spotlight across the street from it which is part of my story as well). If you know anything about downtown St. Louis there are more one way streets than streets. I circled near the area to try and get a parking meter spot. On Broadway, I saw the Hot 104.1 van parked nearby so I know I was in the right area (For a moment, I thought the club was North north Broadway like in Baden North North) I didn’t want to take the chance and park at a pay lot cause all I needed was my car to be towed for not paying.
I ended up at a parking meter on Pine Street, just a few blocks away from the club.

As I was walking, I had to pee. So I made a quick pit stop in the Metropolitan Square Building to try and find a urinal. As I was walking there were about five brothas, (two whom were janitors) saw me in my confused stupor and one asked, “You lookin for the bathroom?’ I said YES and he directed me to one behind them. As I tried opened the door, it was locked. The brotha who showed me the john told me to knock on the door. Okay. So I did. And this short brotha who looked like Lil Wayne opened up the door. So I did my business, walked out and back down on Pine to the club…so I thought.


For some reason, I couldn’t find the club . I walked down Broadway where the 104.1 van was and I saw no club. I walked back up Broadway near Chestnut and asked the white tech guy who wore a colostrophy bag under his shirt who was taking to a guy in a van where the club was. They pointed right across from them. If it was a snake, I would have bitten my eyes. Then the guy with the "shitbag" on him said, “That's why the spotlight is here.” I was about to say something else to him, but I was getting cold and just said, "Thank you.”

So I walked up in front of the club and saw three white guys up front, one had a guest list in his hand so I know I was in the right area. He asked for my name. I gave it to him. And he started looking for my name fumbling through the two papers he had on a clip board. He told me he was sorry for my wait (which was no more than 20 seconds). I told him that Teresa Sanders put me on the list and when he looked over the list again he saw my name and told me to have a good time.

I walked in and the place was barer than Mother Hubbard’s cupboards. Something told me not to get therre that early, but I just assumed that they would start around 8 (as the invite said cause people gotta get up in the morning) But I forgot what the majority type of crowd that was coming through that threw out that theory. LOL So I walked around checking out the people who were there (One early one was poet Renegade) 104.1 WHHL DJ, Kristol was on the 1s and 2s . I walked out through some doors into the lobby area where the Red carpet was where they had a poster board with Jibbs' name plastered on it for the media to take snaps of Jibbs and the celebs (I’ll get to that near melee fiasco later).


I saw a white lady from the Post when I got therre (who remembered me from the Red Carpet affair with Chingy at Drunken Fish a month ago) who was taking snaps and she said she was therre ever since 7(Ooh, I knew not to come that early. LOL) I asked if Jibbs was there and he wasn’t (of course) but a rumor was floating around that he was at the Cardinals game ( But I heard that that was untrue and he was at home getting ready). My concern was, with Dolce just opening up, why are they hosting a party with a minor wherr alcohol was served????


But I digress…


The set up in Dolce was very posh. It had three levels. The main level is the dance floor and bar area (with TVs that were showing Jibbs on a BET show). You go down a few steps and they had another bar and table area where people can drink, eat and watch TV (those TVs had the Cardinals game on). They also have an upstairs area which was mostly VIP (I’ll get to the VIP action later). One area upstairs had a couple sitting at a table and booth surrounded by long, colorful, pearl shaped beads!)


Meanwhile, 104.1 personality Young Dipp was on the mike broadcasting live givin those the skinny of the action there (My sister told me she heard the broadcast and that she said that Dipp said that the floors were so clean that you could eat on them. LOL) . A ghetto moment occurred on the lower level when one of the waiters, a brotha with bad Ike Turner hair do was trying to mack with two sistas as a table. He grinned and was showing that GOLD tooth. One of the sistas asked him, “How much did you pay for that gold?” He said, “185 dollars.” CLASSIC. Then he asked them, "How old do I look?” They didn’t know and he said he was 22 (He looked older than my father and he looks good for 62!LOL)


Around 9ish, the crowd started to pick up a bit and I ran into Stlhiphop.com creator B-Gyrl and we started talking about our websites and all. As we were talking, the appetizer waiters began walking toward the patrons with delectable treats like Crab cakes, Shrimp scampi, tenderloin, and BBQ chicken. I also ran into my girl Chantel from Omai Modeling photography and made some nice with her as well. I also bumped into local socialite and event coordinator Vanita Applebum and Majic 104.9’s Queen Isis Jones (while I had a chicken bone in my mouth. LOL)


Around 10ish, Chantel and her entourage (including her model Karma and her “brother” in Christ) had received wristbands to go upstairs in VIP. I asked her who gave her those and she said it was same sista named Nicki and said that she would try and find her so I can get a wristband. Well, I know this was going to be a scavenger hunt because around this time, the place was getting packed with H and H ( HARD LEGS and HOOCHIES). So I decided to take matters in my own hands and asked the Red Carpet coordinators where I go to get a wristband. One of them told me to go up front form where I entered to get one.

So I walked back into the club and back outside and asked one of the guys up front where I go to get a wristband and they pointed me to this light skinned, heavy set brotha who had a small bag of wristbands and a clipboard with a list of names. I walked up to the brotha and asked if he was the guy with the VIP wristbands. He said YES. I told him my name and said that Teresa Sanders had put me on the list. He then said, “Who is Teresa Sanders?” Oh-oh. I then said, “She’s Jibbs’s publicist in New York.” He looked on his list, asked my name again and said that I wasn’t on the list. I didn’t trip and said that it was okay. He looked sympathetically at me as though I lost my wallet or something and I just walked back in the club. But you know me. I am going to try all means to get to the end.

So I walked around some more and saw Chantel had come down from upstairs, I followed her cause I know that she would be my Plan B if I needed to get into VIP. So I followed her back to the lobby/ Red Carpet area as she greeted almost everybody that walked out there to get to the restroom. One sista who she knew asked Chantel about the VIP wristbands and she said, "Why do we need wristbands to go upstairs and it’s a free party?” (FINALLY SOMEBODY GETS THE RUNNING STL JOKE ON VIP BESIDES ME!)

Then we got word that Jibbs and the local celebs had entered from the club entrance instead of the Red Carpet lobby entrance. Well that was great cause that’s why myself and other media photographers were there to get snaps of Jibbs and his special guests. Well, apparently, the Red Carpet coordinators called somebody on their celllies about bringing Jibbs to the Red Carpet area so he could take pics and be on Video Vault TV.


Anyway, I stayed in the Red Carpet Lobby area as people who Chantel knew walked in front of the Jibbs poster board to get their picture taken. Then, around 10:30ish a HEAP of people came out of the club toward the Red Carpet and leading the way was the boy himself—Jibbs dressed in a dapper hip hop black suit coat, white cap, white shirt, jeans and his CHAIN HANGING LOW (SEE PICS OF IT ON OUT 103). It was now on and poppin!.


So one by one, Jibbs took pics by himself as and with St. Louis personalities and rappers including, Murphy Lee, Choa Choa Tai, Isis Jones, and Nelly’s manager T-Luv. There were other people up there, but I lost track of who was who but apparently they werr of importance based on Chantel directing the photo scene. It got to be a melee out in the lobby as more and more people came out to the lobby area to catch a glimpse of Jibbs. This could have been a problem cause usually for red carpet events, there are supposed to be are ropes put out where the general public should stand behind as the media take pics. Well, that didn’t happen (STL needs to step up the red carpet procedures for real!) . Everyone was everywhere and it was very unorganized. One moment the Hard Legs got hyped on what was happening and started lighting some fire up, but a female security person told them very sternly they couldn’t smoke up in there so they extinguished their fire.
Another instance was when Jibbs' very vocal manager kept shouting out, “Jibbs featuring Jibbs” (the name of his CD), "You look good, baby! You platinum already!” over and over and over again. One member of his posse shouted out, (Jibbs) forgot his toilet paper, cause he’s shit on me.”Okay, that was..well…different. This action lasted for about a half an hour, then the scene came to a close as Jibbs and his followers walked back into the club and upstairs to VIP. Well, this was my time to get up in there. I just waited for the right time. When I saw the photographers walking toward the VIP , I followed them. I showed the guy who was guarding VIP my press pass and he allowed me to walk through.

MISSION ACCOMPLSIHED.


I went upstairs and it was packed (no surprise) in the small staple-shaped with a balcony view area. Waiters were trying to bring appetizers up in there, people trying to take snaps and video of Jibbs. But Jibbs was a gentleman all the way with everyone and very mature for his 15 years. (Was it me or was therr a small kid up in VIP?) Up in VIP were Post’s Kevin Johnson, KSDK’s Jeff Small, Vanita Abblebum, and rapper Ebony Eyez(who changes hairstyles more times than a stoplight changes colors!). While I was schmoozing, downstairs, Jibbs gave a mini concert as the crowd gathered around him like he was the second coming….of Nelly (LOL) he rapped songs from his CD as DJ Kristol spun his jams. It also was wild to see when Jibbs shifted to the left, the crowd shifted to the left. When he went right, they went right. It was amazing to see the power of celebrity! (I got a YOUTUBE video of some of the action just see below under MA’ATIDBITZ for more details).


Around midnite, I decided I had enough of DA HOOD so I jetted out so I could go to the Water Geyser to work the late shift. Others in the house were Nelly’s barber Steve Lacy, Robert Kirk, former club owner Reno, fashion show coordinator Nina, and architect Anthony Robinson.

CHART-BITZ. And speaking of Jibbs, we’ll see next week how high his debut CD, “Jibbs Feat. Jibbs” will go on the Billboard Album charts. As far as his single, “Chain Hang Low” and comparing to Nelly’s and Chingy’s singles released during the same chart time period, it seems as though it has ran its course. The song peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100 (besting Chingy’s “Pulling Me Back’ which peaked at No. 9 and Nelly/Janet’s Song, “Call on me” which peaked at No. 25), It peaked at No. 16 on the R&B charts (not reaching the Top 10 with No. 1ers Chingy and Nelly). And it has slipped two spots on the Rap charts from its peak of No. 6 to No. 8 (not besting Chingy’s No. 1on here). Chingy’s newest single, BTW, “Dem Jeans” has yet to chart on either charts.


FOR PICS FROM THE JIBBS CD RELEASE PARTY, GO TO OUT 103


MA’AT-IDBITZ. I made a YOU TUBE movie of the Jibbs Cd release party at Club Dolce where he performed for his fans. To watch it, paste the following address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXfbk28lXqs in the top search window . I will keep tabs on how many hits I get in upcoming weeks (You can also make comments on the YOUTUBE page about my movie as well.)


The Post’s Kevin Johnson asked me via celly text if I was still at the Argus doing freelancing. And the answer is NO. The collabo with them didn’t work out. It was amicable………………………


Congrats to my former AG Edwards colleague Tianisha Loyd who is now full time and permanent with them!.....................


CW11 media came to the Water Geyser where I supervise on Wednesday to film the Geyser’s eruption. It was for the channel’s news show………..


I got three emails this week that I would like to share with you all:


One was regarding my invite to the Who’s Who in Black St. Louis that will be held at the Ritz Carlton on Nov. 6. It came from Communiqué Relations PR creator Renee Thomas Woods who was the liaison between the Who’s; Who people and the writers (like myself) who wrote articles for the book. Here is an edited version of what she had to say

Hello Everyone,

I hope all is well with you. The Who's Who in Black St. Louis Unveiling Event is coming up and I am forwarding information to you that I received this week on the event. I look forward to seeing all of you at the unveiling reception is you can make it. This is the first time the writers have been invited. I wanted to be sure that we were recognized for our contributions to the book. Each of you will also receive two copies of the publication and you have permission to copy the articles that you wrote for use in your portfolios and other promotional materials.

Thank you,
Renee


I appreciate the update Renee, but The jury is still out if I’m going cause the bills have yet to be paid (If you get my drift. ). I know its not your fault but the Who’s who people need to step it up for real.


I also got an email from Kellie Smith who wanted me post up an on going event she is having. She wrote:


Hi,
Do you mind posting this on your blog I know its last minute but next week would be fine as we will have this every Tuesday at 7:00pm. Thanks I appreciate it. Thanks for the lovely picture of myself and my home girl Shawn Guy-Pitts at The finale of Taste StL.
Appreciate It!
Kellie
(GO TO JOB-BITZ BELOW TO GET THE INFO)

No problem Ms. Smith, anything to help out.


I also got an email from a buddy in Los Angeles, Curtis Wilson who wrote:


How are things in your neck of the woods? Yes, I'm
pulling for the Cardinals and hope they will pull it off. Will chat soon.

Curtis (los Angeles, ca)


Well, as I wrote earlier in my blog, I’m not really that to excited over the Cards, but I gues its good biz for the Lou to have the World Series herre to draw up tourism.


But the email I received that really touched me came from former St. Louis model Cedric Mixon (SEEN IN PIC ABOVE) who keeps up with my blog ever since he moved to Philly. He has his own book publishing company called Kobalt Books and he sent this very moving email letter that I had to share with you all.

The Murder that Gave Life to Kobalt BooksReal Life Between the Pages

It’s been 20 years, on Halloween since the founder of Kobalt Books’ fatherwas shot 14 times and brutally murdered. Cedric Mixon started Kobalt Booksin 2003 as an outlet for real life stories put in print. Kobalt Bookspublishes non-fiction books that are actually true stories. Even thefiction books are based on true stories, presenting real life between thepages for real people.

“I experienced and survived the traumatic murder of my father, October31st, 1986 as he was shot 14 times at close range. The absence of a fatheraffected the way that I view the world, and the focus for Kobalt Books.Life is not a fantasy or a dream for me. I have to be able to look myselfin the mirror, and face my own reality”, says Mixon.

Kobalt Books’ titles focus on real life stories because Mixon feels thatpeople want books that they can identify with--books that cry out to theirsouls, and at the same time makes them laugh, and cry.

“I vividly remember passing the house where the convicted murderer lived,everyday on my way to school. The killer was almost allowed release fromjail on a technicality, but was held because of his long list of pastcrimes. This is the type of pain that I had to endure as a youth, and iswhat made me into who I am today”, says Mixon. Kobalt Books is a reflection of just that. “We have to tell the truth—Wehave to put real life between these pages”, says Mixon.

Kobalt Booksfocuses on turning negative situations into positive energy. “When my father was killed, me and my other two siblings were able to goto a good high school, from the insurance money. From there, I received ascholarship to Tennessee State University and obtained a degree inElectrical Engineering, then an MBA in Marketing. I started Kobalt Booksshortly thereafter. All of this was birthed from the negativity of a murder” says Mixon.

There are people all over who have experienced things in life thatresemble scenes from movies. Kobalt Books was created to give a voice to those who have stories justlike mine. There are so many people living through extreme circumstancesright now that you will never hear about, and then you have people who arecreating and selling the consumers this fantasy. “A Million LittlePieces”, by James Frey sold more books as a recovery memoir, when it wasactually a fictional story”, says Mixon.

“The Hoodlum Preacher”, which made the Top 10 Essence Bestseller list,is the first book published under the new movement of real-life books.Burton Barr Jr. is the author, and has put his life on paper for all toenjoy. “The Hoodlum Preacher” is a TRUE STORY about a minister who battlesfor his soul, while struggling to accept church-life over the street-lifethat he knows so well.

The Hoodlum Preacher details a life of crime andredemption, as Burton has the passion to change his life, even if it getshim killed. Barr proves to be strong enough to battle with himself and win, as KobaltBooks wars with the biggest companies who are only interested in deceivingthe consumers for the sake of a dollar”, says Mixon.

Kobalt Books intends to release a book every month in 2007. This has neverbeen done before with a three year old independent publishing company. Thefirst six books released will be “Tomorrow's Sun”, “Romantic Treason”,“Puppy Love”, and “The Thin Line I Walk” coming early 2007, which are allfictional novels based on true stories. “You Don’t Have to Live LikeThat”, and “9 Hours” are non-fiction books that will be released mid-2007.The other six titles will be revealed New Years Day of 2007.

To contact Mr Mixon,

call him at 314/503-5462

STL-BITZ. "The Lost", written and directed by Todd Spence, shot and edited by Dan Gartner, sound design by James Green, and remaining crew all being from St. Louis, is being recognized, and is also a Finalist with the Third Screen Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. There is an "audience" vote for the final round of films, so please help lift St. Louis into the limelight a little more by voting for "The Lost" and showing these Californians how solid we really are. You can do this by visiting www.thirdscreenfilmfestival.com, clicking on The Lost and voting there. AND you can vote again by text messaging through your phone: TEXT the lost TO 66937 The ceremony for the winning films will be held in Beverly Hills at the Museum of Radio and Television on the 26th of October.


BLIND BITZ. Which two female models from the Marshall Faulk Fashion Show tried to coax a male model to return to the show after he dropped out of rehearsals weeks before the show?

EVENT-IDBITZ. The St. Louis Black Repertory Company presents, “I Stand Alone,” which is a series of cutting edge, new-one person plays written and performed by the Black Rep Touring Company. Performances will be every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Black rep Monsanto Center for performing Arts Education, 1717 Olive Street, 4th Floor, St. Louis Subscribers$5; Non-Subscribers $10. For tickets, email

boxoffice@tehblackrep.org or at the door

Webster University Film Series Presents Al Franken, “God Spoke”October 26, 8PM (Al Franken: God Spoke (Nick Dobb & Chris Hegedus, 2006, USA, 90 min.)with special guests Nick Doob, Chris Hegedus & DA Pennebaker For more information go to: http://www.webster.edu/filmseries.htmlAdmission is $6 for the general public, $5 for seniors, students from other schools and Webster alumni, and $4 for Webster University staff and faculty unless otherwise noted. All films screened in Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University, 470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, MO unless noted.

PULASKI BANK SPONSORS “A SORDID HALLOWEEN PARTY” To benefit Food Outreach and Doorways with special guests Delta Burke and Leslie Jordan. Pulaski Bank is proud to sponsor “A Sordid Halloween Party” on Saturday, October 28th from 8 pm to 1 am. This big bash will provide St. Louis with an enjoyable evening of entertainment (from actress Delta Burke and actor Leslie Jordan) , good company, and the opportunity to raise funds for two worthwhile charitable organizations. The beneficiaries of this year's event include Food Outreach and Doorways. Food Outreach provides food to patients living with AIDS and cancer, serving over 1300 clients per week. Doorways provides housing to those who are critically ill and their children. Costumes required City Hall Rotunda -1200 Market Street. Tickets: $50 for individual tickets/$75 at the door $150 for VIP ticket/$200 at the door Visit www.halloweenstl.com to purchase tickets in advance.

If you are in NYC, Sister's Uptown Bookstore PRESENTS Author Appearance And Book Signing With RICH GIRLMORE AUTHOR OFSEX, MONEY, DRUGS & CONSEQUENCE Vol. I & II Location: 1942 Amsterdam Ave. @ 156th St . Date: Saturday, October 28, 2006 Time: 6pmFOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT US BY PHONE AT (212)862-3680 VISIT US ON THE WEB AT SISTERSCULTURALSTOP.COM or EMAIL:
SISTERSUPTOWNBOOKSTORE@YAHOO.COM

3rd Annual Black Who’s Who Event, Monday, November 6, 2006 Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis Networking Reception 6:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. Official Book Unveiling Program 6:45 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Foreword By Cheryl D. Polk, Special Tribute To The Late Katherine Dunham Choreographer, Dancer And Humanitarian Master Of Ceremonies - Lou Thimes, J. R."The Real J. R.", WESL 1490 Mistress Of Ceremonies - Vickie Newton, KMOV TVEntertainment By Focus, Project X And Sunshine & The Community Performance Ensemble PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS NOW!$50.00 per ticket includes a copy of Who's Who In Black St. Louis THE THIRD EDITION(retail value $24.95) A portion of the proceeds to benefit The Youth Lifeline Foundation Fine Art Display by Black Renaissance Man, De'Joneiro Jones Purchase your tickets today by calling (614) 481-7300 or order online @ www.whoswhopublishing.com

East St. Louis native
Phil Perry will be performing at The Roberts Orpheum Theater in St. Louis, MO at 7 p.m., Sun, 11/12/06 For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com

Drumvoices Festival of Arts celebrating the 20th b-day of the Eugene B Redmond Writers’ Club, through Oct. 27. For tickets and information call 618-650-3991 or
eredmon@siue.edu (Sorry, I wasnt able to attend due to my work schedule. )

4246 Fashion Show, Friday, Oct 27 at 4246 McPherson, doors open at 6 p.m., Show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 ADV and $25 at the door, For more info and advance tickets call 618-741-9952.

Gospel group SOPOG Performers at The Vaughn Cultural Center, 3701 Grandel Square. Friday, October 27, 2006, 8p-10p. FREE. For mro einfo, call 314/615-3624

Hipster Magazine presents "CANDY" - Sat., October 28th @ Filter (formerly Nik's Wine Bar in CWE) 313 Belt Ave. at Pershing, 9pm - 1:30am music by DJ Needles only $5 admission

CLUB KYO is having a Halloween party, Halos and Horns on 10 p.m., Oct 28. (See ONGOING EVENTZ and go to KYO’s website below) for more details.

Art INK presents "A Time For Expression: The Moment of Truth" a theatrical synopsis, Sun. Oct. 29, 2006 @ the Hilton, St. Louis Airport. Admission 10 dollars, reception at 6 p.m. show at 7 p.m. Call 314.974.5315 or 314.960.7894 for more info.


WSIE. 88.7 FM presents JOEY DEFRANCESCO TRIO with special guest BOBBY HUTCHERSON, Sat. Nov 4 @ 8pm @ The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd. For tickets call metrotix at 314/534-1111 or visit
http://www.sheldonconcerthall.org/

Big Tah B-day Bash: Scorpio edition at the Main Ingredient , 3960 Chouteau and Vandeventer, Sat. Nov. 4. For more info contact Sharee Galvin at
sgalvin26@yahoo.com Sharee Galvin also sent these event-tidbitz for you party dwellers:

MONDAYS:

LOOKING OF THE AFTERWORK EARLY RUSH- MARTINI MONDAY'S @ THE LOFT FREE HAPPY HOUR 5-7PM 3$ MARTINI SPECIALS
HOSTED BY GARTH ADAMS & CRAIG BLAC W/ DJ CHARLIE CHAN
FREE BEFORE 7PM, 5$ BEFORE 8PM

BIG TAH'S MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL @ THE MAIN INGREDIENT
FREE FOOD AND DRINK SPECIALS (BEER & MARTINI 'S)
COME HANGOUT, WATCH THE GAME & SHOOT SOME POOL
5$ COVER ALL NIGHT LONG

TUESDAYS

The ULTIMATE 2$ TUESDAY AT DREAMS-HOSTED BY STACI STATIC
FREE TIL MIDNIGHT

TWITZID TUESDAY'S AT THE SOFT TOUCH HOSTED BY BIG JAY

WEDNESDAYS
"HUMP DAY-GOT LYRICS?" COME HANG OUT WITH ME
@ THE FILTER BAR FREE B4- 8 ONLY 5$ AFTER 8- POETS 3$
DRINK SPECIALS..

WE HAVE HOT DRINKS ANYTHING FROM 'COFFEE- CHAMPAGNE'
WE START THE SHOW PROMPTLY AT 9:30

THURSDAY OCT 26: EYE CANDY IS BACK@ THE LOFT
MO SPOON IS LOOKING FOR.. MS. OCTOBER "EYE CANDY OF THE MONTH" IT COULD BE YOU!! LADIES YOU GET COULD WIN A CASH PRIZE
YOUR PICTURE IN THE STLOUIS AMERICAN "EYE CANDY MODEL"
DOORS OPEN AT 8PM- LADIES FREE BEFORE 10:30. SIGN UP BY 12

FRIDAY OCT 27: STRESS FREE FRIDAY IS AT THE FILTER BAR...
COME ENJOY A SPECIAL HAPPY HOUR 5-9PM HOSTED BY MARK JONES AND MARIO WAYNE..

AN ELEGANT FASHION SHOW HOSTED BY _MOCHA LATTE'
THERE WILL BE MODELS REPRESENTING ALL THE AGENCIES
4246 MC PHERSON 7PM ADVANCE TICKETS 20$ AND 25$ AT THE DOOR

CHECK OUT 5$ FRIDAYS HOSTED BY POTZEE AND THE UC ME FAMILY
@ DREAMS...WHERE THE STARS PLAY DRINK SPECIALS ALL NIGHT LONG...SPONSORED BY 'JC' COGNAC


For any info on these events email sharee at
sgalvin26@yahoo.com



Cinema St. Louis kicks off the 15th annual St. Louis International Film Festival with the world premiere of “Mr. Mayor: The Life and Times of A.J. Cervantes.”
Time/Date: 7-10:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9 Place: Moolah Theatre, 3821 Lindell Boulevard 7-8 p.m.: Cocktail reception (complimentary wine and Corazon tequila cocktails; cash bar) 8-10 p.m.: Introduction and screening of “Mr. Mayor” 10 p.m.: Q&A with producer A.J. Cervantes Jr., director Michael W. Barnard, and former Mayor Vince Schoemehl All guests receive complimentary valet parking, wine and Corazon cocktails during the reception, popcorn and soda for the screening, and a Bissinger’s chocolate. Reservations must be received by Cinema St. Louis no later than Monday, Nov. 6. Please call 314-289-4153. Tickets will not be mailed; your name will appear on reservation list at check-in table.


CHRISTOPHE GRAFFITTI FASHION SHOW, NOV 26. featuring entertainment by 2003 American Idol winner/ Grammy Award nominee Ruben Studdard. The show will be at the Historic 555 Washington Ave. , St. Louis. Tickets are $35 general, $50 VIP. $5.00 off on pre-sale tickets up thru October 31, 2006. For ticket info call 314/749-1995, 618-917-1225 or
go to cristophegraffitti @yahoo.com


AUDITION-BITZ. Webster University is having an Open Casting Call for Multiple Short FilmsMen and Women (Boys and Girls) Ages 12 and up. All ethnicities. Saturday, October 28 11 AM - 5 PM at the Sverdrup building Room 101 Webster University, 8300 Big Bend At Big Bend and Edgar Road CONTACT:
directing06.webster@gmail.com No film experience necessary. Headshots and Monologues accepted but not required. Get the chance to work with a professional crew and build your resume!

Nelly's Manager T-Luv will be a celebrity judge for the dance competition Oct. 29, 2006 @ DREAMS from 6pm-9pm! They are calling SAINT LOUIS and the surrounding areas to come out and invent the next dance called POP ONE this SUNDAY @ DREAMS! Do you want to be in a video? Do you want to be a star?
Do you want to have the chance to win $500.00? Be at Dreams (Washington and Compton) OCTOBER 29, 2006 from 6pm-9pm!
For more information you may log on the website at www.myspace.com/bobqptheallstars

Cerberus Inc is looking for book cover models from romance to sci-fi to fantasy. The shoots are TFP or TFCD for submissions to these publishers.
Male types: Ranging from Rugged and muscular to sensitive and lean.
Height 5' 8" or taller, weight proportionate to height. Ability to act always
a plus. Female types: Ranging from sophisticated to wicked. Height 5'6" or
taller , weight proportionate to height. Ability to act always a plus. Previous work can be seen at:
http://cerberusinc.com/ Weekend shoots. Contact with photos or webpage url at: cerberusinc@hotmail.com

J.O.B.-ITZ. Loan Officers Needed No Experience Necessary! Will Train! Nations Funding Source, STL Recruitment and Business opportunityWhere: Kingsbury Real Estate, 415 Debaliviere @ Waterman Suite 271 (Inside Pulaski Bank 2nd floor Time: 7:00pm every Tuesday Come fill out application ask for Kellie NFS agent or Juan Lewis, Broker/ Agent

City Lights is a Gospel Video Production Company and Advertising Agency
located in the Central West End in St. Louis.

Part Time Office Assistant: Must type at least 45 wpm, Microsoft Word, Internet & Email Knowledge, Great Phone Voice and Professional Phone Etiquette, ability to multi task a must, a people person is a must as well as the desire to be a team player. Compensation: $7.00 to $10.00 per hour 60 Day probation. Possible pay increase after first 60 days (based on performance) Paid Position........

Part Time Associate Tax Preparer Must be computer friendly........Knowledge of Microsoft Word & Excel a plus! Compensation: Starting at $8.00 and up based on Experience and/or
Knowledge Free 8 weeks Training Provided (only 10 openings left) Part-Time Job offer to those who successful complete training (4 to 6 positions to fill in St. Louis, new location soon to open in IL, 4 to 6 positions to fill and coming soon to North County 3rd location possibly to open by Jan, 2007. All applicants must be outgoing, detailed oriented, well spoken with great communication and people skills.

Non Paying Position: Commercial leads and extras. Ability to follow directions, creative and eager to learn, acting skills not necessary but helpful. When provided small talent fee, gas coverage and paid luncheons

Paid Position..............Part Time Video Technician ability to shoot, edit (Adobe Premier), work well under pressure, detailed oriented, Flexible schedule, skilled in graphic design a plus, professional and neat in appearance a must along with being a dedicated team player. Compensation: Hourly TBA (Based on ability and efficient) Experienced only!

Apply with Letters and/or Resumes ONLY: Email Resume to Cltvtalk@aol.com
Mail Resume to: City Lights, 4144 Lindell Blvd. Suite 134, St. Louis, MO 63108
No Phone Calls to City Lights office Please!

ONGOING-BITZ. Check out blog http://www.sistersnineties.blogspot.com/ for local literary group Sister’s Nineties Afrocentric literary activities for the family and youngsters

Check out Lachrisa Crenshaw’s spa products at http://www.warmspirit.org/esuite/home/chriscspirit , or call her at (314)401-0710 or go to
lachrisa_crenshaw@sbcglobal.net.



My boy Kameron Holbert has a new monthly column on sports messages on local magazine Uptown (
http://www.uptownstl.com/).. He has also copped a gig doing profressional messages at Stress Free Fridays at various venues in the ST. Louis area. For an appt. or when he is scheduled to do messages atteh next Stress Free Fridays, call 314/477-3427 or email him at mrholbert@yahoo.com


For body painting , makeup, face painting wigs and other special effects, contact Jessica Dana at jessicadana.com or go to myspace.com/jessicadada13

For all of your STL club event plans, AD SPACE and pics, go to

http://www.stlouis-online.com/.

For your catering needs, check out Collective Catering collectivecatering@yahoo.com located at 4958 Cote Brilliante, their digits are 314-575-3333)

KDHX Radio’s Chuck Lavazzi has a hot new podcast called STAGE LEFT which he talks about CD reviews, news and interviews from theworld of stage, screen, cabaret and related places. The latest episode is now on line. Go to it directly at http://tinyurl.com/zrqd7, via the Stage Left blog at http://stageleft-stlouis.blogspot.com/, via the Stage Left web site at http://www.stageleft.org/,or via iTunes Music Store; just go to the Podcast area and search for Stage Left.

Former 100.3 The Beat personalities Big Sexy Kool DJ Kaos and Sylli Asz is doin it up on You Tube these days hosting their hilarious STL reality Internet series, the Janky Show. To check it out, go to www.youtube.com and type in “The Janky Show”

Check out STLdee-jay Enoch online with his own radio playlist. The Flow; Music Lounge. Peep it out at http://www.flowink.com/player-popup.htmor go to his myspace page enochisreal.Show Me

Entertainment presents Industry Nights, a networking party for artists, http://www.hotmail.com/entertainers, models, actors, painters, dancers, entertainment lawyers, managers, etc. every Wednesday night at the Lindbergh Bistro located inside the Airport Plaza inn at I-70 and Lindbergh. 18 Y.O. to enter. 21 Y.O. and up to Drink. Admission FREE. For more info, contact Terrence Smith at 314/713-3793, or tsmith@showme1.com orhttp://www.showme1.com/

Local movie screener and TV programmer James Thomas has two hot shows on the new CW Channel 11 with his shows “First Look” about upcoming movies in theaters, Thursday morning at 2:30 am and Hot Videos, Friday mornings at 3 a.m. For more info, email him attdjoo7@sbcglobal.net

Theatre advisor L.A. Barge has a new book on CD that he is selling called, “Choosing the Right Mate Before the First Date.” For more info call 314/5331639 or email him at dreamscope921@hotmail.comFor all your STL hip-hop info needs, go to http://www.stlhiphop.com/!

STL videographer Dana Christian has a hot new website where people can send their professional music videos films to get exposed. It is http://www.spitflix.com/. Peep it out!

KYO (pronounced KEE-O) continues "Redefining the Art of Dining & Nightlife" with a fresh weekly lineup that promises to quench your thirst for drink and dance. So "Be Fashionably Elite" with a smile and let KYO claim your evening from 5pm till 3am in the morning. For more info go to http://www.kyostl.com/newsletter.htm

Well, that be it, folks. If ya got anything for me to pub, OR GOT AN OUT TOWN HOTTIE that you wanna let me know about, hit me up e-mail style at maatspear@yahoo.com!















Wednesday, October 25, 2006

OUT 103-EVENTZ PICZ















































Herre are some pics from the Jibbs CD release party held this past Tuesday at the new Club Dolce in downtown St. Louis.

Jibbs on the red carpet…Majic 104.9 personality and singer Queen Isis Jones interviews Jibbs for Video Vault TV….Jibbs with his posse taking a picture….Jibbs clownin around up in VIP with fans…Jibbs and rapper Murphy Lee (whose ice is coldest?)…Jibbs and rapper Choa Choa Tai…Jibbs with owners of Club Dolce….Jibbs with 100.3The Beat personality Bishop V-Luv…Jibbs with Omai model Karma…Jibbs with WHHL 104.1 personality Young Dipp…The Post Dispatch’s Kevin Johnson, rapper Ebony Eyez and KSDK personality Jeff Small….Isis Jones and Young Dipp….Kevin Johnson, Vanita Applebum (You gotta put me on. LOL) and Jeff Small…Fashion show coordinator Nina with architect Anthony Robinson…Yours Truly sneakin up in VIP (LOL)…Jibbs shown on a taped segment of a BET video show…Tony Orlando and Dawn—hip hop style…Jibbs ice sculpture….Jibbs cake….104.1. DJ Kristol on the 1s and 2s….Party people up in VIP…Some Dolce signs….More party people (check out the brotah getting his crunk on with Jibbs’ CD in his hand!)…A view of the club from the inside looking out….Jibbs performing around his fans….a stretch Hummer waiting outside for the man of the hour….(PICS COURTESY OF MAATPRODUCTIONS)

Herre are some EVENT PIC LEFTOVERZ for ya….. Yours Truly, Maranda Witherspoon and St. Louis American’s Bill Beene chillin at the Drunken Fish Grand Opening on Laclede’s Landing….The firewood centerpiece for the dessert and wine table at Copia’s first year celebration….Budweiser Select character Max with model Christiaan Cofield (PICS COURTESY OF BLACK TIE-ST. LOUIS AND MAATPRODUCTIONS)

OUT102-RE-BITZ OCT.2005





A year ago this week in 2005 on my blog I talked about my travels that prior week including being nominated for a Regional Emmy, checking out the Webbie concert at the now defunct Toxic nightclub and checking out my buddy Joel King’s two one act play at COCA.

Here are some excerpts from that blog post (errors and all. LOL)

Well, this is the weekend where I find out whether I win or not at the Regional Emmy Awards Ceremony that will take place this Saturday at the Hyatt Regency near Union Station. I was nominated for being talent and writer for the Renee Marie piece I had done on Charter Communications last October (I can't believe its been a year already) on the now defunct local cable show REEL Entertainment. I am hopeful that I win, but it's all reassuring for my confidence as a broadcast journalism. Not too many brothers from East Boogie get a chance to hob nob with regional media people and have the possiblility of winning an Emmy.

When I told people that I was nominated for an Emmy (PIC OF MYSELF FROM THE EMMY SHOW ABOVE) , the range of repsonses go from disbelief to a congrats with an disbelievable grin. Sometimes it's even hard for me to fathom, but with anything I do, I put my best forward. But with any awards competition, there is polictics involved. In my case, if it wasnt for my former colleague Pete Foggy (who is nominated with me a producer of the Marie piece), I would have been SOL. Charter did not contact me to even tell me I was even nominated. What's up with that? True, I no longer work with them and according to them, I did not fit in their niche and needed training, I should have at least been told that I was nominated. But it is all good, I was able to get a free ticket thanks to Foggy and I will wear my opera coat and bushy Afro and act as though I was supposed to be there. And if I win, I will definitely give my thoughts on how I made it up to the podium.

But I digress

Soon after, me and Kam rolled to Toxic to check out rapper Webbie (SEEN IN PIC ABOVE), the 19-year-old from Baton Rouge to perform cuts from his CD Savage Life. I was on the media list (thanks Renee!) and was able to get Kam inside too. It was 20 bones to get up in there and it wa spacked up in there. Not as packed as Ebony Eyez' Cd release party (mainly because EE's was free), but it was just as ghettofabulous. Anyway, before Webbie got on stage, they had artsist and many activitie sgoing on.

Hosted by Isis Jones, the artsis who performed prior to Web were All Stars feat. Jus Blac (who performed at Ebony Eyez; party and the same LIke WO-URRRRRRR song) and Da Camp. When they performed they had over 20 people in their camp who were just on stage. What is up with that? Does it take that many people in to represnet and support the artists? And why was D-St. Louis formerly Mr. American Idol contestant and East Boogian D Andre Perriman up there? Is it that serious to get attantion sir? Anyway, the real action happened when it was announced they were having a bad bitch contest in conjuction with Webbie's hit song Bad Bitch. I had a beef with this. Now, the same sisters who say they get pissed if guys call sistas bitches, then turn around and have a bad bitch contest? Hmmm.

Well, the sisters who got up there were from the Brooklyn ILL club Bottoms Up where the sistas take it all off. Well, on the Louie side, that is a no-no, but it didnt stop them from getting their twirk on. About 10 sisters from Bottoms Up got on stage, and some started dropping it like it was hot, grinding the floor and even two sisters started toingue kissing each other. I was getting a eye-on myself. LOL. But the trip part about it was fellas throwing dollas, coins, fliers and plastic cups on stage. One of the male hosts, a light skinned cat from the new 95.5 (his name slips me now), was calling the sistas bitches and hoes and I was like degradation at its best. I was getting disgusted by the whole scenario.

By the time, Webbie came out (which was close to 2 am), with a Henny bottle in his hand and his constant pulling up of his knee-length jeans each time they fell exposing his bloomers, I heard him flow two songs (neither was Gimme Dat or Bad Bitch) roll out. The crowd was swelling, people were pushing toward the front where Kam and I were and I knew it was time to go (of course, a fight ensued after we left). Now granted, I have no problem with freedom of expression and all and if sisters want to gyrate and dance sexually that's all on them, but the atmosphere of brothas who are drunk , high and their libido is stronger than a panther, there is a guarantee that trouble with cops will take place (and it did).

I do not feel comfortable going to a hip-hop concert event and people in the club disrespects a black establishment. I am sure Toxic owner Reno is concerned about thsi because, as many times there have been police coming to Toxic (as well as Plush) becasue of hip-hoppers and thundercats trying to tear the club up, that it will get harder for him to stay open. Come on STL, let's try and behave ourselves when it comes to going to hip-hop events. Act accordingly. Dont tear up your brother's backyard and expecting for noone to clean it up because you all will be the main ones screaming that there is nothing to do in the STL.


I checked out my buddy Joel King's two one-act plays that he wrote, Me, Don and the Psychiatrist (PIC OF A DIFFERENT VERSION OF PLAY SEEN ABOVE) and Meeting in the Ekders Circle. It was a stage reading of the two plays at COCA. It was close to 60 people who witnessed the plays and King asked for us to write down our opinions and feedback on them. The two plays are hilarious! Me, Don and the Psychiatrist is about a married couple who go to a psychistrist to seek help for her man's philandering and hyper sex drive. Shawn Guy (who is looking good these days with her slim and trim self) played the girl, Sadie and Kevin Rolston played Don (the name of the white guy who played the psychiatrist slips me now).

I enjoyed this. It was daring and ballsey with the language (Don calls his penis a "Pilates stick" and when she had to pee she sad that her "little girl has to go spit") told from the woman's point of view. It started off with her soliloquy about her problem about going to the shrink, afterward, the play went from action to soliloquy getting the audience involved in her struggle (even had the women in the audience raise their hands after a question about men was raised by Guy's character). It would have been nice to also get Don's point of view, but all along, it was an interesting take about sex, and relationships.

Now the second one , Meeting in the Elder's Circle was high-falutin satire on the black church. It tells the story about a lady named Magdelene played by Tann Moore (who toe up thsi role) who stirs up mess talking about people while church service is going on. Picture Tyler Perry's Ma Dea and you have Magdelene but only sexier. I along with audience were rolling all through ths play. I cannot imagine cursing that goe son at a church, but the blaspheme nature of the piece was refreshing and gave interesting commentary about how UnChristian like people are in church. And the cast of characters were just as hilarious.

You had a assistant pastor played Sammuel George, who could not read and the only word he knew was THEE (one instance his wife in the play used a walkie talkie devise to read him his sermon to him through hsi earpiece--HILARIOUS), another was a pleasantly plump sister played by Cody Aaron who thought of nothing but food and reminded herself of that everytime she spoke a sentence that may had a reference to food. The other cast memebrs include Olivia Neal as a transsexual. One big laugh came when a white actress in tha play gets in a fight with Magdeline and called her a bitch. I lost it. You talk about FUNNY.

This play I definitely can see playing at the same circuits as Tyler Perry's. Add in some famous R&b singers and B-black actors and Joel is on his way. I am very proud of Joel. He used to be in a few of the plays I wrote and directed (mainly the Dutchman in 2002) and he has definitely becoem one of the movers and shakers in the performing arts community in the STL. In the house were J Samuel Davis (WHAT THE DEVIL!!!), Greg Carr, George Best of the Network Group(who helped finance Joel's plays) and on videocamera was Mariah Richardson.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

OUT 101






CHELLO! This is Ma’atology here again tryin to get into your e-vision with my e-words for ya e-thought. Well, this week has been dramatic on a local level especially last Saturday. Early that day, Ali Jones, the founder of Nelly's St. Lunatics crew (SEEN ABOVE THREE PICS SHOWING TASER SCARS AND BEING INTERVEIWED BY FOX 2’s APRIL SIMPSON ), was stunned with a Taser over 40 times by a suburban St. Louis police officer and arrested after a routine traffic stop. According to kmov.com,
The Hazelwood Police Department says Jones resisted arrest and kicked the arresting officer. Jones claims the officer stunned him numerous times without provocation. The officer says the rapper resisted arrest, kicked him and damaged his squad car. Police in this St. Louis suburb say they'll review the case — including looking at footage shot by the arresting officer's dashboard camera — to sort it out.

"My head's kind of spinning," Hazelwood police Capt. Greg Hall said Monday. "We have two very different explanations as to what happened." It began Saturday afternoon when Jones was pulled over after an officer allegedly observed him illegally backing up his Corvette at a traffic light to enter a left-turn lane. Officer James Taschner determined that Jones' driver's license had expired in 2001 and confirmed it with a dispatcher. Taschner apparently felt he had sufficient reason to handcuff the rapper instead of just issuing a ticket, Hall said. Officers can arrest drivers if they believe they won't make good on tickets.

Jones told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that despite the expired license, he had a permit to drive, and the state agreed. The Missouri Department of Revenue said Jones obtained a permit in the summer that lets him drive with another adult in the front seat. It wasn't clear whether Jones gave police the permit, and why the error was not caught in the radio check. Hall said it might have been an oversight.

Jones said he became angry after being cuffed. He was arrested and charged with third-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and property damage. Jones said the white officer made several racial remarks during the traffic stop. He denied police reports that he resisted arrest or kicked the officer.

PSHEW!

This is Rodney King revisited up in the STL. This looks like this is going to get uglier than Aunt Easter for real. (Later in my report, I have an interview that Jones had done with Fox 2 reporter April Simpson about the matter). I heard on 100.3 The Beat when my boy Jessie Taylor, on the Dee Lee Morning Show that Jones was Tasered so many times that when he had gone to the hospital for his injuries he involuntarily relived his bodily waste functions (THAT’S TOO MUCH PLAYIN!!). But my thing is, Ali and the Lunatics are still planning on opening up the planned restaurant MACKS in the same district that ALI was tasered! If I was Ali, I would not patronize an area that does not patronize me. To still give business to a town that treats you like a bald head stepchild, is like saying, thank you for treating me like an inhuman.

But I digress….

Later on that Saturday, a bouncer at Club Formula in downtown STL got stabbed and killed. According to KMOV.com, the victim was Jerome Fowler. Witnesses say Fowler broke up a fight in the club, and was walking the suspect to a car, when the suspect stabbed the bouncer in the neck. Homicide detectives are still trying to confirm whether the two men knew each other. This is I’m sure will put a death knell on the latest black club causalities in the STL. I really hate this happened to this club cause the proprietors of this establishment Sonia Brascomb, Tony Thompson and Miss Kay are good people and for this to happen is definitely not good publicity for their burgeoning business.

In other local stuff, former NBA star and STL native Anthony Bonner was named the new coach to his alma mater Vashon High School replacing ousted veteran coach Floyd Irons. This should be interesting cause with Bonner, who is an All American of sorts, to step in as coach (As well as sports coordinator) when all the fire is up on the controversial firing of Irons, is definitely a political move to try and curb the city’s protest of Irons being fired (In other words, black for black) and with Bonner who was coached by Irons when he was at Vashon as well is, in a way, a passing of the burning torch…………………

Earlier on in the week, the Bushes (as in Dubya and Laura) were in the STL to help promote their various causes. Dubya for U.S. Senate candidate Jim Talent and Bush for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During Dubya’s speech a female protestor in the crowd raised her fist interrupting his speech and her stating for him to get our troops out of Iraq. He ignored the protester and security escorted her out of the venue. Laura addressed women about cancer at the Gateway Arch site which, later on, was lit up with pink lights to represent breast cancer awareness. I guess people breasts took over the Bushes speeches directly and indirectly to say the least........

Other local stuff that happened last Saturday was national radio syndicated talk show host and book author Michael Baisden “performed” his show at the Chase Park Plaza with the SOS band as the music group. I hear it was close to a 1,000 people up in there to see a Q&A, taped video segments about relationships and old school 80s band SOS Band. And people paid 25 and 50 bones for general and VIP to see this. Now I have no problem with a brotha getting his hustle on, but to charge that much for this seems a lil’ steep to me especially when you got veteran radio show host Tom Joyner comes through the chocolate cities with an entourage of people and entertainers and he does not charge a dime for his show. Ya feel me ? And, especially when Baisden didn’t charge anything when he came through the STL earlier this year at Broadway lights in Baden. Also at Chase at the same time of Baisden’s show, I heard that Nelly and some fundraiser I believe for his foundation, Fo Sho Fo Kids (so you know it was a whole lotta US up in the Chase!), and the National Association of Black Journalist had its annual awards show at Wash U.........................................

Nationally, the country celebrated the 300 million births in the US of A, but according to reports, the number wasn’t celebrated like the bicentennial due to the immigration problems. Anybody can read between the lines on this. I think Public Elementary said it best on their 1989 release, “Fear of a Black Planet.”

And whats up with the report I heard that actor Wesley Snipes was indicted on eight counts of tax evasion for failing to pay nearly $12 million in taxes and failing to file tax returns for six years and that authorities could not locate him and that he may have exiled in Johannesburg, Africa ? What’s really going on? According to panachereport.com, Snipes could face up to 16 years in prison. I remember reporting on this allegation all the way in 2002 when I was a reporter at the ST. Louis American and compiling info about Snipes for Hot Sheet. Now apparently it’s true.

What’s up with the country will have a power shortage within a few years due to people using too much of it for their TVs and other electrical equipment. Can you imagine one day the country goes to a national blackout? All I have are two words “SUN POWER.” Then you got the Hawaii earthquake that caused some damage but no deaths, STL-bred comic and actor Cedric The entertainer hosted the Diddy “shameless’ Press Play CD plug on the Clear Channel Stations, deer season is upon us and as of this writing the St. Louis Cardinals needed to win game 7 with the Mets for a spot at the World Series with the Tigers….

This is also the 11th anniversary of the historic Million Man march in Washington D.C. I had the pleasure of being there for the festivities and, along with renowned poet Eugene B. Redmond and poet/educator Sherman Fowler helped to co-write a book chronicling that historical feat entitled, “Visible Glory: Million Man March” (published through SIUE in 1998) )…And lastly, Happy 80th B-day to rock and roll legend Chuck Berry . He’s still duck walkin and playin his guitar. I guess he will celebrate by having glasses of his own namesake wine that was recently merchandised across the country.

If you have bene reading my blog for the past few weeks, you know that I was preppin for the Marshall Faulk Annual fashion Show that was going to beheld at the Airport Marriott on …you guessed it Saturday, well the majority of this post will focus on the prep time and show time of this adventure:

Herre’s how it went down:

As you all know, last week I was preparing to rip the runway (and staging a comeback of sorts to the stage) with the annual Marshall Faulk benefit fashion show produced by DIVA Planning. The last thing I wrote about the prep HELL WEEK moments was when I had to go, on my blog deadline, to go to Demay Furr in South St. Louis to get fitted for a fur for the fashion show. And that’s wherr I’ll will begin…

Last Thursday, I got an email from Tracy from DIVA about going to Demay Fur to get fitted for a fur. I called her and told her I would be there to get it done (cause I’m a solder I told her. LOL) So, later that day, I drove to DemAy Furr, located on Cherokee in South ST. Louis. When I got there and parked, I walked up and saw the place looked like an old vintage furniture store. I walked up and saw that there was a black cat resting n the door mat (I though that this was very weird socially with Friday 13th coming up soon). When I opened the door, the cat walked in behind me.

I looked around and it looked like a shrine to yesteryear with old styled portraits (with the oval shaped picture frames) and cluttered furniture everywhere. I thought I had the wrong spot at first but when I walked to the back, I saw that I was in the right spot when I saw this sista trying to bargain with the salesman on a brown mid waist fur she tried on. There also was this elderly black lady in a wheelchair and a cane who looked very much like she was inattentive to the action that was happening. There also was a dog lying in the middle on a rug as well.

I stood there for a moment to soak in the moment when the black guy salesmen asked to help me and I told him that I was with the fashion show. He then asked, which one cause there are two that we are working with?” I said the Marshall Faulk one and he then told me to have a seat. So I sat in one of the vintage velvet chairs. As I was getting comfortable, the black cat jumped on my lap scaring the BESHITS out of me. I may have scared the cat as well because it clawed down to the floor. The sales guy told the cat to behave. The elderly lady look'd at me with no expression and then started singing some gospel song. I felt like I was in a time warp to the Civil Rights Movement days up in there for real. It was a strange moment.

So, when it was my turn to get fitted, he told me to take off my jacket so he can find me a fur. There were no furs that interested me (one was a brown short fur that didn’t fit me well). As I was getting fitted, there was this flamboyant brotha who came in and sat in the seat I had sat in. As I was getting helped, the guy told me they were going to have more furs Friday morning. He then wrote my name, weight and height and said they would take care if it.

A funny instance (literally) that happened there was when the sales guy asked for my height and age, I said 6 foot 1, 185 pounds and this other guy who was flamboyant said (like Antoine from In Living Color) “Mmm, I remember those days “ implying when he that weight I suppose, but I was like, to myself, ‘Okay, was that comment implying that he liked what he saw?” I am like a lion—you can look, but don’t touch, unless you wanna draw back a knub. LOL. The lady who owned the place, this white lady named Shirley rushed in and she was a taskmaster (ala Teaching Mrs. Tingle for real. LOL).

The salesman asked her when more furs were coming in and she walked to the phone to make a call and said very curtly, “They will be in tomorrow. Just put his name down and we’ll take care of it.’ There was no hi, how are you, thank you for your business. Nothin. So I knew right then and therre that she was definitely a case to deal with. So before I left, I asked Mr. Antoine if I could get my jacket from the chair that he was sitting on and he obliged and I said my goodbye. The salesman said “Good luck on the fashion show” and I said, Thank you (I wanted to say finally someone with some manners.)

The next day, last Friday, it was our last rehearsal until the Saturday show. But before I went to rehearsal, I had a Friday the 13th mishap that involved my almost catastrophe with my lips. Let me explain. I got up Friday morning, and fixed me some breakfast. One of the breakfast items was eggs and I nuked them in the microwave. So, when the breakfast was prepared, I got my plate and went into my den and started to watch some TV. I ran into the TV One on One special Kathy Hughes had when she was interviewing Natalie Cole. So I decided to check that out. Now mind you, every time, I nuke eggs in the microwave, I always get a fork and place holes in them check it cause a lot of times the eggs will explode after I cook them.

Well, I did that, but when I took a bite in some of the eggs, the eggs explode din my mouth. Yes, as in BOOM! I quickly spat it out and suddenly my bottom lip started to get numb. OH SHIT I said to myself. So I ran to the frig and got some butter and immediately rubbed my lip with it cause it was starting to get painful. I looked in the mirror and saw that my lip was swelling. This was great. One day before the show and my lip was gonna look like I have been kissing a curling iron. Then, the pain started to get even worse. So I got some ice from the freezer and started rubbing it on my bottom lip. I was panicking for real. Did I fuck my lip up to the point where I had to cancel doing the show! I said to myself.

So when the ice subsided the pain I looked at it in the mirror and it didn’t look too bad. If it was first degree burns, the meat on my lip would have come loose like taffy. So I was lucky. I saw that I had some Neosporin in my medicine cabinet and I started putting it on my lip. A few hours later, I looked at it and I saw that the lower left of my bottom left was swollen, but not that much discolored. So, I said I would put more ice on it to shrink the swelling. Well, I put too much ice on it and created two small holes on my lip. OH NO. There was no way I was gonna go out with my lip looking like a pepperoni pizza! So I played NIP TUCK on my lip by tearing of the rest of the skin that was split hoping that blood would not appear (I know its getting disgusting), but I was able to match the redness with the rest of my lip and put the cream on it so it wouldn’t scar too badly.

Later that evening, I was off to rehearsal. It was held at DePaul Hospital May Center in one of its multipurpose rooms and I must say the anxiety with err’body was turned up more than your jam on the radio. Therre was tension with various ‘non-consensus” changes that were made, designer’s outfits not being there, people not showing up for final rehearsal, models being replaced in different scenes and final ticket business matters taking place. But from my experience with stage stuff, when there chaos, what is to follow is order. That is just the law of nature, so I was not totally getting bonked out with last minute drama. The only setback to me was we had to go back to DemAy Fur the day of the show to get the furs before we got to the Airport Marriott for dress rehearsal at 3 p.m.

On Saturday, the day of the show, I took care of some last minute running around stuff before I got to the fur place. One was going to the gas station and picking me up a can of malt liquor that was 8 percent proof. I stuck it in my thermal bag cause I knew it was going to be a long day (I wished I woulda had a spliff if ya feel me. LOL). So I got to the fur place and that same black cat was there (I was about to kick it for giving me such “bad” luck with my lip. LOL).

So, I got there and the same sales guy greeted me and I told him I as here to get fitted for a fur. He had three left and one was this baaaaaad dark fur with silver shimmering ends to it. It was cold blooded (I have a pic of it on OUT 100). I looked at it in the three-way mirror and he told me, “Go ahead and walk to the mirror. It won’t bite.” It fit a little long in the sleeves, but I didn’t care. This coat was gonna be hot to death with my black ensem of black pants and a black and silver Batman shirt. Come to find out I was one the last one to pick out a fur (that was my good luck working for me). So they said they would bring the furs to the event before the show started (I’ll get to that later).
So after the 5 minute fitting, I drove to the Airport Marriott and got there about 2 p.m.. I got my suitcases and bags out the car and proceeded to go to the front desk of the hotel. I walked up and the sista working up front who told me already where to go (I must have looked like a model already without the drag on. LOL). So I walked down the hall and made a right and walked to one of the salon rooms and saw Tracy. She had a puzzled look on her face and said, “You're supposed to be here at 3 p.m.” I said I knew that, but I want to prep myself for the show.”

So I took my stuff backstage and set up my clothes and shoes based on which scenes I were in. Meanwhile, DIVA were doing last minute decorations and getting the stage area together for the show which was going to begin at 8 p.m. I was the only model who showed up for dress rehearsal at 3 p.m. (which meant the actual rehearsal would be much much later.) Meanwhile, one of the designers, Chris Dinkins (VERALLI) walked up to me and asked, “Do you know if they are bringin a steam iron?” I looked at him and just said, “I don’t know who they is. I’m just here.”
Dinkins then asked if anyone from his camp come to rehearsal last night. I said NO. I was confused with his question. I thought he said did anyone bring the designs for us to wear. I corrected myself and said YES, but as far as the designs, NO. He said that the designs were on their way. (I knew right then that the drama was about to unfold, it was straight Project Runway—STl Style.LOL)

Also interesting was the freaky deekiness that would come from some of the crew. Dinkins said to one of the DiVA crew that they couldn’t stop him from going to the female backstage room to “see some things.” Then one of the DIVA girls walked into the men backstage room and said to me, “Don’t get naked yet.” Too much playing for real. For the next hour, it was hurry up and wait for everything. So what I did was study the fashion script I wrote up, what clothes I was wearing, how I was going to get out of them for the next scene, and medicated my lips with burn cream (which looked much better). Tracy came backstage and I said to her I was glad I brought a hand mirror (there was no long mirror for the guys!). She said, "Yes, you got to be prepared.”Huh? We had to look our sexy best so, I went into sergeant mode in trying to get a mirror.

Meanwhile, some of the models were coming through like Roger Walsh and Andre. When a hotel helper came backstage, I asked him, “Do you have a long mirror?” He said jokingly, “Do you think I would have a mirror the way I look?” CLASSIC. He said he would see what he could do (We got the mirror thanks to me) they were ready to do rehearsal. Then, I was wondering if we were going to get any makeup put on us. I waited around for that, but notta on the makeup. I didn’t trip off of it but something told me to pack some for the guys, but a genius can’t think of everything. LOL. Then, there was a large pad on an easel with makers so I took the initiative to write down all the scenes and hipped the brotahs to the scenes and the clothes for each scene (DIVA came through and gave us scripts posted backstage too) I also found interesting was the DIVA crew girls and some of the female models who had to cross our dressing room to get to the female dressing room and vice versa were embarrassed cause they saw up in our underwear (One female model covered her face saying, “I’m so sorry I’m comin through.” That’s too much playin!)

Anyway, around 5 ish, most of the models got there and it wasn’t a dress rehearsal cause most of our clothes from K&G (like the casual, suit and tux) and the furs didn’t arrive yet. So, we just rehearsed the choreography and walkway moves and get accustomed to the stage. The scenes were:

The Opening Scene—Fall into Crème (The Temptations—the men in cream outfits (PIC SEEN ABOVE) and black hats and the women in crème walking off to Beyonce’s “Déjà vu”)

The Casual Scene (music Mary J Bilge’s Not Enough Cryin) as the models came out in threes and walk one by one and doing the meet in the middle and turn. I was to wear an Ecko pants and jeans and brown shades.

The Bus Stop Scene (the best group scene in my opinion) where some were standing on stage wearing business attire (I was to wear a Steve Harvey Suit) and some sitting (music was Gwen Stefani's Rich Girl) as we walked down the runway and the people seated changing poses.

The Accessory Scene (Music: Bandi bandi –Zap Mama and Erykah Badu that was also used for the DIVA dancers routine) as the girls modeled hats and jewelry and the guys modeled fur.

Designers Row Scene featuring the designers Well, I was to wear two outfits. One from Veralli (I’ll explain what happened to this outfit this later) and one outfit of Sparkle of Fancy O which was an Asian style satin brown baggy outfit with an blousy short sleeved shirt that fastened at the collar bone and half my chest was out.

The Evening Scene—We in tuxes and being romantic men to the women who wore sexy gowns. (My MY MY -Johnny Gill was the song used) Tuxes by K&G.

The Finale—Our own OUT Of THE BOX designs. (Ring The Alarm song by Beyonce was used) I was to wear my long black opera coat, some African appliqué jeans, some platform shoes, a tie and black apple hat and Bono style shades.

It was around 7:30 or so when we practiced the walk-back--out after the finale scene and I felt someone tap me on the back and it Charles Kelly, an East Boogie photographer who I hooked up to take snaps of the show. I was relieved he was able to show up because I knew I would have some shots to show you all. Meanwhile, when we got backstage and our nerves were at end cause of the rest of out clothes did not arrive yet. Suddenly, the people with our clothes showed up from K&G and Demay Fur came a half hour before show time. You should have seen us scurrying to put out clothes in order for the show. Can you say CRUNCH time?So we gathered in the middle of backstage and err’body said a prayer from the crew, to the African dancers to the models. We clapped and shouted it up and told everyone to have a good show. Me and the boyz even did a Tempts forever frat handshake as well. LOL)

THEN IT WAS SHOWTIME!

The show, hosted by Majic 104.9 personality Bj the DJ, started at 8 p.m. and it was time to do the damn thing. Marshall Faulk was there and it was about 60 or so people (it was a sit down dinner setting) The backstage drama was of course drama as I rushed in an out of clothes (The hardest change was going form casual to business attire with the Steve Harvey suit, tie, belt, glasses and all. I was dressing so fast that the flap that closes the pants with a button was hanging below my belt! LOL) I was helping brothas with cufflinks, ties, handing them my belts , shades and hats to wear. I was definitely in sergeant mode. LOL.

One dramatic moment occurred backstage when I was supposed to wear two outfits from two different designers. One fancy O design and one Veralli. Well, I worked the Fancy O Asian outfit barefoot(I even did a karate kick on stage. LOL) and I was running backstage to put on the Veralli designed by Dinkins (He was brother who showed up to one of our rehearsals with his football uniform still on. LOL) and I had it on a chair, so when I took off the Fancy O outfit, Veralli’s outfit was gone from the chair!. So there I was, raising my voice like a crazy lunatic, asking where the outfit was and I was standing there in my skin tight black swim trunks on. So, Dinkins searched for it and told me that one of the models was wearing it. CLASSIC.

A funny moment happened duding the Evening scene as I was dancing with two of the ladies in the scene and one mumbled in my ear, “Okay let me go.”

The best moment for me was the finale when we modeled whatever we wanted to wear from our closet and that it was too be OUT of the BOX, an outfit you wouldn’t wear on the street. So me and this brotha named Andre Brady (who is a model vet in the STl area for more than 20 years) planned this Matrix choreography during our rehearsal and put final touches to it. The scenario would be he walk out to the end of the stage and I walk to the T- of the stage. I ha don my opera coat duds and Andre wore a long black leather jacket, a black scarf, shades and jeans as we did a battling Matrix dual. I spun my opera coat and we twirled his coat. We met in the center, bumped shoulders and did the Matrix move. The crowd loved it!

Afterward, we were told to stick around as we were told to go back out on stage, walk down the runway, down the steps and begin the After Party on the dance floor. When I got on stage I started doing some the Chicken Noodle Soup dance, walked down the runway and got on the dance floors we started getting our dance on. We got a the Soul Train line going and I did the sideway dance with my arms going back and forth.

I noticed a couple of people who were there during Intermission and afterwards including Local entertainment producer April Spencer (who said that she was laughing at me while I was on stage. LOl) and my next door neighbor, Jerron Hicks. We also ate a lavish buffet during intermission and had sub sandwiches backstage (along with my malt liquor can. LOL) When we walked backstage again, we were given Celebowl sweatshirts, the event that Faulk, Nelly and Rams player Torry Holt had earlier this year. That was a nice touch especially with us donating our time for the show and to top off a rollercoaster ride of a show that was thrilling, scary, and well, dramatic.LOL

The DIVA models that turned it out were: Donnita Anderson, Erica Barnes, Beverly Bevineau, Andre Brady, Paris Caldwell, Amanda Daniels, Demon, Avery Grinston (nice wig during the finale. LOL), Jon-Erickque, Lady, Ms. Morado, Ms. Toya, Nia Neely, Crystal Penelton, Ebonie Reed, Troy Stevens (who is also our stage manager), Renata Walsh, Roger Walsh (Renata’s father), Sophia Willoughby, Whitney Witherspoon, Courtney Woods and YOURS TRULY.

POSTSCRIPT: I talked with DIVA co-founder Gina Covington on the phone and she said that Marshall Faulks; assistant said that this years show was the best one so far. She also said that she was going to informed us when to come through one day all of us to see the video of the show that was video taped.

FOR MORE PICS OF THE FASHION SHOW GO TO OUT 100.

On Sunday, I checked out the private party to celebrate the first year of Copia Winery and Bar on 1122 Washington. I got an invite from Synergy (and sponsored by Budweiser Select) who usually put on some of the hottest private parties in the STL (one was the Nelly black and White Ball this past summer at the Contemporary Art Museum). It was hosted by hunky Rams player Will Witherspoon (SEEN IN ABOVE PIC GETTING HIS PARTY ON) So, I called my VIP buddies Kameron and Christian to invite them, and they agreed to meet me up there for the event.

I got there about 7 ish (it started at 6). Christian met me at Copia as we waited on Kameron to call to see when he was on his way. Meanwhile, one guy who was standing next to one of the bouncer guys (Brian Stemmons) walked back into Copia’s and came back out with a small plate of ribs. Yes, ribs, and asked us did we want any. What tha? To offer his ribs to us well, was, GHETTO.
Anyway, it was going on 7:30 and there was no answer from Kameron. I didn’t know what was going on so I told Brian to put Kameron’s name on the list as me and Christian walked in to enjoy the festivities as the mixed crowd watched the Cardinals game at the front bar and drinking free Budweiser Select (which was as cold as Antartica. LOL) .

For the free buffet, they had a food spread that was cool which comprised of ribs, salmon, matza balls (man soul food and Jewish food in the same place, how kosher! LOL), and quiche pie. In the back of the establishment they had a huge bar area where they had the Cardinals game playing on two large opposite screens, and this dessert area that had wine bottles next to the deserts and firewood burning in the middle of the centerpiece.


Meanwhile, DJ Andrew Mullins was spinning on the 1s and 2s some creative jams (like Men without Hats’ 1980s gem, “Safety dance’ mixed with Jay Z). Me and Christian met up with this local actor, this Asian guy named Alex (who is now dubbed max a character produced by Budweiser select) as we walked to the dining area and got some grub. We sat down and St. Louis American’s Bill Beene joined us as we talked about how the STL needs more private events like this.



I walked off to take more pics and they had a small fashion show done through Play Boutique that was okay. ring all of this there were cheers from the TV screen as the Cardinals hit home runs (but would lose the game in the end). Meanwhile the man of the hour, Will Witherspoon, dressed very causally, was surrounded by a bevy of females (mostly white) who all were doing Tequila shots at the bar (the shots weren’t all that was going to be going down.LOL)

Then around 9ish I get a text from Kameron saying he was son his way. Well I was relieved that nothing didn’t happen cause it wasn’t like Kameron to be late for something that’s a special event (I was inviting him t celebrate his 29th B-day this past weekend too). So when Kameron showed up and he was about to give me some dap but I acted like my hand was paralyzed, jokingly to let him know about his being late and not calling anybody. He informed me that he had a b-day present that was waiting for him at the crib. He didn’t get into detail but I could just imagine what present would make someone be 2 hours late. LOL.

As I was mingling, this short white lady walked up to me as I was taking notes of the scene and asked me, “Why are the models here fat?” I looked at her as though she stole my pen and just shrugged my shoulders. Then one of the models from the Play Boutique, who looked like John Forsythe from Dynasty, saw me and I looked at him and nodded my head. Then he said, “Yeah, you look good, too.” Whoa! What was in those free Budweiser Select drinks?

Anyway, me, Kameron and Christian left out around 10ish and I overheard Leonard Little in the hallway with his buddies screaming out “Man, we need to go somewhere and get your party on, KNow what I mean.” Mmm, I guess. He of all people need to slow down cause we already know how he get when he parties too hard.

In the house were Nelly manager T-Luv model Jamele, fashion designer Skylar, rapper Black SPADE, Robert Kirk, Keith Harris, KSDK’s Jeff Small, St. Louis Post’s Kevin Johnson and Debra Bass, rapper Choa Choa tai, Mo Spoon, Miranda Witherspoon, Janitra Miss Sept Eye candy, Pinnacle’s Crystal Allen, bouncer Al Wade and Anthony Beasley.

After the party, I went to the pepper Lounge on 20th to catch the rest of the party. Most people who were at the Copia party arrived at Pepper Lounge (including Kameron and his buddy Brandon). I got there about 11or so and waited around for the crowd to come through ( What was up with the bouncer up front saying when he saw T-Luv and after he passed him, “Isn’t he the guy who hit his wife with a purse?” CLASSIC)

The drama that occurred while I was there (you know me and drama are married. LOL) When the rush of people got there and went up in VIPs with Will Witherspoon, I decided to follow the lead of the people. So people were going up to VIP and the bouncer gave people wristbands. Well, I got up there and got a wristband and just chilled a bit with will and his party.

So I chilled (didn’t take any snaps thank goodness. I’ll explain as you read along) and saw Witherspoon and Leonard Little getting their drink and feel on with the females and hanging with their buddies and male and female groupies looking on. It was about 20 minute later, the bouncer flashed his light in my face as a brotha whispered in his ear an pointed at me. OH SHIT, I said to myself.

So I did the whole innocent routine, pointing to myself and looking around wondering who they were talking to. I showed them my bracelet from afar, but the bouncer still motioned for me to come hither. So I walked over and he tried taking of my bracelet. He got frustrated trying to take it off with the white sticky part and just grabbed it from both sides and tore it off and saying, “I gave you a bracelet.” I didn’t trip. I didn’t cause e a fuss. It wasn’t that serious to me. It was just some good fodder for my site. Godo thing I didn’t take snaps cause I would have gotten what Ali got in Hazelwood, for real. LOL

But seriously, here we go again. What is VIP for real? I stress, St. Louis is funny when it come to VIP and from what I saw, there were only friends of friends of friends of Will Witherspoon that was up in there (like Skylar??? Come on now). So, I walked around and when I saw Kameron and Brandon, we stood together watching the party people do their thing. I looked at my watch at it was around 12;30 am and I had to vamp to get to the Water Fountain. I was working the late shift. So I changed my club clothes in the car and vamped into my security uniform and drove to the gig and got there on time on the dot.

FOR MORE PICS OF THE COPIA PARTY, GO TO OUT 100

MA’ATIDBITZ . I’ll be going to check out the play, Man of her Dreams at the Fox this Friday. I will give you the report of the show next week…..I had to fire someone at the w=Water Geyser this week. It wasn’t fun, but it was for the best of the company …..I got invites to two parties--the 20th Anniversary Celebration of my former literary organization Eugene B, Redmond Writers’ Club and a VIP Halloween party at Drunken Fish at Westport. I’ll give you the skinny of these events next week.

GORDON-BITZ. GORDON CHAMBERS, FRANK MCCOMB, AND DONNIE LIVE IN ATLANTA! Friday, October 20, 2006Doors open 8:00, Showtime 9:00 PM Location: Atlanta Live/Dekalb Event Center 3595 Clairmont Road Atlanta, GA 30319 Price: $25 or $40 including dinner For more info and reservations: Kris Van Buren (404) 982-0898 or kdvanburen@comcast.net To pick up Gordon’s CD Introducing...Gordon Chambers, it available at http://gordonchambers.com/shop.php.

STLKTIDBITZ. The following is an interview that rapper Ali (Jones) had done with Fox 2 reporter April Simpson Tuesday inside the bar and grill restaurant MACKS that he and fellow St. Lunatics are the owners of in the town in question, Hazelwood. This is the second interview April did with Ali. The first being his discussion of what happened and that he got advice from this attorney as far as what he can say and he wasn’t for sure if the Hazelwood police may have destroyed the audio and video tape of the incident.

The following is the second interview:

April: We spoke with you in the last half hour about the incident in general. What has been the impact with you physically?

Ali: Just irritation on my back …problems laying down at night….get a jumping feeling in my body just from the Tasering over and over and over again…my heart jumps sometimes and I work out a lot, I go to Gold’s Gym and I work out, I run, so, it’s not like I’m out of shape…It feels kind of itchy…feels like I’m jumpy every now and then….just irritation from laying down, in the shower…I got a headache a couple of times. I rarely get headaches, but now I seem to get headaches….just sleeping at night in general, like the last couple of nights, I’ve been thinking about it, just thinking about it a lot …I‘ve been getting some rest. It’s not like I’ve been up all night crying or anything. It’s just been on my mind a lot.

April: And you have the wounds, can we see the wounds

(Ali proceeds to turn around to the camera and lift up his shirt to show the camera the scars from the tasering)

April: You were able to determine how many times you were tasered by your wife counting the wounds on your back.

Ali: Yeah.

April: So are they starting to heal now?

Ali: Yep.

April: What do they feel like now?

Ali: Just irritation on my back…It feels like when you fall and scrape your knee as a kid. It feels like rubbing your shirt against that. It’s not like excruciating pain or anything. All that pain is basically over. But it's just the burning and all …this area here. This was repeated and repeated. When you see those little dots that was a tasering. You got one there. One there. One. That’s; not one tasering, that's over and over and over again. On the top here…it’s tasering up there. It was just him repeating over and over again with me in handcuffs and he trying to find a good spot and this is my most yelled spot…Like every time he hit here, I tried t yell real loud. He just kept going to that spot over and over.

April: We do wanna get the other side. We spoke to (Hazelwood Police Chief) Greg Hall with the Hazelwood police department and here is what he had to say…

(From the B-Roll)

Hall: The police officer continued to ask him you gotta stop. You gotta stop . I’m gonna pull over and I’m gonna get you back in your seat belt. So when he opened the door, he opened the door and this Mister Jones was laid down in the seat and kicked the officer in the groin and in his thigh.

Ali: I’m upset!. As a man, violated. I never assaulted him…I didn’t do it!

(Back to Live Interview)

April: Again police here in Hazelwood say they are conducting a routine investigation to see if the officers use of force was excessive….


As I wrote earlier, this is going to get ugly. And with Ali being a celebrity, the subject of police brutality will be front page conversation. What do y’all think? Was excessive force used? Do you think Ali is telling the truth? Do you think the police are lying? Email me at let me know (My email is at the end of this post).

IN other STL TIDBITZ........... Congrats to my buddy Robin Kason, a fitness trainer at Bally Total fitness and his own company, C3 Fitness who landed the gig as celebrity fit club trainer for the Dee Lee Morning Show on 100.3 The Beat. He will have that gig for six weeks as people get trained compete for prizes……………..I heard from a source that a film about the St. Louis/East St. Louis drug war is about to roll pretty soon in the St. Louis area. I hear that auditions were done at Club Dreams and the title of the film is called, “trade.” I will keep you posted on further details.

EVENT-IDBITZ. National Black MBA, St. Louis Chapter, 13th Annual Job Fair, Oct. 19, 2006, 8:30am-4pm, @ America's Center, 701 Convention Plaza, St. Louis……………..

GNHPAC presents The Man of Her Dreams live at the Fox Theatre starring Clifton Powell (from the movie Ray), Christophger Williams, Jackee (from “Sister Sister” & “227”), the soulful Shirley Murdock, Keshia Knight Pulliam (from “The Cosby Show”) and comedian Buddy Lewis. The show runs Thursday, October 19–Sunday, October 22 for 6 performances. Prices range from $26.50 - $39.00 depending on performance date and time (Tickets for The Man of Her Dreams are on sale now at the Fox Theatre Box Office and MetroTix outlets. To charge by phone call MetroTix at 314/534-1111 or online at
www.metrotix.com. Special prices for groups of 15 or more, call 314/535-2900.

Dance St. Louis presents Tony Award winning tap dancer SAVION GLOVER in CLASSICAL SAVION, Oct 20-21 @ 8pm @ Touhill Performing Arts Center. To purchase tickets call 314.534.6622.

A New Sound of Gospel" with Michael Rainer and the Soul Rebels at the Vaughn Cultural Center insiod eteh Urban League at 3701 Grandel Sqaure , Friday. Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. FREE. Seats and first come, first serve. For mro einfo call 314/615-3624.

CHRISTOPHE GRAFFITTI FASHION SHOW, NOV 26. featuring entertainment by 2003 Americna Idol winner/ Grammy Award nominee Ruben Studdard. The show will be at the Historic 555 Washington Ave. , St. Louis. Tickets are $35 general, $50 VIP. $5.00 off on pre-sale tickets up thru October 31, 2006. Fopr ticket info call 314/749-1995, 618-917-1225 or go to

cristophegraffitti@yahoo.com



On the East Boogie side, the Emerson Park and James E Williams Statue Fundraising Committee presents its annual picnic for the reckoning of a statue for East St. Louis’ first black mayor, James E Williams. The picnic will take place at Emerson Park in East St. Louis, Saturday, Oct. 21 starting at 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. $10 Donation. For more information call 618/874-8451 or 618/920-8344 and tell them that you saw it here at this website.

Drumvoices Festival of Arts celebrating the 20th b-day of the Eugene B Redmond Writers’ Club, Oct 24-27. Oct. 24 is a Katherine Dunham Literary Tribute at 12:30 at the Dunham Hall Theater at SIUE (FREE) and a reading by Indianapolis Poet Laureate Mari Evans in the Mississippi-Illinois Room at SIUE at & p.m. (FREE). On Oct. 25 the EBR Writer’s Club will have a 20th B-Day reception at the Missouri History Museum, located at Lindell and DeBaliviere, at 7p.m. (Invite only); On Oct. 26 there will be a poetry reading by former California Poet laureate Quincy troupe at the Dunham Hall Theatre at SIUE at 12:30 p.m. (FREE), Poet K Curtis Lyle opens and The club will have a b-day and awards banquet at the casino Queen Hotel ballroom at 7 p.m. (tickets are 30 dollars) , for tickets and information call 618-650-3991 or
eredmon@siue.edu

YWCA Racial Justice Series--Oct 25 with lecturer Rochelle L. Griffin on dating and the Young Black Woman's Cultural views of abuse at the YWCA Phyliss Wheatley heritage Center , 2711 Locust. FREE and Open to the public

4246 Fashion Show, Friday, Oct 27 at 4246 McPherson, doors open at 6 p.m., Show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $290 ADV and $25 at the door, For more info and advance tickets call 618-741-9952.

CLUB KYO is having a Halloween party, Halos and Horns on 10 p.m., Oct 28. See ONGOING EVENTZ and go to KYO’s website for more details.

WSIE. 88.7 FM presents JOEY DEFRANCESCO TRIO with special guest BOBBY HUTCHERSON, Sat. Nov 4 @ 8pm @ The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd. For tickets call metrotix at 314/534-1111 or visit
www.sheldonconcerthall.org


If you’re in Los Angeles, London Moore Productions presents RING THE ALARM FASHION & HAIR SHOW FRIDAY OCT 20TH, 2006, DOORS OPEN AT 9:30PM. FASHION SHOW STARTS AT 11PM CLUB TOUCH Inside the Loggia located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd (Hollywood & highland) Special VIP Guest Entrance *Located on Hollywood Blvd next to Banana Republic* As a guest of London Moore’s VIP list you get Complimentary Admission to RING THE ALARM FASHION SHOW AND AFTER PARTY at the infamous Club Touch inside the Loggia located on 6801 Hollywood Blvd (on the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland) Hollywood, CA. (VIP Guestlist Closes at 11pm) Table Reservations available upon request!! Email us your RSVP selectiveviplist@yahoo.com

Art INK presents "A Time For Expression: The Moment of Truth" a theatrical synopsis, Sun. Oct. 29, 2006 @ the Hilton, St. Louis Airport. Admission 10 dollars, reception at 6 p.m. show at 7 p.m. Call 314.974.5315 or 314.960.7894 for more info.
Local socialite Sharee Galvin gave sent me these event-tidbitz for those who wanna check out:

TUESDAY NIGHTS- THE FILTER BAR WITH Sharee Galvin AND BIG TAH. Two for one drinks all night long- 5 dollar cover after 8pm( 5-11) ; CLUB DREAMS HAS 2$ TUESDAY FOR THE NIGHT OWLS FREE TIL MIDNIGHT

WEDNESDAY NIGHTS- STARTING NEXT WEEK "LYRICS OF THE LOU" AT THE FILTER BAR 309-13
BELT@PERSHING

For any info on these events email sharee at
sgalvin26@yahoo.com

Lachrisa Crenshaw would like to invite you ladies(an open minded brothas) to a special spa pamper session so you can try out her Warm Spirit's newest healing based products and luxury treats just in time for the holidays. Please come out to Divoll Branch Library this Saturday Oct. 21, 2006 at 10-11:30am on 4234 N. Grand. For more info call, Lachrisa at (314)401-0710 or lachrisa_crenshaw@sbcglobal.net. Her product line can be viewed at http://www.warmspirit.org/esuite/home/chriscspirit



AUDITION-BITZ. The St. Louis Black Repertory Company will hold auditions for its 2006/2007 main stage season on Saturday, October 21, 2006, 1PM. – 7PM Equity actors will be seen between 1p.m. and 2p.m. by appointment only at the Black Rep’s offices, 1717 Olive Street, 4th Floor. Appointments will be taken beginning Monday, September 11, 2006. Call (314) 534 – 3807 to schedule. Actors should prepare 2 contemporary contrasting monologues, or 1 contemporary monologue and an ac cappella song. Please bring two (2) 8.5” X 11” updated professional black and white headshots with resumes attached securely on the back. Available Roles include: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Crossin’ Over, Gem of the Ocean, The Dance on Widow’s Row, Guys and Dolls


Webster University is having an Open Casting Call for Multiple Short FilmsMen and Women (Boys and Girls) Ages 12 and up. All ethnicities. Saturday, October 2811 AM - 5 PM at the Sverdrup building Room 101 Webster University, 8300 Big Bend At Big Bend and Edgar Road CONTACT: directing06.webster@gmail.com No film experience necessary. Headshots and Monologues accepted but not required. Get the chance to work with a professional crew and build your resume!


Cerberus Inc is looking for book cover models from romance to sci-fi to fantasy. The shoots are TFP or TFCD for submissions to these publishers.
Male types: Ranging from Rugged and muscular to sensitive and lean.
Height 5' 8" or taller, weight proportionate to height. Ability to act always
a plus. Female types: Ranging from sophisticated to wicked. Height 5'6" or
taller , weight proportionate to height. Ability to act always a plus. Previous work can be seen at:
http://cerberusinc.com/ Weekend shoots. Contact with photos or webpage url at: cerberusinc@hotmail.com

ONGOING-BITZ. For any of your photography needs, check out my boy Charles Kelley of Metro East ,Pacesetters for a deal. Hit him up at charleskel@sbcglobal.net
.

Check out blog www.sistersnineties.blogspot.com for local literary group Sister’s Nineties Afrocentric literary activities for the family and youngsters.

My boy Kameron Holbert has a new monthly column on sports messages on local magazine Uptown (
www.uptownstl.com).. He has also copped a gig doing profressional messages at Stress Free Fridays at various venues in the ST. Louis area. For an appt. or when he is scheduled to do messages atteh next Stress Free Fridays, call 314/477-3427 or email him at mrholbert@yahoo.com

For body painting , makeup, face painting wigs and other special effects, contact Jessica Dana at jessicadana.com or go to myspace.com/jessicadada13

For all of your STL club event plans, AD SPACE and pics, go to
www.stlouis-online.com.

Collective Catering (collectivecatering@yahoo.com
located at 4958 Cote Brilliante, their digits are 314-575-3333)

KDHX Radio’s Chuck Lavazzi has a hot new podcast called STAGE LEFT which he talks about CD reviews, news and interviews from theworld of stage, screen, cabaret and related places. The latest episode is now on line. Go to it directly at http://tinyurl.com/zrqd7,via the Stage Left blog at http://stageleft-stlouis.blogspot.com,via the Stage Left web site at http://www.stageleft.org,or via iTunes Music Store; just go to the Podcast area and search for Stage Left.

Former 100.3 The Beat personalities Big Sexy Kool DJ Kaos and Sylli Asz is doin it up on You Tube these days hosting their hilarious STL reality Internet series, the Janky Show. To check it out, go to www.youtube.com and type in “The Janky Show”!....


Check out STLdee-jay Enoch online with his own radio playlist. The Flow; Music Lounge. Peep it out at http://www.flowink.com/player-popup.htmor go to his myspace page enochisreal.

Show Me Entertainment presents Industry Nights, a networking party for artists, entertainers, models, actors, painters, dancers, entertainment lawyers, managers, etc. every Wednesday night at the Lindbergh Bistro located inside the Airport Plaza inn at I-70 and Lindbergh. 18 Y.O. to enter. 21 Y.O. and up to Drink. Admission FREE. For more info, contact Terrence Smith at 314/713-3793, or tsmith@showme1.com orwww.showme1.com

Local movie screener and TV programmer James Thomas has two hot shows on the new CW Channel 11 with his shows “First Look” about upcoming movies in theaters, Thursday morning at 2:30 am and Hot Videos, Friday mornings at 3 a.m. For more info, email him attdjoo7@sbcglobal.net

Theatre advisor L.A. Barge has a new book on CD that he is selling called, “Choosing the Right Mate Before the First Date.” For more info call 314/5331639 or email him atdreamscope921@hotmail.com

For all your STL hip-hop info needs, go to http://www.stlhiphop.com!

STL videographer Dana Christian has a hot new website where people can send their professional music videos films to get exposed. It is www.spitflix.com. Peep it out!

KYO (pronounced KEE-O) continues "Redefining the Art of Dining & Nightlife" with a fresh weekly lineup that promises to quench your thirst for drink and dance. So "Be Fashionably Elite" with a smile and let KYO claim your evening from 5pm till 3am in the morning. For more info go to http://www.kyostl.com/newsletter.htm


Well, that be it, folks. If ya got anything for me to pub, OR KNOW ANYONE WHO IS A REAL HOTTIE? IF SO, E-MAIL ME THEIR NAME, THEIR OCCUPATION AND WHY DO YOU THINK THEY ARE A HOTTIE (IN 100 WORDS OR LESS), I AND I WILL FEATURE THEM IN AN UPCOMING FEATURE CALLED, OUT TOWN HOTTIEZ. JUST MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT THEM TO LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE SELECTING THEM AND THAT THEY SEND ME A PIC OF THEMSELVES TO MY E-MAIL at maatspear@yahoo.com!