OUT 435--TRES OUTTOWN-RE-FLECT AND POST-FLECT

OUTTOWN TURNS THREE YEARS OLD THIS WEEK. HERRE ARE SOME OF THE EVENTS AND BITZ THAT WERE GOING ON AROUND THIS TIME IN 20o7, 2006 and 2005 with some added reflections throughout in BOLD TYPE.

JULY 2007
My July 4 mostly consisted of my working at the Water geyser where Metro East Park District had its guests watch the fireworks outside the facility. I was working the gates to check and see if those were on the VIP list to come in the facility and park and check out the lights (Of course as the nite went on I got err thing from bribes to threats to try and get into VIP). Anyway, I mostly did that and took some shots along the way. During my stint, there were a couple of times where fireworks were blazin at Busch Stadium where the Cards hit some homeruns (Hmm, sounds like thats whats goin on as we speak in 2008) and I heard Cyndi Lauper singing at Fair St. Louis adjacent to the stadium. After the firework finale around 10 or so, it was a mad rush for people to get out of the fair especially those from the East Side who parked at the Casino Queen or the MetroLink parking area near the Queen. I got out about 10ish so I could get to SYGU's event, FREE EVENT, to celebrate the 4th at Lucas House. As we look at this passage, we see that YOURS TRULY, Ma'at Atkins, doesnt do diary type entries anymore. It came abot much to spew err detail of the prep of an event. Plus, he mightve ha dto tell what he did after he closed the door to his crib. LOL.

STL-TIDBITZ. FIRST OFF Congrats to Myra Henderson of Hazewlwood., Mo. for getting the theme of last week's OUTTOWN videos which was "Ross". She received a $20 gift card from Wal-mart. Congrats!....Happy B-day to STL singer Fontella Bass who celebrated her 67th this past week…I hear that Miss Millicent and her new husband are now honeymoonin in Aruba after their nuptials last Saturday....

Ali of the St. Lunatics was on Dwight Stone’s show talking about the local rappers who are tryin to hate on Nelly. Come to find out, it was local rapper Huey(PICTURED), who is enjoyin Top 10 success with his Top 10 hit “Pop Lock and Drop it” who has been reported blastin Nelly for his claim that Nelly didn’t show him support on his debut CD, “Notebook Paper.” Here we go again with all this local beef. Can we all just take a bite, chew and swallow? … I guess our only hope for gettin the local rap scene together is ironically rapper Chingy (who was beefin with Nelly back in the day) who is doin his thing with his late night Sunday show on 100.3 The Beat highlighting local rap acts’ tracks (Well as of today, the beef is still goin and Huey who performed recently at Superjam just released his new single, "Nobody Loves the Hood" featuring Lloyd). )….Speaking on radio hosts, DJ Sexy Cool and Silly Asz are coming back to the STL airwaves as they will make their return on July 9 on WHHL 104.1 (Hope they don’t talk about dirty cops this time around!) (THEY ARE STILL AT THE RADIO STATION)

Congrats to STL singer Justin Hoskins for winning McD’s R&B Soul Search last week at the Loft (this eventjust went down this past week as well and Hoskins was a guest judge and a performer ) . To get more of the scoop on this brotha, go to http://www.stlamerican.com/ under the Living It section!. Speaking of the Loft, I hear that it was more packed than a sardine can July 3 with wall to wall people. Come to find out it was free to get up in there (I hear even other special events closed shop early just to go to the Loft). I guess you can’t beat FREE. But is Free really Free? LOL…...…Did anyone see former club owner Sonia Branscomb do her comedy act at Studio Hitz last week? Whassup with the East St. Louis police calling in sick after the new mayor Alvin Parks fired the old police chief James Mister (what a last name!) and hired Michael Baxton (THE POLICE IN THE EAST ST ARE BACK IN THE NEWZ IN THE 2008 FOR PARKS' APPOINTING A FEW DIRTY COPS). They say it wasn’t blu flu. Yeah, okay, and err I'm sure they had a box of imaginary Kleenex, too!….Speaking of East St. Louis, I flipped onto WESL-1490 AM to check out Onion Horton’s daily morning show and I hear rock music! Come to find out the radio station was sold. No more soul! Darn shame. No more. WESL has so much history in the black community and East Boogie, now its gone. Oh well… …

The St. Louis Public School Board has ousted newly hired Vashon High coach Anthony Bonner (PICTURED) with just a year on the gig after replacing ousted vet coach Floyd Irons. Did anyone see the writing on the wall on this especially after the new State board was just put into motion?....Clayton Bally total fitness trainer Deanthony was in the Greeks v Geeks Tourney for the Annual Hollis Tomas Foundation held at Harris Stowe last Saturday (Now were you the Greek or the geek? Just kidding)… Local singer The Bigg Dogg is circulating his CD single, “The Bigg Dogg” from his upcoming CD, “Red Dragon” . I got a copy of it while I was at Got Lyrics last Wednesday. To peep it out, hit him up at www.myspace.com/rhinothebiggdogg (Whatever happened to him?)

….speaking of Got Lyrics, get better Mocha Latte, who hosts the weekly event (SHE HAS NOW PUT THE SHOW ON HIATUS) . She just had several teeth pulled. OUCH. Get better soon. Your public needs you….Lastly, if you aint doin anything, come out to Stress Free Fridays that will beheld this week at the Loft (on Olive) to celebrate my b-day and the 2 year b-day of my blog (WHAT A MEMORY OF THAT NITE!). Things pop off at 5 p.m. until...I pass out. LOL…. ….

In the MIA FILE, What ever happened to STL singer Toya?

Well, from our understanding, Toya retired from the biz a few years ago, moved to the ATL, got married and got some kids.

And On a serious note, I got a disturbing email from Missouri Black Expo PR rep Anisha Coleman (PICTURED) about a incident she had with the Overalnd Police department last week which consisted of her vehicle being involved mistaken identity and the police using brutal force. If you want to read it, hit her up at journalistanisha@yahoo.com (Hmm, wonda what went down with this case?)

From looking at these passages, Ma'at Atkins had his diary passages MAAT-IDBITZ then he went into STL-TIDBITZ and played with the MIA FILE which has become a popular portion of teh blog. These days STl-TIDBITZ is a separate blog entry and MIA is still going strong.

July 2006

Last Thursday, I (Ma'at Atkins) went to my buddy Christian Cofield’s (fifth to teh right) 30th B-Day get together (all of my friends I know have b-days in the Cancer cycle. Hmmmm). He had it had Bar Italia in the Central West End.

We look at this pic above and see some hair changes on a few folk. The Post's Kevin Johnson (second from left) had dreads. Now they are cut off and he is low hair cut now and Coffield who has hair on here and who now sporst a bald skull.

On Friday, I peeped out my boy comedian Jessie Taylor’s Soul Comedy Jam that was hosted by his 100.3 The Beat co-host Dee lee of the Dee Lee Morning Show (NO MORE OF THIS SHOW) . It took place at the Funny Bone located in Fairview Heights, Ill.(they had two shows Friday, Sat, and Sun) I went to the 8 p.m. show so I could roll over to Hipster Magazine’s Fly By Night club grand opening (I’ll get to that later) (NO MORE HIPSTER AND FLY BY NIGHT CLUB) .I got there about 7:45 and when I entered the hotel area to get to the Funny Bone, a beefy brotha who was asking people if they had reservations asked me if I had some and told him I was a guest of Jessie’s and asked if he was there. He wasn’t so, I waited in the lobby area in order to get access and take some pics for my blog. Around 8:15 I asked the bouncer (who was very flirty to the female workers there asking if they wanted to see his body!)if I was on the list and he had me to sit inside the club until Jessie got there. The comics showed up about 8:30. I saw Jessie and he gave me some dap. He had me and his pregnant girlfriend (who is 6 months and is a boy) (SHE HAS HAD THE CHILD AND ITS A YEAR OLD NOW AND THEY ARE GOING ON ONE YEAR OF MARRIAGE)) to sit at the raised dais area to see the show in the back (which was cool).The highlight was when Taylor brought a white guy on stage named Adam from Hillsboro and made him an honorary black guy making him “talk and walk black.” But Adam was a riot himself when he raised his shirt up to show his stomach and tried to raise Jessie’s shirt! (That was funny). Next up was Cool Bubba Ice who was very animated in voice with all the sound effects he was doing (especially Chewbacca). His running joke on how older women (The Miss Johnsons) will take care of younger men by grocery shopping for them , have the man eat them out and give them money afterwards.

Dee Lee started off the show with some funny bits about trying to jack off with a porno mag and having to turn the page to get finished. Then he brought Jessie on stage and he talked about subjects that I’ve heard him speak on before like how different white people and black people are when it comes to dogs like white people feed their dogs dog food and black people feed their dogs table food and wonder why their dogs can’t bark. That’s always a funny.

The featured comic Corey Holcomb was definitely off the chain (His T-shirt alone had a design of him slapping a woman in the face and the wording above it said DISCIPLINE). His comedy reminds me of Redd Foxx: blue, innuendo and thinking comedy. Some of his highlights were when he said therre was a blue book for the price value for hoes, how mistresses need to have Dec 26, the day after X-mas , as their holiday, so their married man can stay with their real families, slipping an abortion pill in a date’s drink and when a woman said to him as she was giving him head, “Your dyck tastes nasty.” Then he replied, “I guess so, cause I just had it in your azz.” OH MY GOD. I couldn’t believe some of the stuff he was saying (And he even acknowledged himself that he knew he was wrong for some of the stuff he was saying).But overall, the show was cool, raunchy and funny. Afterward, I was about to go to the grand opening of the club Fly By Night, the club with DJ Nappy Needles as the house dee-jay, on Lindell and Boyle, but it was the thuggish ruggish up in therre and decided not to and drove to the crib.

On Sunday, I got access to Nelly’s Black and White Ball that was held at the Contemporary Art Museum in the Grandel Square Center. Given by Synergy and funded by by Anheuser Busch, this party was an invite only and you had to wear black or white and in your fine-to-do’s. I got there about 8:30 and the area as like a Hollywood premiere with a black carpet (instead of a red carpet) out front, cameras ready to take shots and everything. I waited up on hollabackboi (who is now driving a special edition burnt orange Hummer these days) (HE STILL GOT IT) when he valet parked (which was FREE BTW) in order to get to the party. Our names were on the list and a young lady from the St. Louis Post Dispatch was the first to take our pics and asked us our names, where we were from and what we were wearing (I told her I wore International Male–hollaback wore Gucci).I had on a black opera coat (STILL GOT IT), black pants with slits and cowry shells on the side, and a bright white and black tie. (Of course I got many comparisons to the Matrix (thanks to Rob Desir and Darius Bradford LOL) –the same coat I wore for the regional Emmys last year) Before we could enter, hollbackboi had to button up his short cause they didnt allow shirts open (it was black tie for real) , so I had t wait in order for him for that. Anyway, while walking in and onto the black carpet, there was a plethora of camera people taking our picture (One was good friend Darnell Singleton)(WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?) . I felt like a movie star for real and didnt know how to deal with all that attention.

While inside, there was a lady who took our picture and surprised us with it. She took another picture that didnt make us look too startled. While inside, the ballers and VIPs all were mingling about while looking at the art work. The invited celebs were not there yet but I knew that this was definitely the event to be attending. As the crowd swole up, the local VIPS that I recognized were coming inside the museum. I got my drink (which were FREE) and proceeded to see who was therre. The first one who I saw was Black Rep Fonder Ron Himes who was therre with Debra Denham. We fellowshipped breifly as he went on . Hollaback boi saw some of his church members next to the stage and we talked for a minute.

As we were talking, the waitress brought over some swanky appetizers (sushi, shrimp cream puffs,etc) and sat them on the table.Then we got word that the area we were standing was going to be for the celebs who were planning to be therre (I asked one of the bodyguards and he just nodded when I asked him does he know the celebs that supposed to be in the area) and suddenly we were whisked away from the area so some “velvet ropes” can be therre (I’LL talk about that later). As the dee-jay spun old school R&B, I saw Evander Holyfield in the building conversing with the crowd. That was a good sign of what was to come. A few of the St.Lunatics (except for Murphy Lee) (WE THINK HE WAS GOING THROUGH SOME LEGAL ISH AT THE TIME)were also in the building including Slo Down and Kyjuan .

The local VIPS that I saw around this time were Jamelle (who was wearing to death that strapless ruffled black gown), City 10's Antwone, Fox 2's Rob Desir, KSDK ‘s Corell Whitlock, Fox 2's Bonita Kornute, Nelly’s manager T-Luv, AB’s Johnnie Furr, Equaal’s Arnold Donald, and local singer Steve White.It was now going on 9ish and the party people just kept coming in. Next up I saw restauranteur Patrick Steptoe (NO LONGER OWNS RESTURANT), Sarah Thompson, Virvus Jones, local comedian Darius Bradford, fashion designer Skylar, Hipster’s Keenan Harris (NO MORE HIPSTER), KSDK’s Jeff Small, Fisrt Friday co-creator Harry Michel, dance legend Judy Best, hip-hop star J Nicks, 104.1 radio personality (J NICKS IS NO LONGER HERE IN THE STL. HE IS IN THE ATL)Staci Static, business tycoon Ricky Arceneaux, and former American Gladiator Saber (who looked big and out of shape!). He walked passed us earlier and I asked hollaback, isn’t that Saber ?And we were both shocked at how CORNFED big he has become (Check out Mortal Kombat the movie and you will know what I’m talkin about.)

Around 10ish, I saw comedian D.L Hughley socializing and taking pictures with his fans. I also saw Fox 2’s April Simpson and Freeman Bosley Junior (I’ll try and call your show, too) But it was during the 11oclock hour was when things began to become a Hollywood party when Nelly and his A-listers walked to the party from the back area. (I knew something was up when I saw all kind of security trying to direct people traffic up in therre). In comes Ashanti (seen in pic above with boyfriend Nelly) , Jermaine Dupri and his love Janet Jackson ! THE JANET JACKSON. Oh my God, you should have heard the squeals and shouts when it was discovered that she was in the building. She and Jermaine were holding hands and they took a brief tour of the paintings that were hung on the wall in the back area of the VIP section (It was cute seeing them together cause both of them are short and she is taller than JD!)

Nelly came up on stage to welcome everyone for coming and all and the actual performance part of the show was to begin (One of the many refrains throughout the night was...And Janet is here.) Meanwhile, ESL b-ball star Darrius Miles was in VIP chillin with the ladies up in there and boxing promoter Don King also made an appearance (later on Allen Iverson and his crew came up in there. He had on Mork from Ork shades with a black top hat on top of a white doo-rag. A member of the group Jagged Edge was also there (one of the dark skinned guys). St. Lunatic Ali and his model wife Allison crossed the front of us to go into the VIP section as well (but left soon after to get a bite to eat)Darrius Bradford got on stage as the host and tried to say a few jokes (and I do mean a few).

Me and hollaback were fortunate to have stayed near the VIP area cause when the performance section of the party began, we were in front. Bradford gave me a high five from the stage and asked me wherr I was from and I told him, Belleville. I was like, okay here we go with the joke, but his comeback line was, Anyone else from Belleville?” It was a couple of people who raised their hands and we all actually toasted each other for being from Belleville.He must have been nervous cause he wasn’t his usual self as far as being ghettofab with his comedy.I think the mixed crowd and bougieness of the crowd intimidated him. But things started to get better when D.L Hughley got on stage and had his way with crowd His first joke was talkin about how the crowd was mixed and that we were going to separate after the party is over. Then he did what he does best–talkin about people in the audience (Luckily he just said what’s up to me). He brought on a few people on stage including a white guy who was wearing sandals with his suit. Hughley said that he had on Jesus shoes (He also said Janet Jackson was there) . FUNNY.

Then there was a very sexy white lady in a white tight shirt dress who got on stage and DL asked her who did she come with and she pointed to the guy with Jesus shoes and another white guy (who looked like he was straight from modeling in Milan) and she said that she came with her two gay friends. Ooops. Can we say Outed? . DL couldn’t help but to laugh at that as far as her outing her friends in front of everybody (I was cutting my eye over at the VIP section and saw that Janet was laughing). Then, hollback boi was told to come up on stage and DL was like, “You better come up here. Don’t let me come down therre.” So he got up therre and DL said “ladies and gentlemen, “Montel Williams.”So as DL was talking to hollabackboi about what he did for a living he kept talking about hollaback’s tight shirt. It was a funny moment but he kept his cool and looked very much like a celeb up there.

DL talked to a few other people (Even hooked up one sista with a possible scholarship through his doing!) and then it was time for the band, Houston-based Scott Gertner Band (They were a tight R&B band with a white guy who could put any black male singer to shame!) As people partied, people were gazing inside VIP where the stars were like, as Kevin Johnson put it, “we were at the zoo.” Looking at the stars as though they were on TV. It was not a cute set-up. I didn’t like the fact that the stars were separated from the regular folks. I mean, we all were VIP that night and why did STL had to pull this at a private function? Ya feel me?

Anyway, as people got their party on, all of a sudden a bunch of black and silver confetti came down from the ceiling onto the party people. It was very New Year’s up in there for a minute and was a nice touch for the night.Around midnite, Nelly got back up on stage with Darius to say that the After Party was at Nectar Lounge .(Darius said who said one funny thing up there after Nelly;s announcement when he said that we all needed to put on another stick of deodorant on, go to Walgreens somewherr and pick up a stick.) And USHER did not show up at this event either (I hear he was traveling).

After it was over and people were mingling outside, hollaback got his Hummer from valet and I drove on eth passenger side to see how the crowd was at Nectar and of course it was packed. We decided not to go in and he took me back to my vehicle. I did hear that at the after party, Nelly and Jermaine Dupri performed and the dee-jay debuted the new single from STL rapper J-Kwon produced by Nellys bodyguard, Big B. Ashanti was also there and so was Allen Iverson who all were chillin at the adjoining club Pepper Lounge in the VIP section (No, Janet was not there!) . I hear that Nelly was going to have this ball as an annual thing. I think that’s good. STL needs to have some Hollywood stuff going on here and Nelly is definitely the person to do it.


THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST PARTIES IN OUTTOWNs memory. Very classy, A-list stars and fun times--oh and Janet showed up!





Friday, July 08, 2005 (THE VERY FIRST BLOG ENRTY)

the haps around town (THIS WAS THE ACTUAL TITLE OF THE BLOG AT THE TIME)
Hello people. Welcome to my blogger. From this day on, I will scribe my thoughts on the latest gossip and events I attend and maybe get ya'll to respond and get your feedback. I am a vet at special events in the STL area and beyond and I hope to continue this on until I no longer have breath in my body.

OK.

First off. I attended recently the Jazz Festival in Shaw Park last month and I must say I really enjoyed it. My fave was Peabo Bryson (PICTURED) (still looks good after all these years in the biz), Everette Harp and Normon Brown (He is very energetic with that guitar). Brenda Russell unfortunately was not able to attend due to a minor operation. Hope you get better. The guys did a tribute to her by singing her penned gem, "Get Here" (that was covered by Oleta Adams). Peabo stole the show by walking out in to the audience of of women who wanted to wipe the sweat off his brow. I was waiting for him to take off that suit coat and show off his chesteses. LOL. Anyway, I saw many local celebs there like Portfolio Gallery's Robert Powell, Black Rep's Karla Goldstein, and CBS TV guy Russ Mitchell in the VIP tent. The following day, Roy Hargrove and RH Factor performed. I mostly stayed in the well air conditioned tent gettin my grub on with my friends Sonja Sheriff and Kameron. But from what I heard they were OK. They had one sista named Renee who was the def eye candy for the show. The attendance was kind of low for this one, but it seemed as though people had a good time while they were there.

This was the next to the last Shaw park fest we attened. Last year, we got no VIP love and it rained on them and this past year, it also rained and cancelled them out.

Next off was the Woodie Awards at the Bllck Rep. Intimate Apparel cleaned house swiping most of the major categories: Best Play, Best Actress (Linda Kennedy, of course), Best Supporting Actress and Best Director, Ron Himes. The celebs that were there were Ken Page, Glynn Turman (Still lookin good), Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas and Phyliss Yvonne Stickney. The festivities were nice, but the auction during the ceremony was kind of tacky, but I digress. The post party was very shi-shi with salmon and noodles and drinks flowing to the fullest. I had everyone talking with a balck sarong and pants outfit I had on. You had to have been there to see it. Well, we guess you can see it these days, the Black Rep havent had a ceremony since 2006.




Last July 4 weekend, I attended Steve Lacy's B Day Party at Seven (NO LONGER--IT IS NOW DANTE's WHICH WAS THIS NAME BEFORE SEVEN HAD IT). It was nice. Packed as always. No big celeb attended like Mike Jordon did awhile back at Seven for the Rams Party, but it was still nice. I'm glad I attended that and not Nelly's Black and White Party at Plush that was going on at the same time. I heard that Nelly did not show up and there was many fights that erupted there. What is really going people? Can't we all get along? This was the thugged version of the Nelly party for the GEN PUB.

Last Monday I attended Darius Bradford’s (PICTURED)Comedy Jam at Plush (BOTH THINGS NOW DONT EXIST AND WHEN IS THAT NEW CLUB BIG JOKER OPENING UP DARIUS??????) . It was $3 to get in with a special ticket that people got from Steve Lacy's Party. Now I now it was the end of thr holidays, but can we still be on time for stuff? The show was suppose to start at 9:30 p.m. Well I thought at least it would begin at 10. NOT. It started close to 11 pm. Now this was too TRIFLIN. They say it was the mike problem. But DJ Needles, for some reason did not have a problem with his amps on the 1s and 2s. Anyway, Darius asked the bar to give away $3 shots for an hour to make up the time. The comedians were OK.

The first was Deandre. He needed to go back and learn how to deliver his stand up. My lil neph can get up there and do better. Then there was a sista who performed. Her name slips me. But she was actually good. She had a joke about her baby daddy kids stealing this mans CDs in his car and she said, "Boy, put all those CDs back in his truck. You can have two, but give the rest back. That was funny. Then it was Mr Whitfield. A comedy legend. He is TOE UP to the floor up. He reminds me of Redd Foxx. He is a blue comedy comedian. The joke with the mike hitting the top of women's heads simulated a DYCK was too hilarious. Darius, who was recently seen on P Diddy's Bad Boy of Comedy, had the laughs going as the host. He even brought up this sista from the audience who sang the hook to Nellys "Tipdrill". Bruh man had her in a headlock and demanded that she sing her verse so the crowd will know it is her. She refused and he continued to put her in a headlock. It was too classic. Anyway, the show was good. It just needs to start on TIME. People like myself gotta hear the birds chirping the next morning.

Next week, Ill give you my dibs on the Destinys Child concert and post party. And my skinny on the sneak preview of 1204, formerly Club Isis. An upcoming party is Joe Torry Basketball Game After Party at Seven July 16. It should be nice. I hear Soul Food's Rockmond Dunbar and Diffrent World's Dawnn Lewis are suppose to come through this year. I hope all the celebs show that say they are attending. We'll see.

FUTURE BLIND DISH: I just got word that in the next few weeks, some prominent big shots will get exposed about their hiring practices of AFRICAN AMERICANS. This has the potential to rock the world of St. Louis. Hmmmm. Be on the look out for that.
Until next time--see ya outside!

Wow, this was the foreshadowing of what OUTTOWN would turn into with the Blind Dish (Its now called BLIND BITZ) and we no longer put "See ya Outside" as the ending tagline to the blog anymore. Dunno why we stopped. We kinda liked that tagline. We think we will bring it back.