My Birthday Wish List

One of my friends told me I never know what to get you, you have mostly everything you want, so I'll be posting a online wish list of a few items that I DON'T have that have caught my eye.... #Leggo

I Love the photographer Audrey Woulard! I have not had time to take her workshop yet, but she has a book out that I must have!!!!

Audrey Woulard Book!

My Response To Tracy Morgan.....

So it's been almost a week since the United States was shaken by Tracy Morgan's "I'd kill my son if he were gay comment during a stand up performance in California. I have never been a huge fan of Morgan myself, but I will say that didn't help him earn any brownie points with me either (no pun intended). 


What exactly he meant by that we may never know, you cannot get too offended when comedians make fun of social relevant and sometimes not so relevant issues. My disappointment came primarily from someone in his position in the black community where you've been given a chance that many young men dream of, and you make a fool out of yourself, and this is not the first time for Morgan.


We live in a society where black men, particularly same gender loving, gay and bisexual black men have it the HARDEST. Our death rates higher than other race, many of us are in some kind of way tangled up in the criminal justice system,  lacking education, role models, and the list goes on, so when you have a black father say something like that about disowning his own child it makes me look beyond the whole "gay" thing. 

"I know how bad bullying can hurt," Morgan said. "I was bullied when I was a kid. I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it. I never want to use my comedy to hurt anyone. My family knew what it was like to feel different. My brother was disabled and I lost my father to AIDS in 1987.... Parents should support and love their kids no matter what. Gay people deserve the same right to be happy in this country as everyone else. Our laws should support that." -Tracy Morgan (Huffpost.com)


Well I am glad his PR people helped him come up with that, but my question is, why did it take you have to try to clean up a terrible situation for all of this to come out. Why do so many black men hide so many things about what's going on in our lives, and how we truly feel? These are the exact reasons we are dying at the number we are. People are too careless when it come to other people lives. 


I am really getting tired of this. It makes me revisit the whole Eddie Long case, why do black men in great postions keep making these mistakes that make all of us look bad, then trying to clean them up only make THEM look even more stupid. We MUST do better!




@uppiTEAomar on Twitter! Follow Me!

The time is now: Mavs are NBA champs

MIAMI — For Dirk Nowitzki, the resume is complete. He's an NBA champion.

For LeBron James, the agonizing wait continues for at least one more year.

Avenging what happened five years ago in perfect turnabout style, the Dallas Mavericks won their first NBA title by winning Game 6 of these finals in Miami 105-95 on Sunday night — celebrating on the Heat's home floor, just as Dwyane Wade and his team did to them in the 2006 title series. The Mavericks won four of the series' last five games, a turnabout that could not have been sweeter.

"I really still can't believe it," said Nowitzki, who had 21 points and took home finals MVP honors.

"Tonight," Jason Terry said after leading Dallas with 27 points, "we got vindication."

James did not. Not even close, and a year unlike any other ended they way they all have so far — with him still waiting for an NBA title.

He scored 21 points for Miami, shook a few hands afterward, and departed before most of the Mavs tugged on their championship hats and T-shirts. Chris Bosh had 19, Mario Chalmers 18 and Dwyane Wade 17 for the Heat.

"We worked so hard and so long for it," Nowitzki said. "The team has had an unbelievable ride."

So did the Heat. Unlike Dallas, theirs wasn't a joyride.

"It goes without saying," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "You're never really prepared for a moment like this. ... Neither team deserved this championship more than the other, but Dallas earned it."

Make no mistake: Miami lost the finals, but the blame will be directed at James. Even he knew that after the way he left Cleveland with "The Decision" and all the animus that generated not just in Ohio but around the entire league, the only way he could silence some critics was with a title.

Instead, he got more criticism — and a thinly veiled jab from his former owner with the Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, who reveled in the moment on Twitter.

"Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings," Gilbert wrote. "Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE."

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle joined a highly elite group, those with NBA titles as both a player and a head coach. Only 10 other men are on that list, including the presumably retired-for-good Phil Jackson, one of Carlisle's mentors in K.C. Jones, and Heat President Pat Riley — who led Miami past Dallas in 2006, and was the mastermind of what the Heat did last summer by getting James, Wade and Bosh on the same team with an eye on becoming a dynasty.

It might still happen, of course.

But even after 72 wins this season, including playoffs, the Heat lost the last game. And that means this year was a disappointment — except to just about everyone else in the NBA, or so it would seem.

"This is a true team," Carlisle said. "This is an old bunch. We don't run fast or jump high. These guys had each other's backs. We played the right way. We trusted the pass. This is a phenomenal thing for the city of Dallas."

Hating the Heat became the NBA's craze this season, and the team knew it had no shortage of critics, everyone from Cleveland (where "Cavs for Mavs" shirts were popular during these finals) to Chicago (the city James and Wade both flirted with last summer) and just about every place in between lining up to take shots at Miami.

Given their newfound popularity, meet the new America's Team.

Sorry, Cowboys — your long-held moniker might have to be ceded to your city's NBA club. When it was over, Mavs owner Mark Cuban ran onto the court to hug Carlisle, then punched the air and whooped.

"I'm so happy for him. I'm so happy for Dirk," Carlisle said.

Carlisle said Riley came down to congratulate the Mavericks after the game, showing "unbelievable class."

"Their time will come," Carlisle said. "But now, it's our time."

When the Mavericks took a 2-0 lead in Dallas during the '06 finals, plans for their victory parade were announced. The Mavs didn't win another game in that series.

Now, that parade will finally happen. And when it's over, then the league's uncertainty will truly begin. Labor strife likely awaits, and although more talks geared toward movement on a new deal are scheduled for this week, both owners and players are bracing for a lockout to begin once the current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30.

Late Sunday night, the CBA was the last thing on the mind of the new champions of the NBA, whom Carlisle called "the most special team I've ever been around."

Jason Kidd, at 38 years old, got his first championship. Nowitzki got his at 32, Terry at 33. They were featured on the video screen in their building in Dallas during this series on what seemed like a constant loop, each posing with the NBA trophy and looking longingly at it, standing mere inches from it, as if to say "so close, yet so far away."

No more.

It's theirs.

Nowitzki sealed it with 2:27 left, hitting a jumper near the Miami bench to put Dallas up 99-89, and some fans actually began leaving. Nowitzki walked to the Mavs' side slowly, right fist clenched and aloft.

He knew it. Everyone did. Spoelstra implored his team to foul in the final minute, and even then, they couldn't catch the Mavericks.

"All I remember is telling those guys that they deserved it," Bosh said. "Hands down, they were the better team in this series. ... All we can do is just admit it and move forward."

What happens with the next deal may affect the Heat more than anyone. Some owners will insist on a hard cap, rolled-back salaries and, potentially, trying to bust some current deals — which could break up the Big 3 before get another chance to win a title together.

A gloomy end to the season may bring an even gloomier offseason for Miami.

"Every situation has felt like it was an our-back-against-the-wall situation," James said Sunday morning, hours before Game 6 began. "We've been able to figure it out and find our way through and scratch our way through. This is the last test. This is the last pop quiz for us that we need to pass in order to make it all worth it."

They didn't pass. So therefore, it wasn't all worth it. Except, of course, from the Dallas perspective.

Miami had chances to take command and wasted them all. The Heat missed 13 of their 33 free throws, let the Mavericks score 27 points off turnovers and simply could not get a rebound in the final minutes.

Nowitzki finished 9 for 27, and the Mavs still won. He was 1 for 12 in the first half, and they were still ahead, 53-51, thanks largely to Terry's 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

"Was he unbelievable tonight or what?" marveled Nowitzki.

Down the stretch, Terry made another contribution. He grabbed Nowitzki during a time-out, telling him, "Remember '06." The final minutes belonged to Dirk and the Mavs, and a few German flags waved in Miami's arena during the postgame celebration.

"This feeling, to be on the best team in the world, it's just undescribable," Nowitzki said.

After James got off to such a fast start, he had two points in the final 19-plus minutes of the half.

James didn't score in the second half until a layup with 1:49 remained in the third — his first field-goal attempt since 1:05 remained in the half. Kidd made a 3-pointer late in the period, pushing the Dallas lead to 79-71, and it seemed like the only people standing in the arena were the players, referees, Cuban and a few guys around the Dallas bench.

Dallas took control in the second half after some wild back-and-forths in the opening two quarters. Miami took its last lead of the game — the season — just 64 seconds into the second half, lost it 16 seconds later and chased the Mavericks the rest of the way.

They never caught them.

"I can't believe the journey," said Kidd, who lost two previous finals trips with the New Jersey Nets. "The journey, the character of my teammates telling me they wanted to get me a championship. Tonight they came out and played well. I came here twice, this being my third time so third time was the lucky charm."

It was 81-72 entering the fourth, after Ian Mahinmi made a foul-line jumper as time expired in the third, just his third basket of the entire series.

None were bigger. The Mavs could taste a title.

"We had no champions on this team," Mavs center Tyson Chandler said. "And we walked away with a team full of champions."

Of the principal characters from the 2006 series, only Cuban, Nowitzki and Terry remain from the Mavericks' side, and for them, the beginning of this championship celebration seemed sweeter than even they could have imagined. Terry won't have to get his tattoo — the one of the NBA championship trophy — removed, which he vowed to have done if Miami won this series. Nowitzki will never be in the conversation of 'Best player without a title' again.

James is clearly the one with that most-unwanted label now.

NOTES: Carlisle improved to 11-3 as a coach with a chance to close out an opponent. ... James got a 21-minute rest in the second quarter in real time, thanks to a midcourt dustup and the referees taking several minutes to look at replays before doling out the technicals. ... Marc Anthony sang the national anthem, then took a courtside seat near the Heat bench.

Simply Mav-elous!

Marsha Ambrosius [I Love Her & Her New Video]

By: @UppiTEAomar

So I have been feeling Marsha Ambrosius since her Floetry days. When she released her solo project I was sooo excited, not just because I love new artist, but because her sound is sooo amazing. I've been jamming the title track off of her debut album "Late Nights and Early Mornings" for about two or three months now, and I always wanted her to make it her next single. I go word that it was indeed going to be her next single, and a video was going to come soon. I woke up watched it, but didn't pay much attention until I wanted to watch it again. In her last video for Far Away it was an instant hit, she addressed hate crimes in the LGBT community. This video was shared with me by so many people, and I heard nothing but great things, and now with her video for her latest single Late Nights and Early Mornings, she addresses PERSONAL responsibility for protecting yourself! The video is amazing, the men were HOT, and the message was crystal clear!!! I love me some Marsha!  I have always said that it is everyone personal responsibility to protect themselves when sexually active and this video painted a very clear picture of this....and the use of the Magnums was wonderful! Big ups Marsha!!!!

Links:
Marsha on itunes
The Official Marsha Ambroshus Site
Marsha's Facebook Page [LIKE]
Twitter @MarshaAmbrosius

E. Lynn Harris: Tracey Edmonds to Produce Film Version of 'Invisible Life'

E. Lynn Harris' novels are coming to the big screen. (Getty)

 
• By: Nsenga Burton | Posted: June 9, 2011

Those of you missing the work of the late novelist E. Lynn Harris have another way to connect with him. Tracey Edmonds of Edmonds Entertainment, and Proteus Spann of Proteus E2 Productions, have structured a multipicture deal to develop the extensive library of novels by New York Times best-selling author E. Lynn Harris into feature films.

The first production in this overall creative development deal will be E. Lynn Harris' blockbuster first novel, Invisible Life, which will be jointly produced by Edmonds Entertainment and Proteus E2 with Shelia Ducksworth, Glendon Palmer and Javon Johnson as co-producers. Screenwriter Ted Witcher (Love Jones) has been brought on to adapt the novel for the big screen.

Harris passed away two years ago but had already brokered this deal before his untimely death.  Shortly after closing the deal over dinner in Hollywood, Harris died from a heart attack in his hotel room. Harris authored 10 consecutive New York Times best-seller books, and Invisible Life sold more than 1 million copies and is still in print 15 years after publication. Harris' novels were wildly popular for bringing issues like "down-low" behavior to the forefront and engaging discussions about sexuality.

Edmonds says about Harris, "E. Lynn Harris entrusted Proteus and myself with his dream of seeing his books translated into film. After his tragic passing, we are even more determined to see his dream become a reality. With his first blockbuster novel, Invisible Life, we begin the journey that millions of his fans have traveled."

Spann adds, "My dear friend E. Lynn was a man with an unshakable spirit and an unbreakable passion to inspire and change lives. He entrusted with me his vision and the responsibility to produce this American coming-of-age love story accurately through the lens of sensitivity in which it was originally created. This project is a must for his millions of fans. Because if we were all honest, we would acknowledge that we all live a portion of our lives 'invisible.' "

AIDS: 30 Years is Enuf! (Check Out My Essay)

This report by the Black AIDS Institute marks the 30th anniversary of the first official report on the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Over three  decades, AIDS has radically altered our world, reshaping entire regions of the world, changing people's relationship with their own sexuality, dramatically accelerating social and cultural change, and producing some of the most important scientific advances of the last century. (My essay is on page 55)


Full Report Link Here