Voices In Color

Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1991, jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis died in Santa Monica, California from complications following a stroke. He was 65.

Singer – Rissi Palmer

I will readily admit that I’m not a country music lover, but I love to see us popping up where we’re least expected. That’s why hearing African American country music singer, Rissi Palmer on npr.org’s News & Notes caught my attention. The 26-year-old singer Palmer is the first black woman to be on the country music charts in 20 years.

Flight 001

Flight 001 is hands down the best travel store around. Lucky for us in the Bay area there are two retail locations (they also have stores in LA, NY, Chicago, and even Dubai) to indulge in and for those of you elsewhere, you can peruse their amazing array of travel goods online. Every time I wander through I’m struck by the urgent need to jet off somewhere, anywhere…

Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry, Annie Allen. She was the first Black cited by the Pulitzer committee.

MSNBC.COM’s The Big Picture, Civil Rights Today

MSNBC's has put together an excellent interactive report on Civil Rights today. Allows you to listen to reports from experts, participate in surveys, watch historical footage, and much, much more. Great for adults and young people alike.

Bill O'Reilly Is An Idiot

Well, what can you say? Unbelievable that the man would publicly express these views. Just goes to show how ignorant he truly is. And almost as unbelievable is that he knows who Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dog are...

After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly told a radio audience he “couldn’t get over the fact” that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia’s and other restaurants.

“It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun,” he said. “And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”
O’Reilly said his fellow patrons were tremendously respectful as he ate dinner with civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

The comments were made during O’Reilly’s nationally syndicated radio broadcast last week. The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America called attention to them by distributing a transcript and audio clip on the Internet.

“This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings,” said Bill Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News Channel. “It’s sad.”

O’Reilly spoke during a general discussion about racial relations with Fox News analyst Juan Williams. O’Reilly said he believed black Americans were “starting to think more and more for themselves” and backing away from a race-based culture encouraged by Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

He said he treated Sharpton to dinner to thank him for appearing on his Fox News Channel show.

Mark of racial progress?

O’Reilly pointed to the lack of difference between Sylvia’s and other restaurants as a marker of racial progress. He also noted that he went to an Anita Baker concert recently where the audience was evenly mixed between blacks and whites.

“The band was excellent, but they were dressed in tuxedoes, and this is what white America doesn’t know, particularly people who don’t have a lot of interaction with black Americans,” he said. “They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.”

Williams concurred that too many people believe there’s little else in black culture beyond profane rap.
“That’s right,” O’Reilly said. “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.”

Sharpton said he was taken aback that anyone would be surprised at how blacks acted at Sylvia’s and will ask O’Reilly on “The O’Reilly Factor” Wednesday to explain what he meant. Nothing O’Reilly said at the dinner was offensive, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger.

Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters, called O’Reilly’s comments “ignorant and racially charged.”

Source: The Associated Press and msnbc.com

Hedonist City Guides

Just when you thought guidebooks were so last century, so passed over and printed before this internet-driven age, along comes a new generation of guides in groovy, sexy travel. The latest info on cool hotels, restaurants, shops, clubs and tipping are all linked to online updates.

The Hedonist city guides are for the stylish, covering the witty cities (Stockholm, Tallinn), the cutting-edge (Moscow, Marrakech), and the exotic (Prague, Istanbul). New: New York. The writers have eaten and drunk in the funnest bars and restaurants, slept in the best beds. These guides aren’t for museum groupies. Hg2 is about foreign life as art.

Springtime in Cyprus

We’ve been invited to a wedding in Cyprus, next May, and since this country’s never been on my radar I thought I’d do some investigating. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is a Eurasian island country in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey. Cyprus is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, attracting over 2.4 million tourists per year.

The legendary birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite, Cyprus has been coveted and fought over by a succession of admirers: Mycenaeans, Egyptians, Assyrians and Persians, to name a few. The former British colony was most recently fought over by the Turks and the Greeks. A result of this turbulent past is an impressive range of cultural treasures, from Crusader castles to the tomb of Mohammed's aunt. The island's geography - plentiful coastline with a mountainous center - ensures plenty of year-round activity.

Today Cyprus is a modern country that effortlessly marries European culture with ancient enchantment. It’s a compact world of alluring beaches and fragrant mountain peaks, vineyards studded with olive trees and ancient ruins that stir the imagination, citrus groves and old stone villages where sweet wine flows as freely as conversations at the local café. A carefree place where a sense of timelessness is magnified by the kindness of the people.

Sounds wonderful. Hopefully we’ll be able to make it.

Forever 21's Twelve By Twelve

I mentioned a while back that Forever 21 was working on a new, more sophisticated brand called Twelve by Twelve. Well, it's here and from the website it looks pretty good. You never can tell until you see the clothes in person, but I'm putting it on my 'to do' list.

Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1968, the Studio Museum of Harlem opens in NYC.