Over at one of my favorite sites, Essence.com, there’s a featured slide show of the black women who represent President Obama’s cabinet & administration:

Some of these women I was already familiar with (i.e. Valerie Jarrett, Desiree Rogers and Richmond’s own Melody Barnes), but I was always curious about the other black women who are also key players and are responsible for the everday operations of the White House. The slideshow features women such as Michelle Obama’s personal assistant, the Deputy White House Counsel and many others. Kudos to Essence for featuring these women!

Here’s the direct link:

http://www.essence.com/news/hot_topics_4/black_women_in_the_obama_administration.php

Get motivated!

You know how Beyonce says in all of her interviews that before she retires, she wants an Oscar, Grammy and a Tony???? Well, that’s pretty much how I feel about a pair of Jimmy Choos, Louboutins, and Zanottis.

SOOOO, I was pretty excited to hear that I would be close to owning a pair of Jimmy Choos one day when the line debuts for the retailer, H&M. Of course, the quality will not be the same as the real deal (i.e. “made in China” vs. “made in Italy”), but hey, the $49-200 price range will work well with my budget.

COVER GIRL

The First Lady covers the December 2009 issue of Glamour Magazine. Looking fly on the cover rocking the trendy statement necklace and a bold red party dress-which she styled herself! Honored by the magazine as “Woman of the Year,” in the article, Mrs. Obama gives advice on everything from setting priorities in life and in relationships:

“Cute’s good. But cute only lasts for so long, and then it’s, Who are you as a person?  Don’t look at the bank book or the title. Look at the heart. Look at the soul. … When you’re dating a man, you should always feel good. … You shouldn’t be in a relationship with somebody who doesn’t make you completely happy and make you feel whole.”

AMEN TO THAT! See this is why I love this woman so much, *tear*.

The issue hits newsstands November 10.

RIHANNA GIVES FIRST SIT DOWN INTERVIEW POST CHRIHANNAGATE WITH ABC

Yes, I said “Chrihannagate” lmao….

Robin Fenty’s, aka Rihanna, sit down interview with Diane Sawyer will air in its entirety on ABC’s 20/20, Friday, November 20th at 10pm. This will be Rihanna’s first major interview since the fiasco with Chris Brown happened. Excerpts from the interview will air this morning and Friday morning on Good Morning America, but since most of us won’t be watching that due to work or it’s just too early to wake up, check it out Friday night.

**sidenote**- UMMMMM, if I am going to do my FIRST major interview, with a MAJOR network channel and receive perhaps the most  publicity I probably will ever get, considering that the masses don’t follow the black blogs that much, you best believe that I am gonna look FLY!!! WTF does she have on!?!?!? I’ve seen her look 10x better in photo op pics walking down the street. The stylist definitely dropped the ball on this one….

I have been witnessing and observing things going to work, talking to friends, watching television and this question came to me:

Why is this idea of “ghettoness” and/or the ghetto lifestyle becoming so acceptable within the black community? Why is there a sense of normalcy to adapt into a ghetto lifestyle?

*For those who want to probe further, when I say GHETTO, I am referring to the act of doing something half-ass; a cheap like appearance and most importantly,  to embody an impoverished/poor/disadvantaged area through one’s actions.

In case you’ve been under a rock, there has been a love affair, (far from a teenage one), going on between R&B singer, Alicia Keys and the MARRIED Producer, Swizz Beatz for a while now. Mashonda, R& B singer and wife to Swizz Beatz,  has handled the affair with class if you ask me, refusing to discuss the situation with the press and even showing up to Swizz Beatz bday party to wish him well, despite it being thrown by his mistress, A. Keys herself.

Recently Keys has made some insensitive tweets on her twitter page concerning her and Swizz, which sparked a lengthy letter from Mashonda via twitter as well. In it, Mashonda calls Keys out and states that it is time for them to sit down as women and talk about the whole situation and indirectly calls Keys a hypocrite:

…….My concern with AK is no longer the fact that she assisted in destroying a family but that she has the audacity to make these selfish comments about love and wanting to be with someone, even after knowing their situation. How is this the same Superwoman that I sang out loud with in my truck? I ask myself sometimes.

    If you are reading this Alicia, let me start by saying, you know what you did. You know the role you played and you know how you contributed to the ending of my marriage. You know that I asked you to step back and let me handle my family issues. Issues that you helped to create…..

So my question for the night is, was the Twitter route the right approach to addressing her husband’s affair? What do you think about those who vent about their relationships via Twitter and Facebook? Speak on it….

To add my two cents, dating/talking/going out with a man that’s in a relationship and most cerainly a married man is flat out wrong and the same applies to married women too. I wasn’t a big fan of Alicia Keys before this incident and I am definitely not one now. But as she says, “what goes around, comes around, what goes up, must come down..” Yes, KARMA is indeed a b****.

BROWN SUGAR DIARIES HAS BEEN IN EXISTENCE FOR A YEAR THIS WEEK! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Michael Jackson passed away last week and it still feel as if it never happened. MJ was one of those few people in entertainment that are TIMELESS, immortal, or in his words- INVICIBLE. You would never think anything could happen to him, so his passing is still shocking to me.  Yet, what’s even more shocking to me is lack of respect that the media has shown to this icon after his death. Despite being a world icon, musical genius, world humanitartian, philanthropist, etc., etc., it seems that the only thing the media outlets and entertainment shows want to focus on is his troubled life and the child molestation accusations (in which he was acquitted of).  Yes, Michael Jackson had a troubled life, but that is not his legacy. His legacy is the millions of people he inspired, influenced and affected through his music and philanthropy. There will never be another Michael Jackson and hopefully the media will quit focusing on whether or not he suffered from drug abuse and  realize all of the talent we lost too soon and will never get back.

Soooooooo my computer died on me, causing me to neglect my blog for two months! Feels longer than that though. However, despite still not having a computer to call my own , I just had to borrow one to make a few posts, especially considering what’s been happening in the past two weeks!  So much has been going on in the world that I just couldn’t leave my thoughts on my facebook status and I don’t know how the twitter thing works, so I had to blog! Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can make daily posts again, but until then…enjoy!

Michelle Obama with Sara Brown, wife of British PM

Photo: AP

If you’ve been following the news at all you will know that the Obama’s are over in Europe, specifically London for the Global Summit or G-20 meeting. It is amazing how the world has fallen in love for the new first couple, especially Michelle Obama. CNN has had around the clock coverage of their trip and its interesting to see how the Europeans have fallen in love with her-comparing their admiration for her to the late Princess Diana. That’s pretty huge! Even on the homefront, the most nonchalant and apathetic TV personality in history, whom I happen to love, Jack Cafferty, blogged about his crush on Michelle. JCrew can thank her for their boost in sales.Yea, the world loves the Obamas- the world loves Michelle and I love it!

Short video of Beyonce behind the scenes at VOGUE cover shoot, featuring children from Alvin Ailey Dance Company, which I just wrote a post about not too long ago. Enjoy!