Nicole be Thinking...

Last Monday I was told Ms. Scott was in the hospital and it didn't  look good. It fucked up my entire week. Ms. Scott is larger than life,  the best English teacher I ever had. From the time I first walked into  Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive/Business Magnet High School two things were  absolutely certain: I had to get back to California as soon as I  graduated and I had to survive Mama Scott's class to make that happen.  My strategy was to be silent and excel, but Ms. Scott wasn't having  that. She came for me, told me when I was a 10th grader that she was  waiting for me. When I finally got to her class she called me out  regularly. She threw me off the cliff that was my comfort zone, and  then caught me at the bottom. She forced me to shine when I was trying  to down play my abilities. She taught me not to hide my talents, but  not to rest on them either. I'll always be grateful for her. She  taught all of us how to  be ...

If you know me, you know how much I love Etta James. To spend the whole day listening to her music doesn't seem like enough of a tribute because I do that so often, but I will anyway. She'll be missed. R.I.P. Jamesetta Hawkins 1938-2012

He was only 44. I don't wanna be in denial about every celebrity that dies, but I'm really sad about this. I can't even begin to eulogize him, so I won't try. R.I.P. Heavy D. 1967-2011

Say what you will, the Raiders wouldn't be the Raiders without Al Davis. Love him or hate him, Al Davis was a boss and he contributed greatly to the game and our team.  Rest in peace. 1929-2011

So glad we go to have you on Earth as long as we did. 1955-2011

I don't really have a Nate Dogg story. He was just embedded in my childhood, one of those people who isn't supposed to die before me. I'm still in denial. =[ Following are a few of my favorite Nate Dogg features... I probably won't admit that he's gone after this...

I really don't know where to begin. When I read that Brittany Murphy passed away I honestly started to tremble. I was an only child for a long time and I lost myself in movies. Clueless is one of my all-time favorite movies. I thought high school would be exactly like that and I felt like Cher, Dionne, and Tai were my friends, and of course, Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, and Brittany Murphy are too. This feeling sucks. And it wasn't just Clueless . I remember her in the episode of Sister, Sister . And nobody remembers Don't Say a Word because of Michael Douglas. I loved her in Riding in Cars with Boys . I would have never even watched Uptown Girls or Little Black Book if she wasn't in them and I love them both because she was. She was good in Sin City . And did I mention she was in 8 Mile ? I loved her talent. I loved her energy. I think I might cry. I know… of course I didn't actually know her. But this hits so close to home. It's not supposed t...

By now you know that Michael is gone. I was going to try to do this really long and meaningful post for him, but I don't think it's really necessary. He was special to everyone. His music changed music forever. His videos changed video forever. His dancing changed dance forever. He is the paradigm. Your favorite artist owes his/her career to MJ. Had it not been for him, they wouldn't be on MTV. Had he not made Thriller album expectations wouldn't be do high. Michael is the bar. And that will never die. Honestly my first thought when I hear "Michael Jackson" is that "Man, it's hella funny to me that I was afraid of him." And then I think about all the music. If you choose to think of him as "Wacko Jacko" you're missing the point. I won't indulge in any gossip or pass any judgment. Not because you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but because it didn't matter to me when he was alive. I've always preferred to ...

R.I.P. Paul Newman January 25, 1925 - September 26, 2008

i've been absent from you but not on purpose. i really only have time to blog when i'm sitting at work and then i have all the time in the world (8.5 hours to be exact) to do whatever i want on the computer because i'm sitting there staring at it. anyway... i'm going to run down my links (another unintentional trend that has started here...) with some of my commentary... enjoy: Chris Rock to Bill Clinton: "Hilary Lost!" Dear Governor Palin: Why So Afraid of the Fourth Estate? R.I.P. Nancy Hicks Maynard 75 Books Every Woman Should Read I endorse these: Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys Beloved , Toni Morrison A Good Man is Hard to Find (and Other Stories) , Flannery O'Connor [really anything by her...] Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston Wuthering Heights , Emily Bronte A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith Assata, Assata Shakur (not on the list) I read this article about how black women have 5 times the number of abortions that white women have...

August 20, 1942 - August 10, 2008

i was going to blog about something else today, but then i heard this news. bernie mac passed away this morning from complications from pneumonia. in addition to the loss of life, this is especially sad news because he was only 50. this news shocks me almost as much as the news of aaliyah's death in 2001. bernie mac was someone i just assumed would be around forever. few people have that talent and it's super jarring when it's lost. it would be selfish for me to blog about my lost. i didn't know him personally. my heart goes out to his family. i will spend the rest of my day in solemn tribute to bernie mac, laughing and enjoying life the way i know he did. r.i.p. Bernie Mac, October 5, 1957 - August 9, 2008.

last night i went to see the dark knight in imax. it was fricking amazing. the whole imax experience was great too. huge screen and surround sound you can feel in your chest? amazing. anywho... the movie was great... without giving anything away, i will say that it was too long though. i felt like most of the end should have been saved for the next installment. pretty much everything after harvey dent turns into two face. however, even those scenes were good. although the rest of this post will be dedicated to heath ledger, he wasn't the only great part of this movie. i have grown to really like christian bale as early batman. at first i couldn't see him as batman because i kept seeing him as patrick bateman. also, james pointed out that this set of batman movies seems more real (as opposed to the almost cartoonish ones of the nineties). i agree. the movie was shot really well too. it was beautiful. and all of the stunts were really good. all its greatness made me miss heath l...