What is wrong with people? Have we all forgotten that America is a land full of immigrants. It grew because of immigrants, and it thrives today because of immigrants. Most people have lineages that lead back to Europe, Africa, Asia, and pretty much everywhere in the world aside from Indian Americans. So why is it that a guy who came to the states as a 12 year old and who learned long distance running in the United States, and American in every sense of the world, is all of a sudden not American enough? Please don't tell me it's because the guy isn't white. Because I would hope we can leave that sort of crap out of sports. People are always trying to perform a complete revision of Americanism, but don't realize that at some point they are going to be attacking their own lineages. He is American, and has never claimed otherwise. He may have originated from elsewhere, but the wonderful thing about America is that as long as you are willing to give your all and succeed, you're more than welcome.
I don't know what the hell is going on with the world these days, but when ten or more people stand around and watch as a fifteen year old girl is raped at her High School homecoming dance, we should all wonder what else we can do to help this world move in a better direction. To say I'm disgusted would be putting it lightly. It's beyond a tragedy, It's inhuman, and I hope someone finds every single one of those who stood by and put them to jail. To be honest, I don't think I would be too sad if those who raped that young girl died a horrible terrible death.
Going on vacation can be a little intimidating if you’re not sure where to go. I didn’t have that kind of trouble when I recently went to San Juan in Puerto Rico. We planned ahead and knew exactly where we were going to go for our vacation. I suppose the best part will have to be the hotel we picked for our stay in San Juan.
The El San Juan Hotel and Casino has always been known as a top spot in San Juan, but I wasn’t aware of the class in the place until I went there. The minute we arrived from the San Juan airport, the man at the door, Hery, opened our taxi door and welcomed us to Puerto Rico and to the El San Juan Hotel. The people at the hotel were so kind and welcoming. We didn’t even have to drag our bags to the concierge desk. Our bags were held in a safe spot while we waited for our room to be prepared.
If you’ve ever seen the pictures on their website, you’ll be even more amazed when you see the suites they have. If you have the money, I would advise going for the suites, they are worth it, and the view of the amazing pool and ocean is just beyond words.
San Juan has a lot of elements to it which makes it the best spot in all of Puerto Rico, but you have got to take a trip to Old San Juan or Viejo San Juan as they like to call it. The stone lined streets are amazing, they look like old Europe. There are so many different things to see in Old San Juan, but you shouldn’t waste your time doing all the touristy things. San Juan has a lot of small nooks that you have to actually search for to truly enjoy.
The Republican Party should be renamed –effective right now –as the RLP, the Rush Limbaugh party. It seems that the people in the Republican Party are going to listen to that loud mouth in their goal to see president Obama fail. Perhaps these people still don’t understand that government is more effective when there are two political parties brainstorming to find what’s best for the country.
From all the interviews and press conferences he has given, president Obama appears to want to make major changes in infrastructure and policies. These changes may not appease the Republicans, but they are not being effective members of government when they simply say no to ideas without proposing ideas of their own. If the Republicans want to play ball on the same playing field as the democrats, then they need to stop listening to people like Rush Limbaugh, and find their own leading voices in their party.
If they keep people like Limbaugh, they run the risk of being forever known as a group of grumpy old men who stunted their country’s progress because they wouldn’t let a venerable leader do his job. Rush Limbaugh is and has always been unequivocally a moron of the grandest order. With his stupid radio program, he has been able to reach a lot more people in the back woods of America, and these imbeciles –because of a lack of voice all their own –are easily convinced that what he says makes sense and that his type of politics is good for the country.
Mr. Limbaugh –herein referred to as THE IDIOT –has claimed that he wants president Obama to fail. What THE IDIOT doesn’t seem to comprehend, is that it is in his best interest to want the president to succeed. If president Obama fails in all his attempts, it will not be a sign of weakness on his part. It will show the Republican Party as a bunch of menacing aggravators who did absolutely nothing to help their country. People like THE IDIOT are likely to lose their sponsors if the economy goes any further into the ground. The people who subscribe to THE IDIOT’s ideologies need to wake up and smell the coffee. Old world mechanisms are not going to fit into the new world order. The Republican Party needs to recalibrate its mechanical arms and play ball with the president. As for THE IDIOT, let’s all hope he loses his voice.
Freedom Not everyone can own a studio, but as Tyler Perry has proved, having one’s own studio can help a filmmaker or producer. With a self-owned studio, you do not need to beg anyone for money to produce your projects. Oprah has enough fire power behind her to gather the money needed to produce the types of high quality materials Harpo Inc produces. The added freedom of green-lighting films and TV productions will put her at the top, and like Perry, will bring longevity to her productions and grow her already enormous fan base.
Financial Gain Not that Oprah needs more money, but as the head of a studio, she would be battling it out with the already established minority. This will increase her financial gain, because with some careful choices, the films and TV series that her studio produces will bring in a lot of money. The attachment of her name to a project will bring people out, especially if it is a project that is geared towards women, who represent ninety percent of her audience.
Popularity Oprah is probably the most popular female figure in the world. Her couch has the ability to bring both men and women to tears and she has been able to build an amazing group of supporters over the years. Her popularity will make her studio succeed, because people will have a natural curiosity towards the films she produces.
Accessibility In order to properly gain from a public, you need to be able to provide them with something that they can connect with. The majority of studios in Hollywood don’t usually cater to minority groups. Most of the movies that come out each year are geared towards the Caucasian middle class. Oprah can nip in and fill the gap. Because of her success, she can create a perfect balance between films that are geared towards the general public and films that are geared towards minority groups of all kinds.
Image As a black woman, Oprah must be aware of the fact that black people and other minorities are portrayed poorly in movies. Films hardly ever show the positive side of minorities. They are often stereotyped and lack depth. There are writers out there who are willing to change this image, but they don’t have a home for their projects. An Oprah studio could be the perfect place for projects that will portray positivity rather than overused stereotypes.
Ananké Asseff Ms. Asseff was born in 1971 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her work has been represented in the collections of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM), the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires (MAMBA), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO), the Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum, and the Caraffa Museum in Argentina. She has also been published in magazines such as BIG Magazine (Argentina), Exit Magazine (Spain) and in several catalogs and books, including Mapas Abiertos (Spain, 2003).
Marco Breuer He has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. His work is in a number of collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany. He is also a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. A monograph of his work entitled Early Recordings has been published by Aperture.
Jan Banning He was born to Dutch East Indies parents in the Netherlands in 1954. He studied social and economic history at the University of Nijmegen, and has been working as a photojournalist since 1981. He has published seven books and received many awards, including the World Press Photo 2004 Portrait Stories Award, the Prize of Prague 2004, and the Dutch Icodo Award 2003 for Traces of War. Claudia Angelmaier Claudia was born in 1972 in Goppingen, Germany. Angelmaier’s exhibitions include Color and Gray, Museum der bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, and Rot, Gelb, Blau, Galerie Kleindienst, Leipzip. She has participated in numerous other exhibitions and is a recipient of the Kunstpreis der Leipziger Volkszeitung, 2007 and Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stipendium, 2006.
Robert Bowen Bowen is a teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, who divides his time between making art and working on photo-design projects. His work has been featured in a variety of exhibitions, books, and other publications. An abbreviated version of his Return To Sender: Postcards from Impossible Places project was published in Cabinet Magazine. Other projects of his are included in the MoMA artist book collection, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry.
Chewitel Ejiofor: If there is one Black Brit with visibility and charisma, it has to be Chewitel. From his days as the translator on Steven Spielberg’s Amistad to his appearances opposite Denzel Washington in Inside Man and Amerigan Gangster, Ejiofor has shown his range and artistry to audiences that were not quite aware of what they were getting from the quiet actor. Such is his talent that he was tapped to be in Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda. His turn as the immigrant in Dirty Pretty Things brought him critical acclaim and attention in all markets. A member of the National Youth Theatre during his formative years, he has been nominated for a number of awards such as: the Laurence Olivier Award for theatre, BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, Screen Actor’s Guild, Golden Globe, Jack Tinker Award for theater. He is a graduate of London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Some of his recent films have included Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, David Mamet’s Redbelt, Talk to Me with Don Cheadle, Kinky Boots, John Singleton’s Four Brothers, Slow Burn, Spike Lee’s She Hate Me. He has a number of other films in production. Chewitel is definitely the most highly regarded Black British actor working in Hollywood.
Idris Elba: Some actors are born with the physical attributes that make them glow in the eyes of their fans, and then there are some actors whose ability to use that physicality and add sincerity to it makes them ones to remember. Idris Elba fits into the latter category. The London born actor and former member of the National Youth Music Theatre has been quietly working in the US. He has appeared on OZ and the critically acclaimed The Wire. But what makes Elba such a good actor is the fact that he has range. He is able to play anything from the good father in Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls to a gangster in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, to the disaffected and forlorn son in This Christmas. American film and TV viewers are quickly getting to see the best of this talented actor, and it is fair to say he has a lot more female fans than any other male actor on this list.
Eamon Walker: The first black actor to play Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Walker is another veteran of the fabulous OZ. he may have started his career as a dancer, but we should all be happy that he turned his eyes to acting. This college graduate has appeared opposite Bruce Willis in Tears of the sun, and Nicholas Cage in Lord of War. He has made appearances in ER, Justice, and Unbreakable.
Naomi Harris: Another Londoner who is picking up steam in the US, this vivacious beauty has been flexing her acting muscles lately opposite heavy weights such as Oscar winner Forrest Withaker, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, and Collin Farrell. Trained at the Bristol Vic, she is pleasing to the eye, but above that, she has genuine talent which explains why directors are keen to put her in their films. She may not be breaking any new grounds for black actresses in Hollywood yet, but she is a prime example of what talent and beauty can bring.
Sophie Okonedo: There is no way anyone can doubt the huge talents of Sophie Okonedo. From the minute she stepped onto the screen in Hotel Rwanda, viewers knew that this actress had what it takes to be in contention for the Oscar. A Cambridge graduate, she received her training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Okonedo oozes sexiness and has the talents to back it up. She is very selective when it comes to her roles, which explains part of the reason why she doesn’t appear in a lot of films every year.
Thandie Newton: Newton is without a doubt the most visible black British actress working in Hollywood. Her resume is amazingly filled with high caliber films. She has done everything from Mission Impossible to playing Condoleeza Rice in Oliver Stone’s W. she may not be the most talented actress on this list, but she is the most aggressive and innovative. She was voted as one of the sexiest women in the world by readers in Black Men Magazine, and one look at her tells it all. But it’s not all about looks with Newton. She is another Cambridge graduate with a degree in Anthropology.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: Adewale is the actor you’ve seen in so many movies but can’t quite put together where you know him from. He has appeared in the critically praised OZ as Simon Adebisi. He matched wits with 50 Cent in Get Rich or Die Tryin, and has been wowing audiences on the ABC hit Lost. Though he speaks perfect English, he has the tendency of playing characters with thick African accent.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste: The word Oscar trailblazer has been spewed several times in connection with Jean-Baptiste’s name in recent years. She was the first black actress to be nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Secrets and Lies. She did not get the media attention she needed to push her career forward so she moved to the United States. She’s been steadily working in the US and has a recurrent role on Without a Trace. She has also been in City of Ember, Spy Game, The Cell, 28 Days and a host of other films.
David Harewood: Most people would remember David Harewood from Blood Diamonds as Captain Poison. The 6’ tall actor graduated from RADA in England and has steadily found work on TV and in films. He has appeared in The Merchant of Venice, Criminal Justice and Gunrush. He is one of the busiest actors on TV.
Lennie James: This South London native, born to Trinidadian parents, graduated from Guildhall School, one of the best drama schools in the UK. But because of the dearth of roles for blacks in Britain, he has been able to find most of his work in the Unites States. He was one of the main characters in the T.V. show Jericho. It was a good show but it didn’t receive the ratings it needed to survive.
Hollywood has never been kind to ethnic actors. It seems it is a written rule in Hollywood that an actor that is not Caucasian is automatically seen as inferior in terms of technique and talent. Black actors in Hollywood have had to deal with a slew of problems ranging from stereotypical roles to plain crappy scripts. If you look at the landscape of performers in Hollywood, the majority of the ones that get the best roles happen to be Caucasian. Now if you dig a little deeper and look at casting breakdowns, you will notice that the majority of directors and producers are looking for Caucasian actors. At this stage in American history, it really pays to be Caucasian.
But black actors also have themselves to look at when it comes to the question of success in Hollywood. There are a handful of black actors that can be viewed as successful, Mostly Will Smith and maybe Terrence Howard, Samuel Jackson and Don Cheadle. Actors may not always be able to get the financing for a film, but if they find a good writer to work with, I’m sure there is a producer out there who would be willing to work with them.
Black actors and actresses have one of the best connections in the world of music. There are a lot of black people making money in the music business, why not partner up with one of these people and form a production company? People like P. Diddy and Russell Simmons have a lot of money, and with a little bit of ingenuity and careful planning, they can have production companies and distribution companies of their own so that they can make the types of films they want to make.
But on a whole, when we look at black actors in Hollywood and their challenges, we must look at awards season. Every year, it is always a surprise to see a black actor or actress’ name on nomination ballots. It is as if the TV and film industry completely forgets that these people exist when the time comes to hand out statuettes. Actors like Will Smith, Don Cheadle, Sam Jackson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Terrence Howard, Viola Jones and Sophie Okonedo give brilliant performances, yet they are always ignored in place for actors whose performances cannot compare to those of elementary school kids.
The situation in the entertainment business is not going to change any time soon, but black actors and actresses should take up the challenge and make their own movies. For God’s sake call Oprah and get some money.
Most people come to Flushing to buy fresh fruit and vegetables at a cheaper price than they will get in Manhattan. Some women even come to the new Chinatown to get their nails done. What people don’t know is the right time to come to Flushing.
Most people go to the little city on the weekend, which is the absolute worst time to come for buying fruits and vegetables. Flushing is packed with people on the weekend. The sidewalks are so packed that you can barely walk to your destination. While it might take five minutes to get somewhere on any other day, it will take fifteen minutes to go the same distance on the weekend.
Though Flushing has a lot to offer, it has a serious population problem. There has been an influx of people lately and this has caused the little area to balloon with talking heads. If you want to get a decent experience buying things and getting your nails done, you need to come during the weekdays and early, but not too early. Anytime between ten and one is perfect. There aren’t a lot of people there around that time, and your only competitions are the stay at home moms.
Flushing is not going to get any bigger in the future, but the population is going to increase as people have more kids and pack atop one another, but the cheap offerings will continue to be there, that is until some obnoxious developer decides that Flushing is cool and ruins it for everyone the way they have ruined Brooklyn and Greenwich. Flushing is not exactly booming in art, but there is culture, and there are lots of fruits and vegetables waiting to be bought.
I can never understand why students are not more proactive in their own education, especially on the college level. Most students these days wait until the very last minute to get their books for school, and some even wait longer to get the bare necessities like notebooks and pens.
Materials for school are not so much optional as they are a necessity. When you pay a certain amount of money for your education, whether it is you who is paying or you have a trust fund, you should make the very best of it. Today's student seem to see their education as a lax time to talk with friends and make new Facebook buddies. But when the harsh reality of the job market hits them they will know that it is always better to be ready or at least a few step ahead of the rest of the class so that you are not surprised by anything.
I never thought I’d see the day when people would turn against giving for a good cause. It’s one thing to decide not to give your money to homeless people, but when it comes to children, it should be a different case.
I was helping out a friend by canvassing for Save The Children, and I realized that most Americans hate the idea of giving. A lot of people slammed their doors in our faces and a few shouted at us to get off their property. And it seems like the people with the biggest houses are the ones most against giving.
I mean these people with their mansions just have no compassion. People are out there regardless of weather trying to raise money to save children all over the world, but what they run into are insensitive morons who just can’t imagine anyone in this world being poor. I certainly hope that 2009 turns out to be a better year for giving. It feels good to give, even if you feel that you don’t have enough yourself. As some would say, when you give, you get back in return.
There are a lot of haters on Youtube these days. I think it’s pathetic for people to hide behind a computer to spew all their evil thoughts. Honestly if you are going to hate on people you should have the guts to go face to face and tell them.
It seems a lot of people have a problem with interracial relationships. I don’t understand where people get all their hate from. You should not just repeat the things your parents tell you. You should get your own experiences and make up your mind from that. People need to stop teaching their children to hate.
Just because an adult has a certain point of view, does not mean that a child should carry those same views, and the adults should not make the children carry those views. Remember what Khalil Gibran said in ‘The Prophet’ “your kids do not belong to you” so let them make up their own minds.
As for the young people with all the hate in them, shame on you. It’s okay to love your race and your heritage. That is a personal decision that you have made, but you shouldn’t look down on someone who happens to date outside of his or her race. Individuals will select mates according to their preferences, so if a white woman happens to prefer a black guy, then she will date a black guy, and it a black woman happens to prefer a white guy, then that is who she will date. Preference does not always equal exclusivity, so it does not mean that these women will never date their own race.
I think it is tragically sad that people will use Youtube as a way to spread hate, but I give kudos to those who will stand on their own ground and refuse to be deterred by the negative voices out there.
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