MUSH LOVIN'
Okaaaay she's back! And she has a LOT TO SAY. I do have to say that January-March were slow months for music, movies, books and products (maybe just me?) but SPRING HAS SPRUNG my friends, and I have a little to share witcha.
what i'm listenin' to
HUMBLE. - Kendrick Lamar
**this visual also doubles as an accurate depiction of what it felt like to get your hair relaxed as a kid. can i get witness?
Can we juuuust a take a moment of silence to appreciate the beauty that is this song, this video and this person? Wow. I am O B S E S S S E D. In a time where trap music is literally taking over our Spotify accounts (speaking of which, just me or aren't "Skateboard P" and "Mask Off" the same song? I looove them both for my ratchet workouts, so it's no shade, but I can literally sing the two simultaneously, see: "Percocets.. molly, percocets... bling blaow... chains on Skateboard P"? *mind blown*) here kendrick comes yet again to save the day. He has always been a revolutionary artist who hasn't been afraid to make provocative, political, pro-black and feminist statements, but it is of particular magnitude at this present moment in time. He addresses the fact that rap music out there should be more than just a flashy lifestyle and bad b*tches, but about saying something thought provoking and deep in a time where black men need to be advocated for.
The scene that gets me is the Last Supper where he has dudes on either side of his throne, but if you take a closer look, there's a J Cole look alike, a Future bizarro, a DJ Khaled doppelganger and it's a big F U to those artists who are making dope beats but not much else. And what good rap song comes without a "Grey Poupon" reference. And while trolls have obviously gone to twitter about his lyric and visual for "I'm so ****ing sick and tired of the photoshop" where he has a very gorgeous curvy girl revealing her derrière, as a woman who completely agrees with that, he's reminding rappers once again with their super polished videos that whether a woman chooses to rock jeans and a t shirt and natural hair or heels and a bikini and 32" Brazilian virgin hair (all my black girls knoooow), that they're beautiful. So damn, thanks Kendrick for advocating for us.
And if for some unfortunate reason you're the only person who is yet to see this video, here it is...
what i'm readin'
IT'S NATIONAL POETRY MONTH Y'ALL! Happy National Poetry Month. And what did I tell you, I'm suuuuper deep now and really into reading poetry, and I have some more recommendations, what what!!!
The Flowering Woman: Becoming and Being by Q. Gibson
I mean, wow. Q is an artiste. In the spirit of being feminine and strong and empowered, yet delicate, vulnerable and open, this work of art is spectacular and you'll want it to last forever.
Excerpts:
"Woman. It is sometimes all we know how to be, and at all times the only thing we need to be."
"Heartbreak, sadness, and pain is essential to ever knowing what it is like to reside amongst gladness."
Nectar: Upile Chisala
Upile, Upile, Upile. This is your sophomore compilation, and I feel like you and I are growing together. You guyssss haaaave to pick this one up. I picked up her first book of poems last summer and shared some of it with you, but damn, this one? It's about double the size and double the might.
Excerpts:
"Sweet child, dance into the light. Joy is waiting for you."
"Sisterhood is yummy."
"You can't fool love
It knows what it is
It knows where it's welcome
It thrives where it's cared for."
K, now go and buy them. *moviefone voice* available on Amazon.
what i'm using
GLOSSIER
Okay so this is my most favourite obsession of the year, and I feel a li'l extra cool because it doesn't ship to Canada quite yet - I paid a visit to the store while on a trip to New York - BUT my hope is that it will soon. Pronounced how you'd expect a french person to say it, Glossier was created by Emily Weiss, their founder and CEO, as well as other beauty editors who wanted to celebrate real girls in real life. Their movement began in 2010 with their cult popular beauty blog intothegloss.com featured editors who tried, reviewed, praised and critiqued hundreds upon hundreds of products found in medicine cabinets of cool girls from all walks of life.
They took the best of what they discovered from all the products that women were using, and created user friendly, clean, beautiful products that bring women back to the basics.
Thus Glossier was born, with the intention of simplifying the routines of women who are bombarded with endless hours of YouTube videos of contouring and highlighting. Everything from the super fun packaging, their rad penthouse studio store (where they play great hip hop and indie and have awesome customer service despite the hour-long line ups), to their genesis story exemplifies that awesome back to the basics beauty that we forgot even existed.
Meet: Cloud Paint
What a cute name right? It's a gel-cream blush that you use your fingers to simply dab onto your cheeks (dab on em!). It has a flawless finish, and because it is so light, you can wear it with a tinted moisturizer or bare faced and still have a gorgeous finish to your skin. I'm loooving the shade Haze (a plum), but it comes in 3 other shades: Dusk, Puff and Beam.
Meet: Balm Dotcom
Again, they nailed it with the name, I can't seem to get enough of the coconut flavour yet. And I'm a picky lip balm user, having been faithfully devoted to Rosebud's Salve since my high school days (*whispers* you're still my #1). What makes them so great? Their awesome ingredients, which include castor seed oil (which I LOVE for my hair) rice bran and rosemary leaf extracts, which are great for skin damage. The rose, mint and cherry are also delish and offer great lip protection for the blistering cold and the extreme heat.
what i'm watchin'
Okay so who is caught up on the Mindy Project? Admittedly, a few of us - including myself - fell off the bandwagon when the show switched from being on Fox to Hulu for season 4. The tone of the show also took a turn and was more of a drama than a sitcom, and we saw characters like Danny play less of a main role on the show. BUT despite my slightly broken heart from all these changes, my love for Mindy Kaling (and Lahiri) is deep, and although the ethos of the show is undeniably different, I am forever saved by Morgan Tookers and the brilliant writing that the show delivers each week.
With SPECIAL mention to the super woke fantasy episode called White Mindy. The scene is set when a few of the doctors in the practice are vying for a head of the OB department in the hospital, and during her interview Mindy realizes that everyone on the panel interviewing her is a white man. They question her capability for being female and of course being a single mom. Fast forward, she isn't called back for a second interview, but her co-worker Jody, with almost identical credentials, but is a white man does. She goes to bed that night, feeling defeated and wishing she were a white man.
Which she wakes up as. In the body of Ryan Hansen - most famously known for his character as Dick Casablancas on one of my very favourite TV shows everrrr Veronica Mars. If you know Ryan Hansen, he's good looking without being painful to look at, he's charming, tall, and pretty much exactly what Mindy thinks she would look like if she were a white man. Everything from his gestures to the images in the opening credits are replaced with him, and it's hilariously accurate.
She realizes that her life as a white man is different, the staff at her practice aren't annoyed by her jokes, they pay him more attention, and was even invited for a second interview for the head of OB position despite the fact that her white male version of himself is a divorcée baby daddy with THREE kids. Not being asked the same types of questions that Mindy was asked in her interview, they offer him the job on the spot.
Anyway, with a few other small side stories in the episode that I'll spare explaining to you because I dooo want you to watch it after all - this episode, while far fetched - depicts the realities of racism, sexism, elitism and privilege even in the work place. Her white male character says of this, "you start wondering why other people don't just help themselves because you think life is just as easy for everyone else." Profound and, well, accurate.
It's such a brilliantly written and light-hearted depiction of how the world often works, and it's so great to have writers and entertainers like Mindy to show that. And just like that, I'm fully back on the bandwagon.
Aaaaand that's all she wrote, folks✌🏾.