KerriEstella: Just So You Know

Miley, what? You’re doing so—what? What is...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:28:09 -0400

Miley, what? You’re doing so—what? What is thi— what?

Miley Cyrus conducted a focus group about all of the things nobody ever wanted to see her do and then based her “We Can’t Stop” video around the answers.

We get it, Miley. You’re grown now. So stop. Kay? Please?

Monk is definitively the best show ever created. That is a fact...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:24:50 -0400

Monk is definitively the best show ever created.

That is a fact and my opinion.

A perfect blend of murder mystery, police procedural and comedy, Monk has everything I could ever want in a tv show.

Castle is my replacement show in this loose genre but I find myself sitting up at night, weeping for Tony Shalhoub in my sleep.

Random thought of the day. You’re welcome.

Monday night. #PassionPit #theNational #rva #Snapseed

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:20:04 -0400

Monday night. #PassionPit #theNational #rva #Snapseed

Today is Memorial Day in the US. The whole team took the day off...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:43:36 -0400

Today is Memorial Day in the US. The whole team took the day off and the city is asleep, which is so rare it’s very interesting. Everyone left for a long weekend, but I felt like staying and enjoying the city. Walking in the quiet streets like Saada in the picture. Or going to take a dive in one of the city’s swimming pools, because it is finally beautifully sunny out!

But wait, let’s talk about fashion for two minutes, cause fashion never sleeps it seems, do you guys see what I see? A jacket tied around the waist? Long time no see, right? What do you think?

Repost from the ever-lovely Garance Dore.

Cover Girl Go to the mailbox one day. Discover your mother is...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 20:27:24 -0400

Cover Girl

Go to the mailbox one day. Discover your mother is America’s Next Top Model.

Find out more about…

View Post

So...Who Are You, Anyway?

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:31:52 -0400

I’ve got to applaud you. If you’ve been following my adventures here, it is very possible that you...

(via Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining...

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:14:25 -0400

(via Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining way)

Start your Friday off right.

Go to your computer and get your #vote on! The lovely lady of...

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:28:27 -0400

Go to your computer and get your #vote on! The lovely lady of #Palaceburn, @meredithbellmusic is a hell of a #singer, representing #Philly by way of #RVA. Send this girl to #AfroPunk this summer!

popculturebrain: Google Doodle: Saul Bass

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:48:28 -0400

popculturebrain:

Google Doodle: Saul Bass

Number two, y’all! I am officially waiting for...

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:38:26 -0400

Number two, y’all!

I am officially waiting for Disclosure’s debut album, Settle. Just a couple of days ago I was maxin’ and relaxin’, just living my life waiting for The Great Gatsby to hit theatres, and then BOOM, I heard of Disclosure and BOOM, “You & Me (featuring Eliza Doolittle)” is my new favorite song.

The video makes me miss being young, broke and in love. Well, maybe not. Being youngish, bills-paid and in love is much better.

“You & Me”, Disclosure feat. Eliza Doolittle

I’m going to start you off with a little something that I...

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:24:13 -0400

I’m going to start you off with a little something that I KNOW you have got to know by now.

My soul sisters, Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu, have gotten together and thrown me a little sonic party. Heavy on the bass and as Janelle says, “serving face.”

Honestly, this song is the only way I can imagine starting a party. You know the booty don’t lie.

“Q.U.E.E.N.”, Janelle Monae featuring Erykah Badu

FRIDAY dANCE PARTAYYYYY

Fri, 03 May 2013 09:26:45 -0400

All day I will be blogging my new favorite videos. The ones that made me wiggle in my chair and want...

Chris Kelly of 90’s best group ever, Kris Kross, is dead...

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:39:00 -0400

Chris Kelly of 90’s best group ever, Kris Kross, is dead at age 34.

I honestly can’t tell you what a huge part of my childhood Kris Kross was.

Kelly, the browner of the two, was my personal favorite. I had the biiiigggggest crush on him— so much so that I went out of my way to emulate his inimitable backwards style. O_O (There are pictures somewhere.)

Chris Kelly, RIP.

Chris Kelly Dead at 34.

brofiling: white privilege radically changes the appearance of...

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:50:45 -0400

brofiling:

white privilege radically changes the appearance of Tsarnaev bros

This is how brofiling actually works in real life. The Week Magazine ran with this image as their cover sketch.

Just so it is said, clearly and unambiguously: the Tsarnaev brothers are white guys. They are white. The FBI’s own wanted poster for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lists his race as “white”, but you would never know it from the cover image on The Week.

Hold up the cover to someone else, and ask them how many white people they can see on the cover. Chances are they will identify Gabby Giffords on the top left and the image of the Boston policemen (all white men) on the top right, but how about those two guys in the center? Nope, not a chance that anyone would say these caricatures look white.

Why? Because in addition to being white they are also “Muslim”, which is the current dehumanizing “Other” label that whiteness has constructed as a sanctioned target for violence in US popular culture.

This is how white privilege works in media representations and everyday life: when the criminal suspects are demonstrably white men, seize upon any aspect of difference and magnify it such that they become Othered, non-white, and menacing. If it is too hard to do so, simply dismiss them as aberrations and isolated cases of insanity. This is also how white culture, specifically the process of whiteness in conjunction with white privilege, portrays several non-white identities, including those that are now considered white but at one time were decidedly not so. For example, see here for how the Irish were depicted as violent apes or lazy drunks in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Addendum, posted 4.29.13:

As Tim Wise said on April 18, there are consequences for these kinds of things. Here are a few reasons why this is important:

Making white criminals who are Muslim appear to be more ‘brown’ than ‘white’ has serious consequences for brown people. Indeed, as we saw right after the Boston bombings, people that simply “looked” brown and Muslim were profiled and assaulted. Two men were escorted off a plane in Boston simply for speaking Arabic and thereby somehow making passengers “uncomfortable”. A Bangladeshi man in NYC was beaten up because he looked ‘Arab’. And this affects women too: a Muslim woman doctor in Boston who wears a headscarf was attacked by a man while she was out walking with her baby. And the white Muslim wife of the older brother has been demonized for simply being a Muslim American woman, especially after Ann Coulter called for women who wear hijabs to be arrested.

People have pointed out to me that The Week Magazine’s cover images are regularly caricatures/sketches of the main events of that week’s news. I know this—I read their print edition every week, and all their previous cover images are available online. But there are two main problems with this argument: (a) why caricature them in a way that makes them so explicitly ‘darker’ and ‘Arabized’ in their appearance? Contrast the way they look on that page with the other white faces on that same page—would anyone say that these men look ‘white’? So why is the caricature done in such a ‘racializing’ way? How is this any different from the more overt media racism that was used by Time Magazine (h/t @sarahkendzior), for example, to make OJ Simpson appear way more menacing? And (b) if The Week is simply trying to put a caricature of criminals who committed mass violence on their cover, then here are the covers for the weeks when Newtown happened, when Aurora happened, and when Tucson happened — where were their ‘racialized’ caricatures of Adam Lanza, James Holmes, and Jared Loughner? How come the ideologies and ethnicities and religions of those particular mass criminals were not profiled?

And so here is the more subtle consequence: when white criminals are treated as if they are just aberrations, and when white criminals who are Muslim are portrayed as more brown than white not just by The Week but by mainstream propaganda outlets like Fox News, then the problems of white supremacist violence and extremism become hidden, unaddressed. When analyzed carefully, research has shown that right-wing extremism causes more deaths in America than “jihadist” groups. Also, of the terror attacks/plots since 1995 in America, 56% of them were by right-wing extremists and only 12% by Islamist/jihadist groups — and yet the DHS was told to back off reporting on that or on analyzing right-wing violence for fears of backlash from conservative political groups.

So, my main point is that such a deliberate ignorance hurts ALL people.

UPDATE 4/30/13: I discussed this on HuffPost Live

How often do you open your mailbox and one of the #models on the...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:54:44 -0400

How often do you open your mailbox and one of the #models on the #magazine is your #mother? I’m just like….#wow!

As close to #flowers as I’m going to get this season....

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:02:05 -0400

As close to #flowers as I’m going to get this season. #spring #fashion

rollingstone: Listen exclusively to De La Soul’s new single...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:50:13 -0400

rollingstone:

Listen exclusively to De La Soul’s new single “Get Away (feat. the Spirit of the Wu).”

Made With Paper

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:44:00 -0400

Made With Paper

“Sometimes you just need to squeeze a little...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:14:44 -0400

“Sometimes you just need to squeeze a little tighter.” Thoughts from my favorite instagrammer, @rubicantekid.

So Imma see you for Labor Day Weekend, amirite?!

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:40:00 -0400

So Imma see you for Labor Day Weekend, amirite?!