Erykah Badu, I’ve said on many occasions, is on some other stuff. In a day where artists have to pull out all the stops to make a big impact on the charts, (think Usher “Confessions”, 2004) where there just HAS to be a big story before the release of the album. He and Chili (formerly of TLC) had the huge breakup and the cheating story which we ALL thought was the inspiration of the album, which went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide (and probably his BEST album to date). There have been countless stories of the sort since then. Sooooo, Erykah has created one of the same stories in which she films a guerilla-style video for her lead single for “Window Seat (From “Nu Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh”), where she strips naked, no permits, in downtown Dallas, at the site where JFK was assassinated (Dealey Plaza). The video is released two days before her album was released, then pulled from You Tube…and everywhere else! Well, I’m here to tell you, the ONLY place you can find the video now is on her official website, www.erykahbadu.com….I’m just sayin’…MARKETING GENIUS!!!

In over 25 years of living in the State of North Carolina…Washington, D.C. born, but the Carolinas I proudly call ‘home’, I literally stayed glued to the television(as I’m sure many of you were), trying to stay informed, and at the same time doing a WHOLE LOT OF PRAYING….as some of the worst weather likely tested both our fears and faith over the weekend. Honestly being the sport nut that I am, I was in the middle of watching the remaining NCAA Basketball Tournament games, when the local news affliate interrupted programming to discuss the threat of impending weather. At first I really didn’t pay it much mind, giving…at the time…it was a mostly cloudy afternoon and most of the weather reports I had heard during the early half of the week just called for another/typical cloudy afternoon with scattered showers and a possible thunderstorm.

But that soon all changed when ALL of the local television networks broke in during their regular programming to talk about the possibility of severe, even threatening weather heading in our direction. It was then that I started to pay a little more attention to the current situation, and ended up getting very little sleep as the t.v. stations continued with several hours of pin-pointing where the storms were gonna hit and around what time.

Although I wasn’t directly affected(living in Winston-Salem where most of my family and friends are also located), I began thinking about, especially co-workers living in the areas that were greatly affected…Davidson and Guilford counties and in particular High Point that took a pounding from what later was confirmed as TWO tornadoes and storms that ripped through homes(destroying so many in its path), and dumping heavy amounts of rain and hail….that fact that NOT ONE fatality was reported is truly amazing and can only be the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

We as a community can rebuild our homes..but we can’t bring back a life! In closing, what a blessing the rest of this week will bring..absolutely gorgeous weather going into our Easter holiday weekend, and no doubt, prayers of ‘thanks’ at the many upcoming Sunrise services that will take place…and may we all keep the families who were displaced in our everyday thoughts and prayers…as this storm too….shall pass!

What does dating mean to you? It sounds like such a simple question but yet we seem to make it difficult. Some people look at dating as having a variety of different relationships with no real expectations. Keeping things light and no real boundaries. Probably in the urban community dating is almost exclusively one on one until  recent years. Of course there’s some exceptions but on the whole we don’t openly casual date. Maybe that’s the problem with urban relationships. We don’t think outside the box when it comes to relationships. Maybe if more people would date a variety of people casually it would take some of the pressure off. Maybe it would give you a real good look at the person for who they are and not what they can provide  for you. I know for me with the dating nightmares I put myself in I could probably benefit from slowing down and dating casual. Dating doesn’t mean your sleeping around either. Just getting to know each other with zero expectations and if things happen we handle it as adults.No matter what side of the fence your on when it comes to dating just make sure your honest to eachother about what you want from eachother. Sounds simply enough right? RIGHT! So….What is dating to you?

CHANGE is an inevitable factor of everyday life. Your breathing changes from one breath to the next. Each step you take is a CHANGE from the step before. Well, CHANGE has come to 97.1QMG and I am blessed to be part of that CHANGE. Radio and music has paid the bills for all of my adult life, and to be able to still do what I love doing is a real blessing. I have experienced a storm of changes over the past year, from losing my job, my father and 3 of my best “radio friends. And now CHANGE has brought me back to the place where I enjoyed my best radio days. As I thanked God for the wonderful opportunity to come back home to work among family and friends, I asked Him for even better days ahead. With all the changes life has allowed me to experience, I’m gonna enjoy this one most. There’s no place like home.

Dude’s got some moves!!!

In a brief re-cap of the Tom Joyner Morning Show from this past Monday…March 22nd the TJMS was joined by Johnathan Rogers of TV One to highlight a new season of  the original bio series  “UnSung”…a visual ‘where are they’ now artists that included Rose Royce and Stacey Lattisaw just to name a few! Of course Jay Anthony Brown with his comedic timing suggested a future show on Disco King/Queen(depending on the day of the week..lol…) Slyvester, who had that infamous disco hit..”You Make Me Feel(Mighty Real)”….Sylvester James used only is first name professionally(by the way)…

Well sure enough as our production guru(s) are accustomed to taking a musical cue, started playing that song in the background as Jay and Tom initially started singing it accapella…thank God the REAL song saved us from hearing Tom and Jay’s version(sorry guys):)  but nonetheless the song not only stuck in my mind throughout the rest of the morning..I just had to see a video version…which I found(although quite grainey and out of focus on YouTube), and taken a back(just a bit) of how hard folk used to party at the club(s) back in the day!

What memories indeed..and if you’re bold enough to admit and even share some of your disco faves from back in the day, please don’t be shy…I’m just sayin’~~***WARNING!!!….Beware of a whole lot of booty shaking going on, and is for the grown and sexy only!!

Am I the only one STILL a little off track from daylight saving time! It really all started after one of the best Old School parties with Chuck Brown(Saturday night) and then reporting for radio duty early Sunday morning, all while turning the clock AHEAD one hour before getting off the air at 6am….or was it REALLY 7am!?! Well the practice of DST(daylight saving time) is to temporarily advance our clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and the mornings have less, but did you know there’s also some controversy tied in to this practice….adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunight after working hours, but also causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.

So how did DST come about? Well…during his time as an American envoy(which nowadays we likely refer to as an Ambassador) to France, Benjamin Franklin, author of the proverb…’Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise’, published a letter(excluding his name of course) suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight…All I can say to that is thanks Ben, as I will be trying to catch that lost hour of sleep between now and when we turn those clocks ‘back’ one hour come fall…I’m just sayin!!

For those of you (happily) married to your one true love…I dedicate this blog to you! I shared this story Friday morning on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and was just estatic to read that the world’s longest marriage on record belongs to a wonderful couple from New Bern, North Carolina..NC represent:) They are 104-year-old Herbert and his beautiful wife of 85 years, 101-year-old Zelmyra Fisher…in fact come May 13th, the happy couple would celebrate their 86th wedding anniversary…God Bless’em and I hope they indeed live to see it and celebrate with family and friends! The were married in 1924 and just THIS past Valentine’s Day were on Twitter sharing their love and longevity of marriage to other couples. The lovely couple credits their marital success to their faith in God, a loving family, and a few big fusses over being married for such a long period of time! What a beautiful story to pass along to all of us who have ‘loved’ that special someone!!

It’s high time we stop giving an audience to people who “Cry Out for Attention”. By that, I mean people who do things to shock us…things to hurt others, just to bring attention to themselves. We have to decide once and for all that we are NOT going to give them an audience. If we all join together, maybe they’ll get the message and learn that these kinds of things won’t be tolerated. You know what ‘things’ I’m talking about. When people make racial comments in the media, say that recent Oscar nominees are ‘fat’ (as if they don’t have a mirror), etc. When you hear any of these things, KNOW that people like this are just crying out for attention. You’ve heard the story of the boy who cried wolf. I’m just sayin’…..

This week I came across an article about two individuals(both women) who lived to be well into their 100’s…one was 114 and the other was 113, and both lived in New Hampshire. Reading this got me to thinking what exactly is contributing to our longevity..for some prayer is such a powerful everyday action, or not smoking or drinking or other vices that seem to shorten life. For me personally the oldest person who was filled with such wisdom and much love was my 96-year old Grandmother. Who’s the oldest living relative in your families and if you were able to live to the ages of the two Women mentioned earlier in this blog, what would or could you do to add those extra years of life and even become living known history within your own family?