So I have written this poem. The only problem is that I cannot come up with a good title that fits. A title sometimes can make or break a piece of art. I have forgone seeing a moving based on the title alone. Case in point, "Love and a Bullet." I mean really! What were they thinking with that title. Who would want to see something called Love and a Bullet? Poor Treach. Okay, granted, there were a whole lot of things wrong with that movie, but the title sure did not help. With that said, I am stuck on a title for this poem that I just finished. I really want to publish it but blah. It will have to wait until the appropriate title hits me. It is particularly important to get the title right in a short piece because the title then becomes part of the story itself. So, no title, not poem for me tonight.

Things are supposed to be lite. My life is supposed to be lite and lively and drama free. That is definitely easier said than done sometimes, especially when there are screaming kids around, a messy house, guests coming, stress full job, loneliness, mourning and well, just life’s ups and downs. I like to keep focus on the things that make me happy and keep my stress level low. What are those things? If I have to ask myself, then clearly I am not engaging in them enough or making enough time for them. So tonight, when my shoulders are tense and my heart is heavy, I decided to engage in one of those things that bring me joy- writing. For me, writing is a quick and easy way to get a load of crap off my chest. I am amazed at words on paper; I love them. So, I am writing this little quick post to cathartirize (I am well aware that’s not a word but I really wanted to impress upon the readers how cathartic writing is for me LOL) my emotions. Freeing myself and my mind of the things that s...

If you do not already know by now then here it is again: I love everything in entertainment from movies, to books, plays, music, television, dancing and anything else that falls within the creative realm of our abilities. I think the ability to create art is a divine (the ability, not what is necessarily created all the time lol) gift that brings us closer to the image of our maker. I am fascinated by it and thankful that I have a little part in it through my writing. Consequently, my love for what we are able to do prompted me to start Parlez Entertainment six years ago. With that said, it takes me a while to actually pick what stories of the day I want to blog about. So much of what is out there is just crap gossip. I realize that if I publish every crap gossip story that I see out there, my readership would probably shoot up, and I used to publish a great deal of crap gossip story. I think now my crap tolerance has been duly tested and is quite low. I have no problem blogging about ...

I believe an explanation is in order. Why am I off hiatus? Well, at this point, I don’t know that I am really off. It’s just that I am on spring break from school and have a little more time on my hands and, basically, I miss Parlez Entertainment. Also, I hate publishing in two places. It makes me feel fragmented. Which is why I am adding Spiritually Speaking to my regular writings on Parlez Entertainment. www.asjesuswalked.com is great but it is only one side of me. I feel that I cannot earnestly be as God wants me to be if I ignore who I am as a whole person. I cannot break off myself into the “Christian Wanda” who seems as if she doesn’t do wrong and the “worldly Wanda” who seems to be always missing the mark. The only thing I can do is be me. The Wanda who is struggling everyday to be a better person (as hokey and dorky and corny as it sounds) and the person God wants me to be. So, criticize me if you want, talk about me if you want or whatever … the only thing I can say is that ...

I have never done this. I started Parlez Entertainment in June 2003 for fun because I am sort of an entertainment junky . Since then it has morphed into many different forms. A defunct -one-issue magazine, a website, a blog, and a radio show (over 40,000 downloads now). It has been forever changing but always there. Well, Parlez Entertainment will still be here. I may come in and do a radio show now and then or post a quick thought, but that would be about it. There are other areas in my life that need focus. I realize that I am being called into another direction that I have been avoiding for years and I can no longer avoid it. I have no idea where this path is going to lead me but I am going to follow it because I no longer have a choice. Along with that, I have to prioritize certain things in my life, and as much I love Parlez Entertainment and everything in entertainment, they will have to take a back seat for a little while. Lord, help me! I don't even know if I can do it. ...

I have to say that I have been feeling down in the dumps lately. Emotionally, mentally, and physically I just have not had the energy level that I did about a week back. It is almost as though my mind went on pause. You know when you look at your life and think about where you are at, it somewhat stops you when you make a comparison to what you want out of life. I am having that moment when I look at what my dreams are and how far off I am too accomplishing them. I know that I am not even remotely close. That gives me pause for a moment. Maybe I am trying to take it all in. I am not sure. Part of me knows that I am trying to formulate a plan that will work. So far, my plans have been misses. However, I figure, it is okay to pause. That does not mean I am stopping or giving up. I am just taking some time out to put things into perspective and appreciate the life that I do have. I will be out of this funk before I even know it.

So, I am part of a reading and writing discussion group moderated by the owner or www.apooo.org , and sometimes these topics come up that I think are really good. So, I post them. Here is a link to this article What Happened to the Great African American Author? I obviously do not agree with everything this chick had to say. I may be wrong but that is my opinion. You should read the article before looking at my comments below. ----------------------------------------------- "Are we so used to salacious gossip that it has become literature? " -- Uh, yea! Duh. Not only Black folk but everyone everywhere. I'm not saying it is right but it is what it is. "There are few great examples of African American literary authors on bookstore shelves. " --I disagree. There is a variety. It may not be the type of variety some would like but a variety none the less. There are still good books by AA of the shelves. They may not be literary but they are not all street lit either...

P. Diddy is unforgivable and so is everyone else that buys into the "wider audience" or "mainstream" hype. So, I noticed that in Diddy's ad campaign for his new fragrance that he is surrounded by beautiful models and not one sister girl of significant hue (that I would notice is a sister girlf) is anywhere is the ad. Then I got an e-mail that highlighted the same thing. E-mail: -------------------------------------------- Subject: FW: P Diddy's Unforgivable DON'T BUY P DIDDY' S UNFORGIVABLE COLOGNE, SEE BELOW AS TO WHY: PASS ITALONG! BLACK MODELS NEED NOT APPLY FOR UNFORGIVABLE AD CAMPAIGN" P. Diddy's "Unforgivable," male cologne campaign only featured non-black women. Mainly White women, European women and Latino women were featured in these ads. I've seen the ads for his new campaign"Unforgivable Woman," and guess what? The same marketing strategy is at play. Not one Black model is in any of the print ads or commerc...

There is a reason why I do not go to the movies as often as I once did before I had my two wonderful children, and I was painfully reminded of it last weekend when I attempted to see a movie. My husband and I usually go to the first showing of a movie that has been out for a little while. This way there will hardly be anyone in the theater and our kids can have a little more freedom to act like children especially when it is something they are not interested in. Last weekend, that was the plan. We went to a 1:00 pm showing of the Bourne Ultimatum , knowing that our kids were not going to pay much attention but they would have room to goof around. Well, the theater was practically packed. Okay, fine. We found descent seats where no one was sitting in front of us, so far so good. Then an older couple came in and took the seats we were hoping would stay empty. This was bad. My son had to go to the bathroom (not really) about two times already and it wasn’t even 20 minutes into the movie. ...

I started reading the summer before I went to the seventh grade. I have no idea what got into me because I absolutely hated reading prior to that time. My cousins and other family members tried to get me involved in reading but I just was not buying it. Then I picked up a young adult romance novel. It was a wrap. After that I read every romance book I could get my hands on- Sweet Valley High, V. C. Andrews, Harlequin. You name it I read it. Then when I got to college, I discovered African American authors, starting with Beverly Jenkins. I was like a kid in an amusement park. I did not know what to do with myself. I actually made a habit of visiting my local library. I am still an avid reader even though I do not get to read as much as I would like; however my approach is different. I used to read by author. That is how I read all of Eric Jerome Dickey , Beverly Jenkins , Johanna Lindsey , Omar Tyree , and several other authors' earlier works. I would stick with that author until I ...

So, there is a boycott going on against VH1 (this is a VH1 discussion board, scroll down for Eurweb articl) because of the negative ways in which Black women are portrayed on the network. I will be totally honest, when I first heard about this, I rolled my eyes and kept on moving. I thought that it was some hypocritical bull to boycott VH1 because when the shows were airing no one called for a boycott. When they kept on pimping Flava Flave's mug, no one called for a boycott. Then came I Love New York . Personally, I watched the shows once and couldn't take it beyond that; however, I know plenty of people who loved to watch VH1 ghettofied. Of course, I took it a step further and thought that no one called for a boycott of BET, MTV, VH1, Def Jam, Interscope, Virgin, and any other parties responsible for perpetuating negative images of women, Black women, and Black people. Like I said, I just kept it moving. However, for the purposes of this blog, I thought I would at least rea...

Do you ever get to a point when you sit back and wonder what are you doing with your life or where the heck is it going? More often than not, I feel that way. I am doing my daily thing and living life and loving it but then I stop and wonder what more is in store for me. Of course, I have a plan but there is a point when I need to reevaluate the course of the plan. Now for some of you, if you want to make something happen in your life, it is not enough to just talk about it. If you don't already have a list of goals written down then get to it. Don't sit here wasting valuable time by simply wishing things were different. I love a good daydream but, let's face it, no amount of wishing and dreaming is going to allow you to reach your goals any sooner. You have to take action and that action starts with having goals that have been thought out and written down. With that said, your goals can be as spectacular or as minor as you need them to be. It could be as simple as wanting ...

Can you imagine … getting up in the morning, following your normal morning routine, going to work, then finishing out your day and looking forward to getting home. Then all of a sudden everything changes. What you only imagined or you only see on television actually happens to you. One minute you are riding along listening to your favorite song, or telling your kids to pipe it down, or just mentally planning your evening and the next you are on a collapsed bridge with cars falling below into water and destruction. That is what happened to everyday folks in Minneapolis yesterday evening. The whole thing makes my woes inconsequential when you think about the devastation that those people have to face, some lost their lives, some are hurt, and others narrowly escaped but not without pain. Looking forward to the future, it is hard to imagine how those individuals will ever brave a bridge again. I only heard about it and had palpations on my way to work today when I had to cross over a brid...

It is hard to sit and write or talk about the fun, mind-numbing entertainment stuff this week for me when I feel so blah. That is really the best way to describe it. I just feel blah. I am not quite depressed but I am not my usual happy, cheery self. Why? Well, to be honest, I am not absolutely positive although I have an idea. Don’t you ever feel that way? Even if things are great in your life, you just feel a little out of sorts. One can try to pin point the exact reason but fails at coming up with just one thing. It seems that in life, there can be so many little things that start to pile up until they become almost unbearable which causes a person to feel out of sorts. In this case, searching for that one thing that is wrong just won’t work. So, how can the blah feeling change? Should we wait until it disappears on it’s own? If you hare a proactive person like myself, that may be difficult to do. I would like to take steps to resolve whatever it is so I can get back to being myself...

Why Write? As you all know, I call myself a writer. Yes, I am a starving artist ... well, not technically. I am not really starving. Well, I might be a little hungry right now but that's because I am too lazy to go to the kitchen. I have a pretty good day job that I absolutely love and a hubby who would die before I starve, so I'm good. However, if I were to try to live off of my writing, I would be wasting away in my card board box that I call home, panhandling for my next meal. Yet, I am still a writer and here is why ... It is 2:05 a.m. and instead of sleeping, I crawled out of my bed, turned on my computer and started typing. What is wrong with me? Oh, it gets worse. During the day all I can think about is carving out some time to work on my novel. It is a good thing that people can't peer into my head because they would get really ticked off at me. Everything that happens to me and by extension to the people that are around me is a potential story. It does not matter ...

MTV Movie Awards 2007 The MTV Movie awards aired yesterday, June 3, 2007, and there are no words for how boring it was. Sarah Silverman was a mediocre host and save for the few laughs from a couple of highlights the show was a snoozer. My recap is just touching base on things that I feel are worth mentioning and in no particular order or anything. I barely registered the winners. However if you are looking for a list … well here it is: Best Movie 300 Blades of Glory Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Little Miss Sunshine Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Best Performance Gerard Butler, 300 Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Keira Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls Beyoncé Knowles, Dreamgirls Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness Breakthrough Performance Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine Lena Headey, 300 Columbus ...

Crazy E-mails So, I will be the first to let you know that I hate forwards. I hardly read any of them but on occasion the mood will strike me. Now, I have rules to reading forwards. I don't read them if they are long. Once I open them up and see that they are more than five lines, it's an automatic delete. If have have to down load something or click on another link, I delete those too. I am almost always willing to look at pictures. With that said, I will be periodically sharing some of the crazy pictures that my friends forward me. I got on recently with pictures of houses in the weirdest places. I have no idea if these are true or photoshop manipulated, but they are still crazy. So, where does all the crap go? It can't be safe for the tree, right. One day lightning will strike and it's all over. I'm saying, how do they heat the house up? A girl like me, wouldn't be vacationing there as cool (no pun intended lol) as it looks.

I actually wrote this on May 30, 2007. So, today I am at this radiation training and I was a little late getting here because I followed the Mapquest directions and got a little lost. Sometimes they include things in that do not need to be there and only causes confusion. I am not to crazy about Mapquest sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I love that I can hop on my computer and pull directions to anywhere in the US by simple clicks here and there; however, the bottom line is that no one likes to get lost when they think they are going on the right path. Putting that all aside, I am writing because I realize that I really need to start writing in my journal again. I feel like I have so much to say sometime. The unfortunate truth is that I think I just get lazy. That is the best and only way to put it. I have not been in the best of moods lately because I can't seem to find the time to finish my current book and work on my other writing projects. The only time I actually find to write i...

I am just too grateful! Sometimes, you go through things in life and, you have no idea why you are going through them. In fact, you even wonder, "Why me? Why are all these things happening to me?" I used to ask myself that question but now I put a different spin on it. Instead of why me, I ask, "What am I supposed to learn from this experience?" I know that sounds a little corny but it has to be better than crying about why me. Anyway, I have recently claimed 2007 as the year of change. It is going to be a great year for me. Although 2006 had some great times, it was a pretty rough year for me overall. I figure 2007 has to be better, and not only that, but it is going to be great. To that, things seemed to be falling in place for that to happen. Then, I got into a car wreck. I am okay but my car didn't fare so well. It’s a total loss. Of course this doesn’t go in line with how much 2007 is going to be a great year for me. Still, I am trying to learn from this si...

New Show? I really should be doing another show right about now because there are so many things to discuss like what the heck happened with American Idol , what's going on with General Hospital , the search for the new Pussycat Doll and so many other things. It is such a shame that time is pressing and I can't get to it. It would also be nice to finish the latest book I have been working on. It is the only thing on my mind lately but still I just can't seem to get to it. Not that it is a major big deal because no one is waiting to rush it to the presses, unfortunately. It is something I would like to finish and start editing and eventually submit it to publishers and agents. Yes, I am going to go through that whole process again. Why? Well because I need to. I don't even know if that makes any sense but for me it is something that I have to do. Don't get me wrong. Going through the rejections and waiting will not be fun for me at all but I think I need to face tha...