I made some shots in the last weeks – please tell me what you think:
from: Pajackoks Blog
Jameels Blog
Curts Site
LOS ANGELES — Three Los Angeles elementary school teachers
accused of giving children portraits of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and
RuPaul to carry in a Black History Month parade have been removed from
their classrooms, a school district spokeswoman said Wednesday.
View full sizeA photo of RuPaul, seen here in a 2001 publicity still from a television appearance, was among the photos carried by students in a Los Angeles classroom during a Black History Month parade. School officials said 3 teachers were removed from their classes after some of the black Americans featured in the parade were deemed to be inappropriate and a mockery of the event.
Children
from other classes at the school displayed photos of more appropriate
black role models, such as Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman and President
Barack Obama, Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle
Pollard-Terry said.
The incident occurred Friday at Wadsworth
Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles, where the student body
is more than 90 percent Latino.
District Superintendent Ramon
Cortines placed the teachers — all white men who teach first, second
and fourth grades — on administrative leave on Tuesday while an
investigation is conducted, Pollard-Terry said.
“The superintendent will not let anyone make a mockery out of Black History Month,” she said.
The
issue was brought to district officials' attention by the Los Angeles
chapter of the NAACP after the organization received a complaint early
Monday, chapter President Leon Jenkins said.
Jenkins said he felt the teachers acted in concert to mock black heroes and children's innocence.
“These
are not the people we want our young people to emulate or believe these
people represent the best of the African-American community,” Jenkins
said. “It's hard for the NAACP to believe this was a mistake.”
Simpson,
a former NFL star, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for robbery
and kidnapping. He was famously acquitted in 1995 of murdering his
ex-wife and her friend.
RuPaul is a drag queen performer. Rodman,
a former NBA star, has gained notoriety for bad boy behavior on and off
the basketball court.
Some parents at the school on Wednesday said the issue was overblown.
Sharon
Tinson, who has two daughters at the school and attended Friday's
celebration, said she had been surprised to see Simpson displayed in
the parade. But she noted that Simpson, like Rodman, was a great
athlete before falling from grace. RuPaul simply has an alternative
lifestyle, she added.
She noted the event also included a tribute to pop singer Michael Jackson, who has also had a checkered career.
“I kind of laughed at it,” Tinson said. “I wasn't offended.”
Gabriel Blackson, whose son attends the school, said he also took a larger view of the ruckus.
“These
guys were heroes before. People make mistakes,” he said. “I think they
show kids they can be somebody, to push them to be somebody.”
Jenkins said he is calling for the teachers to be fired.
(Associated Press Writer Christina Hoag authored this report.)
@Fruzion I have to agree. I owned a slider (a Samsung Rant) as a personal phone, and it was a nice phone. But the freezing up, the lack of a good screen and the fact that it was a near-smartphone (a.k.a dumbphone w/better features) meant that things didn't just work. The Bolt Browser was a pain to use on the Rant; it was also hard to use on the WinMo phones my former job provided to me for business. And the WinMo phones, while beautiful because of their flexibility in app use, often just didn't work (unlike my Vista-based laptop which, despite all the hate for Vista, just does the job).
I've toyed with Android phones; most are just plain ugly (save for anything from HTC that isn't called G1 or Nexus One; they are the bomb in terms of design). The apps are cool, but I don't use many apps save for Bolt, Wordpress and UberTwitter; most of the apps are just toys to me and sort of meaningless (and the key word here, is for me; I greatly appreciate how others are in love with apps). The iPhone always seemed more show pony than workhorse to me (I also hated the lack of cut/copy-and-paste). As for the Pre: Undoubtedly beautiful, but the keyboard just plain sucks; the keys are way to small for even my long, thin piano-player fingers.
The Curve, which I just got two weeks ago, is the atomic bomb. The design is sexy but not fussy; the keyboard is great for one- or two-hand typing; the screen is neither too big nor too small for my tastes; and the OS works like a business-oriented phone OS is supposed to work. I haven't been this excited about a smartphone ever (and I even considered buying a Pre and an iPhone when each initially came out) — and haven't been as excited about a phone since I got the Rant (which, among the feature phones, remains better than the Rumor/Exclaim crap out there).
The browser needs work (this is why I have Bolt) and I do wish RIM would allow for apps to embed on the MicroSD instead of the phone (better memory allocation). And I can understand why some would want RIM to push for more app development and redesign the UI (the OS is perfect). But RIM isn't meant for fun. It's for getting things done. Fun is why I own a Flip Mono, an iRiver, an iPod Touch and an XBox 360.
LOS ANGELES, March 4 — Today, Essence.com audiences will have the chance to experience what happens when the best and brightest of Black Women in Hollywood come together to celebrate the legendary achievements of some of the greatest American actresses of our times during Oscar Week. Featured exclusively on ESSENCE.com, the third annual ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood luncheon, being held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, will honor Hollywood royalty such as: Cicely Tyson (Legend Award); break-out star Gabourey Sidibe (Best Breakthrough Performance); versatile A-Lister Queen Latifah (Power Award); Tinseltown darling Zoe Saldana (Star to Watch Award); and Hip-Hop turned starlet, Mary J. Blige (Songstress of the Year). You will only find complete coverage of this star-studded event honoring the 40th Anniversary of ESSENCE magazine on http://www.essence.com/. Today Essence.com will upload images live from the red carpet starting at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time / 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time — with additional red carpet video tonight.
Essence.com will also feature exclusive glitterati shots from the red carpet of celebrity attendees including: Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Steve Harvey and more. The audience can find live updates from the parties, after-parties and behind-the-scene peeks of the event on Twitter at Twitter.com/essenceonline. Viewers can also stay on the pulse with minute-to-minute coverage from the party at essence.com/entertainment.
Sponsors for the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon include presenting sponsor Lincoln, as well as partner sponsors COVERGIRL Queen Collection and MasterCard Worldwide. The ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon is also supported by Moet & Chandon.
About Essence Communications Inc.:
Essence Communications Inc. (ECI) is the number one media and communications company dedicated to African-American women. With a multi-platform presence in publishing, live events, and online, the Essence brand is "Where Black Women Come First". The company's flagship publication, ESSENCE magazine, is the preeminent lifestyle magazine for African-American women; generating brand extensions such as the Essence Music Festival, ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood, Window on Our Women (WOW I & II) and Smart Beauty I, II & III consumer insights, the Essence Book Club, Essence.com, and ventures in digital media (mobile, television and VOD). For 40 years, ESSENCE, which has a brand reach of over 8 million, has been the leading source of cutting-edge information relating to every area of African-American women's lives. Additional information about ECI and ESSENCE is available at Essence.com.
About Essence.com:
Essence.com is the daily online destination for African-American women that informs, entertains and connects. The expansive web destination delivers daily fresh content, engaging blogs, robust photo galleries, a substantial online community and original video programming across four channels that include: News & Entertainment, Fashion & Beauty, Relationships and Lifestyle. Essence.com is currently the largest and fastest growing African-American magazine website. The site's growth is unsurpassed and reaches more than a million monthly unique visitors. The new Essence.com launched in September 2008 as one of the first projects to come from the partnership between The Warner Bros. Television Group and Time Inc.'s Essence Communications Inc.
Source: ESSENCE magazine
CONTACT: Dana Baxter, +1-212-522-1634, dbaxter@essence.com; or Sheila
Harris, +1-212-522-1089, sharris@essence.com, both of ESSENCE magazine
Web Site: http://www.essence.com/