“I think I confuse people,” she says. “In this country, there is a bias against people who have a certain look or style. I have fought this all of my life. People only see this package, and it’s a tall and vocal package. So people think, Wait a minute, you can’t be this stylish and intelligent, too. I take people out of their comfort zone. At 50, I have learned who I am. I am not going to change who I am. But I will work hard to make people feel more comfortable. For me to change who I am would be the end of my soul. But I can keep this in consideration as I am talking, socializing, and enjoying other people.” Desirée Rogers [Chicago magazine]
No, it never was going to be easy, but someone needed to put creative sweat into this one, to reach for cinematic solutions to the theatrical challenge. All Perry does is force conventional plots and characters -- utter cliches without lives or souls -- into the fabric of Shange's literary work. The hackneyed melodramas get him from one poem to the next but run roughshod over the collective sense of who these women are.
Then, when Perry arrives at the next poetic passage, the switch in writing between him and Shange is jarringly pronounced. The words belong to different worlds. [Hollywood Reporter]
A Brilliant Catastrophe is a good thing by the way...
Meet Brian Slade, or @BSlade, the artist formerly known as Tonex. He caused quite a stir in the gospel music world when he came out of the closet and confirmed the rumors that always followed his career. Now that he is truly being himself, his music reflects that, brilliantly. He has released several mixtapes in the last year or so, but my favorite is his latest, A Brilliant Catastrophe. If you are old enough to remember the late, great Sylvester, brace yourself and listen to him tear up Sylvester's iconic disco jam, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). The video above is Slade's "Sylvester Screen Test," the ever hawt Get Over You. Don't be distracted by the B. Scott silky smoothness of his hair - and check out the run at minute 2:12! [Anovelista.com]
