Flashback Saturday

   I have been wanting to write about Lauren Hill for some time, but decided to wait until the time was right. As one who has respected her work and the way she carried herself as a woman, I wanted to give her a fair write up.

So many things have happened over the years that caused many people to question her sanity, her choices, and the fact that she appeared to have thrown away all of that natural talent.

Personally, I always have taken a different perspective on the Lauren Hill situation. Although I do believe that she at some point was horribly grief stricken and possibly even had a nervous breakdown, I’ve never viewed her as insane and on a certain level, I fully understand some of her peculiar behavior—at least peculiar to those looking on.

On 8/7/07 a reporter wrote regarding one of her concerts:

When Hill did make her entrance in front of an eleven-piece band and three backup singers, her face was heavily made up, but lovely. Her afro was the color of rust, and heavy jewelry dangled everywhere. She was overdressed for the heat in a long-sleeved ruffled blouse, oversized leather fringed vest, wide-legged plaid pants and platform shoes, almost as if she was mocking someone — maybe even herself. And the music sounded like Hill looked: They were her hit songs from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but played over unrecognizable reggae rhythms and Afro-beat ska arrangements. She sang the favorites the crowd came to hear, but fans couldn’t sing along because they didn’t know these melodies, and because, well, Hill wasn’t even singing. She was scatting and chanting and shuffling about. She performed an energetic rendition of Lost Ones fused with Bob Marley’s Natty Dread and then Final Hour melded with Peter Tosh’s Downpressor Man, and Zion blended with Marley’s Iron, Lion, Zion. Sometimes it sounded beautiful, sometimes it sounded like babble. Each song — upbeat, percussive basslines beneath Hill’s rough, repetitive chanting — was at least ten minutes long. The crowd sat in a collective stare, not quite sure what to make of it. source

Although she presently scats and chants through songs, it was not always that way. My first memory of this beautiful sister was when she sang, Joyful, Joyful   and then knocked the ball out of the park with His Eye is On the Sparrow   for the movie, Sister Act. After that, her career with the Fugees produced a string of hits. Then she collaborated with NAS, D’Angelo, Aretha Franklin and many others, each time showcasing her talents.

My favorite Lauren Hill song (which I still play on my way to work some mornings) is Can’t Take My Eyes off of You  The girl was bad. Every song she sang or rapped came to life like no other.

Little did anyone know that during her Fugees years, she made a mistake that so many women make. She failed to recognize her own worth. In short, she allowed herself to have an affair with a married man, Wyclef Jean   a member of her group. He was so low-class, that years later, he discussed the details openly in a magazine.  Lauren and Wyclef Jean

After leaving that bad, dead-end relationship, she made another horrible mistake by getting involved with Rohan Marley   who was rumored to have been married at the time to another woman. Of course he did not tell her of his marriage when he was persuing her. And her life spiralled downhill from there.

During those rocky years, Marley was rumored to have had an affair with and possibly even fathered a child with Hill’s cousin. I recall an Essence Magazine cover with her on it and the caption, “I’ve been to hell and back”. That sister was hurting. It could happen to any woman. She went through something, including disassociating herself from her family for awhile, having several children quickly, and making a strange CD that flopped terribly.

I don’t bad mouth Lauren Hill. I empathize with her. Most humans are in search of love. And although so many magazines write articles about her, questioning what happened, I believe it’s really nothing so deep. It’s a matter of a woman making unfortunate relationship choices, not knowing when or how to leave, and suffering the consequences thereof.

   People talk about her strange clothes as of late. They wonder why she wears coats in 90 degree weather. It’s clear as a bell to me.  People often mask pain by covering that pain up in some way. In her case, she is covering up by wearning clown makeup, big red wigs and too many clothes—strange looking clothes at that.

I have not given up on Lauren Hill. I love the woman she once was—full of life, beauty, talent, energy, promise, and a gorgeous voice. Yet, I’m also not ready to write her eulogy. An eternal optimist, I believe that she will emerge from the ashes unsinged. And I’ll be there with open arms to welcome her back.

Lauren Hill, you’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you…

    The year was 1969 and the date was July 20th. Neil Armstrong & company supposedly walked on the moon that today. Well folks, today is July 20, 2007 and yet not one major news outlet that I know of offered nary a blurb about this “great” event in history. Wonder why that may be?

Could it be because major news outlets would rather bury and forget about that pitiful hoax and black eye on America’s history? Or maybe it’s because important footage from the moon walk has mysteriously disappeared from NASA?

But just 37 years after Apollo 11, it is feared the magnetic tapes that recorded the first moon walk - beamed to the world via three tracking stations, including Parkes’s famous “Dish” - have gone missing at NASA’s Goddard Space Centre in Maryland.

A desperate search has begun amid concerns the tapes will disintegrate to dust before they can be found. Link, Link

Hmmm….the tapes may turn to dust before they can be found? How convenient for all concerned! And what a great way to permanently cover up a bad hoax.

Originally stored at Goddard, the tapes were moved in 1970 to the US National Archives. No one knows why, but in 1984 about 700 boxes of space flight tapes there were returned to Goddard.

“We have the documents to say they were withdrawn, but no one knows exactly where they went,” Mr Sarkissian said.

Many people involved had retired or died.

Also among tapes feared missing are the original recordings of the other five Apollo moon landings. Link

So we are to believe that those highly important tapes were allowed to be moved and that all of them are missing? Gee, they must really believe Americans are stupid.  Hoaxvideo

Filed under: Flashback; Smoke & mirrors

Today is July 18. This day marks the anniversary of the first publishing of Hitler’s infamous book, Mein Kampf. I remember reading that book when I was a senior in high school. What a twisted, psychotic, paranoid character Hitler was. I’m certain hell has never been the same since his arrival.

Ironically, in spite of his assertion that Aryans are the perfect race, he actually comes from stock that whites would view as “poor white trash”. In the U.S., he’d be a redneck and written off as a joke. Both his mother and grandmother were long rumored to be prostitutes. He was too dumb to finish high school and he could not get into a decent institution for higher learning. In short, he was an underbelly in every sense of the word. No wonder he never smiled.

There is  a theory (unproven at this point) that Hitler’s grandmother was  Jewish. That is a possibility. There are many diseased minds out here who hate their own people. Link

The words, Mein Kampf actually mean “my struggle” and though many people don’t realize this, Hitler did not physically write the book. He dictated it. He was too dumb to write anything. You have to understand that Hitler was a failure early in life.

^{Adolf Hitler dropped out of high school, and after his mother’s death in 1907 moved to Vienna. He twice failed the admission examination for the academy of arts. Link}

So basically Hitler was an ugly short, dumpy loser who was angry at the world for his own failures and who thought that he’d take his rage out on Jews and other people who did not fit his idealized version of perfection. In the eyes of that idiot, who obviously lacked an ounce of self esteem, only “Aryan” blonde white people fit the mold as the ideal human and anyone else had to step to the back of the line. Apparently he never bothered to look in the mirror. Although he was famous for his obsession and hatred of Jews—note that blacks, mixed race people, and handicapped people were also on his list of hated individuals.

In fact, I remember reading in his book where he mocked a black lawyer as being a propped up monkey and indicated that people should be ashamed of themselves for convincing that monkey that he was a lawyer. Thankfully Hitler is dead, though many of his insane followers live on. Hatred is a cancer so I’m certain his followers will meet their fate in due season.