Help for the Newlywed

If my friend Lorraine Sanabria Robertson knew then what she knows now about married life and being a wife, she would have written a book then. Since she doesn’t have a time machine in order to return to the past, she wrote a book in the here and now about her experiences being a neophyte wife.

It’s appropriately titled “Help! I’m a Newlywed. What do I do Now?”. Lorraine opted to turn her thoughts on the subject into a book because there are few guides for the newly married. It’s a wonderful hilarious observation on the transition from being a single woman to being the “wifey.”

Watch this short video clip from her book party reading to get a preview.

Nine years of being married later and the titles “wifey” and “mom” suit Lorrraine just fine. She dispenses advice to married couples online at her column askwifey.com and writes about her dual identities on her blogs “Wifey’s House” and “The Newlywed Life.”

“Help! I’m a Newlywed. What do I do Now” will be released in September. Visit askwifey.com for information on how to obtain advanced copies.

Lorraine Sanabria Robertson (left) and I show off her book.

High Heels in High Places

“High Heels in High Places” was one of those panel discussions hosted by a professional development organization aimed at uplifting women. In this case, the professional organization is the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment Production (NABFEME).

I attended to support NABFEME member and my Zeta Phi Beta sorority sister Carla Morrison. Soror Carla has been in the business of entertainment marketing and public relations for ages though she doesn’t look it. She should have been on that panel.

She deferred to be behind the scenes and allow flashier names and faces to be seen and heard. The panel was comprised of mainly marketing and public relations executives, a record label executive, local news anchor and entertainment lawyer. (Roberta Shields, who rap star Ludacris calls mom, also spoke.)

All have made it to high vantage points on the corporate ladder either through other companies or companies they own. Though many of the advice they gave can easily be found in the latest career self-help book, some of their personal stories make good reading material.

Some excerpts:

Amanda Davis, Fox Atlanta anchor: She interned at Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV while attending Clark College, observed anchor Monica Kauffman, now Pearson and decided she too wanted to be an anchor. She achieved her “dream” first at WXIA-TV, the Atlanta NBC affiliate years later while being a young single mom. Davis Wisdom: “Do what works for you.”

Melanie Few, President of Results Inc., a faith-based marketing and entertainment company:Few defied the counsel of parents and friends who advised that she drop her dream and become a teacher when the years were lean. But when business was booming, she moved into her childhood home to care for those same naysaying parents because they were ailing all the while running her company. Few’s Wise Words: “Be an expert at something and stick to it.”

Phaedra Parks, Managing Partner, The Parks Group: Parks doesn’t just play the legal analyst on TV, she is a real legal eagle. As a practicing attorney, she focused on civil and criminal law first, but eased into entertainment law at the advice of friends who said she should be on television. She’s covered the Michael Jackson trial for several networks and handles Bobby Brown’s legal affairs. Parks’ Wisdom: “Always be prepared.”

Pope and Circumstance

Those designer white suits, the custom made Italian red shoes that the Vatican insists isn’t Prada, that signature chagrined smile that won the hearts of many and let’s not forget his modern chariot with the gold seat followed by the masses…. this could very well be the description of a celebrity ingénue. Oh wait it is.

That ingénue just happens to be the 81 year old shepherd of the Roman Catholic church, the cardinal formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict the XXVI.

Perhaps because he and the Vatican folks understand American celebrity obsessed culture or they were just going with the flow, they gave the people what they wanted. The Pope’s visit was a spectacle filled with red carpet fashion fodder, stadium style concert productions, dignitaries, minor starlets and much hoopla.

Oh yes, there was lot of praying too.

I confess I was swept up in the fanfare when I learned I scored a ticket to the papal mass at YankeeStadium in New York city. (I’m a native New Yorker, so it was cool to get back home.) Now this wasn’t going to be a garden variety mass, I learned when I received my ticket and papal visit instructions. It was a full day event, complete with a three hour concert of hope, dancing and processions.

I had to arrive three hours before it started to stream in with the masses. Like the throng around me at the Bronx Bomber’s stomping grounds, I loitered the concession stands and filled up on hot dogs, hot chocolate and pretzels. I sat in the bleachers, behind the stage with the rest of the Georgia out of towners and had to view the “action” through the jumbotron.

But the acoustics were great.

Stephanie Mills’ classic and entirely out of place song “Never Knew Love Like This Before” came out clear as a bell. The famous Italian opera singer who nobody knew sounded great and the flurry of students running around with paper dove kites on sticks appeared elegant from their stage entrance near my seats and on screen.

Out of all of the performers Harry Connick Jr. was the best and most appropriate. He opened with “How Great Thou Art” and threw in some jazz renditions of church classics.

Of course when the “headliner” Pope B. the 16th entered in on his popemobile, the attendees went bananas. During mass, enthusiastic and decidedly awkward screams of “We Love You Benedict” didn’t seem to shake him. Pope Benedict just patiently paused and continued smiling and talking with his lilting German accent. It was so hypnotic, it put me to sleep during his homily!

I woke up in time to experience the remainder of the mass which was solemn and immensely efficient. Hundreds of priests were dispatched to give communion to the highest points of Yankee Stadium. The process took only 20 minutes.

At the end Pope B. went back into his mobile and graced my side of the stadium with his blessing and wave. I must confess, I too got caught up and yelled.

Big Boi’s Big Dance

Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, one half of the sort of still together hip hop duo Outkast, is convinced his idea to is going to change the world. Or so that is what the media reviews and articles about his show “Big” report he’s said. That is what show choreographer Lauri Stallings from the Atlanta Ballet said at the show’s mini-preview at the Rialto Theater a few days before its debut at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

“Big” is a fusion of hip hop music, dance and ballet. The Atlanta Ballet handled the ballet part, while Big Boi handled the hip hop part. In the Rialto theater preview, dancers weaved in and out of the crowd assembled in the lobby and proved they could move as rhythmically as any background club kid on tour with Chris Brown or Usher.

Apparently ballerinas can rock a party too. One of them, a blond pixie, cut it up on the ones and twos. Despite the novelty, this preview didn’t hint at anything earthshattering. It was hip hop in tights and tutus combined with some strange modern dance moves. (View photo gallery).

“Big” also isn’t that unique. Former “Entertainment Tonight” host turned musician John Tesh applied the same concept to his show “Alive Music and Dance” last year.

But if you feel like you missed out, watch these clips.

Barack the Vote Part 2

Let’s face it, Super Tuesday is not the Super Bowl. There are no pre-game or half-time shows featuring new pop singers who can’t sing to save the lives of kids dying in poor countries or has-been singers who looked like they escaped from the retirement home. There of course are no testosterone pumped men ready to battle for world dominance on a field with a pigskin. There are no alcohol soaked, nacho chip stuffed fans rooting and howling for their favorite footballers to claim a victory.

You could have fooled the loyal Barack Obama supporters rooting for the swoon inducing Illinois Senator at this week’s Verve Lounge Super Tuesday results viewing party. At least twenty people, came out to watch the results as reported by CNN from a giant TV screen in the restaurant area. They wore buttons, sweatshirts, and t-shirts. They were Black, White, Asian, Young, seasoned, fat and skinny.

And judging from how the lively group jeered when Hillary was up, cheered when Barack made progress, and ignored McCain’s presumed nominee speech (yeah he’s the aged musician half-time show), this was the Super Bowl of elections, one of a few more to come.

Between sips of martinis and bites of appetizers, some of them shared their thoughts on the election. Glenn Zimmerman, a lawyer from Alabama, said Obama’s message of hope paralleled former president Bill Clinton’s message of hope in election 1992. And the famous governor from Arkansas also grappled with the lack of experience issue he reminded me.

One source of animated conversation: the growing distaste for Hillary Clinton’s shifty political tactics. They grumbled how the NY Senator is hinting she’d sue over the disqualified delegates in Florida and Michigan only because she won the primaries there. “(She only wants) to let the people to vote when it works for her,” Ron, an Atlanta Urban League volunteer and supporter, said.
Another recurring theme among these supporters was that their allegiance to Obama is based on their careful research of all the candidates. Team Barack stood out more and was the candidate most likely to get them “fired up” to get involved. Daniel originally supported Dennis Kucinich. But once the Congressman dropped out, he did his homework and decided to throw his support behind Barack. (Kucinich’s endorsement didn’t hurt.) But he explained, “(Obama) is for change; he’s independent from private corporate interests and his has a willingness to push for progress beyond what the other candidates are offering.”

Daniel is so passionate that he took a road trip to Cinncinati on a whim with other Atlantans to get out the vote.

When the night was over, Team Hillary came out ahead. But that did not douse the hopes and enthusiasm of this bunch. Jacyntha Billingsley, a pharmaceutical sales rep and organizer of the party, is confident of a landslide in 2008 and is already shopping for her inauguration gown.

More photos from the Super Tuesday viewing party

Barack the Vote Part 1.

If Barack Obama is the American Idol candidate as syndicated Atlanta based talk radio host Neil Boortz jokes, then call him Carrie Underwood. (Sorry Ruben and Fantasia). Carrie, the nobody from Checotah, Oklahoma possessed raw talent, but little music industry experience. Yet America voted her in and look at how she turned out. Like Carrie, Barack Obama is pulling folks together for a common cause – to vote him in and hopefully bring change to the country. The curious thing is that folks who normally never would have met in real life are hooking up through Obama’s Myspace like site and other social networking hubs to rally behind him. I have to admit I probably never would have run into Gary, the Chair of the Cherokee County Democratic party or Justice Schunior, an Emory divinity school grad, while tooling around my late night haunts in the SONO district. But because I decided to put some action behind my support of Obama, I met them and several others at a send-off for Georgians heading to Texas to get the vote out for Barack last Thursday at Manuel’s Tavern. I met Steve, a transplant from Syria. He predicted that Barack’s middle name Hussein and African heritage will be viewed as an asset in the eyes of the international community. So radio host Bill Cunningham who received flack over using Obama’s middle name to warm-up a crowd waiting to hear McCain speak say Hussein as much as he wants.  I met Aaron, who’s originally from Illinois and has campaigned for Barack in South Carolina and New Hampshire and several other states in between. “I’ll probably have to sit this one out, he said referencing his wheelchair,”after the (car) accident I can’t get around so much anymore.” I also met Ron who has campaigned for the Democrats since the eighties. He came to hitch a ride with the group going to Houston, TX. Another bunch was going to Tyler, TX. Joselyn, a real estate agent from Lithonia, was leading that group. She and her husband checked in Imani and Muhammed. As for me, I was going as far as the tavern bar and then heading home. I simply came out to drop off some snacks for the travelers and offer my unabashed support. For the first time, I witnessed the Obama effect in person: people excited about politics, people honestly feeling if they got involved they could make a difference, people consciously wanting to be part of an historic event, and different walks of life simply coming together to really work together to make a change. As John Lewis observed, this is the makings of a movement. Sorry Hillary, it kinda does make me swoon.

View the Texas Road Trip for Obama photo gallery

Part 2 of Barack the Vote: I go to a Super Tuesday viewing party at the Verve Lounge in SONO.

The “House of Payne” that Tyler Perry Built

Who would have thought a show that pours prayer and the name of Jesus over plotlines like tomato sauce over spaghetti and features a former crackhead as a main character would be such a hit?

Answer: Tyler Perry and the millions of fans who tune into his show Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne” on TBS every Thursday night.

The show follows the exploits of C.J. Payne (played by actor Allen Payne) moving his family in with his aunt and uncle after his ex-wife destroys his life.

I happen to be one of those “House of Payne” fans.

That’s why I inked in attending the “Anatomy of a Hit TV Show” panel discussion with the cast and crew sponsored by NATAS at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead on Saturday to find out what makes this show tick

WXIA’s Karyn Greer moderated the lively exchange. You would have thought that working on a such a hit show would have gone to their heads. Not at all. The panelists were open and friendly to the packed room that included a large contingent of young folks from youth organizations.

Who was on the Panel?: Larramie “Doc” Shaw, the 15 year old who plays Malik Payne, Writer Steve Coulter, Associate Producer, Head Writer Kellie Griffin, and Supervising Producer, Roger Bobb. Demetria McKinney, who plays the former drug addict mother Janine Payne, was absent.

Here is what they shared about life behind the scenes at the “House of Payne”:

Storylines Ripped from the Headlines of Writer’s Lives:
Many of the topics that are worked into the show are snatched from the pages of the the writers’ lives. One episode where Malik got into trouble for smoking weed can be traced back to writer Kellie Griffin’s problems with her 15 year old foster son. Some of the love relationship storylines also come from the writers lives or the lives of their friends. Other life issues like pedophilia, drugs, and cheating are just topics that Perry and the staff felt should be dealt with on a half hour sitcom and can be with the right treatment.

“Tyler Perry always says keep them laughing,” said producer Roger Bobb, “and while their mouths are open, feed them information.”

Faith, Hope and Love Theme is Genuine Offscreen:
Apparently the faith, love and family message that plays out in onscreen scenarios, plays out offscreen. Perry’s cast and crew pray before each show meeting and taping.

They Keep a Crazy Schedule Even by Hollywood Standards:
I suppose they need all the strength God can provide them with given their breakneck schedule. Shows are written in one day and then shot the next, with rewrites factored in between.

Perry, the super multi-tasker who directs every episode, tends to have several irons in the fire. Producer Roger Bobb recalled how on one stage of the production studios, “Why Did I Get Married?” was being shot, while “House of Payne” was being filmed on another. Perry dashed between both of them. The fast, furious and productive pace has equaled many episodes. Griffin said the show has already wracked 100 of them, which is equivalent to 5 seasons in regular TV land.

Beware of Letting the Intense Schedule Turn You Into Your Character:
Sometimes the shooting schedule can takes its toll. Malik “Doc” Shaw explained how he has to work on separating himself from being “Malik” since he plays him so much. He realized moments when he was acting like his character at home. Of course his mom kept him in check. Being Malik has its perks though, like working with lovely leading ladies for love scenes. (Insert Shaw blushing here.)

The Crew is Diverse:
The writing staff is a rainbow coalition of majority African Americans and some Caucasians. They find it interesting to discuss cultural differences. Kellie Griffin said she had to explain to writer Steve Coulter who is Caucasian that African Americans don’t generally say the word “supper”, but say the “dinner” when talking about the evening meal, when he wrote the word into a script.

Lessons Learned from Perry: Own your material
Perry has made it a point to not make “House of Payne” a typical show. He financed the production of the first 10 episodes himself, gave it to TBS for free, and when the ratings shot up, he made sure he retained full ownership and creative control of the show before cementing his pack with TBS. He has done that with all of his productions and ventures. This fact isn’t lost on the cast and crew.

“In the future, I’d like to be able to give some of my friends jobs, like Perry has done,” mused Steve Coulter. Shaw said he wants to own his own production company one day.

See Anatomy of a Hit Show Photos