Back Again (but only for brief)

Nintendo

Sunday we had a guest preacher at our church who delivered some heat. (Pastor Jeffrey A. Johnson from Eastern Star Baptist church in Indianapolis, IN...if you ever get a chance, check this brotha out). In part of his sermon he posed the question "Do you ever find yourself doing the right thing over and over again, and yet and still bad things occur in your life?" He goes on to give an example of his younger sons playing a Nintendo game, and on occasion the game will suddenly freeze up. But the boys continue to press the buttons. Pastor Johnson then asks his sons "Well what did you do? Did you quit?" To which the boys say "No daddy, we just take the game out, blow on the cartridge, stick the game back in and suddenly the game will start working again." Moral of that particular story: when things go bad, sometimes you need "The breath (of God)" to make your situation better...

At which point I had to mentally leave the sermon and flashback to 1989 when this new pheonomenon of breathing on video games was introduced to me. At this pont the Nintendo Entertainment System had been in households across America for about 3 years; more people than not had the system. In my particular instance I was playing a game of Tecmo Bowl against my man Kaz (yes that is his God given name). At any rate, I was playing as the LA Raiders (for those of you under the age 17...the Oakland Raiders had moved to LA due to some BS...but that's another blog), and he was playing as the Chicago Bears.

Kaz called "Pass 2" (or down & A for those of you true to the game), which involves the TE Cap Boso running a slant. Now for those that don't know, in the first Tecmo Bowl game, if you happened to call the same play as your opponent, and you're the defense, the play will get stopped (i.e. an all blitz will come, and the pass (if thrown) will be sure to bet intercepted). that being said I also called "Pass 2", knowing I would demolish Kaz. Kaz somehow got his pass off, but the game froze. Instantly I panicked. Kaz said "oh don't worry, my cousin showed me this trick the other day.

Kaz proceeds to pop the game out, turn it around and blow on the cartridge while sliding it up and down from his lip. Now as 12 yr old kid, I'm more concerned about why my game froze up vs. the germs and spit Kaz has put on my game and into now my Ninentdo. Kaz turns the game back on, and suddenly we're at the same play as if we hit the pause button (BTW, Nintnedo, GREAT invention w/ the pause button). And Kaz completed the pass!!! If I knew then what I knew now I would say "WTF??" But instead I said "WOW THAT WAS REALLY COOL!" Ironically though, that was the turning point in the game as Kaz procceeded to burn me on that Cap Baso Slant time and time again...only later to find out through conversations w/ my cousins and other fellow ex Tecmo Bowlers...that the Cap Boso slant of "Pass 2" was just unstoppable...but I digress.

But who was the kid that said "Yo, if you blow on the game, it'll be all good?" And how did that phenomeon sweep the county (as Pastor Johnson from Indianapolis referenced it)?

Bambi II

On my way to lunch today I saw a billboard for the sequel to Bambi II and the tagline "A sons' courage and a father's love" at which I proceeded to laugh out loud.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Bambi's mamma die in the original movie? And I don't remember any mention of his father....is he just gonna show up on the scene like Shaquille O'Neal's birth father talkin' about "Is there a Heaven for a G? Remember me?" And is Bambi gonna buck up (pun intended) and say (in Shaq's voice) "Thumper is my father!" ? And why (w/ the exception of Winnie the Pooh movies) does Disney always release their sequels straight to video? Does Disney themselves understand that their sequels won't make money in the cinema!?!? Hell I might just rent this for my own curiosity to see how this story will end

"The rise and fall and rise again of M.C."

the 2006 grammys are coming up and I believe Mariah has 8 nominations?? But man I am seriously diggin' that joint "Don't Forget Us". Which was written by Jermaine "JD" Dupri. Did you know he damn near wrote the enitre Emancipation of Mimi album which included the hits:

• "It's Like That"
• "We Belong Together" and
• "Shake It Off"

if you listen to the lyrics of those songs (w/ the exception of "It's Like That") , it makes a little more sense to me how JD pulled Janet Jackson...kind of. (Insert Chris Rock "finding out about a sale too late" joke here)

I'm proud of Mariah personally. It seems like recently that America was sh***tin' on her and calling her schizo...now America can't get enough of her. My personal take? I think Mariah is using the formula today (in addition the way she dresses) for what makes Pop/R&B songs sell, and giving it her own little twist.

For example, the song "We Belong Together", clearly doesn't sound like '93 or even '02 Mariah. But she flipped it! And the album is movin' units like Microsoft and Xbox 360s (well maybe that's a bad analogy considering the amount of Xbox 360's that have been returned).

Bravo Mariah...and good luck @ the Grammy's this February...I'm just glad you're out of the habit of recording one version for the Pop Charts, and another version for "Urban". (Please reference:

• "Honey"
• "My all"
• "The Roof"
• "Emotions"
• "Fantasy", and
• "Always Be My Baby"

Okay...so that's my take on Mariah Carey...I'll think of something to write about later on...until then,

Still wondering why the Coca-Cola Company came out with Black-Vanilla-Cherry-Coke

B. Holcomb