Golden Globes, 2007 at a glance...

The Golden Globes- or what is commonly referred to as the precursor to the Oscar nominations- went down Monday night at the Beverly Hilton. I think it should be the other way around, as the Hollywood Foreign Press always seem to be more on the ball than the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences anyway

Outside of the obvious question of whether Jennifer Hudson was actually going to win the Globe for Best Supporting Actress in 'Dreamgirls'
(she did), there really wasn't much in the way of suspense at this year's show.

I will say that I was surprised that Eddie Murphy beat out all of his competition to emerge victorious for the Best Supporting Actor award for his heartfelt performance in 'Dreamgirls'. The longshot of the night (which in my opinion really wasn't a longshot at all) was Forest Whitaker's win for Best Actor in 'Last King of Scotland'.
However, if you look at my review of 'Dreamgirls' and my prediction that Forest Whittaker would take home a couple of awards in my "Questions for the Zeitgeist" entry on October 23rd, you wouldn't be surprised either. Okay, enough at patting myself on the back. The rest of the show went pretty much as planned, though high marks go to Sacha Baron Cohen for his thoroughly hilarious acceptance speech for "Borat", wherein he spoke in INTIMATE detail of his costar's testicles and um...anus, and Meryl Streep's thoughtful and intelligent monologue of an acceptance speech that urged the average moviegoer to urge their local multiplex to show a wider range of movies.


Of couse, the only thing I was really interested in was what EVERYONE is interested in. No, not the show itself, but what everyone was wearing. What follows are my brief opinions on who wore what, and who committed the requisite fashion crimes.

Enjoy...




I watched the "Countdown to the Red Carpet" show on E!, which if you really think about it is the countdown to the countdown", as The Red Carpet is supposed to be the countdown to the show. Anyway, here's MY synopsis:


Sienna Miller- Proof positive that there is a right way to do Marchesa, and a wrong way. Sienna chose the wrong way, as well as the wrong hair. That braided crown didn't work for Mary J. Blige on the cover of her "The Breakthrough" Album, and it damn sure ain't working for Sienna.






















Jennifer Lopez- Proving that there is a RIGHT way to do Marchesa, La Lopez reigned once again as one of the best dressed of the night. STUNNING!




















Not all Jennifers were fashion plates tonight though. I did NOT love Jennifer Love Hewitt's bronze dud. She's a tiny girl, and this prom dress made her look HUGE on the bottom. Back to the drawing board with that one, Jen






Chloe Sevigny, one of my favorite fashionistas, showed up in a beautiful Yves Saint Laurent black print dress. While the choice of shoe may have been questionable, she definitely upstages the other women she arrived with. I mean, does Chloe even OWN an ugly dress?



Eva Longoria- Unbelievable in Ungaro!!!

Ellen Pompeo in Versace- Great choice for her. It was form fitting and for once she didn't look anorexic!













Ellen's "Grey's Anatomy" co-star Katherine Heigl doing her best Charlize Theron (from the 2006 Oscars)- and being successful at it!!!! BEAUTIFUL!!



















The belle of the ball, Jennifer Hudson, in a gorgeously draped gown that compliments her full figure. Word is she is getting help from Andre Leon Talley for a future Vogue shoot. You go, Ms. Hudson!

The night's cutest goes to America Ferrera, in a gown that is both classic hollywood and still manages to not age her.







Drew Barrymore- Completely dreamy in Dior. Somebody upped their fashionista cred with this one.

Helen Mirren showed the young starlets that she can hang with the best of them, looking absolutely regal AND sexy in this dress.















Angelina Jolie is a beauty MUTANT!! What else can I say?






















Hillary Swank- Not really that swank, as that diamond hairclip pulling one side of her hair back made her look more bucktoothed than usual. I wasn't feeling it.

Sharon Stone is becoming a fashion NIGHTMARE!! I mean, really, Cruella DeVille has already been cast, hasn't she?




Cate Blanchett was the best dressed woman of the night in McQueen










While a boring Sarah Jessica Parker and inappropriate Beyonce proved to be the biggest disappointments of the night...









Vanessa Williams managed to forego a stylist and dress herself for the evening. WRONG!!! She looks dull, ragged and washed out, and that ridiculous "mop" of a fall she attached to the back of her head doesn't do this beauty any justice...I'm giving her worst dressed of the night.




On the men's side, Diddy pulled me into his corner as best dressed male, sporting a midnight blue brocade tuxedo jacket- PLUSH!!!....


While Jeremy Irons reverted back to form in this "Zorro meets Revenge of the Sith" number. He looks like he could use a shave as well. Jeeesh!!!Worst Dressed of the men, EASILY!!!!









If I didn't mention it, that means it didn't affect me one way or another. In the words of Meryl Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada"- That's all...

A Mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee...and The Meaning of Life!!

Someone passed this on to me, and it genuinely made me think. The author is Laura Bankston, and apparently this story has been making the internet rounds for a minute. As I'm feeling very "What is the meaning of life" today, I hope you take from this what you need.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee...


A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full they agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things- God, family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions--things that if everything else was lost and only they remained your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.
The sand is everything else -- the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."
Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter.Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."



It makes SOOOO much sense! Its funny how as youngsters we spend so much time pursuing the "sand" and neglecting the "golf balls" until we get older- and realize that it should have been the other way around.

Now I understand the saying that "youth is wasted on the young"...

Tech report...Nevermind my RIDE, pimp my CRIB!!!

If you have an addiction to the latest and greatest technology and a couple of thousand dollars just sitting around, have I got news for you, buddy! Techie geeks must be creaming in their collective cotton/polyester blend pants right about now. There have been MAJOR advances in the areas of multipurpose hand-held PDAs, computing, and digital photography in the last month, and Windows Vista- the new operating system that improves on Windows XP- is scheduled to be released just moments from now. It appears that now is the time that will be acknowledged as yet another SHIFT in how we view/use technology going forward.


Here's the skinny...
"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo this past Tuesday in San Francisco. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."

One of these was the advent of THE go-to mp3 player, the Ipod. People lost their minds when Apple told them that they didn't have to carry around all of their favorite musical CDs on the NYC Subway in a big knapsack, but that all of those CDs (or at least 5-40 GBs of them) could be attached to their beltloop via a small white box. That was part of the last technological shift. Now Apple does it again and helps us lighten our backpacks a little more. Never mind your Blackberry or your Treo, here comes the iPhone from Apple! Those of us who like to travel light but are constantly lugged down by what have become evil but NECESSARY electronics in our daily lives may heave a sigh of relief. Don't want to carry an ipod for music, a cell phone for communication, a decent digital camera for pictures and a laptop for email all at the same time? Fine, for $500 you can get all of those things in one device thats less than half an inch thin! The times they are a-changin', I tell you.


This past Tuesday, Apple Inc. (Apple's NEW company name) introduced not just another "smartphone" but a "brilliantphone"- and named it the iPhone. It is less than a half-inch thin — making it the thinnest phone on the market today. It comes with a 2-megapixel digital camera built into the back, as well as a slot for headphones and a SIM card. The phone automatically synchs the user's media — movies, music, photos — through iTunes on computers running either Mac OS X or Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. The device also synchs e-mail, Web bookmarks and nearly any type of digital content stored on a PC. It supports both W-Fi and Bluetooth technology so wires remain a thing of the past. So call your boy to tell him you're emailing him pictures you just took of your latest custom Air-Force 1's, all while listening to Digable Planet's "The Rebirth of Slick" through your bluetooth headphones. Then text everyone else in your phonebook to ask them if they'd like to receive the same, all while sipping on your grande white chocolate mocha latte at Starbucks. However, you may have to wait a little longer or switch your cell phone company, because right now the iphone is only available through a partnership with Apple and AT&T Cingular. T-Mobile customers get jacked once again. First the "chocolate", then the "blackjack", now the iPhone!!



TV killed the Video Star...
Everyone who calls themselves a techno-pimp has a flat screen TV. However, you can graduate from technopimp to TechnoMacDaddy courtesy of Sharp; they have introduced a 108-inch Aquos LCD television, making it the largest flat screen TV out there. This is for those of you who contend that size does indeed matter. Not sure of the price tag on this leviathan.


Once you get that installed, you have to think about what you're going to watch on it. Not content to rest on its technological laurels with the iPhone , Steve and company also give us Apple TV.
For about $300, The Applebox allows users to send any video downloaded on their computer to their television- It comes with a 40-gigabyte hard drive that stores up to 50 hours of video. It features an Intel Corp. microprocessor and can handle videos, photos and music streamed from up to five computers within the wireless range. Its a DVR that records content not from your cable company but from your computer!! Who knew?

Now if you want a tricked out computer on which to use your Apple TV, there is the Sony TP1- a rounded computer box (the size and shape of a hat box) that Sony is referring to as its "living room PC".
It has an Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, a 300GB hard drive, expansion slots for an HDTV tuner, HDMI output, a wireless keyboard and mouse, remote control and it runs on the upcoming Windows Vista Home Premium operating system. The base configuration of the TP1 is expected to retail for $1,600 when it hits the market in March. I hope it comes in black. And then I hope I happen to stumble across $1600... The good news is, this is only one of a couple of products connecting the home network to the living room, as Netgear and Sling Media are also releasing products that make your computer and television interchangeable.

If there is other content that you can't download from the web or want directly from manufacturers and you can't quite make the call on the "beta vs. VHS"-ish debate surrounding the HD-DVD and Blu Ray controversy, LG Electronics may have the perfect solution. The company has just announced the launch of the world’s first Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD combination player.
The model BH100, dubbed "Super Multi Blue," will play discs in the Sony-led Blu-ray format AND it will also play discs in the rival HD DVD format, which is backed by a consortium headed by Toshiba Corp. Due to be released in February, the unit will run you around $2,000. But if you're a TechnoMacDaddy, you don't have to worry about that.

When you get all of these products to work together in your living room, you'll be a 21st century version of Eddie Murphy as lady's man and technofile Marcus Graham in 'Boomerang' (remember his tricked-out living room with the automatic fireplace?). Now you are ready for 2007 and beyond. And when you have company over to marvel at your Jetsons-type home setup, let them know that The REAL RE-Edit put you up on some s&^)(*t!!!



Peeping Toms get upgraded, too...

For budding paparazzi, Celestron has something that will start you off quite nicely; a new product that is part telescope, part digital camera and all slickness. The VistaPix IS70 is being marketed as a "refractor imaging spotter". In simple terms, this new device is a handheld spotting scope with a digital camera on the back. It has a 70mm lens that will get you 14 times closer to your subject matter. On the back is a 2-in. LCD so you can see what the lens is seeing. Plus, there’s a 3.1 megapixel digital camera to record that image for posterity. The camera itself has a 6X digital zoom, a continuous video capability and the ability to watch the output of your IS70 on a TV screen. All of this for about $479. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recognized the IS70 for excellence in design and engineering. Not a bad look, although I would hope for more megapixels in the next model so that all of those pictures of baby Suri you take from a 500 feet above the Cruise compound or those exclusive snaps of Jay-Z and Beyonce luxuriating on a yacht in St. Barts could net you some real ducats when you attempt to sell them to People magazine.


Stay ahead or fall behind!!!

The Top 10 Reasons I HATE "I Love New York"

For those with sensitive dispositions and laissez faire societal philosophies, I apologize for your discomfort at what follows. However, in my mind this HAS to be said.




I generally try to respect people's artistic expression, their "hustle", their vehicle to fame, their acquisition of whatever fame that seems to elude the vast majority of us, their uniqueness, their contribution(s) to the world in general and pop culture in particular. It takes a LOT to get me to completely HATE something, because these days I try to find redeeming value or a lesson in everything.

I tried, yall. I TRIED to understand the cultural phenomenon known as "Flavor of Love". I tried to not cringe and turn the channel 5 seconds into each episode. I just couldn't do it.

Then...I PRAYED. I prayed for Flavor Flav to wake up and really look at how he was coming across to his children, his community, America and (because we now live in a global society) THE WORLD. I prayed for each of those low-self esteem-having "broads" that decided that it was their destiny to vie for Flavor's affections to see that they didn't have to literally prostitute themselves for five seconds of (questionable) fame. I prayed that the master tapes for all of the remaining episodes of "Flavor of Love" would mysteriously disappear from the VH-1 media vault and would never be seen again. Then I prayed for all people of color (and black people in particular), because WE would have to be the ones to endure this "Amos-n-Andy-meets-Birth-of-a-Nation" in 2007 and to some extent explain to ourselves why this buffoonery STILL exists in our community. We would also have to be the ones to stand idly by while the white power establishment that is the media in this country continued to once again be entertained by our subjugation- AT OUR EXPENSE.

I guess I should have also prayed that this show wouldn't begat a spin-off.

Lo and behold, here comes Tiffany Pollard, a.k.a the ridiculous tumble of pouty lips, ragged weave and shrill voice that would come to be known as the contestant Flavor re-named "New York"- and one of the reasons why black women STILL can't catch a break in the boardroom or walking down 125th Street. Its called "I Love New York"-and I think the New York State board of tourism should sue VH-1 for copyright infringement and willful destruction of its most popular tagline ever.

Then I think Tiffany Pollard should have her ass kicked.

I HATE this show. I HATE the IDEA of this show. I HATE that this show was ever pitched in 2007 and that it was ever greenlighted. I HATE this show such that after this post, there will be no further mention of this show in The REAL RE-Edit- EVER!!!

Why do I HATE "I Love New York"? I'm glad you asked. Drumroll please...

1- A black woman in 2007 shouldn't wear colored contacts and an "un-be-WEAVEable" mane unless she's either a stripper or Lil Kim- and let's hope that Kim has turned the corner on THAT one.

2- I'm not entirely clear of her motive; Is she looking for LOVE, or the perverse celebrity that this "search" has cultivated?

3- She allowed herself to be summarily rejected by the likes of Flavor Flav- TWICE!!!!!! As the saying goes, "One time, shame on you; two times, shame on ME." SHAME, Tiffany, SHAME...

4- She behaves like she could play the lead role should John Waters decide to do a remake of "Female Trouble". She's part drag queen, part welfare queen and all around HOT ASS MESS".

5- She's managed to not just reinforce but REDEFINE the stereotype of the atypically ignorant attitudinal black bitch.


6- Her MOTHER. SHE should know better. Moreover, she's exactly who Tiffany will become 20 years from now.

7- I have a sneaking suspicion that this woman isn't half as ignorant or nearly the extreme caricature that she puts on, which makes her appear all the MORE stupid to me. And if she is, then I feel sorry for her.

8- She has managed (in her appearances on both seasons of the crappy show that begat her "career" and in the first episode of her own crappy show) to take black womanhood two steps further back than Flavor Flav could ever have managed to take black "coon-hood". And you wonder where Michael Richard's "racist rant" came from? And you want to give Bill Cosby grief for the things he says?

9- She sounds like she WAKES UP screaming at the top of her lungs.

10- After this show ends (God willing), she could discover the cure for the common cold and every type of cancer- and she'll STILL be the chickenhead that had a bubble of phlegm hurled at her by another chickenhead with the WORLD as an audience. Additionally ( and again, perhaps more importantly) she will also be the one that got rejected TWICE...BY FLAVOR FLAV!!! Simply put, she could win the Nobel Peace Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, AND literature- but she will always be remembered for being spit on by "Pumpkin" and shit on by Flav...

NOT A GOOD LOOK...AT ALL!!

I'm sure they'll be those that will love this kind of cow-towing. That will be THEIR cross to bare. As a black man and as a citizen of the WORLD, I'm EMBARASSED...

La Dolce Musto on a Tuesday night.

Only in New York can you ignite your banal Tuesday night via a coffee klatch with one of New York's (and thus the world's) most formidable gossipmongers- and get him to sign his new book for you. Barnes and Noble's in Chelsea served as the backdrop for a fab "literary set" this night- Michael Musto reading from his collection of pop culture ruminations, entitled La Dolce Musto: Writings by the World's Most Outrageous Columnist. Musto's musings on pop culture and celebrity actually make him part of pop culture himself, so it should be interesting to see what the "Hunter S. Thompson of snark" has to say in his book. As everyone knows, his column appears weekly in the Village Voice (required reading for us bloggers, who "make me have to work harder in my column" says Musto), and he also writes for Out magazine (being a proud "out" journalist his entire life) and a correspondent on MSNBC, E! and VH-1 ("an UNPAID correspondent!" he's quick to let us know!). Now he is poised to add the title of author to that list (a PAID author!).

Outfitted in a white silky pirate blouse hanging on his very slight shoulders ("my Seinfeld shirt" he mused), and a pair of black slacks cinched around his waist courtesy of a dark brown leather belt, Musto took the podium to much applause and adoration. While not exactly known for his fashion sensibility (I mean, who wears a pirate shirt these days without a sense of irony?), the fabulous Mr. Musto adjusted his trademark black horn-rimmed glasses, and responded in his fey Bensonhurst accent to questions from his rather fashionable friends who came out to support him. Barney's creative director Simon Doonan (who is RATHER impish in real life), took the mic to ask him about his worst experience with a celebrity, while Paper magazine's "shmashion maven" Mickey Boardman shouted his rather hilarious questions ("Who's the most fabulous magazine fashion editor you've met in your 23 years at 'The Village Voice'?") over my head during the question and answer period. Uber-ubiquitous photographer Patrick McMullan was there playing shutterbug and supporter, as were some downtown asian Harajuku girls, a rather regal black woman sitting two seats from me (thus bringing the number of African Americans in the audience to TWO!), progressive white couples and some members of the Pink Mafia joining the artistic fray giggling at Musto's witticisms ("Oh please! Clay Aiken IS gay!!! And a BOTTOM!!!").

Musto regaled the crowd with two readings from the book, one detailing his nightmarish run-in with film "goddess" Anita Eckberg during her press junket for The Red Dwarf and the other recounting his mental pseudo-"fourgy" with the four members of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall (I guess that would be a "Five-gy" with him included). With the book being dedicated to "...Anyone who can still manage to exude glamour with mud dripping down his or her face" and with chapter titles 'Confessions of a Sound Bite Whore', 'Pianist Envy: a visit with Liberace', and 'Teri Hatcher is sweet and other disturbing possibilities', any pop culture junkie worth his salt (present company included) should be chomping at the bit to read about his prose on Eartha Kitt, Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson, Jim McGreevey, Michael Alig, a then-closeted Rosie O'Donnell and the like. Surprisingly, while Madonna makes several appearances throughout the book, she is one of the celebrities that Musto has NOT met in person. Well, Madonna and the Olsen twins. I'm sure they will be mentioned in Musto's next book.

Questions for the Zeitgeist- January 8th, 2007

Happy New Year, folks!!! I hope the next 365 days brings you all of what you need and most of what you want. These are the first questions that popped into my head at the start of 2007...















1- Audrey Hepburn's "simple" black Givenchy dress from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was auctioned for $807,000- six times the expected sale price!!! As was my question when Andy Warhol's wig sold for $10,800: who is going to WEAR this? Moreover, how much could one get for one of James Brown's polyester suit/cape combinations?


2- Sean Carter may be "better endowed" than Nasir Jones (according to babymama/"superhead" clone Carmen Bryant), but isn't Nas' return CD "Hip Hop is Dead" INFINITELY better than Jay-Z's egomaniacal comeback project "Kingdom Come"? Whats more important, a bigger D&(*K or a better product?

3- Speaking of a better (and not just) hip hop product, why didn't Ladybug Mecca's CD 'Trip the Light Fantastic'- which was released in June 2005- move units like it SHOULD have? Why is it that hip hop soldiers like Ladybug (of Digable Planets fame) don't get recognized, but "Chicken Noodle Soup" pollutes the airwaves on the daily? Is Nas right, IS hip hop dead?



4- Why is it NOT okay for Latino people to come to this country and refuse to learn the English language, but its acceptable for Giorgio Armani- who's biggest export market is America and who lifts millions from American purses annually- to refuse to learn?

5- Haven't seen "Freedom Writers" yet, but... Given the plot points (white and/or educated teacher, full of vision and hope and little else, comes to an inner-city or disadvantaged school to save the forgotten, unruly and ignorant minority student class by exposing them to the wonderful world of literacy and manners, blah blah blah)---Haven't we seen this movie too many times already??? (see: "Dangerous Minds", "Wildcats", "Lean on Me", "Coach Carter", "Take the Lead", "Half Nelson", the Lifetime movie "Fighting the Odds"- etc...)








6- Manhattan buzz: Will (NYC Mayor and self-made billionaire) Michael Bloomberg- with his progressive ideology and non-dependence on lobbyists- pull a "Ross Perot" and make an independent bid for the 2008 U.S. Presidency?

7- M.C. Serch (one-half of early 90's hip hop duo 3rd Bass), in an interview to promote his new show, VH-1's "The (White) Rapper Show", was asked if he felt discriminated against back in the day as a white rapper. His response: "There's always a question of credibility. I had to be twice as good as the next man or woman." So...can he empathize with the plight of being a person of color in corporate America?



8- Isn't the E! Network's new claymation comedy "Starveillance" the funniest thing to happen to pop culture junkies since VH-1's "Best Week Ever"?

9- While we're on hot new shows and pop culture...Isn't FX network's new series "Dirt" (Courteney Cox-Arquette's return to television) the hottest thing to happen to paparazzi culture since Tara Reid's nip slip (or Britney going commando?))? How HOT and subversive was it of the show to have NBA superstar Rick Fox getting dug out ROYALLY by a strap-on weilding blonde bimbo by the hot tub? Isn't that reason enough to watch it? Moreover, shouldn't we give Rick Fox PROPS for being fearless in playing the character?



10- With Rick Fox doing his thing off the court (see above), and Vanessa Williams winning raves as the extraordinarily bitchy and conniving (yet comical) magazine editor Wilhemina Slater on ABC's "Ugly Betty"...








are these two much better off apart than they were when they were married?















FLASHBACK...
While we're on the subject of (ex) lovers...
Who knew that napoleonic musical wunderkind Prince Rogers Nelson would grow to be the musical dynamo that he is? A little shy on stature but definitely not shy in any other way, he burst onto the pop scene with one request- "I Wanna Be Your Lover"!!!

New Year's Resolutions...and The Rear View Mirror of Life

I wrote this last year (2005) as a mantra for myself moving into 2006. Since we're talking about New Year's Resolutions, I thought I would re-post it for those of you who might not have seen it at www.thepseudoartisticpunk.blogspot.com. Funny, I'm STILL using this "resolution", and it has withstood the test of time for me. I hope it does the same for you.












"You can't go forward looking in the rear-view mirror of your life"- Tammy Faye Baker (From the Logo Channel TV special "The Eyes of Tammy Faye")

You know, I'm generally not one for hanging on the every word of Tammy Faye Baker- but when somebody says something that's sooooo right and sooooo true and soooo succinct, you HAVE to give credit where credit is due damnit! When she was asked about how she is going to "recover" from the stain of the Jim Baker/PTL Scandal, La Baker basically said that sometimes you have to concentrate on moving forward and doing what you need to do and leave the past exactly where it is. Otherwise, you're not living life, you're RE-LIVING the past over and over again. HOW PROPHETIC, POETIC, and TRUE!!!

Hearing that made me mull and reflect on the times in my life when I SHOULD have just LET GO- of insignificant things, of hurtful situations, of damaging people- and just moved ON. Many times we are so intent on looking BACK at situations where things went awry and beating ourselves up about how we could have fixed them or done better- so busy checking and reanalyzing the 'rear-view' of the past- that we don't allow ourselves to see what COULD be coming up in the front windshield of possibility. We allow the MACK TRUCK that is life roll down the road on 'cruise control', hoping that it will eventually transport us magically to happiness. We fall asleep at the wheel, and then any number of things can happen. We could miss the exit or the offramp to very lucrative opportunities that maybe we could have taken. We might speed past very important spiritually-uplifting people that God is trying to bring into our lives. I can recall being soooo caught up in the "failure" of a relationship (that had LONG since been over) that I couldn't fully take advantage of a new and profitable employment opportunity. I also could not fully emotionally avail myself to key people in my life at important times when THEY needed ME-which made me the worst kind of friend to have. Had I not been so stifled by the fact that something that I thought I wanted so bad didn't turn out the way that I WANTED it to- had I left that situation in the rear-view mirror- I could have been more of a TRUE source of comfort and wisdom to those that really mattered to me. This kind of regret is completely preventable- by using the 'rear-view mirror' philosophy.

I'm not saying to go through life with a hardened heart and the cynicism of, say, a Michael Musto (who really is kind of BRILLIANT) and not allow your emotions to guide you through SOME situations. Emotions are REAL and should NEVER (well, hardly ever) be disguised or dismissed for fear of reprisal, exposure or pain. However, there comes a time when you have to put emotions to the side and say "you know what? It is what it is, and now what its going to be is DONE"- and TRULY accept that. Pining for the return of a lover is NOT going to make him/her come back through sheer pining; and if they don't come back of their own volition you shouldn't want their crusty ass anyway. Moreover, you should be grateful that they are quickly becoming rear-view mirror images (which can APPEAR closer than what they really are) so that you can turn around and look into that HUGE windshield in front of you and proclaim that YOU are the navigator of your life/car. This doesn't just apply to scorned lovers, but for any situation where you have no choice but to accept the fact that 'hey, shit didn't turn out the way I wanted it to". It took me 2 LOOONG years to fully integrate this philosophy into my life, and now that it is such a genuine part of my being I wondered how I could have gotten to 37 years old without having learned it (through the grace of God, that's how- but that's another story!).

I have decided to LET GO of the pain, deception, hurt and fear that has come my way. I have also resolved that all of the disappointments, limitations, and injustices of the past are just that- THE PAST. It is time to experience (as Joan Didion so intelligently entitled her memoir) "The Year Of Magical Thinking". So here I am repeating what is fast becoming an important mantra in my life---I AM NO LONGER LOOKING INTO THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR OF LIFE; I AM PEERING OUT OF THE FRONT 'WINDSHIELD OF POSSIBILITY'.

Join me in repeating that, if you feel like it. For now, I digress...