I’ll be the first to admit that my kids love going to McDonald’s. From a very early age, both of them could identify the logo as we drove down the street and this was amazing because it showed how powerful the McDonald’s brand really was. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has long opposed the deceptive marketing of unhealthy foods to children. That is why they decided to sue McDonald’s if they continue to use toys to market the Happy Meal to young kids.

Now, I’m all for keeping kids healthy, but this is ridiculous. While my boys enjoy getting the toy in their Happy Meal, they usually end up playing with it for less than a day. After that it ends up broken, lost or left in the car (which causes it to be thrown in the trash).

McDonald’s is the king of brand marketing and they should not be blamed for what they do best. It’s up to the parent to decide when, if and how often their child should eat at McDonald’s. And even if the CSPI, sues, wins and gets the toys banned, I doubt consumption of Happy Meals will decrease.

CSPI, please trust the parents to make the best food decision for their children. We know the food is far from healthy and filling up the U.S. Court System with these types of lawsuits is a waste of time.

If you search the internet, you’ll find all types of varying opinions on what people feel about Oprah. But one thing I think everyone can agree on is that she is definitely the queen of the television airwaves. Just last week to increase the amount of face time she has with her viewers, Oprah.com went mobile and released an app for Android, Blackberry,  iPhone and Palm devices.

The Oprah Mobile app features allow you to:

• View a weekly calendar of what’s airing on The Oprah Winfrey Show
• Receive alerts and notifications about the availability of reservations for The Oprah Winfrey Show
• Watch video highlights from The Oprah Winfrey Show, including backstage interviews with your favorite guests
• Find out what time and channel The Oprah Winfrey Show is on in your current location in the United States
• Access the latest articles and features from Oprah.com and O, The Oprah Magazine
• Listen to audio clips from Oprah Radio, including Gayle King, Dr. Laura Berman, Dr. Mehmet Oz

• Search by your favorite experts, guests and contributors, including Peter Walsh, Deepak Chopra and more
• Take our latest polls and see how other people are voting in your city and state
• Share your favorite items via email, Facebook and Twitter
• Sign the pledge to make your car a No Phone Zone
• Customize the menu to keep your favorite sections within easy reach

The apps do cost $1.99-$2.99, but according to the review at appolicious.com, there’s a lot of potential for future releases that could increase the social aspect of it.

But there’s more! Yesterday Engadget blogged about her showing off the Sprint EVO on her show while discussing her “No Phone Zone” campaign. Now please note, there is no official release date for this phone (Sprint said Summer 2010)! But if anyone could get a hold of it early, Oprah would be that person.

I can’t wait for this phone to come out and have been anxiously waiting for its release. We all know that when Oprah says go buy something, people do. So I’m curious to see if this affects sales of the EVO when Sprint finally decides to release it.

If anyone reading this is a friend of Oprah, tell her I’ll take the phone if she gets tired of it. Check out the video.

As always, I try to keep this blog open to those wanting to pub quality events regardless of location. This one isn’t in the Dallas area, but if you’re in the NY area, let me know how it is. For more information, visit the Urban Stages website.

Urban Stages “Celebrating over 25 Years of New Works”

will present the World Premiere of the musical

Langston In Harlem

By Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash

Music by Walter Marks, Lyrics by Langston Hughes

Musical Direction by Barry Levitt, Choreography by Byron Easley

Directed by Kent Gash

Starring Josh Tower as Langston Hughes

Performances begin April 9; Opening April 15

At Urban Stages

New York: Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director, Lauren Schmiedel, Managing Director) will present the World Premiere of the musical Langston in Harlem book by Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash, with music by Walter Marks, lyrics by Langston Hughes and directed by Kent Gash, with musical direction by Barry Levitt and choreography by Byron Easley. Langston in Harlem will begin previews on Friday, April 9; opening on Thursday, April 15, 2010 and will initially run through May 2, 2010. Urban Stages is located at 259 West 30 Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues). Tickets will be $40 ($25 during previews) and are available at www.Smarttix.com / 212.868.4444. Langston in Harlem is produced by arrangement with Langston, Ltd., Jon Kimbell/SenovvA, Inc. – Executive Producer.

Langston in Harlem is an exciting new musical about one of America’s most honored poets, Langston Hughes. Set in the African-American cultural capital of Harlem from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights movement, Langston in Harlem tells the story of Langston Hughes’ journey into manhood and his emergence as one of the most beloved and forward thinking artists of our time. This groundbreaking new musical is filled with Jazz, Gospel, Rhythm and Blues, Swing, dance and spoken-word that sings, jumps, stomps and shouts. Langston Hughes’ glorious words and poetry of love, loss, joy and the blues and the people of Harlem who inspired him, come gloriously to life, in Langston in Harlem and are once again universal and unforgettable!

I like local artists, especially when they can sing. I blogged about Dondria over a year ago and JD has finally posted the video premiere of “You’re the One” on his blog.

When I initially heard the song, I occasionally found myself humming it throughout the day,  so was I pleased to see the video wasn’t much different. The frequently showcased bottle of Nuvo Sparkling Vodka Liqueur was a slight distraction, but fortunately the song was catchy enough for me to move past it (I thought they should have kept the focus on the artist, but what do I know). Other than that I thought it was a good first time video for an up and coming star. Nice job Dondria.

source

DONDRIA “YOU’RE THE ONE” from SO SO DEF on Vimeo.

The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States, and is required by the Constitution to take place every 10 years. Mid-March the census forms will be delivered to every residence in the United States and Puerto Rico. When you receive yours, just answer the 10 short questions (they say it take around 10 minutes) and then mail the form back in the postage-paid envelope provided. If you don’t mail the form back, you may receive a visit from a census taker, who will ask you the questions from the form.

The majority of the country will receive English–only materials. Households in areas with high concentrations of Spanish-speaking residents may receive a bilingual (English/Spanish) form. Any personal data you provide is protected under federal law.

Please take the time to fill out the Census and mail it back because the information affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. People from many walks of life use census data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more. It also helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:

• Hospitals
• Job training centers
• Schools
• Senior centers
• Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
• Emergency services

Don’t take this lightly. For more information regarding the Census and how it affects all Americans, check out the Census blog at http://blogs.census.gov/2010census.

If you are in need of a job, the U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting temporary, part-time census takers right in your own community. These short-term jobs offer good pay, flexible hours, paid training, and reimbursement for authorized work-related expenses, such as mileage incurred while conducting census work. For more information on the job opportunities they offer, visit http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs.

The President takes a moment to congratulate our Olympic athletes.  Discussing the unity and pride Americans feel in cheering them on, the President relates that sentiment to his own desire for bipartisanship in Washington.  He praises the recent bipartisan meeting and talks about moving forward on health reform.

source

Alex Haley began his writing while in the U.S. Coast Guard.

[b.1921 - d.1992]

Born on August 11,1921 in Ithaca, New York, Alexander Murray Palmer Haley grew up in Henning, Tennessee, the first of three sons to Simon Henry Haley, a professor of agriculture, and Bertha George Palmer, a school-teacher. In 1937, he attended Hawthorne College in Mississippi, and then transferred to Elizabeth City State Teachers College in North Carolina, which he attended for two years. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939 and completed a twenty-year tour of duty, first as a messboy, and then, in 1950, as Chief Journalist. During the 1940s, Haley began writing short anecdotal sketches about the coast guard, some of which he published in Coronet magazine. In the 1950s, he continued to publish short, mostly biographical pieces in Coronet, as well as in Readers Digest, Atlantic, and Harper’s. He retired from the coast guard in 1959 to become a freelance writer.

In the early 1960s, he continued to publish short articles, among them an exposé of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam for the Saturday Evening Post. At the same time, he began a series of interviews for Playboy magazine, including ones with Miles Davis, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), Jim Brown, and Quincy Jones. His interview with Malcolm X led to their collaboration on The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). Haley’s probing questions of Malcolm X and editorial skills helped shape what has undoubtedly become the most influential twentieth-century African American autobiography.

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What is Photo Phinish?

It’s hard to believe it’s already 2010. But we’re here and there are still new things in store for this blog. When I started blogging, the main goal was to share information and hopefully open up dialogue on issues that affect the black community. I think I did that in some way this year, but it wasn’t to the extent that I’d done in previous years.

The goal for this year is to continue on the track of keeping the site informative. I plan on opening it up to others who are interested in sharing their point of view with the readers of this site. There are some talented, well-written people out there and I want to showcase them and get some real discussions going.

Late in the year, when I got swamped with projects for work, I fell off the blogging scene for a couple of weeks. Blogging can be a daunting task and coming up with things to write about can be time consuming (especially when it isn’t one of my strengths). So this year, I’m going to solicit your help. If you or someone you know are interested in blogging, but don’t want to manage their own site, email me at info @ theotalks.net. I’m always in need of someone to write and it usually turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.

This year, I also want to focus more on minority small businesses. In these turbulent economic times, a lot of people are turning to owning their own business. I think that’s great, so I decided to start a list of some of my favorite small businesses. I’ll be highlighting small business owners throughout the year, so contact me if you’re interested in participating.

Finally, here are some websites that you need to keep an eye on for 2010. I’ll be blogging a lot about them and hope to be visible on most of them as time permits. Check them out when you get the chance:

• Liberate Magazine
• Tech Relations Firm
• Dallas South News
• Barter My Biz

Have a Happy New Year and God Bless!

Last month I wrote a post about a virtual town hall meeting for Bill Cosby’s new CD, ‘Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency’. The record has been released and Mr. Cosby is turning his attention to creating a serious discussion around the issues that fuel the Cosnarati record.

The next phase of the “State of Emergency” campaign will be a weekend of LISTENing parties on December 12th and 13th.  The Cosby team will be working vigilantly on the organization of thousands of mini-town halls at homes, community centers, churches, and other locations around the country. A full overview on the LISTENing parties here:

http://act.billcosby.com/events

This will be done in conjunction with another Ustream town hall featuring Mr. Cosby, who will also be calling in to welcome listeners at many of the town halls. If you would like to set up a LISTENing party, a manual for what’s needed to get started can be found at http://act.billcosby.com/page/-/docs/party-manual.pdf. I’ve been asked to sponsor a meeting, so I’ll let you know what comes of that.

Oh, no they didn’t! During the BET Awards, Martin Lawrence and Jamie Foxx put together a movie trailer parody that poked fun at their 90′s TV show characters Sheneneh Jenkins (Martin Lawrence Show) and Wanda Reid (In Living Color). Rumor has it that Screen Gems has approached the two actors to make a movie based on the BET spoof (shown below).

Personally, I liked the characters on their respective TV shows, but I really think that’s as far as it needs to go. As I type this post, I cringe because I think making it will push the careers of both actors back a step. They have done some great things since Wanda & Sheneneh and are beyond this. The characters they played in the past need to remain in the past. They made us laugh and gave us some funny one liners, but Madea is more than enough for today’s movie-goer.

I won’t be spending my $10 to go see it because I can think of better things to do with my money. I’m curious to see how many theaters will show it and wonder how the general public will react once it’s out. Chris Rock’s Good Hair movie caused a discussion and even got him an appearance on Oprah. I wonder is Wanda and Sheneneh will get the same opportunity? Only time will tell.

What do you think about this becoming a movie?