Some Sunday Stuff: November 2nd.

Long time no write. But I’m doing okay, staying busy with family. My dad was moved from a subacute wing in a hospital to a nursing home. This is progress- after having pneumonia four times and bronchial infections, needing to begin dialysis three times a week (which is continuing)- he has finally become stable enough to be released to a nursing home. He will now begin extensive occupational therapy and physical therapy. He has a tracheotomy and will have to learn to speak through it. On Tuesday, Zoe and I accompanied my stepmom Kathy as Dad was moved via ambulance to his new digs. Daddy got so excited when he saw Zoe. It was his first time seeing her in six months, and when she sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, I had to calm him down because I’m pretty sure he was going to cry. Actually, the Big Softee almost cracked up another couple of times, and being that he hasn’t gotten the hang of the trach, crying equals severe coughing spells. So I had to shut that down. 

He’s got a long road ahead of him, so please keep him on your prayer lists. It was so good to see him out of a hospital, though, and in a pretty nice nursing home, to boot.

Zoe as Batgirl on Halloween

Now to the links- which I decided will be on the theme of Hip Hop. Why? I just feel like it. Plus, while talking to a sweetly helpful and pretty undergrad this week, I was reminded of how I once wrote about Hip Hop and R&B music during my college years. So in honor of my dashed career dreams, let’s go. First up, rapper Nas (can you believe Illmatic came out twenty years ago?) on the PBS program, Finding Your Roots with host Professor Henry Louis Gates:

This episode also features actress Angela Basset and politico Valerie Jarret. I’m a fan of the entire series. In every episode, I can’t help but feel blessed that I’m here, because between illness, accidents, persecution, slavery, or countless other variables, I could have so very easily never been born.

A couple of weeks ago, Missy Elliott made headlines when she showed off her new slim figure. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease six years ago, the “Get Ur Freak On” rapper made some major life changes. From Hollywood Life:

(Credit: Hollywood Life)

Missy Elliott, 43, totally shocked her fans when she performed in New York City on Oct. 16 showing off a much thinner frame since she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease back in 2008. Doesn’t she look great?

 

Of course, Missy has always looked great; she has amazing personal style and her confidence and talent shines through no matter what she does. However, her weight loss has left her absolutely glowing!

You can tell that she feels as healthy as she looks; when she was diagnosed with Graves, she revealed to People in 2011: “I couldn’t write because my nervous system was so bad – I couldn’t even use a pen.”

Now that she has lost a reported 70 pounds, according to the Daily Mail, it’s clear that Missy is feeling better than ever following her rigorous treatment of the disease.

Missy showed off her svelte figure on Twitter, retweeting several of her fans’ hysterical reactions to her appearance at the launch of Alexander Wang’s collection for H&M. Even Orange Is The New Black‘s Natasha Lyonne was all about it,posting a pretty hilar picture.

I got a little Batty, too.

Over at On The Media spinoff TLDR, I found this interesting story on actor cum rapper Donald Glover, who performs under the nom de guerre, Childish Gambino. Glover has said that his stage name came from an online Wu Tang Clan name generator, and so, that’s where this podcast picks up. By the way, I’m either Half-cut Skeleton or Smilin’ Bandit. I’m partial to the latter. Oh, this podcast, with clips of Wu music, has some cursing, so please be advised:

From Vibe, the rundown on R&B songstress, reality show star, and T.I. wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris’ controversial permanent eyecolor change surgery:

(Credit: Vibe)

T.I.’s wife’s eyes are now permanently “ice-gray,” thanks to a procedure she recently underwent. After rumors began to swirl about her mysterious new look, Tameka “Tiny” Harris took to Instagram yesterday (Oct. 24) to confirm that she has a new eye color.

 

 

She thanked the doctor that performed the surgery: I permanently changed my eye color with Brightocular and loving it! Thank you Dr. Montasser Menif for the amazing experience and for making my dream come true. I hated wearing contacts just for the color and it made my vision blurry. Blessed to say my vision is perfect after my ice-gray implants. Special thanks to #Spencer Vessa for all that you’ve done to make the process happen. You’re amazing and thank you #faiza for your exceptional customer service.

 

Speculation about Tiny’s eye color began earlier this week when she was seen promoting her new VH1 reality show with a brand new set of eyes. In a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, T.I. was also probed on his wife’s change. He offered up an oddly vague answer: “I don’t know. I don’t know. If she’s coming up here for something maybe you can ask her but I don’t know,” he said.

To each their own, but I really think her natural dark brown eyes were far more flattering. I also wonder about the longterm safety in such a relatively new, cosmetic procedure. Back in the day, when I wanted to channel Stacey Dash, I just went to an optometrist office and got green lenses. I’m not one to wear contacts all the time, either, mainly because I do find them irritating, but I cannot fathom jeopardizing my sight just for a different look. No way, no how.

Z and K. We were the Batfamily.

I went to Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart to pull a video for this post… but meh. Just meh. I tend to choose the “Some” videos relating to how I feel, and nah, I’m not feeling Iggy, Rita, Drake or Big Sean. So then I flipped back to 1994 (inspired by Illmatic), and saw that Brandy’s I Wanna Be Down was number one for the first week of November, which led me to the remix with Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and YoYo (which they recently performed together at the BET Hip Hop Awards and they all look FABULOUS), so here we go. Have a great weekend.