If you are 40 and over then 9 times out of 10, you know exactly who the Beatles are and who John Lennon was. And you remember when he was murdered in 1980. Next week, December 8th,marks the 40th anniversary of his death. Please share your favorite Beatles/John Lennon songs here. Mine are Imagine, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Love Me Do, Let It Be, and Come Together.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Lennon
Since Sotheby’s had their first ever Hip Hop auction this week, I thought I would share some classic 90s old school Hip Hop music! One of my favorites! Salt N Pepa!
As an old school Hip Hop head, imagine my delight when I heard about this on the news this morning!
SHARING FROM KTLA.COM
Rivals in life, the rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur are being united for an auction at Sotheby’s, the first-ever dedicated hip-hop auction at a major international auction house. Bidders will be able to vie for the crown worn and signed by the Notorious B.I.G. during a 1997 photo shoot held three days before he was killed in Los Angeles. They’ll also get to bid on an archive of 22 autographed love letters written by Shakur at the age of 15-17 to a high school sweetheart. The auction will be held Sept. 15 and features over 120 hip-hop-related lots. The items can be viewed in person — reservations are required during the pandemic — at Sotheby’s in New York City and the exhibition will also be available to the public online via its digital gallery. “The impact of hip-hop is everywhere — sneakers, clothing, jewelry, art, music. I wanted to have a sale that really recognized how massive that impact really is,” said Cassandra Hatton, the Sotheby’s senior specialist who organized the sale. The estimates for the headlining lots — $200,000 to $300,000 for the crown and $60,000 to $80,000 for the letters — are low, with the hope that the auction house can attract first-time bidders and show it is not just a stuffy place for multi-million-dollar watches and paintings. Onetime friends who became rivals in a hype-fueled war between the East and West Coast rap scenes, Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. — also known as Biggie Smalls — were gunned down within months of each other. Both crimes remain unsolved. The crown has been in photographer Barron Claiborne’s possession since he captured Biggie for the cover of Rap Pages magazine. Claiborne had provided the prop, hoping to portray Biggie as the king of New York. Sean “Diddy” Combs, owner of Biggie’s label Bad Boy Entertainment, was with the rapper on the photo shoot. “I’ve seen the crown. Everybody’s seen the crown. It’s so famous. It’s so iconic. When I was first thinking of doing this sale, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to track that crown down?’” Hatton said. “I’ve sold all sorts of wild things. But this is a little different.” Shakur’s letters — many on lined stationary pages with neat hand-lettered script — were written in 1987 and 1988 to Kathy Loy, a fellow student at the Baltimore School for the Arts. The 42 pages chronicle their approximately two-month long romance, including a letter of regret for breaking up sent a year later. Loy provided the letters for auction. “I’ll always be there for you,” Shakur wrote to her in one. In a poem, we writes: “Everything is so beautiful/since I fell in love.” The trove also reveal his friendship with fellow student Jada Pinkett Smith, who he mentions in one letter: “Jada told me she can see how much I love you.” What interested Hatton most is the tone of the letters. Unlike Shakur’s tough public persona, the letters reveal a “sweet, poetic, sensitive young man.” “There are definitely moments that made me blush reading the letters — he is a 16-year-old boy after all,” she added. “But he is very respectful. He advocates for clear communication and boundaries and wants to define relationships.” The auction continues Sotheby’s recent trend toward embracing items prized by popular culture, including hosting the first dedicated sneaker auction at one of the big auction houses in July 2019. A pair of Michael Jordan’s signed, game-worn Nikes was recently auctioned by Christie’s for a record $615,000.
Love letters from Tupac, crown worn by Biggie offered in 1st-ever hip-hop auction at Sotheby’s
Started my #ArtJournal project today with artist @marjiekemper, this is the first page/section entitled “Family”, used stencil and using #scrapbooking paper I already have on hand. So glad I signed up for this workshop. I need a creative artsy outlet right now! #5DayChallenge #creativity #journal #journaling #blackgirlhappyplanner
As parents prep to send kids back to school (or not) during this pandemic, I thought I would share some memories I think some of you might appreciate.
Back to school shopping back in the 1980s, was an annual event, that involved parents taking their kids to local popular department stores to get the best deals on clothes, shoes, and school supplies for their growing boys and girls for the new school year.
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and shopping local, was a thing, long before it was a thing. My friends and I often wax nostalgic over stores like Gold Circle (which I’m convinced became Target) and Value City, both Ohio and Midwest based chains, that were very popular in the 70s and 80s. Also, I’m old enough to remember the onset of “the mall”, which was a new phenomenon for a generation who was used to the “one-stop shop” department store concept, which, ironically, has made a comeback through stores like Target and Walmart.
Another thing my generation grew up on, was the catalog. There was the JC Penney and Sears catalogs. These catalogs were not unlike the size of a phone book and was very much the precursor to online ordering so your mother either called the 1-800 number to place your order or you pressed her luck with a mail-in order form and pray the item wasn’t on back order by the time the form reached the warehouse.
Also, I would be remiss, if I did not give a shout out to the Sears store, and the Garanimals clothing line for kids. What made Garanimals awesome was the concept they created for coordinating and color matching through the use of animal figures on the hang tags. This, to me, was a genius concept. It was like the Sesame Street of clothing, teaching kids about colors and matching through fashion. I loved it.
Unfortunately, the 21st century and the onset of online shopping, has seen the demise of multiple large department stores and catalogs that were once the stallworth of shopping for a whole generation. A piece of nostalgia, that recently filed for bankruptcy is J. Crew. If you are #40AndOver and attended college in #the90s, you probably remember receiving a #JCrewCatalog in your dorm/residence hall. It was probably the first catalog that catered to the college age student, so unlike the JC Penney and Sears catalogs of our parents and grandparents day. It was a hallmark of life on campus. I never ordered anything from them and I’m guessing not many of my friends did nor this current generation, because, unlike the JC Penney catalog (or Penny’s as my grandmother liked to call them), J. Crew was super expensive so really, most of us just looked at the pictures, it was actually more like a magazine for us, more of an aspiration, if you will, that was delivered monthly to our student mailboxes and front desks in our dorms. As J. Crew goes by way of JC Penney and others, the only thing left will be the memories of a whole generation who defined the what “Back To School” shopping really meant.
#the40andoverproject #OldSchool #memorabilia
Timeline
It goes in cycles but seems never ending. Every generation of African Americans has that moment where the anger boils over like fire because the racism and hatred just becomes unbearable. It’s got to stop but we know it’s never ending.
Watts Riots – 1965
LA Riots – 1992
Ferguson Riots – 2014
Minneapolis Riots – 2020
#poetry #instagrampoetry
#DoBetterAmerica #AmericanHistory
42
A random age
In random times
Yet significant
In this moment
In history
And in life
Forty-two
2 × 3× 7
The angle
Upon which
A rainbow sits
So that
In the right light
You see hope
In the eye of the storm
42
The number of days
A password expires
On a Microsoft domain
Before you must create a new one
Restart the tedious process
Of creating a new set of characters
That symbolize who you are
Yet is something you can remember
Before you forget again
The older you get
The more you use the same password
For multiple tasks
Because life is
Too short
To have to remember
How to get into your email account
42 minutes
The time it takes
To drill
To the center
Of the earth
Divisible by
1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21, 42
separates life
Into segments
Sections
42
In spiritual terms
Signifies the essence
Of making life plans
Decisions
Figuring out
What is next
On your bucket list
42
Superbowl XLII
With 97.5 million viewers
The year Jordin Sparks
Sang the National Anthem
And the year I made the decision
to take a leap faith
Figured out
God had my back
After all
4 + 2 = 6
The number of times
My heart has been broken
42
broke barriers
in the form of Jackie Robinson
Baseball
My grandfather’s favorite pastime
Boring to me
Yet symbolized so much
To a race
A country
A sport
Everyday
42 children
are diagnosed with cancer
Such little bodies
Such little time
So unfair
Yet so biblical
Little children suffer
God beckons
God protects
42 is the answer given
When a Google search
Is completed
Using the terms
“The meaning of life ”
That you can
Find the answer
To these questions
On Google
Is a challenge
In itself
The older we get the more milestone types of events we get invited to attend. This is a short haiku reflection on that.
alumni
bring us together
a reunion to see
friends remembering when
If you are my age, 47, and if you especially attended Kent State University, you for sure, know the date, May 4th, 1970. That’s the date that four students at Kent State, were shot and killed during protests over the Vietnam War. As a student at Kent State University, every year, the university provides a retrospective of that day. If May 4th fell on a weekday, like today, classes would be postponed at 12 noon so that students could participate in educational remembrance events and activities with special guests, etc. I remember being a student on campus during the 25th anniversary, featuring the show 20/20 as well as the 60s singing group, Peter, Paul, and Mary. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that fateful day. This date will forever be seered into anyone’s mind, who has been connected with Kent State University. It’s also important to the larger history of protest and unrest in America, particularly that of the Civil Rights movement, since Black students were also in the middle of their own protest for equality on campus during this time. 1970 also marks the only other time that state universities in Ohio were closed for the remainder of the semester (much like the shutdowns for our current Coronavirus Quarantine situation). As a result, just like now, I learned during my professional work in Alumni Relations, the Class of 1970 at many universities in Ohio, did not have a formal graduation. As a Class of 97 graduate of Kent state University, I am always cognizant of our controversial history, but I realize that, this history, is part of what made me an active and aware student, made me a student activist and advocate for change, and what made me a proud alumni #KentStateForever
I encourage you to visit the link here to find out more about the history of Kent State and May 4th, 1970. A tattered history. #50yearslater #KentStateUniversity #MyAlmaMater
https://www.kent.edu/may4kentstate50
A piece of nostalgia, filing for bankruptcy. If you are #40AndOver and attended college in #the90s, you probably remember receiving a #JCrewCatalog in your dorm mailbox. It was probably the first catalog that catered to the college age student, so unlike the JC Penney and Sears catalogs of our parents and grandparents day. It was a hallmark of life on campus. I never ordered anything from them and I’m guessing not many of my friends did nor this current generation, because, unlike the JC Penney catalog (or Penny’s as my grandmother liked to call them), J. Crew was super expensive so really, most of us just looked at the pictures. #the40andoverproject #OldSchool #memorabilia
