Tag Archives: Opinion

Mother’s Day Dos & Don’ts

10 May

#TeamBlaria, in T-minus two days, Mother’s Day will be hurr, which means that a lot of mamas will be giving their chillrens fake ass smiles after receiving boxes of Whitman’s Samplers/Godiva chocolate because deep down they’re thinking, “I rearranged eighteen years of my life like it was an ultimate Feng Shui challenge that was suggested by Oprah and Nate Berkus and all you got me was this?” What I’m trying to say is that for once in our lives, we need to step up for a change and do some totes sentimental, Aerosmith Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing stuff or if not sentimental, then, at the very least, something thoughtful as a way of expressing thanks for our madres not powering down and rebooting their reproductive organs when they found out they were preggers with us. So, like me, hopefully, you already have something planned, but if you don’t, fear not, because just as I helped walk you through Father’s Day last yurr (for a refresher, you can read that here), I’m back to give you my Blaria-fied tips on doing Mother’s Day up right:

DO: Just like it ain’t Christmas without a drunk bitch trying to sing Santa Baby like she’s Eartha Kitt while you’re eating a slice of sweet potato pie, it ain’t Mother’s Day unless you buy your mom a card, so do it. Mamas love cards and might even heart them more than the actual gift you purchased since for some reason, being a mother means enjoying reading a card that includes words her child didn’t write because at the bottom is the kid’s jankity ass signature that was clearly scribbled as passionlessly as I sign taxi receipts. All kidding aside, if you do none of the other DOs on this list, please heed this one because I’m recommending it from experience. One time, I didn’t get my mom a birthday card to go with her present and she straight up reacted the way I did in college when a professor would say the final exam is cumulative:
So just spend the four bucks on a card, ‘kay?

DON’T: Note, this is for people of color, espesh those of the mocha persuasion. DON’T wait until the last minute to buy a Mother’s Day card because the Mahogany and In Rhythm brands of Hallmark cards will be sold out. Then all you’ll be left with is a bunch white people cards where you have to color in the faces with a brown magic marker and write some Maya Angelou sounding shit on the inside to offset the fact that cover is of a Children of the Corn girl in cuffed overalls and skipping rocks across a lake. For realz, if your black mom gets one of these cards, she has every right to do the paper bag test aka hold the card featuring white people up to a brown paper bag and then turn to you and do the following:

Yes, even if you are a dude, your mom will tell your ass #girlbye because a card that says, “Look at these white people on swings” clearly lets her know you waited until the last damn minute to buy a card.

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I. Don’t. Get. Engagement. Rings.

10 Oct
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On Monday, the first images of Jennifer Aniston’s engagement ring from fiancé Justin Theroux were released.

Actress and former failure at Life (according to the media because she didn’t have a man), Jennifer Aniston, finally showed off her flashy engagement ring to the world. You see, when she announced her engagement back in August e’erybody was like

It was as though people were saying, “Yeah, yeah, you’re happy and shit, but we need proof that Justin loves your refurbished vagina. Show me that ring!” So Aniroux basically responded with, “S my D,” with this $1 million dollar, ten carat diamond ring. And now every single bitch I know is getting their Stuart Smalley on and talking non-stop about how hopeful they are about love and I’m just like,

Jennifer was in Friends and Marley & Me and she goes to the gym. You star in Bitches Don’t Give a Damn About My Boring Ass Status Updates and only wear yoga pants when it’s laundry day. Y’all don’t have the same life or the same opinion on 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioners (Jen and I want you stop using that shit!). Anyway, the point is that everyone is going gaga over this ring and I’m like, THEY’RE BLOOD DIAMONDS, YOU ASSHOLE! Okay, okay, I’m not saying to people, but for reals, engagement rings, especially ones with diamonds, are dumb as fuck. There, I finally said how I feel.

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Father’s Day Gifts Dos & Don’ts

15 Jun

Happy eve before Father’s Day Eve, #TeamBlaria! If you’re like me, you’re probably just chilling at home, singing along to some Anita Baker like a recently divorced forty-five year Black woman as a reward for already purchasing your Father’s Day gift. If you’re not like me, that means your procrastinating ass is waiting until the very last minute to walk into Home Depot and turn that shopping experience into a spinoff of Supermarket Sweep called How Many Fucks DI Give About Father’s Day? None, But If You Do Not Give Me That Last Power Tool, I Will Have To Curb Stomp Your Face a la “American History X.” Not a catchy title, but it’s accurate as hell. Point is, here we are two days before Father’s Day and you haven’t gotten your pops a pressie (abbrev for present) yet. But fear not, as I’m going to navigate you through the dos and don’ts of Father Day gift buying, so that your Dad will react like this when he opens your present:

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The Audacity of Being Brown

13 Jun

“I look like charcoal. I’m so dark. It’s awful.” ~ Overhearing a Hispanic co-worker vent to a White co-worker about how it’s terrible that her tan made her the complexion of a U-Haul box.

I literally do not know where to begin. The entire situation was just such a Molotov cocktail of ignorance and self-hate. And the shittiest part was that I couldn’t say anything because it would be the first time in history someone was hella angry while holding a Cliff bar (my co-workers were in the common area kitchen and we have dope snacks). Also, I’m Black and have an afro, so unless I have a look on my face that connotes this:

People at work think I feel like this all the time:

But seriously, Blarians, I was livid and also saddened for this ethnic woman that resembling anything close to brown complexion is a nightmare that would ruin her day. That her lightly-colored skin had the audacity to get darker after she had spent the weekend tanning it was simply inexcusable to her. I mean, getting mad that the result of tanning is somewhat brown skin is like me being upset that after I, a lactose intolerant person, finish doubling down on extra cheesy pizza, I end up chanting like Angela Bassett in What’s Love Got to Do With It in hopes that will soothe my aching stomach (skip to 1:12):

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Brian McKnight Has Lost His Damn Mind

6 Jun

Hey, y’all remember when country superstar, Garth Brooks lost his damn mind, created alter ego Chris Gaines, who basically looked like Harry Potter’s Professor Severus Snape/Alan Rickman’s emo cousin, and released a R&B song called Lost in You, which when you listened to it, decided it wasn’t half bad, so you tried to buy the full-length album on the low while you were shopping at the mall with your Mom, so you ditched her in the Misses section of J.C. Penney’s and headed to the now-defunct Sam Goody Music (because of simple biatches like you trying to Chris Gaines albums and nothing else) to purchase the Gaines album from the $5 dollar bin, but your Mom creeped up behind you, so to save face, you quickly dropped that CD and grabbed Keith Sweat’s Keith Sweat? Guys? Hey, guys? Where are you going? Okay, so maybe that scenario just happened to me. Point is, take that scenario and then add to it the following: ten years later, you’re still such a fan of Chris Gaines that you dressed as him for Halloween, but drunk mofos thought you were Earth Wind & Fire’s Verdine White with a haircut and they kept Ba-de-ya’ing you during the Halloween parade (thankfully, that didn’t happen to me, but if it had, I’d rather be mistaken for Verdine White than Black Chris Gaines. There’s no recovering from that):

Verdine. White. What more do you need to know?

Sadly, those two Chris Gaines scenarios don’t even compare to the hot mess that is now Brian McKnight’s music career.

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Movie Review: CAT SCRATCH FEVER

1 Jun

Happy Friday, #TeamBlaria! Before I get to the heart of the matter (Don Henley!) with this post, which is my first ever movie review for the blog, I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my jar of cocoa butter and heart for supporting Blaria during its first two months. Because of you, I have officially surpassed 10,000 TOTAL VIEWS!!! To those who didn’t think it was possible:

Now onto the movie review.I think it is safe for me to write this as I don’t really consider this a spoiler, but pretty early on in the movie, unemployed and outgoing Lisa (Starsha Gill) discovers that there are alternate dimensions where people exist. Rightfully so, she’s eager for her more reserved roommate Ashley (Kara Elverson) to arrive home from work to tell her this news. But Ashley responds the way I did when my parents got their first cell phone two years ago and said, “It has special features like a camera!” In 2010, a camera on a phone standard, not special. In fact, some would probably say if your phone didn’t have a camera then it wasn’t a real phone.

Point is, Ashley’s reaction is pretty ho hum. She already knew about the existence of alternate dimensions and never told Lisa. Why, I don’t know. I’m also not sure why Ashley is so blasé about their existence when she has yet to experience this phenomenon. Questions aside about this minor detail, Cat Scratch Fever is a rather enjoyable film about a pair of best friends who sink into the abyss of watching their alternate selves live instead of actually living themselves. Check out the trailer below:

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KKK Memorial Day Party

31 May

“Ain’t no party like a KKK party/’Cause a KKK party don’t stop.” ~ Some Klansman dude

Say what?!?!? Y’all, I don’t know how the hell I missed this, but the KKK in North Carolina threw a Memorial Day cross burning party and invited the whole state. BUT, they wanted it to be clear that the party is for Whites only. WHAT?! A KKK PARTY THAT IS WHITES ONLY?!?!

This reaction was had by no one upon hearing the news that a KKK party is whites only.

That’s right, no minds were blown, but props to the KKK for trying to turn this party into MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen by pretending they were going to have to turn some people away. Just like the “You had me at hello” quote from Jerry Maguire indicates that it was love at first sight, the KKK part of KKK let’s e’erybody know what the deal is. No nigs and other non-Whites allowed. But #RealTalk, you know they still played Niggas in Paris because even racists can’t deny that the song is the shit and the perfect party starter. #RealTalkTheSequel, there was definitely one non-White mofo who didn’t get the memo, just heard “Memorial Day party,” showed up, and totally had to do one of these:

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Alt Comic Vs. Club Comic: The New Bloods Vs. Crips?

25 Apr

Ay dios mio! Lately, there’s been more melodrama in stand up comedy than a telenovela and, sadly, 100% less attractive people in habits (seriously, like every nun on Spanish soap operas is an undercover Sofia Vergara). And all the drama makes me feel like I’m strapped down to a chair a la Alex from A Clockwork Orange and forced to watch this on an endless loop:

 

Recently, articles, podcasts, and interviews have been tracking and analyzing stand up comedy’s every move. Even the NY Times got in the mix by having writer Jason Zinoman, who may have written like five sentences about me once (#MeanToBrag), cover stand up and its nuisances like preparing a late night set for shows like Conan. This positive attention means more exposure for comics. However, when comics air their dirty laundry, that also gets attention and the in-fighting can look like the kind you’d find on The Jerry Springer Show. Hence the melodrama.

For instance, one of my all-time favorite comics, the hilarious Bill Burr, launched into a NSFW six minute crunkalicious and intentionally over-the-top rant on his weekly Monday Morning Podcast a month ago about alt comics versus club comics and Huffington Post, Laughspin, Splitsider, to name a few, picked up the clip. Take a listen:

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Girls

18 Apr

This show should’ve been called “Self-Absorbed & Privileged White Girls Who Live in a Practically All White New York City, You Know Like How The Real New York City Is,” but that’s just not a catchy title.

FUCK. THIS. SHOW.

That’s not a particularly eloquent sentence; however, it’s how I felt after watching the pilot episode of HBO’s Girls, Lena Dunham’s first TV series. Seriously, I was so angry that I immediately turned on DMX’s Who We Be so I could rage dance, which was basically just me flailing around my apartment in a t-shirt, sweats, and white Hanes Her Way gym socks until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror where I became simultaneously hypnotized and horrified by my rage dancing that I did the following:

Memo to others: don’t wear Hanes Her Way gym socks when rage dancing. Or in life. Continue reading 

Not Everyone Has to Like You

13 Apr

Afternoon, Blarians! I’m in Portlandia, listening to Gotye’s Somebody I Used to Know. YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO CUT ME OFF! So glad this song didn’t exist when I was in high school because anytime something crappy would’ve happened to me, I would have blasted this shit. I didn’t even have to date the person. I would’ve been like, “Oh, you don’t want to go to Panera Bread after class anymore because you have Speech & Debate practice?” YOU TREAT ME LIKE A STRANGER AND THAT FEELS SO ROUGH! SOMEBODY! Never underestimate a teenager’s flair for the dramatic.

Or flair for stupidity as in the case of three 14-year old girls who were expelled after Jon Lovitz posted pics on Twitter of his friend’s driveway, which had been defaced by them:

Antisemitism in maple syrup form.

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