A tragic LOST

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, and named after a Swahili word meaning "most exalted one." Her uncle, Barry Hankerson, was a manager and entertainment lawyer who was married to Gladys Knight for a time, and her mother, also a singer, enrolled Aaliyah in voice lessons before she'd even started school. Still very young, she moved with her family to Detroit, where she sang in several school plays. At age nine, she successfully auditioned for the TV show Star Search, where she performed "My Funny Valentine" (and lost). Two years later, thanks to her uncle Hankerson's connections, she spent five nights in Las Vegas performing as part of Gladys Knight's revue. In addition to his niece, Hankerson was also managing a rising R&B star named R. Kelly, and introduced the two in 1992. Kelly soon took Aaliyah under his wing and began writing and producing songs for her. This hipi-hop beauty died in August of 2001. R.I.P baby girl.

Pop Beauty, Queen Sensation

"Yay!"That was Raven-Symoné's enthusiastic response to being told that her performance at the Stanislaus County Fair on Thursday falls on Kids' Free Night, ensuring an audience packed with preteens, tweens and teens. The 22-year-old actress/singer is big on "keepin' it real"; she knows her audience and is happy to have it.Raven is beloved by girls across the country for her starring role in "That's So Raven" (2003-07, Disney Channel's longest-running series), her acting and singing with The Cheetah Girls (Disney again) and her parts in "The Princess Diaries 2" and "College Road Trip" (Disney again and again).So while she's not the 15-year-old character Raven Baxter her fans still watch in reruns, and while she's touring in support of a more grown-up CD produced by some of R&B/hip-hop's hottest, it should come as no surprise that her stage show is a fun, family-friendly affair."There is a lot of audience participation," she said in a telephone interview earlier this month before kicking off a 21-date summer tour of festivals and theme parks. "We have a whole set of Disney soundtrack songs where four kids will be able to come up on stage and perform three songs with me. It's 'Some Call it Magic' (from 'That's So Raven, Too'), 'Superstition' (from 'The Haunted Mansion') and 'Grazing in the Grass' (from 'The Lion King 1½'). And we also do a question-and-answer, so if you have a question you've been wanting to ask me, I'm there at your disposal."The show itself is very hype and very fun, I guess, to the visual eye." A production company Raven has worked with since she was 9 has created a show with "everything from African to hip-hop to modern and ballet," she said. "They incorporate all that into the show, which gives it kind of a Cirque du Soleil, Broadway feel instead of just a regular concert, so I cannot wait to get on stage to show people what we've been rehearsing for a while."In addition to meeting fans' expectations, Raven hopes to win new ones with her more mature music, as well as regain fans who've drifted away. The latter two goals are "a little difficult," she said, because she hasn't yet had a TV show or movie that's let her play a a full-fledged adult. A lot of people her own age who were fans of "That's So Raven" still think of her as that teen character, she said. "Once you grow out of something, you're like, oh, that person's a certain way, but you have to come to the show and realize that I'm growing up, too, and that I'm not going to be in the same 15-year-old state that I was. As I grow, I think my audience will grow, and we have to see what this tour will bring."Her latest, self-titled, disc was released in April and includes songs that give "a little bit of insight into who I am," Raven said. On the CD cover and in several photos among the liner notes, she's wearing sleep masks, as in the shot on this page. She offered an explanation of the masks' symbolism: "I think a lot of the time, people don't really understand or grasp my music sometimes, so in my circle of friends, we say, 'Well, you know, you're sleepin' on it.' ... I think a lot of people just missed out on this album, and I had a feeling it was gonna be that way, so I decided to do that."For many of the new disc's tracks, Raven met with her producer/songwriters before anything was put on paper. "We sit down, I tell them about the topics I want to talk about and then they'll write from there," she said of the process. "There've also been some songs that were just submitted to me, like 'Hollywood Life' and 'In the Pictures,' that I have talked to the people beforehand ... and they're like, 'We've seen your career and this and that, and this is what we feel would work for you,' and I've loved the songs because they do represent me.""Hollywood Life" addresses the reality of "broken dreams" behind the glitz and glamour. "In the Pictures" is about living in the public eye. Other songs celebrate being a strong, independent young woman. Then there are "In Your Skin" and "Shorts Like Me," songs that carry one of the curvaceous, 5-foot-2 performer's primary messages to girls: Have a positive body image, be happy with who you are.Lyrics to the latter include, "Just 'cause they think they're gorgeous/They put their shorts on just like me" and "Just 'cause their figures slick, and their legs are long/Me and my girls too are beautiful."In a profile in People magazine in March, Raven called herself "thick and fabulous." But like so many other female celebrities who are splashed across magazines and Web sites in unflattering photos and headlines shaming them for weighing too much, or too little, she admits that self-esteem can be a challenge at times. "There is always someone in your ear telling you, you look this way, you should change this, you should do this."But health, not a certain look, is what matters, Raven said. "It's always good to keep fit, and I'm such a person who, like, if I don't do something, I'll just sit at home and watch TV all day. ... Boxing, running, soccer and dancing all keep me very interested in moving."One of the songs she plans to perform at the fair is titled "Fit Girls Big Girls.""It's a private selection, not available to anyone," she said, "and it's talking about how I love being fit and healthy but I like my curves, you know what I'm sayin' — I like myself. It's something I did with a producer that didn't make it on the album, but I loved it so much, and I told him, 'When I do my concerts, I have to sing this song.'"It gives confidence and let's you know that no matter what size you are, as long as you're healthy, you're fabulous. And it's funny, my dancers are all different sizes. You have someone who's leaner, someone who's a little thicker and someone who's a little bit bigger than that. So you have people on stage you can look up to and say, 'Hey, you can do that? So can I.' Just get out there and move." Raven is the most talented individual, theat has persued every one of her dreams. I'm her number one fan.

Victoria Beckham

Victoria plays herself in the episode, appearing as a celebrity bridesmaid at the wedding of Wilhelmina Slater and Mode publisher Bradford Meade.We cannot wait to see Victoria in the episode, which will be screened by ABC at 8pm on 8 November in the USA and by Channel 4 at 9pm on Friday 23 November in the UK.
Check her out in "Ugly Betty". She's just so AMAZING!! Way to go Posh Spice. You will always be a spice girl in my eyes.

My President's BLACK!!

He was also the first new president since terrorists attacked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, the first to use the Internet to decisive political advantage, the first to insist on handling a personal smartphone while in the White House. So striking was the novelty of his rise that he embraced it himself: as a candidate he called himself “a skinny kid with a funny name” and the theme for his campaign was “change.”
It was a theme with deep resonance for a country enmeshed in what was widely believed to be the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Abroad, many challenges loomed: the war in Iraq, the worsening conflict in Aghanistan, the repercussions from Israel's broad assault on Gaza, the threat of terrorism and the increasing signs that the economic woes that began on Wall Street had spread across the global economy. -NY Times

IS this Friendship??

Today someone was really mean to my BETTAY (KIWI) and they began to argue about music, from today's fitness day. Were they right to argue amongst themselves, or should they have taken it up with Mr. McGuirl.

The way they were.

Once upon a time in a town known as L-Town, there lived some SENi09ERS. They would always get what they wanted, and have what they needed. They were classy, they were fly and at that they would always shine. They were the new SENiORS, the class of "ON NiNE". These SENiORS would never chase, however they would always replace. They were just the best class to ever step foot in and out of LINDENWOLD HIGH SCHOOL.