Block Parties, Jookin, and Pay-Per-Views: The Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday:

I went home, watched wrestling, chilled out.

Saturday:

I went to the Comics and Collectibles. I had just missed Justin Vactor and my chance to be on the Geekland Podcast. Shout out to Justin Vactor, Willie, and the other guy, I apologize for forgetting your name(www.geeklandpodcst.com). I talked to them about comics for a minute, and Justin came back by the shop. They plan on doing a show on Sunday, and I plan to be there.

After that, I went to a block party sponsored by the Hattiloo Theatre. They had a lot of good acts. It was hot, but I enjoyed myself. The Hattiloo Theatre is the only Black Repertory Theatre in Memphis. Shout out to the Director of Hattilloo, Ekundayo Bandele. Also, shout out to my man Eric, who used to host spoken-word nights back in the day. It was good to see him again. Shouts out also to Rodney Lomax, an old friend, and to others who I met up with. I saw a few people that I hadn't seen in years. The acts were good, too. Tonya Dyson, a local soul singer, was awesome, as was Stephanie Bolton, who recently started singing gospel. I bought her EP for $7. A review is coming. Valerie June was also good. I bought her EP. Again, a review is coming. She sings folk songs. After her set, the DJ played "New Soul" by Yael Naim. This song was on an Apple commercial a while back. He played a lot of good songs, like "I Don't Believe in Magic" by Womack and Womack. That's some old-school black music, if you don't know what that is. The last act was a band named Fictive Kin. Their songs were bluesy. Shout out to Patrick Henry, who was the lead in the Pittstop Productions film What Goes Around. His business is near the Hattiloo. He mainly works as a tailor and a caterer. It was good to see Pat. Later, a short distance from the Hattiloo, some guys started doing graffiti, and some other guys started playing music. One of the guys called himself Los. He directed a local film called Chapters. He has some buzz, and I think some major film people want to give him money. He knows my good buddy Steve Fox, who I also ran into for the first time this year. Steve Fox is a local poet/rapper. We chit-chattted, and I discussed my frustrations with my career and other things. He suggested I write about it. He plans to write soem screenplays as well. The second set was cool, too. Dancers from the U Dig Jookin' Academy (udigjookin.com) performed. They breakdanced, jooked (Memphis dance), crumped (California dance), and one guy was "tumbling", I guess. He kept rolling on the ground. He would make a slight impact when he hit the ground, but he would roll into it and keep moving. It was cool, it was a nice traditional "hip-hop" environment, but with a Memphis twist. Later, I copped two of Steve Fox's albums: The first, Truth Serum,is a spoken-word project. The second, Love Language, is hip-hop over jazz beats. After that, I went home.

Sunday:

I went to see Hancock . The ending was a little hard to follow, but it was okay. Will Smith is, well, Will Smith. Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron did good jobs. After that, I went home for a minute, then I went over my good buddy Shomari Gant's house and watched a wrestling pay-per-view.

I thought that I would be filming something this weekend, but plans fell through. I have an audition on Thursday. Hopefully, it will lead to something. Be easy, readers!!