Happy 45th Birthday Janet!

Miss Jackson if you're nasty.

Today is the day that Janet Damita Jo Jackson arrived on the planet in Gary, IN as the baby of the Jackson family, and next to Michael, she's the most successful of the siblings in terms of her career spanning the music and movie worlds.

I've loved me some Janet Jackson since she first appeared on stage doing the family variety show and later 'Good Times'.

She's grown up to be one very beautiful an talented lady, and was on my short list of music artists that if they were releasing a CD, I just bought it without listening to it because I knew it would be quality stuff.

Janet fit that mold during the 80's and 90s, especially when she was being produced by Jam and Lewis.    And yeah, one of the few reasons I liked the Why Did I Get Married? movie and its sequel was not only because of Tasha Mack's Angela character and Jill Scott's Sheila, but Janet was in it.

Hard to believe my fellow Tauron is 45.    


Happy birthday Janet, and may you have many more.

Happy 60th Birthday 'Lufer'

Today would have been the 60th birthday of Luther Ronzoni Vandross, who was born on this date in New York City in 1951.  There are more than a few of you younglings who probably owe your existence on Planet Earth to the fact that your parents were listening to his music the night you were conceived.

And what music it was.   While we all remember the romantic ballads and remakes of classic songs that he gave that Luther touch, he could put together some songs that would make you move as well.

And he is a music legend that is sorely missed.   




 

Happy 60th Birthday Sea Monica!

Had to take a moment to give one of my fave people in the trans rights movement a TransGriot shout out on her milestone birthday.

Monica Helms is not only the creator of the trans flag, a 2003 IFGE Trinity Award winner and blogs at Trans Universe, she along with Angela Brightfeather  founded the Transgender American Veterans Association in 2003.   In addition to fighting for trans vets issues, she's also been busy in the ATL fighting for trans and 'errbody' else's civil rights as well.

I met her when I was just beginning to get my feet wet on the national level as an activist.   Because we had close to similar writing styles and similar views on a few issues it became tough for other people to differentiate between us in online discourse in the late 90's.  People started referring to us as Monica of the Air, because I was working for CAL at the time, and Monica of the Sea because she's a Navy vet.  That later got shortened to Air Monica and Sea Monica.

Well, couldn't let today slide without wishing Sea Monica a happy 60th birthday!       

Keep speaking truth to power, fighting for the community, and may you have many more birthdays.

Happy 45th Birthday Karyn White!

During the late 80's and early 90's Karyn Layvonne White was not only on a Grammy nominated roll musically, more than a few brothers in that time period thought she was one sexy lady as well. .


I'd heard about her thanks to me being a jazz music fan and loving Jeff Lorber's music. In 1986 he produced his Sand Castles CD that featured the then little known Los Angeles born backup singer.

A cut on the CD White sang lead on called 'Facts of Love' took off, and the rest was history.

She was appearing on the Arsenio Hall Show and two years later was releasing her own self titled LA Reid and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds produced album.   The Karyn White CD went platinum with songs such as 'The Way You Love Me', 'Superwoman', 'Secret Rendezvous' and a duet with Babyface called 'Love Saw It'. 

She's a mother running a successful interior design and real estate business in northern California these days.   She did record an album called Sista Sista in 2006 which hasn't been released yet.   If it does, I'll definitely be adding it to my music collection.

Happy birthday Karyn White!    May you have many more, and hopefully we'll get to see you on stage performing again soon.

Happy 25th Birthday Isis!

Y'all knew I wasn't going to let today slide without saying something on my Little Sis' milestone birthday.

Today is Isis King's 25th birthday, and I wrote this in my open letter to her two years ago.

As time goes on, transition will get easier for you. Your confidence will grow as you learn who Isis is, get comfortable with your body and figure out what type of woman you want to project to the world. As you work through that ongoing process, you will eventually get to the point in which you feel as strong, sexy, beautiful and confident as the Egyptian queen you chose to name yourself after. This America's Next Top Model experience will only help speed that inevitable day along.

And two years later, Isis has survived and thrived .

She's also happily evolving into becoming the woman I predicted she would be and is constantly evolving and growing to become.

I couldn't be happier for her.   


Happy 25th birthday sis! Enjoy your milestone birthday and may you have many more.

Someday I hope to be able to give you that big hug you deserve from me in person.