Curriedflavouredflipproductions

The bottom line is...

Reminisce

This is my very first album I bought in 1989. En Vogue had 'CLAMP'.



I was breaking out, invitations to house parties were coming in thick. Naturally you obliged every invitation. For motivation you had to have the latest songs. Spending over an hour in the record shops as we used to call them, searching for albums, used to be a wonderful way to spend time and money. Like most people I acquired a music database to die for.

To reminisce we are planning to see most of the groups that had the edge when were younger.
We attended the Jagged Edge concert to see if they still got what Busta Ryhmes calls:

'CLAMP'

Concept
Lyrically sound
Action, attraction and attitude
Moving music
Production class

My Small Jagged Edge Concert Video



When you get older you realise that not everything matures the way you would like it to. Unfortunately, I do feel these guys have lost their edge.

After arranging baby sitting we managed to sneak out on a SUNDAY EVENING. Many people may not realise, teaching is an anti-social profession. We score very poorly on maintaining friendships outside of work because of the pressures of being responsible for other peoples children. When you have a young family, most of us are tucked up in bed early on a Sunday evening, vexed about having a short weekend with little time for oneself. Even more vexed about the amount of tasks needed to be completed during the week.

Approaching the Millennium Dome is very difficult when there is traffic. We were waiting in the car for over an hour outside of the car parks. Inside the venue was excellent. Vocally the three who managed to turn up were ok. When you have to be listening to miming over tracks at high pitch I was wondering whether if I should have attended the X-Factor event next door. What has happened to the deep voice singers? You know, the Barry Whites, Teddy Pendergrass and Isaac Hayes. I know they may be dead, but can't we have some deep voice singers again?

We intend to see other back in the days acts.
Stay locked onto this blog for more multimedia news from other esteemed artists concerts such as Mariah Carey, Boys II Men etc.

Who remembers this happening tune 1990 En Vogue 'Hold On'?

The bottom line is:

Believe in something, but do not mix religion and politics.

You know there used to be a famous saying:

'If you want to hide something from black people, put it in a book'.

Well this obtuse comment did not work for me. One thing I miss about being a student is the freedom to read until you are blue in the face. As an undergraduate my appetite for reading was insatiable. I would read at home, while travelling abroad, before I went to sleep and first thing in the morning. I am talking about a time when Nelson Mandela was still in prison in South Africa. Hence, at the beginning of the 90s I fondly remember reading Irvine Wallaces book: "The Man"



Wow, what a book! The book was written all the way in 1964. Strangely at the time, I did not think it was conceivable to have a black man as a President. Black guys in films always died early, so you can easily be conditioned to believe Black people will not amount to much. The only way black people were portrayed in the media was in sport and music. Well the President in this book did not die. Society did try to impeach him. The killer point of the book was a powerful lesson for me. If the boxer Mike Tyson had read the book before his February 10th 1992 conviction, he could have ignored the booty call he received late one night. When the President found himself in the company of women alone in the Oval Office, he always left the DOOR OPEN.

Bam!! Beat that for advice. If you can get the book, read it.

I do not comment on religion or politics. However, when President Obama was running for election in USA my immediate thoughts went to this book. Times have sure changed.

I do not have the luxury of reading a lot these days. Here is a list of magazines I read to fill the gap:

http://shecaribbean.com

For those of us from the caribbean:



http://www.oprah.com/omagazine.html

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk

http://www.ninetyninemag.co.uk/index.html

Do you remember the award winning The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996? Man I had fun in them days!

I have to add one of my favourites, a short clip of Will Smith verses Helena in the boxing ring:

The bottom line is:

Every man has a poem in his heart.
Mike Gayle



I love reading. I have read all the James Clavell "Shogun" series. All the Tom Clancy "Ryan" series. All the John Grisham "Client/lawyer" series and all of the Dan Brown series. There are more authors that I could mention. Sometimes there are periods in your life when your favourite authors have not published anything.
It was through one spell of drought, late 90s, I was on one of my monthly searches in the book shops for new material to read. Along came 'Mr Commitment' written by Mike Gayle. I was immediately attracted to the colour of the cover. I was apprehensive at first. I overcame my fear and purchased the book. That was 11 years ago. Since then you do not know how many times I have bought personal copies of the same book for some of my commitment phobic friends.

Allow me to introduce you to Mike Gayle if you do not already know him.



According to www.Wikipedia.org, Mike is a British author and freelance journalist contributing to a variety of magazines including FHM and Sunday Times Style. He was an agony aunt for Just Seventeen and Bliss before he wrote books.

This is his website:

http://www.mikegayle.co.uk/ (please copy and paste address into your URL toolbar)

This is his list of books:

My Legendary Girlfriend (1998), Flame, ISBN 0-340-71816-1
Mr. Commitment (1999), Flame, ISBN 0-340-71825-0
Turning Thirty (2000), Flame, ISBN 0-340-76794-4
Dinner for Two (2002), Flame, ISBN 0-340-82342-9
His 'n' Hers (2004)
Brand New Friend (2005), ISBN 0-340-82539-1
Wish You Were Here (2007)
The Life & Soul of the Party (2008)
The Importance of Being a Bachelor (2010)
His ninth book is a non-fiction novel called The To Do List, about his own efforts to complete a 1277-item To Do List.

Let me tell you, if you were born in the 70s in England (in the midlands, like I was), here is a gentleman that takes you on a nostalgic journey through time. More importantly, his books navigate through the unsaid dramas of relationships.

If you work with 'Screenagers' like I do, his material is a fantastic foundation to build upon. He has a way of describing the highs and the lows and even the scary dilemmas. For instance one of his books describes a young couples argument in IKEA. I am sure we can all relate to this.

Another book describes the story of a young man, who goes on holiday, starts a holiday romance, only to break it at the end of the holiday. A good few years later, the same young guy is married but unfortunately his wife is unable to conceive. Then out of the blue a young girl who is his daughter (from the holiday romance) gets in touch with the same guy. He did not know he had a young pretty daughter. The dilemma was, should he tell his wife? Secretly he was ecstatic to know that he had a doting young daughter that he can relate to because the said guy wrote for a popular teenage magazine. That is how the girl found him. What would you do?



One more I must share, how many of us have best friends who are of the opposite sex? How does your husband/wife or partner feel about this? He has written a book on that topic too! I tell you for the last 11 years my family have been sharing his dramatic style of writing. Once I start one of his books, all you can hear is the frequent giggles.



I am sure one day he is going to explore the area of social networking sites. According to one research, having a Blackberry adds 10 extra working days a year. Or he may look into if Technology has taken its toll on relationships by leapfrogging the whole blind date thing.

(see http://blogs.abcnews.com/aheadofthecurve/2010/03/is-technology-taking-its-toll-on-our-relationships.html)

(Mikes kind of writing would make good mini-series TV dramas. Something else I would add to my ever growing TV channel)

You know, good books and good music are a couple of ingredients that prevent you from becoming depressed.
Thanks Mike (another one) for things we are too afraid to talk about.

Example of my back in the days raving diet, Lauryn Hill That Thing:

The bottom line is:

All 'humans' are equal, but some humans are more equal than others' (substituted the word animal for human)

George Orwell, Animal Farm

When I was growing up, we used to use the word Prejudice. Now we call it Racism. The word racism did exist, for some reason prejudice was the lingua franca at the time. Fortunately, I was shielded from the full force of prejudice. Whereas I was taught not to feel ashamed of my colour, I was not totally protected.

Even now sometimes, I have to go to an off the beaten track assignment. When I enter the premises, the look I receive from some peoples faces is astonishing. Many times, I find that I am the only one from my background to be present. Most of the time I am accepted, there have been occasions when I have blatently been ignored.

I have learned that, it does not help my cause, if I play up to the misguided stereotype of my background. In other words: 'chip on their shoulders, always loud, always lazy and definitely always late'.
Further, my cause is not advanced if I do not read. Like most people, I spend a lot of my time reading.

Quite often you can go through life either fighting tooth and nail or allowing people to discriminate against you by taking advantage of you.
I will never forget my first interview I had for teaching before leaving university. Picture the situation, mid 90s, John Majors Britain. There was that slip of the tongue prevailing thought distributed by the media that said that: "all young black men were muggers!". This did not make us young men feel good. Still it was before Islamophobia of the 21st Century.
I was virtually penniless, no assets apart from the unkempt hair on my head, cd player (young brother had to have his music), and the shirt on my back.
I was completing the final year of my teacher training course. After four years of full time studying, the pressure was on to find a job to settle quickly into routine to pay off my ever growing student debts. As usual I was competing for a Newly Qualified Teachers positions with all of the other students who were completing their degree at the same time. We are talking pre MP3 days, pre PDF documents, pre Google and Facebook.

The school was in the stockbroker belt of Surrey. A well to do secondary school in Esher to be precise. I filled in the application form, posted the letter on time and waited for a response. A day before the scheduled interview date for those successful candidates who were contacted early and shortlisted, I was phoned with the instructions to attend. I did not know that the school had an internal candidate.

I borrowed some money for a new suit, and tried to make myself presentable. I scoped out my journey to ensure that I arrived on time.
I arrived at a wonderfully equipped school. The type of school that most parents dreamed of. The reception I was given was not so great. When they saw me, I received the famous 'Blazing Saddles' look; (The teacher is a .........). Needless to say, by todays standards I was asked the most personal questions. When I reflect, it was more like an interrogation of who I am trying to impersonate. I was not incandescent with rage for wasting my time. I kept my cool. When you have grown up as the underdog, stopped and questioned countless times by the Police (believe it or not I did study in Eltham, Stephen Lawrence demise territory), you learn that shouting and screaming is not the most diplomatic way of being listened to. Thankfully, I did not get the job.
There are other non transparent events that I cannot forget. For instance, in the past, when I applied for certain courses that will advance my career prospects, at referee point, my reference have been deliberately lost. The result is that I missed the deadline round, leading to my missing the interviews.

Life is hard, however, life is hard for everyone. Even for those who practise being prejudice.
On my life journey, I have met the most wonderful people too. People who treat you with no prejudice. These are the ones who go out of their way to hospitably share what they know and who they know. They have taught me the value of TRUST. Obviously we cannot trust everyone, neither do I expect everyone to trust me without truly knowing me. It is these kind natured people that I try to model myself after today.

For what is the point of bearing grudges against people who enjoy discrimination?

Remember this?

A not so funny? Infamous scene from the film from 1974 (round abouts when I was born) Blazing Saddles starring Cleavon Little as the new Sheriff.

The bottom line is:

All children need, is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them.
E.M Johnson

Have you seen the 2010 Academy Award winning film Precious? If you are looking for a good Friday feel factor, this certainly is not the film to whine down to.

Below is the trailer for the film Precious:



If you ever get involved in child protection cases, you will know that they are some of the most complex circumstances made up of imperfect knowledge, ethical dilemmas mixed into a lethal cocktail of an emotionally charged atmosphere.

Working in schools you realise very quickly that within a large percentage of families, you will find cases similar to Precious.

I do not need to go into why these cases exist. I can comment on what we can do to reduce cases such as Precious if it is part of your job specification.

All agencies, including families, need to develop critical oversight. Actually, it is harder to practice than is written. The reason for this is, we are bombarded by MEDIA HYPE.
Hype may be viewed as a tool to distract the discerning audience, however, it is more sinister than this. Incorrect interpretation of hype can lead to witch hunts.
Generally hype asserts itself by ensuring that most people (including families) do not have full access to the truth. If you look carefully, a culture of secrecy, cover-ups and defensiveness prevail.
Therefore, to be effective, critical oversight is a robust method that is open about causes and actions.
When analysing you have to constantly ask key questions. The very first one relating to the APPRECIATION of the subjects life.
To illustrate, imagine you are going to buy a new car for £14,000. 3 years later you decide to sell the car for a new model. Do you expect to receive £14,000 in transfer for a new model? Obviously you would receive less because the car has DEPRECIATED.
In other words the value of the car is lower than when you purchased it. A car is an inanimate object, one we are willing to spend thousands of pounds to maintain. Do we view life as precious as a car to the point of maintaining it?
In ideal conditions, the value of someones life should appreciate. Some kind of evidence of balanced growth should be recognisable. If physical, mental (including education attainment) and emotional growth is absent, your critical oversight should tell you to investigate deeper.
Another essential tool in the critical oversight box is the ability to use your senses. Is something not right? the colours, the smells, the subjects health appearance, is there estimated improvements? Are they being secretive? are they being defensive? If the answer is the affirmative, log your investigation by reporting to the authorities.

That said, it is hoped that you are never involved in such judgement cases in the first place.

Below is a song we used to listen to in the early days of rap music during the 80s. The group called Public Enemy: "Don't believe the hype"

The bottom line is:

"If you are not going to give me something beneficial then I will not give you my attention. Make it relevant to me"

Games Strategy marketing for teenagers



image courtesy of www.ideo.com

Every year I have to talk to Parents at Parents Evenings. Something I don't understand is, why even the brightest of my students do not talk to their Parents. Everything is a don't know error message.
One of my first question after greeting the parents is:
"has your child told you what they have been achieving in my classroom for the last 3 months?"

95% of the time the answer is always a resounding:

"no, my kids don't talk to me. Which is why I am here, for obviously they spend a lot of time talking to you!"

Hmm, I can understand when my friends and family privately complain that they do not hear or see me. I would agree.
Look at it from my point of view. I work with SCREENAGERS who are not the fastest of beings when they are not processing information. I clock well in excess of over 45 hours a week.
For some reason they will not talk to their parents, therefore we in school are their backup developmental communication device. Over the last 15 years, working in schools, I have witnessed how technology has interwoven into teenagers lifestyle. Compared to my days in the 80s and early 90s, the definition of digital divide was still encased in military hardware.

This is where the fatigue comes in, we spend a lot of hours every week crunching fuzzy logic data into useful information. Teachers are required to adapt or we die. The only way to beat students is to join them. This is the fun part of my job. Apart from a great deal of talking, you have to develop knowledge acquisition strategies that will enable you to think like a young mind. We end up sharing the same thirst for 'more input' For good legal reasons, Teachers are not allowed to be part of their social network. For why would you wish to communicate with them outside of the confines of school?
Incidentally did you know that a beginning teacher in their first year frequently has sore throats because of the increased talking.

For those of you who are parents, worried about the future, allow me to share with you something that you may or may not know about how students interact in their world.

Why Screenagers?

Well, forget back in the days of waiting to use the one telephone in the house style.

Screenagers are surrounded by the glow of some sort of screen dispensing some sort of information. Here is the Beta Life summary written by Andy Pipes from Channel 4 who commissioned some research from OTX into the relationships that kids aged 12-24 have with technology.

The average 12-24 year old (or not, if you are one):

Personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)

Frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV

25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access”

A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time.

Have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces

And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC.

The real issue with young people glued to some kind of screens is that many eventually succumb to sleep deprivation. Recent reports have proven what we have known for ages is that young people are averaging 4-5 hours sleep per night rather than the recommended 9 hours their growing bodies deserve.
This can have serious consequences on their physical and emotional well being. Maybe they are fortunate not to be affected now, but, at some point their bodies will ask them to repay those lost hours in the future. But you know what, they may have an 'app' for that too.

So if you want to connect fully with your child/ren I suggest you ignore the error message your kids may give you and get up to speed from a technological point of view.
Listen to music for quite often the songs have hidden meanings such as this classic:

Zapp and Rogers Computer Love



Alternatively check out Scribemedia.org view on screenagers.



You read here it first on curriedflavouredflipproductions10 the only multimedia blog making metamorphic links : )

The bottom line is:

"By the rivers of Ancient Babylon with its famous hanging gardens, she rarely released her inhabitants. Once you are in, you are trapped for life"

Ok I have a confession. Allow me to explain. I am still in Primary school in the middle of the 80s, Thatchers Britain. The Space shuttle was in her early days, Freddie Laker with his no frills flights had just gone bust. No Ayia Napa, or Ibiza, no mobile phones, no walkmans or I-pods, no internet, no satellite tv unlike america, no reality TV shows, 4 channels on government TV.
VHS video tapes, 33" and 45" Vinyl and cassettes was the main music medium, CD's was just coming in. Atari games console was the ultimate gift. A time when we were so proud when our home computers (mine was a Commodore Vic 20) had a maximum of memory 5Kb.

Where did I live? Babylon! I am talking about London, UK.
A serious melting pot of people of all languages tribes and tongues. If you wanted to hear a foreign language, or see culture and diversity, come to London. It was not a trouble free existence. We had reminders about freeing Nelson Mandela in South Africa, feed the world campaign to feed the starving in Ethiopia. Like all major cities, the boundaries of ‘the haves’ and ‘the have nots’ were rife.

I enjoyed school. My tranquillity was punctuated by the Tottenham and Brixton riots and being frequently stopped by the police who would ask me strange questions.

Life was not totally devoid of technology. Forget MP3s and 'YouTube', we did have the ubiquitous double cassettes decks. We competed against one another by seeing who could produce the best mix cassette of RnB, Roots and Rock Steady and Reggae by taping directly off the radio on Sundays. When you listened to singers such as Aswad, Tipper Irie "Police Officer don't give me producer" and Musical Youth "Pass the Dutchie" they echoed the frustration of black people, including the Rastas who felt that we were permanently condemned to "Babylon".

It was not all doom and gloom.

London occasionally had thick fogs, something we hardly see today. When the weather was poor, we walked to school. We did not have days off school when it snowed. And boy it religiously snowed back then.
So imagine my shock when this young beautiful black women presented the weather! She was the first to do so on mainstream TV. It was love at first sight! Her name was Rianna

Rianna Scipio presenting the weather:



Rianna Scipio interview by Totalite de Femmes





Wow, she was my 'Toni Braxton'. My first secret goddess and girlfriend. At the time I did not understand what a crush was, but I could not wait for her next weather bulletin at the weekends. I would be glued to the TV soaking up every word.

Of course we had famous afro-american black women such as Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, Oprah was just starting out in the states, however, I am not talking about these great women. I am referring to Rianna. She was the sunshine in my life.
If I had my own TV channel today, she would still be on television presenting whatever she wanted. My TV channel would have alot of mature women of whatever background. Despite the technological advances, what beats me is why mature women are not on TV today. Are they all hiding? Have they all retired? Anyway, growing up, I may have been stuck near the River Thames in Babylon, but, with women like Rianna, I certainly was not going to be complaining : )

Check out this film entitled "Babylon". Which was filmed around where I grew up in South East London. (Please be mindful of some of the language, I do not intend to offend.)



I have to add another classic dedicated to all the survivors of the 80s.