I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: beyonce

  • I ain’t missing you, am I? Yep

    I ain’t missing you, am I? Yep


    From gospel singers Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson to Motown’s Diana Ross and the Supremes of the 20th. century to Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce who light up the 21st. century with their musical magic, I have always loved to hear talented Black artists sing. I have one particular favorite from both centuries, and her name is Tina Turner. I celebrate her memory for her contributions to Black history in this special month.

    Every time I think of you
    I always catch my breath
    And I’m still standing here, and you’re miles away
    And I’m wondering why you left
    And there’s a storm that’s raging
    Through my frozen heart tonight
    I hear your name in certain circles
    And it always makes me smile
    I spend my time thinking about you
    And it’s almost driving me wild
    And there’s a heart that’s breaking

    Down this long distance line tonight
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Since you’ve been gone away
    I ain’t missing you

    No matter what I might say
    There’s a message in the wire
    And I’m sending you the signal tonight
    You don’t know how desperate I’ve become
    And it looks like I’m losing this fight
    In your world I have no meaning
    Though I’m tryin’ hard to understand
    And it’s my heart that’s breaking

    Down this long distance line tonight
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Since you’ve been gone away
    I ain’t missing you

    No matter what my friends say
    And there’s a message that I’m sending out
    Via telegraph to your soul
    And if I can’t bridge this distance

    Stop this heartbreak overload
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Since you’ve been gone away
    I ain’t missing you
    No matter what my friends say
    I ain’t missing you, I ain’t missing you

    I can’t lie to myself
    And there’s a storm that’s raging
    Through my frozen heart tonight
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Every time I think of you
    I always catch my breath

    These lyrics written in 1984 by John Waite became a #1 hit on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks, then covered by other artists through the years until it reached Tina Turner’s Wildest Dreams album and tour in 1996 where it found a home in the hearts of millions of Turner’s fans – including mine.

    From the Spring Hills Baptist Church choir in Nutbush, Tennessee as a child of the late 1940s to concert halls around the globe that set ticketed attendance records including her largest venue with more than 180,000 fans in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1988 Turner entertained and amazed millions of people for nearly six decades with her raspy voice, high energy, sexy self. Her ability to overcome, to survive and thrive in a man’s music world were an inspiration to everyone that knew her story.

    Thank goodness for YouTube videos of Tina Turner who has often been referred to as the Queen of Rock and Roll – I watched my favorite, the Amsterdam concert, through tears when I heard she had left the building permanently two years ago in 2023.

    Every time I think of you, I always catch my breath…sometimes it’s hard to let go, but it’s okay to still miss you.

  • Barbie, Beyonce, Taylor? Yeah, but my vote goes to Ruby and Shaye for 2023 women of the year

    Barbie, Beyonce, Taylor? Yeah, but my vote goes to Ruby and Shaye for 2023 women of the year


    I’ve gone through a tough time this last year with political current events under the Republican control of the House of Representatives where they were more obsessed with finding and keeping a Speaker than confronting America’s dilemmas at home and abroad in 2023. The refugees at our borders desperately seeking safety and security while citizens in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California struggle under the weight of thousands of immigrants crossing their southern borders every day; blocking international aid packages for the people of Ukraine and Israel who are waging desperate wars to protect democracies against terrorism; embracing the Big Lie of the 2020 presidential election – the People’s House no longer represents the majority of the people in this country. They do, however, manage to scare me to death.

    I’ve had several moments of hope in the past year but no personal giddiness until a jury in New York awarded $148 million to Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman on December 15, 2023 in a decision against former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani for his targeted destruction of their lives through defamation of their characters following their service as election workers in Georgia for the 2020 election. Joy to the world, I thought in keeping with the season, accountability reigns. These courageous Black women have persistently sought justice for the loss of their identities for the past three years, and a jury of their peers rewarded these sacrifices in a tangible manner.

    CNN December 20, 2023

            Shaye Moss speaks while her mother Ruby Freeman listens

                      ************

    But Giuliani refuses to keep his mouth shut about the two women who defeated him. All is still not calm nor particularly bright in the former mayor’s mind.

    “On the heels of winning a $148 million defamation judgment Friday against Rudy Giuliani, former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have again sued the former New York City mayor seeking to “permanent bar” him from making additional defamatory comments about them…

    In a 134-page complaint filed Monday, attorneys for the two women wrote that Giuliani “continues to spread the very same lies for which he has already been held liable,” citing comments made last week to ABC News’ Terry Moran outside of court, in which Giuliani insisted that Freeman and Moss were “changing votes.”

    The two women asked the court to prevent Giuliani from “making or publishing … further statements repeating any and all false claims that plaintiffs engaged in election fraud, illegal activity, or misconduct of any kind during or related to the 2020 presidential election.”  (ABC News, Lucien Bruggeman, December 18, 2023)

                   *************

    I congratulate the Barbie financial empire creators, Beyonce and Taylor Swift for their amazing accomplishments and recognitions in 2023 – feminist has returned to favor in a world that needs a woman’s touch. But remember Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, too, for their historic win against a man who picked the wrong battle and lost.

    Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, fa la la la. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la. I’m in the mood to deck a few halls.

  • from the prom to white christmas to 2021

    from the prom to white christmas to 2021


    Pretty and I began Christmas Day with a musical comedy called The Prom that started streaming on Netflix in December with a cast that featured three of our film favorites, Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington and Nicole Kidman. The movie got mixed reviews from the critics (whoever they might be) but came highly recommended to us by several friends as a must see. Even though I knew nothing about it, my feeling was any movie with Meryl is a must see.

    Spoiler alert: The movie was about a high school girl in a small town in Indiana who wasn’t allowed to come to her prom because she wanted to bring another girl as her date. The plot sang and danced its way from one twist to another turn, from the longing of young lesbian love to the more political issues of inclusion and discrimination. Lavish musical production numbers, intimate dialogue among the key characters, Kerry Washington as a mother with a penchant for control that rivaled Olivia Pope in Scandal, Nicole Kidman with legs that went on forever, a musical Meryl having fun in the spirit of her Mama Mia movie in 2008. Director Ryan Murphy combined a variety of love stories set to music sung and danced to by a cast of talented performers that also featured James Corden, Keegan-Michael Key and Jo Ellen Pellman as the teenage lesbian heroine. Pretty and I were thoroughly entertained.

    What struck me as I watched from the comfort of my recliner, however, was the message of the movie. In 2020 teenage lesbians coming of age in outgoing VP Pence’s home state of Indiana weren’t intrinsically bad kids. They were legitimate heroines; their love could be celebrated, not condemned. What a difference sixty years make. I shed more than a few tears mixed with laughter as I relived the emotions of my teenage yearnings for the “love that dared not speak its name.” Going to a prom with another girl in West Columbia, Texas in 1964 was as unimaginable for me as becoming Vice President of the United States.

    Christmas night Pretty and I settled in for another musical comedy on Netflix: White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney (George Clooney’s aunt on his daddy’s side), Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, another dancer whose legs went on forever. This classic was made in 1954 when I was 8 years old and while I have no memory of seeing it that Christmas, I do remember watching several times when it was replayed on television over the next six decades. I had, of course, forgotten almost everything about White Christmas except the song “Sisters,” a dance routine Clooney and a dubbed Vera-Ellen sang in costumes Beyonce and Tina Turner must have worn at some point in their careers. Did I mention Vera-Ellen’s legs went on forever? Well, Pretty was more impressed with her tiny waist which was practically nonexistent.

    The amazing costumes for White Christmas were created by Edith Head, one of Hollywood’s most prestigious costume designers who won eight Oscars during her career but not one for this technicolor film. No, the only Oscar for the movie went to Irving Berlin for the title song which is purportedly the largest selling single record of all time if you can trust Guinness World Records that places sales at more than 50 million copies. Pretty came up with the interesting research that Bing Crosby had recorded the song years before the 1954 movie was made – that’s Pretty for you, and she’s always right. Crosby introduced “White Christmas” for the first time on Christmas Day on his radio show in 1941, days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Pretty and I spent Christmas day with our dogs, our gas logs and Netflix movies. This year we had no travel plans, no holiday get together with friends; but we had enough memories of our past twenty years together to make the day as special as our first Christmas. We had Mexican food leftovers purchased the day before at our favorite go-to small restaurant near our home. Life is better with salsa.

    The pandemic of 2020 changed not only our lives but also the lives of everyone on the planet forever. On Christmas Eve we opened gifts at the home of our son and daughter-in-law to share the joy of our granddaughter Ella James who at age 1 was more interested in opening the packages than what was inside. It was a memory maker, as my mother used to say.

    Stay safe, stay sane and please stay tuned as we face 2021 together. Pretty and I wish better days for all our friends in cyberspace in the New Year.

     

  • proud mary


    While Pretty was away doing constructive activities with her father and number one son Drew at his house across town this morning, I watched CBS Sunday Morning. Oprah’s Gayle who is also a CBS correspondent interviewed Tina Turner at her home in Zurich, Switzerland. Tina was promoting her new autobiography, and Gayle was having fun talking to her.

    When Gayle asked Ms. Turner what she had to say about her many fans who missed her performing after her final performances in 2007, Tina said her fans now had her many videos…which led me straight to my computer which is now smoking from my watching countless videos of Tina Turner singing Proud Mary – with and without Ike – for the next two hours.

    No version is as fabulous, to me, as the duet with Beyoncé at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

    Proud Mary

    Tina Turner and Beyonce

    My apologies to all of my feminist friends and to my wife Pretty who is not a huge fan of Beyoncé, but if I ever have a memorial service, please play this video on a decent screen.

    P.S. Pictures taken from video on my computer and used with no one’s permission.

    Stay tuned.