You go girl!

You go girl! Y’all know me well enough to know that while nearly all of the time I hit up a spot hoping for the best, every now again I slide through expecting some mess. What? Y’all love it. Anyway, I was ready to read Tisha Campbell for blood, bone gristle and marrow for whatever she was gonna do on stage at Helium last week and try to call it comedy. I had it written in my head before I even hit the Galleria  parking lot. The first line was supposed to read: “Gina, girl, you tried it. Now go ahead and leave the jokey jokes to Martin.” Miss Tisha sat me down, and turned me around. I caught a for real ki at her show Saturday night!  No shade, but the gag is I enjoyed her set as much as the last time I saw Martin Lawrence do comedy. I know y’all don’t believe me, but what reason do I have to lie? I can’t speak for the rest of the weekend, but anybody who was up in Helium Saturday night can cosign that we caught a cackle up in there! Now I can’t endorse her choice of ensemble – which was a cross between Moulin Rouge and Dead Presidents. I was like, “girl are you here to rob us or seduce?” I mean, who pairs a corset with a skull cap? Her wayward wardrobe should not distract y’all from the point that I had a cute time. Her telling us she was on the spectrum was not on my Bingo card for what to expect from her show, but I’m proud of her for doing it. The Q&A portion was super cute. But what gave me life was how she decided to close the show, which was not on my bingo card either. When I tell y’all she was giving full choreography on that bite-sized stage with her “Be Alone Tonight!” I did a chest pop and kick ball change just thinking about it!” 

An ice cold Derby party. Don’t let my title fool you, the weather was fine when the folks filed up in the Muny dressed like they were ready to be extras in a Black movie wedding reception scene. They were there to partake in a Kentucky Derby party all the way in STL presented by the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha…you know…”Ice, Ice, too cold too cold…Ice, Ice, the black and gold!” Anyway, a time was had. I hope no one took offense to my sweatpants and matching fascinator. I decided I was gonna walk a piece of the park after the party. Mind your business, from the neck up I was right on theme. Chalana Ferguson showed my fascinator all the way up with her little turquoise ditty. Yulonda Brown has been repping for the SG Rhos with just about every outfit since she crossed. And I wasn’t at all bothered by her latest blue and yellow offering. Who was the woman in the black and white polka dot gloves? I need to ask her where she got them from. They were busy, but not tacky! The gentlemen were looking colorful and distinguished too. I wasn’t expecting Ced from Barcode to rock a lemon yellow blazer, but I was satisfied by it. Speaking of busy and blazers, I have to shout out Dr. Jason Vasser-Elong for his “doing the most in the best way” blazer. He It was custom made featuring articles that had been written about him. I was over the moon when I saw that he gave the St. Louis American features some play! 

Way back Wednesdays coming to the Moonrise. By the time you are reading this, the first one is already in the books. But I wanted to give a shout out to the new Way Back Wednesdays set that kicked off yesterday on the rooftop of the Moonrise Hotel’s Twilight Room with Dr. BJ the DJ and DJ STEWdotNET from 100.3 The Beat. I’m certain that the happy hour drink specials, throwback vibes and music will be quite the feature. They had me at “no cover.” It kicks off at 5 p.m. and goes until 10 p.m. Don’t just meet me there, beat me there. 

Rakim rocked the house. Hip hop icon Rakim played two sold-out shows Sunday night – and I’m so glad he didn’t tell us to “throw your hands in the air, and wave ‘em like you just don’t care.” If he had, somebody would have gone home with a missing tooth, a black eye or a big bruise from getting popped in the chest or the shoulder. Did anybody else see that server almost catch a throat chop by the zealous fan in the red shirt who was rapping with his hands along with Rakim from his seat. Rakim still moved the crowd, but barely because it was so tight up in there. I mean, it was packed packed. Rakim delivered in the way that only a rap god could. And we rapped along to doggone near every word. He had no backing tracks or a bunch of hype men running into each other on stage. Rakim did the old school proud. I would have needed an oxygen tank if I had to go through two whole shows rhyming like that at my age. And while we are talking about age, I’m gonna need Rakim to go ahead and get started with it. But for real, can somebody get a message to him to quit gatekeeping and come up off that skin care routine? I was already feeling a type of way from last week’s comedy show when TK Kirkland announced that he was 65 and barely had a sip of a wrinkle on his face. I estimate Rakim to be somewhere around 86, and his face looks like he is still thinking of a masterplan! I’m saying this out of jealousy, not hate. 

The return of Twilight Thursdays. Oh and If you don’t know, the latest installment of Twilight Thursdays kicks of tonight (as in Thursday) at The Missouri History Museum. For those of you still going through it after seeing “Michael” and mourning for him all over again, you can soothe yourself by checking out JAM doing a tribute to Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars. The show starts at 6 p.m. 

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