Set in and around Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s, at the start of the civil rights movement, The Help offers up a powerful statement of selflessness, tenacity, and strength among southern black women who work in the homes of southern white women. They cook, clean, take care of the little white babies, and just about everything else around the house. I couldn’t help but initially wonder if this was going to be a black version of Steel Magnolias. It was not!

The stellar cast of Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Viola Davis, along with smaller but great performances from Cicely Tyson, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, and True Blood’s Nelsan Ellis all add to the excellent writing of Tate Taylor (screenplay) and Kathryn Stockett (novel).

While the movie definitely shows the ugliness of the day, it instead focuses on the optimism of those who are considered the help.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune said it best, “But as filled with contradictions as it is — genteel but prejudiced, mannered but mean, home to the most civilized brand of cruelty you ever did see — it’s built on tradition.”

Unfortunately, Muddy, Chuck, Little Richard, Wolf, and Big Mamma did die that day. They were smothered in the ashes of their white successors. With Buddy dead and Elvis shipped off to war, the immediate “channelers” of Black blues and soul were gone. And so gone was the trail that led to the beginnings of Rock & Roll.

Black Music soon transitioned into the commercial Motown sound which served to make the distinction between polished R&B soul music and the new guitar driven R&B of white acts like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. The distinction grew even further as “Rock” music became more audacious and black music became tamer and tamer.

Disco music had transformed black music so much that by the 80′s black music and rock music were as different as days and nights. However, there were grand funk bands in the 70′s like Funkadelic, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and Kool & The Gang. And What about Jimi Hendrix?

Two days ago I came across the article “Free Boosie movement stupid, calls for release of murderer” by Chris Grillot. It was so appalling and misleading I felt a response was necessary. The sad fact is the basis of the American justice system has been perverted in the case of Torrence Hatch aka “Lil Boosie”. Based on Grillot’s title alone, we can believe he presumes Hatch guilty.

This plays directly into the hands of the DA who manufactured the charge against Boosie. In a jury trial, especially one with a high profile defendant, public perception can be a tool for either side. If Grillot’s attitude is the prevailing mindset in Baton Rouge, I fear for anyone accused of a crime there. Fortunately, this attitude is wrong and Grillot’s article provides a perfect example to dissect.

Before we start I’ll provide a brief background for those who may not know who I’m talking about: Lil’ Boosie is a rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is currently facing a first degree murder charge. He is not to be confused with Lil’ Wayne, who has had his own legal troubles and will be mentioned in the next paragraph. Sorry to those who knew this info, but my mom told me she was confused by the two so I thought I’d clarify for the older crowd.

It’s easy to forget now, but just a few generations ago African-Americans overwhelmingly identified themselves as Republicans. The story of how the Party of Lincoln lost its black support is long and sad, but understanding what happened will be critical as the Party looks to improve its standing in the black community.

You could start the story in the fall of 1895, when Atlanta put on one in a series of “International Expositions” designed to highlight its progress in recovering from the war. Racial tensions had been growing since Southerners, at the end of Reconstruction, began instituting Jim Crow laws to curtail black civil rights. Those laws were under challenge at the time and there were differences among blacks on the merits of direct resistance.

Produced by The Farrelly Brothers in conjunction with ESPN Films, Lost Son of Havana is not only a great baseball film but it is also an excellent documentary managing to gain a foothold inside of Fidel Castro’s Cuba as of November of 2007. Luis Tiant, who was born in a suburb of Havana, Cuba in November of 1940, left Cuba in 1961 for several months to play baseball in the United States. During the interim period of time, however, Fidel Castro’s Regime gained control of the tiny island country refusing to permit those Cubans who were abroad to return unless they did so immediately.

Luis Tiant, therefore, remained in exile in the United States for forty-six years before being given permission to return home to Havana. This is the story, subsequently, which Lost Son of Havana chronicles: Luis Tiant’s exile in The United States playing superior baseball in both the Minor and the Major Leagues for a variety of Teams including The Cleveland Indians, The Minnesota Twins, The Boston Red Sox, The New York Yankees, The Pittsburgh Pirates, and The California Angels.

Florence Prag Kahn was the first Jewish American Woman to serve as a Congressman in The United States. Born on November 9th, 1866 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Florence Prag was the oldest child of Conrad Prag and Mary Goldsmith.

Conrad Prag, who was a Jewish Merchant from Warsaw, Poland, traveled to California in 1849 to participate in The GoldRush. He settled, for a period of time, in San Francisco where he helped to found The Congregation Sherith Israel in 1851 and met and married Mary Goldsmith. Mary Goldsmith moved to San Francisco with her parents from Poland when she was only five years old. Mary Prag was an educated woman who was raised in San Francisco’s Jewish Community. (Jewish Women’s Encyclopedia, “Florence Prag Kahn, p.1) She was a teacher at The Congregation Emanu-El and at a San Francisco High School.(p.1) Eventually, Mary Goldsmith Prag became a Vice-Principal at the high school where she was employed and was elected to The San Francisco Board of Education which she served on from 1921 until the time of her death at age eighty-nine in 1935. (p.1) Having two such role models in the home made quite an impression on young Florence who felt, consequently, compelled to achieve and to succeed. Florence Prag also had one brother named Jessie who died from Polio at the age of ten in 1879. Florence was three years older than Jessie.

HHR Blog recently sat down to do an interview with Just-One a member of the New York City band Terminal City. Terminal City was founded in 2009 by NYC emcee Just-One and guitarist/songwriter Derek Kunkel. The clash between Just-One’s edgy flow and Derek’s melodic guitar quickly became the basis around which Terminal City has developed. Today, the band fuses indie rock with hip hop and funk to create a dark intelligent sound that is both danceable and melodic.

Get Me to the Greek, portrays himself as a record producer who commissions one of his Interns (Jonah Hill) to sign comedian turned rock star Russell Brand, as Aldous Snow, to a recording contract. Spun from the successful comedic film entitled Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand as the rock star falls off of the wagon and back onto drugs, booze, and women much like Anthony Quinn did in Zorba the Greek. Sean Combs, as the producer, lends not only much needed color to this film, which is reminiscent of England’s rendition of Coming to America, but in the process Combs provides a positive role model for, especially, American youths to emulate and imitate.

Get Me to the Greek, which should have been called Get Me to the Geek (although Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, and Sean Combs are no “Geeks”) is scheduled to be released in theaters this summer. Don’t miss it!

Sandra Day O’Connor was born on March 26th, 1930. This means that this March 26th, 2010 she will be eighty years old. Sandra Day O’Connor faced many obstacles in her very long and brilliant career as a person and as an attorney. Although she was born in El Paso, Texas to an upper-middle class family comprised of her rancher father named Harry Day and her mother named Ida Mae Wilkey Day, the family took Sandra to the cattle ranch in South Eastern Arizona called “The Lazy B” soon after Sandra O’Connor was born. On the “Lazy B” Sandra Day O’Connor lived in isolation rarely seeing a face outside of her immediate family for months at a time. In addition to her parents, Sandra had a younger brother and a sister who were not born until after she had left the cattle ranch. (OYEZ, “Sandra Day O’Connor, p.1) This made Sandra feel like an only child.

Join HHR Blog on March 17, 2010 in New York as we celebrate artist KJ ROSE (Keanna) as she debuts her album.

St. Patrick’s Day, also referred to as St. Paddy’s Day, began on March 17th, 461 A.D. with the death of St. Patrick. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland although he was not born an Irishman. The day has been celebrated in Ireland for over one thousand years. Although he was not born an Irishman, but was British, St. Patrick and the celebration of his day as a National Holiday in Ireland; and as a day of celebration for the Irish and all things representing the Irish in the United States can be attributed to his years of service to the Irish in Ireland in which he converted the predominantly “pagan” people to Catholicism. “Pagans” are people who either do not believe in God, or those who worship false gods. St. Patrick believed in the Trinity comprised of God-the-Father, God-the-Son, and God-the-Holy Spirit.

The story of St. Patrick is an interesting one. He was born in 385 AD in either Scotland or England. Patricius Maewyn Succat was his given name at birth which was shortened to Patrick. His father, named Calpurnius, was a Roman-British Army Officer. One day, as he was playing in Great Britain with a group of other children, he was kidnapped by pirates who sold him into slavery in Ireland.

On Friday night, HHR Blog was invited to an event sponsored by “ICED MEDIA” and RHYMESAYERS ENTERTAINMENT to cover rapper Freeway and Jake One’s album preview.

In The United States’ Government versus Thomas B. Chong, a/k/a Tommy Chong, filmmaker Josh Gilbert presents a documentary about the 2002 conviction of Cheech n’ Chong’s Tommy B. Chong for selling drug paraphernalia over the internet. The documentary, which highlights the formation and the rise of Cheech n’ Chong as cult legends from the Counter-Culture Revolution in The United States; the events leading up to Tommy Chong’s 2002 conviction; and his rehabilitation after a nine month prison stay , seeks to make some sense out of the 2001 search, seizure, and arrest of Tommy Chong.

The center idea behind my paintings is environment. In this case having moved to Chelsea, NYC in late August, Running Man (24×37, mixed media on paper, 2009) is from a series of abstract paintings about or, around the neighborhood as it is currently developing.

A trial has recently concluded in a California Federal Court over the issue of same sex marriage. The plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger seek to overturn California’s gay marriage ban (Prop. 8th) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The case is unique on many counts including the fact that the Judge conducted a full courtroom trial rather than a bare exchange of paper arguments. It is also unique in that the plaintiffs are represented by a well-known conservative attorney who has used the case to shape a fascinating conservative argument for same sex marriage.

Ted Olson is a conservative’s conservative. He was counsel to George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore and served as Bush’s Solicitor General. He defended Reagan in the Iran Contra scandal and assisted in the Paula Jones case against Bill Clinton. He is a founding member of the Federalist Society and a longtime critic of judicial activism. And he believes he has constructed a conservative case for gay marriage that can prevail before the current Supreme Court.