A Rose by Any Other Name Would NOT Smell as Sweet: Christian Louboutin

So today fashionistas, I was almost the victim of a horrible horrible crime...SHOE FREUD! I had read a colleagues blog (check it out ladykatour.blogspot.com...awesome blog) and there was an article about the famous red-bottom Christian Louboutin shoes. The article included a website that had Christian Louboutins for cheap. So, of course I fell in love with the site. I could not wait for my refund check to come so I could buy my first pair of the classic shoes. Refund check time is finally near, so I started looking around for new wearable art to add to my closet and louboutinbox.com was the first site I visited. I found this great pair of mary jane platform heels that I could not wait to add to my closet in 8 days. But, then I decided to look at Christian Louboutin's spring/summer 2010 new collection, just to check out it, I already knew I couldn't afford it...lol. As soon as I entered the official website (christianlouboutin.com) they had a big warning stating the following: Warning! The official website of Christian Louboutin only exist under the following addresses www.christianlouboutin.com and www.christianlouboutin.fr. At present, we do not operate an e-commerce on this site. All other websites named CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN are illegal and may sell counterfeited products. We invite you to check the list of our worldwide stock list in the our boutiques section of the site to verify the list of out official retailers. Like you I only got through the first sentence of that. So, I paid it no mind and of course and went on my merry way surfing the web. While looking at the website I came across these orgasmic pair of shoes entitled "Tahiti" from the spring/summer 2010 collection I just had to speak about them. These shoes start of at $2500 and can be purchased at most high end stores like Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York..I could not find if they have already hit stores yet, but if not, when they do they will be a hit. Ok...back to the originally scheduled program...after wiping the drool off my mouth after seeing those incredible shoes, I decided to check out more of the website. I came across a lot of the shoes I saw on louboutinbox.com's site. But these shoes were priced at $800 and way up. So, I questioned how could they be $150 on the other website? So,I googled the site and found that many others had the same question I did and we all came across the same answer...the site is fake. One woman stated she had purchased shoes from them and did not like them [for unknown reasons] and she sent them back. She was never refunded her money. So not only is the site selling counterfeited shoes, but they are also running a scam. After further research I found that the website responded to one interested shoppers counterfeit questions saying "Our shoes look 93% exactly like real louboutin shoes but they are 7% different because of copy right issues.” That should really be posted on their site somewhere in BIG red letters. Since it is not, to prevent this from happening to my readers here is a list of phony Christian Louboutin websites:
bloomsun.com
buychristianlouboutin.com
buyerpage.com
buyreplicashoes.com
bychristianlouboutin.com
christian-louboutin-mall.com
christian-louboutin.me
christian-louboutins.com
christianlouboutin-too.com
christianlouboutin.org.uk
christianlouboutin123.com
christianlouboutin789.com
christianlouboutin86.com
christianlouboutingate.com
christianlouboutinlondon.com
christianlouboutinretail.com
christianlouboutins.net
christianlouboutinsales.com
christianlouboutinshop.us
christianlouboutinus.com
christionlouboutin.com
clsell.com
ctwtrade.com
designerheel.com
echristianlouboutin.com
edhardy4cheap.com
edressonline.com
eshop-bag.com
famousbrandshop.com
fashionbrand100.cn
genuine-louboutin.com
go4bagtrade.com
hichristianlouboutin.com
homeyee.com
ioffer.hk
knockoff-bags.com
louboutinbox.com
louboutincollection.com
louboutinfashion.com
louboutinfashion.com
louboutinheels.com
louboutinheels.com
louboutinmall.com
louboutinonly.com
louboutinsale.com
louboutinstores.com
luxurytrendy.com
madrabite.com
mei-store.com
paypalproduct.com
pickvogue.com
pinkfootwear.com
princess-heels.com
salesandal.com
shoesshop.us
shopredluxe.com
thedesignerdiscount.com
urchristianlouboutin.com
voguelouboutin.com
wantapair.com
whatagirlwantsshop.com
winbuyer.com
womenofluxury.com

So that you won't be fooled online or in the stores here is what you should look for in a real pair of Christian Louboutin shoes "Louboutin heels are always flush up against the sole of the shoe, as are the heel tips (which are thick grade leather, not plastic as it appears here [on the site].) There should be no gaps..." and of course looks for the classic red bottom which appears on most of their shoes. Also, if they don't come in the authentic box...something is wrong. The saying goes "be careful what you wish for." I say be careful what you shop for!

Photos courtesy of http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:JaM0Z9tLMdz6UM:http://justjaime28.wordpress.com/files/2008/12/christian-louboutin.jpg, louboutinbox.com, and christianlouboutin.com.

Chris Brown is Hits hard with Graffiti

Chris Brown has returned in a big way. After letting the dust settle on his Rihanna controversy, he has returned hitting the streets hard with his current single "I Can Transform Ya"featuring the hottest rapper in the game right now Lil' Wayne and one of the most dynamic producers Swiss Beatz dropping some lines and he produced the song as well. The video premiered on MTV at 6am in the morning on Oct. 27, 2009. The song itself has been released since September 29, 2009 and reached #16 on the Billboard Music Charts. The next video to follow is for the song "Crawl", which will have a cameo from singer Cassie (maybe a potential hook-up he did meet Rihanna on the job, but hey he would have to stop hooking up with RiRi overseas before that could happen) . I can't help to think other than Crawl is about Rihanna. With lines like "everybody says we're through" and  "where do we go from here with all this fear in you eyes." The whole songs sound like he wants  to get back together, taking it one step at a time. But, I could be jumping to conclusions. The album drops December 15,2009. Brown has been working on the album since November 2008. He is channeling Prince and Michael for this album and hopes to change it up just enough to keep us interested. Brown has also been busy on the movie "Takers", which in includes actors Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, Paul Walker,Hayden Christensen, and the always sexy T.I. A movie with T.I. and Chris Brown is a definite go see! The film is scheduled to drop Feb 26, 2010. Don't forget to cop his album in December. Look for him in the next issue of the resurrected Vibe Magazine and in a city near you for his Fan Appreciation concert tour. 

Click the following link for concert dates 

http://www.chrisbrownworld.com/events.

Click the following link to see the video 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4iWvZ54DXA

Click the following link to hear "Crawl"

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Click the following link to view the "Takers" trailer  v=VwHfCHhylE0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwmFjCeEag

Photos courtesy of ChrisBrownWorld.com

F*#K what u say!: Musicians and Offensive Lyrics

Long time no see blogworld...it has been a while. I was writing this paper for Speech and I was asked the question "Should musicians have the right to create songs that are misogynous, racist, homophobic, and anti-sematic?" I thought my paper was good enough to be posted on my blog. So here it is....

Musicians should have the right to create songs saying whatever they want to say. Under the first Amendment rights, it gives all people, freedom of speech. The first amendment does not exclude musicians. Next, people need to take in consideration how others might perceive these lyrics. What may be someone’s trash might be another’s treasure. Finally, when the question “should musicians have the right to create songs that are misogynous, racist, homophobic, and anti-semantic?” is presented are people really talking about all musicians or just rappers because if this is not the case why is it that rappers are the only ones brought to the forefront in the media? I ask people who disagree to think.

Everyone is so quick to resort to the first amendment rights, when debating about topics such as this. This is because they are right to. People have the right to state their opinions in the United States of America, and people have the choice to listen to it or not. Some may express well I cannot protect my children from the media. Famous psychologist Erik Erikson and other psychologist agree that in human life we have eight stages of development. In the beginning, stages a parent is suppose to instill what is right and wrong in a child. So when a child reaches stage three, which is purpose, initiative vs. guilt they will think twice about doing something that their parents have taught them earlier in life is wrong. They say most children do as they are told and some choose to do what they want to do. If you did instill in your child that to listen to this music is wrong then most likely they will turn it off according to Erikson. If the child chooses to listen, the parent does not need to blame the media but themselves because it was their job to teach the child morals. If a song is playing, on the radio, saying something that someone does not want to hear, they can turn the radio off. If a music video comes on television with sexually explicit images and lyrics turn the television off. Simple, just turn it off. By the time, it takes a person to go rally and rant about the media and its content, that same person could have turned off millions of radios and millions of televisions. However, they didn’t. This is because this is not an opinion they want to keep to themselves, they want to push their views on the world. There is a high probability that’s other felt the same way as they did and they could have turned it off as well. However, these people want to take away something someone else might enjoy, when they can simply just turn it off, because they do not agree with it. Sounds a little bit selfish, doesn’t it? This leads into the next point.

According to dictionary.com perception is the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind. Psychologist believe that how people perceive things can be influenced by many things like a person background. Therefore, how you view something may not be how others view it. So, why would a person, who can simply ignore something, want to totally terminate another’s enjoyment? There are many people in this world who enjoy all music, you can tell this by record sells. There was a time in the world where many homosexuals and their supporters disagreed with what rapper Eminem was saying in his lyrics about homosexuals. However, you cannot tell this grown man what he can say. Even though they disagreed with his music obviously someone like it because his music sales are still thriving to this day, in fact he just came out with a new album that is doing very well. So, if people want to terminate things maybe they should not protest the musicians but their supporters. If the music was not in such popular demand, the artist would stop making it because they would be losing money. They make this music because people want to hear it and buy it and people buying their music supports their livelihood and as long as this remains this way these lyrics will keep coming.
But, Eminem is not the only musician to get receive bad reviews about the content of his music. Many others just like him as well. Which makes me question do other musicians that are not rappers have offensive music? If so, why does the media only expose rappers? Rappers are always being bashed about their content of their lyrics whether it is blatant or not. A song like “Laffy Taffy” by D4L uses candy as metaphors for sex , which gets the point across without being graphic, but they still caught heat for it. But, Warrant has a song called “Cherry Pie” using cherry pie as a metaphor for a vagina but it is one of the greatest rock songs of all time. So, now I pull out the race card. Is it because African-American’s dominate the rap game, that rap is offensive? Some say “no, of course not” but I disagree. Some people are so bias when it comes to rappers. They focus so much on the negative but not the positive. Rapper Nelly was trying to do a bone marrow drive at Spelman College in Atlanta, to look for donors to help people who need those transplants. One of those people was his sister who at the time was suffering from leukemia. But, because of his video to “Tipdrill” that had women doing all sorts of sexually explicit things, he was denied. He wasn’t their to promote his music, nor that video, he was there to find donors. But, he didn’t get that chance because people are so focused on words, I guess more than human lives. His sister eventually died from her disease. Who knows, if they would have let him have his bone marrow drive it could have saved his sister and many other lives. The KKK has been saying hateful things since they started in 1865 and even they have not been prosecuted as much as rappers have. People just rather accept them, like it’s a way of life. The KKK say all types of things, but Jennifer Lopez slips and says nigga in a non offensive way and she is prosecuted about it for about a month. We need to rethink what are focus is in this world. In Greensboro, NC , a college town, Klan-Nazi’s were allowed to come for a convention, even though their last visit resulted in deaths because of their views in 1979. It was fine for Klan-Nazi’s, people hate anybody that is not white, to come into a city which includes two HBCU’s and party Downtown, which is located less than a mile away from both HBCU’s. And no one cared to stop them from coming. But, rapper Gucci Mane is scheduled to perform at NCATSU’s homecoming concert and because he has a criminal record he is not allowed to perform a couple of songs. I ask, “Does no one see anything wrong with that?” If anything both should have been cancelled. I ask, “Has Gucci Mane did anything to the people of Greensboro? No. Now, I ask, “Has Klan-Nazi done anything to the people of Greensboro?” Yes.


The musicians’ lyrics are not the problem. The problem lies within the people who disagree with it. It is up to the people that disagree with it to simply turn it off. Whether it is for them or their children. People don’t have to listen to it. America is very capable of ignoring a negative force because they have been ignoring the Klan for decades. If everyone agreed that this music was offensive, this music would not thrive. But, yet it does so it shows that everyone is not in agreement, when it comes to this topic. America needs to stop being so focused on words and images because there are so many more things in this world to worry about.

This is a on going debate and I would love to here feedback if you disagree or agree...so hit me up!

Pictures courtesy of Flickr.

Canadians Takeover La La Land in " DeGrassi Goes Hollywood"

I have definitely been waiting all summer for "DeGrassi Goes Hollywood" and it definitely lived up to my expectations...no less, no more. But, being that nothing is perfect of course it has its flaws. I swear the DeGrassi students must be the most talented kids in the world, they can do everything...so when you think they can't do anymore of course you find out about more secret talents they have. Supposedly, grease monkey Jay can also play the drums a talent we never were exposed to. Superstar model Mia is actually quite the grease monkey herself and actually was more of a mechanic than Jay was in the movie. Then Manny can sing. But, that one was not as surprising because we know in real life her real name is Cassie Steele and she is a music artist...so that wasn't as far fetched. They tend to do that on DeGrassi, if anyone remembers Craig used to be a photographer but all of a sudden they made him a rock God, that is because that is what he does in real life, once he picked up a mic you haven't seen him pick up a camera since. Anyways, its good DeGrassi students are multi-talented and all but, each talent just popped out of nowhere they could have tied it together somehow, they didn't even try to create a back story for these talents. Onto my next point, Paige definitely did not disappoint. The situations she got into was so Paige. Or should I say so Old school Paige, like when Degrassi first started and she was queen bee. I loved it! The only thing about Paige's character that I thought was a little off was from what I remember Paige was one to hold grudges for a long time, like when she was mad at Ashley I think in season two when Ashley called her out when she was high on ecstasy....so, I thought it was very odd for her to befriend Halley ( I think that was her name in the movie) after all the stuff she put her through she ended up being her friend. Even above that she made a whole speech about how she would never become as mean as her but, in my opinion she became worse because she dissed her own friends. After Halley befriended Paige at least she was a good friend, even though she gave really stupid advice. So, in my eyes Paige went from queen bee to bottom feeder, but hey it was entertaining. But, what wasn't so entertaining was Ellie. I think they needed to tug are emotional strings so they used Ellie's character to do so. They didn't want to use Craig's bi-polar syndrome or crack addiction, that was old news so they attempted to create drama with Ellie. The attempt obviously failed. The whole movie I had no idea what was wrong with her other than her dad was sick. So, the whole movie I'm wondering what did he do in the past to make her hate him so much? Does he have cancer or something worse? Why do they not get along? It turns out that he had post traumatic stress syndrome and she likes to fix people and she is so distraught because she can't help him. I'm not saying that's not serious, but come on they could have done better than that. Also, I don't think that would really drive her to hit the bottle so hard..but, hey I've never been in her shoes...but, I'm just saying...but, I do give them props by making her drink to deal with her stress it all ties in with her mother being an alcoholic and all. Last, but not least Manny. Manny has always been my favorite character all since she went good girl gone bad. I just wished she didn't spend most of the movie trying to get to LA. I would have loved to see more of her in LA. I feel as if her part was rushed at the end of the movie. They could have edited out some of Paige's background story and filled it in with Manny. I love Manny's style, character, EVERYTHING!!! I loved her song "Life is a Show" I will download it as soon as possible. ( Listen to the song here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFsf-mMVWSg) The only part I didn't like was her choice in boyfriends. He was a douche...but, it did set up why she messed up on the audition in the first place, with him psyching her out in all. I am glad she did get the part and all thanks to Paige...who would have thought...because I can swear the last time they spoke to each other it was after Manny broke Paige's leg and she ripped Manny's dress off in front of the whole prom. So, I wouldn't think Paige would go out of her way for Manny, but hey, I'm all for unity and mending wounds. Overall, I liked the movie it was exactly what I expected from DeGrassi. During the movie I saw the commercial for the new season of DeGrassi coming this Fall and like before every new season I am excited for it....so...It's about to get real! Watch the full movie here http://www.the-n.com/theclick/?categoryId=5006&titleId=23822

Photos courtesy of the-N.com

Getting Social n Miami

I am a fabulous life buff, I love the glitz and glamour and of course the money aspect of it so, i watch things about it all the time. Bravo has show that will be coming to a end soon entitled "Miami Social" The show is kind of like the grown-up version of 'The Hills" but it is set in Florida with conversation that doesn't make you I.Q. go down everytime you tune in. I would have to say my favorite person on the show is Zora. She is so down to earth and mature about how she handes her X-husband who happens to be featured on the show as well and is apart of her clic of close friends. I like how she handles having a boyfriend and a X that come across each often well. I admire her for that. My next fav is Michael. Only because I envy his career, he is a celebrity journalist and that is exactly what I want to be when I'm older and in a big city as well. He is stationed in Miami and I want to be in New York. Anyways, I wish I can get in contact with him one day (MICHAEL IF YOUR OUT THERE SOMEWHERE IN CYBERSPACE I WOULD LOVE TO GET IN CONTACT WITH YOU!) I also love how he is a hopeless romantic and you don't find many of those in the gay community.I pretty much like every character I envy their lifestyle and hope when I get that age I can have just as much success. I just wish George would dump his crazy non-American girlfriend! I have nothing against people who are not American but, I just don't what nationality she is. Anyways...she is crazy and like his friend Hardy said in the long run she will tear him down. This not my greatest blog post but I just think something needed to be said about the show. I don't know if they have many viewers I haven't heard much about it through the college scene. But, I love it!

Do you have "good" hair?

In the African American community, we all have our own interpretation of good hair. I personally believe good hair is that unrelaxed hair where you can get it wet and it curls up and still shines. Others believe good hair is long, straight, natural, or whatever you consider good hair it is usually the opposite of the kind of hair you have yourself. This same question went through comedian and Producer Chris Rock's mind, when his daughter came home from school one and asked " Daddy,how come I don't have good hair?" In his new Sundance documentary Chris Rock goes into depth about hair culture and the business of hair; what good hair is, relaxers, weaves, and everything in between. Even "weave sex". He interviews people from the black hair salons in the US to the India where weave is one of their biggest exports...to Hollywood talking to celebs like Nia Long, Raven Simone', Megan Good, Lauren London and more. He traveled for two years doing work for this film, spending most of his time down south. From the previews I have seen it looks informative from a comedic standpoint. Can't wait to go see this when it hits theatres. Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So.

Photo Courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/chocomenta/2480710037/

BET Award Wrap-Up

I love when black people can come into a room and celebrate our accomplishments but, I am disappointed about the way it was executed in this year's BET Awards show.Particular moments I am speaking about goes as follows. Ving Rhames needs to work on his analogies. I love Lil Wayne and Drake but, if you know you can't play half of their song due to inappropriate content, either get another performer or they need to perform another song. And what was up with the tweens on stage dancing to a song saying I Wish I Could F**k Every Girl In The World...F**k them and your definitely catching a charge. Taraji P. Henson, I like her as well but, was a little ghetto tonight I would think an Oscar nominee would act a little more reserved and I was not feeling the hair. She needs to go back to her bob haircut it fit her better. But she was nothing compared to T.I. bay mother some might say fiance' we'll see...lol. She was Ghetto to the bone. I could not imagine what she is going to have to say in a show of her own. T.I. could do so much better. Don Cornelius needs to enunciate, I had no idea what he was saying for about a good 15 minutes. I appreciate the tribute they did to Michael Jackson. Alot, of people have came down on them about it, but they didn't understand what they had to do to get even what they had. Jackson died on Thursday and the show was on Sunday. And I must remind you these shows go through months of planning. So, by Thursday the show was probably already put together and they were going through rehearsals.Therefore, to do what they did with Jackson's song being played after every break, every artist saying their Michael Jackson memories, Janet speaking, and the Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo performance (GREAT) was probably all they could do in such a little time and I appreciate their efforts. I just wish Chris Brown could have been there and said or performed something. I know he would have loved to do something in honor of his idol. BET Award show pros the Maxwell Performance, I missed Jay-Z but I heard his video went well, the O'Jays did their thing once they stopped speaking...lol. Shoutouts to Alicia Keyes and Wyclef Jean for the humanitarian work. I think the Maya Angelou quote Keyes used was beautiful and so true and finally Debra Lee looked beautiful as always. Since, this is a fashion blog and I haven't yet spoke on fashion I will a little bit Worst dressed Keyshia Cole the whole outfit was hideous. It looked like something a 12 year old would wear back in the late 90's the color did not work for her at all. The shoes were okay but, she butchered them because she could not walk in them at all. Then she is going to have the nerve to try to walk up some stairs. The Ordinary award goes to Beyonce. The dress is not my style but it worked well for her. My only complaint is it looks like something we have seen before, which is different for the usually innovative Mrs. Knowles or should we say Mrs. Carter. The best dressed in my opinion was Idris ( some people say eldris..just throwing that out there) Elba. He looked very dapper with his skinny tie and suit....and thats all for the BET Awards....Stay S.T.A.C!