deerstalker

Since it was revealed that Janet Jackson’s career was purposefully hindered by the influence of the now-disgraced CBS chairman Leslie Moonves, one of music’s greatest living female icons has been getting the awards she so rightfully deserves. Last night at the MTV EMAs, Jackson was presented with The Global Icon Award in Bilbao, Spain. The award recognized, says MTV, that “her incredible artistry has opened doors for countless others while leaving an indelible impact on pop culture.”

At the ceremony, Jackson delivered a fantastic speech.

“To be called an icon is a tremendous honor, but one that comes with a tremendous responsibility,” Jackson said, according to The Washington Post. “Tonight, I feel moved to speak for women’s voices who have been stifled. I am one of those women. Women who have been gagged, both literally and emotionally. Women who have been abused. Women who have been intimidated. Women who have lived in fear. I stand with you. You are my sisters.”

This is great, and while I am elated that people are collectively standing behind Ms. Jackson, it doesn’t erase the fact that her career was purposefully stalled by a man who felt she didn’t properly grovel to him. Leslie Moonves is the one who should be apologizing now.

(via WaPo, image: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images for MTV)

• Deadpool 2’s PG-13 movie release isn’t just a fun way for the movie to make more money—it is also going to donate $1 from every ticket to a charity called “Fuck Cancer” which will be renamed “Fudge Cancer” in keeping with the PG-13 rating. (via Gizmodo)
• Ariana Grande is turning a very public breakup into an awesome song about personal power, with a touching tribute to her late former flame, Mac Miller. (via The Atlantic)
• Just because Halloween season is over, doesn’t mean we can’t still be in a sci-fi mood. Here are 20 shows you can binge on Netflix this November. (via The Portalist)
• Kevin Feige talks about the lessons that Black Panther taught him and how it will influence diversity moving forward in Marvel. (via CBR)
• In true fanboy fashion, Director Luca Guadagnino discusses how he turned his obsession with the original Suspiria into a nontraditional remake. (via Den of Geek)

Oh wow, it’s Monday. Hail Garfield.

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Updated from November 2nd.

Note: We’ll be updating this article through end-of-day Tuesday, so if there’s anything I left off, let us know in the comments!

We’ve been hyping the importance of voting and registering to vote for what feels like forever, and now that the big day is just around the corner (Tuesday, November 6th!), there are a lot of first-time (or even long-time) voters out there who might want some advice regarding how to make the most out of their time at the polls, or even basic knowledge for what comes next. We’ve got you covered.

Check registration & find your polling place.

You can do that at vote.org. Check your registration status here and find your polling place here. Even if you know there’s a polling place near you, take a few seconds and check to make sure it’s where you’re supposed to go. Sometimes the borders of voting districts aren’t where you’d expect, so make sure you know before you leave home!

How to get there.

A number of transportation companies are offering free or discounted rides on Tuesday. Lyft is pairing with Vote Latin and is offering 50% off codes and free rides from rural and underserved neighborhoods. Uber is offering up to $10 off rides to your polling location. The scooter & bike company Lime is offering free rides to the polls with a code. Another great resource is CarpoolVote.com, where you can request a ride to and from the polls or volunteer to be a driver. It’s not available everywhere, but if you need a ride or have time and a car to help out, check it out.

Is it too late for early voting?

Not in every state! If you can’t make it to the polls on Tuesday, some states offer early voting with cutoffs up to the day before the election, or the option to drop off an absentee ballot in person. Check to see what your state’s early voting options are here, and if you forsee yourself not being able to vote in person in the future, you can request an absentee ballot here.

Know what’s on the ballot.

A lot of people find themselves discouraged or intimidated by just how many items can be on a ballot. Initiatives sometimes come with confusing language or deceptive ads. If you don’t understand everything, don’t let that stop you from voting!

In an ideal world, yes, you would have an informed opinion about every single politician, judge, sheriff, initiative, and whatever else is up for a vote. But short of that, know what’s important to you. Senator, Governor, Congressperson, Mayor, and other major leadership roles are important to have a say in.

Attorneys General are the people in charge of overseeing things like voter suppression. So if that’s an issue that’s important to you and Attorney General is on your ballot, take the time to educate yourself on the choices.

Plenty of people also vote down ballot based solely on their party. There’s nothing wrong with checking off every Democrat (in my opinion), but also remember, you don’t lose points or anything for leaving things blank.

Check out a sample ballot.

You may have gotten a sample ballot in the mail, and you can also find one online, but the folks at Crooked Media have put together an absolutely incredible resource at VoteSaveAmerica.com. There’s a lot of great stuff at that site (we’ll get to more in a minute), but their voting guide is so useful. Type in your address here and it will bring up your sample ballot. It will take you through every office and issue that will be on your ballot, along with important information on the candidates, including experience, education, and the issues that are important to them.

A heads up that because these guides seem to be put together on a national level, they might miss some of the intricacies of local issues. Missouri, for example, has an incredibly confusing marijuana legalization proposal spread throughout three separate initiatives and VSA seems to have missed just how bizarre and nuanced this is. BUT the site is a great place to start and great resource for making sure you’ve read through everything (in plain language) before walking into the voting booth.

Find voices you trust.

Maybe this is a friend or some super knowledgeable person whose social media accounts you love to lurk on. Or maybe there’s a group like Planned Parenthood or the ACLU whose opinions you value and want to know who and what they support. There are tons of voting endorsement guides out there.

Here’s a great one for voting a prochoice ballot. It may not sound the most helpful, but honestly, just Googling [your county/city/state] + voter endorsements will bring up a whole slew of resources from local newspapers and special interest groups. And from there, you can take your pick of who you trust, and start forming your own list of resources for future elections.

Know what to bring with you.

In some states, you don’t need to bring anything at all. In others, you’ll need to show ID. You can find out what you need to bring at Vote Save America. You can also check there to see if your state is one of the few that allows same-day voter registration, meaning you can show up to vote even if you’re not yet registered.

What to do once you’re at the polls.

A few things to remember:

• This isn’t a test. You can bring notes, and even your phone into your voting booth. (Not all states allow you to post pictures from inside a polling place, though, so double check that before posting your voting selfies.)
• There’s no time limit. Yes, lines might be long at some polling places but once you have your ballot in front of you (with those notes you brought), you take all the time you need.
• It’s really easy. If this is your first time voting, you may think you won’t know how to do it. Until I read that NY Mag article going around this week about why some young people don’t vote, I didn’t know this might be causing new voters a lot of anxiety. So here’s what will happen: You’ll walk into the polling place you confirmed online, walk up to the first table you see inside. (If that’s not the right table, they’ll redirect you and they’ll probably be really nice about it.) Tell them your name, show an ID if you need to. They’ll give you everything you need–often just a ballot and a pen but different polling place use different technology and the helpful poll workers will tell you exactly how to use it. Voting “booths” these days are usually just tables with mini makeshift cubicle blinders. After you’re done, you’ll take your ballot to the volunteer manning the voting machine, and when they tell you to, you slide your ballot in. Wait for them to tell you it was accepted, and then claim your sticker. That’s it!

Know your rights.

For voters with disabilities, you have a number of important rights. Polling places are required to be wheelchair accessible, have handrails on all stairs, and provide voting equipment for those who are blind or visually impaired. If you have a disability, a poll worker can help you use the equipment, or you may bring someone with you. You can also bring someone with you if you can’t read and/or write.

If you are turned away from your polling place for whatever reason, you have rights! This is why it’s extra important to check your registration status and your polling place. Even if you think you’re definitely registered and you know where you’re going, it seriously takes a minute so just check again. If you were removed from your polling records due to inactivity (it can happen) or you go to the wrong location, you can still vote. Just request a provisional ballot.

Also, know that no matter how long the lines are at your polling place, as long as you are in line when the polls are scheduled to close, you get to vote! They cannot turn you away.

By the way, if lines are really long, there’s a group called Pizza to the Polls that will deliver free pizzas to voters. Seriously.

Finally, here’s the number to call if you encounter voter suppression in any form or anything else you need to report: Call 866-OUR-VOTE or text OUR VOTE to 97779.

What else?

Now that you’re all set for Tuesday, it’s not too late to volunteer to make a difference in this election, even beyond your individual vote. Vote Save America has a great list of ways to volunteer, from canvassing to text/phone banking, to just how to talk to your friends about voting.

(image: Element5 Digital from Pexels)

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Breaking up is never an easy thing to do. Sometimes the signs are clear cut, and other times, it’s a gut feeling that we’ve been trying to ignore for months (and sometimes even years). Even when you’ve decided to end the relationship, it’s a lot easier said than done. So we continue to stay. “In […]

The post Is It Really Over? 9 Telltale Signs It’s Time To Breakup and Move On For Good appeared first on Essence.

seemIt’s not every day that you come across a movie that stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Common, Jacqueline Bisset, Renée Zellweger, and Simon Baker as an ensemble cast. When the film Here and Now came within my sphere of influence, it piqued my interest and I had to check it out.

The city of New York seems to follow Sarah Jessica Parker everywhere, and the backdrop to this story is no different. Set in the city that never sleeps, Vivienne (Sarah Jessica Parker) encounters a morbid diagnosis from her doctor that she has an aggressive brain tumor. Here and Now (formerly titled ‘Blue Night’) scrutinizes the moments shortly thereafter and how Vivienne inevitably rejects and then later accepts the reality of her medical condition.

Vivienne meanders aimlessly around the streets of Manhattan and tries to force her thoughts into some semblance of normalcy. Which is ironic since the storytelling of Here and Now drifts as arbitrarily as its lead protagonist does walking the streets of New York City.  Vivienne is a singer — having to bear this bad news on the eve of a major performance. As she wanders around town, in slight confusion, her cell phone incessantly rings. On the other line is her domineering mother Jeanne (Jacqueline Bisset) who mostly speaks French, and demands to know Vivienne’s whereabouts.

Vivienne ignores every one of her incoming calls and proceeds to resume rehearsal with her band for a weekend gig at Birdland and prep for an upcoming international tour. Her longtime manager (Common) micromanages her time — but doesn’t confront Vivienne when he senses something is amiss. Sad to say that Common was an afterthought, he’s barely in the movie. And quite frankly, this is disappointing since he delivered such a strong performance this year in All About Nina. 

Viv pours her whirlwind of emotions into her drummer Jordan (Taylor Kinney) — who would classify as “boy toy” territory — oh yes, Viv is a cougar. There are barely any words between these two in the film — just hot passionate lovemaking — and frankly, for Viv, that’s all that matters right now.

After a moment of what I can only assume is postcoital bliss, Viv begins to meet a series of irrelevant characters who bring little substance to the story.  The first is the junior reporter (Phillipa Soo) for a music publication interviewing Viv and oddly lacks interest in her own interview subject. Viv, of course, is distracted, bemused, and can barely keep up with the questions. Not sure what’s to be gained from this scene, only to illustrate the fact that Viv is doing everything she can to avoid thinking about the bad news that’s dropped on her today.

Then there is the Lyft driver Sami (Waleed Zuaiter). I can’t begin to tell you how annoyed I was by this relationship in the film.  Without giving too much away, there was a complete 180 with Sami’s character development that happened with absolutely no exposition to support its dramatic shift. Imagine seeing a character go from being a complete jerk to being a good Samaritan from one scene to the next, with no explanation.  That’s what happens with Sami, the Lyft driver. Additionally, the odds that Viv gets the same Lyft driver to pick her up on the same day in New York City of all places makes this movie all the more implausible.

Oh yeah did I mention Renée Zellweger is in this movie? She’s in it for a small cameo and is yet another character that adds no real value to Viv’s story. Renée plays Tessa, an old gal pal she hasn’t seen in five years who only reminds Viv of how much she’s missed over the years spending time on tour rather than time with her own daughter. And that’s it.  That’s all we get from Renée’s character and she’s done. Renée showed up on set for her one scene and had enough time get a mani-pedi afterward.  Viv has a daughter named Lucie (Gus Birney) who lives with her father and Viv’s ex-husband Nick (Simon Baker). Nick is a responsible dad who looks after Lucie and resents Viv for dropping by only when its convenient for her and not convenient for their daughter.

On a high note (literally) one positive thing you can take away from this movie is the fact that you will get to experience Sarah Jessica Parker’s under-appreciated singing chops. There are some beautiful melodies that play throughout the movie’s soundtrack.

Here and Now sadly misses the mark by introducing characters that serve no real purpose to the narrative. And seeing that some of the insignificant members of the ensemble cast are well-known and very talented actors is an even bigger disappointment.  The film is directed by Fabien Constant and written by Laura Eason. Sarah Jessica Parker also produced the movie.

Here and Now made its debut this year at the Tribeca Film Festival and will debut in theaters, on demand and digital on November 9th.

The post BGN Film Review: ‘Here and Now’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.