deerstalker

http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/meet-the-2017-be-modern-men-week-2/

Did you miss any of our second week of BE Modern Men for 2017? 

This year’s 100 Men of Distinction continue to inspire with their stories, this time sharing the best advice they’ve ever received. Our second set of 10 honorees kicks off with political pollster Cornell Belcher and also includes men who are spreading the benefits of a vegan lifestyle, spreading the Gospel through hip-hop, spreading the joy of reading to children, and spreading a message of hope to the streets.

Cornell Belcher

 

Meet ‘The Democracy Disruptor’ Cornell Belcher

Pollster

Best advice: “If you don’t know the answer, simply say you don’t know the answer.” 

Read his full profile here.

 

Bad Ass Vegan John Lewis (Photo by Nicole Kent)

 

Meet ‘The Bad Ass Vegan’ John Lewis

Health Consultant / CEO and founder of Bad Ass Vegan

Best advice: “‘Impossible is just a big word used by small men.’ Meaning nothing is impossible and if you are willing to work for it and grind for it, then it shall be.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Tony Simmons aka DJ Tony Tone (Photo by Nialah Baker)

 

Meet ‘The Christian Hip-Hop DJ’ Tony Simmons

DJ / Radio Personality

Best advice: “There is so much advice that I get because I listen and watch. But one thing that comes to mind is when people show you who they are, believe them.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Vaughn L. McKoy (Photo by Christian Del Rosario)

 

Meet ‘Mr. Empowerment’ Vaughn L. McKoy

Attorney / Speaker 

Best advice: “Loyalty above all else but honesty.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Othell J. Miller (Photo by Jaded Baracaldo)

 

Meet ‘Mr. Theater’ Othell J. Miller

Teacher / Actor

Best advice: “Don’t keep your product or service in the lab forever trying to make it perfect. Put it out and let the market offer feedback on how to refine it.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Kenneth Braswell (Photo by Joseph El-Wise Noisette)

 

Meet ‘Mr. Real Dads Read’ Kenneth Braswell

Executive Director, Fathers Inc.

Best advice: “The best advice I received was from Coretta Scott King while honoring her at the first annual Black and Latino Achievers Banquet in Albany, New York. While signing one of Dr. King’s children’s books for a friend, she noticed an error in one of the dates for the Selma March. She paused and began to tell me how important it was to protect your name; that it was my responsibility to protect who I am by being a man of integrity, truth, and transparency. That means it is also important to make sure people spell and say your name correctly. She stressed to me that anything out of the context of truth is an inaccurate representation of who I am.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Kalan Laws (Photo by Janae Anderson)

 

Meet ‘Mr. Dope’ Kalan Laws

Professor / Fashion Stylist and Blogger

Best advice: “Let love guide you! My initial understanding of that statement was from a romantic context; however, as I have grown, so has the life of that piece of wisdom. I know now that being guided by love is not meant to be a statement of folly or whimsical emotional decision making, but a statement that requires one to love themselves in a way that reflects honor, intention, and forthrightness, and love others the same.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Dr. Cleamon Moorer Jr.

 

Meet ‘Mr. Higher Learning’ Dr. Cleamon Moorer Jr.

Dean, College of Business, Baker College 

Best advice: “The best advice that I ever received came from my father: ‘Son, don’t stop on the hill, go all the way to the mountaintop.'”

Read his full profile here.

 

Jahi Rawlings (Photo by Stan Johnson)

 

Meet ‘Mr. Sports & Entertainment’ Jahi Rawlings

Founder and CEO, Atlanta Entertainment Basketball League

Best advice: “Never give up. The tough times prepare you for success.”

Read his full profile here.

 

Frank E. Brady (Photo by Jay Kemp)

 

Meet ‘The Hope Dealer’ Frank E. Brady

Spoken Word Artist / Dream Director, The Future Project

Best advice: “‘Your gift will make room for you and bring you before great men, keep allowing the Lord to order your steps.’ —Raymond T. Cash” 

Read his full profile here.

 

 

It’s our normal to be extraordinary. Follow @BEModernMan and join the conversation using #BEModernMan.

Come celebrate the BE Modern Man 100 Men of Distinction at the first-ever Black Men XCEL Summit, Aug. 30 – Sept. 3, at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

http://madamenoire.com/839282/not-single-woman-color-made-highest-paid-actresses-list/

Shame.

The post Not A Single Woman Of Color Made The Highest Paid Actresses List. appeared first on MadameNoire.

https://www.themarysue.com/things-we-saw-today-stan-lee-gives-chadwick-boseman-his-seal-of-approval-to-play-black-panther/

In 1966 we brought Black Panther to the pages of Marvel… Now this talented young man brings him to the silver screen! You have my respect! pic.twitter.com/zN2CTd9zrN

— stan lee (@TheRealStanLee) August 16, 2017

Something we definitely have to look forward to is the premiere of Marvel’s Black Panther, which is set to arrive in theaters in February of next year. Yesterday, Black Panther co-creator and Marvel legend, Stan Lee, gave the actor playing the iconic character, Chadwick Boseman, his blessing. Lee said, “In 1966 we brought Black Panther to the pages of Marvel … Now this talented young man brings him to the silver screen! You have my respect!” Not a bad day for Boseman, huh? (via CBR.com)

• Does tenure in universities allow professors to get away with sexual harassment? Buzzfeed has a piece examining the issues.
• Lady Gaga is being roped into Dr. Luke’s suit against Kesha. She was subpoenaed earlier this year, and will be deposed sometime in September. When initially subpoenaed, she said, that Dr. Luke was “attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gaga’s role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests.” UGH. (via The A.V. Club)
• N.K. Jemisin’s novel, The Fifth Season, is being developed for television over at TNT! (via Twitter)
• Elle Magazine observes that there are no women of color in Forbes’ Top 10 Highest Paid Actresses list.
• Check out this interview with B.D. Wong about the role of Whiterose on Mr. Robot. Yes, he knows his having been cast is a problem. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
• Bonnie Tyler is going to be singing her classic, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” during the upcoming solar eclipse. How perfect is that? (via Buzzfeed)

That’s it from us? What have you seen out there today?

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—</p

https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2017/07/19/netflixs-castlevania-review-from-a-castlevania-junkie/

Recently Netflix has released the first “season” of Castlevania, a gory, animated version of the beloved Konami series featuring our favorite vampire killers trying to take down Dracula. I am a huge fan of Castlevania, from the platformer NES days to its Metroidvania-style games on the DS; I was curious to see how they would portray the game in a show format. There is definitely some potential if given to the right people. With only being four episodes long, how does show fare with the original material?

Long story short, some work is required but it is a good start.

For the Castlevania fans, the majority of the show takes place during the timeline of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. We follow Trevor Belmont, a washed-out vampire killer who gets wrapped up with Dracula’s act of vengeance against humanity.

In terms of the plot, the show does a good job with not only using the game material but also taking some liberties. As much as I like the Castlevania timeline, there is very little story featured in the early games, including Castlevania III. This series counters this by adding more depth into the world by featuring the perspectives of the terrified villagers and the religious fanatics that use this fear to their advantage. I liked how it points out that it’s not only the demons that are the enemy, but also humanity itself through frenzied religious figures and the mob mentality. I wish there was a bit more development on the Church though as currently their motivation is pretty shallow (“We want more power and control!”).

I’m glad that the series also gave some time to give Dracula some development and explain why he is such an asshole to humans. The first episode focuses mainly on his background, how he met his wife, and the eventual downfall that led him to be so hostile towards humans. You don’t really get much of this in the video games so it was nice to see that there is a bit more to Dracula being bad just because he’s a vampire.

The voice acting was really good in my opinion. Richard Armitage does an excellent job of voicing Trevor and he really adds to the scenes with his tone and personality. The rest of the cast also do great and I didn’t feel any of the performances were flat. I do wish there was more music to the show though. Half the time, I didn’t even notice the music playing and if it was, it just felt dull. And how are there no Castlevania songs featured at all? I felt that was a missed opportunity.

Another thing that didn’t work half the time was the humor. Half the time I felt that it was very forced and didn’t match the mood of the scene. I understand that director must have been trying to lighten the mood but I felt the adolescent humor was just thrown in there for a cheap laugh really killed the mood half the time. One scene that sticks out is in a bar where two relatives are just talking about bestiality that goes on foreeeeeeeeeever. If they want to keep this pattern in the next installment, they need to make less cheap, throwaway jokes.

Pacing was also an issue in the series. There are scenes where you are hooked and are focused on what is going on but then there are other scenes that just drag on for way too long. The bar scene above, meeting with the Seekers, and several church scenes stretch for too long and I was finding losing interest halfway through the season. However, we go back to the great scenes afterward so I felt that things felt a little lopsided. The episodes also felt like they shouldn’t have been episodes and instead should have been combined into a film because some of them just end in the most abrupt way.

Even with all these issues though, I think Netflix’s Castlevania is a decent adaptiation of the video game series. I’m a little confused why it was only four episodes long, currently it feels like it’s just a long pilot episode cut into four chunks. This is also why I’m giving it more of a chance since I feel It’s too quick to judge its flaws until the second season comes out (luckily, with more episodes this time around). I can tell Warren Ellis and Adi Shaknar have put much consideration of this beloved franchises in this series; I was smiling when I saw game references to the show, such as Trevor taking on a cyclops, Dracula’s transportation method, Sypha’s debut, and many others. Fights are well-animated, particularly Trevor’s final battle of the season. If this care for the original material stays intact as well as the great voice acting and animation, Castlevania has the potential to be a great series.