deerstalker

https://madamenoire.com/1216033/renee-tenison-playboy/

Before Renee Tenison was featured in PLAYBOY, she didn’t really know anything about it. She had a boyfriend who had a subscription, and instead of feeling some type of way about it, she flipped through the magazines along with him, in awe of the women.

“I would look at it every month and I just thought the women were so beautiful,” she tells MadameNoire. “I just was mesmerized by them.” And then one day, after her boyfriend told her she could be in the magazine, she actually took the steps to make it happen. A few bikini photos later, she was selected to be Playmate of the Month in November 1989. To her shock, a year later, she would be selected as Playmate of the Year. Her life would change, kicking off not only a great relationship with the folks at Hugh Hefner’s iconic mag, but also launching an acting and modeling career. She appeared on sitcoms that were ’90s staples, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Living Single, Martin, and The Jamie Foxx Show, as well as a few film roles. It was work she was also able to share with her twin sister, Rosie (they posed together in a 2002 issue), making it a family affair. It was a stepping stone that has allowed Tenison the chance to even kickstart a career in fashion. In addition to that, her Playmate of the Year crowning opened doors for the three other women who received the same honor since, including, most recently, Jordan Emanuel, 2019’s POY.

Being that it’s Women’s History Month, we spoke with the ageless beauty about making history all those years ago, going from a small town in Idaho to the pages of PLAYBOY and how she stays forever young and fine in her 50s.

MadameNoire: Everyone loves a good origin story. What was your exposure to PLAYBOY and how did you end up deciding to enter a contest for the magazine to be initially selected as Playmate of the Month? I read you were 19, 20 at the time.

Renee Tenison: I originally didn’t know anything about PLAYBOY or the magazine. I had no interest in it but my boyfriend had a subscription to PLAYBOY. Then one day he said to me, “You know you could you could be in PLAYBOY magazine.” I went to like a local photographer, we took some bikini shots. I sent them in to Chicago. I didn’t realize they were doing the 35th-anniversary search. I received a phone call from [PLAYBOY photo editor] Michael Ann Sullivan, she said that they had had 14,000 entries and they narrowed it down to 14 and they wanted me to fly to Chicago to test for the playmate.

While it’s one thing to appreciate one’s body and nudity, it’s another to have the confidence to pose nude for a major magazine and be sure that others will like what they see. Can you speak to having that confidence then and now?

I don’t know why I did not have a problem with posing nude. To me, I just looked at it as art. The pictures were so classy and beautiful. I really looked forward to the opportunity to get to shoot with the photographers and everybody was so professional at PLAYBOY. So I guess the confidence just came from knowing you were working with the best. I was flown all over the world, nothing was done cheap, everything was top-notch! I flew to Paris for my Playmate of the Year photo shoot. I shot in a castle in London. They flew me to Cuba. Everything I did with PLAYBOY was top-notch and some the best photos I’ve had in my life.

Looking back more than 30 years later, how does it feel to have a place in history as the first African American Playmate of the Year?

I’m extremely proud of the opportunity to represent PLAYBOY and be the first African-American Playmate of the Year. It changed my life. I think it just opened up the door for African-American women to feel that they were sexy as well and not be afraid of their bodies and to be seen as sexy icons!

Can you speak to what the reception was to you being a Black POY? Did you experience any pushback from either PLAYBOY readers or others by chance? Or was it always good vibes?

I always experienced good vibes from the PLAYBOY readers. I did have one instance where I was doing an autograph signing in New York and I received a death threat from someone who said if I showed up to the appearance they were going to shoot me. They were upset because I was African-American and in Playboy, but I didn’t want to give this person power over me, so I chose to do the appearance. They brought in protection, I did my appearance, it was like success, and I’m still here today!

Speaking on Blackness, I read that you grew up in a very white environment in Idaho and said in 1990 that you and your sister weren’t often approached by guys looking to date you and you thought being Black had something to do with that. You go from that situation to being a playmate and everyone wants you, which I know had to be a mind warp. How was that shift in experience for you?

I did not date a lot in Idaho because of the fact Rosie and I were the only African-American girls in our school. So we never really went to proms or got asked to dances. When I graduated I did get asked out more and when I became a Playmate of the Year it opened up a whole different dating experience for me.

How did your twin sister get involved in posing for the magazine with you? How did your family react to that?

When I first thought about doing PLAYBOY I approached my sister and asked her if she wanted to send some photos in with me. She immediately said, “Absolutely not. You’re on your own. I think it’s going to be a very a bad experience for you.” But I said oh well I’m just gonna go ahead and do it and see how it pans out.
Needless to say, my sister was stunned when I was named the first African-American Playmate of the Year. [Hugh Hefner] did approach us about 15 years later and asked us to do a celebrity pictorial. He said he would fly us anywhere in the world, all we had to do was let them know where. We picked Cuba!
My family was cool with PLAYBOY because they saw all of the positives that came out of it so they had no bad feelings.

You had a very successful career on television and in film. What are you working on now? I know you and Rosie have had your Varga boutiques.

After I did PLAYBOY I modeled for about 20 years and then I decided in my mid-30s that I wanted to have a career change so I went into fashion. It’s my true passion. I went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. I ended up opening up a boutique called Varga. We also have a website called vargastore.com and it’s truly my passion project and I love it! I love dealing with fashion, I love dealing with customers. I’m very proud of our Varga boutiques.

And what’s the trick to looking as good as you do at 52? I know you’ve always been quite fit!

I think looking good, it’s just a state of mind. I always do my makeup in the morning. I also make sure to try to do some sort of cardio every morning. I live in Santa Monica so I go to the beach every day to try and walk at least 10,000 steps in the morning and then if I can, try and catch another 10,000 in the evening.
I make sure to eat well, try and get my eight hours of sleep. But I truly believe aging is just a state of mind. It’s all just how you feel and I feel happy at age 52. I’m probably happier than when I was in my 30s, so age is just a number!

https://www.themarysue.com/reminder-that-texas-is-not-its-governor/

This week, the governors of Texas and Mississippi decided that their states no longer needed to enforce public safety measures like mask-wearing and social distancing. Both governors recommended that people still listen to the experts of medical experts and remain personally vigilant, they’re just removing the requirement to do those things. This is absolutely a reason to be furious with these governors, Greg Abbott and Tate Reeves. It is not, however, an excuse to denigrate the entire populations of these states.

Both Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore are liberals of the Bill Maher variety, meaning very few actual liberals or progressives want to be associate with them in any way. Both men decided to take to Twitter to insult the people of Texas for the decision of their governor. Even worse, both chose to suggest depriving the states’ communities of access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Again, this is what we’re not going to do when a state’s governor does something to harm their constituents:

Why are we wasting vaccinations on Texas if Texas has decided to join the side of the virus? https://t.co/Yn2i7zT8KL

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 3, 2021

Texas – we hear you. You didn’t want to be part of our electrical grid. And now you’ve removed your mask mandate & are allowing large crowds to gather. We hear you! COVID is a hoax! So u don’t need our precious vaccine. We’ll send it to ppl who are saving lives by wearing masks.

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) March 3, 2021

“Why are we wasting vaccinations on Texas if Texas has decided to join the side of the virus?” wrote Olbermann. Moore’s suggestion that “our precious vaccine” be sent to people “who are saving lives by wearing masks” had more of a jokey tone but still shared the same elitist sentiment.

I don’t know how this still has to be said, but there are millions of people living in Texas who did not vote for Abbott or Ted Cruz or any of the other politicians who are constantly trying to screw them over. States like Texas have countless progressive activists on the ground working to improve the lives of people in their communities. And if those Republican politicians didn’t work so hard to suppress access to voting in the state, the results of their elections might look a whole lot different. None of these people should be punished or mocked because of the choices of their elected officials. And people who voted for these politicians are also still people and don’t “deserve” to suffer.

It’s also very strange (yet unfortunately not at all new) to scapegoat southern states and brand them the problem when no state is a political monolith. California is incredibly conservative outside of its major metropolitan hubs, as is New York, as are most blue states.

Michael Moore’s own home state of Michigan is divided in its leadership, with equal numbers from both parties represented in the House and Senate. Sure, its governor is a Democrat but as recently as 2018, that wasn’t the case. The state voted for Biden in 2020 but in 2016, it went to Trump. Hypothetically, if another Republican had been elected governor in 2018 and refused to institute a mask mandate, would Michael Moore have suggested that the people of Michigan didn’t deserve the vaccine? Or would he have fought for the recognition that one person doesn’t represent an entire state?

Moreover, just because Michael Moore lives in a blue-voting state, that doesn’t make it “his” vaccine. His repeated use of the word “our” to describe the vaccine (and the country’s electrical grid) is incredibly weird. Not only he did likely do absolutely nothing to contribute to its development, but—another thing that should not have to be said!—once again, even if a person voted Republican, even if they don’t support a mask mandate, even if anything at all, they still have as much of a right to health and safety as anyone else.

Greg Abbott and Tate Reeves are doing active harm to the people living in their states. No one else needs to be helping them in that endeavor, least of all white snobs acting in the name of faux-progressivism.

(image: Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

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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.—

The post An Unfortunately Necessary Reminder That People Who Live in Red States Are Still People first appeared on The Mary Sue.

https://blacknerdproblems.com/march-multimedia-madness-2021-team-bad-batch/

Spider-Gwen

My girl Gwen Stacy has come a long way from Earth-65, and now it’s her time to shine in a battle of the best. Let’s face it. We all love Spider-Gwen. She’s got style, awesome moves, and no Spider-Verse team is complete without her. And if you think this Spider-Woman (That’s right, Spider-Woman. Wtf is a Ghost Spider?) is just another webhead, then you haven’t been paying attention. Y’all fucking with a symbiote. My girl can go full Gwenom when she wants to. I’m talking full-on talons, Miles Morales style camouflage, the ability to make hundreds of tiny symbiote spiders, plus all the traditional powers of your friendly neighborhood Spider hero. Sure, some of the other combatants might be “more powerful” but truthfully the modus operandi of any spider is taking down enemies bigger than them on the daily.

Ahsoka Tano

REAL JEDI’S KNOW THAT AHSOKA IS THAT CHICK!!! Y’all better not play no games with my girl. Them pretty white dual lightsabers don’t come to play. You think anybody on this roster scares Ahsoka? My Jedi? My wandering warrior? She trained under two legendary Jedi, the best in the game. My girl has stood toe to toe with the all-time Sith hall of fame. Darth Vader, General Grievous, and Asajj Ventress. Let me repeat. She fought Darth Vader during his peak to a standstill. She bodied Darth Maul amongst the fall of Mandalore. She told the Jedi Order they can kick rocks, imma do my own thing. Monsters, bounty hunters, droids. There’s nothing you can throw that she hasn’t seen. Ahsoka Tano is one of the best Jedi of all time, and it’s time you put some respect on her name.

Samus Aran

Samus Aran is the greatest bounty hunter of all time. Yeah, I said it. THE. GREATEST. BOUNTY. HUNTER. OF. ALL.TIME. I don’t care what you got to say about anybody else. Don’t you dare even bring up Boba Fett – it’s time y’all realize that man is hot trash. Samus is my heavy hitter in this game of multiversal femme fatales. I mean, c’mon folks. Your girl fights space dragons on the daily basis. The Varia suit is packing enough power to put damn near half of Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits to shame, including:

• A screw attack that is ripping anything caught in its path to shreds. 
• A power beam that can cave anyone’s chest in. 
• Regular missiles, heat-seeking missiles, ice missiles.
• Speed booster that lets her run at supersonic speeds
• The ability to turn into a frickin ball.

Let’s not forget that last part. Turning into a ball might not seem all that great but when she can leave a powerbomb that decimates an entire room, you’re screwed. Even without the suit, Samus has enough enhanced strength to take anyone. So send your Valkyries, your assassins, your 30-foot tall pirates. Samus is taking this game to the finals baby. 

Chell

Everyone needs a ringer, and I’m picking someone with enough creativity and intelligence to outsmart a homicidal AI. Chell is here to take your strongest fighter and confuse the living hell out of them. You see, the portal gun gives Chell an unexpected advantage. Whatever game plan you have goes to the wayside when you’ve got a portal underneath you and you’re suddenly falling 50 feet from the air. Oh, you’re flying at her? A quick dodge out the way and suddenly your flying straight into a portal that has a vat of lava on the other side. Chell’s no stranger to danger either. She has taken on some of the most dangerous tests filled with lasers, bullets, and death traps. Hell, she’s crafty enough to survive several explosions, being shot at by machine guns, and falling from great heights thanks to her boots. Every other opponent in this match is just another test for Chell, and she hasn’t met one yet that she couldn’t beat.

Click here to check out the other teams in the March Multimedia Madness 2021!

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The post March Multimedia Madness 2021: Team Bad Batch appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://blacknerdproblems.com/signs-of-the-sojourner-speaks-an-uncommon-tongue/

Charisma Check

A wise old man once said, “Only a game designed by nerds would have charisma as a fantasy power.” Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls wasn’t wrong, but who wouldn’t want that ability? It’s a feeling scattered through moments big and small in our lives, when saying the right thing would have meant everything. Talking past or at someone instead of with them is much more common in reality. 

The appeal of games that offer dialogue participation is that fantasy of having ever-present charisma. Give or take reloading a previous save, there’s almost always an option for the right words said the right way. Unfortunately, this tends to turn conversations into transactions. So when a game like Signs of the Sojourner pushes against the pass/fail binary of talking in video games, what is it trying to say?

Dora the Explorer, Meet Climate Change

The first of Signs of the Sojourner’s many exchanges places the player in the role of a cat-eared kid tasked with that childhood rite-of-passage: to convince a friend to get in trouble with them. When the situation gets heated, the protagonist’s mother steps in to mediate. All this is expressed through the game’s primary mechanic. By alternately laying down cards, the player is dynamically positioned as a collaborator in the conversation. 

Glyphs of Gab

Each card has symbols on its left and right edges representing the ‘tone’ of the talk. Empathetic circles, logical triangles, and other icons must be matched from left to right to complete a successful stage in the dialogue. Once enough stages have been successfully completed, both characters come away from the conversation satisfied. A mismatched set isn’t the end of the world, either.

Even if all the conversational stages are failed, you may yet get a chance to make things right in a future conversation. Signs of the Sojourner knows that the real challenge is carrying on after words fail. As if to prove this, the next moment after the tutorial is a flash forward to the present-day of the player character’s adulthood. The protagonist’s mother has recently passed, leaving the management of the family business behind.

Signs of the Sojourner’s Mom Doing Her Best ‘Nanny from Muppet Babies’ Impression

Said family business was Mom journeying to nearby towns and trading for merchandise. Stocking these goods in the store she ran whenever she was home was the only thing that kept the player’s small hometown of Bartow on the map. Now, that’s the player’s responsibility. Supplying the shop adds urgency to every exchange in the game, and make no mistake — success or fail, there are exchanges being made in every conversation.

Roaming Charges

Cards may seem a limited resource to encapsulate communication, but Signs of the Sojourner very cleverly turns this into a double-edged sword. Talking to someone requires you forfeit a card from your finite deck to swap with one of theirs. Clinging to your old cards means losing out on connections you need to keep your hometown alive. Too many new cards, and you’ll struggle to talk to the folks back home who you’re trying to save. 

Real Millennial Vibes: Having to Set a Calendar Countdown to Potential Eviction

Other variables complicate this in fascinating ways. Some cards come with skills of their own. Abilities like ‘Reconsider’, ‘Clarify’, and ‘Chatter’ allow for altering or anticipating upcoming plays. ‘Fatigue’ cards can build up in the player’s deck the longer they’re out on the road. By not matching up to any card, these recreate the sensation of simply being too tired to make sense when you open your mouth. 

All this is to say nothing of the random events that can happen during a given playthrough. The road to saving your mother’s memory has endings as varied as stoically going down with her hometown or getting out while the getting’s good. Everything you do seems to have unforeseen consequences. The seeming lack of control may frustrate some, but personally speaking, I’ve never played a game that I’ve enjoyed being bad at more than Signs of the Sojourner.

You can play Signs of the Sojourner on Switch or Steam.

Check out our other video game reviews here.

8.3 Out Of 10 Unplanned Roadside Stops

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The post ‘Signs of the Sojourner’ Speaks an Uncommon Tongue appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.