I’m going to be away from this spot, “It Is What It Is“, for a few days. I won’t have full access to a PC or laptop.
I still have the capacity to keep an eye on what happens in the blogosphere while I’m away.
I’m not able to just disconnect, particularly with what is going on in our world at this time.
There are so many problems, issues, conflicts, injustices, bigotry, destruction, killing, wars ….. We need to stay informed and educated about “happenings“.
I will leave you today with a message.
As noted above, we won’t find peace until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, as Mr. Sweitzer noted.
‘Tis the season …
We are all in this together. Be kind to on another.
Karen Rodriguez is out to smash all the pop chart toppers.
After killing you softly with her Spanglish cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” the American Idol alum is back with another bilingual twist, giving Adele a run for her money with a raw and powerful rendition of “Hello.”
“I connected deeply with ‘Hello’ and after seeing how well it was received, I knew people would enjoy hearing it in a new way,” said Karen to VIBE Viva.
“I decided to give it a twist and write my own lyrical adaptation in Spanish, opting out of a literal translation. I wanted to express what the song made me feel, and I also wanted to stay as true to the melody and to Adele’s flow in the original.
But I am a bilingual artist, I love singing and writing music in both languages, and I hope this cover serves as a platform where I can gain more fans who genuinely love and appreciate the work I do!”
I listen to her new CD over and over and over again. In my car, in my house, through my cell phone. All the songs have something special. Each one stands on its own.
Can’t tell which one is the best but this is one of my many favorites. Enjoy.
Adele Wows With “Million Years Ago” Live Performance On ‘The Today Show’
Singer Adele doesn’t have a single day to rest in the first week of release of her new album “25”.
The British diva is continuing with her promotional tour across different TV shows in America. On November 25th, she attended NBC’s “The Today Show” to offer a live performance of the super emotional guitar-driven ballad “Million Years Ago” from “25”, which by the way, if you haven’t heard, beat the N’SYNC record of most album sales in a single week in just three days. “25” sold 2.4 million copies from November 20th to November 23rd!
There’s more, much more to Christmas
Than candle-light and cheer;
It’s the spirit of sweet friendship
That brightens all the year;
It’s thoughtfulness and kindness,
It’s hope reborn again,
For peace, for understanding
And for goodwill to men!
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
I’ve followed this family since their early days in Miami.
I know their story and how Gloria came to be the main singer of Miami Sound Machine. The band became a huge hit in the Latin community. Then Gloria “crossed over” into the American mainstream music scene.
It was all then about Gloria.
I remember their hits, I have all the CD and concert videos. I couldn’t forget the harrowing time of the bus crash, her fractured back, her rescue, her recovery, her rehab and her comeback … that blue dress singing “Coming Out of the Dark”.
And the rest is history!
In their personal lives, they had Nayib and finally a daughter, Emily. Her name honors her dad Emilio.
I’ve seen Emily dab here and there in music. She has it in her genes, her internal makeup and her talent has grown.
She has released an awesome video with an absolutely on target message.
If you ask Gloria Estefan, it feels like yesterday when her daughter Emily was a baby backstage at her sold-out concerts. Fast-forward to today and the 21-year-old college sophomore is totally grown up and ready to rock out on her own.
“I always think about it as a double-edge sword,” Emily shared on Today’s show when asked about following the same career as her mom. “I don’t even understand that saying because doesn’t a sword have one edge?”
She continued, “But the reality is they’re amazing golden footsteps to follow in so my biggest fear now is just being able to do the past justice.”
“I know that must people I know believe in me for my talent and for what I stand for but there’s always a doubt in my mind because there is no way of knowing when you are a descendant of the Conga Queen.”
As her parents focus on their Broadway musical appropriately titled “On Your Feet,” Emily is ready to prove she herself can turn the beat around. And yes, she’ll do it while wearing mama’s clothes.
“When I want to go shopping, I just go to the warehouse and grab her clothes,” Emily admitted while wearing Gloria’s retro pants and T-shirt. As they like to say, like mother, like daughter.
Singer Emily Estefan, the Miami Beach daughter of Gloria and Emilio, on Thursday released a music video in which she expresses her point of view to a ‘sterile and ominous’ world: F#ck To Be.
F#ck To Be prominently focuses on male and female gender roles and stereotypes.
On November 3, Emily Estefan released her brand new video F#ck To Be. The concept behind the video shows Emily discovering and noticing a world that it is not what she expected instead it is very sterile and ominous.
“There are two POVs in the video, it is either what I see or what the mirror sees. It is me against the mirror. The mirror being expectations that I carry of myself, or what people expect me to be. I’m combatting the mirror, “ says Estefan.
F#ck to Be will be the first single from her forthcoming full length CD, Take Whatever You Want. Emily wrote, recorded, produced and performed her full album at Fairy Light Studios (her own studio in her college apartment in Boston, MA).
“Many people think I am saying “F” everything or everything sucks, but that is not true. I go in and out of these very different looks in the video that I don’t necessarily like for myself, but that doesn’t mean that I frown upon them, it just means that it is not me” said Estefan.
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses:
the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment.
Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, and only rarely to a third-party or as independents.
“later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
~Warsan Shire~
Warsan Shire (born 1988) is a Somali–British writer, poet, editor and teacher. Shire was born in 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents. She immigrated to the United Kingdom aged 1. Shire has a . As of 2015, she primarily resides in London.
Pocoyo (Pocoyó in Spanish) is a Spanish pre-school animated television series created by Guillermo García Carsí, Luis Gallego and David Cantolla, and is a co-production between Spanish producer Zinkia Entertainment, Cosgrove-Hall Films and Granada International.
Two series have been produced, each consisting of 52 seven-minute episodes. English actor and comedian Stephen Fry narrates the English-language version and José María del Río narrates the Castilian Spanish version of the first two seasons, while Stephen Hughes narrates the third season, called Let’s Go Pocoyo.
Set in a 3D space, with a plain white background and usually no backdrops, it is about Pocoyo, a 4-year-old boy, interacting with his friends Pato (a duck), Elly (an elephant) and Loula (a dog).
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
Starbucks unveiled its new holiday design – a red cup with the green Starbucks logo – and sparked significant controversy due to its lack of Christmas symbols like reindeer and snowflakes.
Starbucks defended the blank holiday design as welcoming of people’s different stories.
Once we have taken out the trash, we often forget that it all has to go somewhere. But not many of us know exactly where it goes, nor do we usually think about it.
The Life Cycle of Garbage shows what happens to your trash once it leaves your home, to give you an idea of where it ends up and how much of it there really is.
The Life Cycle of Garbage begins in your home
Your kitchen trash can fills up …
So you take the garbage bag out to your curbside trash container …
And the garbage man comes to empty it …
What happens to all your trash once the garbage man takes it away?
Typically it goes to a Transfer Station …
A transfer station is where local trash is taken and dumped before it is transferred to its final destination. The final destination could be:
A Landfill …
where the waste is buried and left to decompose, a process which takes hundreds of years even for biodegradable materials …
An Incinerator …
where the garbage is burned and turns into ash and heat, sometimes used to generate energy (called waste-to-energy) …
Or a Recycling Center …
where it will be transferred to a manufacturing plant so these materials can be used to make new products!
Or In the Ocean …
If waste is not correctly managed, it can end up harming the environment and polluting our air and water.
Illegally dumped trash and litter can end up:
Littering our Communities …
This is why it is so important that we put our trash into the proper containers and recycle as much as we can. Garbage does not simply disappear once it leaves our homes, it all ends up somewhere and has an impact on every single person in some way.
Small actions can have a huge impact.
“As it appears in … full read/full credit/more pictures”
It Is What It Is 