I find myself drinking sodas every now and then but after taking a look at this article, I’m having second thoughts. I’m mainly a tea guy myself, green tea preferably. The article tells in detail of all the problems that soft drinks cause. Drinking too many can cause tooth decay, nutritional depletion,obesity, type-2 doabetes, cancer, heart disease and they increases your risk of osteoporosis. Not trying to scare anybody just letting you know. Drink more water juice, and teas. It’s going to be hard staying away from a cold Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew.

Check out the article below and drop me a line.  Check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

 http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/20270/what-soft-drinks-are-doing-to-your-body/

I bet everybody wondering, what’s this dude talking about? You have them and I do too. Those folks that always check out what you are doing, asking you if you still at it knowing they see you doing your thing. Then all of a sudden they are doing something similar to what you doing. You have to watch out for them snakes, they’ll bite you every time. You have to be an innovator, start something new or you won’t get any farther than the last man or woman that did it. There some big sister snakes out there too, those are the worst kind. All I can tell the creative cats out there is to keep doing you give them something to bite. You’ll get there before they will because they are always going to do it after you do.

Drop me a line and let me know if you know what I’m talking about.  Check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

Everyone has been hearing about the uproar that has been cause by the new superintendent in Montgomery being called Dr., when she’s really not.  I honestly think that you could look at it from both perspectives. Yeah she could have stopped it and changed it because she hasn’t completed the program but if it was previously known and not a requirement for the job, then it shouldn’t even be an issue. I’m pretty sure if job qualifications were imposed on employees and management around the country, lots of people would lose their job. She has the qualifications. Stop calling her Dr. and move on, problem solved.

Check out the article and some of those comments also and let me know what you think about the story and also check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

 http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20090930/NEWS01/909300350&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

I’ve heard of a 12 or 13 pound baby but a woman in Indonesia gave birth to a 19-pound 24.4 inch baby boy. The baby is the heaviest birth ever recorded in the country.  The unnamed baby was born by a caesarean procedure on Monday at a public hospital in North Sumatra province. The baby’s size is most likely related to his mother having diabetes.  The big baby boy is her fourth child, and the the Indonesian boy weighs in a bit short of the world record, currently held by a 23-pound baby set in 1879. Check out the link below to see him.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32999190#32999190

Drop me a line and let me know what the biggest baby you’ve had a friend or relative to have and check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

I thought we were in a recession? The Dallas Cowboys just threw that one out of the window.  Earlier this year they completed Cowboys Stadium. The stadium was supposed to cost 650 million, but ended up costing somewhere 1.15 billion. They were off a little bit on those initial cost projections, right. I hope they get them W’s this year, or someone is going to be disappointed.

Cowboys Stadium is a domed stadium with retractable roof in Arlington, Texas, for the Dallas Cowboys. It replaced Texas Stadium, which has been in use since 1971, as the Cowboys’ home. It was finished on May 29, 2009, seats 80,000, but is expandable to seat up to 100,000. This stadium is the largest domed stadium in the world.

Check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

    Vs.     

Troy University’s football team has a tremendous feat at hand this Saturday. They have to take on super Tebow and the Florida gators in the swamp.  Now Troy has been known to take on top rank competitors and play their best but after watching Florida destroy Charleston Southern 62-3 last week I was like okay I hope they are just having a really good game. It would be cool to see Troy pull off a shocker this time instead of grinding it out and barely losing like they did last year with LSU.

I guess we’ll just have to wait until the 9/12/2009 and see. The game starts around 11 or 12. Who do you think is going to win the Troy against Florida match up? Hit me up and let me know who you think will win or just let me know who your favorite football team is and also check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

Whatever happened to the customer is always right? Over the last few months, I have received and witnessed some of the worst customer service on the planet.  The poor service came from organizations that should know if something was damaged just cut the check and stop being difficult about the situation. I guess those workers tend to forget how they would feel on the other side of the counter.

I’ve seen three vehicles damaged and the mechanic throw out this scripted answer that they are told to say. When asked if they saw the damages done they would say either;”Not that I can recall”, or either “I don’t think I did that.” The first situation that occurred could have just been a careless accident that spiraled into two incidents. A good friend of mines had a flat tire and went to get a new one, upon returning to pick up their vehicle, oil was smudged all over the driver’s seat, door and arm rest and the car had cloth interior. Now the right thing to do would be just to be like okay I know neither of them has oil on them, so it probably was me, initially they tried to play it like they didn’t and finally cut the check to have cleaned. Then they had their car cleaned and the cleaning company damaged the car even more and that’s another blog in itself but let’s just say it was about $1000, worth of damage that they didn’t want to fess up to, but they cut the check.

Another partner of mines had some exterior damage done to her car and they didn’t want to cut the check. They don’t understand nothing until you act a fool on them, then they start paying for everything. And the last situation was and I don’t know how they did this one but this one mechanic stripped the ignition switch completely out of a truck and then when they were asked the 50 million dollar question, they replied;”Not that I can recall.” I just said boy if they don’t teach y’all nothing else they teach them scripted lies to tell. That one will probably end up being about $800 or more worth of damage.

I guess the customer is always wrong, or they really just don’t matter anymore at all. Hit me up with some of your terrible customer service stories. I know you got a few and also check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

The Bar-Kays began in Memphis, Tennessee as a studio session musician group, backing major artists at Stax Records. In 1967, they were chosen by Otis Redding to play as his backing band. On December 10, 1967, Redding, his manager, and band members Jimmy King, Ronnie Caldwell, Phalon Jones, and Carl Cunningham died in a plane crash in Lake Monona while on their way to a performance in Madison, Wisconsin. Trumpeter Ben Cauley survived the crash and bassist James Alexander was on another plane, since there were eight members in Redding’s party and the chartered plane could only hold seven. Cauley and Alexander rebuilt the group.

The re-formed band consisted of Cauley; Alexander; Harvey Henderson, saxophone; Michael Toles, guitar; Ronnie Gorden, organ; Willie Hall, drums and later Larry Dodson, lead vocals. The group backed dozens of major Stax artists on recordings afterwards, including Issac Hays’s Hot Buttered Soul, but changed musical direction in the 1970s to have a successful funk music career on Mercury Records. Lloyd Smith joined The Bar-Kays in 1973. The Bar-Kays continued to have hits on R&B chart well into the 1980s and have performed all over the world. The band took a hiatus in the late 1980s, but regrouped in 1991 with Alexander as the only remaining original member. Marcus Price was also a member of the Bar-Kays, until he was murdered coming from rehearsal in 1984. The crime was never solved by the Memphis police.

Alexander’s son is the award-winning rapper and record producer, Phalon “Jazze Pha” Alexander, who was named after Phalon Jones.

The Bar-Kays are a popular soul,R&B, and funk group who began performing in 1966 and continue to perform today, although with only one original member. The group had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including “Soul Finger” in 1967, and “Son of Shaft” (R&B #10) in 1972.

Check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

The O’Jays formed their group in Canton, Ohio in 1958 while at Canton McKinley High School. The groups original names was The Triumphs, and then The Mascots, the friends began recording with “Miracles” in 1961, which was a moderate hit in the Cleveland area. In 1963 they took the name “The O’Jays”, in tribute to radio disc jockey Eddie O’Jay, and released “Lonely Drifter”, which charted nationally. Their debut LP was Comin’ Through. Throughout the 1960s, they continued to chart with songs such as “Lipstick Traces”, “Stand In For Love”, “Let It All Out”, “I’ll Be Sweeter Tomorrow”, “Deeper In Love With You” and “One Night Affair”, along with several other regional and national Pop and R&B hits. In 1972, they finally scored with their first million-seller, “Back Stabbers”, from the gold album of the same name. By this time, original member Bobby Massey had also departed, leaving the group a trio. This album produced several more hit singles, including “992 Arguments”, “Sunshine”, “Time To Get Down” and the #1 Pop smash, “Love Train”. They became known as “The Mighty O’Jays” due to their exciting , emotion-packed stage performances, led by the dynamic Levert, and the cool, multi-range vocals of Walter Williams, coupled with the matinee idol looks and smooth first tenor voice of William Powell.

The O’Jays continued releasing chart-topping singles during the remainder of the 1970s, including “Put Your Hands Together”, “For the Love of Money “, “Give the People What They Want”, “Let Me Make Love To You”, “I Love Music”, “Livin’ for the Weekend”, “Message in Our Music” and “Darlin’Darlin’ Baby”. Original member William Powell died of cancer in 1977 at the age of just 35.

After adding Sammy Strain the O’Jays continued recording, though with limited success. 1978’s “Use ta Be My Girl” was their final Top Five hit, though they continued placing songs on the R&B charts throughout the 1980s. Their 1987 album, Let Me Touch You, was a breakthrough of sorts, and included the #1 R&B hit “Lovin’ You”. Though they continued charting on the R&B charts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the O’Jays never again achieved pop success. In 1992, Sammy Strain left the group, and returned to the Imperials, to be replaced by Nathaniel Best, and later, by Eric Grant. Later in the 1990s, the group did little recording, though they remained a popular live draw. Their latest album was Imagination in 2004.

Check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.

Billy Paul born Paul Williams, on December 1, 1934, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a Grammy Award winning soul singer, most known for his 1972 hit single, “Me and Mrs. Jones”. He’s usually identified by his distinguishably raspy vocal.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Paul began his singing career when he was twelve, appearing on local radio shows. Listening at home to his family’s collection of 78s, Paul began developing a vocal style that would eventually incorporate traces of jazz, R&B, and pop.

Paul attended Temple University, West Philadelphia Music School, and Granoff School of Music, for formal vocal training. Switching from rock music to soul to pop ballads, he soon became known through his performances on the underground musical circuit in Philadelphia. Paul’s popularity grew and led to appearances in clubs and at college campuses nationally. This led to further opportunities, appearing in concert with Charlie Parker, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, The Impressions, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Roberta Flack.

Paul formed a trio and cut his first record, “Why Am I” for Jubilee Records before being drafted into the Armed Services. After his discharge, he joined the New Dawn record label, and was a brief stand in for one of the Blue Note with Harold Melvin. His first Philly album, Feeling Good at the Cadillac Club combined Billy Paul and Gamble/Huff produced songs, and was released on the Gamble Label. This was followed by Ebony Woman, a more commercial release on the Gamble & Huff Neptune Label.

Later still, Going East, Paul’s first album released on the Philadelphia International Records label, placed him into the mainstream arena. However, it was with his second album that he received both commercial and critical recognition, 360 Degrees Of Billy Paul, with “Me and Mrs. Jones” being the most notable track.

“Me and Mrs. Jones” was a No. 1 hit for the last three weeks of 1972, selling two million copies, and went on to win Paul a Grammy Award. The gold album and platinum single broke the artist on world charts, including the United Kingdom where the single entered the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart reaching number 12 in early 1973.

In addition to receiving the Grammy, Paul has won several Ebby awards; has been the recipient at the American Music Awards, the NAACP Image Award and numerous proclamations and keys to cities across the United States. He has also toured internationally in the UK, and Latin America.

Paul was on the Neptune Records label for many years. He recorded much other material of note, including “Am I Black Enough For You?”, “Let’s Make a Baby” and an alternate version of ” Let’s Stay Together”. Other songs he recorded include “Thanks for Saving My Life”, “Let ‘Em In”, “Your Song”, “Only the Strong Survive” and “Bring the Family Back”.

Check out the bi-weekly podcast Tha After Party, on www.tharedcarpet.com and you can contact me at greenknight@tharedcarpet.com.