On this day in music history: November 18, 1972 – “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes hits #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart for 2 weeks, also peaking at #3 on the Hot 100 on December 9, 1972. Written and produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, it is the first major hit for the Philadelphia, PA vocal quintet. Lead singer Teddy Pendergrass initially joins The Blue Notes as their drummer, but is moved to the front and center of the group when Harold Melvin discovers that he can sing. Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes is among the first acts signed to Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International Records in 1971. “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” is originally written for the Chicago based R&B group The Dells, but does not end up recording it when a deal with their record label cannot be reached. Instead, it is given to The Blue Notes and is released as their second single, becoming an immediate smash on both pop and R&B radio. The success of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” marks the beginning of a hit streak Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes have, turning Teddy Pendergrass into a star prior to launching his own solo career in 1977. British band Simply Red covers the song in 1989, taking it to number one, belatedly winning Gamble and Huff a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1990. “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.
[Virgin and Child, ca. 1275-1300, France, Ivory with paint, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1917. Seated Figure, Possibly Ife, Tada Nigeria, Late
13th-14th century, Copper with traces of arsenic, lead, and tin,
Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments.]
An ambitious new exhibition will showcase the splendor and power of
the lost kingdoms and commercial centers of Africa, using centuries-old
artifacts from sites around the Sahara Desert and artwork from West and
North Africa, Europe and the Middle East that reveal the reach of
Saharan networks, in a first-of-its-kind show that will open in January
at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University.
By
exploring the global impact of Saharan trade routes on a medieval
economy fueled by gold, the exhibition upends historical misconceptions
and demonstrates Africa’s influence on medieval Europe, North Africa,
the Middle East and beyond.
“Caravans of Gold” will debut at The
Block Jan. 26 through July 21, 2019, before traveling to the Aga Khan
Museum in Toronto in September 2019 and the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., in April 2020.
Yet when someone tells me that they are going to pray for me, genuinely, with nothing but love in their hearts, I just smile and say thank you….
…because I’m not an insufferable jackass.
I’m an athiest, but I live in the south so there’s always religion being thrown in my face. For context of this story: I had surgery in July, the fifth in a row for a medical issue I’ve had for two years.
One weekend before my surgery I went and got a facial (let me tell you. if you’ve never had a facial, YOU NEED TO). This was the most relaxing experience I’ve ever had, tbh. But my esthetician and I had been talking sometime during my facial that I was having surgery soon. So, at the end, she asked, “Can I pray for you?”
This put me in a damn weird position because I don’t believe in the “power of prayer” as my aunt calls it. So I had two choices: say yes and just go with it, or say no and look like an ass.
So I told her “Yes” and I suppose I expected her to pray for me at a later date? But she prayed for me, with me, right then and there in the room. And honestly?
I bawled.
Look, I don’t believe in a god. I don’t believe that her attempting to contact an entity would have changed my outcome of my surgery at all. But the sheer fact that this woman, whom I’d known for all of an hour while she did my facial, was willing to take 5 minutes out of her day to sit down and use her faith to help me.
Shame on the people who put others down for their willingness to pray for and help them.
Things like this warm my heart. 💕😭
I recently finished worked on the 2018 midterm elections. I’d been doing a lot of youth outreach, young voter mobilization, shit like that. My group – and me specifically – had been targeted by young republicans and this group called Turning Point which is basically the Hitler Youth for months. I had to be skeptical of everyone who came up to my table. As a matter of safety.
Couple days before the election, a girl jogs up to the table, out of breath. She’d been on a run but she’d seen me and my table for weeks at this point and she got the overwhelming feeling that she needed to pray for me so she doubled back. She asked “Do you mind if I pray for you?”
I was hesitant. We worked with Planned Parenthood – this could be one of those “I’ll pray you can see your errors and save the unborn” things. Or some older white women had come up to be just a week beforehand and told me they prayed I found peace instead of fighting against oppression. I was real fuckin tired of people telling me to stop fighting.
But I said sure.
She lifted her hands and thanked God for the work I was doing. She thanked God for my time and my spirit. She prayed for me and asked God to give me the strength and energy I needed to finish the campaign and to continue on to do more good work.
Then she thanked me and continues with her run.
It was one of the nicest and kindest moments I had with someone for the entire campaign. And I really needed that, actually, because ya girl was falling apart.
So, yeah, even if you don’t believe in God or the power of prayer, knowing someone cares about you enough to share something like that with you is special.
Yunlan’s father is a businessman, he wants his son to be a next ceo but Yunlan only wants to make art. So he studies art. His father let’s him, with one condition. He will marry with Shen Wei.
Shen Wei is a strong willed man. He is determined to make this marriage work.
Ooooh I absolutely love the idea of this. But listen, what if Yun Lan and Shen Wei’s families have been rivals since they’re young? Yun Lan did not know of this but Shen Wei has always been in love with the Zhao’s family heir. So when Yun Lan’s father puts forth a business proposal to join both families together, Shen Wei jumps at the chance with a condition that he lets Yun Lan to pursue his Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts.
The terms and conditions of the arranged marriage are drawn and signed behind closed doors so not even Yun Lan is privy to its dealings. Not that he even cares. He can’t believe that his father has sold him off like a prized cow to a man 10 years his senior! The absurdity of it makes Yun Lan wants to laugh and get stupidly drunk. Stupid Shen Wei. Who does this man think he is? Galloping into his life and trying to take over everything? He hates him already and he’s supposed to marry this guy? Oh damn it to hell.
The Hate U Give is out October 22nd across the UK.
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right.
Based
on the critically acclaimed bestseller by Angie Thomas and starring
Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Issa Rae, KJ Apa, Algee
Smith, Sabrina Carpenter, Common and Anthony Mackie.
See The Hate U Give In Cinemas Now. Book your tickets here
The Last Good Bar 
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