The Urbane Urbanite

Image Used in an Old Blog Post about the NY Giants 2008 Ticker Tape Parade Last night, the New York Giants clenched another victory against the New England Patriots in the final nail-biting moments of Super Bowl XLVI - and I couldn't be happier. I yelled. I screamed. I ate my feelings. I clutched my chest. It was EVERYTHING! In honor of their win, I ransacked my archives and unearthed a blog post (on a now defunct blog) that I wrote four years ago about my experience at the ticker tape parade in celebration of Big Blue's win in 2008. Here's the blog post...subpar writing, corny puns, misplaced commas and all. I've grown as a writer as much as the Giants have grown as a team. *Runs to Modell's to grab a new hat and shirt for tomorrow's parade* ____ On Tuesday, members of the 2008 World Champion NY Giants football team, rode floats headed up The Canyon of Heroes (Broadway) to the cheers and admiration of thousands of their most die-hard fans. There we...

April 15, 2011. That date stares me in the face, mocking me, each and every time I fire up my computer. My homepage is my blog. And April 15 is the last time I updated. Nearly five months ago. Once upon a time, I was a mega-super-blogger. I blogged five days a week, (sometimes seven), and I went in on that blog. I begged writer-friends for exclusive quotes , interviewed my favorite photographers , told my whole life story, chronicled my world as a mother , wife and writer . I shot commercials for new blog posts . (No. Seriously.) I assigned and edited a weekly guest blog spot . I hired an ombudsman . And a graphic designer. And then had the nerve to hire an assistant too. I treated that blog like a full-time job. And then, (surprise, surprise), I burned out. Completely. I’m the energizer bunny when I have a new idea, whether it’s blogging, Tweeting, running or dieting. I don’t do anything halfway. So when I decided to blog, I went all out. And when I found myself with nothing le...

I don't offend easily. With close to ten years of rejection under my belt auditioning and working as an actor, I've grown quite the thick skin. But I'm still an artist and very sensitive about my shit! About a month ago, a friend and loyal reader of this blog made a comment about the post: My Upstairs Neighbor's Bed . He went on about how good he thought the post was and how much he enjoyed reading it. And then - like a rusty dagger to my heart - he asked: You made that up, right? Listen. Del don't make up blog posts. EVER! No disrespect to the bloggers out there on that James Frey flow; the ones who concoct misadventures and stretch the truths of their lives to entertain their readers. If that's your thing, fine! But it ain't mine. Everything you read over here on my little slice of the interwebs is 100% true. Period. Besides, I'm a writer. If I wanted to hit you with a piece of fiction, not only would I do it, but I'd say point blank: C...

Homer, ancient Greek poet & scholar Scholarly is the last word I would used to describe myself. In fact, the adjective is on my list of words people overuse when describing themselves and others. (Other words include: epic. icon. amazing. etc.) But, today, I am quite proud to announce that I've got a clip in a scholarly journal. Woot! Woot! Wait. Are written pieces in journals even called "clips?" The word "clips" sounds too light and general - not serious enough. I think the proper phrasing is: I've got an article published in a scholarly journal. Ah, yes. That sounds much better. Yes, yours truly has a piece in JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies. *Takes Bow*  Here's how it all came to be.

I started working on my novel (for real, for real) in January of this year. I sat down and pumped out a couple of decent chapters. And I got some good feedback that propelled me to keep writing. As I started to use the momentum to pump out more work, something stopped me dead in my tracks: Procrastination. I would set aside time to sit down and write or brainstorm or jot down notes and plot ideas, but, instead, end up on Twitter shooting the breeze with hundreds of folks I do not know. I quickly zeroed in on the problem and scaled back on my tweets. In the past two weeks, Foursquare check-ins and blog promotion aside, I've only tweeted 23 times. That equals out to about 1.6 tweets per day. And more than half of those tweets were replies to messages sent directly to me. Just when I thought I had tamed my social media activities and was back on the road to literary success, my clever, crafty ass found o...

I attended my very first (and certainly not my last) National Association of Black Journalists Convention & Career Fair in Philadelphia last week. The Philadelphia Convention Center was the nerve center for everything NABJ: Ceremonies, panels, receptions, parties, film screenings, celebrity performances and a huge career fair. Although I was in reporter mode covering the event for VIBE magazine, I still managed to attend several panels, a couple of receptions and one lively film screening.

Long before starting my own blog, I tested the waters by guest blogging on other sites. It was a great way for me to flex my writing muscle in between paid writing gigs without the burden of having to run an actual blog. Clearly, I got bit by the bug and decided to launch my own joint. But now I'm extending the invitation to you.

The Urbane Urbanite has been around for 15 months. And in that time, I've written quite a few personal posts - a tribute to my 92-year-old Granny after she passed away; the uneasiness I feel about my mother getting back on the dating scene ; a confessional about feeling like a quitter when it comes to my acting career - but the most personal post, by far, has to be the interview I did with my father. The Conversation with Dad post is the most popular, most talked about piece I've ever written. It has elicited the biggest reaction from the readers of this blog and goes down as the most cathartic writing experience I've ever had. Besides providing all of you with a gutsy, engaging piece to read, it also did the unthinkable: help me get to know my father a little better and bring us closer together. In the year since publishing the post, I've gained a ton of new followers. So in honor of Father's Day this weekend, I'm reblogging my Conversation with Dad fo...

There's a new musical in town that's garnering a lot of buzz. Baby It's You , which is currently in previews and officially opens on April 27, tells the little known true story of Florence Greenberg. Eager to be more than just a homemaker, Greenberg stepped out on a limb and did the unthinkable for a 1950's housewife: started her very own record label - and changed the landscape of the music industry forever. I caught a performance of Baby It's You earlier this week when they hosted a lovely bloggers night. The night started with a one hour pre-show cocktail reception at the ultra swanky Library Bar above the bustling lobby of The Paramount Hotel in Time Square. I nibbled on spring rolls and sipped on my favorite libation, Grey Goose and cranberry, while chatting up other bloggers. My hand on one of my many cocktails After my ___th drink, it was time to head two blocks south to the Broadhurst Theatre to catch the show. The moment you sit in your se...

I can't believe it. A year ago today, I sat down to write my very first blog post : a lengthy review of my experience at a private editor's tasting of an upscale tequila. When I created this blog, it was never my intention to post this much. I figured I'd pump out a post once or twice a month when I felt like it and that would be that. And here I am a year and 105 blog posts later. *Pats self on the back*

You ever witness that awkward moment when folks are sitting around chatting about, let's say, pop culture and the conversation turns to politics and that one person who was once dominating the conversation, begins to clam up? That one person is me. I'm a great conversationalist, but when politics comes up, I start to itch and quickly change the subject. I find politics terribly boring, which, in turn, makes me a really lousy political gabber.  But I want to change that. I can't bill myself as a renaissance man and not be able to hold a conversation about what's going down in the political arena. The sweet Lord up above must have heard my cry, because no sooner had I proclaimed my desire to be a wee bit more politically savvy, did I stumble upon Prune Juice Media , a witty, intelligent, honest look at political news stories. PJM targets educated ( that's me! ) voters ( hey, that's me too! ) who are tired of "business as usual" in political reporti...

A few weeks ago, I asked all of you to "like" The Urbane Urbanite fan page on Facebook, and in return, I would give away an iPod shuffle to one of you. Well, you guys turned out in full force! To date, I've racked up over 100 fans - and still counting. You like me! You really, really like! *Does The Wobble* And as promised, I've got an iPod shuffle here with someone's name on it. If Yolonda looks familiar, that's because she lent her expertise to a popular post here on TUU about finding time to read on a busy schedule.   Read that post here if you missed it. Yolonda will receive the iPod shuffle pictured above as well as a $25 iTunes gift card. Congrats, Yolonda! I would like to thank everyone who supported me by liking the Facebook fan page and everyone who continues to support the blog by subscribing, reading, commenting and sharing my posts.  I truly appreciate it. I'll catch up with y'all at the end of the week with a new post!...

Hey Y'all! *Waves* So. Earlier this week, I published my 51st post in less than six months. That's a lot for a slow, lazy writer like me. After I clicked publish, I sat back in my chair, stroked my chin and said, "I think I like this blogging thing. I'll stick around a while." That being said, I started a little fan page over on Facebook. I didn't create it to stroke my own ego (I'ont need any help in that department). If I'm being honest, I did it because everyone else has one. *Shrugs* And besides, it looks dope on the blog when folks see that tons of other folks like your site. For me, it's about validation. Here's what I'd like for you to do: If you've got a Facebook account, simply scroll on down a little bit... Until you see that little Facebook box on the right hand side of this page... That has all those pretty smiling faces in it and click the LIKE button. And you're done! Just like that, with a ...

Reggie Levine, a self-proclaimed tech geek, was one of the many talented bloggers who attended the Blogging While Brown (BWB) Conference in Washington, DC., in June. But I didn't get the opportunity to meet him there. It was the day after the conference while us bloggers were basking in the afterglow of the awesomeness that was BWB, that I stumbled upon his blog. ReggieLevine.net is a treasure trove of priceless information about how to make the most out of your gadgets, reviews on new accesories and great deals on technology. I learned how to look up words on my MacBook Pro without opening the dictionary application and how to create folders on my iPhone 3GS all from watching the videos on his blog. While this is an exciting time for gadget lovers like myself, we're inundated with many alternatives. To help make sense of some of the more popular gizmos on the market today, I asked the Atlanta based personal technology and social media expert to talk Kindle versus No...

It feels like it was just yesterday that I decided to start a blog. I had no idea what I would write about but I did know that no matter what I chose to publish on the internets, I would follow the number one rule of writing: Write What You Know . And if there was something I didn't know, I'd interview the person who did. Over the last few months I've...

I joined Twitter kicking and screaming. There was a time when I wanted no parts of the 140-character, nonstop stream of consciousness phenomenon that has taken over the internets. Mostly because I just didn’t get it. At the time, it didn’t make any sense. I was just fine in Facebook Land where pieces of flair, Farmville and party promotion wall posts run rampant. By the way, I've never played Farmville, I hate flair and despise party promotion junk mail. Please stop sending me that crap. Kthx. But in March of last year, on a whim, I buckled and joined Twitter - and it changed my life.