Cheap Salad ⏤ Vol 21
Cheap Salad ⏤ Vol 21
Show me the money, a rooftop on a mountain, and celebrating our new southern life.
Hi Friend! Welcome to June.
Summer hasn’t officially started yet, but outside is OPEN! Memorial Day was the unofficial mark of summer, and baaaabbyyyy, everyone is OUT.
Our summer weekends are already filled with road trips, girls’ trips, bae has a guys trip, beach days, and so much more. But listen, I am ready; beyond ready.
We been inside, and now it’s time to be outside, getting that summer glow.
Today for lunch, we are having what I call a cheap salad. It’s fresh chopped romaine lettuce (get the stalks, not the bags), tomatoes, cucumber, ribboned carrots, croutons, and a drizzle of ranch. We usually eat arugula, which is rather expensive and doesn’t have a long shelf life, but lately, I’ve been in love with this basic ass salad. And since I need to maintain my summer body, we eating some salad today. Okuurrrr! *Cardi B voice*
Today’s topics:
90’s Black Hollywood Queens
Floppy Disk
One Year Anniversary
90’s Black Hollywood Queens
Who reigned on the BIG screen for you in the 90s. Some of our 90s favorites are still making major moves today. The list of amazing Black female talent from the 90s can keep you busy for months on end, but these six Hollywood stars were in some of the most iconic movies to ever be made.
Who was your favorite?
Vivica A. Fox ⏤ Don’t Be a Menace (96), Independence Day (96), Set It Off (96), Booty Call (97), Batman & Robin (97), Soul Food (97), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (98), Idle Hands (99), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (99)
My low-key favorite character Vivica played in the 90s was her ’98 role as Mickey in Why Do Fools Fall in Love. When she told her side of the story in court during the Frankie Lymon estate trial, her pettiness was unmatched. Her version of the pool scene when she was up in Zora's (Halle Berry) house was one of the best moments of this entire movie. Frankie lived a crazy fast life in the 25 years he was alive. Three wives, a deployment, best-selling musical artist, I mean sheesh!
Nia Long ⏤ Boyz N the Hood (91), Made in America (93), Friday (95), Love Jones (97), Soul Food (97), Have Plenty (97), Butter (98), In Too Deep (99), The Best Man (99)
Nina will forever be one of my favorite fictional characters and Love Jones is one of the best love stories. The storyline is about Darius & Nina, but it really is about the entire cast. You have Hollywood (Bill Bellamy), a jealous overconfident “friend” that decides to be cute for a minute and flaunt Nina as his date in front of the same circle because he probably is dealing with his own insecurities. We watch Savon (Isaiah Washington) and his wife go through the challenges of marriage. Josie (Lisa Nicole Carson) is the best friend we all wanted to have. And let’s not forget Marvin (Khalil Kain), the ex that we’ve all had that we can’t seem to shake unless it’s the expense of something else beautiful in our lives. Whew, Love Jones is THEE movie. My second favorite of all time, Belly is #1.
Halle Berry ⏤ Jungle Fever (91), Strictly Business (91), Boomerang (92), The Flintstones (94), Losing Isiah (95), The Rich Man’s Wife (96), B*A*P*S (97), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (98)
Halle’s first movie was Jungle Fever; she played Vivian, Gator, Samuel L. Jackson’s crackhead boo. Halle’s 90’s catalog is vibrant and diverse. From playing Nisi in B*A*P*S to Khalia in Losing Isaiah, Halley did IT in the 90s. But the plot of The Rich Man’s Wife. A quiet favorite of mine. Watch it if you haven’t.
Angela Bassett ⏤ Kindergarten Cop (90), Boyz N the Hood (91), Malcolm X (92), What’s Love Got to Do with It (93), Vampire in Brooklyn (95), Waiting to Exhale (95), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (98)
Besides Angela and her husband Courtney B. Vance holding the title as one of my favorite couples, Angela is one of my favorite actors of all time. She is extremely talented and can’t play the HELL out of any role. She played Betty Shabazz perfectly. Stella was the carefree single mother that showed me life doesn’t have to stop. Damn, this one is too hard. I have to pick two — Bernadine and Tina. The closet scene in Waiting to Exhale, iconic. Even her chopping her hair off during the divorce is spot on. Y’all know we (women) love to cut or switch up our hair when a new season of life hits us. I’ve done this twice.
Tina. Tina, Tina, Tina. Tina Turner didn’t even want to make this movie, but Angela made her extremely proud, telling her truth and life. And even with the number of violent scenes we had to watch, I can rewatch this movie repeatedly because it tells a tragically beautiful story of survival.
Jada Pinkett Smith ⏤ Menace II Society (93), The Inkwell (94), Jason’s Lyric (94), A Low Down Dirty Shame (94), The Nutty Professor (96), Set It Off (96), Scream 2 (97), Woo (98).
Jada is a Baltimore BABE, just like me. Her 90’s lineup was great. Woo is a movie you forget about, but everything comes back to memory when you watch it. Talk about a date from hell. Stony was the only survivor in Set It Off, and I was completely heartbroken when her little brother was killed because of mistaken identity. Not to mention what she did with Nate to get his tuition. *fuming*
Jada had roles in three of my favorite Black films— The Inkwell, Jason’s Lyric, and A Low Down Dirty Shame. But my flowers are going to her character as Lyric. The scene where Jason washes her feet, my goodness. I didn’t realize the significance of that then, but I did later in life.
Regina King ⏤ Boyz N the Hood (91), Poetic Justice (93), Higher Learning (95), Friday (95), A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (96), Jerry Maguire (96), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (98), Enemy of the State (98), Mighty Joe Young (98)
Regina has been working working her entire career and has never gotten the credit she deserved when she actually deserved it. Now folks want to remember how deep her acting roots go, but she was a total box office beauty in the 90s. Her role as Iesha is my favorite of the 90s. Her and Chicago’s (Joe Torry) relationship was very relatable for a lot of women. Even how she tried to boost her bestie up and get her back into the game after Justice's then-boyfriend was shot right in front of her.
Regina deserves all of the accolades now and even more then.
I can not end this without giving an honorable mention to Jenifer Lewis ⏤ Sister Act (92), What’s Love Got to Do with It (93), Poetic Justice (93), The Meteor Man (93), Sister Act 2 (93), Renaissance Man (94), Corrina, Corrina (94), Dead Presidents (95), Girl 6 (96), The Preacher’s Wife (96).
Jenifer has had more than 300 film and television appearances in her still standing strong career. If you haven’t watched Girl 6 or Corrina, Corrina is a while; it’s about time you revisit those classic movies.
Out of these six, who is your favorite Black Film Queen of the 90s?
If I had to pick one based on their 90s catalog ONLY (yes, it’s hard, but I am playing too), it would be Jada.
FYI these beautiful movie stars 90s film careers have more titles than I have listed.
Floppy Disk
In Vol 9, I share my first journaling story. I also mention that I had a floppy disk with my entire high school diary on there that I need to get formatted to recover my 13-17-year-old writings.
I haven’t tried to access this floppy disk in about two years. I gave up on getting it to work on my own because I didn’t want to compromise this ancient technology. One morning last month, I was writing chapter one of my young adult fiction but based on real events of my life book, and I said to myself, “I need to get this floppy disk sent off somewhere.”
I did a little research and found a recovery agency, and started filling out the necessary information to inquire. When I thought, “Wait, I have a new computer that I’ve never tried to open this disk on.” So I did, and it WORKED!
Not only did I find the writings of my younger years (99-03), but I turned it into a book that I can preserve forever and ever. I picked a picture my mom took of me on top of some mountain restaurant, a place we would often frequent to listen to one of her favorite local artists sing live music and eat lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.
I said in Vol 9 that my first journal was my high school agenda book, and this is absolutely correct. However, my very first detailed entry was on October 13, 1999.
I am a little nervous about turning back the time to read intimate secretive moments of my life. Still, I am extremely excited that I had the brilliant idea back then to document pretty much everything happening in my life. I’ve read only a few entries from my freshman year of high school thus far. And I’m already like, “oh my goodness.”
What would you rediscover if you had your freshman year of high school thoughts and brain readily available to you?
One Year in South Carolina
Today marks one year living in South Carolina. On June 7, 2020, we left our townhome in Arlington, VA, and drove down south. And on June 10th, we celebrate one year in our very first home. We plan on toasting this celebration with our realtors turned friends. Because without them, we would not have even looked at this home. Plus, the days leading up to June 10th were so emotional and hectic, I didn’t think we would ever get into our home.
Crazy to think we had this house in our “maybe” pile. While on our FaceTime tour of homes, us sitting in Northern VA and the Flemmings driving from home to home, Shayna said, “I want to show you this one house.” And the rest was history.
I was cursing that we had to buy a home during the height of the pandemic when things were moving like crickets. Looking at home prices now, our same floor plan, four doors down from us, is going for $90,000 more. Those few days of limbo and sleeping at our realtor’s home with our entire lives in a storage unit were a cakewalk and worth it.
I didn’t expect to enjoy moving to a non-progressive backward, VERY red state, but we love it. We’ve met some amazing people and even been to a few great events. Plus, we are nestled in between two cities I absolutely adore. We are one hour and five minutes south of Uptown in Charlotte and three hours and 15 minutes from Atlanta. We’ve made overnight trips to both on numerous occasions and even occasional day trips to Charlotte.
Life is good here. The cost of living is beautiful. The weather is perfect, most of the time. And we finally feel like we have a good community of people to hang out with locally.
So in the words of Camp Lo, “this is it.” Enjoy this ’97 bop.
I haven’t watched this music video in years. I forgot how good it is.
Jems 💎
#watch
Just Another Girl on the IRT (Amazon) — This ’92 Black Indie Film & Sundance Film winner was my favorite movie to watch on tape back in the day. My mom had this one buried in the back of our tape closet, and I used to sneak and watch it.
Greenland (HBO)
#read - Life After Death — Sister Souljah
#inspiration
Are you full? See you at our next lunch, June 21st! Bring a friend with you.