A hot link sandwich #2
The Lakers beat the shit out of the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night, and I am one extremely happy Laker fan for a number of reasons.
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I don’t know why Dillon Brooks talked all that trash and then hid from the media when his team got packed up Friday night, but here we are.
It’s not just Dillon Brooks though. So many people are disrespecting LeBron James and the show he is putting on right now.
This man is 38 years old. He has been in the league for 20 years, and he is still a dominant player. Show me another 38-year-old professional basketball player that is putting up the kinds of numbers LeBron is in his 20th season. He’s averaging 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and is shooting 50%.
Listen. I have very recently become his next biggest fan because his performance this season and especially in this off-season play has impressed me. This man is really a great.
Somebody help Dillon Brooks pick his face up off the floor.
I wonder if we will ever hear from him again.
Next up we get a Lakers vs Warriors series. I think my boys got this. Prepare to be sick of me.
Anyway, on to the links.
Me, me, me
I will always start with sharing my links first. I’m so vain, I totally think this newsletter is about me.
Oh. Wait. It is?
Mmkay.
Snowfall is one of the greatest television shows of all time. I shan’t be debated on this. For “Andscape,” I wrote about the legacy and the impact of the show. “With ‘Snowfall,’ John Singleton’s final gift to us was his greatest.”
For this feature, I interviewed Maasai Singleton (John Singleton’s son), Cheo Hodari Coker (creator of “Luke Cage” for Netflix, a writer and a very close friend of John Singleton), Walter Mosley (the GOAT and the GAWD of Black Los Angeles writers), Amin Joseph (he portrayed Uncle Jerome Saint), and Michael Hyatt (Cissy Saint).
I was limited in my word count, so there was so much that didn’t make the cut.
During my interview with Michael Hyatt, we had a moment as Black women and we both started crying. It was beautiful.
Walter Mosley was discussing the impact of drugs on different cities, and he said to me, “Miami was a little backwater town until cocaine hit its shores.” I’m mad that quote had to get cut.
Cheo helped me understand so much about John’s process and his thinking when creating “Snowfall,” and Walter Mosley basically cosigned everything.
You may not necessarily like the way the show ended, but it was the only ending that was right. Still, every time I think about the ending, I get choked up.
It took a lot to pull this feature together, and it really made me think about how mentally exhausting writing can be — especially when you do it for a living. Still, I am eternally grateful to get paid to do what I love.
We celebrated 4/20 again (I honestly have a 4/20 celebration daily, but I mean, this was the official holiday), and for theGrio, I wrote about my gratitude for legalized cannabis.
In another for theGrio, I wrote about how “Black women get shamed for everything.”’
TikTok owns me
I am going to blame my very good friend (and editor) Genetta for getting me hooked on TikTok. The TikTok algorithm works so well, I never even need to look at the “Following” tab because the “For You” tab understands the assignment completely.
That said, I have discovered this weird corner of TikTok that has me completely perplexed. It’s called “WaterTok.”
“WaterTok” is comprised of people who have come up with all these recipes to make water taste better. Those recipes include adding flavor packs or flavored syrups to the water, and these people are dead ass serious with this.
I didn’t even know this was a thing until I saw a parody of them on TikTok, and I liked the video.
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Once I liked the parody video, I started getting fed actual WaterTok videos, and I kept asking myself over and over again, “Don’t these people realize that once you add all that stuff to it it’s not just water anymore?”
I don’t want to get attacked over there, so I haven’t bothered sharing my thoughts on the clock app, but I will share them here in my safe space.
What are y’all doing? This is weird. Please stop this.
I am apparently not the only one who thinks this is odd. Both “Bon Appetit” and “Eater” have covered this weird trend.
I am a fan of personal essays
I am a big fan of personal essays, especially when they can help draw connections with current events in this country.
John Blake from CNN wrote about meeting his white mother for the first time and the things he learned in the aftermath of it. This was a really good read.
That’s all for now. See y’all next time!