The better version was unavailable but you get the vibe. Get your cigar and a shot of cognac and just chill. Shout out to Frankie J!

I guess the kid in me is coming out today. I saw this on CNN and I had to post it. Shout out to the Muppet Babies. Miss Piggy and Kermit and Gonzo. All of them gave me a great childhood. I used to watch the tv show, the movies, you name it I was watching it. I even had a little Kermit back in the day, he had a lumberjack vest on but I’m not sure what happened to him. I had him for years, the vest had been gone but now he’s gone too. Sad, just sad. Anyway shout out to the Smithsonian for celebrating the work of Jim Henson, Long Live the Muppets. Check below, I’ve included a clip of their great show!

Bert and Ernie are paying a special visit to the city that helped give birth to the “Sesame Street” gang.

Kermit the Frog will be part of an exhibit, “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” at the Smithsonian Institution.

But don’t expect to see the popular puppets strolling around Washington. Their fame and age (they’re sensitive to light) make too much exposure a security risk. Instead, they will be making their home, at least temporarily, in the underground International Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution as part of the exhibit “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.”

Visitors to the show, which opens Saturday and continues through Oct. 5, will find the Muppets under special lighting, behind glass and closely guarded.

“We consider every single thing in here to be precious,” said project director Deborah Macanic. Technically speaking, they’re all antiques.

It’s a homecoming for Muppets such as Kermit, the piano-playing dog Rowlf and others that first achieved stardom on Washington-area television shows and commercials — long before the success of “The Muppet Show” and “Sesame Street.” Muppets creator Jim Henson grew up in nearby Hyattsville, Maryland, and attended the University of Maryland, where his creative approach began to take shape.

“We’re showing how he went from drawing to a cartoon to a puppet to a moving image,” Macanic said, explaining the exhibit’s themes of visual thinking, storytelling and character development.

Through more than 100 original drawings, cartoons and story boards and about 14 famous Muppets, the exhibit traces Henson’s career as a puppeteer and filmmaker until his death in 1990.

Henson got his television start in 1954, creating a TV show, “Sam and Friends,” for Washington’s NBC station while still in college. Kermit the Frog’s character began developing from this show and later became a superstar.

The exhibit features one of the earliest sketches of Kermit, and a 1970s version of the puppet sits front and center to greet visitors near the entrance of the International Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center.

Kermit was originally conceived as a more abstract reptile character with less defined features. The original puppet was made in 1955 from an old turquoise coat with eyes made from a pingpong ball. Kermit continued to evolve from there to a frog in the 1960s.

“Then Kermit just kind of took over and became the news (reporter) guy with the hat and the trench coat and all that he was by the time he got to Sesame Street,” Macanic said.

The skinny, green frog became the most enduring Muppet character, in part because Jim Henson considered Kermit to be his alter-ego.

Henson’s personality shines through other characters as well, such as the furry, hippie Mahna Mahna who sings scat to a jazz song with two backup singers called the Snowths. The skit debuted in 1969 on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” with Henson performing the gruff voice of Mahna Mahna.

A few days before the exhibit’s opening, the three singers emerged from a wooden storage crate — all in need of a little primping. Josette Cole and Viki Possoff, Smithsonian exhibit registrars, carefully fluffed the pink Snowth puppets and twisted an arm to match a dance pose from a photograph.

“There’s a whole technique to it,” Cole said. “You use a dog brush, for one, and you don’t pull it through the hair because you’ll pull it off. You sort of have to pat it in place.”

Bert and Ernie were unpacked after the Snowths, apparently needing some extra rest after their last public appearance in June in Louisiana.

Museum workers are becoming experts in Muppet care as the exhibit makes a three-year tour. After the show in Washington, the Muppets will travel to Atlanta, Georgia; Orlando, Florida and five other cities through early 2011. The Smithsonian’s experts escort their Muppet treasures by tractor-trailer, tending to them at each stop.

The exhibit anchors a Muppet-themed summer of events at the Smithsonian and elsewhere in the Washington area. Through much of July and August, the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland, will host the film series “Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy” as a tribute to Henson’s work. There will also be programs on puppetry and free Podcast tours.

The only thing missing from the Muppet festival may be the elegant Miss Piggy, who aggressively flirted with Kermit. Miss Piggy will show up in film only, but her puppet isn’t available. Apparently, the materials used to create Miss Piggy weren’t as sturdy for travel as Kermit’s, said Karen Falk, an archivist with The Jim Henson Co. who curated the exhibit.

“As you might expect,” said Falk, “she’s more sensitive.”

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc-4KFxSD4Q

I’m on my Jazz tip! You have to appreciate the passion that goes into Jazz, the intensity that goes with playing those instruments. That’s love, love for the music, love for your craft, love for those listening to you. We can learn a lot from jazz musicians. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NllPZ5_Tw40&hl=en]

Just don’t give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong. - Ella Fitzgerald

We have to pay hommage to Jazz, we just have too!
I even had to change the name right quick, I can’t call Jazz a jam, it’s just too smooth!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC8sDz_V1uY&hl=en]

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning… Every day I find something creative to do with my life. - Miles Davis

I have to give it to Madonna; she jazzed it up with our new producers but still kept her own swag on the track. I’m rocking to it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYr9SxJ_O5s&hl=en]

Today’s featured piece comes from a young lady who I hold dear to my heart. Her words are the back drop for the experiences that both men and women share alike. I am thankful that she shared this with me, I appreciated it and I hope that you do too!

I Wear My Pussy On My Sleeve

In the interim of love…I Fuck
My mind knows its wrong
My heart is still lonely
My pussy throbs
I just need someone to hold me

I know better than this
Callin me at 3 O’clock in the morning
So I fight with myself…
Do I let him in and feed my thirst?
Do I close my legs and go to sleep 1 more time without the satisfaction of a nut?…
Or do I just play with myself…maybe then I’ll feel the burst

I know you don’t love me…Hell, I can’t stand the sight of your face
But I love you when you lick me from front to back to get your early morning taste.

I know that after you bust its all over
We pretended to be in love for a couple of hours
I fixed you dinner…you rubbed my feet… we showered together…and laid in the stank until the morning rose

But I know when I see you in the street we’ll do even more actin’
Scene 2
We’ll pretend as if we are buddies throwing insults at each other so no one will suspect a thing…that shit hurts….

Maybe 1 day, I’ll stop wearing my pussy on my sleeve.

~Jazz

Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on. - Billie Holliday

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don’t think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die. I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever. - Nina Simone