Yesterday, at around 10:40pm, the spotlights were on Mariah as she came up on stage to perform "Shake It Off" with Jermaine Dupri. A little later, Mariah sang the "We Belong Together" remix with DJ Clue, Styles P and Jadakiss. Eva Longoria made the introductions.
Unfortunately, Mariah didn't win any of the two awards she was nominated for. Mariah's "We Belong Together" lost the Best Female Video award to Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone". And in the Best R&B Video category she lost to Alicia Keys's "Karma".
During the live pre-show, Kelly Clarkson said she is most looking forward to Mariah's performance and was excited to see it even though she wishes Mariah performed on the arena's stage. Jessica Alba called Mariah a strong force and said she hopes Mariah walks away with the awards she's up for.
Here are a few reviews of fans who saw the performances:

"I loved the VMA performance. Vocally, she was really good - much better than at some points this year (BET, for one) - and she looked like she knew it. She was doing her thing, and working her ensemble. The one thing I wish had been different is that she had performed in the auditorium so she could work the crowd live. That would have been hot." Josh from Canada

"Damn, I just saw the VMA and Mariah lost a big chance. The performance was too complicated, full of chairs, steps, hands, hair and so on. Many things together and they didn't work, she was too nervous, the voice failed, she was artificial. Oh God. The inferiority complex of JD has made Mimi's career complicated. This is not the way to say thanks. I'm sorry, but it was not good. I expected more: dress, jewel, bubbles, cute people. She made one the worst appereance in the night, althought R. Kelly was even worse." Raymundo from Brazil

"I just caught the telecast of the awards. I thought it was a pretty good show, with some wicked performances: Coldplay, My Chemical Romance, Shakira, Kanye and Jamie, and of course Mariah. She was awesome, she looked great, sounded great, and the set was beautiful. I especially loved the WBT remix which I thought she rocked. She did look awkward trying to move and sing at the same time, but overall her voice was great and she looked stunning in her blue dress. Too bad she didn't win any awards though. I sort of suspected she would lose Best Female Video, but I didn't think that Karma was a better video than WBT. That was Mariah's category to win. I'm a bit disappointed she didn't get the recognition." Andy from Canada

"She looked great and sounded great but the only thing that annoyed me was the dress she wore. When singing a song like Shake It Off something a little more durable that allows you to properly shake it and not just make you look like a stiff on stage is required." Elio from Australia

(MCArchives.com)

Pope thinks over a ban on gay priests entering seminaries

THE OBSERVER , LONDON
Monday, Aug 29, 2005,Page 6

The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic Church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from becoming priests.

The controversial document, produced by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the body overseeing the church's training of the priesthood, is being scrutinized by Benedict XVI.

There had been suggestions Rome would publish the instruction earlier this month, but dropped the plan out of concerns such a move might tarnish his visit to his home town of Cologne last week. The document expresses the Church's belief that gay men should no longer be allowed to enter seminaries to study for the priesthood.

Currently, as all priests take a vow of celibacy, their sexual orientation has not been considered a pressing concern. Vatican watchers believe the Pope harbors doubts about whether the church should publish the document.

The instruction tries to dampen the controversy by eschewing a moral line, arguing instead that the presence of homosexuals in seminaries is `unfair' to both gay and heterosexual priests by subjecting the former to temptation.

"It will be written in a very pastoral mode," John Haldane, professor of philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, said. "It will not be an attack on the gay lifestyle. It will not say `homosexuality is immoral.' But it will suggest that admitting gay men into the priesthood places a burden both on those who are homosexual and those they are working alongside who are not."

The instruction was drawn up as part of the Vatican's response to the sexual abuse scandal that surfaced in the US church three years ago, which has seen hundreds of priests launch lawsuits against superiors whom they accuse of abusing them.

As the former head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body charged with looking into the abuse claims, Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was made acutely aware of the scale of the problem. He is thought to have made clearing up the scandal one of the key goals of his papacy.

Next month the Vatican will send investigators to the US to gauge the scale of the scandal. More than 100 bishops and seminary staff will visit 220 campuses. The teams will review documents provided by the schools and seminaries and may interview teachers, students and recent alumni. They will report directly to the Vatican which could then choose to issue the instruction barring homosexuals from entering the priesthood as part of its response.

Studies show that a significant proportion of men who enter seminaries to train for the priesthood are gay. Any move that signals homosexuals will no longer be allowed to enter seminaries, even one couched in the arcane language used by the Vatican, could have a significant impact on the number of recruits to the priesthood.

It is expected the document would be signed by a cardinal rather than the Pope himself -- in a bid to distance the pontiff from criticism -- if the Vatican decides to publish it.

THANK YOU (THE BEAT OF LOVE)
(Written by: P.A. Jervis, Jr.)

Thank you for letting me into your life
Thank you for letting me get close
Thank you for having me close to your heart
Hearing it beat the beat of love.

I never felt like I did when I do when I am with you
Far away I feel that I need to be closer to you
That I need to be getting a dose of that love
That love so strong, so strong

Thank you for letting me into your life
Thank you for letting me get close
Thank you for having me close to your heart
Hearing it beat the beat of love.

Far, far, far away
You reach me in my dreams
Taking me to another place, Oh, Oh, so high.
High.
That I just don't know how I am going to be able to come down
That love so strong, so lifting, so strong, so lifting

Thank you for letting me into your life
Thank you for letting me get close
Thank you for having me close to your heart
Hearing it beat the beat of love.

 

AFTER SOME TOUGH TIMES, CAREY GETS IT "TOGETHER"

Mariah Carey has the No. 1 single in the country. Ten years ago, this wouldn't have been big news, now it's nothing short of a miracle. "We Belong Together" has been Billboard's top single for a staggering 12 weeks, making it not only one of Carey's biggest hits, but the biggest song - so far - of the year. And it's all the more remarkable since Carey's career was supposed to be over. After spending the 1990s becoming one of the best-selling female artists in pop music history, Carey, it seemed, couldn't do anything right by the start of the 21st century. Her once-unstoppable career became a punchline as she suffered professional and personal misfires.
Hence, few expected Carey to return to chart-topping form when her latest CD, "The Emancipation of Mimi", was released in April. Yet, not only did Carey's album, her first studio effort in three years, drop-kick 50 Cent's "The Massacre" out of the top spot, it garnered the best first week sales - 404,000 - of Carey's career.
Not many performers achieve landmarks so deep into their careers. Carey, what with all her issues and antics, certainly seemed an unlikely candidate. Still, she did what few entertainers do when their careers are flailing - she returned to what made her a star.
Certainly, it's helped that she's had the guiding hand of her label chief, Island Def Jam's Antonio "LA" Reid. An established hitmaker, Reid has worked with artists from Usher to Pink, and understands how to polish his singers to their commercial best. "We Belong Together" is a classic Carey ballad: slickly produced, a little overwrought, but sung to pieces. Whatever problems Carey has endured, her voice has remained pure, a stunning instrument which has often been better than her chosen material.
Her new album also steps away from the adult contemporary pretensions of 2002's inert "Charmbracelet". She's back to hip-hop influenced R&B, and the collaborations here with Snoop Dogg and the Neptunes don't sound forced since Carey has been doing this sort of thing for a decade.
True, she hasn't dropped her tendency to vamp it up too much in her videos, as if she still feels the need to compete with the Beyonces and Ameries of the world. But Carey can easily out-sing them all. She doesn't need to wear thigh-high skirts (although she does) or strike seductive poses in a rose-petal adorned bathtub (although she does that, too), when that voice is really all she needs.
It's a big turnaround from a slide that began with "Glitter" in 2001. A loosely autobiographical debacle that marked - like a dog marks its territory - Carey's big-screen debut. Suffice it to say that as an actress, she's a wonderful singer. Then again, this film was so lousy in every possible way, even the most seasoned thespian couldn't have made the whole mess watchable. Even Carey's most rabid fans stayed far, far away.
Consequently, the accompanying soundtrack didn't do much better, but by then more people were paying attention to Carey's public unraveling. She made a wacky appearance on MTV's "Total Request Live", and not long after there came reports that she'd been hospitalized for the oft-cited "exhaustion".
A year later, Carey's label, Virgin Records, which had giddily signed the singer to an $80 million contract, became so desperate to dump her and her flagging sales, they gave her a $28 million buyout. For all intents and purposes, Carey was regarded as damaged goods, her career adrift. Oh, she would still sell records, but many believed she was well past her peak.
Even as the singer was trying to sort it out, contemporary R&B was being overrun by younger women who certainly didn't have Carey's voice, but were equipped with the kind of video-primed looks that can just as reliably launch a career.
But there's nothing like a hit record to chase those blues - and poseurs - away. Perhaps finally understanding that she has nothing left to prove, she was free to make the right album at the right time. Even if you aren't a Carey fan, there's something reassuring about a 35-year-old singer experiencing a career resurrection at a time when women too young to drink are dominating modern R&B.
Adding to what's already been a spectacular year, Carey will vie for best female video for "We Belong Together" at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, and expect her album and single to get major attention when the Grammy nominations are announced later this year. Her latest single, "Shake It Off" is already in the top 10, while "Mimi" remains near the top of the Billboard 200 album chart.
This from a singer who was all but declared professionally dead. Instead, Carey is having the last laugh, with a hot album and a hot single as a diva risen from the ashes. Somewhere out there, Whitney Houston had better be taking notes.

(The Boston Globe & MCArchives.com) 

 Former Tempe mayor to lead national gay-rights group

THE MAN AND HIS TALL TALL HOUSE
(Written by: P.A. Jervis, Jr.)

There once was this guy
Who had a house that was taller than the sky
He had everything he wanted, everything he'd need

Now this man was no stranger to the people of the valley
They worshiped looked up to his house and wish that they too
Could have the very same fortune

There were stories of how he got rich and how long it took to build his house
Brick by brick, inch by inch, life by life, because you know people died building it
You knew that, right.

For what people don't know about this man that has a house built to the sky
Is that man walks around his house weeping and is full of sorrow
He crys, in his tallest tower hoping that God will one day send him love

The man today, still remains alone
But wishes one day to fill his house up to the sky with love
Not with children exactly, but with love
But a couple of children to share the love with

One day this love will come true
And the man run up to the heavens and talk to God and say "I Love You"
It's not that he didn't love Him before, but he'll love Him just a little more.

THE COOL KID OF THE BLOCK
(Written by: P.A. Jervis, Jr.)

Tick tack
Who's that taking rides on my back
I can't tell for sure who it is, or what it is.

For I have fallen, fallen, fallen
Into this nothing and I feel that I am
Falling, falling, falling
Out of the loop of knowing this and that
And being the cool kid of the block

Ding dang
I think I am about to lose my mind
I can't tell if it's been lost already, or is it searching for me

For I have risen, risen, risen
Into this hell of something that I am not quite aware exactly of what it is
Rising, rising, rising
Above something that I created and moving on to another creation
And there in this other creation I shall find my place as
Being the cool kid of the block.

This email message is brought to you by The Electronic Urban Report (EURWeb.com)

http://www.eurweb.com

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This article was sent to you by: patrick@patrickjervis.com

who says: Yay! The return of the Lauryn!

LAURYN HILL TO RECORD WITH JOHN LEGEND AGAIN: Artists hooking up for duets to follow up 1998's 'Everything.'

http://www.eurweb.com/story.cfm?id=21901

      *Here's a match made in R&B heaven.  Lauryn Hill and John Legend are in the process of recording several tracks together for both of their upcoming solo albums, according to reports.

       British newspaper the Daily Star says the pair has already begun work on two tracks, one of which will appear on Hill's forthcoming album “Khunami Phase,” the other on Legend's new CD.

       "Lauryn got in touch with John and congratulated him on his Gap ad with Joss Stone,” a source told the Daily Star. "They chatted for a bit then she presented the idea of them working together again - which he jumped at. Neither track is finished yet. They only got down to business last week."

       Seven years ago, Legend lent the Fugee a hand on her 1998 hit single “Everything is Everything.”

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For more entertainment news go to The Electronic Urban Report Online at: http://www.eurweb.com

 

LONELINESS AND ALL HIS FRIENDS
(written by: P.A. Jervis, Jr.)

I'm feeling the feeling that I am the only one in this place.
The only one that's got myself and no one else
Loneliness and all his friends are staring me right in my face
Trying to take my hand dance around to this lonely melody
I'm feeling the feeling that I am the only in this place

I realize that I am weak, the loneliness is a feeling that's so strong
The feeling that makes me go under and feel so low and like life is going by so fast.
Loneliness and all his friends have come over but it all just feels wrong
Trying to get closer and closer to me and take me under
I realize that I am weak and the loneliness is a feeling that's so strong.

I am in the middle of losing my mind and going crazy, but you tell me I'm over reacting
The only one experiencing the feeling currently is me not you.
Loneliness and all his friends are just like mine and telling me to stop reacting
Trying to fight the feeling as it gets closer is what I feel I should do, when I am being to told to except it.
I am in the middle of losing my mind and going crazy, but you tell me I'm over reacting