February 12th - Bilal and The Foreign Exchange @ Centerstage Theater

Last month, when I discovered Bilal and The Foreign Exchange were going to be performing in Atlanta over Valentine's Day weekend, I reminded my man an average of once a day that we should definitely be AT THAT. The Foreign Exchange is a Neo Soul music group born out of the genius of the Okayplayer online community. Two artists, Phonte of North Carolina and Nicolay of Holland exchanged music and lyrics with each other over the course of a year. Through this foreign exchange, they put together their debut album before even meeting in person. Now that's the power of the internet at work because their music is BOMB!!!! They have a second album out now and their song Daykeeper is up for a Grammy. Naturally, Sweet Love and I were extremely geeked about going. We liked Bilal and all but we really wanted to see The Foreign Exchange.

Thus we went about the business of securing tickets, getting haircuts and choosing attire all to be met with snow. It motherfu*&%n snowed for four hours the day of the concert! When it snows in Georgia, it might as well be the end of the world. Ain't nobody out on the streets. Ain't no more milk or bread at the store. Everybody locks themselves away in their houses and prays for the speedy emergence of a relentlessly hot sun. Sweet Love and I decided that the elements would not prevent us from venturing into the city to see our beloved TFE. We layered ourselves with thermals, sweaters and coats, wiped the snow off of the car and carefully crept our way through the streets to downtown Atlanta. We parked about a block away from Centerstage Theater and clutched each other as we tipped down the icy sidewalk. Smiling ear to ear at our own bravery and resolve, we were met at the doors by signs proclaiming "Due to weather TFE will not be performing." BULL. SHIT. After buying a couple of B-52's and finding seats, we decided to stick around for Bilal. Afterall, we did own two of his CDs.

We were in good company with a nice crowd of 30-somethings as local neo-soul artist Anthony David took the stage and gave us quite a nice performance. He had excellent stage presence and a really sweet singing and rapping voice. He performed a nice little duet with a young lady named Algebra (oh Black people and their names) and tickled us as he did a cover of a Lil Wayne song with his own lyrical twist. See below.

Following Anthony David, an unnamed comedian took to the stage. He chose to spend about a good fifteen minutes discussing the merits of giving and receiving oral sex. Of course, he focused more so on the receiving and than the giving. It was funny because most of what he said rang true. What was even funnier was the crowd's reaction to the subject matter. It is truly amazing just how conservative we colored folk are when it comes to the discussion of sex. Black women simply do not admit to the activities in which they participate behind closed doors and in the presence of their women, Black men will completely shut up as well. The laughter was stifled at some points and almost everyone refused to raise their hands when the comedians posed certain questions. I personally feel that I'm too old to be embarassed about nature and since I didn't know anyone there I laughed my ass off. Blame it on the B-52 (yeah right).

Next, Bilal's band took the stage playing their respective instruments. Bilal, himself, came swaggering, all slew-footed, out onto the stage wearing dark glasses, wailing into his mic. Sweet Love and I immediately gathered that he was drunk and/or high. I guess every neo-soul artist is getting into the habit of cutting their hair because his signature dreadlocs had been replaced with a gumby-esque haircut. Okay. We sat back and listened to him singing For You and Something to Hold On. He's got this crazy falsetto thing that he does and you can tell that Prince is one of us his major influences. We liked. He was jammin.' Especially when he pleased the crowd with Sometimes and White Turns to Grey.

Bilal's antics on stage were just hilarious. At one point he said "Hole up, we ain't done no sound check so our shit is all fucked up." At another point he said, "What's up Detroit! Well that's where it feels like I am with all this snow and shit." He forgot the lyrics to Sometimes and kept stopping and restarting the song and he looked like he was going to fall right into the crowd when he decided to stand on one of the speakers. But when he covered Thelonious Monk's Round Midnight, we had a new respect for him. Dude is a true artist who loves the music. We were very glad that we'd given his live performance a chance. We were still bitter about The Foreign Exchange though.

Bilal ended the show with Soul Sista and then we left. It took us nearly two hours to get home due to the road conditions. Idiots were driving way to quickly on the icy freeways and were slipping and sliding all over the damn streets. When going up hills, some cars were sliding in reverse. It was frozen hell. We decided that we wouldn't venture out in Georgia snow ever again...unless The Foreign Exchange comes back.

February 14th - Georgia Aquarium

My Sweet Hot Baby and I consider Valentine's Day to be a commercial farce annually forced upon us by conspiratorial chocolatiers, florists and greeting card makers. However, because of our heady passion for each other and recent reunion, we tend to celebrate more feverishly than most. Thus we observed the weekend with two bouquets of flowers, a Bilal and The Foreign Exchange concert, Halo 3: ODST, a couple's dinner party at our place featuring Monopoly City and a surprise visit to the Georgia Aquarium. We seem to really, really like each other.

I had no idea Georgia even had an aquarium, let alone the world's largest. Apparently, people come from all over the world to catch a glimpse of the universe hidden in the depths of this globe's oceans. After being blindfolded, I was driven to Centennial Olympic Park and then carefully lead to the aquarium's entrance. Upon the reveal I couldn't help but exclaim with clapped hands and giggles. I hadn't been to any world class aquarium since I was about 16 years old. The place was teeming with throngs of visitors of all ages. Of course, it was mostly families and that warmed my heart. I'm sure that one day we'll probably be dragging our wide-eyed brood through those same corridors.

The campus is split into six main attractions; Coldwater Quest, River Scout, Georgia Explorer, Ocean Voyager, Tropical Diver and Deepo's Undersea 3D Wondershow. "Deepo" looks suspiciously a lot like "Nemo." I'm not sure which funny-looking fish came first. We visited Tropical Diver first which further increased my desire to snorkel near some Caribbean reef. The aquatic creatures are all so colorful and seem to radiate as they move through the water. There were these little creatures called garden eels peeking out of the bottom of one of the aquariums. They looked like multicolored reeds of grass blowing in a meadow. Then of course there were the jellyfish, (OMG, if this cat doesn't stop bothering me while I type this!)cuttlefish, seahorses, anemones and turkeyfish. Beautiful.

We then went to touch pool in the Georgia Explorer exhibit where they were feeding eels. The eels actually reminded me of our dog Genesis as they swam up to the attendants and took food from their hands. They flapped their wings with glee. It was kind of cute. Just imagine having a pet eel! When they weren't surrounding the attendants, they were flying through the water and passing the sharks like kites. Amazingly, the miniature sharks seemed to like being petted by visitors. Pet sharks. So cool.

After being photographed with one of the mascots, we went to the Ocean Voyager and that's when my mouth just dropped. This exhibit is HUGE. I guess it had to be in order to accommodate the three shark whales and all of the other ridiculously large creatures. By the way, we learned that two of the shark whales were transported from Taiwan by UPS. Can you imagine getting a delivery like that? During moments like these, I can't help but think what an awesome world we inhabit. There are these creatures all around us of all sizes with their own habits that enhance the environment in their own special way. It reminds us to take care of what we have so that our children can show their children. Anyhow, I'll let the video speak for itself.

We were about to go to the 3D show but we suddenly had an urge to eat sushi. However, we felt kind of guilty at the idea of eating the cousin of something that we had recently spent so much time admiring. We ended up having a turkey dog instead. Seeing the life living underwater was such a study in harmony. All of those different creatures, whether in schools, in lifelong pairs or alone, went about their business of living in sync with all of the other beings. They weren't declaring ownership of the tanks or reefs. They weren't building technology to take each other out. Sure, some are eaten by others but such is the food chain. Nevertheless, there is an abiding peace and tranquility beneath the sea. I made a mental note to behave more like the fish and go with the flow of things. All in all, it was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.