9.) You don’t have to move, unless you want to.
Have you ever gotten to the movies a little early, got a good seat in the middle of the row, half way up and had to turn sideways the whole movie because everybody has to pass you to get an open seat or go to the bathroom? Well I have and I hated it. I found a way to avoid the big sexy sista’s ass in my face as she passes me on the phone to get to an open seat. From the size of her bag, she went ole school and brought her own snacks.. but I digress. When I’m at home, I only move when I want to go to the bathroom or answer the phone or get something to eat…like some more popcorn. The best part is that I move when I want to, not because I have to. The comfort of my own seat is priceless.

8.) Nobody is on the phone in my house during the movie.

7.) I can always get a good seat.

6.) Volume Control
When I’m at home and I can’t hear what they are saying, I can turn it up on my Super Dolby Hi-Fi 6-channel Surround Sound THX Digital All media compatible Whatchamagiga. When I’m in the movies, the action sounds awesome and then Idris Ilba says something smooth and sexy for the ladies and I’m like “What the hell did he say?” From then on everytime he starts talking in that soft smooth tone like the Quiet Storm DJ, I have to turn my head so I can hear with my good ear. AT home, I just turn it up and rewind…oh yeah…

5.) Rewind
When you forget to hit pause before you leave your comfortable seat and run to the bathroom real quick, there is nothing better than “rewind”. And if you have kids that have no respect for movie time, quiet time or daddy time and they want your attention “now”, give it to them and just press rewind so you can get back to your movie. But there is nothing better than realizing you missed a subtle gesture or clue in the movie and rewinding to make sure you have all the evidence and they don’t get you like they got me in “Usual Suspects” (one of my favorites…a rewind classic). You are a friend of mine if you like a little rewind.

4.) No parking hassle
Have you ever gotten to the movie theater just before another movie let out and can’t find a space? And then you see the swarm of people exiting and you are filled with the joy of a kid on his/her way to Chuck E. Cheese. Then you realize that you only have about 10 min to park get your ticket and get a seat. SO what do the people do who are leaving the theater, they walk like they are trying to make you miss your movie. Slow, slow, slow. At this moment, you are entitled to lose your cool! Note: Whooping someone’s ass in the parking lot and getting arrested will cause you to miss your movie.Why even deal with all that potential drama? Watch your movie at home. It’s safer and less stressful.

3.) I can watch it with whomever I want to watch it with

2.) Movie time is whenever I feel like it!

1.) It’s cheaper than going to the movies in the long run!

I prophesied years ago that the only reason to go to the movie theater will be to see 3-D film and if you haven’t noticed, every movie is in 3-D for that reason. Now even that’s on the clock with the new 3-D tvs on the market. Going to the movie theater will become a distant memory very similar to going to the drive-in. Although those days were good, they are gone.

I got myself together like prom night with my wife looking like the local version of Will and Jada. We look good, smell good, feel good and to top it off we had a babysitter for the night so we could be full grown adults all night.

We walked in smooth as the Mack walking the red carpet at the Players Ball. As my mother would say, “there weren’t no flies on us” cause our sh!t didn’t even stink that night.
NOTE: This is not a picture from the actual event, but very easily could be.

When we walked through the doors, we expected to enter a Diddy party…music bumping, people dancing all over the place, happy people popping bottles for old times sake…ahhh the dream. In reality, we walked into a party with a bunch of middle aged people too tired to try an recapture their youth. All the women had gained a few pounds (I’m being nice). The men who had the long flowing locks and muscles of the African Adonis looked like Forrest Whitaker. It was a sad site to see the dance floor almost empty until the line dance songs came on. Then all 75+ of the single women rushed the floor to dance with each other because there weren’t any single men at the party looking to dance with them. It was a perfect time to hear Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” for the third time that night. It was sad.

My wife and I were sitting at a table of with 10 other women and none of them were there because the worked for the company, but were hoping to party like a celebrity for the night. They were all single, relatively attractive (I’m being nice again) and appeared to have their stuff together. Kinda reminded me of a Black “Sex in the City” crew.

Much like I heard one reviewer say after seeing “Sex in the City 2″ instead of admiring these women at the table for their freedom and accomplishments, I felt sad for them. And in the end, I felt sad for myself as well.

The reunion party could never live up to the expectation I had for it because I wanted it to be like it was. It ’s hard to admit, but I I’m not the man I was either. But that’s also a good thing. You can never go back and as you grow and get older, you realize that your time has come and pass in certain arenas. That’s why you have to enjoy it while it last. We have to learn to stop trying to relive the old memories and start making new ones.

Although the party was sad, it was good night. I did get to play dress-up and hang out with my wife. We can be the local Will and Jada for life.

How many people have a sex watch? If not, you need to go down to Wal-Mart and pick one up. They are only $15.99. Sike naw, lol, there is no such thing. But I’m sure if there was one; Wal-Mart would have it. They have every freakin’ thing! Tonight show is about sex endurance. I know plenty of you have heard stories from someone stating to having sex for 2 or 3 hours or something ridiculous. Really though? I’m sorry but I don’t think there is that much love making in the world for me to go 2 or 3 hours straight. Yet, people have said it has been done. Now, I’m not one to judge but, get the hell out of here! I don’t think Superman could go 2 hours if he wanted to.

What ever happen to the art of a quickie? I’m not saying you should always look for a quickie, but why should I have a marathon in bed? All I’m saying, if you had sex all the way though Pirates of the Caribbean , then you need a medal and an oxygen tank. How long is too long? Would you rather sex to be too long or too short? What are some ways to be aware of the time while you are having sex? Yea, so you can go all night; but would it even matter if your partner isn’t satisfied in the end?

What is wrapper talk? Take a wild guess. You still don’t know. Fellas you should know since we are the ones who are responsible for this language. Let me paint a picture for you. Ladies, you have been talking to this guy for some time now and you plan on taking it to the next level. You invite the guy over for some serious one on one action. You guys head upstairs to your bedroom, because there is no sex in the champagne room. I think the laundry room would make a more interesting setting, but hey this is your first time with him. Anyway, you reach the room and the two of you get to fooling around. In the mist of the fooling around the guy is ready for some action and pulls out a condom. This is great, because safe sex is the way to go, but something throws you off ladies.

Instead of pulling out the condom and putting it on, he pulls out the condom and flashes the wrapper with pride so you can get a glimpse of it. He wants you to see the size of the wrapper to let you know what you are about to be working with. “Yea baby, it’s the gold wrapper.” For those who may not know, this is a magnum condom. Has this ever happened to you? This is talking up a big game at its best. How do you deal with this ladies?

Maybe wrapper talk is important. What if this guy pulls out his condom and you get a glimpse and see it’s on of the smaller size condoms. Ladies, do continue or you stop him from going further because his condom said it all for you. How about those guys who wear their condoms like their pants; baggy! The wrapper size said L or XL so there is nothing to worry about, right?

Fortunately, I get on at the second stop with only 12 more to go, about a 40 minute ride, so there are plenty of seats available. Majority of the people are just like me, working class professionals. Going to work isn’t a problem at all. It’s the ride home that bothers me.

After a hard days work, soon as I get on the train I look for a seat. Usually, I can get one, but it wasn’t long before I realized that at the stop after mine, a ton of men and women get on. Mostly women.

See I have always prided myself on being a gentleman that acts as like chivilary is alive and well. So like any gentleman, I offer my seat to women when I see one standing. The problem is it appears that I’m the only one who thinks this is normal. So I try to lead by example and offer my seat to a lady who may have been standing on her feet all day or needs to clear her mind before she goes home to some bad ass kids or a mooching husband or she could just be tired.

Without fail, another brother will do the same for another lady. He may not have forgotten that we are here to take care of our sisters, but sometimes we need to lead by example to help remind those of us who get lost in society’s trap of lost consciousness.

Some young brothers may not know how to treat a woman or how to be a man, so maybe if enough brothers will stand up for sisters on the train, we can start standing up for our families in our communities.

It’s not really a choice. It’s a part of being a man.

Insight: Isn’t it amazing how 500 people can be crammed together on one train and no one says a word to each other.

In the past few weeks I met a young man who is a musician, but is probably working just as hard enough not harder to live his dream as those of us punching a clock on weekdays.

Darnell Levine (www.darnelllevine.com) is a name that’s probably unfamiliar to most but once you hear his sound and see his dedication to his craft for lack of better terms, you get “it.” Darnell is a singer/songwriter who excels in the jazz and pop genres and some might say comedy as well. He’s released two solo albums, and his current CD “Journal Entries” is available on amazon.com.

This summer he is trying to make (are you listening Magic Johnson) history by becoming the first artist to ever tour exclusively at Starbucks. He’s named his mission “The Darnell Levine Summer Music Tour Experience Exclusively at Starbucks” and so far, he’s hit several cities around the southwest side of the United States including Lexington, KY, Cincinnati, OH, Nashville and he has one more week of touring.

Darnell is responsible for booking the locations, mapping routes, looking for sponsors, maintaining his website, creating design elements for the website, selling merchandise—and really, need I go on?

As everyone knows the rising economic costs have been hard on most, so can you imagine what it’s like for a (young) musician funding this tour exclusively on tips and merchandise sales because he’s following his heart and a lesson we all learned as a child, “finish what you start.”

So, while some of the children today just may be looking for the easy way out and the quickest way to the red carpet, maybe a few of them will be like Darnell Levine and try to make history as they pursue their dreams.

- L.C. Butler

Since the Obama camp hasn’t called me for my recommendation yet, I’m going to put it out there anyway. Obama needs a little help because he is inexperienced in foreign affairs and military operations, so who better to assist him in running the country than Retired General Colin Powell.

His crediatials are so deep that people once wanted him to run for President. Remember…I thought so.

In case you forgot:
*He is an American statesman and retired General in the United States Army.
*He was the 65th United States Secretary of State (2001-2005), serving under President George W. Bush. (the first African American appointed to that position.)
*As a General in the United States Army, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), holding the latter position during the Gulf War.

After leaving his position as Secretary of State in the Bush administration and looking back on his decision to become an author and consultant, it’s obvious he has the foresight of Nostrodamus and the intuition of Spider-Man.

That keen instinct could help us domestically and internationally becuase it appears that the current administration hasn’t found a way to learn from a pattern of poor descisions. In order to prevent the country from continuing on this path, I recommend that Obama select Colin Powell as his running mate.

Now back to reality. The most obvious reason that won’t happen is because some Americans aren’t willing to vote for the most qualified Presidential candidate because he’s Black. I believe you can increase that number by 50% if their was an All-Black ticket. We can’t ignore ignorance, therefore we must acknowledge that some citizens will vote based on color, not creditials, but they also have a right to choose based on whatever criteria works for them.

I have heard some female supporters say they will cross party lines and vote for Repubican nominee John McCain because they felt Hillary was mistreated and not shown the respect she deserves ( Note to Hillary supporters: As my mother would say,” you have to give respect to get respect”. Karma is a bitch!). Be careful what you ask for because if Mrs. McCain is an indication of the future of women, please see The Stepford Wives. (I never met the woman but thought she was in the movie.)

Well if they are willing to cross party lines and vote for McCain, I wonder how many republicans would vote for Obama-Powell since Colin Powell is a Republican?

Damn! Another reason why this won’t work. If not VP, definately a Cabinet member or key advisor…

Don’t let the clean cut Catholic face fool ya! Father Pfleger tears this young reporter a new one when he begins talking out the side of his neck about Rev. Wright, Min. Farrakhan, Dr. King and Sen. Obama. Take a few minutes and check out this brilliant act of verbal self defense…

PART 1

You want more…

PART 2

Looks like they won’t be interviewing the Father anytime soon.