Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!  Here's Daisy Voisin, The Queen of Parang.  Parang is one of the Christmas traditions in Trinidad and Tobago!!

Golden Girl and The Guardian of the Gemstones: Underrated Dolls of the 80s!

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Hello everyone! Season's Greetings!  It's that time of the year to buy gifts for your loved ones, especially the toys for the kiddies.  But again, don't go into debt doing so, speaking from experience.  Speaking of toys, I remembered growing up in the 80s, there were toys galore; Cabbage Patch Kids, Barbie, G.I Joe, Transformers, He-man, you name it!  I even wanted dolls such as Jem and She-ra, growing up in Trinidad.  But alas, I didn't get any for Christmas, just some no-name doll and perfume.  Well, it's the thought that counts, right?  One doll really caught my eye, in particular, was Golden Girl, not Golden Girls, but Golden Girl and The Guardians of the Gemstones.  

(www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk)

These dolls were created by Galoob in 1984 and they consist of the good guys; Golden Girl, Saphire, Onyx, Rubee and Jade and one male doll, Prince Kroma.  The villains were Dragon Queen, Vultura, Moth Lady, Wild One and the male character, Ogra.  The plot is simply Golden Girl and the other Guardians, guarding various gemstones against Dragon Queen and other villains.  The gemstones also give the guardian powers and skills to protect the Kingdom of Argonia (Wikipedia) from their enemies.  Other characters such as Dymondia, Coral, Turquoise, Pearl (heroes), Spidra and Centaura (villains) were in production but only Dymondia was released, primarily in Europe.  

With so many dolls around, Galoob decided to join the fray and created dolls supposedly in competition with the She-ra line where the fantasy world is concerned.  The similarities are the female blond heroines, the dolls having brushable hair, accessories, horses and even castles.  The only differences are that Golden Girl didn't have a cartoon but the dolls are very flexible compared to the She-ra line.  Plus, Golden Girl got the jagged sword! How cool is that? It's unfortunate that Golden Girl didn't have a cartoon series.  It had a simple storyline but I'm sure more complex series would be added if the cartoon was created.  If it happened in real life, I'm willing to bet it would be as popular as the She-ra cartoon.  Don't get me wrong, I love the She-ra series but sometimes some episodes are too cheesy.  I believed that Golden Girl would be in a similar vein of He-man series which often had a darker tone compared to She-ra.  It might even be a cartoon version of Xena: Warrior Princess!  

(toplessrobot.com) Ohhh!! blood!!!

I wondered why the cartoon was never created.  It could be a lack of money in producing the cartoon series or perhaps it wasn't on the agenda.  The main thing was to produce these toys to make a profit.  I also sensed that Golden Girl may be too dark for girls; you're talking blood and gore, straight-up fighting that it was even too much for He-man!  Apparently, society at the time believed that girls shouldn't be exposed to dark themes in cartoons but it was okay for boys.  That's my take on it.  Still, it would be a great cartoon series. Maybe companies such as Netflix can make it into a cartoon series, just hopefully not in a similar vein as the She-ra series on Netflix but stay true to the original for once.  Golden Girl and The Guardian of the Gemstones toy line was definitely underrated and sadly it did not get the shine it deserved at the time.  

(www.amazon.com)

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(www.pinterest.com)

Tyra Banks

                                                   

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Happy belated birthday Tyra and may you see many more.  Tyra Banks, a multifaceted woman, is a media personality and what we call in those days, a world-famous supermodel.  Do people still call models, supermodels these days?  Tyra Banks is basically a jack of all trades; a supermodel, tv producer, singer, and even an author!  I'm waiting for her to join NASA, (just kidding) but it goes to show that she's willing to try many things to be successful.  Modeling is a great but rather short career and thankfully, Tyra moved on to other areas in order to stay in the game so to speak.

Tyra was born on December 4th, 1973 in Inglewood, CA.  Her mother Carolyn London is a medical photographer, while her father, Donald Banks is a computer consultant.  She also has an older brother Devin who is currently in the Air Force.  Her parents divorced when she was 6 years old.  In high school, Tyra experienced what we would call an "ugly duckling" phase.  Tyra was teased mercilessly for her size, she was very skinny in high school.  High school, in general, is pure hell (speaking from experience).  If you're not part of the norm, in regards to appearance and the coolness factor, kids would tease and harass their peers, making their experience unbearable.  

There's always a silver lining because Tyra started modeling at age 15.  Sadly she was rejected by many modeling agencies, mainly because she's black and apparently they met their black girl quota which is still practiced till this day although, nowadays diversity is becoming a thing in the fashion world and more models of color are hired in many shows but behind the scenes, it's still very pale.  It remains to be seen if diversity in the fashion world will be here to stay or it's just a trend.  Tyra finally got hired by L.A Models and resumed her modeling career.  She eventually moved to Elite Model Management and moved to Europe (Wikipedia).  In 1991, she was booking 25 shows left to right in Paris Fashion Week and she appeared in many magazines including Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair.  She also appeared in many campaigns for fashion designers including Chanel, Oscar De La Renta, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce and Gabbana among others.  She was even a Victoria's Secret Angel and appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue (Wikipedia).    

(www.dailymail.com)

Now back to her modeling career in Paris.  As I mentioned above, Tyra was booking 25 shows in Paris Fashion Week.  However, there was another black Supermodel on the scene; Naomi Campbell. Also, keep in mind that model agencies do not hire many black women.  And the media took notice of this and instigated a rivalry between Tyra and Naomi.  Look out Naomi, Tyra is coming to take your spot!  Well, let just say bacchanal start!! In 1992, Naomi allegedly told the designer Karl Lagerfeld (RIP) to ban Tyra from the catwalk, threatening to walk off from the show if she showed up.  She allegedly forced John Casablancas, founder of Elite Models to drop Tyra (www.jezebel.com)

I could only imagine how Tyra felt at the time.  There she was, a young girl trying to make it in a cutthroat industry, only to be hampered by a fellow black woman.  As they say, all skin folk ain't kinfolk.  Don't get me wrong, I like Naomi. She worked her butt off in an industry that is unkind to black women and other POC.  She even made supermodel status.  However, her attitude stinks in my opinion and by many reports, she was very difficult to work with even as Tyra left the industry, going as far as assaulting her co-workers. Not excusing her bad behavior but it was a way to cope with an industry which seemed glamorous and excited on the outside, can be very demanding physically and mentally, more so for the few black models in the industry who had to endure the racist mentality from designers and model agents.   

Nonetheless, this left Tyra scarred for a while and it could possibly be the reason why she left her European modeling gig and went back to modeling in the States.  Tyra eventually became an actress and she performed in many shows and movies including Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Love and Basketball, Ugly Coyote, etc. She even had a talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, which aired from 2005 to 2010 and it won 2 Daytime Emmys.  I wished it was still on the air but sadly it was canceled when the CW channel became gentrified.  

(www.urbanogcom.blogspot.com)

However, she was famous for creating and producing a reality series, America's Next Top Model, which exposed contestants to in and outs of the modeling industry. I sometimes questioned the challenges that the contestants have to endure or in the case of contestant winner, Danielle Evans of cycle 6, who had her gap fixed and she was criticized for her southern accent. Or Tyra and the rest of the panel's disdain for Yaya's Afrocentric identity.  Honestly, the winners are mostly commercial models, not necessarily editorial and they often turned to other pursuits such as acting and music.  Well, the show wouldn't be famous without some bacchanal and some models were bumping heads, eerily similar to what Tyra went through in the past.  Nonetheless,  the show became successful in its own right and there are even international versions, including Canada's Next Top Model, Britain's Next Top Model, Africa's Next Top Model and Caribbean's Next Top Model among others.  Interestingly enough, it was in Africa's Next Top Model, a winner Aamito Lugum from Uganda, who is an editorial model and she has modeled in many shows, magazines and campaigns including Lacoste, Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga, H&M and various editions of Vogue and Elle among others.  I really enjoyed the show and I was disappointed that they didn't show season 2.

Tyra Banks has shown the world that she is a resilient and entrepreneurial woman and I admired her for that.  She went through hell just to show the beauty of black women in the fashion world even when the naysayers say otherwise.  I wish her all the best in the future and again happy birthday!  Don't forget to smize!! 

Mariah Carey and Christmas!

(www.theseconddisc.com)

Hello, my lovelies!! It's December already!  Time is flying fast!! Hopefully, your Thanksgiving was great and you ate plenty of food.  I hope you have enough space for Christmas dinner though because it's coming.  Speaking of Christmas, the holiday wouldn't be complete without some Mariah Carey especially the song,  All I want for Christmas.  You heard this song on the radio, in the malls, iTunes, it's everywhere.  You can't deny the power of this song even if it annoyed the hell out of you while doing Christmas shopping. The song is part of a Christmas CD collection called Merry Christmas, which includes O Holy Night and Joy to the World, among others.  

The album first came out on November 1st, 1994, with Columbia Records and its songs, were written by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff.  She also added some gospel elements to some songs especially O Holy Night and also maintaining the pop elements to the classics such as Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  

Naturally, there were mixed views.  Some might think it's too cheezy and risky for someone like Carey, who already had three successful albums under her belt.  But you gotta take risks and in her case, it paid off.  In its first release, the album debuted at number 30 on the US Billboard 200 with 45,000 copies sold.  By the sixth week, the album amassed 1,859000 copies sold and it was one of the best selling albums of all time, even reaching six-time platinum status on October 1, 2019!  It's more popular around the world, where the album has sold 15 million copies worldwide to this day! It even has a ringtone (Wikipedia)! Marey Carey is making that dough!   

Christmas wouldn't be complete without the album and it goes to show, taking calculated risks can pay off, no matter how long it takes, you just have to have faith in yourself and faith in God, if you're religious.  So enjoy the song even if it drives you crazy while you enter the battlefield of Christmas shopping.  Can't deny that it makes you feel good though!  Happy holidays everyone.