Will The Real Ving Please Stand Up?

This is the first and last time the field-negro will post pictures of himself on this blog. This is being done for a reason. -Well two reasons actually- The first one is to help a friend win a bet. It seems she has had a running battle with another friend who occasionally reads my blog, and who swore up and down I was another mutual friend of theirs. My friend, who actually knew who I was, bet this sceptic, and begged me to post my picture so that she could collect on the bet. Well here it is, and I want my cut.

Now the second reason is to have a little fun with you, and to warn my man Ving Rhames that he better check his credit cards at all times. (Just Kidding) But seriously, this happens to me every time my man Ving is in a major movie. It started with "Rosewood", then it was "Pulp Fiction", then"Con Air", and now right into the "Mission Impossible" franchise. I will be out somewhere and invariably someone will come up to me and say: "You look just like Ving Rhames" Now if its a white person, they will say something like: " You look like that guy, I can't think of his name, you know, the one from 'Mission Impossible', or -----insert one of the movies I named above here--- And so it goes, until my man's latest project dies down, I will get stares in restaurants, on the street, and at work. Of course I have a standard answer for that comment, and it goes something like this: "Yeah, but I sure wish I had his money". Now this Ving Rhames thing has gotten ugly at times for me too. After "Pulp Fiction" I caught hell from my friends about a certain scene in the movie. Some went as far as to mimic that now infamous scene where Ving gets...-well we won't bother to describe it. Let's just say when Ving is caught in an uncomfortable position- whenver they saw me. Thank goodness that movie is behind me.-No pun intended- although every now and then, it plays on cable, and if I happen to see it, I start worrying all over again, that the jokes will start from my boys.

But other than that, it's cool, no harm no foul. Heck, Ving needs to be the one that's worried. After all, he is the celebrity with a lot more to lose if the field-negro decides to pretend he is Ving one day, and do some very un Ving like things. I can see the headlines now: ACTOR VING RHAMES ARRESTED FOR DRIVING HIS LEASED PORCHE 911 OF SPEEDS IN EXCESS OF 120 MILES AN HOUR. Again I kid . I will be a good field-negro and uphold Ving's image and not do anything to put him in the news. Although I was thinking....I wonder if Ving knows Lark Voorhies? Mmmmm, maybe Ving and I need to talk.

While I am in an entertainment mode, I was tinking about something. I was driving to work this morning and a Luther Vandross classic came on the radio. Man did he sound good. I mean that brother could sing like an Angel. So anyway, I was thinking, in my life time was there anyone that could do it better than Luther? I am not sure, and in order to help myself, I came up with a list of my top ten balladeers or crooners of all time. No explanations needed just their names: [This order could be jumbled by reversing ten and one and visa versa and you wouldn't get an argument out of me]

1. Luther Vandross
2. Sam Cooke
3. Nat King Cole
4. Marvin Gaye
5. Dennis Brown
6. Frank Sinatra
7. Will Downing
8. Brian Mcnight
9. Al Green
10. Smokey Robinson

This was a male solo list only. So some great group singers like Phillipe Wynne, and Frankie Beverly were left off. As were the greats from the female side. I will get to them next time. Hey, I was listening to Luther OK!