Have You Seen "30 Dates in 30 Days"? ---WAOD PODCAST THURSAY NIGHT AT 8PM CST

File the under too much time on my hands. Taking a pause from gloom and doom and general foolishness, I was perusing my BG's website when I noticed she was encouraging folks to watch Essence Magazine's video series "30 Dates in 30 Days." *knock me over with a feather!*In the particular episode that my BG referred us to, my BG asks us to observe Nicole and Kalid(sp?) she says that Nicole is the aggressor while her date is not.

Notice how she plays the man's role(pursuer) with Khalid and he plays the role of the female (the pursued).

Um what was "female" about Khalid? I thought he was whiny and immature, but break it down for me y'all. After sitting through a few snippets of Nicole, I don't know if it is possible for her NOT to be assertive. I am still apparently remedial. I am going to ask my BG to actually be specific about what it is that Nicole did wrong. (Probably because I can be "assertive" at times.)

Now I know that I have some loyal readers that detest all things Essence, but I took a looksie. It is definitely the anti "VH1 Trilogy of Tawdriness".

1. All of the women appear to have PROFESSIONS that are not in the adult entertainment industry. All appear to be over 27.
2. Lots of subject verb agreement.
3. It's not polygamous-you don't have 20 women fighting over one man.
4. The clothes. Fab
5. The makeup. Fab
6. The Dates, no KFC or Chicken and Waffles-sunset cruises, wine bars, tarot card readings.
7. The Guys all have PROFESSIONS that don't involve throwing, catching, hitting a ball or making "music", Scratch that, they did let an aspiring musician in, but you got a doctor, engineer, architects, sales rep, global fund manager (i-banker), a bartender and a whole menagerie of professions not involving a basket, base, or foot....ball. Let the Heavens Part! And I didn't see any thuggery. It's a miracle!
8. Unlike ANTM, the Cover Girl product placement isn't annoying. It is borderline though.
9. Train wrecky goodness when Jahmelia makes her first date sing one of the love songs he wrote. OUCH, but it is not contrived. HOWEVER, Vaughn baby, please stick to song WRITING as opposed to song SINGING. We all have unique gifts, yours does not include the gift of song.
10. You get to vote on clothes! Yippee!
11. The bachelors and bachelorettes come from all different age ranges. Although in Harper's case, that was a BAD thing. She's 43 and got stuck with two 31 y.o. s. Essence being Essence.
12. Each woman has her own pool of men to have the audience vote on, so no fighting, in fact, when one women gets through with her dates, she welcomes the next woman into the process.

As I stated, each Bachelorette has her own batch of Bachelors! YAY -Nicole's Bachelors, Harpers Bachelors, Jameliah's Bachelors, Michelle's Bachelors, Lindsey's Bachelors. Yes, you can e-mail the Bachelors.

Harper had the most interesting conversations so far. I loved that they put her with younger guys and she let it be known she was so not feeling the 31 y.o.s. Gurl I don't blame you. They were 31 and it showed. ( his garage?) Averill, NOT SO MUCH. See he would annoy me after like 90 seconds. Um Averill, women CANNOT have children at any age. Brian? Meh. Ezra, You were late and the 31 showed. I am definitely on Team Russell, he brought food! Yum, but he should have asked for a smaller bag or a little box. Details Russell, details!

Now I didn't have time to watch and read everything, but I was expecting Essence's typical, professional Black women better "get that ring before SPRING!" otherwise we're all doomed to die old, childless, and alone and end up being eaten alive by nine cats. But I enjoyed it. Some of the dates were really sweet(I liked the "most played song on your I-pod"). Um Russell, that would be "I am Changing" from the Dream Girls Soundtrack.

I don't know if my BG intended to get us hooked, but I'll watch the archives when I get a break just to see which locations people vote to send them on and the clothes. If you want to check it out, you can go to the main site.

I think they definitely showed a different slice of African American life than we typically get to see on television. Kim Porter interviews- BAD. "30 Dates in 30 Days" - Not So Much. I think it is awesome that they launched it via the web. One day ordinary Black women all over this country are going to be producing content and disseminating it through the internet. This should give you an idea of what is possible with brightcove and other video services.

Speak on it! ( Oh I can't WAIT for these comments. Please don't disappoint moi).

Don't forget the Podcast Thursday at 8PM CST. We have a great panel lined up and ironically, we will be talking about LUUUV. What it is- What it ain't and why it has NOTHING to do with domestic violence. Be sure to read the first post from our series, "WAOD Lets Brothers Speak About DV" as part of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.