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Its really 'on and poppin' for Superbowl weekend in Miami. The Pre Bowl Party was going down!! Friend to TFMH Lifestyle Specialist Kenny Burns was there. Also one of our favorite couples Lance and Eva were out and about with Vivca Fox and Slimm.






Very Cute!!


Image source: 400life.com

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Black History Fact of the Week: Duke Ellington. What an inspiration to music and to black history. Here are some of his Accompishments:

President Lyndon Johnson presented Duke Ellingtonwith the President’s Gold Medal in 1966.
• President Richard M Nixon presented Duke Ellington with the Medal of Freedom in 1969.
• Duke Ellington received 13 Grammy Awards.
• Duke Ellington received the Pulitzer Prize
• Was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1973.
• Has a United States Commemorative stamp with his image on it issued in 1986


Duke Ellington influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia.
Simply put, Ellington transcends boundaries and fills the world with a treasure trove of music that renews itself through every generation of fans and music-lovers. His legacy continues to live onand will endure for generations to come. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said "His music sounds like America." Because of the unmatched artistic heights to which he soared, no one deserved the phrase “beyond category” more than Ellington, for it aptly describes his life as well. He was most certainly one of a kind that maintained a llifestyle with universal appeal which transcended countless boundaries.
Duke Ellington is best remembered for the over 3000 songs that he composed during his lifetime. His best known titles include; "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing", "Sophisticated Lady", "Mood Indigo", “Solitude", "In a Mellotone", and "Satin Doll". The most amazing part about Ellington was the most creative while he was on the road. It was during this time when he wrote his most famous piece, "Mood Indigo"which brought him world wide fame.
When asked what inspired him to write, Ellington replied, "My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people".
Duke Ellington's popular compositions set the bar for generations of brilliant jazz, pop, theatre and soundtrack composers to come. While these compositions guarantee his greatness, whatmakes Duke an iconoclastic genius, and an unparalleled visionary, what has granted him immortality are his extended suites. From 1943's Black, Brown and Beige to 1972's The Uwis Suite, Duke used the suite format to give his jazz songs a far more empowering meaning, resonance and purpose: to exalt, mythologize and re-contextualize the African-American experience on a grand scale.
Duke Ellington was partial to giving brief verbal accounts of the moods his songs captured. Reading those accounts is like looking deep into the background of an old photo of New York and noticing the lost and almost unaccountable details that gave the city its character during Ellington's heyday, which began in 1927 when his band made the Cotton Club its home. ''The memory of things gone,'' Ellington once said, ''is important to a jazz musician,'' and the stories he sometimes told about his songs are the record of those things gone. But what is gone returns, its pulse kicking, when Ellington's music plays, and never mind what past it is, for the music itself still carries us forward today.
Duke Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and is buried in the Bronx, in New York City. At his funeral attendedby over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day...A genius has passed."



Here is my FAVORITE peice Ellington wrote. Its a collaboatation album that he did with John Coltrane






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A Man's suit is without a doubt the most important staple in his wardrobe. No matter your occupation, there will always be a time you need a suit. Knowing how to pick the right suit, for the right occasion is key.


Choosing a suit isn't rocket science, but very view truly know how to choose the right suit. There's 3 things you must consider 1st:

1. Fabric:
   The most common fabric choices are Wool, Cotton, Linen and Flannel, but depending on where you leave and the weather there. Cotton suits are typically worn during the transitional seasons. Linen suits are more appropriate for the summer due to the fabric's breath-ability. Flannel suits are nice and warm for the winter. But, if your buying your first few suits, you may want to consider one made of lightweight wool. This way you're starting of your collection with something you can wear year around.
   
   
2. Stitching:
   If you know how to pick quality bedding, them you've probably heard the term Thread Count. A higher thread count means finer weaving and delicacy of wool fabric. So as you can imagine, a higher thread count equals higher prices. But if you own a suit 180 count or better, then it should last a while.
   
   
3. Manufacture (Seamstress/Tailor):
   "Buttons, stitching and pockets make up the basic details of a good suit. First, examine the buttons along the cuff of the jacket. Are they decorative or operable? If they are operable, then you've discovered a well-made suit. If, however, they are merely decorative, then you have a suit that could be moderately priced (or lower), but lacks the attention to detail a Bespoke Suit will offer. Additionally, if the buttons are plastic then you're looking at a mass-produced suit, whereas a suit with buttons made form horn or bone is decidedly more expensive and thus desirable. The third element is the stitching. Are the seams glued? If so, then stay away! The seams will pop within a year or two. A hand-stitched suit will show some imperfections while a machine stitch will look precise and finished properly. What you want, however, is a real stitch -- whether it comes from a practiced hand or a machine. Examine the pockets and undersides of the lapels; even a novice can spot poor workmanship in stitching.Having a suit made for yourself by a tailor is perhaps one of the last great hallmarks of the sophisticated man. If you have the means (or merely the desire) to acquire a bespoke suit, then seek out a local craftsman or make an appointment to meet one of the handful of tailors that travel the country offering the finest services in menswear. But a well-made suit off the rack is still a possibility. Simply find a suit designer that you like, try on multiple options and have that suit tailored to your liking. This includes the jacket, and not just the free trouser alterations the store offers. Pay to have the jacket taken in at the waist, have the cuffs taken up and a button or two moved. These minor (and affordable) changes will make any suit look much better than just walking out of the store with what they threw over a mannequin." ~ Michael A. Lubarsky
   

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Source: Michael A. Lubarsky/IA2
Post: IA2

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At TFMH, LOVE is one of our many focuses. I thought it would be fun to highlight famous couples through history that celebrated being in love. Our first couple is Nefertiti and Akhenaton.


How inspiring!
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February marks Black History Month. We at TFMH, want to raise awareness and share some interesting facts about famous African Americans and their accomplishments through out history:

Langston Hughes was a prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance -- a movement during the 1920s of black writers and intellectuals who engaged in intense debate regarding the place of the African American in American life, and on the role and identity of the African-American artist. Pictured here are Langston Hughes [far left] with [left to right:] Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney, on a Harlem rooftop on the occasion of a party in Hughes' honor, 1924.

New York Public Library

As the 20s came to a close, so did white America’s infatuation with Harlem- and the artistic and intellectual movements surrounding it. The advent of The Great Depression also crushed the wild enthusiasm of “The Roaring 20s,” bringing an end to the decadence and indulgence that fueled the patronage of Harlem artists and their establishments.

The depression hit the African-American segment of the population hard; layoffs and housing foreclosures shut many blacks out of the American Dream that previously seemed so close at hand. The increased economic tension of the Depression caused black leaders to shift their focus from arts and culture to the financial and social issues of the time.

In addition, the strained relationship between the black community and the white shop-owners in Harlem finally tore the two groups apart in 1935. That alienation was expressed in the Harlem Riot of 1935, the nation’s first modem race riot. The resulting violence finally shattered the notion of Harlem as the “Mecca” for African-Americans, and broke the fleeting truce between white and black America.

While the Renaissance as a historical movement was over, the effects it had on modern society were far from finished. The artistic and political movements of the 20s would live on in American culture in the form of new musical expression, award-winning writing and, most importantly, the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. These events, and the role Harlem would continue to play after the Renaissance, would change the American cultural landscape forever.

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Source: BET
Post:CP21

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Kobe Bryant sank a go-ahead fallaway jumper with 7.3 seconds left to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 90-89 victory over Boston on Sunday and send the struggling Celtics to their sixth loss in eight games.The Celtics, who led by 11 points in the fourth quarter, nursed a one-point lead until Paul Pierce was called for an offensive foul for pushing off as he jumped to shoot with 28 seconds left.

This was an instant classic and it makes you think what kind of playoffs we are in store for....I hope you're ready for some excitement!!

Photo: Getty Images
Source:ESPN
Post:CP21

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