OUT 178--SPOT BITZ (JAN 9-15)

HEY OUTSTAGRS!

ITS THAT TIME AGAIN!!

TIME TO GET ON STAGE!!!

As the new year starts, we will be celebrating a milestone this year as this blogspot will turn 10 years
old!  Its hard to believe but it has come a long way from small paragraphs journal entries, to a mini news letter to  entertainment highlighter to what it is today. The commemorative date is July 5.  To reminisce we will do  weekly RETRO BITZ of some of the highlights from this blogspot (SEE BELOW)

B6 Entertainment presents a Networking Event featuring our very own Mr.Marcus Ma'at Atkins with some of the ‪#‎OBSDN gents, Mr ‪#‎Ricco Rico Demo Rico Demo, Traci E. Jones/Chocolate Couture and Fashion Remix Online Boutique and other various professionals. Please come out join us for a nice ambiance and bring your business cards. Live Entertainment and Appetizer will be provided 
February 7th 
5-8 pm
14th Street Artist Community Gallery 
2607 N. 14th St. St.Louis Mo, 63106

To RSVP go to https://www.facebook.com/events/457284947752792/

Maatology is still looking for gents with style and a great personality  for the Seventh Annual Mista Couture Charity Style Contest (slated for mid August in Atlanta) is posted. Deadline to submit to online poll is Feb 1, 2015. Go tohttp://outstagin.blogspot.com/2014/10/seventh-annual-mista-couture-style.html

The group is also seeking donations to this event. For more info go to 

http://www.gofundme.com/hvx3zc

Maatology is also looking for gents of color for its 2016 OBSDN Men of Color 

Calendar. Must be comfortable in front of the camera and doing artistic nude poses.

If  interested in shooting, the shoots are ONE DAY shoots with June 2015 as a deadline. The shoots will be in St Louis, Mo.   All models will receive a share of the sales and an opp to sale it as well. A small stipend will be given for travel. If interested email snaphoney2011@gmail.com with a selfie pic showing your chest and abs. To see video of 2015 calendar go to  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXOCifGU-lY

THE TOP ILLI MO STORY THIS WEEK IS

We are all mourning the loss of Chicago native sports journalist  Scott lost his battle to cancer last week. According to Patty 411, he fought three occurrences. Stuart Scott was 49-years old."He didn't just push the envelope," says sports radio host and former ESPN anchor Dan Patrick. "He 

bulldozed the envelope."

Scott was remembered through an outpouring of tributes by athletes, colleagues and fans on Twitter and statements from his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, which said that "his legacy will live on in many ways -- as a friend, a son, a father, a professional and forever, a Tar Heel," and President Barack Obama.

"I will miss Stuart Scott. Twenty years ago, Stu helped usher in a new way to talk about our favorite teams and the day's best plays. For much of those twenty years, public service and campaigns have kept me from my family -- but wherever I went, I could flip on the TV and Stu and his colleagues on SportsCenter were there. Over the years, he entertained us, and in the end, he inspired us -- with courage and love. Michelle and I offer our thoughts and prayers to his family, friends, and colleagues," the president said.

Moments of silence were held at sporting events around the United States

Scott saved his best for his last year on the air. At the ESPYS on July 16, shortly before his 49th birthday and following another round of cancer surgery, Stuart accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance with strength, humor, grace and these eloquent words: "When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live."

He will definitely be missed and he will be remembered as being a trailblazer in sports journalism.

Chitown bred rap artist Kanye West released a  new single, “Only One,” with pop royal Sir Paul McCartney on New Year’s Day, giving fans speculation that a new album was in seemed like a G.O.O.D. sign that 2015 would bring us plenty of new Yeezy music, including a new album. And Thursday night, we may have gotten one step closer to hearing that highly-anticipated project.

Proof was  there was a photo of Kanye and wife Kim leaving Manhattan’s Def Jam offices that hit the Internet this week. After the flick reportedly spread online many began to speculate that Ye stopped by his parent label to play his new album for the staff.

IF you remember in September that he played it for 20 people in Paris; and also the recent intimate listening session he gave Seth Rogen and his wife.

Back in April, producer Evian Christ talked about working with Kanye, and the kind of beats he sent him — though he specified that he didn’t know the exact direction of the album.

“Kanye is the one dude who’s like, ‘This is not experimental enough. This is too poppy. Make something else,’ ” he said. “The other guys are like, ‘We don’t get it.’ Kanye is a dream to work with. No one else gives you that level of creative freedom. When he wants you to work to a blueprint, the blueprint is: Don’t make a rap beat. Anything but a rap beat.”

G.O.O.D. Music artist Malik Yusef, meanwhile, called the album “different,” and said it “sounds like a pair of Timberlands.”

Oh, and there’s also rumored to be a song with Drake and the Weeknd on the album.

And speaking of the "duet" (McCartney only played piano) it debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 this week at No. 35, the chart's Top Debut.

The ballad, a tribute to West's late mother, Dr. Donda West, sold 125,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 4, according to Nielsen Music, and starts at No. 10 on Digital Songs. It serves as the first single from West's upcoming studio album, and, according to Def Jam, is the first of further collaborations with McCartney.

And what was up with Ye's fans on social media wondering who Paul McCartney was? Wow, really? In this world of social media??? 

In unrelated Ye news, at  this years BET Honors he will receive the Visionary Award. The award show will air on BET Feb 23.  
===========================

 Three ILLI MO rooted entertainers and entities won big awards at Wednesdays' People's Choice Awards.

Oak Park, Ill native and TV legend Betty White won the Lifetime Achievement Award, The film "Gone Girl" starring Ben Affleck that was filmed in Cape Girardeau, Mo won Best Thriller and Plainfield, Ill native  Melissa McCarthy  won for Favorite Comedic Movie Actress.  And speaking of McCarthy, she was getting headlines for her 45 pound weight loss when she arrived  at the 2015 People's Choice Awards  but she was getting  more attention for her 45 pound weight loss when she arrived to the award show as well as winning on stage. 

Speaking of McCarthy she is in the running as the lead in a revamped version of the Ghostbusters franchise according to Variety Magazine. From the report, McCarthy has yet to decide on whether she will sign on because of her schedule taping her hit sitcom, "Mike N Molly" and other movie projects. If all goes as planned, McCarthy, if chosen, can start shooting the all-female cast version of the film in June.

American Idol aired Part Two of its first week of auditions (Part One being Nashville) in Kansas City, Mo. in a two hour broadcast. Here is a recap of the show as reported by Billboard:

Auditions were followed from the stadium floor of Bartle Hall into the judging room of people who traveled on the Idol Bus from various cities and while some talents soared, others were gently crushed. 

Golden tickets were awarded to goofy guy Andrew Annello, big-voiced powerhouse Piper Jones, versatile musician Gina Venier, beat-boxing Blake Lewis protégé Jake Black, dramatic belter Naomi Tatuoka, the face-painting, origami-making Jhameel Kim, wholesome former jingle singer Cody Fry and swaggering cosmetologist Hector Montenegro.

Adorable moments include 4-year old "princess" Hope, who scored a golden ticket with her sweet audition of "Let It Go" . Her mother, Kelley Kime, also went through to the next round (PICTURED).  Also, Pianist Jess Lamb received something better than a ticket, getting an opportunity to tickle the ivories with Connick.

In a major head-scratcher, Urban and Lopez put through flat-toned Zach Kaltenbach despite Connick's protests that the singer couldn't "find a note."

As far as the ratings of this episode, the show’s two-hour auditions episode won its time period in key demos. According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, “American Idol” averaged a 3.0 rating/9 share in adults 18-49 and 11.0 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., retaining nearly all of its hourlong demo score of the previous night (3.1 in the prelims, 3.2 in the nationals). This is the show’s best night two performance relative to night one in six years in 18-49, and the first time in 13 years (since its first season) that it drew more total viewers on its second night.

The Kansas City auditions will resume on Jan 14 airing on Fox TV.

Chicago native actor Terrence Howard can now add a hit TV Show in his acting crown as "Empire" got big numbers when Fox aired the pilot Wednesday raking in a 9.8 million viewers and was the highest rated show on the network in three years.

Howard had gone on record that if it wasnt for his co-star, Taraji P. Henson, he wouldnt have gotten the role. According to Howard, the pair’s previous onscreen chemistry in 2005’s Academy Award-winning film, “Hustle & Flow” had a great influence on director Lee Daniels’ decision to hire him as the show’s lead.

“Lee was auditioning Taraji and she said, ‘If you’re not using Terrence Howard then I’m not doing it. How’s that one?’ (and she hung up the phone),” Howard admitted during an interview with Deadline Hollywood. “Remember, Taraji is the same person who tried to audition for 'Precious' — I’m not lying! She’s a cornucopia of crazy and that’s really the reason why I am here..

Hmm, guess crazy begets crazy. LOL.

Chicago native comedian/actress Sherri Shepherd landed yet another gig  for the New Year. She has joined the crew on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. She will be on the long running syndicated show every Thursday. She started this week. 

Kinloch, Mo native actress Jenifer Lewis  is on a roll with her career and this month is proof of this.  This week she was seen in her recurring role as Grandma Ruby on the hit show, "Black-ish" on ABC and she also was seen in a guest role on the TV Land sitcom, "The Exes." Then on Jan 16, she will co-star in the film, "The Wedding Ringer" that stars Kevin Hart. 

Over the holidays it was reported that the Grammy Awards will honor the late St Louis native singer Fontella Bass by inducting her hit song, "Rescue Me" in the Grammy Award Hall of Fame. Twenty-seven new recordings were  been inducted. For a record to be recommended it must be  at least 25 years old, which exhibit qualitative or historical importance. The Grammy Awards will be aired Feb 8 on CBS.

Bass died in 2012.

Also over the holidays the football Mizzou Tigers won over the Minnesota Golden Gophers 33-17 in the Citrus Bowl.

 Also over the holidays,  St Louis reality show star Tim Norman of OWN’s hit docu-series‘Welcome To Sweetie Pies‘ released a  song called ‘It Kills Her’ that tells the compelling story about what happens to mothers when their kids get in trouble.  He used the song to bring direct attention to the Mike Brown tragedy. He also will be releasing his first mixtape, "The Bipolar Effect."

In the St Louis area the big story this week was a press conference had taken place Friday about the construction of a new stadium in St Louis in a ploy to try and keep The St Louis Rams in St Louis after the 2015 season. A panel appointed by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon laid out plans for reportedly a 64,000-seat open-air stadium on the banks of the Mississippi River just north of downtown (near Laclede's Landing by Lumiere Place) a few blocks from the existing Edward Jones Dome.The new stadium would reportedly be publicly owned and its cost — between $860 million and $985 million,  — would be divided between team (The Rams organization), league (NFL)and public sources (taxpayers), with Missouri taxpayers footing about 40% of the bill. Phase I is suppose to start this summer with an expected finish sometime in 2020. 

Now this is interesting. This news comes a couple weeks before the Rams' lease with the CVC owned Edward Jones Dome will expire  and its option to do a year to year lease And then the Rams owner Stan Kroenke and his construction workers began plans to start building a new stadium in Inglewood, Ca.  Now the ball is in Kroenke's hands as far as keeping The Rams in St Louis after the 2015 season. We think its a done deal and the Rams is heading West and St Louis will have two stadiums in need of filling up with events.

After 14 years, Plush Nightclub located in Midtown St Louis closed its doors Jan 3.

RIP BITZ

Over the holidays, we lost a jazz artist who was from the St Louis area  Alvin Jett, A long-time presence on the St. Louis blues scene, guitarist, singer, bandleader and songwriter who died on December 23. He was 54.

Starting this week and thereafter, we will highlight some of the events and news items that we covered/posted during our 10 years in existence as we begin the countdown of our anniversary on July 5. 

Below are some of the posted highlights from our blog.

This week JAN 2006

The local movie Pieces of a Dream, (you can get mor of a descript at imbd.com and type in Pieces of a Dream) that was filmed in Alton , Ill, last fall will be premeiring ion Chi-town in February and St, Louis in MArch from what I hear. it was the flick directed by Alton born Skee Skinner and starred some of STL's actors inclduing Joel King, Dennis Lebby and kid actor Tre'von Griffith(who can now be seen in Caroline or Change)...

This week JAN 2007

.Congrats to Alton-Ill. Bred director Brian Jung for his Alton-based filmed movie, “Steel City” receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for actor Raymond Barry in the Best Supporting Actor category ….Club Toxic is now Society. Lets see hwo long this one will last. LOL....Congrats to the local film "Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen" for its DVD distribituion. On January 23, 2007, ABQ will be released for rental from Blockbuster and Netflix, in addition to retail sale through outlets including the Movie Gallery and Amazon.com. For more ABQ information and movie trailer, visit: "http://www2.blogger.com/'http://www.abeautyqueen.com heard that Runway fashions owner Samson is soon to open up a club near Page and Skinker…..I hear that St. Lousi bred comic/actor Cedric the Entertainer's new movie, "Codename: Cleaner" is not getting good reviews. The Indianapolis Star called it " lame and inane". Ouch. 

This week JAN 2008

..And lastly, although Presidential hopeful, Illinois Senator Barak Obama came in second in the New Hampshire primaries this past Tuesday, Obama is making strides for his nomination in the candidacy. Last Tuesday, he made history becoming the first African American to win a caucus. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Obama had 37.6 percent of the delegate support, Mr. John Edwards 29.8 percent and Mrs.Hilary Clinton had 29.5 percent. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico was fourth, at 2.11 percent…………………..

This week JAN 2009

n a week or so, those of you who think you got acting chops may have your chance to shine --or at least in the background--when a big Hollywood film is set to roll here in the Lou. One of Hollywood's biggest stars George Clooney (PICTURED) will star and film "Up in the Air," at various locations in the Show Me City. Oscar-nominated "Juno" director Jason Reitman is in charge of the big-budget film, writing and directing it.Clooney will play a constantly traveling, unapologetic corporate downsizer. Variety reports that as theClooney character's life falls apart, he is on a mission to collect 1 million frequent flyer miles. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Walter Kirn. 

Production crews set up shop Jan. 5 and could be working in the Gateway City for up to five months. 

This week JAN 2010

Speaking of possible retiring, former St. Louis Rams now San Francisco Niner Isaac Bruce said this week that he was "75 percent" sure that he was retiring after this past Sunday's Rams-49ers game at the Edward Jones Dome. The game was blacked out from TV airing due to low attendance......Last week, STL based rapper/mogul Nelly last week offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a burglar who reportedly broke into his St. Louis mansion earlier last month and stole cash and electronics early that morning that it happened. The intruder reportedly ran off with a duffel bag full of Nelly's possessions and hopped into a waiting SUV. 

This week JAN 2011

The BIG NEWZ STORY this week was the debut of Chitown talk show queen Oprah Winfrey’s new network OWN debuting New Years Day .The channel, that replaced Discovery Health in 85 million homes, kicked off noon ET Jan 1 , with a Winfrey-hosted preview of the net’s offerings which reportedly posted a 0.7 household rating from noon-12:30 p.m. according to preliminary Nielsen numbers. That may not sound like much, but considering that it’s a 555% gain compared to the same time period four weeks ago and 1100% gain year-to-year.

This week JAN 2012

The World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals will be honored by President Barack Obama at the White House on Jan. 17. Prior to the event, the team is scheduled to visit wounded soldiers at Walter ReedNational Military Medical Center.
The Cardinals clinched the NL wild card spot on the final day of the season and then upset the Phillies, Brewers and Rangers to win their second title in five years. 

This week JAN 2013

Why is there so much controversy about the use of the N word in the movie Django Unchained and the movie is set during slavery? Why did they make Samuel L Jacksons character ever more darker than he already was?"  Why are some Mayan Calendar freaks surprised that the world did not end? Why are there so many baby mama drama talk shows on Daytime TV? Why are there many school shootings across the country lately? Why  did ESPN make such a big deal over commentator Brent Mustburgers comments about the attractiveness of an Alabamian College football players girlfriend on air during a football game? And Why does it seem as though Nicki Minaj is trying to downplay the feud between her and Mariah during recent press interviews? 

JUST DISHIN

There was a national comedian that came through St Louis to perform in the recent past who was afraid to come backstage to meet a St Louis based comedian after shading out the St Louis based comedian  last year by taking him off the bill of his tour AND getting an in-betweener to tell him he was fired!  At the recent show, the national comedian waited until it was time for them to perform when they showed up to perform and soon after meeting and greeting fans scurried away without squashing the beef with the St Louis based comedian.

Who were the national and St Louis based comedians?

The hints for the national comedian are its a male, from the Midwest and is currently

starring in a "religious" sitcom on cable TV.

The hints for the St Louis based comedian are its a male, hosts a regular weekly show in  a St Louis County venue  and he shares a last name with a legendary blues singer whos biggest hit was during the disco era.

Comment below in the comment boxes if you think you know!

The Black and White Ball at Four Seasons had many fashions, some 

were on point and some needed a point....although it was difficult to pick out the best of the bunch there were some who stood out for their fashion savvy. Above are singer Aloha Misho(LEFT) and Nellyville star Ashley Nicole who were some of our picks who were the Best Dressed Ladies. So, OUTSTAGRS, of the two, which one wore their best? Aloha or Ashley? Comment in the comment box and we will post the winner in next weeks blogspot!

This week we highlight the fashion style of couple Nelly and Shantel Jackson who complimented each other in their fashion styles at his Black and White Ball over the holidays. He rocked a custom made leather jacket with unique stitching and she wore a lovely mermaid style gown. 

WORDZ

TO 

THE

WHYZ

Why did those French terrorists target cartoonists? Why is 50 Cent trying to steal shine from Tv show, "Empire?" Why didnt Chris Rock wait until after his divorce to start flanking up with new flame? Why did Bill Cosby make that joke that women need to be careful drinking around him at a recent show? Why did that interviewer tried to say he misquoted Phylicia Rashad on her comments about Bill Cosby by not using the right punctuation? Why was a selfie of Malia Obama leaked on the Internet? Why did it take D'Angelo so long to release a new album? Why are some people complaining about the ratchetness of "Sorority Sisters" but not the other ratchet shows on TV such as Love and Hip Hop? Why is Kevin Gates revealing he is having sex with his girl cousin?  And do people still have their Xmas trees up way after Xmas is over?

If you have some scoop, a fashion pic you want to be voted on or want to advertise on this blog email to snaphoney2011@gmail.com for more info!

FIN.