Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five Special Edition: A Tribute to Thomas Mikal Ford

When the initial rumors circulated about Thomas Mikal Ford passing away last Wednesday afternoon, one of my favorite Facebook friends poignantly noted, "If Tommy dies.....2016 just became the most indubitably trash[i]est year of the new millen[n]ium."  Due to a major social media faux pas, it ended up not being true as information surfaced about him still being on life support.  Once we realized that, everybody wanted the brother with the infectious laugh we all know and love as Tommy Strawn a.k.a. Mr. "You Ain't Got No Job, Man" from FOX's hit series Martin to pull through because 1) we want our heroes to live as long as possible and 2) we couldn't take yet another death in 2016.  As I kept checking Facebook for updates, what we all feared unfortunately came to pass as Ford succumbed at the age of 52 after suffering an aneurysm in his abdomen.  So my friend is absolutely right: this year is trash truck juice.  Nevertheless, rather than mourn or be morose over another loss in this year of immense tragedy, I choose to do what we always do here at New Problem Tuesdays: give people roses, even when they're not here to receive them.  Hence, in this special edition of my "Rave & Favorite Five", I'm paying homage to some of Tommy Ford's best moments on one of my favorite TV shows of all time...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Tuesday Night at the Movies, #1 The 40-Year-Old Virgin

When you see previews for a movie, it's a crap shoot; some movies are exactly what they appear to be while others are either much better or precipitously worse than expected.  I knew that The 40-Year-Old would be special just from the trailer, but neither did I expect it to be a lifelong fanatic over it nor that it would eventually become my favorite movie ever.  Now I have many friends and fellow movie buffs who totally understand why The 40-Year-Old Virgin tops the list because they spit out their milk several times watching it.  However, I'm sure that there are those of you who have stayed the course with this edition of my "Rave & Favorite Five" and are thinking, "You had Friday, The Last Dragon and Coming to America on this list...you mean to tell me that this is your No. 1 movie of all time?!?!"  To the latter section of the population, I say two things: 1) it's my countdown and 2) have we met?!?!  If you've ever seen this movie and know half of what you claim to know about me, then how can you not think of me when the plot has me written all over it?  Furthermore, no matter what kind of day, week, month or year I've been having, this has always been one of those movies that has never not been funny.  Nevertheless, allow me to fill in the blank if you're still drawing one as I present my five favorite things about The 40-Year-Old Virgin...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Tuesday Night at the Movies, #2 Coming to America

Now I usually start off these "Rave & Favorite Five" posts with either some kind of sentimental tale about my storied past with a particular artist, movie, event, etc., or some excuse as to why you had to wait a few weeks for me to unveil the next slot.  However, instead of boring you with the minutiae, I'd rather kick off this post doing what I rarely do: shine a quick light on a much-deserved honorable mention.  Of all of the music for which legendary producer Nile Rodgers has been responsible--David Bowie's "Let's Dance", Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and pretty much everything by Chic (with one-time production partner Bernard Edwards) just to name a few numbers--absolutely nothing tops "The King's Motorcade" IMHO.  When King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) comes from the Kingdom of Zamunda to America looking for his son Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) after Semi (Arsenio Hall) requested "a cool million", "The King's Motorcade" was the ideal sonic depiction of the importance of his arrival in one of the most regal and bouse ways.  (By the way, you must say "bouse" like Rick Ross or Slim Thug because the pronunciation of "boss" just doesn't cut it.)  I fought myself over what this musical masterpiece could replace in the following top five, but I couldn't bring myself to knocking off any of these things that make Coming to America my No. 2 favorite movie of all time.  Without further ado, let's spin that globe, flip that coin and take a trip to Queens...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Tuesday Night at the Movies, #4 Friday

The story of Friday making this list begins with the hiatus between posts in this part of the "Rave & Favorite Five" series, which also begins with the movie that it replaced.  Ever since my mother took me and my brother to see it in the spring of 1990, I have been a huge fan of House Party.  Between the fashion, the music, the dances, the rhymes, the slang and even the comedy, I thought it was one of the best movies at capturing the height of the New Jack Swing era of R&B and hip-hop culture.  However, as I attempted to write my post about it as the original No. 4 spot holder, I wasn't feeling what I was writing because I kept battling myself over whether House Party should be on my list or Friday--another movie that I went with my mother and brother to see as well as another one of my "brothers".  In figuring out my dilemma, one of my dear, dear friends posed a simple question: "Which movie do you think is more complete between the two?"  Once I sat and thought about it, the choice became simple and my trepidation was resolved: I couldn't have a "Rave & Favorite Five" about movies without Friday.  I actually thought about bumping out Blade Runner for House Party, but Blade Runner is just way too epic to get axed.  Now that the backstory is complete, it's time for the main event: five things that make Friday the sureshot...

Scribbler's Highlight of the Week (Part II): Dormtainment.com, "A-- on the Internet"

As promised, this is the second installment of my highlight of the week, but it's something a little sillier this time around.  Although "A-- on the Internet" is over three months old, nothing is truly old as long as your sense of humor doesn't have an expiration date.  I just got a kick out of this jawn.  If my friends and I had a camcorder and YouTube during our college years, we may have done stuff like this.  Major shout-out to Dormtainment.com for providing the funny, and you can also follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook.  Shout-out to Mrs. Scribbler for putting me on to quite a few of their videos, and trust that they'll get some more shine on my blog in the future.  (Now if only most of the music videos on MTV Jams or BET were this entertaining...)