Ngo Okafor - Most Downloaded African American Black Male Model Portfolio

DONNA SUMMER DISCO DIVA DEAD AT 63

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:20:33 +0000

Legendary disco diva Donna Summer has died, a spokesman confirmed to TheWrap.

The “Hot Stuff” and “Last Dance” singer was 63.

No cause of death was given, but TMZ reports Summer had been battling cancer.

In a statement, Summer’s family praise the singer’s religious faith.

“While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy,” the statement reads. “Words truly can’t express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time.”

Bing: Listen to Donna Summer’s biggest hits

Summer’s soaring mezzo-soprano voice and catchy lyrics provided the soundtrack to the 1970s, making it nearly impossible to think of many of that decade’s cultural touchstones, be they bellbottoms or disco balls, without calling to mind her hit singles.

Among the hits that helped cement Summer’s legacy were “She Works Hard for the Money,” “Bad Girls” and “Dim All the Lights.” She would earn five Grammy awards and 17 nominations over the course of her career.

In a 2003 interview with The New York Times, Summer said she felt that her propulsive, candy-coated dance numbers captured the national zeitgeist of the 1970s and helped people turn the page on the chaotic social upheaval of the previous decade.

“In that period people were in a dance mood,” Summer said. “They wanted to be lifted up, they wanted to have fun, they didn’t want to think.”

Photos: In Memoriam: Donna Summer

”You were coming out of the Vietnam war, the 60′s , the protest era, and I was coming out of it as well,” she added. ”I think people were just in a different mindset. When dance music came out, with that beat and that movement, it was a switch.”

Yet while Summer may have downplayed her political significance, one group who embraced her music was the gay community. Emboldened by the Stonewall Riots, Summer’s anthems of empowerment struck a chord with a group that was beginning to agitate for greater political rights and freedoms.

That relationship endured throughout her career, but it did undergo significant strain after reports surfaced that Summer made anti-gay remarks about AIDS victims in the mid-1980s and called the disease divine retribution.

She claimed that she never made the statements and would later sue New York magazine in 1991 for libel when it reprinted the allegations.

In a 1989 letter to an AIDS activist group, Summer wrote, “I was unknowingly protected by those around me from the bad press and hate letters. … If I have caused you pain, forgive me.”

Though Summer and disco were nearly interchangeable, she proved herself to be a musical chameleon, one who survived the end of the Studio 54 era and continued to produce chart-topping songs into the 1980s and beyond.

Over the ensuing three decades, Summer branched into new genres, such as new wave, with her 1980 album “The Wanderer”; swing on her poorly received 1991 album “Mistaken Identity”; and gospel with her 1994 holiday album “Christmas Spirit.”

The singer is survived by her husband, singer and producer Bruce Sudano; their daughters, Brooklyn and Amanda; and Summer’s daughter, Mimi, from a previous marriage.

JENNIFER LOPEZ RUMORED TO BE LEAVING AMERICAN IDOL?

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:06:07 +0000

There is buzz all over the web and in entertainment outlets that Jennifer Lopez may be leaving American Idol. J Lo just topped Forbes magazine’s top 100 entertainment list and much of her comeback can be credited to American Idol. Sources from J Lo and American Idol are mum on the matter.

It is said that Jennifer does not have time for the show anymore because she has a world tour coming up and she would like to spend more time with her kids.

Is this a ploy for a big pay day…..hmmmm

Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model

Nigerian american black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com

JOIN ME FOR THE 10th ANNUAL ‘DRUMS ALONG THE HUDSON’ FESTIVAL IN NYC

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:57:27 +0000

Tenth Annual Drums Along the Hudson®: A Native American Festival
Sunday, May 20th, 2012 - 11:00 am until 6:00 pm
Rain or Shine – FREE
Inwood Hill Park
218th Street and Indian Road (4 blocks west of Broadway)

The Tenth Annual DRUMS ALONG THE HUDSON®: A NATIVE AMERICAN FESTIVAL will take place on Sunday, May 20th, 2012 in Upper Manhattan’s Inwood Hill Park from 11:00 am until 6:00 pm, rain or shine. This event is presented by Lotus Music & Dance in collaboration with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, sponsored in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Councilman Robert Jackson and WABC-TV.

A FREE, multi cultural family-oriented festival, DRUMS ALONG THE HUDSON® includes exhibitions of world dance and drumming traditions as well as Native American crafts and international foods. The festival combines a celebration of Native American heritage, culture, and art with the diversity of New York City itself. In keeping with the underlying theme of environmental appreciation and education, DRUMS ALONG THE HUDSON® will continue to feature an Environmental Tent which will include appearances by Captain Planet, courtesy of the Captain Planet Foundation.

During the day, we take time out to honor individuals and organizations for their contributions to environmental and humanitarian causes. This year’s honorees are LaDonna Harris, President, Americans for Indian Opportunity, andJane Schachat, former Northern Manhattan Parks Department Administrator. We will also plant a white pine tree in a ceremony, officiated by Mohawk Elder Tom Porter, which pays tribute to the memory of community leaders we have lost in the previous year. Sandra Bookman, weekend anchor for WABC-TV, will host the event along with Tetiana Anderson, NY1 television reporter.

This year, we will have a free bicycle valet for attendees who ride their bike to the park.

Drums Along the Hudson has received the support of many government officials including Congressman John Lewis, Mayor Bloomberg (2009 & 2011 Proclamations), NYC Councilmembers Robert Jackson and Gale A. Brewer, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (with support from the NYC & Co. Foundation).

DAVID BECKHAM TO CARRY LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC TORCH FROM GREECE TO UK

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:42:47 +0000

There is a lot of excitement in the air in Greece this morning. I should say that there are a lot of excited women in Greece this morning. They are not excited because of their suffering economy. They are not excited about because of the austerity measures in their country. They are excited because David Beckham is coming. David Beckham will help take the Olympic torch from Greece to London.

The big flame handover ceremony will happen at a stadium in Greece. I’m sure there will be hundreds, if not thousands of women flashing and smiles and much more while Beckham is at the stadium in Greece.

Hmmm……

Ngo okafor

The most downloaded male model

Nigerian American black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com

COME ON MAN! VERIZON DITCHES IT’S UNLIMITED DATA PLAN

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:25:14 +0000

Verizon has decided to throw their loyal customers under the bus in order to make a boat load of money!! Come on man!!! Do you guys not make enough money? As if we our cell phone bills are not high enough, Verizon is now getting rid of it’s unlimited data plan. Verizon is already not offering the unlimited data plan to new customers, but they now plan to end it for customers who were ‘grandfathered’ into the plan.

Verizon Wireless is planning this summer to begin forcing smartphone customers with unlimited data plans to switch to tiered plans when they upgrade, the company’s chief financial officer told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday.

At the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the company will unveil a “data share” pricing model by mid-summer, which will give customers the ability to buy an allotment of data that can be used across multiple devices linked to the same account.

As that plan rolls out, Verizon (VZ,Fortune 500) will discontinue its practice of allowing customers who have legacy unlimited data plans to keep those plans when they buy a new smartphone. Verizon stopped allowing new customers to buy unlimited data plans a year ago.

“As you come through an upgrade cycle and you upgrade in the future, you will have to go onto the data share plan,” Shammo said, “[We're] moving away from, if you will, the unlimited world and moving everybody into a tiered structure data share-type plan.”

The CFO emphasized that the plan is “paper, not actual.” A Verizon Wireless spokesman declined to comment on issue.

AT&T (T, Fortune 500) Wireless, which led the industry with the first tiered data plans, continues to allow customers with legacy unlimited plans to keep that service when they upgrade. Sprint (S, Fortune 500) remains the only national carrier that offers new customers an unlimited data plan.

The idea behind Verizon’s change in strategy, Shammo said, is to increase the company’s revenue at a time when the cell phone market is already saturated with customers and voice minutes are dropping, sending average revenue per smartphone user down $10 over the past two years.

As attracting new customers grows more difficult, finding new ways to increase revenue from the customers Verizon already has is becoming the company’s top priority.

Though Verizon’s lowest, 2 gigabyte-per-month tier currently costs $30 — the same price as its legacy unlimited offering — the company knows that data usage is increasing, particularly as 4G-LTE networks make possiblehuge HD video downloads and machine-to-machine communications.

As customers increase their data usage on their devices, the company thinks they’ll move to higher and pricier tiers.

Or, in CFO-ese: “With the construct that we have dealt with around data share and where we see consumption of LTE going, when you put the combination of them together, we are fairly confident that we will see people start to uptake in the tiers, which is really where we will get the revenue accretion in the future.”

That’s how Shammo put it in his JP Morgan talk. Translation: You’re going to suck down more data and pay Verizon more for that privilege.

Dragging existing unlimited customers away from their unlimited data plans isn’t the only way Verizon is upping its take. The company recentlyimposed a $30 “upgrade fee” on customers, which Shammo said has been a success.

“We are really not seeing any impact from a customer base from that fee, so that was the right thing to do,” he said.

EXPLOSION IN PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA, WAS NOT A TERRORIST ATTACK

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:02:15 +0000

Another unnecessary accident that claims lives in Nigeria. I will find out exactly what happened and let you know all the facts. While conflicting reports fly around as to the real cause of the explosion this morning, what cannot be contradicted is the actual explosion as captured here..The number of casualties and real cause of the explosion that has been alleged involved a fully loaded passenger bus in the first picture is still been investigated

The explosion in Port Harcout this morning was neither a bomb nor Boko Haram. Eyewitnesses claim it was caused by a petrol tanker and involved a bus painted in Rivers state taxi clolours. The explosion occurred around 10.30am this morning at the Rumuokoro area of the city and is said to have left two people dead.

Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model

Nigerian american black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com

CHUCK BROWN DIES: THE GODFATHER OF GO-GO WAS 75

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:19:27 +0000

Pulled from the Washington Post By Chris Richards,

Chuck Brown, the gravelly voiced bandleader who capitalized on funk’s percussive pulse to create go-go, the genre of music that has soundtracked life in black Washington for more than three decades, died May 16 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was 75.The death, from complications from sepsis, was confirmed by his manager, Tom Goldfogle.Mr. Brown had been hospitalized for pneumonia.

Known as the “Godfather of Go-Go,” the performer, singer, guitarist and songwriter developed his commanding brand of funk in the mid-1970s to compete with the dominance of disco.

Like a DJ blending records, Mr. Brown used nonstop percussion to stitch songs together and keep the crowd on the dance floor, resulting in marathon performances that went deep into the night. Mr. Brown said the style got its name because “the music just goes and goes.”

In addition to being go-go’s principal architect, Mr. Brown remained the genre’s most charismatic figure. On stage, his spirited call-and-response routines became a hallmark of the music, reinforcing a sense of community that allowed the scene to thrive. As go-go became a point of pride for black Washingtonians, Mr. Brown became one of the city’s most recognizable figures.

“No single type of music has been more identified with Washington than go-go, and no one has loomed so large within it as Chuck Brown,” former Washington Post pop music critic Richard Harrington wrote in 2001.

Mr. Brown’s creation, however, failed to have the same impact outside of the Beltway. The birth of go-go doubled as the high-water mark of Mr. Brown’s national career. With his group the Soul Searchers, his signature hit “Bustin’ Loose” not only minted the go-go sound, it spent four weeks atop the R&B singles chart in 1978.

“Bustin’ Loose” was “the one record I had so much confidence in,” Mr. Brown told The Post in 2001. “I messed with it for two years, wrote a hundred lines of lyrics and only ended up using two lines. . . . It was the only time in my career that I felt like it’s going to be a hit.”

It was Mr. Brown’s biggest single, but throughout the 1980s “We Need Some Money,” “Go-Go Swing” and “Run Joe” became local anthems, reinforced by radio support and the grueling performance schedule that put Mr. Brown on area stages six nights a week.

While rap music exploded across the country, go-go dominated young black Washington, with groups including Trouble Funk, Rare Essence and Experience Unlimited (also known as E.U.) following in Mr. Brown’s footsteps.

Mr. Brown performed less frequently in his final years but still took the stage regularly. He would often comment on his golden years in rhyme.

“I’m not retired because I’m not tired. I’m still getting hired, and I’m still inspired,” he said in 2006. “As long as I can walk up on that stage, I want to make people happy. I want to make people dance.”

Charles Louis Brown was born in Gaston, N.C., on Aug. 22, 1936. He never knew his father, Albert Louis Moody, a Marine. He took the surname of his mother, Lyla Louise Brown, a housekeeper who raised her several children in poverty.

MARY KENNEDY, WIFE OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY Jr., IS DEAD

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:43:08 +0000

(CNN) – Mary Kennedy, from whom Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed for divorce in 2010, is dead, an employee of the Westchester County, New York, medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.

The employee, who declined to give his name, told CNN he would provide no further details about the manner and cause of death.

The family released a statement saying, “We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her. Our heart goes out to her children who she loved without reservation.”

The Bedford Police Department earlier confirmed they were investigating a possible unattended death at an address owned by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Authorities found a deceased individual inside “an out building” on the property, police said in a statement.

Regarding her marital status at the time of her death, Mary Kennedy wasn’t divorced from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., her family attorney, Kerry A. Lawrence, told CNN.

Details of the couple’s private lives were exposed after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed for divorce in Westchester County on May 12, 2010.

The next evening, according to police records, Bedford police responded to a 911 call. When police arrived at the Kennedy residence they found the couple in an argument over taking their four children to a carnival at St. Patrick’s School.

According to a “domestic incident” report filed by the officer on the scene, “Mr. Kennedy stated that his wife was intoxicated and was acting irrational so he took the children to the carnival to remove them from the situation.”

No one was injured, the report said.

Two days later, Mary Kennedy was arrested for driving while intoxicated. At the time, Bedford Police Lt. Jeff Dickans told CNN that Mary Kennedy was arrested around 9:15 p.m. on May 15, 2010. Dickans said that a Bedford police officer saw Kennedy’s 2004 Volvo swerving onto the curb of Greenwich Road in Bedford and asked her to pull over.

Kennedy had slurred speech, and a blood-alcohol content above 0.08 percent, the legal limit in New York. She was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model

Nigerian american black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com

VIDEO OF GIRL CONSOLING HER SOCCER PLAYER DAD IS THE CUTEST…TOUCHING

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:49:56 +0000

This is the cutest video ever. This video clearly shows how important it is, for fathers to stay present in their daughter’s lives.

De Graafschap midfielder Rogier Meijer, whose Dutch soccer squad was relegated from the Eredivisie following a 1-1 draw with FC Den Bosch on Sunday. But shining a light in the gloom was his daughter, who made her way onto the pitch to console her dad in the most adorable way possible. Thank heaven, for little girls.

Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model

Nigerian American black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com

FIRST AMERICAN FEMALE BOXER QUALIFIES FOR LONDON OLYMPICS 2012

NGO OKAFOR BLACK MALE MODEL — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:53:50 +0000

Female boxing will be introduced to the Olympic games for the first time ever at the London 2012 Olympics. I always why that was? I guess many people do not want to see women fighting. There are so many great female fighters in the world and I’m happy that these girls will be able to showcase their skills on the world’s largest stage.

Flyweight Marlen Esparza has become the first American female boxer to qualify for the London Olympics. Esparza secured her birth by beating Luu Thi Duyen of Vietnam in the second round of the Women’s World Championships in Qinhuangdao, China, on Tuesday. The boxer from Houston took a 28-13 decision in the three-round bout.

U.S. lightweight Quanitta Underwood’s hopes of qualifying for the Olympics at the tournament ended when she lost 26-25 to Norway’s Ingrid Egner in a third-round bout Tuesday.

The Seattle fighter’s hopes of competing in London now depend on an international commission that will select the additional lightweight from the Americas to compete in the Games.

Ngo Okafor

The most downloaded black male model

Nigerian American Black male model photo gallery and blog

www.getingo.com