All that Glitters...

As the day rapidly approaches for my family to come and visit me I find myself answering questions for them about what we will do, see, eat, etc. And the more I talk to them the more I realize that most of them have misconceptions about what to expect when you get to Los Angeles. The only one who has visited before is my little sister and she too finds it hard to dislodge the image that Los Angeles projects to the world.

It's funny, but I've been trying to recall what I anticipated when I first got here. I guess after living in Chicago and visiting New York I had LA all planned out and I was wrong. I forget how much of what I thought about LA had been formed from television, movies, songs, and hearsay. My older sister tries to tell me she already knows what it's like because her friends who have visited have told her, but she doesn't realize and what I and all immigrants to LA had to realize is visiting is one thing living here is another. Unless you came and stayed for more than a month you don't have a clue.

Los Angeles is one of the largest cities as far as land and people and is virtually impossible to see unless you can stay for more than a month. As a matter of fact I just went to a part of the city that I've never been to last night and I've lived here 4 years. And what I've found from everyone who's moved here it's never what you first imagined especially if all you know about is television. Los Angeles Demographics and Economics report will show that majority of people are not only unemployed, but homeless as well. A majority of the people live 250% below the poverty level. Los Angeles has one of the worst and overcrowded school districts that have been riddled with academic failure.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from visiting just to realize that over course they make it seem glamorous on t.v. and of course there are wonderful things to do and see here and lots of fun to be had, but that about 90% of the population never sees that.

As always have a good day and enjoy.

"Can I quote you on that..."

In a mildly ego-centric moment I decided to google myself to see if it was still easy to find me. And up it still is. No excuses for anyone out there trying to find Tanika Evans. And you know what the best part is. My picture is the only one that comes up in images when you google me. Does this mean I need help...yes it does.

Anyway as I was looking I saw that I was quoted (the one I'm in is at the bottom of the page about math of course) in about saying that "If you ask a 9 or a 10 year old their favorite subject, they probably won't say math" I forgot I did this interview a while ago regarding an math intervention program I did with Mathnasium at a Los Angeles charter school called C.L.A.S.

I have to admit that was a very challenging undertaking and now as the director of the Mathnasium in that charter school I'm finally seeing the benefits of the educational seeds we sowed. I won't name names, but there are a few kids who attend that school that have been struggling in math and their parents enrolled them in the program and I've noticed how secretly they are excited about finally understanding things they thought they never would be able to, or having things explained in a way that makes sense. Why do I say secretly...well because it's still not "the thing" to be into math yet. We're working on it, but I see the change in their confidence and abilities and I guess that's what really matters.

Anyhoo back to looking at other people on the internet. As always have a good day and enjoy.

Behind the Music...*NSYNC

Ok...yes it is late at night and I'm online with nothing better to do, but I would like to take these idle moments to discuss a situation that I'm sure is on everyone's mind. What led to the break up of *NSYNC. Much like boy bands before them and the ones that will come after they enjoyed a few years of pop success only to fall apart with most of the members falling into social and economic obscurity, while one member rises steady in the limelight.

From the time people realized harmonies sound good and someone thought they were the best, to the name change from Jackson 5 to Michael Jackson and the Jacksons, including all the KC's and Jo-jos and everyone else who started as a part of a group to the tragic demise of the group, the rise and fall of the boy band has been ever in the public eye.

So we turn our focus to *NSYNC. With all the "talent" in the group why did they only last through the 90s? Why is Justin Timberlake enjoying and solo career while other band members struggle to make ends meet, attending C-list celeb parties?

I'll tell you why...there was first the classic mistake of only giving 2 members lead vocal time on most of the "radio play" songs. The problem is that in general most boy bands of their day sound exactly alike and the only mildly distinguishable "quality" is the lead vocals voice (or lake of quality, whatever). What you are left with is the fact that if anyone else sings lead no one else knows which group they are listening to and therefore doesn't care.

Second reason for the decline, the lead vocal can also not be a whinny, begging sort of guy. Because no matter what his voice sounds like women like that. As far as they are concerned the rest of the group can go take a flying leap. How else would you explain people like Keith Sweat, Levert, Johnny Gill, Luther Vandross, etc.

Third reason...one member is not allowed to look less ridiculous than the others. Justin Timberlake used to sport a ridiculous blond afro now he has a nice even low.

Fourth to combine all these in one video which is basically a combination of all three of these and add to that JT's massive ego. It was merely a matter of time. After Bye, Bye, Bye I knew it was the end for *NSYNC. There were all about to say bye, bye, bye :)

Anyway that's all I have to say about that. It's time to go to bed.

As always have a good day and enjoy.

Black Santa?

It was the Christmas of my 15th year and my family and I were busy with our holiday activities and plans. I had recently become friends with a Spanish foreign exchange student and his host family. We started going out and since this was before I was able to drive and my aversion to cars had set in my mother had to ferry us to and fro. As Christmas day drew near Tony's host family decorated their house and lawn with various Christmas paraphernalia such as a sleigh, reindeer and of course the piece de resistance, a jolly Santa Claus.





The first day Santa made his appearance we picked Tony up while it was still light outside, my mom dropped us off at the local teen hangout, we had a good time and then as we were dropping Tony off for the evening after nightfall we noticed something peculiar about the Santa in the yard...His skin was of a darker nature than what one would expect from Santa. On the way home my family and I discussed the possibility of their being a black santa in the yard. We found this odd as neither Tony nor his host family were black. We debated back and forth about whether or not the Santa was black. I being of the mind that Santa wasn't black and they being of the mind that he was. Not reaching any sensible conclusions we all went to bed.





The next time we went over to Tony's if was after night fall and as we sat in the car waiting for him to come out we studied Santa's face and I was more convinced than ever that it was merely the thickness of the plastic causing Santa to appear to be of a more ethnic origin. My family begged to differ. We argued about this until Tony came out. Still no solid conclusions.





At this point I know what you are thinking, why don't we stop this ridiculous conversation or better still why not just look at the Santa during the day. Well first, my family would never drop an argument no matter how trivial and second looking at Santa during the day smacked a little too much of common sense.





Over the next week we debated back and forth about the Santa. Then one night over a family gab session things got pretty heated. We all were presenting our case for the ethnicity of Santa we had pictures, drawings, light meters, and light diffusion through medium charts, but to no avail. As the night wore on and none of us would budge we decided to go inspect the Santa...mind you it was well after midnight at this point. So we all threw on our coats and drove over to Tony's where we argued heatedly in the car about the ethnicity of the lawn Santa. None of us would get out of the car because a) it was freezing and b) we didn't feel like getting arrested for the nutcases we were by creeping over the yard and inspecting the Santa.





Now after all this and all these years I can't very well tell you what conclusions we came to that night, but I will say this I'm sure I was right :)





I hope everyone enjoys this holiday season and if for some reason this might be a difficult time for you and you don't have happy memories of Christmas past just think about my story and remember how lucky you are not to be as crazy as my family is.





As always have a good day and enjoy.