Andre 3000
One-half of the Atlanta-based hip-hop duo Outkast, Andre 3000 is famous for the song “Hey Ya!” which introduced the phrases “what’s cooler than cool, Ice cold!” “I want to see you on your baddest behavior” and “shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture.” He had a cartoon on Cartoon Network called “Class of 3000” where he played a teacher, teaching life lessons and wisdom to elementary school students interested in music. An artist on DeviantArt even drew Byleth from Fire Emblem; Three Houses in the loose animated style of the show (viewable here: My Twitter Byleth x Class of 3000 by xeternalflamebryx on DeviantArt ) and I consider that one of their best pieces, since both are compassionate teachers to a group of quirky, unusual students. Andre 3000 was also mentioned in a comedy bit where the one of the comedienne’s numbers was broken so she typed his name into Google to get the numbers. Miley Cyrus also covered “Hey Ya!” on her Bangerz Tour, turning it into a medley with “Jolene” by Dolly Parton.
Jurnee Smollett
Jurnee Smollett
is an actress who got her start playing Michelle Tanner’s best friend Denise on
Full House. She was a character who
liked to have fun and was revealed to be a niece of Little Richard. She’s acted in various projects since,
recently getting into the mainstream spotlight as Dinah Lance/Black Canary in
the 2020 Birds of Prey movie, where she voices concerns about enforcing the law
as her mother died doing so, but ultimately seeks to do the right thing. She, Mary-Elizabeth Winstead and Margot
Robbie were excellent in the film in my opinion, with a nice balance of humor,
seriousness and kick-butt attitude, I especially love the scene where they take
down henchmen in the funhouse and Heart’s “Barracuda” is playing in the
background. Jurnee has been an advocate
for HIV/AIDS research since being a child actress, a crew member on a show she
was on when she was 11 died of AIDS. She
also has a nice singing voice, singing a cover of “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s
World” in Birds of Prey that got on the film’s Soundtrack Album.
J.P. Crawford
The starting
shortstop of the Seattle Mariners, J.P. Crawford was acquired from the
Philadelphia Phillies for Jean Segura after the 2018 season. He adapted quickly to the major leagues,
making incredible, lightning-fast throws to first base, which earned him the
2020 American League Gold Glove at Shortstop.
He was on the Mariners Juneteenth panel with Kyle Lewis, Shed Long Jr.,
broadcaster Dave Sims and Dee Strange-Gordon (now with the Reds), talking about
the difficulties of systemic racism in police departments. Crawford admitted he was luckier about being
pulled over than his teammates, but his Police Officer father did have to teach
him protocols for being stopped that I, as a white male, was completely unaware
of and feel shouldn’t exist in our culture.
J.P. Crawford and Kyle Lewis are two of the reasons the future of
baseball looks bright in Seattle, because both baseball players work tirelessly
to create an entertaining and competitive ballclub, and with future prospects
Jarred Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez knocking on the door, we may soon end our
playoff drought.
Sasha Banks
A women’s
wrestler billed from Boston, Massachusetts in the WWE, Sasha Banks is famous
for her dyed hair (originally pink, then blue) and for being first cousins with
rapper Snoop Dogg. I first saw Sasha in
a Road to Wrestlemania Event in Seattle in 2015 prior to her outright debut on
the WWE, where she tag-teamed with Summer Rae against Emma and Natalya. Ultimately, Natalya put Summer Rae in the
Sharpshooter and won. Later that year, I
saw Sasha as part of team B.A.D. in Everett in a match against Team Bella while
Team PCB watched on the sidelines.
Shortly after, the three teams of three broke up and Sasha began
rivalries with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch for the Championship. The WWE brand then broke into Raw and Smackdown
divisions, Sasha heading to the Raw division where she would be joined by
Bayley from San Jose, which was where my brother was living at the time. Their on-air friendship and UpUpDownDown
video where they played Mortal Kombat X with a makeup job on the line lifted my
mood during the hard times and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them get the Women’s
Tag-Team Championships. Soon, though,
Sasha did her heel turn, Bayley following, yet the two remaining good friends
made it an easier blow. I have heard
(since I haven’t been watching the WWE since FOX was advertising FOX “News”
during Smackdown) that their on-air friendship is over, but I have a feeling
they might still be friendly behind the scenes.
I’ve found the plots are made up, the outcomes are pre-determined, but the
combat and danger is very, very real.
Dee Strange-Gordon
The son of
former Kansas City Royals pitcher Tom “Flash” Gordon, Dee Strange-Gordon went
by Dee Gordon until last year, when he brought his late Mom’s surname into his
last name. Dee started his Major League
Baseball career about ten years ago with the Los Angeles Dodgers before being
sent to the Miami Marlins in a blockbuster trade. A few years later, another trade brought him
to the Seattle Mariners organization, where he took part in the 2018-2020
seasons, playing second base in the 20th Anniversary of Turn Ahead
the Clock Game, where the Mariners wore Maroon and Silver uniforms and
pretended it was 2027 and baseball was being played throughout the solar
system. Ken Griffey Jr. had been a large
part of the first event, with the team (save the pitcher) wearing their hats
backwards in the field, like he did in batting practice, in the 2018 event, Dee
continued this tradition. Dee and his
family helped feed people and helped financially during the pandemic both in
their hometown of Orlando, FL and in the Seattle area. On Juneteenth, 2020, Dee was part of a
Mariners panel on systemic racism and contributed some of the more notable
statements, saying “we want to be treated equal, not special, we’re human, or
at least I know I’m human, I’m not sure about the rest of y’all,” applying some
slight humor to a tense situation while making a poignant point. Seattle’s focus on younger players caused
them to not renew Dee’s contract, but they wished him luck with the Cincinnati
Reds as he agreed to be part of their team in February 2021.
Michael Jordan
The most famous
and probably most talented basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan is
famous for winning the NBA championship 7 times with the Chicago Bulls, having
shoes named after him made by Nike and starring in the movie “Space Jam.” Michael Jordan was drafted by the Bulls from
the University of North Carolina in the 1980s, turning the team into a
powerhouse with the help of coach Phil Jackson and fellow player Scottie Pippen. My sister-in-law’s Mother also got to meet
him once because she used to work for Nike and they had a squirt gun fight in a
restaurant. The murder of Michael
Jordan’s father in 1993 made him retire from the Bulls and pursue a career with
the Chicago White Sox instead, and like in the movie, he played for the
Birmingham Barons of the Southern League and was given signs by catchers on the
other team. However, his return to
basketball was simply two reasons, he missed the sport and the baseball strike
of 1994, when players refused to play from August of 1994 to April of 1995,
hit. With that in mind, he returned to
the Bulls, giving them a few more championships before hanging it up again for
a few years. Michael Jordan did return
to the court in the early 2000s as a member of the Washington Wizards, which he
co-owned, but at that point he wasn’t playing as good as he was in his heyday,
so those days are mostly forgotten.
However, his accomplishments with the Chicago Bulls will forever stand
in basketball history as one of the greatest single legacies of the sport.
Eric Gales
A Blues-Rock
guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee, Eric started playing guitar at age four,
taught by his older brother Eugene. The
two formed a band and signed with a label with Eric on guitar and Eugene on
bass in late 1990 with Hubert Crawford on drums, making the albums The Eric
Gales Band in 1991 and Picture of A Thousand Faces in 1993. Since then, Eric Gales has released sixteen
other albums with a variety of bands, such as Pinnick Gales Pridgen, which
featured Doug Pinnick on bass and vocals and a cover of “Sunshine of Your
Love.” One of the original Eric Gales
Band albums also featured a cover of The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
and he’s performed Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” live. Eric Gales has teamed with many other
musicians, touring with Carlos Santana in 1994, recording a cover of The
Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends” in the style of the Joe Cocker
Version with Beth Hart and recording a hard rock original called “Steep Climb”
with longtime Ozzy Osbourne collaborator/head of the Black Label Society Zakk
Wylde.
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