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Usher headlining 'Essence' Music Festival tonight -- PHOTOS
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R&B superstar Usher is headlining tonight’s concerts at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans at the Lousiana Superdome. At left, you can see a shot from his sound check for tonight’s performance. The Friday main stage show are also featuring performances by Charlie Wilson, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, and Boyz II Men. Kanye West will headline tomorrow’s main stage show; he’ll be preceded by Jill Scott, Chaka Khan, and El DeBarge. The festival will wrap up on Sunday with performances from Mary J. Blige, New Edition, Trey Songz, and Kem. Check out another shot from Usher’s sound check below: We’re meant to love Mercedes even though we’re given no reasons to, but the ultimate example of the creative woman is Talia, an attractive young woman who meets Larry on his first day in scooter row and decides that he’s awesome, again for no discernible reason. She even allows Larry to join her gang…of scooter riders. Yes, this is an actual plot point.longchamp outlet There’s even a scene where Larry is inducted as all the members snap their fingers like the Jets in West Side Story. Talia exists solely to make Larry cool, or whatever cool is supposed to be. By the end of the film, he’s wearing dark jeans and vests, with a new, cooler haircut and a chain for his wallet. There a few hints at a romantic relationship between them if only to cause a bit of conflict between Larry and Mercedes and also between Larry and Wilmer Valderrama, the slick haired, leather jacket wearing gang leader who is sort of kind of supposed to be Talia’s boyfriend. But these whispers of conflict are so watered down that no one actually ever gets upset or even raises their voice over it. As if to further controvert the views on the economy presented by the opening conflict, Talia drops out of college to open her own thrift store. Apparently men need degrees, but women are just fine without them. The terrible script panders blatantly to the female audience by describing all the male characters as cliches and stereotypes. Steve Dibiasi is the typical bumbling idiot in Larry’s speech class. Larry’s neighbor Lamar (Cedric the Entertainer) is the cheapskate semi-swindler, always trying to get more money for items than they’re worth at his year-round garage sale. He’s like a used-car salesman: not a bad guy, but a little smarmy. Even Larry Crowne himself is basically a boyish man-child. He’s overly messy because he’s a single man living alone. He needs a woman to help him arrange his house and his life. Apparently, we can’t even take out our own trash. What would we men do without women? According to Nia Vardalos, we’d all be helpless and hopeless.
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Posted on : Jul 2, 2011
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