Slow day in the "meme blog" world, I could only find one decent meme today (see below). Also, I'm still in mourning over the death of Ray Charles, it's still a shock to me that's he's gone. Even columnist Darrell Smith can't believe it. Ray Charles was too good to die.

I also caught most of Ronald Reagan's funeral last Friday. It wasn't hard to miss, it was on every TV network, all day and night -- what a spectacle. Homeboy's send off was HUUUUUUGE! I think it was too much. Now there's a campaign to put Ronald Reagan's likeness on a coin or currency, possibly the $10 or $20 bill.

But I like veteran music journalist/editor Gail Mitchell's suggestion:

Anyone for putting Ray Charles on a $20 bill? Actually, the 50-cent piece might be more appropriate. One of [Ray's] most famous lines, from "Let the Good Times Roll" (off his classic The Genius album) was: "Don't let no female play me cheap, I got 50 cents more than I'm gonna keep."

Amen. I like to see Ray on the $20 bill. I'm tired of seeing Andrew Jackson's mug on the greenback. It's time for a change. (Get it?) Are you with me? Holla, at cha boy!

Moving along, music critic/blogger EJ has posted his "Music of the Millenium" list. Check it out. Some very interesting selections.

And if you haven't heard by now, African-American film critic Elvis Mitchell has left New York Times to pursue more loftier writing gigs. It's a damn shame too, because he was the best film critic they ever had at that newspaper.

But don't worry, it looks like Elvis is on a fast track for a big payday.

Apparently, there's a bidding war over his proposal for a book about comedian Richard Pryor between several prominent New York-area book publishers.

"The proposal is unusual," says one editor who has seen it. It is nonlinear and suggests that the book will be part cultural history of America, part tour of the comedy world, part dishy anecdotes about Pryor, including one in which the comedian's scatological language made New Yorker writer Lillian Ross not just blush, but faint."

But Richard Pryor thinks Elvis Mitchell is on some bullshit.

According to New York Post's Page Six, Richard plans on writing a follow-up book to his 1995's biography Pryor Convictions. The veteran comedian, who is suffering from multiple sclerosis, describes the book as a continuation of his memoirs, this time, detailing his experience with MS and "tapping recently unearthed diary entries that mine his colorful childhood."

Richard can't understand how Elvis would be able to write a book about him since the film critic was too busy to pen the liner notes to his nine-CD retrospective boxed-set, . . . And It's Deep Too. The notes were subsequently written by novelist/playwright Walter Mosley. "I don't know [bleep] about Mitchell, but if he's writing a book about me, I figured I'd write one about him," Richard joked. "If he can get half a million dollars for writing all about me, when the mother[bleeper] has never even met me, imagine how much I'm gonna get for writing all about me, when I am me!"

No disrespect Richard, but Elvis doesn't necessarily have to meet you to write about your life and career. It would be nice, but not totally necessary. But I think Elvis' book is more on how Richard's comedy influence pop culture; it's not an autobiography.

As for me, there's nothing going on with my uneventful life except for the job and my bills. I'm trying to get ready for the summer. It looks like it's gonna be another scorcher!

From Unconscious Mutterings:

1. Colorblind:: Ray Charles -- R.I.P. I love you, man!
2. Shallow:: stuck-up, pretty bitches act real . . .
3. Erotica:: Black Tail magazine (Ha! Ha!); Penthouse Letters
4. Figment:: Imagination
5. Eviction:: Move out
6. Composed:: Song
7. Chill:: Ice Cream
8. Girl:: Boy
9. California:: La La Land; Hot
10. Bond:: My twin brother and I

Holla!