IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! My first single Breathless is finished and it will be available for sale as an mp3 download for $0.99 tomorrow Tuesday 9/20/2011 on My Bandcamp Page and within a couple of weeks iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, etc. In addition to the song, there is bonus material to accompany it that will be exclusive to Bandcamp for a limited time. Be one of the first people to get it and be a witness to history in the making. This is the start of something great.
Often being compared to greats like Jill Scott, Demeriese Naima Valier (pronounced Dee-MARE-ris Nah-ee-mah Vah-leer) is assured to make major contributions to R&B and Soul music. Breathless, her first single from her forthcoming debut LP Soul Beautiful is reminiscent of an early Erykah Badu joint. It is an homage to the pioneers of contemporary soul music with it's live instrumentation, funky drum rifts, and minimalistic keys under an elaborate vocal line. This coupled with the earthy warmness of Demeriese's mezzo-soprano voice makes for a very refreshing listening experience.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Vegans Eat More Than Just Salad!
I have been eating a vegan diet for about 1 1/2 years and I have been meat free for 3 1/2 years. Whenever the subject of food comes up and I mention my diet to anyone they are either impressed or confused as to how in the hell I am so big if I'm not eating meat. The ones who are confused sometimes ask "how are you still alive without eating meat?" or "how do I get protein?". Whatever their reaction, they both seem to have the impression that the only things I eat are salads, fruits, nuts, and side dishes. That is so not the case. I enjoy just as much of a variety of food now as I did when I ate meat. As a matter of fact, I eat with more variety now because eating a meat free diet forces you to expand your taste in foods because the Standard American Diet is severely lacking in satisfying options for people who don't eat meat products. Here are some pictures of a few vegan dishes I made:
Couscous, baby portabella mushrooms, tomato, & spinach in a spicy peanut & curry sauce, roasted red bell pepper hummus, homemade pita chips, and fresh cherries to finish it off.
Marinara sauce with zucchini, yellow squash, & spinach over fried eggplant & whole wheat spaghetti.
Pineapple banana sorbet made with sparkling mineral water inside of tart shells. Garnished with fresh strawberries and dark chocolate & amaretto sauce. It usually looks better than this, but I was in a rush.
Groundnut stew also known as African yam & peanut stew. Sweet potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, okra, & peanuts in a spicy peanut sauce over couscous and served with collard greens that were marinated over night in a proprietary blend of citrus juices, herbs, & spices and then cooked slightly in olive & sesame oil to remove the chill.
I was getting fed up going back and forth between the greens and the stew. They both tasted so good I just said fuck it and mixed them together. Also, it is very aggravating trying to eat hot couscous with a fork so I put the fork down and dug in with my bare hands. I felt like I was back in Benin. ;-)
Couscous, baby portabella mushrooms, tomato, & spinach in a spicy peanut & curry sauce, roasted red bell pepper hummus, homemade pita chips, and fresh cherries to finish it off.
Marinara sauce with zucchini, yellow squash, & spinach over fried eggplant & whole wheat spaghetti.
Pineapple banana sorbet made with sparkling mineral water inside of tart shells. Garnished with fresh strawberries and dark chocolate & amaretto sauce. It usually looks better than this, but I was in a rush.
Groundnut stew also known as African yam & peanut stew. Sweet potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, okra, & peanuts in a spicy peanut sauce over couscous and served with collard greens that were marinated over night in a proprietary blend of citrus juices, herbs, & spices and then cooked slightly in olive & sesame oil to remove the chill.
I was getting fed up going back and forth between the greens and the stew. They both tasted so good I just said fuck it and mixed them together. Also, it is very aggravating trying to eat hot couscous with a fork so I put the fork down and dug in with my bare hands. I felt like I was back in Benin. ;-)
Weight Release Journey Reprise: I'm Getting There
I know there are some of you who were really into my blog series Weight Release Journey. The journey has never stopped, but me writing about it did because I was just soooo busy last year. I have made tremendous progress and I am now more than halfway to my goal. When I started this blog I was a size 18 approaching a size 20. I am now a solid size 16. My goal is to get down to a size 12. I am not a small woman. I have big bones and because of that there has to be a 30 lb. difference in my weight for my dress size to go up or down. I have another 40-50 lbs. to release before I get to my goal size. Here are some pics of where I've been in the past and were I am currently:
2006 - Aprox 250 lbs.
2007 - Day before college graduation. 275 lbs. This is the point where I said "fuck this fat girl shit" and also when the serious health problems started to kick in.
2010 - May Aprox. 230-240 lbs. I had become a vegan at this point and had lost a great deal of weight, but it kept fluctuating between 220-240 lbs.
2010 - July Aprox. 215-220 lbs. I stayed here for a while, but I gained a little weight over the holidays.
Which is why I took this picture in January of this year. I had to drop those holiday pounds right quick. It didn't take long though. Aprox. 215-220 lbs.
And here I am as of 9/9/2011 Aprox 190-200lbs.
Now I have to hurry up and drop the rest of this weight because I'm going to be in the public eye a lot. I'm a singer and even though my voice alone will sell albums & singles, I'm sure that if I got my measurements back down to oh let's say 40-28-40 I'll be able to sell a lot more. Well, not necessarily. Adele has the best selling album in the US this year so maybe my music will be just enough, but that's too expensive of an experiment to for me to conduct. I'm in the home stretch now. Through it all I shall succeed!
SN: I know some of you probably picked up on the fact that I'm guessing my weight. Well I'm not a stickler for numbers when it comes to this. Ihave an ideal size I'd like to be, but the number is just not really that important. People put too much emphasis and getting down to a particular weight and don't take bone size and density & muscular structure when losing excess weight. Plus my scale is broken anyway and I can think of a whole lot better ways to spend $20.00 like gas for my car, lol. As long as I can see that I'm getting smaller I'm good. And don't even get me started on counting calories! That's a blog for a another day.
2006 - Aprox 250 lbs.
2007 - Day before college graduation. 275 lbs. This is the point where I said "fuck this fat girl shit" and also when the serious health problems started to kick in.
2010 - May Aprox. 230-240 lbs. I had become a vegan at this point and had lost a great deal of weight, but it kept fluctuating between 220-240 lbs.
2010 - July Aprox. 215-220 lbs. I stayed here for a while, but I gained a little weight over the holidays.
Which is why I took this picture in January of this year. I had to drop those holiday pounds right quick. It didn't take long though. Aprox. 215-220 lbs.
And here I am as of 9/9/2011 Aprox 190-200lbs.
Now I have to hurry up and drop the rest of this weight because I'm going to be in the public eye a lot. I'm a singer and even though my voice alone will sell albums & singles, I'm sure that if I got my measurements back down to oh let's say 40-28-40 I'll be able to sell a lot more. Well, not necessarily. Adele has the best selling album in the US this year so maybe my music will be just enough, but that's too expensive of an experiment to for me to conduct. I'm in the home stretch now. Through it all I shall succeed!
SN: I know some of you probably picked up on the fact that I'm guessing my weight. Well I'm not a stickler for numbers when it comes to this. Ihave an ideal size I'd like to be, but the number is just not really that important. People put too much emphasis and getting down to a particular weight and don't take bone size and density & muscular structure when losing excess weight. Plus my scale is broken anyway and I can think of a whole lot better ways to spend $20.00 like gas for my car, lol. As long as I can see that I'm getting smaller I'm good. And don't even get me started on counting calories! That's a blog for a another day.
Breathless Press Release
I know I've been talking about this song for a long time, but through all the stumbling blocks and set backs, I've made it to a point where I'm ready to release this song for national radio air play. As a token of appreciation for rockin' with me for so long here's a free download of a demo version of "Breathless".
Breathless by Demeriese Naima Valier
Release Date: TBA
Record Label: Jamboree Music - JAM101
Demeriese Naima Valier wrote Breathless in December of 2005 while on Christmas break from college and it is the lead single on her debut LP Soul Beautiful. She says that at the time she had never been in love with anyone nor was there any man whom she had her eye on at the time, so it was shocking to her that she could even write a song like Breathless.
Breathless is an internalized dialog set to music that explores a whirlwind of emotions from confused, to aroused, to completely delirious by the end of the song. Sort of like the same way you feel when you're falling head over heels in love with someone.The music changes just as much as Demeriese's emotions do throughout the song. Starting off with only a string bass and Naima scatting, and then as the singing begins congas, it switches to a smooth Neo-Soul swing by the time the chorus comes around. Then just when you're used to the chill vibe, Demeriese unexpectedly takes you to church at the bridge.The producer, Klark Kent, was able to expertly convey with music the emotion that is behind the words that Demeriese wrote.
Demeriese jokes that she wrote the song so she could "conjure her up a man" that makes her feel the way she's singing about in her song. It's been said by wise men all over that words have immense power. It will be interesting to see if The Enchantress's spell will work.
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