Thursday, July 31, 2008

...Nothin' Goin On But the Rent

I celebrated a first today... well a celebrations of sorts. My phone was disconnected today fort he first time in my life. I realized something.. this is the first time in nearly a decade that I've gone an hour without sending or receiving a text message. This unemployment thing is not cute. The irony is I am sure all of the companies to which I've applied attempted to call me back today!

Republicans and the wealthy (often they're on in the same) seem to think all is well in this country. NPR did a piece yesterday on thrift shops. They talked about how their clients have change... more and more middle class families are turning to thrift stores for anything and everything as they don't have disposable income for essentials. Goodwill and the Salvation Army also lamented that the quality and quantity of donations have declined. The former haves are holding on to what they have unsure when they'll be able to go shopping again and the have nots are stuck with the rags that are left. All I can do is laugh these days.. I'm curious what's to come.

..::Listening to Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack - Come Ye Disconsolate::..

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

What's the Deal With these fitted caps?

I cannot believe that I am just not writing this blog.. what's the deal with guys and girls wearing baseball hats and leaving the original tag and size sticker on it?? ... like is that some kind of rule?? I remember when I was younger I saw this episode of Muffet Babies where Miss Piggy thought she was going to go to jail because she tour the tag off her mattress.. Is it one of those ordeals because if so,I'm sure the "ball cap police" established under the Bush Administration have much better things to do than concern them selves with your hats.

I'm an actual baseball fan. I love the game. I support my hometown team the Baltimore Orioles.. funny thing is it seems like you sticker wearers only support The Boston Red Socks or The New York Yankees... funny thing is I'm sure most guys couldn't name the couch, or one player... y'all probably don't even know when baseball season is! Guess that's why I don't have swag.. I'm in the habit of taking the tags off of things I purchase. You guys probably take them back the next day like girls and prom dresses! My advice is just stoppit.. You look like an idiot to the rest of us.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Life's Undo Button











Sometimes I really wish there was one. For every time I fucked up, put my foot in my mouth, lied, or showed my "inner nerd" I wish I could just go to life's file menu and click undo.. undo.. undo allowing me the opportunity to take that knowledge and use exactly the right line, or laugh at the right joke, or leave some of these situations alone all together.


Many of you are old enough yet just young enough to remember The Elephant Show. This is before Barney and Teletubbies and all that other trash the kids are watching now.. They use to sing these songs about sharing and caring and treating people the way you want to be treated. My dumb ass took it all to heart.. I care what people think. I care how people feel. Damn eighties TV shows. Today a long lost friend that I had stopped talking to contacted me and my initial thought was to simply ignore and delete, ignore and delete. As I started I thought about someone in my life that I had mess up with and figured they were following my formula.. ignore and delete, ignore and delete and decided to respond. I'm sooo idealistic.. lol believing that one good deed will begat another like I'm earning tickets and Chucky Cheese or something.. bullshit.

Sometimes I feel like Carlton from the Fresh Prince... bright eyed, self assured, and a believe in the goodness of people.. I just wants those I love to love me back.. and then to continue that love without reservation.. almost like a parent to a child.. It's so easy to love a cute kid. A straight A student. That kid who's biggest worry is deciding which of the 12 schools they were accepted to and offered full scholarships they want to attend. What about the parent who sees their kid on the news.. who has to pick him up from the Principal's office of bail him out.. again? Good parents love you no matter what dumb shit you do, or how big your nose is, or how much you remind them of what they hate about themselves.

We all seem to want "he without blemish." In the absence of that undo button I'm learning that, that type of love probably doesn't exists otherwise. This scares me.

..::Listening to Only The Lonely By Diana Krall::..


Saturday, July 26, 2008

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I love this movie! My friend Alex turned me onto it... great storyline, awesome music, and great compliment of actors.

Brief Synopsis (from Amazon.com)

Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) escapes the chain gang with two fellow convicts the simple and somewhat slow Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and ill-tempered Pete (John Turturro) to pursue the promise of hidden loot stashed in his house that is about to be swept away in a flood. On the way the trio experience a journey filled with hilarious adventure and cast of strange characters starting with a blind prophet who warns them that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."

Not only is the movie awesome, the sound track offers a lot of original [performance] period relevant music. Check it out! You music enthusiast who appreciate more than just The Clark Sisters won't be disappointed.

Rel
ease Date: December 5, 2000
Label:
Buena Vista Pictures

Track Listings
1. Po Lazarus - J. Carter & Prisoners
2. Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McLintock
3. You Are My Sunshine - Norman Blake
4. Down In The River To Pray - Alison Krauss
5. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Dan Tyminski
6. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Chris Thomas King
7. Man Of Constant Sorrow (Instrumental) - Norman Blake
8. Keep On The Sunny Side - The Whites
9. I'll Fly Away - Gillian Welch & Alison Krauss
10. Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby - Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss & Emmylou Harris
11. In The Highways - The Peasall Sisters
12. I Am Weary - The Cox Family
13. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (Instrumental) - John Hartford
14. O Death - Ralph Stanley
15. In The Jailhouse Now - The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Tim Blake Nelson
16. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (With band) - The Soggy Bottom Boys feat. Dan Tyminski
17. Indian War Whoop (Instrumental) - John Hartford
18. Lonesome Valley - The Fairfield Four
19. Angel Band - The Stanley Brothers

..::Watching: The Soggy Bottom Boys Singing "Oh Brother Where Art Thou"::..



Black Sells... Reactions to CNN Presents: Black in America





::Applauds Spike Lee::

In one of my earlier post entitled, "Us Against Us," I criticized Vogue Magazine for it's tasteless depiction of basketball player LaBron James as a brutish ape figure. It doesn't take much imagination to visualize the imagery and see King Kong. While I was, and am still upset with this creative decision on the part of Condé Nast Publications, publishers of Vogue, James is not exonerated. The reality is that didn't. LaBron James--idol to little Black boys the world over--has decided that this imagery is acceptable.. or at least for the right price. This is a very consistent trend in media. The unfortunate truth is that dramatizations of the plight of Black America sells. It's entertaining, engaging and serves to maintain, at least the image, that Blacks —all Blacks —behave this way. So many would love to believe that Mo'Nique (in her role as Jamiqua in the 2004 Movie, Soul Plane) as an apt representation of Black women or common story line of incarcerated absentee fathers. I feel it necessary to disclose that I feel Soul Plane was perhaps the worst movie ever made and should have been a wake up cal for a lot of people. The reality is that Blacks are just as responsible for the images we allow our faces, and voice to create through television, music, and cinema and the mostly White "gatekeepers" that green light these projects and provide much of the creative directors.

It is so much harder to be a Black entertainer than any other race. We're not privileged to carry on like Lindsay Lohan or Brittany Spears because there's this implied responsibility. We expect our stars to represent us. Seriously. Most Black teens have no idea who their local municipal officials are, and could care less what their opinions are, but they look to Oprah, and the likes and Michael Vick for direction and an example. There is this expectation that their work should uplift the race..

I had the opportunity to hear Sheldon "Spike" Lee speak, in Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel, on the campus of Morehouse College in 2003 about the challenges of being a film maker in a White dominated industry. He opened my eyes. This was my first time hearing the term “gatekeepers." We see so much color in popular culture, be it music, film, vernacular, etc., but few realize that these people are not as powerful as we think. Albeit, many of them are rich... for a season, but persons of color are grossly underrepresented in positions of true authority. Positions with the ability to set trends define and determine relevance, to allocate financing, and to give the final “yah or née” on projects.

I was a late bloomer when it comes to Mr. Lee's projects. I read sociological studies on his movies long before I ever saw any of them. I thought of Spike as a powerhouse, a multimillions... a gatekeeper. I had no idea the amount of leg work he had to do to get financing for his projects. He makes films "people don't want to see." We don't want to see socially aware Blacks on the big screen. We, as in Black people, don't want to see these images.

I remember growing up watching The Cosby Show and A Different World and hearing the undercurrent from Blacks about how unrealistic these shows were. Imagine that.. the idea of a Black doctor marrying a Black attorney. What were they thinking? …The idea of a Black couple having five children and not being on welfare and living in poverty? …Images of multiple generations of married couples? …Never having an episode of picking a child up from the police station or an eviction scare. Unrealistic, huh? Sounds a lot like my family. We have taken ownership of the wrong struggle. Rather than educating ourselves and fighting institutionalized racism, we are trying to hold onto welfare and food stamps as though these institutions are inherently ours.

I appreciate how vocal Lee has been in bringing to light the disproportion of Blacks in true positions of influence. In a culture where YouTube.com and American Idol has made every teenager believe that fame is 13 weeks and a season finale away, we need to aspire to be directors, attorneys, executive producers, etc. and not just pretty faces waiting on directions.

We need to take back our faces, and our voices, and our music, and our bodies and start to produce and support work that positively and equitably depicts people of color. It's so hard wanting more for people than they want for themselves.

..::Reading - Uplift The Race, The Construction Of School Daze by: SPIKE LEE with LISA JONES::..