Crash

I wanted to go see Crash at the movies, but unfortunately it wasn’t showing around here anymore so I had to watch a bootleg DVD from the internet. Anyway Friday night I got together with a few friends and watched the movie. I would very much recommend it to anyone. The movie is very powerful. At times I did think there was too much going on and the scenes would change too often, but it was still entertaining and extremely thought provoking. It is probably not the type of movie you would want to watch after drinking a six pack of Abita Amber, but they type of movie you rather watch, they go get a cup of coffee and talk about it with your friends.

Among the many strengths of this movie is an amazing cast including Don Cheadle (btw, I know he was good in this movie, Hotel Rwanda, Oceans 11 and Traffic, but I think his best performance was the doctor on ER with Parkinson’s, give the brother an Emmy already), Sandra Bullock, Terrance Howard, Thania Newton, Matt Dillon, Brendon Fraser, plus many others. But the one actor who stood out the most to me was Chris Bridges, better known as Ludacris. I’m not a big fan of the current crop of rappers turned actors, but Luda impressed me. And his speech in the car where he talks about what is wrong with black folks then goes on a diatribe about how rap has damaged the community was amazing. This is coming from an artist known for lyrics such as “move bitch, get out tha way” and “I got ho’s in different area codes”. In the scene he is in essence lampooning his own music (ok, maybe I look too much into this stuff). Some of the other dialogue and images from the movie were also amazing. I thought the Dillon’s and Howard’s characters were a little over the top, but everything else was on point. I won’t write too much right now, I know I’ll watch it again in the next few days and probably write more, it seems like the type of movie that each time you watch it you will pick up something new. Go see it if you have the chance.

My Foot

I have nothing important to write about at the moment other than my foot. Yep, my swollen right foot. I have a rather huge and painful blister between the 2nd and 3rd toe of my right foot. I think it started with a fire ant bite or something. I even went to the doctor, got some antibiotics to prevent infection and i'll be hooked on Advil for another few days. Unfortunately since I'm limping around in pain I probably won't be doing any running for a few days or playing tennis. But life is still good. May even get up and go workout tomorrow morning. If you see the guy hoping around on one foot, yep thats me.

Shockingly Awful

Short message...

I was listening to a new Master P track today. I had heard a couple others before. I think i had been fooling myself into thinking Silk the Shocker was getting better as a rapper. But not so much though. Same ol Silk.

Eyes On The Prize

http://pbsvideodb.pbs.org/resources/eyes/

I’m sure most people have at least seen one part of this amazing series, if not, they should. Apparently it is really hard to get a hold of which is a shame. I’ve found some info, but I would like to buy the whole series, especially if it comes out on DVD.

http://www.eyesontheprize.info/

I’ve said when I have kids once they get old enough I would sit down with them every few years and watch the whole series. Just a reminder of how far America has come and how far we still have left to go. So even though it won’t be anytime soon, if you wanna get me a good wedding gift grab this series for me, hopefully it will out on DVD by then (wait we're talking about me, it will be, or even on the next generation of media).

Showtime At The Apollo (late 80’s/early 90’s)

I generally don’t watch a lot of TV. Especially right now since football season hasn’t started yet. I’m probably one the few people in America who has never watched a whole episode of any reality TV show other than a few random late 90’s episodes of Real World. But I have a new favorite TV show. The past few weeks I’ve been watching it at 12:30 am Saturday night (yes, I know back in the day I was just warming up the club at 12:30 Saturday night, how things change). One station here has been showing replays of Showtime at The Apollo from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Why do I like it:
GREAT HOST – nothing against Steve Harvey and Mo’nique (they did, are doing a great job), but nothing beats Sinbad with crazy outfits and Mark Curry (always Mr. Cooper). I’ve just always liked those cats. On Sinbad, still waiting for the A Different World reunion, easily one of my top 10 (another topic) sitcoms of all time
GREAT CROWD – I can’t say I’ve watched a lot of the newer shows, but when I have the crowd just doesn’t really seem in it. Not like back in the day when everyone would rush the front of the stage and people would just go wild.
GREAT PERFORMERS – In the past 3 weeks I’ve seen: Biz Markie, Eric B. and Rakim (yeah boy they tore it up), Maxi Priest, Das Efx, 20 year old Chris Tucker, Bill Bellamy, Living Colour, among others.
WILDER AMATUER HOUR – Lately it seems like they only have 1 or even no bad acts that get booed off. But one show Sandman got the first 3 performers. Seems like a nicer crowd now. Also had Kiki Shepard before she got some upgrades and sold out to start her own show.
LESS GIMMICKS – I like it the original way, no kids amateur hour (ain’t no fun if you can’t boo, I don’t care if they are 9….don’t step on the stage if you ain’t good), no dance contest, just music, amateur hour, comedians, I like that formula.
WILD FASHION – I can’t say enough about this, green and yellow suits, polka dots, wild colors, I wouldn’t wear any of that stuff now but I don’t mind seeing others do
GREAT HAIR – J-curls, flattops, big hair, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, also saw a few of these - remember the 2 color fades, bottom was black, top was brown, can’t beat that

About a month or two ago on NPR they had a discussion about the history of the Apollo and a book that was written about it. I just ordered a copy, should be great reading.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-05-28/music_roundup10.html

"Being" Ghetto

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/weathersbee707

I recently watched the reality Being Bobby Brown on Bravo. After watching Bobby and Whitney's antics on TV, i truly realize they are deserving of each other. Maybe it's acting on TV, maybe it's real, I'm not sure, but those two are a match made in the ghetto. I was very surprised at the way Whitney was acting. I realized she's just as ghetto as Bobby. Plus she's rail then and sort of unattractive. Those two were just cutting up. At dinner, they ordered the entire menu it seems like. Bobby asked her if he could "impregnate her tonight" and Whitney replied, "you've been doing that every night," or something like that. This is over dinner. A preview of the next show showed them arguing and Bobby talking about being drunk or something. This show does nothing to positively depict black folks at all. It shows that our well to do folks are just as stereotypically bad as our poorer folks are portrayed. I know the purpose of reality TV isn't to fight for the cause of the race or anything, but "Being BB" is a step in the wrong direction. Of all people, why Bobby Brown. He's trying to get his career back? Whiney's career? This isn't going to help. Showing how they flaunt her wealth isn't cool to me. There's enough reality shows with rich white folks doing that. I don't need to see our reckless abuse of money.

I've only watched one episode, but hopefully I won't have the time or "good fortune" to watch another. The above article talks about another episode where Bobby spends time in jail. Pretty good.

Good Songs, Good Luck MC, & Hurricane Parties

Underdog started this up over there, good topic.

http://politicalkarma.blogspot.com/2005/07/all-time-songs.html

Also totally unrelated, MC good luck in your triathlon Sunday.

And last, again totally unrelated, if Hurricane Dennis turns west Sunday we may be begging for many a hurricane party to occur.

NFL Best

http://alltimesports.blogspot.com/2005/07/nfl-bests.html

Shoe Stories

First, this past Friday was a blast, Saturday hurted. If you don't know i'll leave it at that. I went to the store to buy some new running shoes, generally most people need new ones when you can see some of your sock through the toes of the shoe. I kinda figured it was that time. So I brought some New Balance running shoes. I been buying NB shoes for probably 12 years now. I always thought they made the best running shoes. But now since they've gone big time and alot of people buy their shoes for fashion instead of just exercise i'm not so sure they still make the best running shoes. But i'm partially a creature of habit so just got another pair. Of course then I happened to see these dress shoes I wanted for some reason. I rarely splurge on shoes but I decided to get a pair of Stacy Adams. You know so I can look fly next time I'm in the club. Yeah sure. Anyway here are the shoes I brought. Good useless info to share right now.

http://www.stacyadams.com/detail.aspx?ID=520

Black National Anthem

I was thinking recently...

The Black National Anthem is "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

Well, i think to go along with that, we can add a black national dance...the "Bus Stop/Electric Slide" (we do them both and they're pretty interchangeable). Why is it that at the end of many black family/buddy/wedding movies we do the Bus Stop/Electric Slide or some variation of. It was at the end of "The Best Man", i've seen it on commercials for "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" and we do it just about at every social gathering there is.

Therefore, I (since I am proclaiming myself lord of black people and can make these decisions) denote that the Bus Stop/Electric Slide is our new national dance. I hereby proclaim Mr. Magic as emperor of Atlanta, Houston, D.C. and Compton. Now all we have to do is get Kanye to remix Lift Every Voice and we can do the Bus Stop/ Electric Slide to it.

Headliner here, my take

I think you learn that dance at 4 or 5. But I don’t know if we need a remix yet. To me the most beautifulest thing about the Electric Slide/Bus Stop is that you can break it out to just about anything. What other dance can you say that about? I mean you can’t Macarena to any U2 song. You can’t throw on Lil John and hokey pokey. It’s hard to break out the Chicken Dance to R. Kelly. But you can start a slide to just about anything, even some Frank Sinatra joint. That’s classic. My favorite electric slide songs (other than the original song, I think by Marcia Griffiths, but I may be wrong):

“Ain’t Nobody” Rufus and Shaka Khan, “Superstition” Stevie Wonder, The remix Grandmaster Flash did, “Soulful Strut” Grover Washington Jr, “Sissy Strut” The Meters, “Before I Let You Go” Frankie Beverly and Maze, “Your My Everything” Barry White, “Back That Ass Up” Juvneille, ok just kidding, but you really could :) , “Never Too Much” Luther Vandross (Rest In Peace brother, you did it for all of us). I’m drawing a blank, there gotta be some more good electric slide songs out there. What else? Nothing beats Mr. Magic though.