"She's truly glamorous and it shows, she don't like your new clothes or your whack ass player pose..." - Guru
when the weekend comes and the weekend comes: quite simply, my friends rule. To addie, anna, beth, carrie, chiyu, courtney, felicia, jenny, moraya, penna, shannon, tracy and tiffany (and the mysterious benefactor) thank you for a lovely evening. I love my quincy jones - an autobiography, my mix CD, my gundam toy (who now sits at my desk after 2 hours of building him yesterday), my superman dvd box set (digitally remastered to visual perfection), willow on dvd, and impending gifts to come. I so didn't expect gifts...thanks much. E.T. was outstanding. The Grove is like a miniature disneyland/las vegas something...it works, sort of. The theatre was really nice though...good seats, people in suits taking care of us. The actor who played a boy named Sue in Swingers was there.
Anna had this to say about my friends: "They are stylish and funny." So True.
Sunday was breakfast and records (I bought a UK Import of The Blackbyrds - Flying Start just so I could have a picture of my dad jumping in the air in an African style shirt) and gundam and superman and HBO east coast and champagne and soul food at my parents house because black people rule the academy. Can we just talk about how Halle Barry is the most beautiful woman on the planet for a moment. And how scary her crying is? How the veins popped out of her shoulders like she needed heroin in the worst way? How I really wanted to know if Eric Benet was wearing shoes with his tux (I was screaming "Pan Down Pan Down!" at the cameraman)? The oscars are really good when you only watch the last 90 minutes. Let's break it down for real though about what was significant about last night:
Denzel Washington makes $20 million a picture. Halle gets paid an extra million to show her breasts in a movie. They didn't need approval from the academy. We as black people didn't need to be thrown a bone. In the 50 years since Sidney Poitier had to fight and scratch his way into well paying roles, we have moved to a time when the finest actors in the craft, no matter what their skin color get paid and paid well for being excellent at what they do and for doing what they are supposed to do - make other people money. The bootstrapping that Poitier, Cosby, Diahann Carroll, etc. etc. did allows for us today to not have to worry about whether or not we're getting shafted in hollywood. Racism has fallen away for profits. Spike Lee can make any movie he wants because he turns a profit, Denzel can get the same deals as Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. Wesley and Will can rule the action film. And race is relevant in entertainment but not necessarily meaningful in any kind of jarring statement on society.
And somewhere, John Singleton is writing a story about a young black person that can't make it out the ghetto. Again. Except this time its a female lead. Its called Shaft's Hoodrat: Baby Girl 'N the Hood.
damn.
the pimpification of our children: You know 10 years or so ago, I was really rocking that Another Bad Creation CD. I loved that "Iesha Iesha..so nice to meet ya." but something always bugged me about that video. These little 8-12 year olds were running around dressed like little versions of Michael Bivins. No shirts on under their overalls. Rocking pagers and stuff in the video. Why does a 10 year old need a beeper and to show off his non-chest hair? Yeah, I know the Britney response to that - "that's just how we dress where I'm from." Bullshit. I've been all over this fair land. Most little kids are rocking osh kosh b'gosh and shit from mervyn's and target and bugle boy. There are only a few select children that look like this:
We don't need baby pimps! Let a kid be a kid. I don't need a 5 year old coming out in sean john. Its like the kids wearing Nike's at 3 years old. Why? Put the child in some keds. Let him wear his underoos with pride. These 2 kids in this picture are on their way to their baptism. Damn. I'm not a religious man but I'm sure the lord doesn't really need to see a kid that can't spell his name rocking a bowler hat and matching tie.
Have you seen 106 & Park lately? Lil Bow Wow? B2K? Talented kids for sure. And let's be clear that I'm not chastising these little rugrats, they don't know any better. When somebody is writing lyrics for you that have you saying "I rock an iced out Mickey Mouse around my neck" you don't have a chance at having any sense. At 12, the only ice you should care about are the cubes in your soft drink while you get twice baked potato boats in the lunch line.
But Lil Bow Wow is up there in his video at 14/15 with grown ass women in varying stages of undress chasing after him like he is a man. So all the little boys are at home going damn, I need some ice and a perm and an all white outfit in order to get a girlfriend. The girls are going...wow to get a true player you need to show that thong and shake that ass and wear high heels and be a video ho.
That's not what I want my sister to look at as her blueprint for life.
And maybe I have a vendetta against these young men as one of my sister's friends parents thought it would be a good birthday present to let these 4 hoodlums take out my sis and her friend to the movies unchaperoned but...
B2K. I hate it. Why must we be 15 with washboard abs singing sexy love songs? I know I'm showing my age and I just don't understand kids these days and what not but New Edition? They wore sweats and sang to Mr. Telephone Man or their Candy Girl.
New Kids? They wanted you to 'please don't go girl' and 'do the new kids' dance. Troop walked girls home from school while they harmonized.
B2K? XXX! I don't even know what they are singing about because I'm too worried that the police are going to come in my house and arrest me for being a pedophile when that video is on. I felt the same way about Britney Spears when she was first out. Let's not do belly shirts and show the big chest and hot nipple action when we should be learning how to draw a perfect circle with a protractor and reading Lord of the Flies.
And let's not have pimp children. Really. Tuffskins, corduroy, and a cute t-shirt with a cartoon character on it is enough to get kids ahead in the game.
Is that too much to ask?