Ain’t Nothin’ But a “Z” Thang.
A rare moment for Rachel Z. Standing still.
My plan for this blog is to update it every two to three days. But events have a way of overtaking our best-laid plans. I’ve fought a dry, hacking cough that seems to be threatening to turn into something else, though since I’ve been vaccinated for both the flu and the H1N1 virus, I’m clueless about what that might be.
I’m trying to knock out a few CD reviews for Allaboutjazz.com, but since I’ve felt like crap and haven’t slept worth a damn for a week or so, it’s been hard to bear down and summon up 500 words of brilliance. Additionally, I’ve tried to pick up a few extra bucks with some freelance writing assignments.
Freelancing was never something I ever thought I’d get rich doing, but I had some small hope that it was something I could do steadily. When it was working for me, I had years where I was turning down assignments because I just didn’t have the time to handle all the work coming at me.
As newspapers and magazines have begun to wither and die on the vine so has the work. I’ve been at this since 1992 and I can say with all confidence 2009 has been the absolute worst year I’ve ever had as a freelancer. Where I used to have much success writing for online publications, this year when I made submissions to The Root, Salon, The Griot and The Huffington Post, all I got back was dead silence.
It used to be sites were starved for daily content and they would give an unknown writer with a good story idea a shot. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Today websites are spoiled for choice with no shortage of professional journalists looking for work. That’s great for the websites, but it means it’s a lot harder for a freelancer to get a foot in the door.
A skill that isn’t used soon becomes dull and rusty. I like conducting interviews with musicians, even though nobody pays a nickle for them. What I don’t enjoy is transcribing the tape, but I do it just to stay sharp. For over a week I’ve chased down Rachel Nicolazzo (a.k.a. Rachel Z.) for an interview for Allaboutjazz. Rachel Z. is one of the most interesting and creative pianists working today. She’s played with Wayne Shorter, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and toured the world for two years playing keyboards for Peter Gabriel.
The last rock concert I attended was Gabriel’s “Growing Up” tour when it rolled into the now closed Germain Amphitheater. I wanted to go, but the ticket prices were way too expensive for Vanessa and I to attend. The only reason we was able to go was because Z graciously came through and gave us passes for some prime seats for the show. I had always heard Gabriel put on one hell of a stage show and he did not disappoint.
We saw Rachel Z. live in performance in a far more intimate venue, The 501 jazz club which featured live bands and where you were within arm’s reach of the musicians. The only thing bad about the 501 was how your clothes ended up reeking of cigarette smoke. But it was a great place to hear jazz as it was meant to be. Unfortunately, live jazz isn’t the draw it once was and the 501 is gone, though not entirely forgotten.
So I’ve played text messaging tag with Rachel Z. We were supposed to do the phone interview on a Saturday afternoon, but when I called she was hanging out with her parents and had forgotten about the interview. No problem, we’d just reschedule. We moved it to the following Tuesday. Uh-uh. That was the day I had handymen working on the bathroom and installing new windows.
I call Rachel Z. and beg her forgiveness and can we shoot for another day this week? Fine she says. Howzabout we try for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday? Cool, she says. Just let her check to see what time works best and she’ll text me right back.
But she doesn’t. Not later on Tuesday and not on Wednesday either. Thursday evening as I’m pulling into the parking lot of a grocery store, my cell phone starts chirping. It’s Rachel Z. and we can we talk Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Hell yeah, I say.
Friday at 2:00 pm rolls around and I call Rachel Z. No answer as all I get is here voice mail. I leave a message, but Rachel doesn’t respond to voice messages. So I text her to ask if our mutually agreed interview time slipped her mind again. A few minutes later Z sends me a message saying this wasn’t a good day for her and could we try for next Monday at 8:00 pm instead?
In search of the elusive Bad Bunny.
What else could I say but, “yes?” I sighed deeply and rolled my eyes heavenward, but I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. There’s a reason Rachel Z. calls her publishing company Bad Bunny Music and trying to nail her down in one place for 30 minutes is showing me why that is.
I now have serious doubts whether this interview will ever happen. Maybe it shouldn’t happen. I’d like to conduct this interview, but at some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in and you have to ask yourself, “Is this really worth the hassle?”
Quincy Jones said he never met a musician that wasn’t a little bit crazy. I bow to his superior knowledge, but my experiences with jazz artists is they’re usually pretty down to earth and easy to talk to. Geri Allen had just finished making dinner when I called. Everette Harp rapped to me like we had known each other for years. Cheryl Bentyne was funny and if you don’t laugh at least once when you’re talking to Patti Austin you’re probably clinically dead.
Rachel Z. is wired a little bit differently than most ordinary folks, but then most creative types often are. You have to make allowances for their occasional eccentric moments and adjust accordingly. First though, you have to get their attention and I don’t have hers yet.
Such is the life of the freelance writer. We spend a lot of time chasing our own tails. We will see what happens Monday night.
Tiger’s Car Crash Controversy: A Crack Up or Jump Off?
How's your Muscle of Love, these days Tiger?
Why should anybody care about Tiger Woods’ inability to back a Escalade out of his own driveway without cracking it up over a fire hydrant and a tree? Because until he stops ducking the cops and the press and explains what exactly happened, he’s going to find himself the subject of speculation that the accident was prompted by a violent spat between himself and his wife over allegations of him cheating on her.
Much has made of the fact that while most of the mainstream media has avoided even a hint of marital difficulties playing a role in Tiger’s early morning flight from Casa de Woods, celebrity gossip sites such as TMZ.com and The National Enquirer have been all over it. While TMZ.com and the National Enquirer are hardly bastions of journalistic integrity, they aren’t always wrong either as they were both ahead of the mainstream media on Michael Jackson’s death and John Edwards screwing around.
Even a cursory look at the events indicates some big holes in Tiger’s story. He may have nothing to hide, but he sure doesn’t seem like he wants to go on the record with the Florida police either. He must still be hopped up on prescription meds or concussed from the accident if he thinks issuing a vague, details-free and self-serving “explanation” on his website is going to make this all just go away.
Woods wouldn’t be the first supposedly squeaky clean guy to tip around on his wife. Rachel Uchitel, “the other woman” of this domestic drama, has denied having an affair with Woods. She flew into L.A. to huddle up with celebrity attorney Gloria Allred and has threatened to sue the Enquirer, a prospect that probably has them high-fiving each other from all the publicity it would give the story.
Uchitel, apparently is not a stranger to being the chick on the side as she supposedly played that part for Bones actor David Boreanaz, who was tipping around on his pregnant wife at the time.
So this isn’t her first time at the rodeo. Allegedly.
"I got too much class to be a booty call."
As Chris Rock said, “A man is only as faithful as his options.” Tiger is a young, wealthy, good-looking man who travels the world. He’s also a Black man who draws the attention without trying of White women. Golfers have groupies too. Tiger has a LOT of options if he wants them.
That doesn’t make it right. It just means he’s capable of doing the wrong thing.
When you’re a wealthier than God, entitled, pampered, and privileged athlete/entertainer like Tiger or Magic or Kobe or Tiger’s buddy Michael Jordan, you’re not hurting for sex partners. We can all sit in our ivory towers and say what we WON’T do, but we’d be smarter to say what we RATHER NOT do.
Maybe this will help Tiger wise up a bit and realize there really isn’t that much difference between him and any other rich jock whom even if he isn’t on the hunt for a chick on the side isn’t being hunted by chicks on the side.
If Tiger has nothing he needs to apologize for then he should stop canceling out speaking to the cops and not issue “explanations” that read like a lawyer proofed it first. If he cheated on his wife that’s not my business. Just don’t tell me it’s not news. When one of the most transformative athletes and best known celebrities in the world cracks up his Escalade at 2:00 am under odd circumstances, it’s N-E-W-S.
When Tiger lends his name to Gilette razors, Buick automobiles and Nike shoes, he’s not just selling a product; he’s asking for people to trust him. There are plenty of other fine choices for razors, cars and shoes, but Tiger wants us to buy the ones he endorses. When we do we’ve given him our trust and he’s handsomely rewarded by the sponsors for doing so.
But if Tiger is a liar and deceiver in his most personal relationships, why should anyone believe what he says about anything? Why is it anyone’s business but his own? If he had said, “Look, this is a private matter between my wife and me and it’s got nothing to do with golf, and that’s all I’ve got to say about it,” Tiger would have shut off all the air to this little brush fire. Instead he retreated into spin mode and started stonewalling. Now it looks like he’s lawyering up and has something to hide. You’d think a man who claims nothing happened wouldn’t be so scared to say it out loud.
He doesn’t owe the public the most intimate details of his private life. But he does owe them an honest explanation of the events and he’s yet to offer one. The best way for Tiger to clear away the clouds is to get in front of the story, speak up and stop stonewalling.
Tiger Woods has always carefully crafted his image and how the world perceives him. His silence now only permits others to craft that image to their own liking. I can’t imagine a man like Tiger who places such a high value on controlling his environment and imposing his will being comfortable with that.
"I did NOT have relations with that woman!"
Is Iverson The Answer to the Sixers’ Problems?
Back in black?
After Allen Iverson’s dalliance with the Memphis Grizzlies flamed out (I had the under at a dozen games. He lasted three), the 34-year-old baller found himself back on the streets looking for work. Same as before over the summer when Iverson was a free agent following a very short and unhappy season on the bench of the Detroit Pistons, he found his phone wasn’t ringing. The problem then and now is even with as much talent-starved teams as there are in the NBA, they aren’t lining up to hire a ball-hogging, shoot-first 6-footer who can be poison when he’s pissed out and refuses to consider any role where he isn’t a starter.
So when Iverson announced he was retiring after the Grizzlies cut him loose, the general consensus was pretty much, “Yeah, sure thing, A.I.” Nobody bought it. Every general manager from Boston to Sacramento knew Iverson wasn’t hanging it up as much as he was hanging out the ”have headband will travel” sign to any team willing to take on his $3 million salary and hand over the keys of the franchise to an unquestionably talented basketball player, but also one of the most unrepentant gunners ever to step on the court. Iverson’s unwillingness or incapability to change his game made him toxic and untouchable.
In 2006, the Philadelphia 76ers, the team that originally drafted him and where he played for 10 seasons, shipped A.I. out to the Denver Nuggets for what exactly nobody remembers anymore. Iverson’s selfishness had worn out Maurice Cheeks, whom he had claimed was his a dream coach, and was retarding the progress of the Sixers’ younger players. It was like a beautiful marriage that had gone sour. Iverson wanted out and the Sixers couldn’t wait for him to be gone.
So what happened? Nothing much really. Iverson couldn’t help Carmelo Anthony bring a championship to Denver and though the Sixers have made it to the NBA playoffs, they’ve only been first-round roadkill for the better Eastern Conference teams.
Don't call it a comeback.
The Sixers have started this year’s interminable NBA season at a lousy 5-11 record as they are an uninspired blend of players too green (Louis Williams, Jrue Holliday, Mareese Speights,Thaddeus Young), too middle-of-the-road (Andre Iguodala), all wrong for a system they don’t fit in ($80 million man Elton Brand) or just have no game (Samuel Dalembert). Williams was plugged in at point guard this year, handed the ball by new coach Eddie Jordan and told, “Make with the magic, kid” and pushed out on the floor. He hasn’t been great, but he’s been the MVP of a team that in the City of Brotherly Love isn’t getting much of it as the Sixers rank 29th in attendance.
The other day the 6′1″, 175 lbs Williams had a close encounter with Antwan Jamison, the 6′9″, 235 lbs power forward of the Wizards and came out on the losing end with a broken jaw and looking at eight weeks of eating his meals through a straw. The Sixers, who only have a rookie and a journeyman backup to turn immediately put out the “help wanted” sign in search of some veteran to step in before the whole season ended up in broken pieces like the teeth Willams was spitting out.
Well, hello there Mr. Iverson. Cue up “Starting All Over Again,” if you please.
I was a 76ers fan when the likes of Dr. J. and Moses Malone were balling for the team and then when Sir Charles Barkley was moving his big mass up and down the floor of The Spectrum. The Sixers haven’t done much right since . They traded away their best players and tried to build around Great White Dopes like Shawn Bradley. That might have been when I jumped ship on the Sixers. Bradley, a 7-foot 6-inch stringbean was paid millions by the Sixers, Nets and Mavericks to stand under the basket and end up getting facializied as players half his size lined up to throw down some of the nastiest dunks in NBA history right in his grill.
Shawn Bradley in a typical postion: getting served.
Drafting Iverson in 1996 was the last time I felt any interest in the Sixers. Aided immensely by Larry Brown’s coaching, Iverson dragged the team into the 2000-01 Finals against Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’ Neal’s vastly more talented L.A. Lakers, where they stole one game from the inevitable champs before succumbing four games to one.
All of the usual A.I. red flags are flying high; he’s a selfish ball hog, an indifferent distributor and passive defender and when he’s unhappy, everybody in the world knows it because Iverson is not the type to suffer in silence.
But really, what can he hurt for a dogshit team that’s watching the season circling the drain? The Sixers are already boring and nearly hopeless. With A.I. back in town, at least they won’t be boring. He’s still one of the fastest guys in the league and Jordan wants the Sixers to get out and run, run, run. Brand and Dalembert are two mismatched parts in Jordan’s system as Brand is a plodder and Dalembert virtually useless though he’s paid like a superstar.
I’m not one of those purists who get bent out of Iverson’s shoot first, shoot last and shoot always approach to basketball. In David Stern’s NBA great teams have given away to great individual play and even a diminshed Iverson is a great individual player. If he doesn’t embrace the team concept it’s because A.I. trusts in his own talent than that of anyone else.
It doesn’t take a Herculean effort to make the playoffs in the NBA. Not when there are at least a dozen other teams who are even more horrid than the Sixers such as the New Jersey Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves who between them have played over 30 games and won only one.
There’s a lot of good reasons not to bring A.I. back to Philly but the undeniable fact is the Sixers aren’t going anywhere without him. They might be at least watchable with him because even now with Iverson’s all-out, sweat blood approach to the game, he’s entertaining and an attraction for a team that doesn’t give fans much reason to cough up $3500 for a top-tier ticket package.
An Iverson return trip to the land of cheesesteaks holds both risks and rewards for the Sixers, but really, what do they have to lose. It’s not as if they were raising any sand without him. If I were living in Philadelphia, would I go see this team? No. I would not. If Iverson were wearing a 76ers uniform would I reconsider. Yes, I would.
Before he became just another NBA nomad drifting from team-to-team, Iverson’s nickname was “The Answer.” A second go-round with the Sixers could be disastrous or just what this team without an identity needs. Without pulling off a major trade or dumping Brand or Dalembert’s insane contracts, this team is going nowhere but the draft lottery. With Iverson, there’s at least a chance of sneaking into the playoffs as a seventh seed. If that turns out to be the case, A.I. might have to start calling himself “The Solution.”
Still The Answer?
I Never Thought I’d See the Day.
Givin' up the 50-year-old skinny (but sexy) back.
I wrote in yesterday’s post:
Thankful Living Colour is still around because The Chair in the Doorway kicks maximum ass. Now would someone please nudge Sade and tell her to get on the stick? (11-26-09)
Oops. Spoke too soon. Damn, guess I should have said something sooner.
Sade is making music again. The soulful English group fronted by 50-year-old singer Sade Adu will release a new album Feb. 8, according to Epic Records. “Soldier of Love” will be the group’s first studio album since 2000’s “Lovers Rock.” All five of Sade’s studio albums have landed in the Top 10 on the Billboard Top 200, selling more than 50 million copies worldwide.
“Soldier of Love” was recorded in England and produced by the band and longtime collaborator Mike Pela.
Nine years to record a new album? Nine years????!!! I know a little something about writer’s block, but that’s going to some ridiculous extremes.
Since 2001, I’ve been blaming my daughter for Sade disappearing from the public eye. The last time I heard a peep out of Sade was at a concert on September 10, 2001. I accused Imani of following the orders of her Al Qaeda masters to stalk Sade, kill Sade and hide Sade’s body. Sure, she was only eight years old at the time, but everyone knows girls mature faster.
Now I figure instead of killing Sade, Imani just wounded her and she’s been recovering ever since.
Imani asked me, “What if the album’s no good?”
No good?
Man, after waiting almost a decade, WHO CARES if the album’s no good? I didn’t think Lovers Rock was as good as Love Deluxe, but there was an eight year wait between the two, so by the time Sade puts out some new stuff the fans are starved for a fix. It won’t matter if she starts yodeling on Soldier of Love. The hardcore faithful (like me) won’t give a damn. We’re gonna buy it and play it to death anyway.
As a music critic usually I’m cooly dispassionate about the 90 percent material I review. The other ten percent as soon as I see who the artist is, even before I hear it, I know I’m going to love it or hate it. I can be the cool, consumate professional. When it comes to Sade all that shit goes out the window. I’m a total fan. For her I break out the poms-poms because I’m a straight-up Sade cheerleader. There’s a few musicians Iget that way for. Santana and Keiko Matsui come to mind but not to the degree I am for Sade.
Maybe it’s because she’s so smokin’ hot. Maybe it’s because I can’t help but respect an artist who doesn’t follow trends, isn’t a media whore and never wasted the time of her fans by crapping out albums just to make a buck.
I have a short list of possible subjects whom I would feel somewhat intimidated by if I ever had the opportunity to interview. Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, Toni Morrison and Prince all make the short list. Sade does to, but only because I would be so nervous I might say something so brain dead she got bored or offended.
Oh well. Now I have another reason to keep hitting the gym. I need to be healthy and well-rested on February 8.
Thankful, Thoughful.
Now THAT's a big bird!
Things I’m thankful about this Thanksgiving.
Thankful for the health, well-being and relative sanity of my family.
Thankful for a job and a paycheck that takes care of my needs and some of my wants.
Thankful I don’t know Jon or Kate , Adam Lambert, Paula Abdul, the Octomom, or Rep. Joe Wilson because they all suck.
Thankful for President Obama.
Thankful there’s no more President Bush and Evil Dick Cheney.
Thankful that I’m not a Cleveland Browns fan. I’m a San Francisco 49ers fan. I got enough problems already.
Thankful for a new car and hoping I don’t have to put it through a rough winter.
Thankful baseball season is over and we’re close to the NFL playoffs and college bowl games. Baseball bores me numb.
Thankful I’m not getting up early to watch the Green Bay Packers/Detroit Lions football game today. Zzzzzzzzzz.
They don't suck. Now they just stink.
Thankful as H.L. Mencken said that in this world of trials and tribulations I can be grateful I’m not a Republican. I mean if the scurvy likes of Sarah Palin, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, David “Diaper” Sanford and Evil Dick Cheney are your leading lights of the Grand Old Party, then turn the lights out ’cause this party is over.
Thankful I understand what critical thinking is. Something you wouldn’t have a clue about if you listen to Glenn Beck, Boss Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly or any of the other mind-melting drivel Fox News and right-wing radio spew out.
Thankful I like jazz otherwise I’d have almost nothing new to listen to.
Thankful for Spill.com. Korey and those other fools never fail to make me laugh and they make me think too.
Thankful Living Colour is still around because The Chair in the Doorway kicks maximum ass. Now would someone please nudge Sade and tell her to get on the stick?
Thankful that after a summer full of movies I had no interest in at all, the fall has some films I’ want to see such as Precious, The Road and Sherlock Holmes.
Thankful I shall never see a Twilight movie. Or listen to Lady GaGa or Rhianna or Adam Lambert or Susan Boyle.
Thankful I came in second in my fantasy football league last year because I’m not going to get anything close to a sniff this year.
Think Obama feels thankful for what he's got?
Thankful that I live in a country where even a skinny Black guy with a funny name and ears that stick out can become president and along with Michelle, Sasha and Malia (and Bo the dog) bring a sense of family, warmth and class to a White House that has been seriously lacking in all three.
Thankful God made me a writer.
Thankful I have a blog and you just read it. Happy Thanksgiving.
The Unbearable Whiteness of Sarah Palin.
Have I read Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue? No. Will I read Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue? OF COURSE NOT! I don’t read as much as I used to, but when I do, ghostwritten works of fiction aren’t my first choice.
What is it about Sarah Palin that fascinates people so? Possessing way above average ambition , slightly above average looks coupled with below average intelligence is not the most charming of combinations. Maybe it’s because this is a celebrity obsessed, starstruck society and we prefer our politicians to be more like rock stars and less than statesmen.
It’s also because Palin has a natural and dedicated constituency that regard her as one of their own. The political scientist in me says Palin lacks the savvy or intellectual rigor to put together the organization to substain her through the lengthy, expensive and problem-plagued process, the policies that broaden her base beyond her base and the discipline to stay on message throughout a year-long and grueling presidential campaign.
Still, Palin has the high profile (and high negatives that go with it) to make her a player in Republican politics. The enthusiasm she generates can’t be taken lightly. Her folksy, anti-intellectualism appeals to the (White) folks in the hinderlands and they’re the ones standing in long lines for a fleeting glance and a brief, cold fish handshake from the ex-governor.
From the reviews I’ve read, Palin doesn’t give away much about her possible presidential aspirations. Palin may not know what newspapers she reads, but she knows not to make her move too soon. The analysis by Nate Silver on FiveThirtyEight.com should be required reading for Democratic strategist attempting to project how the 2012 election match-ups may shape up.
It’s really pointless to speculate as to what might happen in politics three years away from the next presidential election. No one can predict what factors will determine whether Obama wins a second term or not.
Freed from her responsibilities as the governor of a cold, isolated and predominantly White state, Palin can shill her book to the adoring throngs of disillusioned cultural conservatives looking for someone to love. That’s why they camp out on sidewalks for 20 hours hoping for a signed copy and a quick, “Hi” from Sarah the Shero as they recently did at a Borders bookstore in Columbus. The Columbus Dispatch asked some of the fans what they liked about Palin.
“She’s a very to-the-point person, she says it as it is, and that’s how I am,” said Fran Meyers, 39, of Westerville, after getting her book signed.
“She speaks as a moral person — not political,” piped in her husband, Mike, 37.
“I love that she’s down-to-earth, and that she’s just like us in her conservative values,” said Heather Dukette, 40, of Marysville.
Then there’s these folks who were also waiting in line. Some interesting insights into how White people think.
Before you laugh at how intellectually and factually challenged these people are, just remember: they are eligible voters.
Of course, not everybody is excited about Sarah’s book tour as her tour bus rolls on to the next burg. In fact, some of the Palinistas are posting expressions of their hurt feelings on her Facebook page:
Jordan Harris I just spent 9 hours of my day, $40 of my hard earned money on two of your books, and took the whole day off work to watch you jump on a bus and throw a half-heated wave to the crowd you were avoiding.
I have never felt so disrespected. How can you claim that you are different? You aren’t. You are just as selfish as everyone else in Washington. It breaks my heart. I thought you might be the answer to the turmoil this country is under but you aren’t. You just slapped hundreds of Hoosiers in the face. The hard working type of people that you claim to represent.
You say in your book that you chose to sleep well over eating well. At the end of the day I know that you don’t care that you wasted the whole day of some 20 year old college student who lives on their own. I understand that all that matters is that I spent my money on two of your books. I’m sure your eating well. You certainly have no reason to be sleeping well.
Twins or Clones? You decide.
Why are people surprised when manufactured celebrities turn out to be all hat and no cowboy?
Barack Obama said when asked if he had enough experience to be president would reply, “I don’t think there’s anywhere to go to get the experience.” Obama was being glib, but essentially he tells a truth. If a long and impressive resume was all it took, we’d be talking about what silly thing President Joe Biden said today.
Sarah Palin’s greatest asset is her overwhelming Whiteness. Prior to her kissy-face performance with Oprah Winfrey, I don’t recall ever seeing a Black person anywhere near Palin. You don’t see many of them standing in the rain to get a book signed.
There’s nothing in Palin’s background to indicate her feelings about race one way or another. We do know she didn’t know Africa was a continent. Gwendolyn Alexander, President of the African-American Historical Society of Alaska wrote as governor, Palin never congratulated the group for their Juneteenth celebration, but all that indicates is some degree of indifference on top of ignorance.
Most White folks fall into two categories about Juneteenth; they don’t know a thing about it or they have, but just don’t give a damn. To be honest, I’m never upset if I don’t get invited to any celebrations either. There’s not enough hard evidence that indicates how Palin regards race matters. What is evident is the Palin persona as the straight-shootin’, no pussyfooting around soccer mom plays well with White conservatives who have been in search of someone who looks and sounds like someone they could believe in.
The Palinistas get hot and bothered talking about how Sarah is “one of us” who stands for “traditional American values” but as she’s amply proven, one of the traditional American values Palin personifies is a shockingly ignorant worldview. Writing for Foreign Policy, Annie Lowrey searched Going Rogue for some clues as to what Sarah Palin’s worldview was. She soon realized she was drilling in an empty mine.
Perhaps, I thought, we were witnessing a rare political adolescence, an ideologically incoherent candidate going through the policy furnace and emerging forged. Perhaps Randy Scheunemann, the former foreign-policy advisor to John McCain, and others still working with Palin had helped her crystallize her world view. Perhaps there might be evidence of a nascent Palin Doctrine in Going Rogue. Perhaps I need to lay off the sauce. The book, as one might have predicted, provides little evidence of any awareness of foreign policy, let alone serious thought about the world and America’s place in it.
Ultimately, Going Rogue goes rogue as a political memoir, demonstrating what can only be described as a persistent and guileless lack of knowledge of even basic foreign-policy or domestic political issues. It is what we might have expected from Palin. And it is much less than anyone should expect of a candidate for one of the most powerful offices on Earth.
Palin’sr frightening lack of curiosity and awareness of the dangerous world that exists outside of the cozy Norman Rockwell fantasy she resides in permanently disqualifies her from higher office.
I’m not going to read Palin’s book, but I would never suggest no one should. It’s every American’s G0d-given right to waste their own money on badly written books full of self-congratulatory platitudes, settling scores and vague observations about the 2008 campaign. Hell, let her make a million bucks while Fox News kisses her ass every night.
Just don’t elect this idiot. Political candidates on the fringe who walk around with a chip on their shoulder against anyone who isn’t “one of us” and feed into the attitudes of racial resentment and making White people feel good about themselves don’t appeal to me. President Obama may not be the transformative figure that some supporters hoped he would be, but everything about a President Palin screams retreat and retrenchment on race matters.
No Negroes Please, We’re British.
I have no opinion whether or not the film Couples Retreat is any good or not, but I’m simultaneously disgusted and amused by the way Hollywood worries how the world feels about Black actors in films.
Case in point:
The United States Poster:
Then there’s the United Kingdom version, which is just a wee bit different.
Now you see the Black folks. Now you don’t!
So why were the African-American couple scrubbed from the U.K. poster?
The makers of the recent Vince Vaughn hit comedy, Couples Retreat, are at the centre of a race controversy after two black actors were airbrushed from publicity posters in the UK.
The American advert for the film, which stars Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis, shows all eight of the movie’s principal actors, including Faizon Love and Kali Hawk. But both Love and Hawk were removed from the promotional campaign ahead of the film’s British release last month.
Couples Retreat, which has currently taken over $70 million at the worldwide box office, tells the story of four couples who go on holiday together and receive therapy to improve their relationships.
A spokesman for the film’s makers, Universal Pictures, confirmed the poster had been changed to ‘to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognisable in international markets’. The studio said it regretted causing offence and has now abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries.
I could have sworn I’ve seen a few Black people in Great Britain. Do they not go the movies (or is this just a really bad case of “hidden racism”)?
In a film like Couples Retreat, I have the nagging feeling Faizon Love and Kali Hawk were “bussed in” to add a bit of color to the proceedings. Yes, they are placed waaaaay back in the first poster, but they are serving as the token Black folks much the same way every beer commercial or Viagra commercial has one Black guy hangin’ out with all his White buddies.
The South used to be the no-fly zone for films with Black actors in leading roles. Now it’s the overseas market where even the likes of Will Smith and Denzel Washington find it tough going.
“For an international audience, when it looks like an urban movie with an African-American star in the lead, they just turn it off, and I find that incredibly discouraging,” said Chris McGurk, the chief executive of Overture Films. Mr. McGurk was vice chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Company when it released the two “Barbershop” films, starring Ice Cube, to big business with both black and white audiences at home. They earned virtually nothing abroad.
Faison Love and Kali Hawk are hardly household names in this country, let alone across the pond. But they certainly aren’t the stars of Couples Retreat. They’re just there to be the token Black representation, but apparently some genius at Universal Pictures thought even bringing up the rear they were stil too prominent, so out they go.
Will Smith is one of the kings of the box office here in America, but even here he has to factor in how will his movies perform overseas.
Looking at Smith’s last five films and who he is paired with as an romantic interest is revealing.
Seven Pounds…………………………Rosario Dawson
Hancock…………………………………Charlize Theron (kinda, sorta)
I Am Legend…………………………..Sam the dog
The Pursuit of Happyness………Thandie Newton (divorced)
Hitch………………………………………Eva Mendes
Smith said he wanted to cast a Black actress as his love interest in Hitch, but had to take under consideration how that would play with foreign audiences. In an 2005 interview with the British newpaper, The Birmingham Post, Smith explained how Eva Mendes ended up as the romantic lead.
As fallbacks go you could do worse than Eva Mendes.
“There’s sort of an accepted myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy, that people don’t want to see it. We spend $50-something million making this movie and the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea of a black actor and a white actress comes up—that’ll work around the world, but it’s a problem in the U.S,” Smith said.
It is very hard to find a mainstream American movie where Blacks are romantic leads or depicted in relationships.
Tyler Perry flicks make money hand over fist, he’s catering to an audience of African American women. Though Denzel often has a Black actress cast as a wife/girlfriend, you have to go back to 2003’s Out of Time where he’s involved in a love triangle with Sanaa Lathan and—the go-to gal for multiracial dating–Eva Mendes.
It’s a legitimate argument to make that the scrubbing of Love and Hawk from the Couples Retreat UK poster wasn’t an act of deliberate racism as much a coldly rational recognition that even popular Black actors have a limited appeal to foreign markets. It’s still a bitter pill to swallow.
An Evil Prayer for the President.
This is a threat, not a prayer.
As long as there have been presidents there have been good people who have prayed for his safety and for the president to be blessed with wisdom as he attempts to lead the country.
Then there ’s this: PRAY FOR OBAMA PSALM 109:8 Well, ain’t that sweet? It is—right up until you read Psalm 109, verse 8.
Let his days be few; and let another take his place.
That’s a little less than benevolent. But verse 109 cuts to the chase: Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
There’s two ways of looking at this. If you read just verse 108, you might be able to make the case, well these are just people who are counting the days until Obama is out of office (thought that line about “let his days be few” could be misinterpreted).
But there’s nothing ambivalent about the suggestion Malia and Sasha grow up Barackless and Michelle start wearing black.
It can be said that the t-shirts (and bumper stickers, hats and teddy bears with Psalm 108 stuck on them) are not hate speech and do not reflect a direct threat against the president. However, when that is contrasted by reports that threats against Obama have risen 400 percent and the Secret Service is stretched too thin, it is legitimate to worry whether or not some fanatic might not think it’s God will for him to try and kill the president.
Whenever someone like Major Nidal Hassan screws up and goes nuts, every Islamic cleric in the United States rushes to the microphone to reassure the nation that this is one loner who has misinterpreted the Koran and Islam is not a violent religion. Where are all the good Christian conservatives when someone is peddling violence, sedition and hatred toward the President of the United States? Why aren’t they called to account for the idiots who deliberately misinterpret the Bible to make a buck?
It only takes one motivated nut with a gun to stick a rifle out of the window of a school book depository, or the bathroom a dilapidated boarding house or park a Ryder truck loaded with explosives next to a federal building to kill and change the course of history. It’s not beyond belief and certainly not beyond possibility that someone might think killing President Obama to be the will of God.
There is an hardcore, extremist and dangerous strain within the conservative body politic that sees the president as not merely a politician to be defeated, but the Antichrist who must be destroyed.
I’ve always said I don’t have any problem with God. It’s some of his Believers that scare me.
Recent Comments