Negro Please

Who Shot Ya?! - uclaradio.com

"Pretty brown eyes, you know I see you. It's a disguise, the way you treat me." - Mint Condition, Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)


Tools of the Trade.

More shots of Music is My Radar: Radio With No Pants can be found here.

notes: If you can't tell, I'm trying to commit to a regular posting schedule here. The idea is to have fresh material up here 7 days a week. Certain things will appear on certain days. The random 10 stays on Sundays. Mondays, I'll review something I've consumed (this will be in addition to my regular book reviews and other pop culture discussions). Tuesdays, I dig in the archives. Wednesdays are supposed to be when I discuss the issues of the world that matter to me. We'll see if I'm successful in getting to that on this busy hump day in a short week and then as this week goes on, I'll talk comic books, pull together my favorite links of the week and a few other things.

I'm looking at totally overhauling the design here as well. It's a new summer and this, after 4 years, is a whole new style for negro please.

I hope you like it.

The Wayback Machine: Signs

"Don't you take my kindness for weakness" - Dilated Peoples, Kindness for Weakness

Signs was originally published on April 23rd, 2004.

I was going through some matters of the heart and this is what popped out. It is fiction and 2 years later, I think it stands the test of time pretty okay. I've made some minor edits to it in this version that I think make it little better technically. I thought at the time that it might be a piece of a bigger short story but I no longer think that's true. I might just like writing little vignettes like this.

He stood on the rooftop staring at the sky. Every once in a while, he would side arm a pebble into the night.

"Did you see that shooting star," he asked as she came up behind him.

"Yeah," she said softly.

"That could be our shooting star," he said, a little hope still in his voice. "We could name it and everything."

"What would we name it," she asked.

"I don't know," he said as he wrapped his arm around her. "Like Optimus Prime or Snarf. Maybe Rio or Synergy, y'know, like from Jem."

"We could call it The Misfit," she offered. "But, you know, it wouldn't be our star. Why would we want a shooting star, anyway? It's such a fleeting thing. A streak across the sky that doesn't even last 5 seconds."

"Yeah, but it's magical. It's white hot. It's passion."

"No," she pulled from their embrace and pointed. "See that glowing neon sign out there in the distance? That sign has been there as long as I've lived here. As long as I've known you. I think that's our sign."

"What's it say," he asked.

"That's not important. What's important is that it's always there. It's comfortable. It's sure. It's steady. It's us. I don't want to lose that sign. I don't want to lose what we've always had. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"What's the sign say," he pressed.

She sighed, "Live Nude Girls. All Nude. Live Nude."

"As opposed to dead nude girls?"

"Yes, I suppose." She paused, "I'm trying to be serious here."

He smirked and said, "So am I."

She tossed a pebble off the rooftop. He chucked his in the same fashion, mimicking her. He hoped she would notice. He hoped she would find it cute. She didn't react at all.

"So what you're saying is that I should really start dating strippers."

She chuckled and wrapped her arm around his waist, "Yes, I hear Cherry Apples is in the market for a new man. I've always said what you need more of are free table dances."

They stood for a moment staring into space. No shooting stars came.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you, too," he said.

If only that were enough.

###

tags: fiction | archives

Conspicuous Consumption: The Godfather, Part II

"Our moves calculated through the limbs, almost here" - Dilated Peoples, This Way (featuring Kanye West)



I don't have much to say about The Godfather, Part II. Everyone knows Fredo's tragic trajectory, Kay's ultimate betrayal and Michael continuing to be smarter than everyone else at a detriment to his family life. He's too smart for Hyman. Too smart for the government. Too smart for assassin's bullets. Somewhere in the midst of all this, though, he's lost his humanity. Without really acknowledging it, he's given up on legitimizing the family. Instead he is focused on creating heirs to his throne. He can no longer distinguish between family and business. His desire to win is stultifying to all around him. They try to hurt him just to see if they can. In the end, it leaves him alone. Although, maybe he's always been alone in this family.

Everyone talks of poor Fredo but, for me, the movie was made in the flashbacks. Robert DeNiro's performance as young Vito is spectacular. The recreation of turn of the century New York was just enthralling to watch. My only complaint about the film is that I wanted more of this scene work.

Funniest part of the movie? Watching on subtitles, in the final flashback, Sonny Corleone calls Michael "Joe College." The subtitles spell it out as "Joe Collage."

Hilarious.

I'm a word nerd.

This week I consumed:

1. Murray's Revenge
2. The Godfather, Part II

tags: the godfather | allconsuming

Who Shot Ya?! - UCLA Jazz Fest 2006

"If we didn't live in this wack society..." - Donnie, Turn Around


Dianne Reeves blows the doors open.

This and other shots from the UCLA Jazz Fest 2006 available here.

Update: Bonus Coverage from the female monk.

tags: ucla | jazz | dianne reeves | photos

Where You At?: 05.28.06 - 06.04.06

"Oh, you see that skin? It's the same she's been standing in" - John Mayer Trio, Daughters



The sure things:
UCLA Jazz & Reggae Fest
Miss Martini, Mellemusic, me and a few others will be attending the Jazz Festival today. Donnie, Floetry & sunshine.

X3: The Last Stand & The Da Vinci Code
Somewhere between Tae Bo, BBQ & spying apartments, I plan to catch two movies on Memorial Day.

The Maybes:
Pinback @ Avalon
I've got a live version of June in my iTunes right now that says I should make this show but I'm not sure I can deal with the all the kids running around a venue not really suited for Pinback shows.

Ugly Duckling @ Safari Sam's
The last time I went to an Ugly Duckling event it was weird.

People Under The Stairs @ The Troubadour
I haven't heard the new album yet but people seem to love it. This would screw up my normal Friday stee-lo though. Even good live hip-hop might not be enough to get me away from The Vermont.

Bootie L.A. @ The Echo
Every month I say I'm going to make it to mashup central and every month I forget.

One Way @ Zanzibar
Sunday evenings with Garth Trinidad & Mr. French doing their soul grooves thang at a place with stiff drinks and pretty people? Why I continue to not show up is a mystery to us all.

On the Horizon:
Van Hunt, Devics, Corinne Bailey Rae, the like, The Futureheads, Broken Social Scene, Street Scene and Erotica-LA.

Sunday Random Ten: Champion Sound Edition

"He said, 'I knew you had it in you.' The mind to make its own." - Sufjan Stevens, The Avalanche



I went to bed at 7:30pm yesterday. It had already been a full day of tae bo, laundry, The Godfather, Pt. II, Chipotle and The Heat vs. The Pistons. It was after only 4 hours of sleep Friday night. It was after Mia Doi Todd and our bar and conversations with Felicia about life over corned beef hash until 4 in the morning.

I've been up since 4:30 this morning and for you, out of the 221 songs in my best of 2006 playlist, we've got a

Sunday Random Ten

1. Separate Ways - Dudley Perkins
2. Hi - J Dilla aka Jay Dee
3. Long Distance Call - Phoenix
4. Berimbau/Consolacao - Sergio Mendes
5. Waves - J Dilla aka Jay Dee
6. Whip You With a Strap - Ghostface Killah
   
7. One for Ghost - J Dilla aka Jay Dee
8. Cash Flow (featuring Frank) - Que-D
   
9. Tape Hiss (Dirty) - Madlib
10. 9 Milli Bros (w/ Wu-Tang Clan) - Ghostface Killah

I would say that Jay Dee is over-represented in the list but that would be a lie. The truth is that's just about the right amount of Jay Dee but far too little Madlib. 2006 is the year of Jaylib.

Separate/Together.

Live Together, Die Alone

"Much more than they can see is how it will always be, believe me." - De La Soul, Much More (feat. Yummy)



We're going to to talk LOST but first you need to know the important stuff:
Begging To Differ
Too Much Free Time

Fair warning now. If you haven't watched, don't read any further.

Finally Consumed: The Godfather

"The rhymes I get plenty. Degrees 120." - Erykah Badu, Love of My Life Worldwide (Featuring Queen Latifah, Angie Stone & Bahamadia)



I'm maybe the last person my age born in America to see The Godfather and I mean like never seen a bit of it. Maybe a random shot or two from the wedding. Maybe a short clip of Marlon Brando doing his thing but other than that? Nada. Sure, I know the names of the characters and I know it is one of the best films ever made and all that but, yeah, I'd never watched it. I didn't know the key plot points. Didn't know much of anything. How I escaped into that little pop culture bubble, I have no idea.

I finally watched it last night. Probably not the best movie to start watching at 10:30 at night considering it is 8 years long but, yeah, it was pretty damn good. It is masterful film work. I was so impressed by one shot -- its an assasination in a car and the camera stays on the hood of the vehicle while the victim kicks the window out, his shoes going limp literally right in front of our eyes -- that I immediately rewound it and watched it again. Why don't I see that kind of shot in films these days? Did it become a popular camera trick in the 70s? I need to pay more attention. For me, the most successful aspect of the film is how real the characters and the world feel. I felt like I was peeking in on something I shouldn't.

There was an article a few years ago that I thought was on Slate but that I now can't find that tried to figure out why out of all the gangster flicks out there does Scarface hold sway over hip-hop. The writer was most curious about why The Godfather has more wide acclaim while Scarface posters adorned the walls of 95% of the rap homes that made it on Cribs. You would think that the focus on family, the idea of keeping things business and never personal, the inability to escape "the game" and other aspects might speak metaphorically to cats who rhyme obsessively about the hoods they love so much, the cutthroat necessities of their hustle and their internal desires to escape that life.

Yeah, no. And I don't get it.

Well, that's not true. I get how alluring Tony Montana's "unfuckwittable-ness" is. I get that he's getting by on all bravado and bluster and steely street gravitas and he takes that and makes himself a big time player in the game.

In the process, though, he flames out. He drugs out. He loses everyone he loves. He dies young and in a hale of bullets. He's Sonny Corleone with a slightly longer shelf-life. He's Christopher Moltisanti. He's Nino Brown.

I finished The Godfather admiring Michael Corleone. His razor sharp planning and decision making. His desire to keep his family together and to do what's right by at least some code of ethics. His real attempt to escape "The Game."

But maybe it doesn't have to do with the protagonists but with the level of violence. In Hokum, Paul Beatty argues that cruelty is almost always funny with a young black audience.

He remarks about seeing Coffy at the Lido in the 70s where you'd likely find every "Crip-in-Training":

The scene where pimp/dope pusher King George gets his comeuppance wasn't played for laughs, but when his mutton-chopped, white-turtlenecked, suit - that - looks - like - it - was - knit - from -a Mondrian - painting - wearing ass gets tied to the rear bumper of a Ford Fairlane and is lynched by being dragged through the winding streets of Holmby Hills at sixty miles an hour, hitting every eucalyptus tree, curb, and garbage can along the way, everyone but me cracked up so hard I couldn't hear the screech of the tires or the white henchman's own wicked cackle. But by the [end of the scene] I found myself rolling in the aisle...That was one of the blackest nights of my life.

Now think about the shower and the chainsaw in Scarface and Hector saying "Now the leg, huh?"

If you can't hear a hundred blunted brothas cracking the fuck up in your head right now, you just haven't been paying attention.

The Godfather has none of those moments of "vengeful liberation" and maybe that is what I find so compelling. I can't wait for part two to come in the mail.

But don't get it twisted, I will be watching parts of Scarface every time it shows up on USA or Encore just like I do with Casino and Goodfellas and Carlito's Way and the woefully underappreciated Donnie Brasco.

Negroes love Italians.

tags: godfather | movies | scarface | hip-hop | hokum

My Fall TV Schedule (Last Post of the Morning)

"Always treat me like a fool. Kick me when I'm down." - The Brand New Heavies, I Don't Know Why (I Love You)

I'm turning off the TV for most of the summer (except for The Closer and Deadwood and Entourage and...) because I have too many podcasts to listen to and watch and too many books to read and too much stuff to do out in the real world but after finally getting the chance to look at what happened at the upfronts this week, i'm actually pretty okay with the network schedule and changes. It looks like this:

Mondays:
The telly is off!

Tuesdays:
Veronica Mars
Law & Order: SVU

Wednesdays:
Bones
Lost (Criminal Minds on the Tivo)
The Nine

Thursdays:
The Office
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Six Degrees

Friday:
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Saturdays:
The Telly is off!

Sundays:
The Amazing Race
Cold Case
--------------------------------------

My Hell day used to be Wednesdays with VMars, Lost and Criminal Minds all on at the same time. I liked both Lost and Criminal Minds more than VMars this season so Veronica got relegated to hopeful weekend recording (not to mention both Invasion and CSI: NY at 10...but Invasion is gone and I've weened myself off of all CSIs). Now it is loose and easy.

What will you be watching?

tags: tv | upfronts

Passive Aggressive Catharsis

"I'm comfortable with my demise." - Georgia Anne Muldrow, Demise

via Amandarin. Please note, this is a list but it is also a meme. It is an exception to the rule.

List up to ten (10) things you want to say to ten (10) different people. Do not state who these people are. Do not confirm or deny any ‘comment speculation’.

1. I don't call because I'm ashamed.
2. Thank you for leaving me.
3. I don't really lust after you anymore but I still think we should hook up, just once.
4. I remember when you weren't crazy. I miss that version of you.
5. I think about you every day. I look forward to when we are friends again.
6. We should start spending a lot more time together again so that we can have our annual divorce.  You're the only person I fight with and I kinda like it.
7. You've matured but there is still a long way to go.
8. You're uncomfortable with silence. Shhhh sometimes. Damn.
9. You're the most interesting person I've met in a long, long time. I'm totally crushin', yo.
10. I'm N Luv (with ya sister).

tag: meme