Negro Please

This Week In...Quotes (A Meme)

"And could it be that me and he are tighter than R. Kelly in his teens" - M.I.A., U.R.A.Q.T.

I've wanted do this meme for a week. So here it is:
Go here and look through random quotes until you find five that you think reflect who you are or what you believe.

I do not want to die... until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.
-Kathe Kollwitz

The qualities which a man seeks in his beloved are those characteristics of his own soul, whether he knows it or not.
-Plato

All that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
-J.R.R. Tolkien

Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences.
-Midori Koto

I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.
-Alice Walker

The Wayback Machine: Fired. Tired. Wired.

"Let's take it back to three years ago." - Danity Kane, Ride For You

Fired. Tired. Wired. was originally published on August 5th, 2005.

It took me a year to get back to doing what I love - creating great experiences for users with entertainment content. I wasn't sure I'd be back in this space. I had a horrible mis-step with the mobile phone company -- the moral of which is to trust your instincts, always -- and I proved the theory true: blogging is a hobby not a career (for everyone exceptt a very select few). But after 4 months of strutting my stuff for the House of Mouse like the proud web-producing peacock I am, I'm in the driver's seat of an entire network's web presence. The title is Lead Producer and I am the [web] negro in charge.

A year ago, though, I wasn't in charge of squat.

Oh, and: I've flipped the colors and format for the fall. Get green, y'all.

Okay. Here's the story (or at least the parts I can tell):

Friday morning started like any other Friday morning - me getting up, reading the paper, planning out what I was going to post for LAist with Good Day LA on the TV. I got in to work a little early because I had a conference call to make about a new project I had been requested to work on from one of our their productions that is out of state. After a month of not having director's meetings, we finally had one. We started with the roundtable of updates. I had even come prepared. I had a bunch of stuff to talk about. Director's meeting over, I went back to my office and had a staff meeting with my staff.

We laughed and joked about several things and discussed some projects.

45 minutes later, I got a call from HR asking that me and my entire staff come up for a meeting at 1:15.

How odd.

We went up to the conference room at 1:15. By 1:30, we were heading back down in the elevator all kinds of oddly giggly and began packing up our areas and cleaning up our computers.

It was all very surreal.

The whole day, I was alternating between amused and annoyed. I'm amused because, for me, this is kind of exactly what I wanted. I knew my vision of what my department should be focusing on wasn't the same as where the company is headed. I knew I was no longer very happy or interested with the projects we were producing or developing. I wasn't very happy with the changes in company culture or structure in he 18 months since Mary-Ellis had passed. And that's not to say that where they are headed is wrong or anything. It just wasn't the place I had grown to love in the last two years that it had been in my first five.

I'm amused because I had sent out an email in June to a bunch of folks basically saying I was on my way out of that joint. That I had done my time and it was time to move on to the next chapter of my life. I'm amused because it was fast becoming time to negotiate a new contract and I had been seriously considering negotiating a severance package much like my friends and colleagues at mtv.com had done earlier this summer and taking some time to figure out what I wanted to do in the world.

So, I got my wish. The universe tends to do that for me.

I'm annoyed because my staff is not nearly in the same position I'm in. I'm annoyed because I wish I had been able to prepare them for the transition. I'm annoyed because we were in the middle of several projects that I worry won't get finished or won't get finished "correctly" and that people that depend on the services of our department are going to be left in a lurch for a while. I'm not sure people in the company realize the resource we have been to lots of other areas that don't have to do with web.

The small amount of vindictiveness I have about this situation is that I hope the next week or two or three are filled with little bumps in the road that nobody expected.

But, truly, I don't have many complaints.

I'm not sad about losing my job. I'm not sad about my time there. Most of the major parts of my life now have some connection with the relationships and experience I gained at BMP.

So, what now?

I'm on vacation, y'all. At least for the next month. I'll take a look at some gigs and probably do some freelance work (both web and written) but mostly I'm going to enjoy the time. I'm going to prepare for my move (I take over Ariel's house on October 5th). I'm going to tae bo like crazy. I'm going to catch up on my 52 in 52 and my 101 in 1001. LAist is going to get my full attention.

I'm going to lunch and dinner and drink drinks and relax my ass off.

Maybe me, Hov and the MVP will get words on the backs of our necks. Me: fired. Hov: tired. MVP: wired.

I'm not hurting for cash.

I'm not worried about not being able to find a new job.

I'm just going to do what the beat say do.

Conspicuous Consumption: Danity Kane

"Maybe I'm foolishly overreacting" - Danity Kane, Ride for You

With 89 track plays last week according to last.fm (which sadly is probably inaccurate and a little low), it is safe to say that Danity Kane's self-titled album has taken over my ears. Don't get it twisted. It isn't anywhere close to the pop masterpiece that was last year's The Emancipation of Mimi and it probably won't even be the most significant pop album this year (or this season or even this moment for that matter) as Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds hits stores in just a few weeks and everything else on that release besides that hot mess known as "SexyBack" is hot fire and interesting and weird like a JT record should be, but it's good. Danity Kane is well-produced, well performed pop confection and I'm constantly humming the melodies and singing the lyrics and turning back to those songs whenever my mind wanders.

DK, despite the manufactured roots of the group, comes across as more accessible than the Pussycat Dolls; more honest in their performances than Nelly Furtado; not nearly as boring as I find Rihanna. The girls are fun and genuine. Most of the tracks smartly lean on the vocal chops of Aundrea and D.Woods (and Aubrey to varying degrees of success). They rely heavily on tight production and their Bad Boy pedigree and, while there are some clunkers, the album works pretty well from start to finish.

While I play "Show Stopper" pretty much every time I start the engine in my car ("We in the car. We drive slow..."), the most important track on the album and the one that will truly be their breakout hit is "Ride For You." That's a future thinking track -- a broken hearted ballad riding a crazy groove with the strongest vocal performances of the entire album. It pulls away all the makeup and slinky outfits and Diddy Sauce and shows the group's soul. Heart-felt and real, I want to be on the verge of a break-up just so I can sing that shit to somebody outside their window. "I'm keeping my promise to you..."

"What I really want to talk about: the way they are fucking with Aundrea in every promo picture they have of the group.

She survives pretty unscathed on the album cover but what is up with this alternate cover shoot shot where they've obviously Photoshopped her midsection to be 3 times longer than it really is? Her torso is floating well above her legs, which we all know are wonderfully stumpy. We've seen her on TV.

And what are they doing to her face in these other shots? That one up top has her looking like some kind of faerie-demon spawn and these other solo promo shots (which, you know, go find those because D.Woods is killing me with her abs in her pic) have her looking nutty.

Why y'all gotta do Christina Aguilera's Mini-Me like that?" 

Last week I also consumed:

1. Snakes on a Plane
2. The Future of Food
3. Forever Changes
4. Under Construction, Pt. II
5. Under the Influence of Giants
6. Mystery Train
7. A.M. and P.M. Yoga for Beginners
8. In Her Shoes

Update: Slightly edited because Vibe Confidential did a bang up job copy-editing this post when they referenced it today. Every blog should have a good copy editor.

Where I Been?! - Revenge of the Book Eaters

"When loneliness leads to bad dreams and bad dreams lead me to calling you." - Rilo Kiley, Portions For Foxes (Live)

A Gingerbread Man married a Peanut.
Can you just imagen (sic) what their children will look like?
-A collage (picture of the happy couple not included) and story by an 826 NYC student

When Fiona Apple skulked by us heading the wrong direction after the Revenge of the Book Eaters benefit show at Royce Hall last night, I knew it had officially been the nerdiest indie hipster day of my life. I should've known by my stealing every free moment I could to alternate between mental_floss's Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets and What's the Difference-I doubt you'll find nerdier "fun read" bathroom books than these.

I should've known when I revealed to Jen that I was actually more excited to see Sarah Vowell than everybody's indie crush, Jenny Lewis. Lewis, who has been more impressive with each live performance--coming across as a some 21st Century amalgam of Dusty Springfield and Loretta Lynn plus some other intangibles I can't quite put my finger on--held her own but there's just something about Sarah Vowell's wry tone and unabashedly bookish style that gets at me. One of my top 5 girlfriend requirements is "wit and banter" and Vowell, who read a piece of hers about her favorite explorer, has that in spades.

Sigh.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Mountain Goats were great fun and while I find Aimee Mann a little boring and corny, she performed beautifully. Dave Eggers presented a hilarious video about what the 826 organization does and made me anxious to volunteer with the group. I'm hoping they do make it over to the east side and open an actual storefront like they have in the Bay and NYC and Seattle and Chicago.

One of the other things I should've known before walking into Royce Hall but that occurred to me about halfway through the show is that I see the world now, maybe always, through a prism of unforgivable Blackness. I looked around the audience and saw less than a handful of black faces. There was not a hint of blackness on stage (nor any of their other stages if I'm not mistaken). Does that say something about indie hipster nerd-dom? Why do the rhythmic-slam stars of the Def Poetry set rarely intersect with this lit-rock star squad? Are they just two completely different worlds?

Maybe they are.

But where does that leave a cat like me?

Hopefully, hanging out in the stacks with Zadie Smith doing things inappropriate for a library.

Sunday Random Ten: Poppin' Fresh Dough Edition

"We could nick a boat and sneak off to this island. I could bring my little ghetto blaster. There's more to life than this!" - Björk, There's More to Life Than This

random data

weight loss: 2.75 pounds
total weight loss: 5.25 pounds in 2 weeks
random reasons for weight loss: Fit TV's All Star Work-Outs¹ and lots of early evening sleep.
thing I'm trying to decide on: According to this−which features a profile on Miles Davis−Quincy Jones finds time every day to listen to his favorite album, Kind of Blue. I have no idea what my favorite album of all time is. Right now, I'm leaning toward Björk's Debut but it might be Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun or Zero 7's Another Late Night compilation which features most of my favorite things. More on this and those mental_floss books later.
3 things I'd like to accomplish every morning before work: a work-out, read the paper, a bowl of cereal.
2 optional things I'd like to accomplish every morning before work: empty the dishwasher, a short but intense run.

Now, since I've been obsessing about the Danity Kane record this week and really liking recent additions to my iTunes, we're delving into songs rated with 5 stars that have been added to my library in the last month. So, this is a poppin' fresh, hot off the information super-highway...

Sunday Random Ten

1. Jungle Love (featuring MED & Guilty Simpson) - J Dilla
2. Kashmere - Kashmere Stage Band
3. To You and Me - Victory at Sea
4. Ride For You - Danity Kane
5. Waters of March - Sergio Mendes
6. cuddies say yee - Mac Dre
7. SexyBack - Justin Timberlake²
8. Happy Soul - The Moon People
9. Smile A Lil Bit feat. Posdnuos - Oh No
10. When I Get You Alone - Thicke

---

¹They aren't very challenging but I like the variety.

²I don't really like this song (although it is starting to infect my psyche) but I made a mix for my sister and this is on it so it had a chance to end up in this random 10.

Hot Links & Gumbo

"We will not be the losers. Sorry, but we're not the ones." - N.E.R.D., Loser (w/ Clipse)

Sassy Little Punkin [hyperbolic and slightly irrational since 2003]

tremendous
authentic
too many to count
(detestation)
you have feelings of guilt and embarrassment
time to build a good position
new new i think, yes.
relax with
second chance bank account
kill the pain or it will kill you

Stones Throw Records

Some good folks at Nike got to thinking about Stones Throw's 10th Anniversary, the upcoming "Chrome Children" joint, and Quasimoto's general badassedness ... next thing you knew, we had a truck load of Quas Dunks arrive at the office.

Afro-Netizen™: Mississippi still struggles a year after Hurricane Katrina

“We have been so overshadowed. In Mississippi, we have total neighborhoods that have been just completely wiped off the map. Not even streets were left,” said Cynthia Seawright Wright, who lives in Ocean Springs, Miss. Before the hurricane, she lived in Escawtapa, Miss. Driving around nearby Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., after the storm, she couldn’t find her way around areas she’d known all her life. Most apartment buildings were destroyed, Seawright Wright said.

First Draft - Rockey Vaccarella, Regular Guy

Rockey's trailer...

Ain't no FEMA trailer.

Making Room for the Hopeless Pop Star in a Crowd of Professional Amateurs - New York Times

No surprise, then, that after months of coaching and hectoring and mentoring from Diddy, the women of Danity Kane created a grimly competent debut album. It’s often dull (starting with the inert debut single, “Show Stopper”) and occasionally effective (especially when they get a fast, sleek beat to play with, as on “Want It”). The whole thing sounds pretty professional, though, and who knows? Maybe these job seekers would consider that high praise.

RAPWEEKLY.COM - DIDDY'S "MAKING THE BAND 3" SENSATION

Bad Boy Records' red-hot girl group Danity Kane, stars of the hit MTV series Making the Band 3, have exploded at retail outlets nationwide with their debut album, "DANITY KANE." The multi-talented quintet is the music industry's newest Cinderella story, as Danity Kane is now neck and neck with veterans OutKast and Christina Aguilera for the top spot on next week's national album chart. Danity Kane's first-week sales triumph is unprecedented for a new artist with little radio or video airplay.

Who Shot Ya?! - Ship of Nightmares

"I might like to get to know you but I can't hear you right now." - Danity Kane, Sleep On It

19th century slaves saved by an anti-slaving ship.

Let's just pause for a minute and consider the ages of these boys, dozens of boys, part of the chattel of just one slave ship and then think about the long lasting effect of the slave trade on Africa, on the countries that reaped the benefits of slavery and the terrible mind-fuck slavery is and continues to be for it's direct descendants.

More at carlagirl! (from February) and The Last Nerve (from July).

hat tip: Different Kitchen.

This Week In...Black Entertainment Television

"Lately, I've been tryna fight whatever's pulling us under" - Danity Kane, Ride For You

I've decided that BET and TV One can't hold a candle to HBO as true Black Television.

First, HBO continues it's love affair with Walter Mosley by optioning Little Scarlett and casting Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def as Easy Rawlins and Raymond "Mouse" Alexander. Now, I don't think anyone can play Mouse better than Don Cheadle did in the Feature Film but Mos is an interesting choice. I don't think we've seen him play sociopathic before and Mouse is a seriously deadly kinda cat.

Then there's the Wire, Season 4. I cannot wait -- CAN NOT WAIT - for the new season. I think I'm going to commit to doing episode recaps this season. I haven't found any online that I've particularly liked so I figure I'll do it myself. I'm not sure if I'll do it in short stream-of-consciousness style or if I'll follow the TWOP model and get into every nook and cranny of every episode. I may not have the patience for that but The Wire probably deserves that treatment. I just watched the Stringer Bell episode again this past weekend and wanted to write all about it all over again. It's literature as television (or is it television as literature?) and is the best thing going and maybe the best fictional representation of the diversity of black folks ever.

The best real life presentation, though, is probably Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in IV Parts [note: this is currently an advertiser on the site.]. A more powerful four and a half hours of television there has never been. It is a mirror reflecting back at us, and I'm talking about us as Americans and as humans, and shows us our greatness and our faults. It is stylistically a Spike Lee Joint: the jazz horns, the off-center profile shots, the camera talking, the long dolly (or dolly like) views of the scene. If you haven't cried, if you aren't angry, if you haven't been inspired, if you aren't as royally frustrated as those proud people of Louisiana after watching, I've got nothing for you. Watch it. Everybody. Watch it. Don't fast forward through the long shots of the devastation. Don't skip ahead when it gets uncomfortable. Experience it all. The people of New Orleans and the Gulf, both living and dead, deserve at least that.

HBO is home to Def Comedy and Def Poetry. To serious sports talk with Bryant Gumbel. It is the place where black intellectuals, cultural weathervanes and politicians go to share their opinions with Bill Maher. It's been home to the Chris Rock show and Black comedy specials for years.

It is Black Television.

Oh, and how could I forget about Deadwood. The best show on TV. What, you didn't know that was a Black show? You tell me about another show with a character named The Nigger General¹.

I rest my case.

---

¹Although it is interesting to note that the NG is maybe the only recurring character not given some shine on the website. Guess it's one thing to say it. Quite another to type it out for all to see.

Where You At (And Where I Been)?! - Magic of Motown Edition

"I've done a lot of foolish things that I didn't mean, didn't I?" - Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours

Country clubs are odd places. Filled mostly with old (white) people and service workers who are far too good at constant, attentive care of their guests, it's probably not a shock that I haven't frequented their large green grounds or their hoity toity clubhouses much in my life. I might like to roll VIP stee-lo in everything I do but that's more a mental attitude than anything else. I'm a VIP because I say so and do as such not because you grant me the priviledge or because I've paid for the honor. I'm agressively hoi polloi.

Last night, however, my father was the musical director for a show at Hillcrest Country Club (which, I'm guessing, is probably the most diverse of the local country clubs. They'll gladly take anybody's money) to honor Berry Gordy and his 60 years of musical success at Motown. It was a private affair with nearly 800 guests getting treated to a musical revue of about 50 songs from the Motown catalog done mostly in medley style. Sydney Poitier hosted. Smokey Robinson performed a couple of his classic hits and a song from his most recent album at about the halfway point and I was proud of my father and his command of his orchestra who deftly went through 90 minutes of intricate and amazing soul material literally without missing a beat.

I'm pretty even tempered. My dad has performed with Aretha Franklin and Seal and dozens of other well-known artists. He's also performed solo to throngs of eager fans. My mother has worked with Madonna and Diana Ross and Paul McCartney and a growing list of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame type cats. I've been a part of all that on many an occasion throughout my life.

I'm saying, this shit is old hat and I rarely, if ever, am thrown into fan boy mode at these events. That kind of reaction is just not me.

It's not me, I guess, unless Stevie Wonder is going to surprise me with a 30 minute set at the end of a show with my dad improvising with his band to back Superstition and Higher Ground so that they sound the way they are intended.

That's some once in a lifetime stuff and I was just proud and amazed. This whole event had been a family affair with my sister working with the director and my mother doing wardrobe while she was on break from Cirque and a close family friend singing on stage. If the thing had a website, I'm sure I would've gotten a taste, too. And for all their hard work, I got a half hour of Stevie.

I danced and sang along loudly all the way until the moment I met him. I composed myself, gave his outstretched hand a shake and a pound and calmly told him it was a pleasure to meet him and that I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. My dad asked for a picture and Stevie agreed. Stevie's assistant offered to take the photo so that I could get in there and pose.

"Naw, man. It's cool."

Hmmmph. Like I'm some fan boy. Y'all betta recognize.

This Week:

Snakes On A Plane
Revenge of the Book Eaters

On the Horizon:

Nora Murphy Art Reception
Mark the calendars and join me for art, foodlettes and cocktails on
Saturday, September 9
7-9PM
Barsac Brasserie
4212 Lankershim Blvd.
N. Hollywood

Cirque Du Soleil's Delirium
7 LA Shows at Staples, y'all. Get in there.

Sunday Random Ten: Get Ya Soul Together Edition

"Sometimes the things I do astound me." - Björk, Like Someone In Live

Random Data

weight loss: 2.5 pounds
reason for loss: possibly the increase of vegetables and fiber, A.M. Yoga and a complete removal of fast and fried food but I'm going to blame it on getting drunk enough Friday night to make my first attempt at the chicken noodle soup dance in public (although it was mostly just the Toe Wop portion. I gots light feet).
new show on my tivo: Murder City
names of the cereals I'm mixing and matching daily: Organic raisin bran clusters, super nutty toffee clusters, banana nut clusters, very berry clusters (check your Trader Joes)
people I met last night: Berry Gordy, Sydney Poitier, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder.

I'll get into that last one in more detail later today but you'll understand why this week's random ten all comes from my r&b/soul best of list. Out of 708 songs, we've got ourselves a

Sunday Random Ten

1. Ain't That Peculiar - Delroy Wilson
2. N.E. Heart Break - New Edition
3. Not Today (featuring Eve) - Mary J. Blige
4. Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter - Nikka Costa
5. The Night Is Young - Van Hunt
6. Let's Get It On (Da Producers MPG Groove Mix) - Marvin Gaye
7. Vibe - Zhané
8. Unbreakable (MV Unplugged) - Alicia Keys
9. Other Side of the Game - Erykah Badu
10. I Wonder If I Take You Home - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam