As always I'm fascinated by the racial question that dominates the undercurrent in America's socio-politics.
A few years back when my paternal grandmother died, my younger brother was looking to get a sample of her mitocondrialDNA, said there was some test at Howard University (and a few other places) that enable one to determine the global-regional genetic make-up of an individual (my brother wanted my paternal grandmother because everything after her can be accounted for).
My dad wasn't going to allow his mom to be used in a science experiment, so my brother hoped to get some tissue samples from our grandmother's sister (who one recently passed) -- alas that never came to happen.
However, I ran across this article in today's NYTimes
Why Race Isn't as 'Black' and 'White' as We Think
By BRENT STAPLES
Published: October 31, 2005
People have occasionally asked me how a black person came by a "white" name like Brent Staples. One letter writer ridiculed it as "an anchorman's name" and accused me of making it up. For the record, it's a British name - and the one my parents gave me. "Staples" probably arrived in my family's ancestral home in Virginia four centuries ago with the British settlers.
The earliest person with that name we've found - Richard Staples - was hacked to death by Powhatan Indians not far from Jamestown in 1622. The name moved into the 18th century with Virginians like John Staples, a white surveyor who worked in Thomas Jefferson's home county, Albemarle, not far from the area where my family was enslaved.
The black John Staples who married my paternal great-great-grandmother just after Emancipation - and became the stepfather of her children - could easily have been a Staples family slave. The transplanted Britons who had owned both sides of my family had given us more than a preference for British names. They had also given us their DNA. In what was an almost everyday occurrence at the time, my great-great-grandmothers on both sides gave birth to children fathered by white slave masters.
I've known all this for a long time, and was not surprised by the results of a genetic screening performed by DNAPrint Genomics, a company that traces ancestral origins to far-flung parts of the globe. A little more than half of my genetic material came from sub-Saharan Africa - common for people who regard themselves as black - with slightly more than a quarter from Europe.
The result that knocked me off my chair showed that one-fifth of my ancestry is Asian. Poring over the charts and statistics, I said out loud, "This has got to be a mistake."
That's a common response among people who are tested. Ostensibly white people who always thought of themselves as 100 percent European find they have substantial African ancestry. People who regard themselves as black sometimes discover that the African ancestry is a minority portion of their DNA.
These results are forcing people to re-examine the arbitrary calculations our culture uses to decide who is "white" and who is "black."
As with many things racial, this story begins in the slave-era South, where sex among slaves, masters and mistresses got started as soon as the first slave ship sailed into Jamestown Harbor in 1619. By the time of the American Revolution, there was a visible class of light-skinned black people who no longer looked or sounded African. Free mulattos, emancipated by guilt-ridden fathers, may have accounted for up to three-quarters of the tiny free-black population before the Revolution.
By the eve of the Civil War, the swarming numbers of mixed-race slaves on Southern plantations had become a source of constant anguish to planters' wives, who knew quite well where those racially ambiguous children were coming from. This is what I want to know more about. What these so-called Women of the Master Race thought about the power of Negro koochie that had some uncontrolable magnetism. What does the slave master say to his white wife? That it's nothing to worry about, because it's just like fucking a farm animal (don't put this past white people, as indicated in the fantastic book GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL most of our infectious diseases came from white people in Europe living too close to animals and/or having sexual relations with the livestock)! Wouldn't that irreparably shatter the white women's sexual confidence? Or force them to be that much more sexually active? What ever the case, white woman no doubt made up all the lies about black female sexuality
Faced with widespread fear that racial distinctions were losing significance, the South decided to define the problem away. People with any ascertainable black ancestry at all were defined as black under the law and stripped of basic rights. The "one drop" laws defined as black even people who were blond and blue-eyed and appeared white.
Black people snickered among themselves and worked to subvert segregation at every turn. Thanks to white ancestry spread throughout the black community, nearly every family knew of someone born black who successfully passed as white to get access to jobs, housing and public accommodations that were reserved for white people only. Black people who were not quite light enough to slip undetected into white society billed themselves as Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, South Asian, Native American - you name it. Any thing that avoid a social damnation that is attributed with being called "black." These defectors often married into ostensibly white families at a time when interracial marriage was either illegal or socially stigmatized.
Those of us who grew up in the 1950's and 60's read black-owned magazines and newspapers that praised the racial defectors as pioneers while mocking white society for failing to detect them. A comic newspaper column by the poet Langston Hughes - titled "Why Not Fool Our White Folks?" - typified the black community's sense of smugness about knowing the real racial score. In keeping with this history, many black people I know find it funny when supposedly white Americans profess shock at the emergence of blackness in the family tree. But genetic testing holds plenty of surprises for black folks, too.
Which brings me back to my Asian ancestry. It comes as a surprise, given that my family's oral histories contain not a single person who is described as Asian. More testing on other family members should clarify the issue, but for now, I can only guess. This ancestry could well have come through a 19th-century ancestor who was incorrectly described as Indian, often a catchall category at the time.
The test results underscore what anthropologists have said for eons: racial distinctions as applied in this country are social categories and not scientific concepts. In addition, those categories draw hard, sharp distinctions among groups of people who are more alike than they are different. The ultimate point is that none of us really know who we are, ancestrally speaking. All we ever really know is what our parents and grandparents have told us.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Idiot & Fascist
The Chump-in-Chief has spoken again, and once again the worst kind of diarehha has come out.
Prescott's grandson has nominated Judge Sammy Alito to replace Sandra O'Connor. Alito is the kind of backwards thinking Republican thug who, while born '50s, believes that's the best decade of recent American history and that the nation should strive to recaputre those halcyon days.
For some reason the White House press conference today brought back memories of this unholy union:
I hope the Democrats fillibuster this nomination. The big thing is, will the GOP attempt to destroy the right to fillibuster the way they almost did early in the year.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
The Olsen Twins of the White Supremacist Set
I gotta tell ya, these girls are living life to the fullest as members of the Paris Hilton generation.
Hitler is being celebrated by some chump-ass white girls, most likely in middle America somewhere; girls who are waiting to get old enough to suck down crystal meth and get dicked down by white dudes (while they secret yearn for the rabid nature of Black dick as it is championed in the music videos) in the backseat of poorly-designed an uncompetitive cars from the Detroit Two.
I feel like vomitting -- on these girls sandaled feet after eating White Castle and Taco Bell.
In November's AMERICAN PHOTO there is an article about photojournalism stories that haven't been shown to America for being too sensitive. One of those stories is about the Klu Ku Klan, and how they are on the rise. In someplaces tripling in size since 9/11.
America's heartland is a joke, the wool has been pulled over their eyes and they don't even know that their way of life, is about to be under attack from peoples that they hate the most - brown and yellow skinned immigrants, who don't know a lick of southern drawl English.
Hitler is being celebrated by some chump-ass white girls, most likely in middle America somewhere; girls who are waiting to get old enough to suck down crystal meth and get dicked down by white dudes (while they secret yearn for the rabid nature of Black dick as it is championed in the music videos) in the backseat of poorly-designed an uncompetitive cars from the Detroit Two.
I feel like vomitting -- on these girls sandaled feet after eating White Castle and Taco Bell.
In November's AMERICAN PHOTO there is an article about photojournalism stories that haven't been shown to America for being too sensitive. One of those stories is about the Klu Ku Klan, and how they are on the rise. In someplaces tripling in size since 9/11.
America's heartland is a joke, the wool has been pulled over their eyes and they don't even know that their way of life, is about to be under attack from peoples that they hate the most - brown and yellow skinned immigrants, who don't know a lick of southern drawl English.
The Original King of Cronyism
Yeah, I swiped this entry's title from a goof name on last night's REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (his guests were Spike Lee, Tucker Carlson, Michel Michaels, Chris Webber and Arianna Huffington).
Much to my delight ramrod Tom Delay was fingerprinted and photographer like the common criminals he hates this week. Unfortunatley he was released on bond (I wonder how much that was?), so he wouldn't have to suffer any more indiginity and share jail cell with some Mexicans and Blacks -- waiting to bend him over and fuck his ass, the way he's been doing it to the ever-dwindling middle class and poor since he was in short pants.
There is this claim by Delay's people that the venue of his embarrassment needs to be changed, because the overseeing judge is a sympathizer with MoveOn.org, that watchdog group that sticks it to the ass of each and every Right Wing Fuck that gets some shady soft money behind him.
What's really crazy is that the GOP changed the rules of conduct and perhaps the definition of "breaking the law" when it comes to their jack-booted, stuffed shirts up on Capital Hill and in the White House. Must I recall that fact that Bill Clinton was villified like he sold state secrets just for squirting nut on an LA dilletante's dress and face, and stimulating her labia with a Monte Cristo cigar.
What the GOP leadership and Presidential advisors are being accused of should have them all drummed out of Washington in leg irons; ranging from Karl Rove's bitch-ass activities to Trent Lott's impunging Blacks to Prescott's Grandson sitting on his ass as he cuts taxes so he can accelerate the spiraling federal deficit -- when these guys ride off into the sunset like some banditos in a Sergio Leone western in January of 2009, the country will be slip-sliding into complete debasement. Yet all these supremem fucks will have fatter than fat bank accounts (chock full of Euros, Yen and Chinese Yuan in overseas banks), while the rest of you wonder why the heartland is being consumed by crystal meth.
I'll be watching from afar, shaking my head in disgust.
Much to my delight ramrod Tom Delay was fingerprinted and photographer like the common criminals he hates this week. Unfortunatley he was released on bond (I wonder how much that was?), so he wouldn't have to suffer any more indiginity and share jail cell with some Mexicans and Blacks -- waiting to bend him over and fuck his ass, the way he's been doing it to the ever-dwindling middle class and poor since he was in short pants.
There is this claim by Delay's people that the venue of his embarrassment needs to be changed, because the overseeing judge is a sympathizer with MoveOn.org, that watchdog group that sticks it to the ass of each and every Right Wing Fuck that gets some shady soft money behind him.
What's really crazy is that the GOP changed the rules of conduct and perhaps the definition of "breaking the law" when it comes to their jack-booted, stuffed shirts up on Capital Hill and in the White House. Must I recall that fact that Bill Clinton was villified like he sold state secrets just for squirting nut on an LA dilletante's dress and face, and stimulating her labia with a Monte Cristo cigar.
What the GOP leadership and Presidential advisors are being accused of should have them all drummed out of Washington in leg irons; ranging from Karl Rove's bitch-ass activities to Trent Lott's impunging Blacks to Prescott's Grandson sitting on his ass as he cuts taxes so he can accelerate the spiraling federal deficit -- when these guys ride off into the sunset like some banditos in a Sergio Leone western in January of 2009, the country will be slip-sliding into complete debasement. Yet all these supremem fucks will have fatter than fat bank accounts (chock full of Euros, Yen and Chinese Yuan in overseas banks), while the rest of you wonder why the heartland is being consumed by crystal meth.
I'll be watching from afar, shaking my head in disgust.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
The Supremors
Apparently Harriet Miers' written questions to the Senate Judiciary Committee were handed back because the answers were insulting, insufficient and all-together bitch-ass.
I hope this woman gets recalled the way Bork did, just to give Prescott's grandson a slap in the face. He sure needs someone or something to kick him while he's down.
I hope this woman gets recalled the way Bork did, just to give Prescott's grandson a slap in the face. He sure needs someone or something to kick him while he's down.
Strongman gets the Strong Arm!
Our favorite dictator Saddam Hussein started his FIRST of many trials today. He was his defiant self, glad to see that year of captivity hasn't diminished his spirits -- otherwise the trails wouldn't be that much fun (look at Slobodan Milosevic's boring shit in The Hague... can't have that with your boy!).
Saddam was shoving his guards away when they escorted him from the court, and damn near punked the judge.
Meanwhile, in Mr. Hussein's home town of Tikrit crowds gathered to show support for their former leader, chanting such slogans as "You are still the son of Iraq." They appeared to be in a frenzy, waving Iraqi flags and photos of Mr. Hussein. Iraqi police officers, wearing blue uniforms and carrying Kalashnikovs, walked through the crowds but did not appear anxious to break up the demonstration.
No that's the reason why Iraq just needs to disintegrate and we can forget about it. The oil field regions need to be autonomous zones controlled by the G8, so they can get their oil and refuse to make the drastic changes necessary to wean the Western economies off of oil for energy (it's gotta be saved for all the consumer products that eat the fuck up, since plastic is quite difficult to recycle -- which should be the number R&D Dollar Get'er).
I guess is Saddam gets all these accolades and plaudits from his hometown, then he still much loved. I wonder if Hitler was much-loved after the War or Stalin or Pol Pot or Pinochet? Or George H.W. Bush? I know Reagan was - for crying out loud.
Saddam was shoving his guards away when they escorted him from the court, and damn near punked the judge.
Meanwhile, in Mr. Hussein's home town of Tikrit crowds gathered to show support for their former leader, chanting such slogans as "You are still the son of Iraq." They appeared to be in a frenzy, waving Iraqi flags and photos of Mr. Hussein. Iraqi police officers, wearing blue uniforms and carrying Kalashnikovs, walked through the crowds but did not appear anxious to break up the demonstration.
No that's the reason why Iraq just needs to disintegrate and we can forget about it. The oil field regions need to be autonomous zones controlled by the G8, so they can get their oil and refuse to make the drastic changes necessary to wean the Western economies off of oil for energy (it's gotta be saved for all the consumer products that eat the fuck up, since plastic is quite difficult to recycle -- which should be the number R&D Dollar Get'er).
I guess is Saddam gets all these accolades and plaudits from his hometown, then he still much loved. I wonder if Hitler was much-loved after the War or Stalin or Pol Pot or Pinochet? Or George H.W. Bush? I know Reagan was - for crying out loud.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
State become Church
Wow, the chump-in-chief is really looking to push this country into something we haven't seen in a quite awhile a fundamentalist Christian state with the ability to shape the world.
This woman Harriet Mier is a scary person to even consider to have a Supremor, because her views don't reflect what the country was founded on a strict seperation of Church and State. She was baptized at the Valley View Christian Church. And apparantly, it was a pivotal personal transformation for the woman now named for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, not entirely unlike that experienced by President Chump and others in the Texas political and business establishment of that time.
Ms. Miers, born Roman Catholic, became an evangelical Christian and began identifying more with Republicans than with the Democrats who had long held sway over Texas politics. She joined the missions committee of her church, which is against legalized abortion, and friends and colleagues say she rarely looked back at her past as a Democrat.
That's because being a Democrat, for some strange reason, means that you can't have belief in God, that you fuck children in the ass and squirt nut in the eyes of women, or twist mens balls when your having sex.
yeah, that's how the GOP really see Democrats.
And there's really nothing the public can do about preventing someone so polarizing from doing what the GOP complains about the most - legislating from the bench!
Damn, we're fucked. We you're fucked, I'm getting out.
This woman Harriet Mier is a scary person to even consider to have a Supremor, because her views don't reflect what the country was founded on a strict seperation of Church and State. She was baptized at the Valley View Christian Church. And apparantly, it was a pivotal personal transformation for the woman now named for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, not entirely unlike that experienced by President Chump and others in the Texas political and business establishment of that time.
Ms. Miers, born Roman Catholic, became an evangelical Christian and began identifying more with Republicans than with the Democrats who had long held sway over Texas politics. She joined the missions committee of her church, which is against legalized abortion, and friends and colleagues say she rarely looked back at her past as a Democrat.
That's because being a Democrat, for some strange reason, means that you can't have belief in God, that you fuck children in the ass and squirt nut in the eyes of women, or twist mens balls when your having sex.
yeah, that's how the GOP really see Democrats.
And there's really nothing the public can do about preventing someone so polarizing from doing what the GOP complains about the most - legislating from the bench!
Damn, we're fucked. We you're fucked, I'm getting out.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Bush with Clean Hands
L.A. is perhaps the most geographically segerated city in the US, if not the world.
The city planners knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they errected the freeway systems and said (under their breath) put all the niggers and spics on the OUTSIDE boundaries of the freeways.
I was just listening to an interview of David LaChappelle about his film RISE, and his trip down to the oppresive neighborhood that is ignored by the entire establishment and community.
It's like 45 minutes from central Hollywood, but it's another world.
You can't even really get a healthy meal in South Central, 'cause only liquor stores and 7-11s and shitbag fast food joints litter the landscape which is fucked up...
All these people who are going to Southeast Asia or Africa to see "another part of the world" go check out South Central L.A.
And what's crazy is, South Central is probably where the most life and vibrancy in the entire city. Whereas in Beverly Hills and the Westside is a movie set for a story on childhood alienation...
South Central isn't even the kind of ghetto that is depicted in the media. It's not the burned out buildings of Detroit, Cleveland or New York... all the blue skies trick the fuck out of you.
But what seeps in is the vacant nature of the entire environment. The worst thing is that there IS NOTHING for the Blacks down in South Central, no after school programs, nothing but desolation. I wonder if this another varient of the Mad Max scenario that I see on the rise.
Of course, our chump-in-chief ain't doing shit about shit. I heard that the fool doesn't even read newspapers or watch TV or eventhing that gives a potential unadulterated image.
The city planners knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they errected the freeway systems and said (under their breath) put all the niggers and spics on the OUTSIDE boundaries of the freeways.
I was just listening to an interview of David LaChappelle about his film RISE, and his trip down to the oppresive neighborhood that is ignored by the entire establishment and community.
It's like 45 minutes from central Hollywood, but it's another world.
You can't even really get a healthy meal in South Central, 'cause only liquor stores and 7-11s and shitbag fast food joints litter the landscape which is fucked up...
All these people who are going to Southeast Asia or Africa to see "another part of the world" go check out South Central L.A.
And what's crazy is, South Central is probably where the most life and vibrancy in the entire city. Whereas in Beverly Hills and the Westside is a movie set for a story on childhood alienation...
South Central isn't even the kind of ghetto that is depicted in the media. It's not the burned out buildings of Detroit, Cleveland or New York... all the blue skies trick the fuck out of you.
But what seeps in is the vacant nature of the entire environment. The worst thing is that there IS NOTHING for the Blacks down in South Central, no after school programs, nothing but desolation. I wonder if this another varient of the Mad Max scenario that I see on the rise.
Of course, our chump-in-chief ain't doing shit about shit. I heard that the fool doesn't even read newspapers or watch TV or eventhing that gives a potential unadulterated image.
Slop Words For What We Love
Ever notice how there are uncomfortable words for things that we just LOVE. Take vagina for example, I'm reading this comic book today (Ex Machina #13) and at the end of the book a guy takes an old woman hostage, pulls a knife and tells the mayor, "back off, or I cut this bag from her dentures to her dick-slot!"
Dick-slot? I had never heard of that. You all know my favorite, "cumdumpter," but I
Dick-slot? I had never heard of that. You all know my favorite, "cumdumpter," but I
Take What You Can When You Can
I never knew how much Black people twist in the wind in this country. The more I think about it, the more I look at the Katrina Disaster and wonder what's going to happen to Blacks when the economies really begin to crumble?
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Fuck that Black Gold, Find An Alternative. NOW PLEASE!
Gas prices keep creeping up,
Today in CNN.com, there is an article about
On Why People Shouldn't Buy Hybrid Cars written by obviously the most-short sighted, in-the-pocket-of-big-oil dumb-ass that I can think of. The so-called reporter Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer is up here asking you as Americans (or anybody on the planet) to save your hard-earned money and find some sort of alternative.
You know what? Fuck your money! 'Cause if we as a PLANET don't wean ourselves off of petroleum as an energy source and means of transportation, we're fucked in the short-run (in the long run chaos on the order of The Road Warrior will ensue).
Shit-for-brains Valdes-Dapena would have you believe that you need to save you dollars on the vehicle that you intend to purchase. He's not factoring in higher prices for food, energy, and ALL THINGS PLASTIC (which is just about every goddamn thing in your house) because as the price of oil rises, what ever uses oil -- not just gasoline prices -- begins to increase.
It's far easier to get people off of gasoline than it is of plastic (incidently: the Feds need to pass a law that incurs jail time and heavy fines for anyone not recycling glass and plastic).
Don't be fooled, get a hyrbid car. And then petition your government representatives -- at all levels (state, local and federal) to dump more money into alternative energy Research & Development. As it stands now, each year only about US$65million is spent on alternative fuel/energy R&D. Guess how much on oil R&D? US$2billion!!! That money is being thrown away -- the resource is limited and dwindling.
FIND SOMETHING NEW AMERICA! EUROPEAN UNION! CHINA! INDIA! You muthafuckas claim that you have top-notch scientists (especially India and China), come up with something new. The socio-geo-political upheveals from a rude severing from oil dependance is unthinkable -- imagine the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina ALL ACROSS THE GLOBE (in the 1st World Economies, the 3rd World knows how to exisit with limited resources).
I was reading an article in Esquire (the one with super-fucking hot Keira Knightley on the cover
) about the end of oil, and the Saudi Energy Minister made this statement, "My father rode a camel, I ride a car, my son rides a jetplane, his son will ride a camel."
THINK ABOUT THAT. SERIOUSLY.
I'm out.
Ramses (email me at obfusc8@hotmail.com if you got something to smart to say, or even if you don't, but have something to say. Isn't the internet all about two-way communication?).
Monday, September 05, 2005
Krista Allen - Show Me Some Love
Tricked you, this isn't a post about sex, that hot, fuckable broad you see to your right or anything titilating.
It's about New Orleans...
Here's an email that I received, please read -- my comments are in Italics at the end.
Please Forward
>
>Notes From Inside New Orleans by Jordan Flaherty Friday, September 2, 2005
>
>I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment
>I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone
>wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the
>victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee
>camps.
>
>In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway,
>thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud
>and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily
>armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it
>would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the
>barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given
>about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be
>told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas,
>Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for
>Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in
>Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through
>Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If
>you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could
>not come within 17 miles of the camp.
>
>I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation
>Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were
>friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how
>many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the
>several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able
>to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these
>questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates
>complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told
>me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only
>information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want
>to be here at night."
>
>There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set
>up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to
>get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members,
>special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment
>for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.
>
>To understand the dimensions of this tragedy, its important to look at New
>Orleans itself.
>
>For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible,
>glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere
>else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white
>supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid
>beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians,
>Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New
>Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation
>unlike anywhere else in the world.
>
>It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can
>take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and
>where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of
>extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state
>and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the
>public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not
>only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.
>
>It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of
>New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300
>murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly
>black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't
>need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a
>shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.
>
>There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of
>Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months,
>officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to
>theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were
>recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several
>high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of
>Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several
>months.
>
>The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders
>will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per
>child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher
>salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop
>out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent
>from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New
>Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where
>inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die
>in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining
>jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.
>
>Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster
>is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence.
>Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty
>and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment
>of the refugees to the the media portrayal of the victims, this disaster is
>shaped by race.
>
>Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week
>our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As
>hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane
>down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane,
>we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations,
>hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day
>of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid
>dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the
>water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors
>spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.
>
>While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to
>get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and
>national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As
>someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of
>this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.
>
>No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely
>closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but that's just
>what the media did over and over again. Sheriffs and politicians talked of
>having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.
>
>Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into
>black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that
>will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the
>governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of
>damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the
>eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the
>simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass
>layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a
>scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.
>
>City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at
>least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to
>New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more
>about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated
>exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently
>refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black,
>city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New
>Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the
>city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused
>to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of
>increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers
>rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized
>vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.
>
>The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US
>President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of
>Huey Long.
>
>In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New
>Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the
>city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools,
>cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and
>revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more
>casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former
>neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.
>
>Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism,
>disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from
>this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.
>
>Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on
>Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to
>fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and
>we need to fight for its rebirth.
>
>----------------------------------------------- Jordan Flaherty is a union
>organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine (www.leftturn.org). He is
>not planning on moving out of New Orleans.
>
>-----------------------------------------------
>
>Below are some small, grassroots and New Orleans-based resources,
>organizations and institutions that will need your support in the coming
>months.
>
>Social Justice: www.jjpl.org www.iftheycanlearn.org www.nolaps.org
>www.thepeoplesinstitute.org/
>www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=crno_home
>
>Cultural Resources: www.backstreetculturalmuseum.com www.ashecac.org/
>
>www.nolahumanrights.org
>
>
>
>Current Info and Resources:
>http://neworleans.craigslist.org/about/help/katrina_cl.html
Okay check it, the Nation-wide disaster that is going to result from the Hurricane ravaging New Orleans is probably the final push this country didn't need into that seriously dangerous political state -- The Empire In Decline... look at every other Empire in decline - Rome, UK, Mexico in the early part of the 20th century, Russia, then the Soviet Union, any African nation post-colonialism, the destruction of the Death Star...
Did you know that the $1billion spent every week in Iraq for the past 2.5 years is effectively wasted money, and Bush's cronies in Haliburton are cleaning up. Surprise, surprise Haliburton has already been given the major contracts to rebuild New Orleans...
Did you also know the Bush diverted funds that were earmarked to bolster the flood control system for New Orleans to the post-miliatry operations in Iraq? More money in the Haliburton's pockets.
See what happens when an Empire is in decline is: the rich engage in snatch-grab tactics to horde the resources, consolidate their wealth and push the middle classes into poverty, and push the lower classes into the grave, jail or into rebel mode.
Usually there is a break-up of the control territories when an Empire Is In Decline. Which means that the Pacific States could easily jump ship, if an egregiously painful economic situation occurred. Such as funnelling money into parts of the country that can't create enough jobs to sustain the disappearing concept of The American Dream, nay the American Way of Life.
Watch what happens with oil and energy prices spike in the coming winter months. And LA, where anything auto related is a box of dynamite waiting to explode, is going to be hit with that gasoline lines. Will there be shootings at the Mobil stations? Firebombing of SUVs?
And we must thank the Bushes, the GOP and anyone who supported Reagan. yeah, it goes back that far. Peanut eating Jimmy Carter has his faults but he was looking for ways to stave of the imperial collapse that is predicated by reliance on the internal combustion engine. Not necessarily reliance on foreign oil, but how that oil is put to use. People trip because oil is directly related to the price of gasoline, but look around your house -- what the fuck is NOT made of plastic? The other major byproduct from petroleum... And why isn't failure to recycle a criminal offense?
Hmm....
It's about New Orleans...
Here's an email that I received, please read -- my comments are in Italics at the end.
Please Forward
>
>Notes From Inside New Orleans by Jordan Flaherty Friday, September 2, 2005
>
>I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment
>I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone
>wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the
>victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee
>camps.
>
>In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway,
>thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud
>and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily
>armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it
>would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the
>barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given
>about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be
>told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas,
>Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for
>Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in
>Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through
>Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If
>you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could
>not come within 17 miles of the camp.
>
>I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation
>Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were
>friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how
>many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the
>several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able
>to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these
>questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates
>complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told
>me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only
>information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want
>to be here at night."
>
>There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set
>up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to
>get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members,
>special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment
>for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.
>
>To understand the dimensions of this tragedy, its important to look at New
>Orleans itself.
>
>For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible,
>glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere
>else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white
>supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid
>beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians,
>Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New
>Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation
>unlike anywhere else in the world.
>
>It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can
>take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and
>where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of
>extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state
>and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the
>public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not
>only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.
>
>It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of
>New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300
>murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly
>black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't
>need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a
>shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.
>
>There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of
>Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months,
>officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to
>theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were
>recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several
>high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of
>Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several
>months.
>
>The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders
>will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per
>child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher
>salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop
>out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent
>from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New
>Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where
>inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die
>in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining
>jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.
>
>Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster
>is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence.
>Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty
>and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment
>of the refugees to the the media portrayal of the victims, this disaster is
>shaped by race.
>
>Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week
>our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As
>hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane
>down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane,
>we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations,
>hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day
>of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid
>dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the
>water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors
>spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.
>
>While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to
>get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and
>national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As
>someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of
>this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.
>
>No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely
>closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but that's just
>what the media did over and over again. Sheriffs and politicians talked of
>having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.
>
>Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into
>black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that
>will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the
>governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of
>damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the
>eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the
>simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass
>layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a
>scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.
>
>City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at
>least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to
>New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more
>about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated
>exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently
>refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black,
>city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New
>Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the
>city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused
>to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of
>increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers
>rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized
>vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.
>
>The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US
>President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of
>Huey Long.
>
>In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New
>Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the
>city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools,
>cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and
>revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more
>casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former
>neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.
>
>Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism,
>disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from
>this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.
>
>Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on
>Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to
>fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and
>we need to fight for its rebirth.
>
>----------------------------------------------- Jordan Flaherty is a union
>organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine (www.leftturn.org). He is
>not planning on moving out of New Orleans.
>
>-----------------------------------------------
>
>Below are some small, grassroots and New Orleans-based resources,
>organizations and institutions that will need your support in the coming
>months.
>
>Social Justice: www.jjpl.org www.iftheycanlearn.org www.nolaps.org
>www.thepeoplesinstitute.org/
>www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=crno_home
>
>Cultural Resources: www.backstreetculturalmuseum.com www.ashecac.org/
>
>www.nolahumanrights.org
>
>
>
>Current Info and Resources:
>
Okay check it, the Nation-wide disaster that is going to result from the Hurricane ravaging New Orleans is probably the final push this country didn't need into that seriously dangerous political state -- The Empire In Decline... look at every other Empire in decline - Rome, UK, Mexico in the early part of the 20th century, Russia, then the Soviet Union, any African nation post-colonialism, the destruction of the Death Star...
Did you know that the $1billion spent every week in Iraq for the past 2.5 years is effectively wasted money, and Bush's cronies in Haliburton are cleaning up. Surprise, surprise Haliburton has already been given the major contracts to rebuild New Orleans...
Did you also know the Bush diverted funds that were earmarked to bolster the flood control system for New Orleans to the post-miliatry operations in Iraq? More money in the Haliburton's pockets.
See what happens when an Empire is in decline is: the rich engage in snatch-grab tactics to horde the resources, consolidate their wealth and push the middle classes into poverty, and push the lower classes into the grave, jail or into rebel mode.
Usually there is a break-up of the control territories when an Empire Is In Decline. Which means that the Pacific States could easily jump ship, if an egregiously painful economic situation occurred. Such as funnelling money into parts of the country that can't create enough jobs to sustain the disappearing concept of The American Dream, nay the American Way of Life.
Watch what happens with oil and energy prices spike in the coming winter months. And LA, where anything auto related is a box of dynamite waiting to explode, is going to be hit with that gasoline lines. Will there be shootings at the Mobil stations? Firebombing of SUVs?
And we must thank the Bushes, the GOP and anyone who supported Reagan. yeah, it goes back that far. Peanut eating Jimmy Carter has his faults but he was looking for ways to stave of the imperial collapse that is predicated by reliance on the internal combustion engine. Not necessarily reliance on foreign oil, but how that oil is put to use. People trip because oil is directly related to the price of gasoline, but look around your house -- what the fuck is NOT made of plastic? The other major byproduct from petroleum... And why isn't failure to recycle a criminal offense?
Hmm....
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Niggaz Can't Get A Break
So for niggaz it's "looting", but for whites it's "finding"? This is a PRIME EXAMPLE of how the media continues to tar-n-feather black people, make them look barbaric, uncivilized, not-to-be-trusted, dangerous, acting-outside-of-the-law.
Is it really considering LOOTING if your taking food (so you don't die) from a grocery store in a DISASTER ZONE, where all the businesses have insurance anyway! Isn't "scavanging" a better term to use for both BLACKS and WHITES?
The questions one needs to be asking is: if all the niggas who got trapped down in New Orleans when they had ample warning to leave, didn't leave because they didn't have cars or other means of transportation to avoid becoming disaster victims (not refugees) - then WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE WHITE PEOPLE DOING STUCK DOWN THERE? "Finding" food and risking their health in that foul, foul, FOUL water.
Have seen how on Fox News and CNN all the images are of the poorest of the poor when showing the dirty, desolate niggas? Something like 40% of the Blacks in southern Louisianna earn under $8,000 a year! They look like slaves -- with battered skin, bad teeth and other dignity deficits!
Is it really considering LOOTING if your taking food (so you don't die) from a grocery store in a DISASTER ZONE, where all the businesses have insurance anyway! Isn't "scavanging" a better term to use for both BLACKS and WHITES?
The questions one needs to be asking is: if all the niggas who got trapped down in New Orleans when they had ample warning to leave, didn't leave because they didn't have cars or other means of transportation to avoid becoming disaster victims (not refugees) - then WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE WHITE PEOPLE DOING STUCK DOWN THERE? "Finding" food and risking their health in that foul, foul, FOUL water.
Have seen how on Fox News and CNN all the images are of the poorest of the poor when showing the dirty, desolate niggas? Something like 40% of the Blacks in southern Louisianna earn under $8,000 a year! They look like slaves -- with battered skin, bad teeth and other dignity deficits!
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Big Screen -- No People?
Empty Theater Seats -- the biggest scare for people in the Westside of Los Angeles since the Rodney King induced Riot. All year there has been talk of the "Death of Hollywood." Hollywood actually died when all the corporations decided that making money is more important that making compelling, entertaining product in a business that called "The Entertainment Business." You would think the foremost priority is to at least entertain, then challenge and get you talking to your friends and neighbors about whatever product you bought and liked (TV, music, movies, video games) -- not so in Hollywood, if the Numbers Guys tell you, "that film is a bad bet, it's not going to make money to justify the costs" then a movie is not made. Guess what? The Numbers Guys don't know SHIT about what brings people in droves into the theatres.
Apparently George Lucas, Bob Kane (the creator of Batman), Stan Lee and Steve Spielberg do... but aren't those guys smart, shrewd businessmen/entertainers? Of course they are, not any dumb fuck who crunches numbers on Wall Street or on Olive Avenue in Burbank.
A few years ago a friend of mine was telling me about the wonders of Japanese cinema as we talked about Takashi Miike's disturbing AUDITION. He pointed out that in Japan, the domestic films routinely perform the poorest, so the Japanese film industry pretty much lets their filmmakers make whatever the fuck that they want -- they have nothing to lose and everything to gain; hence, the violent, repellent masterpieces by Kitano, Miike and others.
The majority of the films that come out of Hollywood are just too damn boring and plain. Shit, HBO and FoxTV offers better entertainment.
You know what I'm doing -- a spoof PSA on those Movie Piracy Ads you see in front of movies now, where the stunt man or the construction guy is crying about the potential loss of work. Complaining about Runaway Production (that's when US Studio movies are shot outside of the confines of southern California) and what not; well in my Ad we're going to be complaining about Runaway Star Salaries.
For instance, take Nicole Kidman here –
hot, fuckable, talented actress, darling of many, envy of others, but did anyone go see BETWITCHED? Fuck, no! And did you know that it cost upwards of $80million... yeah, I said that right $80million!!! On what? Mostly Nicole's salary (I'm thinking around $15 to $20mil) and the woefully unfunny Will Ferrel's salary is around the same, then you add in Mike Caine (probably $5mil) and then the script, director and producer (another $5 - 8mil) and you're looking at $50 million in salaries of only the key people. In a movie concept that has never performed well -- the TV Remake. So BEWITCHED only makes money somewhere in the mid $30 dollar range -- a FUCKING FLOP by anyone's standards. And you could see why from a mile away.
Obviously there have been some surprises - WEDDING CRASHERS, something all the Industry so-called "Know-It-Alls" were sketpical about because it was a R-Rated Comedy, and those are tough to sell because the offend a lot of people in the Red States who then complain to Congress, and then Congress WITHOUT SEEING the films in questions, chastise Hollywood and the filmmakers on the Capital Floor. BULLSHIT!
Then you had FANTASTIC FOUR, which a lot of people thought wasn't going to perform that well.
Well, Jessica Alba's fat tits and ass not withstanding, the movie wasn't half bad -- it could have been 20 or 30% better, but it easily could have been 300% worse. And thankfully it made enough movie to justify a sequel, where we can hopefully see the FF do what they do best -- stop galatic menances from destroying Earth or this Solar System.
Then you have films like THE ISLAND, with big-titted Scarlett Johansson (reason alone to see the movie), but who's behind that film? Michael Bay, then man who brought us BAD BOYS 2 and PEARL HARBOR, such obscence stinkers... if BAD BOYS 2 was an original film, with different stars into, that movie would have SERIOUSLY flopped too. Meaning that Bay's films since ARMAGEDDON have been beyond atrocious. Mainly because he thinks that story and characters has less priority than how much shit blows up, how many cars get trashed and how many near naked women he's going to put on screen...
I look at this way too, the home theatre system makes going to the movies seem like chump change for most Americans, because the theatres don’t have THX quality sound and picture. With home theater you can get HDTV, JBL speakers, the dopest of the dope chairs,
<.br>
But see I also need to blame DVDs… yes they are great, I watch them quite a bit (still I find more movies to watch on Turner Classic Movies and Fox Movie Channel that DVDs to rent) and they are the latest form of “Catching Up With The Jones” in regards to who has the biggest collections. However, all the “extras” on DVDs – value-add content as they put it in the home video departments of the studios – show the average person TOO MUCH about how films are made. These documentaries and commentaries and deleted scenes and photo galleries remove that elusive “movie magic” or as the late great Chick Hearn would say, “the mustard is off the hotdog.” Movies seem to be nothing more than assembly line products, and these Behind-The-Scene featurettes remove any sense of wonder or awe – and when movies have no more “how did they do that” factor (considering all blockbusters strive for that) because we can cue up a DVD special edition and figure it out… then man. Why even go see the stinking rot that Hollywood thinks we all want to see.
Apparently George Lucas, Bob Kane (the creator of Batman), Stan Lee and Steve Spielberg do... but aren't those guys smart, shrewd businessmen/entertainers? Of course they are, not any dumb fuck who crunches numbers on Wall Street or on Olive Avenue in Burbank.
A few years ago a friend of mine was telling me about the wonders of Japanese cinema as we talked about Takashi Miike's disturbing AUDITION. He pointed out that in Japan, the domestic films routinely perform the poorest, so the Japanese film industry pretty much lets their filmmakers make whatever the fuck that they want -- they have nothing to lose and everything to gain; hence, the violent, repellent masterpieces by Kitano, Miike and others.
The majority of the films that come out of Hollywood are just too damn boring and plain. Shit, HBO and FoxTV offers better entertainment.
You know what I'm doing -- a spoof PSA on those Movie Piracy Ads you see in front of movies now, where the stunt man or the construction guy is crying about the potential loss of work. Complaining about Runaway Production (that's when US Studio movies are shot outside of the confines of southern California) and what not; well in my Ad we're going to be complaining about Runaway Star Salaries.
For instance, take Nicole Kidman here –
hot, fuckable, talented actress, darling of many, envy of others, but did anyone go see BETWITCHED? Fuck, no! And did you know that it cost upwards of $80million... yeah, I said that right $80million!!! On what? Mostly Nicole's salary (I'm thinking around $15 to $20mil) and the woefully unfunny Will Ferrel's salary is around the same, then you add in Mike Caine (probably $5mil) and then the script, director and producer (another $5 - 8mil) and you're looking at $50 million in salaries of only the key people. In a movie concept that has never performed well -- the TV Remake. So BEWITCHED only makes money somewhere in the mid $30 dollar range -- a FUCKING FLOP by anyone's standards. And you could see why from a mile away.
Obviously there have been some surprises - WEDDING CRASHERS, something all the Industry so-called "Know-It-Alls" were sketpical about because it was a R-Rated Comedy, and those are tough to sell because the offend a lot of people in the Red States who then complain to Congress, and then Congress WITHOUT SEEING the films in questions, chastise Hollywood and the filmmakers on the Capital Floor. BULLSHIT!
Then you had FANTASTIC FOUR, which a lot of people thought wasn't going to perform that well.
Well, Jessica Alba's fat tits and ass not withstanding, the movie wasn't half bad -- it could have been 20 or 30% better, but it easily could have been 300% worse. And thankfully it made enough movie to justify a sequel, where we can hopefully see the FF do what they do best -- stop galatic menances from destroying Earth or this Solar System.
Then you have films like THE ISLAND, with big-titted Scarlett Johansson (reason alone to see the movie), but who's behind that film? Michael Bay, then man who brought us BAD BOYS 2 and PEARL HARBOR, such obscence stinkers... if BAD BOYS 2 was an original film, with different stars into, that movie would have SERIOUSLY flopped too. Meaning that Bay's films since ARMAGEDDON have been beyond atrocious. Mainly because he thinks that story and characters has less priority than how much shit blows up, how many cars get trashed and how many near naked women he's going to put on screen...
I look at this way too, the home theatre system makes going to the movies seem like chump change for most Americans, because the theatres don’t have THX quality sound and picture. With home theater you can get HDTV, JBL speakers, the dopest of the dope chairs,
<.br>But see I also need to blame DVDs… yes they are great, I watch them quite a bit (still I find more movies to watch on Turner Classic Movies and Fox Movie Channel that DVDs to rent) and they are the latest form of “Catching Up With The Jones” in regards to who has the biggest collections. However, all the “extras” on DVDs – value-add content as they put it in the home video departments of the studios – show the average person TOO MUCH about how films are made. These documentaries and commentaries and deleted scenes and photo galleries remove that elusive “movie magic” or as the late great Chick Hearn would say, “the mustard is off the hotdog.” Movies seem to be nothing more than assembly line products, and these Behind-The-Scene featurettes remove any sense of wonder or awe – and when movies have no more “how did they do that” factor (considering all blockbusters strive for that) because we can cue up a DVD special edition and figure it out… then man. Why even go see the stinking rot that Hollywood thinks we all want to see.
The Village of the Damned!
WOW! New Orleans is never going to be the same again. The fact that it's below sealevel means that the water drainage is going to be slow, slow, slow.
What kills me though about the whole thing is the looting. Why? Because the video images are constantly showing niggaz stealing. In what is probably the worst natural disaster to hit the US, niggas need to eat and do what ever they can to survive. If that means robbing from stores THAT ARE NO DOUBT INSURED, then gotdamn it do it.
See if this situation continues to spiral out of control, the New Orleans Blacks are liable to pull an African militant on people and start bucking people down for simple reasons like, "you splashed water on me."
I read somewhere that there are supposed to be a lot dead bodies in houses... people who choose not to evacuate, to stay with all their damn worldly possessions instead of saving their lives. I wonder what Robert Paulson would say?
I guess Prescott's Grandson is doing something about it, but I don't know how anyone can really help. The thing I want to know is... will the rest of the world funnel in monetary assistance the way everyone did when the Tsunami fucked the shit out Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Africa? Or has America engendered too much hate, too much "y'all muthafuckas is rich, ya don't need our money." I bet bin Laden is recording a video claiming that this a result of America's evil ways toward Muslims.
What kills me though about the whole thing is the looting. Why? Because the video images are constantly showing niggaz stealing. In what is probably the worst natural disaster to hit the US, niggas need to eat and do what ever they can to survive. If that means robbing from stores THAT ARE NO DOUBT INSURED, then gotdamn it do it.
See if this situation continues to spiral out of control, the New Orleans Blacks are liable to pull an African militant on people and start bucking people down for simple reasons like, "you splashed water on me."
I read somewhere that there are supposed to be a lot dead bodies in houses... people who choose not to evacuate, to stay with all their damn worldly possessions instead of saving their lives. I wonder what Robert Paulson would say?
I guess Prescott's Grandson is doing something about it, but I don't know how anyone can really help. The thing I want to know is... will the rest of the world funnel in monetary assistance the way everyone did when the Tsunami fucked the shit out Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Africa? Or has America engendered too much hate, too much "y'all muthafuckas is rich, ya don't need our money." I bet bin Laden is recording a video claiming that this a result of America's evil ways toward Muslims.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Will Ferrell in TV
i'm going to go out on a limb here -- this muthafucka, Will Ferrell... he's NOT FUNNY AT ALL! Who the fuck appointed this chump the new funny man de jour?
ELF - sucked, didn't laugh once.
ANCHORMAN - turned it off 10 minutes in.
WEDDING CRASHERS -- Adds an extremely annoying 10 minutes to an otherwise funny-ass movie.
BEWITCHED - Was that supposed to be an easy payday?
KICKING & SCREAMING - Uh, did anyone see that schlock?
And that Cow Bell Thing, come on now! Why is that even supposed to be funny?
Just don't think this guy is anywhere near the hype he's getting. The true comic genius of the age is Vince Vaughn. Give it up for Vince!
ELF - sucked, didn't laugh once.
ANCHORMAN - turned it off 10 minutes in.
WEDDING CRASHERS -- Adds an extremely annoying 10 minutes to an otherwise funny-ass movie.
BEWITCHED - Was that supposed to be an easy payday?
KICKING & SCREAMING - Uh, did anyone see that schlock?
And that Cow Bell Thing, come on now! Why is that even supposed to be funny?
Just don't think this guy is anywhere near the hype he's getting. The true comic genius of the age is Vince Vaughn. Give it up for Vince!
Monday, August 15, 2005
Bombs Away? Don't Blame Those Tits
Have you seen the biggest movie bomb in recent memory The Island? Probably not, 'cause that's why it was a stinker!
Movie doesn't too much redeeming about it, except for the visual beauty of Scarlett Johansson.
Apparently that was the problem with the movie... according to the DreamWorks producers, who have blamed big-breasted, DSL Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor for the critical-mauling its received. Producer WALTER PARKES and his wife LAURIE have used their website to stage a vicious attack on Johansson and McGregor, claiming their half-hearted efforts have resulted in a poor reception for the high-budget sci-fi epic.
See, now I thought it was because the story was SHIT, and the directing was more concerned with the explosions and fancy camera moves than with character, dialog and dramaturgy... I guess my criteria for a good movie is different.
And Johansson's talents take the biggest beatings, with the husband and wife team claiming a television actress could have done a more professional job. They write, "Listen those are superstars of the future, not superstars of the present. Even lesser television actresses, quite honestly would have more connection to that audience."
The only thing that kept my eyes from collapsing was watching Scarlett's tits bounce around in a skin tight outfit... not that I'm a crass misanthrope, but everything else about the film (from the man who brought us THE ROCK and BAD BOYS) was at the end of the incoherent, inconsistent and insulting.
Why did the movie seem like a bad rip of LOGAN'S RUN (which is being remade)? When the majority of the dialogue spoken by Johansson is "run." You have to question the integrity of the movie.
Although, Parkes & MacDonald no doubt overpaid for Johansson and McGregor -- two actors who have never been in films that trulyl captured the broader public's eye/attention -- and that's unforgivable, because her fees is boosted for studio projects when she's not proven her value in the marketplace. Everything outside of Lost In Translation hasn't done well (i.e. made more than $100 million in the US).
Hmm... more piss-poor planning by Hollywood, right? No wonder people have been staying away from the movies this year.
It's not over yet, and it doesn't look any better.
Movie doesn't too much redeeming about it, except for the visual beauty of Scarlett Johansson.
Apparently that was the problem with the movie... according to the DreamWorks producers, who have blamed big-breasted, DSL Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor for the critical-mauling its received. Producer WALTER PARKES and his wife LAURIE have used their website to stage a vicious attack on Johansson and McGregor, claiming their half-hearted efforts have resulted in a poor reception for the high-budget sci-fi epic.
See, now I thought it was because the story was SHIT, and the directing was more concerned with the explosions and fancy camera moves than with character, dialog and dramaturgy... I guess my criteria for a good movie is different.
And Johansson's talents take the biggest beatings, with the husband and wife team claiming a television actress could have done a more professional job. They write, "Listen those are superstars of the future, not superstars of the present. Even lesser television actresses, quite honestly would have more connection to that audience."
The only thing that kept my eyes from collapsing was watching Scarlett's tits bounce around in a skin tight outfit... not that I'm a crass misanthrope, but everything else about the film (from the man who brought us THE ROCK and BAD BOYS) was at the end of the incoherent, inconsistent and insulting.
Why did the movie seem like a bad rip of LOGAN'S RUN (which is being remade)? When the majority of the dialogue spoken by Johansson is "run." You have to question the integrity of the movie.
Although, Parkes & MacDonald no doubt overpaid for Johansson and McGregor -- two actors who have never been in films that trulyl captured the broader public's eye/attention -- and that's unforgivable, because her fees is boosted for studio projects when she's not proven her value in the marketplace. Everything outside of Lost In Translation hasn't done well (i.e. made more than $100 million in the US).
Hmm... more piss-poor planning by Hollywood, right? No wonder people have been staying away from the movies this year.
It's not over yet, and it doesn't look any better.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
PodCasting v. Blogs
Someone left a comment on the blog the other day, stating that I've been living under a rock for most of 2005 'cause I'm not podcasting to express myself.
Podcasting is an interesting convergence of technology, and I've thought about doing an audio-blog, but then I said to myself -- I'm a writer... I like the writing, the burst of words emanating out from my finger tips... a man (or woman) of letters is infinitely more fascinating to me, as podcasting is just people talking, written language has its own unique experience... not to say that it's is better or worse than the spoken word.
Also, I'm not an actor (although I do work with actors from time to time) and I think one of the things that doesn't make podcasting that intriguing (yet) is that too many amateurs do it. Not to say that their information/content isn't valuable, but the key to spoken content delivery is the skills of the orator... if I couldn't express myself with the skills of a Cicero or Orson Welles, then the audiology isn't as powerful as it could be.
Plus were would I be without my photos...
Podcasting is an interesting convergence of technology, and I've thought about doing an audio-blog, but then I said to myself -- I'm a writer... I like the writing, the burst of words emanating out from my finger tips... a man (or woman) of letters is infinitely more fascinating to me, as podcasting is just people talking, written language has its own unique experience... not to say that it's is better or worse than the spoken word.
Also, I'm not an actor (although I do work with actors from time to time) and I think one of the things that doesn't make podcasting that intriguing (yet) is that too many amateurs do it. Not to say that their information/content isn't valuable, but the key to spoken content delivery is the skills of the orator... if I couldn't express myself with the skills of a Cicero or Orson Welles, then the audiology isn't as powerful as it could be.
Plus were would I be without my photos...
Friday, August 12, 2005
Fucking -- It's All Business, Ain't It?
Argh… the rigors of dating in Los Angeles. It sucks shit out of a dead dogs ass. I was talking with some friends of mine about the whole thing, and at the end of the day it boils down to what Viennese poet Rainer Maria Rilke said, “In life what is important to men is women, and what is important to women in money.” You know the old phrase, “seal the deal” in terms of getting a girl in the position to dick her down? Think about that, “seal the deal” even at that early stage in a relationship it’s viewed as a business dealing, and it doesn’t stop there. Once you get married you better get to know the ins and outs of Community Property Law, and then Divorce law, and then you’ll be kicking yourself for not get a prenup; again that’s a contract. Even the marriage agreement requires a legal document, a martial contract is essentially what it is.
Isn’t that fucked up? The search for money by women drives everything. You ask them and the deny it, that they want a man who can make them laugh and has a good personality. But I ask you, if a man who was make $500,000 year approached a woman, asked her out, and started dating her, but didn’t have the best personality, and wasn’t all that jokey, nor does this dude have a lot time to spend with the broad, ‘cause of his job, yet he showed her the best, most exciting times, because he had a lot of cash to burn to make his experiences with the women fun (‘cause as a dude you got to be with someone that you’re spending money on).
Or would she take the dude who made her laugh all the time, had all the time in the world for her, and had basically the same personality, but maybe version 1.2… although this guy was barely making over $40K… which guy would the woman take? Guy #1!!!
Girls just want to have fun, right? Doesn’t money mean more opportunities to have fun? Yes, it damn well does.
Broke muthafuckas have it bad. They can get a girl, and get married, but they lose a lot of power in the relationship. You all know the one… they have to ask their bitch for permission to do anything, like take piss with the toilet seat up!
When the game of fucking, it's a game of power -- like every other game. As a male, if you don't set the precedent of how shit is going to be... then you're setting yourself for countless times that you have to bite your tongue! 'Cause you let the girl get away with something THE FIRST TIME, when you should have nipped that shite in the bud. Can't go back on it the second time you see something and don't like it, 'cause the girl just will not understand.
So if you want a Dimepiece like the one to your right... then you gotta be a man, and put your foot in that ass.
I remember a few months ago when I was reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and in the Detroit Red section, Malcolm talked about his time when he kicked it with hookers; hookers told Malcolm that most of the time Men need to be gruff with their women, and from time to time be sweet and affection and kind. If you don't, per the hookers, then the Men will frequently outside sources for their pussy; pussy that doesn't cut your balls off just so you can "get some tonight."
With hookers or any other kind of so-called pay-for-pussy girl, one isn't necessarily paying for the ses -- one is paying for the bitch to hit the bricks after you nut and wipe your dick on the curtain.
But on the reals, as a man you're paying for pussy any way you look at it. The gas, dinners, movies, horseback trips, picnics, bottle of wine, trips to resorts -- that's all money out the pocket, right? Money that is used to create a sense of happiness within the woman so she'll fuck. Couldn't that same money be spent on a bitch in a brothel?
The World's Lifeblood - SUCKED DRY, BITCHES!
And you thought I was trippin' back on The Nigger Factor when I was claiming that Oil was going to hit $80/barrel before the end of the year! Mark my muthafuckin' words, it's going to happen?
And then what?
Nuthin'! Muthafuckas cain't do shite 'bout it. Can they? Nope, 'cause nobody thought it was smart to dump goo-gobbs of money into alternative power sources, particularly for the god-forsaken internal combustion engine.
What's the world to do?
China is going to keep fucking the West because they don't have a decadent lifestyle that can shatter into a million pieces and cause urban riots throughout the US and Europe (more so the US though). See China and the rest of the emerging economies that are consuming huge quantities of Geoblood are used to living in slums -- in fact only the Uber-rich, the rich like the 1% of Americans who own all the shit, in China know what it's like to be profligatae with its disposable resources.
You think the barely literate 20 year old coming about the western Chinese countryside gives a fuck about the latest cellphone or who the fuck Jennifer Aniston is getting dicked down by? Hell, no! So the Chinese are even expected to feel the crunch of the sppiralling oil prices.
And there's nothing one can really do about.
And the U.S. is fucking up, because far too many refineries aren't operating efficiently -- bunch a bitches. Remember my column just recently about American Workers not being able to compete... case in point.
And then what?
Nuthin'! Muthafuckas cain't do shite 'bout it. Can they? Nope, 'cause nobody thought it was smart to dump goo-gobbs of money into alternative power sources, particularly for the god-forsaken internal combustion engine.
What's the world to do?
China is going to keep fucking the West because they don't have a decadent lifestyle that can shatter into a million pieces and cause urban riots throughout the US and Europe (more so the US though). See China and the rest of the emerging economies that are consuming huge quantities of Geoblood are used to living in slums -- in fact only the Uber-rich, the rich like the 1% of Americans who own all the shit, in China know what it's like to be profligatae with its disposable resources.
You think the barely literate 20 year old coming about the western Chinese countryside gives a fuck about the latest cellphone or who the fuck Jennifer Aniston is getting dicked down by? Hell, no! So the Chinese are even expected to feel the crunch of the sppiralling oil prices.
And there's nothing one can really do about.
And the U.S. is fucking up, because far too many refineries aren't operating efficiently -- bunch a bitches. Remember my column just recently about American Workers not being able to compete... case in point.
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