What's next? I don't know, do you? Who am I? I am someone who makes films. What do I do? I look through viewfinders. And how do I live? I live by the skin of my teeth.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Getting Ass-Fucked


Road Warriors
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.
One of the myriad of problems of living in Los Angeles is the near-complete dependence on a car. We all know about Southern California being the car economy, perhaps the most dynamic auto market on the planet -- for a variety of reasons that I'm not going to get into here.

What I'm going to get into here is what happens when one's precious auto, goes on the fritz and needs service/repairs. Your options are to go to the dealer, over-pay and perhaps get quality service... although most likely you'll get C- work on your car. Your second option is to find a reliable mechanic... which in a city of getting over on muthafuckas and dicking people out of their hard-earned cash is a difficult proposition to successfully navigate.

I was a little tired of going to the VW dealer, 'cause I noticed that they wouldn't tell me things that were wrong with the car, i.e. an alignment issue. So I had sought out a reliable and respectable mechanic... a few actually, but none really made a strong impression on me except this one Filipino guy out in Reseda and this Armenian who runs a place called Eurowurx in Burbank.

The worst though came last January, when I felt the car needed a little more than a service... perhaps a tune-up, because the engine was strenuous while idling. I was living deep on the westside of the fucking San Fernando Valley and couldn't get to a good mechanic, nor did I know one (as Eurowurx has moved, or so I thought). So went online to www.cartalk.com ('cause I listen to that NPR radio show from time to time on Sunday mornings when I'm too thrashed to get out of bed) and checked out their "Mechanic Recommendation" boards. I came across a shop called Stuart's German Auto Specialist, which was based in Burbank -- near the Disney studios where I was working at that time.

I go in with an appointment to see ths dude named Stuart Schreiber the owner/sole mechanic... explain to him what I want -- oil change, look at the brakes and see if a tune-up is necessary because of the hard idle. Stuart agrees, and then proceeds to TAKE FOUR DAYS to do this so-called minor service. It's costing me daily rental car fees, and I could only guess what the bill was going to be for his labor.

When I finally do get the car, I'm tempted to stop order the check 'cause Stuart Schreiber cost me so much extra cash. Here's were it turns to shit and I bend over and spread my ass cheeks. I pick up the car on a Saturday morning and drive around all weekend. culminating with a smoking hot date with the girl I was just beginning to date... we come back from a party on Sunday night, and due to other stupid ass circumstances, we can't go up into her place to have sex or go to mine ('cause the owner of the house I was staying at had these two ass-bag bulldogs who weren't really housetrained).

Me and my girl are making out in the car in front her apartment, with the engine idling, and we notice steam coming up from the engine. I look at the engine temp guage and it's deep in the red zone! I shut the car off and let it cool down for about 45 minutes, as we continue to do everything but fuck in the front seat of my car.

When it's about 5am, my girl goes inside and I have to drive back from Hollywood to Woodland muthafucking Hills -- the car is overheating the whole time, and I'm stopping to fill the coolant resevoir up with first coolant and then water every three highway exits.

The next day I call Stuart tell him my troubles and he says he'll do any repairs free of charge, if the problem was something he caused or overlooked. I tell him what about the tow!!?! It's going to cost me about $70 to get the car towed to his garage -- even with AAA!!! He agrees to pay for that, too, if it's his fault.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Baghdad Wall

Why did this stupid idea remind me of Berlin in 1952? Or Israel's occupied territories last summer?! Or the Rio Grande border anytime recently?

For some reason people honestly believe that putting up a wall between two opposing factions is actually going to work.

The one thing that this Division Wall in Baghdad proved is that the U.S. Military is the most devisive force there is in Iraq -- Sunni and Shia, factions that have been slitting each others throats for the better part of the War in Iraq, abandoned their mutual hatred for a common external hatred -- that of the US Armed Forces in Iraq.

No doubt the so-called SURGE, has proved to be a futiles as any other effort to qwell the chaos in an arab country (now that could be anywhere)... now why is that?

Toyota bitch-slaps GM!


You knew it was gonna happen this year, I knew it was gonna happen this, and not that it happened what do we think about it?

Toyota surpassed GM in sales for the first time in the first quarter of 2007. Toyota’s ascendancy, which many in the auto game had predicted for some time, is another milestone in America’s long decline from unchallenged industrial preeminence. A decline that actually spells, "fuck you, gringo."

G.M. swept past Ford in 1931 in the enormous American car market and in worldwide sales, and barely looked back for seven decades. But a combination of inattention to quality -- the biggest issue with American cars... that and SHITTY-ASS design, strained labor relations, adverse regulatory decisions and a slowness to recognize the potential for small cars eroded G.M.’s seemingly insurmountable lead starting in the mid-1960s.

Emerging from the ashes of Japan’s World War II defeat, thanks in part to American assistance during the Korean War, Toyota established itself through the 1970s and 1980s as the industry’s standard for quality and reliability. It has since built a reputation for technological leadership as well, most notably with the Prius and other hybrid cars. Funny thing is Japanese automakers use techniques developed by dismissed US auto industry players.

Well, I can see Detroit becoming the next Mad Mad wasteland over the next five years and the main industry of that rusting metropolis continues to fail its populace.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Once again the "hip kids" laid the ground work for a youth rampage/massacre... Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were the previous ostricized individuals who decided to become Duke Nuk'em, don militia fatigues and take up arms against their aggressors -- they've been surpassed on the trip down the insane lane by VT Shooter Cho.

Cho gets props for using technology to distribute his mayhem manifesto (bigups to QuickTime... as this will surely be the tip of the iceberg for QT rants), because otherwise we wouldn't have actually heard his words or seen his pained face... the FBI would have censored it, or the news media outlets would have only given us the snipets they FELT we should have access to. As I watched clips of Cho's outbursts/rants, it occurred to me... it wasn't a question of what made him snap that fateful Monday -- because obviously he snapped days, if not weeks or months prior -- but how did he keep it together for as long as he did, and why did he choose that Monday to unload his 9mms?

You might be asking why I said the "hip kids" laid the ground work for Cho's impersonatin of Frank Castle aka THE PUNISHER, because it was stated in a background story about Cho that when he moved to the US from South Korea when he was 9, because of his limited mastery of English he became the whipping boy, target of pranks by those kids who think they're too cool for school. Every culture has that same issue with the way young kids interact with "the other" (which is perceived and relative designation) -- some would say it's just part of growing up. However, in a base culture like that of America's where being considered "cool" or part of the "in-crowd" is more important than anything else IN AN ACADEMIC SETTING. The seeds for non-normal social adult life are planted in junior high and high school. If you think back to elementary school, pretty much everybody was on equal ground in terms of the social strucutre... although changes once kids become 10, 11 and 12...

Honestly, I'm surprised that there's not more of these style rampage killings on college campuses and at high schools. Since the repellant rise of Paris Hilton and these new Mean Girl/skank mafia types (Brittany, Lindsay, et al.) over the past three to five years, the pressure to get with a girl to get pussy it EVERYTHING. These days girls are liable to suck a mean dick (see my post on Lipsticking back in Dec. 06) as easily as they would give a peck on the cheek say circa 1999. If you happen to be one of those guys who doesn't falls into the category where your dick can be used in a lipsticking contest or actually get to fuck, then you're going to be mad. Also, if the "in-crowd" does it's best to single you... they become Ego Assassins -- you're going to sink and sink and sink... and ultimately you might rise out of it when you go off to college -- where self-reinvention is staple of the institution -- but the damage has been, and most people don't fully recover... they just fall in to one of those categories that we can all label when it comes to who's who and who's what upon college graduation.

Cho gets no props for what he did, but the pundits and psychologists have an opportunity to indicit the youth culture and sadly they won't. The culture that breads serial killers, now also has the dubious distinction of breading youth rampage killers... that's no accident.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Postscript to Imus Debacle

Here's part of an article from Newsday... My commentary is in bold...
It's more than just Imus
Shaun Powell
SPORTS COLUMNIST

April 12, 2007

In retrospect, outraged people shouldn't have united and screamed "blank you" to Don Imus the last few days. No, instead, we should've stuck out our hand and said, "Thank you."

We should feel indebted to a shriveled, unfunny, insensitive frog for being so ignorant that he actually did us all a favor. He woke society the hell up. He grabbed it by the throat, shook hard and ordered us to take a long, critical look at ourselves and the mess we've made and ignored for much too long. He made us examine the culture and the characters we've created for ourselves, our impressionable young people and our future.
The piss-poor pop culture and its icons that have grown out of the so-called equalizing of Blacks throughout the 90s via hip-hop... is one the most extreme lies that have been believed by the masses.

Had Imus not called a bunch of proud and innocent young women "nappy-headed hos," would we be as ashamed of what we see as we are today?

Or, to quote Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer: "Have we really lost our moral fiber?"

And our minds as well?

I'm not sure if the last few days will serve as a watershed moment for this MTV, middle-finger, screw-you generation. Probably not, according to my hunch. A short time from now, the hysteria will turn to vapor, folks will settle back into their routines, somebody will pump up the volume on the latest poison produced by hip-hop while Al Sharpton and the other racial ambulance chasers will find other guilt-ridden white folks to shake for fame and cash.
How does Al Sharpton make his living anyway? He ran for president in 2004, so he's obviously make some illegit cash... only I can't figure it out... I mean yeah, he is a Reverend, so he' s liable to be skimming from the church he fronts. In five minutes, the entire episode of Imus and his strange idea of humor will be older than his hairstyle. Lessons learned will be lessons forgotten.

I wish I were wrong about that last part. But I doubt it, because any minute now, black people will resume calling themselves bitches and hos and the N-word and in the ultimate sign of hypocrisy, neither Rutgers nor anyone else will call a news conference about that.

Because when we really get to the root of the problem, this isn't about Imus. This is about a culture we -- meaning black folks -- created and condoned and packaged for white power brokers to sell and shock jocks like Imus to exploit. Can we talk?
The pre-packaging of the worst of Black culture for white power brokers and financiers to cull more money than modern-day adjusted slavery reparations would be worth

Tell me: Where did an old white guy like Imus learn the word "ho"?

Was that always part of his vocabulary? Or did he borrow it from Jay-Z and Dave Chappelle and Snoop Dogg?
have to say that he borrowed it, like damn near everything else considered "pop"

What really disappointed me about that exhausting Rutgers news conference, which was slyly used as a recruiting pitch by Stringer, was the absence of the truth and the lack of backbone and courage. Black women had the perfect opportunity to lash out at their most dangerous oppressors -- black men -- and yet they kept the focus on a white guy.
This is the god's honest true... Black men oppress each other and Black women on a level that is highly inappropriate and continues to the be race's Achilles' Heel.

It was a tremendous letdown for me, personally and professionally. I wanted Stringer, and especially her players, many of whom listen to rap and hip-hop, to take Nelly to task. Or BET. Or MTV. Or the gangsta culture that is suffocating our kids. They had the ear and eye of the nation trained upon them, and yet these women didn't get to the point and the root of the matter. They danced around it, and I guess I should've known better, because black people still refuse to lash out against those black people who are doing harm to us all.
Sad thing about Stringer and her charges is that no one was there to "coach" them the way Imus was obviously coached, and the way you need coaching in today's PR'd and Spin Rx culture... and with Al Sharpton rallying the troops, at least a deeper social message could have and should have been said. Granted it is hard to be the one Black who points fingers, because the term "Uncle Tom" I believe has no equivalent in any other ethnographic grouping.

Honestly, I wasn't holding my breath for Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, a pair of phony and self-appointed leaders, because they have their agendas and financial stakes. I was hoping 10 young women, who have nothing on the line, who are members of a young culture, would train their attention to within the race, name names and say enough is enough. But they didn't, and I was crushed.

You should walk around the playground and the elementary and high schools today and listen to how young black people speak to each other, treat each other and tease each other. You'd be ashamed.
The cycle of self-hate continues unabated, in fact enhanced by the lack of financial freedom that the majority of Blacks suffer from, the inability to cast a wider net on what is consider socially accetpable, i.e. "what it means to be black?" and by the images pushed by the media... a media that no Black has the ability to even guide their image.

Next, sample some of their CDs and look at the video games they're playing. And while you're at it, blame yourself for funding this garbage, for allowing your kids to support these companies and for not taking a stand against it or the so-called artists making it happen.

Black folks, for whatever reason, can be their own worst enemy.
The criminal beauty of slavery is the Niggas ARE and WILL ALWAYS BE their own worst ankle-cutters... the crabs in a barrel concept isn't something that's misladenThe last several days, the media had us believe it was Don Imus. But deep down, we know better.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Lynching Imus


Birth of Fade Nigga Nation
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.
So Don Imus got his nuts sliced off today. Too bad... not because I like the guy or loathe him, but because it's free speech being curtailed in an era of corporate control of the media. CBS just showed that they have no balls, no freedom because they're enslaved by those groups that boycott huge corporations when ever somebody says something objectionable and that someone is being sponsored by some NASDAQ-listed company who wears a chain and collar that leads all the way over to Madison Avenue.

Imus didn't say anything that white people (and other non-Blacks) say amongst themselves when microphones and n*ggers aren't around. I'm not saying that all white people trip out and drop racial bombs all the time, but it does happen -- who doesn't say wild outlandish from time to time. Frustration will cause racial hated -- the bete noir that has no expiration date for Americans -- to boil up and

As a shock-jock similar to Howard Stern, Imus was known for being offensive, bigot and misogynist -- his poison lyrics made him and CBS radio millions of dollars over the years. However, as the 21st Century marches on and Americanism loses its prominence, off-the-cuff "keep a nigga down" remarks or ANY kind of ethno-hate speech 'causes the kind uproar that refuses to allow cowardly advertising dollars from backing a stance that our country claims to have as a founding principal.

You might say, "well, Ramses, why should Gm or Procter & Gamble fund the vitriol that spews out of Imus' piehole?" How 'bout they back the rest of the bullshit images, messages and concepts that continue to have acting like sheep. It's only when act is so base, so harsh to the core (i.e. Michael Richards' outburst) do people sit up and notice. When Budweiser is trying to get you to suck down as much of its suds as it can with it's really subliminal life-style advertising. Now that is the true crime!

The problem with this is corporate lynching of past his prime court jester is that, people are NOT going to like certain groups that are different, particularly when the difference bread an entire lingua franca of degradation. I mean a few weeks ago, the lunatic president of Iran was claiming that the filmmakers behind the hit movie 300 were trying to disparage Persians -- as if the Battle of Thermopalye was some made up shit that didn't happen or that the Persians beat the Greeks into submission at that trully epic battle!!! I was like, and this man thinks it's ok to have nuclear bombs at his finger tips?
FUCK!
ME!


Imus' ability to say whatever the hell he wanted to say (within the FCC) is why he was successful, why he got stiff-ass white people to relax and speak candidly.

So just like cable TV vs. Network TV, broadcast radio has lost out -- questionable if it lost a talent, but it lost its relevance, its independence -- if had any left, once the news divisions of the networks were forced to make a profit.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Death of Icon symbolizes more?


I haven't posted in a long time, and that's just a personal matter. But on to business... I'm glancing through an old TIME magazine and in the "Milestones" section (where the death of important people is discussed) Marvel Comics' CAPTAIN AMERICA was listed among the newly dead.

Apparently my prediction from just about a year ago -- that in Marvel Comics' Civil War, Captain America would die -- actually came true. Obviously killing off Steve Rogers, the man behind the mask, is a ground breaking event; only we've seen it before with Superman, The Flash and several others.

However, the interesting thing about killing Captain America -- and the whole Civil War cross-over event -- is that Cap represented what is supposedly best about this country. He embodied it, lived it, and breathed it (not to mention he kicked a lot of ass defending it). And by killing him, the comic publisher took a huge stab at what's going on in the popular culture -- the death of American liberties as we know them under Prescott Bush's grandson's administration.

Comics became somewhat relevant again, they weren't totally regulated to being the fodder for terrible summer action movies aimed at an audience that never even read the characters in their Glory Days OR on their decline throughout the late 80s and early 90s.

Cap will live again... probably comes back in January after the new President is sworn in... that's what a notorious negro aggitator like myself would do.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

It's All Gossip-Driven


I was listening to this radio show the other week about the state of affairs in the collapsing recording industry, and on the show many of the guests wresteld with the problem with pirated mp3s and the myriad of peer-to-peer download sites that are at their core stealing money from the artists and the propaganda organizations (the record companies). This one guest suggested that the model of cable TV be instituted for the web, in that each and every ISP would charge $3/month that a would funneled to ASCAP/BMI -- and then people can trade as much "illegal" music as they want AND the artists get compensated.

It's not a bad idea. Xtina Aguilera had recently lamented that the music business has become driven by the tabloids and the gossip columns -- if you think about it, that is too true. New music doesn't really have a chance of becoming internationally known unless the big media money is spent on it, and the Record Companies seem to only want to spend money on the well established acts (which also have a back catalog). For instance, I've been listening to this CD (yeah, I actually bought the CD) of this supergroup from the UK called THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN; it's Damon Albarn's new project that Danger Mouse produced that features Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen and The Clash's bassist Paul Simonon. You'd think there'd be a lot of buzz about this music, off the participants alone, not to mention the quality of the tracks.

It actually drives a nail into my dick knowing that the a huge element of pop culture is dictated by the bratty rich bitch behavior of Hollywood socialites. Music, arguably one of the most plebian-influencing activity, is caught in the deathgrip of "did you hear that Brittany cut off all her hair?" or "Jessica Simpson is dating John Mayer! No, they're not... oh, yes they are" or "Cameron Diaz just bitch-slapped Justin Timberlake at the Sunset Marquis." See -- nothing of any actual importance, in fact it's the kind of crappy drivel that people will talk about at the watercooler at the office or what they'll read about when 15 different photographs from 15 different photographers about the same subject on 10 different magazines... er, tabloids masquerading as magazines.

So where are we actually with music without the continuous mulch of bullshit.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

A Surprise for the Establishment

What can I say, Obama in '08 is probably the least surprising thing about Washington politics since Bush won AGAIN in '04. Mainly because I remember people talking about Barak that half-Naija/half-white junior senator from Illinois as a possible presidential candidate before he even took the Oath of Office for Senator!

I figure he has to spend all of his time creating a platform, and unlike most white politicians I seriously doubt that Barak has any skeletons in his closet -- no mistresses, no cocaine-abuse, no fake military service that Daddy can erase with the wave of a hand, no junkie wives, little known drug use, no homosexual sibilings or children, no affiliation with crooked business men, no war time scandal that comes back to haunt. All those things that if the GOP found out about they would crucify him before the Primaries.

Obama's time has CEO of the Harvard Law Review is where people will look to smack him and go negative, but even then I suspect that's

Black People in his generation, who want to go in to politics, know that whitey is out to fade, so they've been working for a long time to stay on the straight and narrow. 'Cause if ya thought skulldugger practictioners like Carl Rove stick hot pokers up the ass of people like John McCain, John Kerry or Bill Bradley -- imagine how much Rove AND HIS WHOLE CREW would like to skewer a nigga looking to hold the highest office in the land.

Let's not forget that MANY a people claimed that having Bill Clinton in the white house was a dry run for how a nigga would behave up in there! In fact, Clinton lauded by many in the Black community for acting like "we would" when he was getting lynching for using a Monte Cristo as a sex toy.

I'm reading this Rolling Stone article on Barak, and I'm getting a copy of his book from the LA Library (still homeless, so buy copies of hardbacks only works to hurt my back more) to read up on what Barak's mind-state is, 'cause if he can win the Democratic nomation... this country is about to have a dose of the racial tension that nearly drowned it after the OJ Trial.

What will happen is that because there is precious little SHIT to smear on Barak, the GOP and any right leaning Democratic, will just pull up the race card as the political game of Texas No Limit is played over the next 21 months.

Speaking of No Limit, there's been estimates that $100 million (if not quite a lot more) will need to spent to capture the White House this time. When I heard that I was like, WHAT THE FUCK? I might have miss heard, when they actually meant a billion dollars. It was on NPR, and apparently there was a breakdown on what Bush and Kerry spent their money on, so I have to check that out -- as that kind of green is obscene, particularly since Bush wasted all the United States' political capital internationally and the Country's economy doesn't affect the globe the way it used to.

But still that's a lot of money for a SINGLE campaign. I'm obviously in the wrong business, I need to be one of those guys on K-Street who collect bucks hand over fist just to peddle influence!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The price of Beauty


Ever heard of Taiza Thomsen? Yeah, me neither. But anyway, she was the 2002 Miss Brazil and she fled the scene shortly afterwards and people thought she was the victim of fould play or kidnapping. Yet, she was doing well and good living in isolation in London. Even her parents didn't know where the hell she was. Taiza just wants to be left alone... that classic line uttered by Greta Garbo still has weight.

Apparently, being crown a fuck object in the world's most sexually explicit country isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Reverse Beatdown!


Birth of Fade Nigga Nation
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.
This past week saw the "guilty" verdict handed down in Long Beach, CA in regards to a hate crime that occurred last Halloween in which at least 10 Black Youths beat THE FUCK OUT of three white girls (in their late teens/early 20s) -- and when I say beat down, I mean damn near massacring these babes and these niggas shouted: 'fucking whites! fucking whites" -- which immediately turned the attempted murder into a hate crime.

Skateboards and Timberlands were the weapons of choice, which lead to possible loss of eyesight, brokens ribs, arms and face bones.

Not to mention psychic scarring -- best believe these white chicks will think twice about even walking down the same sidewalk with a bunch of niggas!

Not pretty to say the least.

This event no doubt polarized the community in Long Beach... that sleepy town just south of Los Angeles that gave birth to Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz (who ironically were at the same high school at the same time), and doesn't crop up in the news -- at least the national news that much -- but there it was front and center.

Apparently, 9 out of 10 "Black Youths" were found guilty, but ironically they're only either facing time in the Juvenile Facilty or Probation!

For that kind of asswhipping?!?! I'm surprised they're not being hunted down and strung up by Aryans or by these Latino gangbangers that are looking to make a name for themselves by slaughter niggas in broad daylight.

Racial tensions erupt more and more in SoCal, because the economic situation continues to grow bleaker and bleaker, but people don't give a good fuck. Everyone is so concerned about their personal and familial struggles that they might be seeing that LA County is approaching the tipping point in terms it's ability to provided wages that aren't being eaten by inflation and extreme competiton that could provide extended prosperity for the bulk of the population.

Biggest issue facing SoCal is -- what does this part of the nation produce (that's in the urbanized zones) that couldn't be farmed out to India or Southeast Asia for pennies on the dollar in savings?

Not much... induststry is so threadbare compared to what it was in just late 80s, and yet 1000 people move to this city/county every fucking day.

Can anyone say, "Blade Runner?"

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Niggas vs Spics!


Armed Troops in Liberia
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.
Ya know what the social topic of the month is in LA? A surprising strange rise of Spics killing Niggas in the mean streets of LA -- and not for drug beef, but still a simple factor of territory control.

It seems that latinos in LA are looking to reclamate certain parts of the city from the "negro menance" and they're killing innocent Blacks (like 14 year old girls) to send a message -- "Darkies get out!" The ghettos of LA have given

This one spic fool was interviewed on the radio talking about how Black people are "unclean and that they bring ghettoism." Like that's a word (more on that in a sec). Quite frankly I was shocked, because if you look at these poor Hispanic neighborhoods that have their own style of ghetto traits and sanitary habits that would make a OCD Victim kill themselves... not to mention the smell of refried beans permeates the air, the carpet and the walls of low income and poverty level latino communities.

Who would think that these two groups -- both people of color with an oppressed past in the US -- would turn on each other! Just goes to show that Afro-Americans never catch a break.

However these latinos need to recognize that all the Civil Rights work that Black people spearheaded, took the most ass-beatings and raised enough shit so MEXICANS could get a fair shake -- and here they go capping niggas for kicks and claiming that all niggas are good for is bringing ghettoism to their 'hoods.

The thing about Latino/Black gang violence is that the concept of "stopping it" has to come from a pure desire to reconcile in respect to a purely subjective issue -- it's not about drugs, it's just about skin color -- the perpertual problem of America for all times.

But back to this term "ghettoism" -- the way that word is used in popular culture days lets me know that Black people took ownership of that word throughout the mid 90s in rap music and made it a badge of dubious honor. So much so that the rest of the American population use the word ghetto as an adjective to describe behavior that is decidedly classless, behavior that has no shame, behavior that is indicative of generations of institutional racism, poverty and iirational assault by whites.

I don't know how this new crop of racial violence is going to pan. I assume that it'll only get worse and the reprisal attacks will get more and more random, striking complete innocents and then when it encroaches into the white part of town, then and only then will the police and maybe even the national guard come out and crack down on the bullshit.

Congress Wants To Line Your Pocket


$20 Stacks
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.
Well... not really, but what Congress wants to do is raise the minimum wage... to a whopping $7.25/hour!!!!

Yeah, the price of a Large Value Meal at Wendy's.

The concept of a minimum wage is a misnomer. It is basically a wage that curbs peoples appetite for turning to crime to get by and/or avoids insanity (which usually leads to homelessness). That's not to say one doesn't need to have to two or three minimum wage jobs just to survive.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Brothers Gonna Work It Out!!!


I didn't know if this day would come before or after I had children, and I'm glad it's happened before -- what am I talking about? Well, we know that the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears are headed for a showdown in the SuperBowl, but is must remarkable is that no matter what happens A NIGGA IS GOING TO WALK AWAY WITH THE VINCE LOMBARDI TROPHY.

Yeah, that's right.
It's either Tony Dungy, who's been paying his dues since like forever, or Lovey Smith, who I'm sure has been paying his dues just as long, but not with the media spotlight that Dungy has had since Dungy's been a premiere NFL head coach for at leat 5 years.

After all those years of the Good Ole Boys claiming that Black men didn't have the mental capacity to be quarterbacks, let alone head coach in the NATIONAL Football League. Hats off to those Brothers.

You know the thing about it is Dungy and Smith are no doubt opening the doors for other minority head coaches, but I wonder if we'll see an Asian (any style - Indian, Chinese, Samoan) get on within the next decade or so (unless there already is one, I don't follow the pigskin gladiators all that much).

It's such a big thing though, because Black people -- particularly Black men -- have been systematically, institutionally and continually told that they don't have the "intelligence" to really kick it live in any era of so-called modern America. And yet here we are having two Brothas vie for the prize of all prizes, and in an era that is more complicated - technology-wise - than we've ever seen in pro football (in pro sports in general). That says something to me more than the fact that they are Black and are coaching, as there have been Black football coaches in college for quite sometime -- ever since all-Black colleges and universities suited up teams for the combat on the gridiron.

I wonder if Lombardi is spinning in his grave? I'm up on the fact if he kept niggas down or not, or even if he had niggas playing for the Packers (I doubt it though, too cold for Blacks to be up there anyway...)

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Uh... is this what it has come down to?


I mean come on, now!!!! What the fuck?!?

But of course we know that a nigger can be Prez before a bitch...
Still I don't know if Hillary Clinton in '08 is a good prospect for the Country, much like Obama, Clinton immediately creates polarization amongst the voting populace. Since she's a double lightning rod for the GOP -- a bitch and a Clinton -- it gives the GOP a perfect sounding board for the "Get Out The Vote" campaign that they're going to need for the general election.

As much as I want to see Obama win the ticket, win the White House, I can see the election looking just like the 2000 election when the country was so split down Red/Blue State lines, with Obama potentially taking the popular vote (although highly unlikely, 'cause he's of Nigerian descent) and whoever the GOP prop up with Carl Rove dirty tricks winning the electorial college voting.

The same thing would happen with Hillary, and that's if she can get over the fact that she's a woman. Too many men AND WOMEN operate under the assumption that Women don't have the true-grit mindset to deal the confrontational nature of national and international politics... I think outside of Britain, the Philippines and India, there hasn't been a female leader on the world stage... until that new PM of Germany won oh, so recently. Britain and Germany get a pass, because the systematic debasing of women isn't part of their culture the way it is the land of the free, the home of the brave (my favorite oxymoron in the history of the world).

You have to realize that the GOP are going to capitalize on Hillary's scorned woman persona that she has left behind... not tripping and standing behind her man (good ole Bill) might look like she's soft and will accept being slighted to her core. Imagine the similar questions that were asked of Michael Dukakis about his wife getting raped, being aimed at Hillary? I'm shuddering now, and if she ever just once even has tears welling up in her eyes SHE IS THROUGH, completely and utterly.

The '08 means more to the GOP than it does to the Dems, because if they lose after Dubya's assfucking of the country (Iraw debacle, economy, domestic civil rights policies, sucking Big Businesses dick) then they'll be out of the national power circle for some time. As it's hard to believe that they'll win back the Congress this time around, too. Not to mention any new supreme court appointments.

I just don't want to see the Monica Lewinsky shit get rehashed AGAIN, and it will be. I can see Carl Rove know pulling up the video tape from the archives already, getting ready to smash the prospect of women president -- in general, let alone Hillary -- by showing the bullshit media coverage of "Cigar-in-the-pussy-gate."

The election season just got cranked up to nasty level 12...

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I'm single now, so.... who wants to fuck?!



Did you see the Golden Globes on Monday? Yeah, blah, blah, blah, -- nothing exciting except for Helen Mirren (at 60 she still looks sexy, and you know from his recent appearance in the Caligula remake, she's still freaky) but Reese Witherspoon perhaps looked the best, nay the most fuckable that I've ever seen her...

Of course she always looks movie star beautiful when ever she's OUT at events to get photographed, but this is her first time amongst the rich & beautiful since her split from what's his name, and she HAD to look extra hot, to let people know that, "okay, yes, I'm sexy, but I'm not getting sex right now -- so all you hot, young men who want to get down, don't not think of me as the Sexiest MILF you'll get to see.

Considering that she's way under 30, she is probably one of the primest catches in Hollywood at the moment; and since she's done with her first marriage, she's most likely to "do it right" the second time around... which is basically what they say, "the first one is practice."


Monday, January 15, 2007

Return of the Show of Shows


No, not Syd Casear, but the return of Jack Bauer and the gang at CTU! I've been telling people since the very beginning that this is TV best show since the invention of cable TV networks. Sure, THE WIRE and update of BATTLESTAR GALATTICA and SEINFELD fall within the pantheon of great shows, but they're not as captivating and addictive as "24".

"24" is maybe the most gripping piece of televised drama that we'll ever likely see -- the editing style (which changed the game) and the pulse-pounding storylines were finally reward for an industry-insider award -- The Emmy this past fall. While some people complain about some of the logic in the show, "that's not real", I'm like, "fuck off, it's TV" -- because all that TV has to do is deliver 40 minutes of truthful emotions within in believeable scenes, so if any individual scene bends reality but its emotional core is true... then the scene works, and the show wins (for example car bombs that are wired to the ignition, I was reading up on how that happens, and most of the time the victim survives the actual explosion).

The thing about this scene of Jack Bauer's exploits is that we see a broken man tracking down terrorists under the auspecies of a presidential administration that is ready to suspend civil rights & liberities at a moments notice to get the answers that it wants... which closely resembles what's actually going on in the Dubya Bush administration. You have to love the way a TV show can criticize what's going on within the Beltway, and seem like its grandstanding on a soapbox.

What like so far about the latest daily installment is that Bauer, who was used to using torture to extract information, has been the victim of dehumanizing physical & mental abuse at the hands of the Chinese (before this season began) and he's unable to take on the "mindset" to be an effective counter-terrorist... or at least he's unsure of his abilities... which again makes for fantastic drama. And Bauer is initially released from the Chinese, because he's to be traded for information about an Arab terrorist; Bauer tortured and killed a defecting terrorists brother several years ago and now that dude -- in perfect Arabian mode of eye-for-an-eye -- wants to torture then murder Bauer... however, Bauer does escape.

It's an intersting prospect to consider what would happen if the names and addresses of the Haliburton-hired private contractors who ordered or carried out some of the most heinous toruture for info extraction purposes in Iraq, was leaked to terrorist cells operating here inside the US? It calls into question the concept of War Crimes by private citizens... what's the purview for that?

Anyway, the second part of "24"'s season openner is in about 3 hours, so I gotta get back to rousing the rabble on another subject...

Whole Sale Slaughterin'

You Want This Fuckin' Oil? Come and Get It
Niggas cain't help but kill themselves, and over the most stupid things you can think of. I was listening to a report that in the past week in New Orleans there have been 8 murders! 8! The wackest of them all was the murder of the drummer for the Hot Eight Brass Band, because his death was apparently random violence.

Ray Nagan needs to get his ass in gear and put a lock down on that city. If you think about there is more killings per capita in New Orleans than any place else in the United States. The population is so small well under a million people, yet you get a person getting killed everyday - maybe even a few people each day. Over drugs and gold and women... three things that don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, yet a triumvirate that holds sway over niggas like you won't believe!


Pimp'd Out Hummer Limo

And let's not mention Darrent Williams senseless killing on New Year's Eve! And what's even worse is not no one wants to come forward and drop a dime on the killers; who are apparent gangstas with some fear on the street rep. Being a snitch is the worst thing possible in the world of street niggas, because at a certain level one is perpetuating violence, abuse and gangsterism by not fingering dirty, society endangering people. But then again the police are going to do what they gotta do to bring you down, and for Blacks in America the history of getting taken down by Cops with trumped up charges and confessions has been too much.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Aren't You Curious...

So from time to time a serious bout of perversity invades my mental state, and I'm always wondering where the hell did that come from... well this clip below is probably what gave birth to it. It's a trailer to a fictionalized remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula. Take a look and then we'll get back to the good stuff...


When I was a college refreshman there was a lot of talk about FINALLY getting a chance to see the original film starring Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren (who coincidentally shows up in the remake, I wonder what a weekend with her would have been like in her prime?!!) -- we had to get on a waiting list that was like six weeks of people. When my night finally came, I think about 15 to 20 people came to my room and we sat down to watch the film, and slowly minute by minute people began to drift out of the room from the highly, highly perverse and dehumanizing and disgusting sexual acts, sexually-charged violence and outright brutallity until there was maybe two or three people left (I left myself maybe 30 to 45 minutes in, just too disturbing; didn't want those images in my head... at least that's what I thought at the time).

However, here it is 17 years later and after seeing the frank/explicit sexual images in this film clip (which reminded me of the uncut sequence of sexual barbarism -- if you could call it that -- in EYES WIDE SHUT) I have to say that those images and the ideas expressed in Tinto Brass's CALIGULA easily shaped a look of the darker sexual imagations that I have today. Makes me wonder what other films have done to shape the minds of others...

I'll leave you with this: consider this... to be uninhibited about one's own sexual acitvities is not the same as being unshockable...

From Camp David to Concentration Camps?

Have you read the Peanut Farmer President’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”? I’ve haven’t yet, but it’s next in line for me, particularly after reading an article in today’s NYTimes that 14 of Atlanta’s business and civic leaders resigned from the Carter Center’s advisory board on Thursday to protest Jimmy’s recent criticisms of Israel and American Jewish political power.

Their multi-signature letter of “I’m quitting, peace!” dragged the best-selling book through the mud for its [scathing?] criticisms of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. The letter also took issue with comments Mr. Carter has made suggesting that Israel’s supporters in the United States are using their power to stifle debate on the issue.
Here’s a quote from the letter, “It seems you have turned to a world of advocacy, even malicious advocacy,” the letter said. “We can no longer endorse your strident and uncompromising position. This is not the Carter Center or the Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support.” .

Now, Carter has a STRONG point that Israel’s backers in the US do quell any meaningful questioning of the US’ near 60 year unwavering, unquestioning support of Israel – even when it’s damaging to our oil & security interests in the so-called Holy Land region.

Truth be told you can’t criticize the current US-Israel foreign policy, by doing so it is de facto consider anti-Semitic and brings up charges of denying the suffering Jews faced during the 1930s & 40s during the Nazi pogroms...

That's a little problematic in my book, because the security concerns that are plaguing our nation, having all these troops sent to the Middle East to get killed (ranging all the way back to the Beirut bombing in 1984) stems from an unwillingness by the people of the United States and its government to approach the problems of the Holy Land (and the subsequent seepage into the rest of the Western world) with a neutral gaze.

There was a film I saw earlier this year called “Paradise Now” or something like that, it was from the Palestinian Territories and it followed two mid20s Arabs who wanted to become suicide bombers and blow up themselves and good chunk of Israelis in Jerusalem. And I was captivated on the depiction of everyday life in the occupied territories, just the location footage alone was enough to make you say, FUCK...

Is comparing the treatment of the Palestinians in refugee camps for close to 60s years comparable to Apartheid?

I’ma say, “Hell yeah!! ‘Cause muthafuckas who ain’t got no cribs for Big Mama and Big Mama’s mama -- let's be real, now, they had their cribs stolen from them --and are treated like the worst bunch of foul peoples on the face of the planet (that might be that regardless though) smacks of being too close to the P.W. Botha government view of niggas in South Africa.

Maybe it ain’t right to compare these apples and oranges (as the South Africans were extremely docile compared to the rock-thrown-at-tank Palestinians), but there ain't no reason for the issue not to be debated, and if Israel and its US supporters need to be put on Front Street for the hypocracy... then so be it!

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