tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-141699252024-03-13T05:19:21.735-04:00Big Media Vandalism"No wising up and no settling down."
Guy DebordSteven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.comBlogger253125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-32804255942103815032020-05-13T19:03:00.004-04:002020-05-13T19:25:53.889-04:00Celebrating Stevie: List Four: 10 Wonderful Surprisesby Odienator<br />
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Happy 70th birthday, Stevie Wonder!</div>
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This is a milestone for one of the greatest singer-songwriters in the history of music! As a fellow Taurus and a lifelong fan, I salute his longevity, his activism and his love of humanity. And of course, I worship his talent, as evidenced by the <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-stevie-list-one-15.html" target="_blank">three list-like pieces</a> I wrote about him here at Big Media Vandalism back in 2013 and 2014. I say "list-like" because, besides my number one choices, the other numbers really don't mean shit. I just put them in to troll you AND I told you this up front. I also told you this was not a "best of" list series in <b>ANY REGARD</b>. Some of you jackasses still wrote me to complain about ordering and what I left off.</div>
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I had no intention of writing a fourth list because this project was designed as a trilogy and my math degree will not allow me to squeeze a fourth item into something meant for <i>exactly three</i> items. But this is a milestone May birthday not only for Stevie but for me also. On May 11th, I turned 50, which means my mother was rocking my cradle in time with my favorite Stevie song, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvRwR-hZDVY" target="_blank"><i>Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours</i></a>. That came out in June of 1970 and was written by a 20 year old with three prior Grammy nominations under his belt and 25 Grammy wins ahead of him. (He'd lose for this song, however, to nasty ol' fellow blind man, Clarence Carter's <i>Patches</i>.) </div>
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Stevie's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81DNcMGtUqU" target="_blank">first hit</a> was <b><i>57 years ago</i></b>.<b><i> </i></b>Just think about that for a second. I went to Wikipedia to see what you get for your 57th anniversary. You don't get shit. It's an off-anniversary! But for your 70th anniversary, you get Platinum. And what is a birthday but an anniversary of your marriage to life? Of course, Stevie got his platinum long before turned 70. In fact, <i>Hotter than July</i> went platinum was Stevie was 30 and I was ten. </div>
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So, trilogy be damned! The man deserves another list, not just on the 70th anniversary of his life but as a 50th anniversary present for my own battle with life. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>This is the <b>fourth</b> of what was originally three lists of Stevie Wonder songs. The lists are here and you should read them in this order: </i></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-stevie-list-one-15.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Love is Wonderful</i></b></a></span> </li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/06/celebrating-stevie-list-two-15-songs-of.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Peace, God and Protest </i></b></a> <b><i><br /></i></b></span></li>
<li><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2014/05/celebrating-stevie-list-three-10.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>What the Fuss?</i></b></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i> </i></b></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For a fourth list, I needed a new concept. I had already done the random thing (see <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2014/05/celebrating-stevie-list-three-10.html" target="_blank">list 3</a>), love songs and protest songs. So this one is all about Stevie Wonder surprises. I won't define what a "surprise" is; that's on you to figure out. I will say that one of the songs on this list is the worst song Stevie ever wrote. The rest of them are great songs at best, good and intriguing songs at worst. <br /><br />Since I know y'all hate reading and love bitching, here's a handy list of the 40 songs I've <b><i>already</i></b> covered in this series. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On with the show! As if I need to remind you: The numbers don't mean shit!</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Herewith: 10 Wonderful Surprises.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">10. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNMMN46uFCc" target="_blank"><i>Faith</i></a>- My first pitch on the mound is a batshit curveball! No, this isn't a remake of George Michael's classic solo debut single (though I'd empty my bank account to see Stevie shaking his ass in a pair of tight jeans while strumming a guitar in a remake of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cs3Pvmmv0E" target="_blank">that song's video</a>). This is a song on the soundtrack of the animated feature <i>Sing</i>, a duet between Stevie and Ariana Grande. Now, I'm way too old to even know who Ariana Grande is, but age didn't stop Stevie. How you stick around in this industry is by letting future generations know who you are. By teaming up with Grande for a cartoon, Stevie's all but guaranteeing that the grandkids of his original fans will <i>also</i> know who he is. And sue me, but the song's kinda catchy, especially when Stevie works the chorus. This is the only entry where I'll tell you what the surprise is: Despite what <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3470600/awards?ref_=tt_awd" target="_blank">imDB tells you</a>, this is the only song in this entire series that <i>Stevie Wonder did not write</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">9. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m5EqYSlQV8" target="_blank"><i>I Ain't Gonna Stand for It</i></a>- Remember when I said this list contained the worst song Stevie ever wrote? Well, this is it! My fellow Henderson, Eric Henderson, likes to tease me about this song and how misguided my choice is. Back in <a href="https://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-stevie-list-one-15.html" target="_blank">list one</a>, I went to bat for what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhEFQ7qVZlk" target="_blank"><i>everybody else</i> thinks is Stevie's worst song</a>. I disagree with y'all's choice, and so did the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhyvt3APwAE" target="_blank">Academy Awards</a>. To quote Stevie, "somebody's been pickin' in ya charry trayyy!"</span></div>
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<i>"My album still went platinum, Odie. So, you can kiss my Natural Black braids!"</i></div>
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Here's the thing: <i>I Ain't Gonna Stand for It</i> isn't a bad song by itself. I really appreciate that Stevie followed in the country music footsteps of Georgia's own Ray Charles, The Commodores' own Lionel Richie and Oakland's own The Pointer Sisters (who won a Grammy for their masterful country song, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQWgKvvbT1g" target="_blank"><i>Fairytale</i></a>). But they had something Stevie doesn't: They can master a Southern accent, either by default (Richie's from Alabama, for Cripe's Sake) or by mimicry (Anita, June, Bonnie and Ruth Pointer). Stevie cannot pull this shit off. Perhaps this is the ONLY thing Stevie can't do well. Get some White boy with a twang--or Hootie--to sing this, and we might be onto something here.</div>
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I kinda think Stevie's fucking with us on this one by making his "Southern" drawl intentionally bad. Be that as it may, it still torpedoes the song! No matter: <u><i><b>Bad Stevie is still better than most people's masterpieces.</b></i></u></div>
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8. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9bSLd5KzDQ" target="_blank"><i>Maybe Your Baby</i></a>- Stevie's "heart is blazing like a 5-alarm fire" and the lighter fluid is the incredibly funky music underneath his vocal. You can easily tie this second song on <i>Talking Book</i> to at least two of Stevie's later hits: The perfect groove on <i>You Haven't Done Nothin'</i> ups the funk quotient exponentially and a certain song on <i>Songs In The Key Of Life</i> takes this song's romantic masochism to a shocking yet appropriate extreme. More on that latter one later. For now, enjoy shakin' ya ass while being taunted by a title-including chorus that toys with your suspicious heart like a cat with a mouse: "Maybe Your Baby done made some other plans!" it teases just before Stevie mutters a word that sounds like "<i>shit!</i>" in frustration. (Listen at around 1:27.) As an added bonus, the electric guitar is provided by the guy Stevie beat for that aforementioned Oscar, Ray Parker Jr.</div>
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7. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5TsV4SDyY" target="_blank">Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer</a></i>- It wouldn't be a Stevie list without a sad song, so here it is. This 1971 collaboration between Stevie and then-wife Syreeta Wright takes a favorite metaphor of his, the seasons, and fashions out of them the hauntingly sad arc of a lover's broken promises. "You said you would be warm love in springtime," Stevie sings, "that is is when you started to be cold." It's important to note how devastated Stevie sounds here--his still-youthful 21-year old voice makes the pain feel like your first heartbreak, you know the one where you thought the world was just going to fucking end. And yet, the words are ageless; the emotionally battle-scarred voice of a 59-year old singer could sell this song on another, equally devastating though more mature level. I know, because this is the song Stevie sang at Michael Jackson's memorial service.<br />
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6. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkF_u-_mm0Q" target="_blank">We Can Work It Out</a></i>- Flip the 45 of number 7 over and play this remake. Perhaps the greatest cover of a Beatles song, though the more I think about it, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u0OwmlNfF4" target="_blank">James Brown's take on <i>Something</i></a> might be a tad better. Like James' version, Stevie takes this in a different direction, respecting the original's composition while remaking it entirely in his image. You can hear John and Paul rattling about in the bones of this thing, but everything else about it is pure Stevie. From the distorted opening notes, to the harmonica solo in the middle, to the surprise of the tambourine shaking during the "life is very short and there's no time" bridge, this is how you do a cover. The subject matter is also a perfect fit for the man who sang a helluva lot of songs of peace, love and protest. </div>
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5. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akwvng0SEjA" target="_blank">Creepin'</a></i>- There's a reason Lufer, I mean LUTHER Vandross chose this as the afterglow to follow the astronomical sex of his biggest baby-makin' hit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk7AaKAnPKY" target="_blank"><i>If Only For One Night</i></a>. This is as mellow smooth as Maxwell, a relaxing moment of introspection as you try to catch your post-coital breath. Stevie also has it follow a song about fuckin' on <i>Fulfillingness' First Finale</i>, but that song is the uptempo jam <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XauJUkYrso" target="_blank"><i>Boogie on Reggae Woman</i></a>, perhaps the raunchiest song in Wonder's canon. The ass is so good in both the songs that precede it that the person has become your own personal Freddy Krueger. "Why must it be that you always creep in my dreams?" asks Stevie before describing what sounds like <i>Wet Dream on Elm Street</i>: "When I sleep at night, I feel those moments of ecstasy." Add to this a sweet harmonica solo, a hesitant moment of doubt and the impeccable voice of Maya Rudolph's Ma Minnie Riperton on backgrounds and you've got a romantic keeper.</div>
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<i>Master Song Thief Luther ALMOST steals this song from Stevie. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFe5rWsF2Os" target="_blank">Almost!</a></i></div>
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4. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ETI30Oyhc" target="_blank"><i>St. Louis Blues</i></a>- Remember when Herbie Hancock played them keyboards on Stevie's 2nd greatest song, <i>As</i>? Well, Stevie returns the favor by providing vocals and harmonica on Hancock's take on W.C. Handy's "jazzman's Hamlet." They got some big shoes to fill here, considering that Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, Count Basie, Der Bingle, Glenn Miller, Pete Seeger, Billie Holiday, the goddamn Boston Pops AND even Dr. House himself, Hugh Laurie, have taken cracks at it. Did I mention this song is 106 years old? It was 85 when Stevie sunk his teeth into it, and for his trouble, he won two Grammys. This dame he's singing about is a bad mama jama too! "St. Louis Woman with her diamond ring," begins Stevie, "she pulls that man around by her apron strings." Late in the song, he deadpans "if you see me with a St. Louis Woman, slap me before <b><i>she slap me</i></b>!" Behind him, this menagerie of animals posing as jazz instruments fill the speakers. I wouldn't dare say Stevie bests Bessie Smith here, but she might well have slapped him for sounding this good had she heard this version.</div>
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3. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeglBEZSnyQ" target="_blank">Hey Love</a></i>- We had young heartbreak on here, so let's have some young love to balance it out. While 70's era Stevie's voice, especially in his major run of albums, brought him the most success and remains the strongest of all his singing eras, I've always been partial to his adolescent voice. You can find it in famous songs like <i>My Cherie Amour</i> and <i>Uptight</i>, but the purity of it on this song is unmatched. I almost went with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZnXclm0Bs" target="_blank"><i>I Was Made To Love Her</i></a> here, with its great line about being "knee high to a chicken," and its stronger vocal, but this song had an in: Just like The Temptations' version of Rudolph, this is a song I cannot help but sing a line from whenever it comes on. I could be doing God Knows What anywhere on God's Green Earth, and if this song comes on, I will drop everything to sing "HEY-AY-AY-AY LOVE!!" </div>
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2. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se0g2f5Ub0A" target="_blank">Ordinary Pain</a></i>- When Betty Wright died recently, everyone was tweeting <i>The Clean Up Woman</i> and <i>Tonight's the Night</i> in her honor. I tweeted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1C41hRkwV4" target="_blank"><i>She's Got Papers on Me</i></a>, a song she didn't get credit for singing. But she's on it with a vengeance! And her appearance is a huge shock. It always made me think of the similar trick Stevie pulls on this song. The first 2:41 of the song is, dare I say, a bit uneventful. It has some wonderful background vocals by Niecy and others but Stevie's lyrics are, to quote Addison DeWitt, "maudlin and full of self-pity." They're so self-consciously so that you start to wonder if every sad love song, even the great ones, is really this way. Stevie even sounds a bit whiny, to the point where you almost want to say "Jesus, man, you're really self-serving and pathetic right now!"</div>
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<b>Stevie is fucking with you.</b></div>
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<i>"Lemme take my glasses off for this..."</i></div>
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The song ends, or so it seems, at 2:41. You look at the album cover and go "hey, wait a minute, Stevie! You owe me 3 and half more minutes!" He's going to give it to you alright!</div>
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Or rather, Shirley Brewer is going to give it to you. Suddenly, this becomes a funky answer record! You know that woman Stevie was singing about, the one who made him miserable? Well, she's here and she sums up his sad little number in the first line she utters: "You're just a masochistic fool!" she growls, "because you knew my love was cruel!" It's all downhill from there for poor Stevie. She reads him six ways til Sunday, to the point where you almost feel bad about how hard this lady is kicking his ass. It would be unbearable, that is, if you could stop dancing for one second to feel bad for him. Suddenly, all those sad love songs Stevie sang take on a different look! Perhaps those mopey, heartbroken men aren't entirely blameless for their situation! Maybe they wanted it! I've never been more confused while shaking my ass to a record before or since.</div>
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1. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TgQLmCfZcY" target="_blank">Fun Day</a></i>- Folks familiar with this series know of my undying love for the <i>Jungle Fever</i> soundtrack, so this list couldn't end without a song from it. Sometimes, Stevie Wonder songs are just unrepentant odes to joy. <i>Innervisions</i> contains his masterpiece in this regard, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsBc5p-dPU" target="_blank"><i>Don't You Worry Bout a Thing</i></a>. "This song makes me happy," I wrote about <i>Thing</i> back in list 2. "That's all I want to say about it." Well, this song makes me happy too, even moreso now that I'm trapped in the house as we all weather that pandemic caused by the Rona. Just listen to the words of this contraption, buoyed by a boisterous chorus of background singers, and let them take you on a carefree odyssey in your mind. "On a day like this, not even bad can rub you wrong," notes Stevie. He even gives you two solos on his most well-known instruments, the harmonica and the piano. It's an IV tube full of good feelings. And it contains a line that I will definitely quote the day I can once again roam around this Earth with impunity: "I cannot believe a day like this has come, that's if this really is." For now, however, I just have this song. And yes, it makes me happy.</div>
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<i>Stevie likes messing with the conspiracy theorists, y'know.</i></div>
odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-19734392528085091512020-04-03T15:16:00.002-04:002020-04-03T15:16:42.331-04:00We All Need Somebody To Lean Onby Odie "Odienator" Henderson<br />
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Music legend Bill Withers died today. He was 81 and no, the Rona didn't get him. According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/e19138ee60f29a319e45bcfba3e39331" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>, Withers died from heart complications. But dead is dead and gone is gone, no matter the delivered route, and this week seems an especially cruel one for music with Adam Schlesinger and Ellis Marsalis also passing away. So, as I sit here trapped in my apartment and my sadness, wondering if I'll yet again see the Harlem Withers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbbwiE2GgkE" target="_blank">once sang about</a>, here are a few words about the guy who, despite his legendary status, will always be <i>Still Bill</i> to those who loved him. </div>
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As a kid, I loved Bill Withers because he sang about his grandmother, specifically how she kept him <i>from getting his ass whupped </i>that one time...<br />
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<b><i>"Grandma's Hands</i></b><br />
<b><i>Boy, they really came in handy--she'd say:</i></b><br />
<b><i>'Mattie, don't you whip that boy</i></b><br />
<b><i>What you wanna spank him for?<br />He didn't drop no apple core..."</i></b><br />
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But I was, and remain, destroyed by the line that comes after this:</div>
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<b><i>"But I don't have Grandma anymore."</i></b></div>
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I lost my grandmother when I was 4 years old. It was my first of many dealings with death in the 50 years I've been on this Earth. I have two memories of her that I cherish and hold dear, both of which I wrote about on this very blog. I remember the long braid of hair she wrapped up into a bun on her head. I recall the religious candles that burned in her room and her telling me about Lana Turner's <i>Imitaiton of Life</i>. I have a vague recollection of her voice. I do not remember her hands, a body part which would have been unmemorable to the kind of 4-year old boy I was. </div>
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But Bill Withers remembered his grandmother's hands--and his grandmother--far more richly and expliclty than I remembered mine. And so, for the two minutes he sang about her on that record, Bill Withers' grandmother became <i>my</i> grandmother. Or rather, the kind of grandmother I wish I'd had or had lived in my memories. The type of gentle yet firm gramdma I saw my mother become. Nowadays, when my mother acts benevolently after my nieces and nephews do things that would have gotten me shot, I have no idea who this woman is. I feel like Mariah Carey. </div>
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But I digress. Withers' description of his grandmother was so simple, yet he created such a lasting visual in my young mind. I crafted an image of her hands comforting the local unwed mother and shaking that tambourine so well. I felt them picking me up each time I fell. Most importantly, I saw them when they "used to <b>isshuh</b> out a warning." Not issue--<i><b>isshuh</b></i>. That glorious West Virginia voice emanating from Bill Withers threw an extra dollop of Blackness on that word and I felt it in my nappy soul the way I felt when Lionel Richie turned <i>value</i> into val-<b>ya</b> and Stevie made something into <i>sumptin'</i>.</div>
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God, I loved Bill Withers' voice. The funny thing about it is that, until I was well into adolescence, I had no idea what Bill Withers looked like. Instead, I'd created an entire picture of him in my mind based entirely on that voice. And this wasn't in the late 80's when he disappeared from the limelight, we're talking about the 70's when the man was everywhere. Hell, he's on the album cover at the top of this piece. We had that album! How on Earth could I not know?</div>
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You see, what had happened was...</div>
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Back then, I'd never seen the album covers for <i>Just as I Am</i> or <i>Still Bill</i>. Those LPs were just in the white slips that came inside the album covers. My parents used to hide the album covers they thought were too nasty for my curious young eyes. So, I thought Bill Withers records looked like The Ohio Players records. Bill was all sticky because the lady leaning on him was covered in honey--or something like that. When I finally saw him in an old clip singing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEeaS6fuUoA" target="_blank"><i>Lovely Day</i></a> aka "that song whose impressively long notes make people pass out at karaoke," I discovered Bill Withers looked nothing like I'd envisioned. At least I got the Black part right.</div>
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Speaking of <i>Lean On Me</i>, I'm surprised some celebrity hasn't tried to record a new version of Withers' <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOZ-MySzAac" target="_blank">most well-known composition</a> for charitable contributions in this Time of the Rona. Really, there's no need to do that because we have the original song (and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyjaUJWWmk" target="_blank">Club Nouveau version</a> if you be jammin', you be jammin' hey). Despite having the most memorable opening chords in soul music history, and despite providing the title of one of the greatest bad movies of all time (and doing so expeditiously, I might add), <i>Lean on Me</i> is my least favorite Bill Withers song. I've heard it 22 million times and despite that rush of excitement I <i>still </i>get when it gets to the hand-clapping "just call on me, brother, when you need a hand" section, its status remains unchanged.</div>
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Don't get me wrong--<i>Lean on Me</i> is a masterpiece. But my triffling behind always leaned toward darker, rowdier Bill Withers songs like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4JtCCWB6Y4" target="_blank"><i>Who is He and What Is He To You</i></a> and my all-time favorite, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuYDKzky4z0" target="_blank"><i>Use Me</i></a>. The former is a menacing classic, a take on male paranoia so potent Bill doesn't even have to cuss to scare the bejeesus out of the listener; he says <i>daggumit </i>the way Sam Jackson says a certain word beginning with M. It contains my favorite of all Withers' lyrics: "before you wreck your old home, be certain of the new." </div>
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The latter song is a magnificently masochistic ode to ass so good it'll make you put up with the emotional mistreatment that goes with it. "You get me in a crowd of high class people and then you act real rude to me," Withers sings here, before adding "but oh baby, baby, baby, bay-baaaay, when you love me I can't get enough!" The exasperated, forceful and horny way Withers delivers that line contains more sex in it than a thousand dirty lyrics. Those who've been there understand, and those who haven't are gonna want to buy a bus ticket to that destination.</div>
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Withers could also be heartstoppingly romantic, again using his trademark lyrical simplicity to paint vivid pictures in the listener's heart, soul and mind. "Ain't No Sunshine when she's gone," he sings in the opening line of the lush and buttery <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PeyzXvvdmw" target="_blank"><i>Ain't No Sunshine</i></a>, and that's enough to spark the imagination. And the opening verse of his collaboration with Grover Washington Jr., <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOuI4OqJfQc" target="_blank"><i>Just the Two of Us</i></a>, uses nature to conjure up feelings of love to rival Stevie's best lyrics.</div>
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Thankfully, there's an excellent documentary on Bill Withers that you can watch in its entirety on YouTube. Even more thankfully, we have the music of this legendary singer-songwriter to inspire, enrapture and enterain us even as we mourn the loss of his physical presence. With a heavy heart and joy-filled ears, I say rest in peace to the man who not only gave us great music, but who provided the sample for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymZLKz7mac" target="_blank"><i>No Diggity</i></a>. Something tells me Grandma might not have stopped Teddy Riley from getting his ass beat for doing that. Here's hoping that Withers found her when he got to Heaven.</div>
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<i>That Bill Withers Doc I mentioned is here</i></div>
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<i>Y'all knew you weren't getting out of here without seeing this.</i></div>
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<br />odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-64681791330988815992019-04-03T12:58:00.001-04:002019-04-15T11:21:27.598-04:00Black Man Talk: Us: Stunning With Scissors<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Odie "Od<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ienator" Hender<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">son and Steven Boone</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(The
following is a conversation between Big Media Vandalism
founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie
Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other
installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2013/04/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone-133788/" target="_blank">42</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,</span> <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Lee Daniels' The Butler</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2014/10/black-man-talk-dear-white-people.html" target="_blank">Dea<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">r White Peop<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">le</span></span></a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/11/black-man-talk-12-years-slave.html" target="_blank">12 <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years a Slave</span></a></span>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2016/04/black-man-talk-sidney-poitier-defiance.html" target="_blank">Sidney Poitier</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2017/03/black-man-talk-get-out-never-trust-tea.html" target="_blank">Get Out</a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2018/03/black-man-talk-black-panther-wakanda.html" target="_blank">Black Panther</a>)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: red;">THIS IS VERY SPOILER<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">IFIC! DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>US</b>.</span></span></span> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #1: Odie</i></b></u></span></div>
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Brother Boone,<br />
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Time for another Black Man Talk! My proposed topic: Jordan Peele's new horror film, <i>Us</i>. It's already drawn big-league box office numbers and a ridiculous amount of thinkpieces, most of them by White folks just dying to sound woke. More power to them, but let's throw our two cents into this mix.</div>
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Speaking of the number 2, Chadwick Boseman originally held the record of <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">two</a> <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2018/03/black-man-talk-black-panther-wakanda.html" target="_blank">Black Man Talks</a> and now Jordan Peele joins him in the Two-Talk club. I'd love to see what the two of them would do together, but with Boseman's track record of playing every famous brother in history from Jackie Robinson to <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/get-on-up-2014" target="_blank">James Brown</a>, I'd be afraid the Boseman-Peele collab would be about a resurrected Frederick Douglass. Can you imagine Boseman as a pissed off Douglass, with grave dirt still in his hair, ringing the doorbell at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and saying to Donald Trump "oh, so I was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/" target="_blank">doing an amazing job</a> despite being dead for a hunnert and fourteen years, huh bitch?" I'd see that movie! Twice!</div>
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<i>We know Sam got that role locked up, tho'.</i></div>
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Until we get <i>F.D.'s Revenge</i>, let's focus on Peele's incredibly thorough mindfuck. Like Kubrick, everything in Peele's films is open for interpretation AND seems to have a genuine purpose even it it's only tangential to the main plot. Viewer theories will soon abound and they will not soon abate. Remember that documetary, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085910/" target="_blank"><i>Room 237</i></a>, about fan theories relating to Kubrick's version of <i>The Shining</i>? I saw that movie at 8am on a Saturday back when I covered the Toronto Film Festival. I was hung over and in no mood for the incessant ramblings of folks who thought Kubrick used Jack Torrence to confess that he faked the moon landing. <i>Us</i> could beget its own <i>Room 237</i>, but I propose that we not venture that microscopically into Peele's delectable minutiae; sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a pair of scissors is solely for cutting one's throat.</div>
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Besides, everybody knows that <b><i>Barry Lyndon</i></b> is where Kubrick owns up to faking the Moon landing. If you listen real closely, you can hear Kubrick whispering "Whitey was never <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4" target="_blank">on the moon</a>!" on the soundtrack exactly every 1,969 seconds.<span style="color: red;"><b>*</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><i>*</i></b></span><i>that oughta keep the Kubrick zealots busy for a while.</i></div>
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But I digress. I don't scare easily, but <i>Us</i> really got under my skin. Lupita Nyong'o played a major part in that, but let's return to her in a bit. Let me tell you why I felt a strange pang of familiarity while watching this movie.</div>
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When I was growing up broke and lonely in Jersey City, New Jersey, I amused myself with a "what-if?" scenario about my life. Like Margaret Mitchell's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0hTvKgsKsY" target="_blank">thot</a> from <i>Gone With The Wind</i>, I swore I'd never go hungry again if I got out the 'hood, but I wondered why I was hungry and poor in the first place. My theory was that there was another Odie, my twin, and that guy got everything I wasn't getting <i>but deserved to have</i>. That other Odie was the beneficiary of a confused God who was sending blessings meant for me to other Odie by accident. He looked down from Heaven and was like "<b>oh, there's an Odie! BLAM! Blessings, bitch!</b>" So, while I seethed as a have not, my doppelganger was getting all the money and the sex and the power earmarked for me when I was placed on this Earth. Granted, the Bible tells us God doesn't make mistakes, but look at the platypus or that big ass dent in the back of my head and tell me that shit wasn't a mistake.</div>
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To solve this grievous error, I needed to find Odie Prime. "And I need to kill him!" I thought.</div>
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Now I am sure I did not craft this theory on my own. I must have read something similar to it in my literary travels, or maybe heard a story like this. But as <i>Us</i> played out, I thought about those old ideas--things I had totally forgotten about once I became an adult--and it made the motivations of the Tethered and Lupita's twin roles even more intriguing to me. That pang of idea recognition made me think that <i>Us</i> is not just a movie about the privileges and underprivileges of class, it's also about the fear of having what you deserve and/or earned violently yanked away from you by the person behind you on that perceived ladder of success.</div>
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The American psyche is nurtured and poisoned by that <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Disputed" target="_blank">John Steinbeck misquote</a> that said poor folks see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. In our lifetimes, this idea really got exploited during the Reagan era, which is where <i>Us</i> places its prologue. We're old enough to remember the cultural climate during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hands_Across_America" target="_blank"><i>Hands Across America</i></a>. My mother thought it was an incredibly stupid idea to have a chain of people stretching across the country, holding hands like some church Fellowship gone viral, while making a symbolic gesture about the poor. It ran through my hometown on May 25, 1986, exactly a month before I graduated high school, and I did not go down there to participate.</div>
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Granted, <i>Hands Across America</i>, along with its sister cause <i>USA For Africa</i>, raised some money, much of it never reaching its destination. But it was such an empty gesture nonetheless, a means of allowing folks to say "I did something" when in actuality they hadn't done shit. It was the probable origin of "performative wokeness," which makes it a perfect metaphor for Peele's Tethered. They're going to do something about their situation besides hold hands and sing a shitty song.</div>
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<i>This went to number 65 on the Billboard Chart, folks.</i></div>
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What do you think about my <i>Hands Across America</i> side-eye? And did you notice what everyone's tether looked like, especially the ones played by Elizabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker? Can you think of any film where we followed a dark skinned Black nuclear family anywhere, let alone into a nightmare? And let's also talk about the skin complexion of evil when that evil is Black. And remind me to bring up my own scary trip to Santa Cruz. Perhaps you're talking to my tethered other right now...</div>
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...nah, I'm still too many blessings short of a church picnic. It's the real me you're dealing with today.</div>
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Ride that escalator down into the depths with me, Brother Boone. The floor is yours.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #2: Boone</i></b></u></span>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>A lot of recent movies have been labeled conversation-starters but in my experience have only started fights or echo chamber circle jerks (<i><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2018/12/causing-trouble-with-odienator-shirley.html" target="_blank">Green Book</a></i>, y'all?). <i>Us</i> is the first Big Ol' American Movie in a good while that seems alive with spontaneous thought and reflection rather than hashtag cues. Right now there's a cold war happening between the idea of audience as political constituency vs audience as <b>AUDIENCE</b>--distinct human beings going into the dark, hoping to be moved, shaken and even awed by the screen action. <i>Get Out</i> did a more elegant job of the latter than <i>Us</i>, but <i>Us</i> leaves, um, <b>us</b> with a lot more leftovers to take home.<br />
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I'm not sure if it's Boone Prime typing these words or my wayward other, but many have suspected that the election of Donald Trump, after an <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2016/07/is_2016_the_worst_year_in_history.html" target="_blank">unprecedented year of catastrophes</a> and famous deaths, signaled a detour down a dark alt timeline. Soon Cosby was in prison, Roseanne disgraced, Michael Jackson tried and convicted in <a href="https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/leaving-neverland" target="_blank">the court of HBO</a>. These add up to the pop omen equivalent of birds dropping out of the sky. <i>Us</i> is clever enough to seize the idea of a world askew by tracing back a few decades to the moment the <b>Evil Plan was Hatched</b>. In that sense his project reminds me of my friend, the experimental gonzo filmmaker <a href="https://www.popmatters.com/the-true-disco-inferno-the-films-of-damon-packard-2496196570.html" target="_blank">Damon Packard</a>, whose surreal comedies <i>Reflections of Evil, Space Disco, Foxfur</i> and <i>Fatal Pulse</i> all look back to the 70's, 80's and 90's, searching for the poisoned roots of the present late capitalist nightmare.</div>
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Like you, me and Packard (and style-jack auteurs like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0181903/" target="_blank">Panos Cosmatos</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3270827/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Peter Strickland</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3235877/" target="_blank">Ana Lily Amirpour</a>), Peele is Generation X down to the socks. While Millennials are largely interested in burning, skimming, sealing off or upgrading anything from the pop past that seems stale or irrelevant to the Now, Gen X nostalgists remember a time when the past and present existed in a chain of continuity: Then and Now are but different bends of the same river. It's a different approach from, say, Spike Lee (the world's oldest Millennial filmmaker) catering to the youthful BLM notion of "Wow, back in the 70's folks had the same struggles we do now!" which posits that the only thing that has changed are the haircuts. </div>
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A film like <i>Us</i> reflects that everything is always changing, that the dopplegangers are not separated by time (a la the social media memes along the lines of "Look, a pic of a 1908 Jonah Hill lookalike!") but by timeline; that in both the benevolent timeline and the evil one, there are people living out whatever life they've been given, growing older, accruing more experience, wisdom, bitterness, rot, whatever. What doesn't change is a social power structure that foresaw how to maintain its grip on the population, decades in advance. That's the real horror.</div>
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We all laughed at do-gooder stunts like Hands Across America, Live Aid, USA for Africa (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI" target="_blank"><i>We Are the World</i></a>) and <i>Do they Know It's Christmas?</i> but it was a troubled laugh. Underneath it there was a genuine yearning for a world that wasn't so greedy and selfish. We were little kids then, born when everybody from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_8-4kioxO0" target="_blank">John Lennon</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib-Qiyklq-Q" target="_blank">Coca-Cola</a> were trying to get everybody on earth to sing together, so we couldn't be 100% cynical about it. Peele's joke is that we're still attempting the gesture 40 years later, even as social media guarantee we needn't touch another hand, cater to or be considerate of anyone outside our networks. As has probably been noted in a dozen think pieces by now, maybe we, not the Tethered, are the Romero zombies going through the motions at the abandoned mall.</div>
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You asked for my thoughts on the "Tethered" look. The Tethered generally looked smoked, pan-seared, kind of like the vampires in Peele's '80s touchstone, <i>The Lost Boys</i>. The lighter skinned and white ones could be meth heads. The black Tethered looked cracked out. As Peele (ill-advisedly, IMO) gave us longer and longer looks at them, I wondered if <i>Us</i> could also be read as an elaborate metaphor for rehab. (Notice how the Tylers couldn't make it five minutes without a drink.) Their wine-colored jumpsuits notwithstanding, I could picture the Tethered Wilsons caught on Walmart surveillance camera boosting Cheetos.</div>
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You asked, "Can you think of any film where we followed a dark skinned Black nuclear family (two kids, but alas, no dog) anywhere, let alone into a nightmare?" Sounder? I know I'm cheating there, genre-wise, but <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2011/02/boy-his-dog-and-his-daddy.html" target="_blank">you get what I mean</a>. The scariest nightmare for a dark-skinned Black nuclear family is the one that slavery, Jim Crow, law enforcement and Welfare created by lawfully tearing it apart. There were many specific narrative reasons for the unstated tension in the cheerful opening car ride, but even without story context, the dissonance works for anyone who has had to live a <b>Black Life in America</b>.</div>
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Which reminds me, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU IN SANTA CRUZ? Nigro, SHOW ME YOUR NECK! </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #3: Odie</i></b></u></span>
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Peele tips his hat to <i>The Lost Boys</i> by filming in Santa Cruz. I had no idea that's where they filmed my sister's favorite Coreys fllm until I went there on a work team building exercise. Considering I hate the beach, I wasn't too happy to be there, nor was I dressed for the location because my stupid, Jersey-born ass had no idea Santa Cruz had a beach. See below.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtBGEx7GGWswo_0iqP1WqsyyiUVO11ryC3UNsRsu9gmVgv7ifGqVM6Q2SSeYxSxvF2nvzeNlnSz0m0hi8Mvv52LUf579o5sA8DBJWrJobtwxPFiqnV6jxNy7y6njNvHrfphMtlw/s1600/odie_sc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="604" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtBGEx7GGWswo_0iqP1WqsyyiUVO11ryC3UNsRsu9gmVgv7ifGqVM6Q2SSeYxSxvF2nvzeNlnSz0m0hi8Mvv52LUf579o5sA8DBJWrJobtwxPFiqnV6jxNy7y6njNvHrfphMtlw/s320/odie_sc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i> "Clueless Negro from Joisey: A Hip-Hopera"</i></div>
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Here's a tip for anyone who wishes to torture me: Just pour sand on my feet. I'll tell you my social security number and the few secrets I have left. Sand is my Kryptonite.</div>
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Anyway, I wound up in this creepy, dark arcade that had the video games you and I would have played growing up. I had just gotten finished whipping some teenage kid's ass on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man" target="_blank">Ms. Pac-Man</a> ("these old ass games suck!" he whimpered) when I started feeling dizzy. I went back outside, dragging my bare feet through that sand while carrying my sneakers. I became disoriented and I got lost. I remember sitting down near a ride and then the next thing I knew, I'm back at the arcade. I don't know how I got there and I didn't have my cap anymore.</div>
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So maybe this <u><b><i>is</i></b></u> the tethered me talking to you! (Cue creepy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFGmO1e_sAU" target="_blank">I Got 5 on It</a> remix) <b>[Ed. Note: The tethered Odie is named Garfield, for obvious reasons.]</b></div>
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Thank you for pointing out the meth-iness of Moss and Heidecker's tethers. I didn't consider the great rehab angle you mentioned. Instead, I thought of them as the "low class" versions of these characters, perhaps a reminder of the trailer-park world they escaped when they got some money. Despite the financial chasm that separates them, Moss and Heidecker don't seem that far removed from their tethers--the addiction's still there but the drug is more highbrow, respectable and expensive. When Moss' doppelganger garishly paints her lips in the mirror post-murder, it's as if she's saying "see, we're really no different. I'll show you." Her sudden, mutilation-fueled rejection of that notion is the creepiest shot in the film.</div>
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By comparison, Peele makes the Wilsons stew far longer in the crock pot he's thrown them into with their tethers. They seem a little more far removed, at least until Adelaide's truth is revealed. Those doubles did look like crackheads, but I also saw them as a warning to folks who made it out of the 'hood and didn't look back or help pull anyone up. The Curse of the Respectability Negro. You know them, the ones that tell you to pull your pants up, speak properly at all times and stop listening to rap. Then maybe the cops'll stop shooting ya and the White establishment will hire you at a decent salary. These are the folks who put on airs once they leave the 'hood and damn sure don't want any reminders of anything that's perceived as TOO Black; they've graduated to the pristine fashion purity of <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hamptons-modern-day-gatsby-diddys-white-party-turns-20-1100974" target="_blank">P. Diddy's white parties</a> but don't want you to know they've still got dark-colored clothes in their closet.</div>
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<i>Presented without comment</i></div>
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I don't see the Wilsons as these types of people; Peele doesn't give us any indication and he even allows Duke's Gabe to code switch when threatened by the first appearance of the Wilson tethers. (His "I done tol' you..." bat-wielding monologue rang so familiar and so true that my mostly Black audience exploded with laughter.) But I felt the class distinction metaphor much more sharply with the Wilsons. The tethers are decked out in red, but their attire looks a lot like prison uniforms. Gabe's tether is a grunting, bearded brute who's ultimately undone by a capitalistic status symbol. Evan Alex's tether is an African myth's trickster named Pluto who shares his name with Michael Berryman's character in Wes Craven's <i>The Hills Have Eyes</i>, another horror film about class. (And Alex's character, Jason wears a Jaws shirt whose image evokes the torn Jaws poster on the wall in Craven's film. Told you Jordan Peele's a thorough motherfucker!)</div>
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Lupita's complex dual role is the linchpin in my theory. As we learn, Adelaide is actually a tether. This doesn't come out of the blue as far too many inattentive folks have written. Her rhythm is off in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx4qKJmLxLQ" target="_blank"><i>I Got 5 on It</i></a> scene. Her younger self's PTSD is actually her learning how to speak English and her ballet lessons are a means of assuming the former Adelaide's identity. When "real Adelaide" turns up as the spooky Red, she's a have who has brutally been made a have-not and is now out for revenge. I don't think there's a successful woman, brown person or LGBT person who doesn't feel a fear that what they've accomplished might be snatched away at a moment's notice by an unfair, rigged system. Because that system has only allocated X number of places not just for people like us, but also for poor folks attempting to rise from the depths of poverty. Americans have always mocked the French, but they did something we'll never have the balls to do: They banded together and killed their rich asshole oppressors.</div>
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Class as a theory is all fine and good, but what about Jeremiah 11:11 and all the Blblical/religious nuggets Peele throws at us? This <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a26929421/us-movie-review-jordan-peele/" target="_blank">intriguing article</a> by film critic Candice Frederick sees <i>Us</i> as a Judgment Day allegory, which isn't far-fetched when you realize Jeremiah 11:11 evokes the angry Old Testament God I understood far better than Jesus when I was a kid: <br />
<b><i><br />"Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them."</i></b></div>
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In that quote, de Lawd is basically saying "Fuck Yo' Couch, Nigga!"<br />
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Michael Abels' score does use that creepy Omen-style chanting which implies religion-based terror, but I think all the Biblical stuff is a red herring. What do you think about Frederick's theory? Any other symbolism you wish to riff on? I'd like to riff on the skin color of Black villains in horror movies next time. And let's talk about the brilliance that is Lupita Nyong'o and the unfair advantage that is Winston Duke's thighs. And the rabbits! This is the second time Peele has taken a seemingly innocent animal and recast them as a symbol of violence. What's up with that?</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #4: Boone</i></b></u></span>
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Ms. Frederick's piece on <i>Us</i> as a group portrait of faithless self-absorption resonates (though she coyly avoided the Adelaide/Red spoiler).<br />
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At one of Clay McLeod Champan's brilliant <a href="http://claymcleodchapman.com/performances/fear-mongers" target="_blank">public horror talks</a> a few years back, the consensus fear among panelists turned out to be the fear of losing control of one's mind and body. I couldn't quite relate. My overwhelming fear, having grown up around shootouts and drug raids, was not of losing <i>control of</i> mind/body but of losing <i>mind/body</i>. Dying. To be alive in any form beats entering the void and its unknowns. As Redd Foxx (whose analysis of <i>Us</i> I would love to hear) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVs8yr-1ZIY&feature=youtu.be&t=426" target="_blank">put it</a>, "There's a lot of things worse than cancer. A six foot six black nationalist in an alley with a hatchet, mad at ya... is worse than cancer."<br />
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Similarly, I didn't have much of a visceral response to the primary fear <i>Us</i> is stoking: the fear that the relative privilege and comfort "we" enjoy will eventually come with a bloody bill. American horror has always been about shattering apparent safe spaces and making happy people pay for their pleasures. But the <b>(thinkpiece-speak ahoy!)</b> post-Zuckerberg social world we live in now delivers fitful, anxious, lonely pleasures--ephemeral crack-hits of hope, confidence and community that never escape bloody reality. Old school escapism is dead. Or maybe I should just speak for <i>my</i> algorithms, which deliver <a href="https://www.instagram.com/_moochie101/?hl=en" target="_blank">beauty and excitement</a> at one scroll, GoPro snuff films and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/survivingcardib/" target="_blank">utter ratchet-ness</a> at the next. There is no calm that the arrival of Boone-Tether could shatter.</div>
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<i>Big Media Vandalism Artist's rendition of Boone's Tether</i></div>
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The Tethered actually deliver the Wilsons an inadvertent gift, sort of the way the home invaders in <i>Straw Dogs</i> awakened meek Dustin Hoffman to his essential manhood. The Wilsons briefly become a coordinated, unified force while battling the Tethers at the Tylers'--even if their victory quickly lapses into a (pretty clever, funny) debate over who notched the most kills--as if huddled around a Playstation. Suddenly, they're alive with purpose in a film crowded with mindless stragglers.<br />
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It's the vitality of the fight that I appreciated as something "real" in contrast to the convoluted symbolism of the Tethered, which is more of a clever puzzle than an immediate source of terror. Even so, Lupita Nyong'o sells the hell out of it. Her panic as Adelaide and malevolent wretchedness as Red (or vise versa) give the action a weight it might otherwise have been missing. Also, she is impossible to look away from. Lawd. Has there ever been a woman this simultaneously dark and lovely holding the center of the big screen? She is a gorgeous rebuke to a <a href="https://youtu.be/DxeXSPw9dEc" target="_blank">125-year old lie</a>.<br />
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As for the ballet motif, I may have misread it as Adelaide's memory of her last moments of freedom and dreaming of a future before she got trapped in Tethered hell. But I'll just have to go watch <i>Us</i> again to be sure.<br />
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The rabbits didn't do much for me. Maybe Peele nurses a phobia or some serious <i>Watership Down</i> PTSD, but, as signifying animals go, those rabbits can't top Black Philip, the scary-ass billygoat in <i>The Witch</i>.<br />
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I feel you on the notion of how <a href="https://youtu.be/d16LNHIEJzs" target="_blank">important skin</a> color is in this film, as it was in <i>Get Out</i>. Tell me about it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>The Final Word: Odie</i></b></u></span> <br />
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That <a href="https://youtu.be/d16LNHIEJzs" target="_blank">Vox video about skin color</a> you cited above was an eye-opener. It shows how little we mattered to Hollywood and to the historical record in general. The fact that film colors were measured and calibrated with White skin didn't surprise me at all; the fact that this practice continued well into the '80's and '90's <b>did</b> surprise me. It makes you wonder how much harder it must have been for Gordon Parks to take <a href="https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gordon-parks?all/all/all/all/0" target="_blank">those magnificent pictures</a> for Life.<br />
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<i>Us</i>'s use of dark-skinned protagonists seems novel, but the skin color of their villanous doppelgangers is far more prevalent in Hollywood movies, especially horror. Years ago on this very site, I wrote a piece about <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/them-some-scary-negroes.html" target="_blank">Black horror movies</a>. Most of the villains in those films tended to skew darker-skinned. <a href="https://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/theres-always-work-at-post-office.html" target="_blank"><i>Hollywood Shuffle</i></a> takes a swipe at this notion in its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ASZ6K9cPNk" target="_blank">Black Acting School skit</a>. Peele's casting plays like one corrective amongst many; in <i>Us</i> he has several scores to settle. As Monica Castillo points out in <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/us-2019" target="_blank">her four-star review</a> over at Roger's, the house of mirrors Adelaide enters is branded with Native American imagery in the flashback, yet when she revisits it, the site has been rebranded as if to hide its sordid racial past. Peele's tying of the Tethered to the first Americans who were robbed by colonizing White men offers a form of payback for this country's original sins.</div>
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Since we started doing this talk, a lot of different reviews have come and gone. Several of my non-critic friends expressed disappointment that the film wasn't cut and dry, that it didn't explain everything. A few of those guys also complained about "plot holes" and being left to their own devices to figure things out. Granted, this is not as neat as <i>Get Out</i>, which zeroed in on the specificity of being Black in dangerous White spaces, but I found the film's messiness to not only be rewarding but it also pays new dividends every time one thinks about it. Walking out, I thought of our good buddy Matt Zoller Seitz, who lives for shit like this.</div>
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Since I've got the last word here, I want to big-up all the performers in <i>Us</i>. Lupita deserves all the praise and then some for creating a dual role that's ripe with complexities that reveal themselves over several viewings. She rocks her final scene with Pluto, which is the moment where Peele almost tips his hand for those of us who wondered if she were actually a tether (his decision to have Jason walk backwards before Adelaide's empathy becomes too noticable is a clever one). But she's in good company with Evan Alex and Shahadi Wright Joseph, who also bring a similar richness to their dual roles. And lest we forget M'ThighU, i mean Winston Duke, who has just the right touch of goofy playfulness as Gabe, and just the right touch of menace as Abraham.</div>
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To close out, you said:</div>
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<i>"The Tethered actually deliver the Wilsons an inadvertent gift, sort of the way the home invaders in Straw Dogs awakened meek Dustin Hoffman to his essential manhood. The Wilsons briefly become a coordinated, unified force while battling the Tethers at the Tylers'--even if their victory quickly lapses into a (pretty clever, funny) debate over who notched the most kills, as if huddled around a Playstation."</i></div>
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I want to take that unity a step further. At first, when the Tylers' tethers turned to attack the Wilsons, I thought it was due to their visual branding as redneck-y White folks. Of course they'd go after the Black folks! They're racist! But, in hindsight, I realized instead that their actions showed how united a front the Tethers had. The have-nots have finally come together, no longer put asunder by the endless blame babble regurgitated by Fox News, the GOP and the right-wing nutjobs whom mainstream media outlets like CNN and MSNBC can't help but amplify in their lustful quest for ratings. It no longer made a difference what color the Tethers were; they had finally realized that a common enemy had boots on everyone's neck. If poor White folks finally realized that the powers-that-be actually saw them as no better than the folks they're supposed to hate and blame, there would be the kind of reckoning only hinted at by the bird's-eye view of the endless stream of Tethers in the final shot of <i>Us</i>.</div>
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Now, that's a sequel I'd like to see. </div>
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<i>"I hate to cut this Black Man Talk short, but..."</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-38021685766369016742018-12-23T14:03:00.001-05:002019-01-22T10:19:43.648-05:00Causing Trouble with Odienator: Shirley, You Can't Be Serious!by Odienator<br />
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Sometimes the gods toss me a pitch straight down the middle, one so blatant and so clear that my near-sighted, half-blind ass can hit it out of the park without even trying. Today, I'd like to thank whichever god sent me <i>Green Book</i>, the Peter Farrelly Jungle Fever Cookie Buddy Movie* that has White critics <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vihnr5dM3PM" target="_blank">dancing the Hucklebuck</a> in the aisles while twisting logic into pretzels in order to justify its existence. This is a movie where a racist (but not TOO racist) Italian man drives a regal Black musical genius across the South in 1962, realizing along the way that perhaps he should reserve the word <i>mulignana</i> for eggplants only. Yes, folks, in 2018, Hollywood has deemed that we need yet another "one of the Good Negroes" movies to soothe the savage breasts of insecure racists everywhere. In the year of <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blackkklansman-2018" target="_blank"><i>BlackKklansman</i></a>, <i><a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blindspotting-2018" target="_blank">Blindspotting</a>, Sorry to Bother You</i>, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/if-beale-street-could-talk-2018" target="_blank"><i>If Beale Street Could Talk</i></a> and <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/black-panther-2018" target="_blank"><i>Black Panther</i></a>, did we really need a race-based throwback so musty and old that even Stanley Kramer would have found it too dated?</div>
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<b>Of course we did!</b> This is how Hollywood has always worked. As soon as Black folks started running around crossing their arms and saying "Wakanda Forever," basking in films made for us and by us, Hollywood was like "hey, they're gettin' too big for their britches again! Gotta show 'em their place." It happened in 1967 after Sidney Poitier, then the top box office draw, <a href="https://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/imagery-saturdays-slap-heard-round.html" target="_blank">slapped the everlasting gobstopper shit</a> out of a rich, racist White man in Norman Jewison's Oscar-winning <i>In the Heat of the Night</i>. That had never been done before, and Black audiences responded accordingly with whoops of joy. Finally, Sidney had shaken off the shackles of years of playing characters who "knew their place" and come out literally swinging! Plus, he was smarter than everybody else in that movie <i>and he knew it.</i> Hollywood responded by completely neutering Sidney in his next film, <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? </i>His brilliant doctor character was as practically perfect as Mary Poppins yet still wasn't good enough to marry some well-below-his-league hippie White chick. I can only imagine how quickly Black audiences felt deflated by this.</div>
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I guess the Hollywood powers-that-be thought two movies with "Black" in their titles were inspiring untenable levels of African-American pride and confidence in 2018. As the Bible says, "pride goeth before destruction and an uppity Negro before the fall." So we needed to be reminded of how Hollywood likes its people of color. Enter <i>Green Book</i>, a movie where the Black character has to be taught how to be the White audience's interpretation of "Black." Dr. Don Shirley (an excellent Mahershala Ali) may play the piano with amazing skill, have multiple degrees, speak eight languages fluently and live above Carnegie Hall, but he apparently knows nothing about what this film thinks is Black culture, nor does he know many of the fundamentals for survival as a person of color in 1962. "I know more about your people than you do," says his driver, Tony Vallelonga, aka Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen, sporting a questionable Brawnks, Noo Yawk accent as thick as this film's bullshit). </div>
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That line is the biggest pander for the type of audience who'd sop <i>Green Book</i> off the screen with a biscuit of cluelessness. But let's start at the beginning and work our way up to that excruciating sequence where Tony Lip gets to play Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's <i>Nygmalion</i>. I called this film a "Jungle Fever Cookie Buddy Movie," which is my term for a film like <i>48 Hrs.</i> where a Black guy and a White guy become friends and/or allies while the film perpetrates a false sense of equality between them. In the majority of these films, the Black character is always beneath the White character despite what the plot dictates, and everything is filtered through the White character's eyes. Ask yourself, how much do you actually know about the personal lives of Hoke from <i>Driving Miss Daisy</i>? Or Viola Davis in <i>The Help</i>? Or, Lord help me, <i>Bagger Vance</i>? You know practically nothing, right? Let's explore this phenomenon.</div>
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And what exactly is a "Jungle Fever Cookie" you ask?</div>
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<i>The coloring is equal on the cookie, but not in the movies!</i> </div>
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<i>Green Book</i> is co-written by Tony Lip's son Nick, and he's more intrested in glorifying his Daddy than giving Don Shirley any realistic humanity. (That's a good son for you!) Dr. Shirley doesn't even show up until almost half an hour into the film. Until then, we're following Tony Lip through his paces as a bouncer for the Copacabana. Tony's got a bit of a racket going on there, stealing hats for money and earning favors with the local mob guys who frequent Barry Manilow's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2EoReHa-p8" target="_blank">favorite hangout spot</a>. Currying favor with the local Mafiosi is as far as Tony Lip's willing to go--he has no interest in joining. He'd rather enter eating contests, but those are few and far between. So when the Copa has to close for renovations, Tony's suddenly at a temporary loss for work, one that could easily be supplemented by the far heavier and more dangerous work he's not willing to do for the Don. Don't worry, folks, another Don is willing to hire him.<br />
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The Vallelongas live in the northernmost borough of New York City. Tony Lip wakes up one morning to find half his in-laws and a quarter of the neighborhood in his house. His wife, Dolores (the lovely, talented Linda Cardellini) reminds him that this was the morning the sink was being repaired. The reason the goombah squad is currently present is simple: The plumbers are a couple of Black guys trying to earn a living. Dolores offers the gentlemen water in glasses, and once the men have finished, Tony Lip tosses the glasses in the trash. <br />
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Let's stop right here. This entire scene is the first sign <i>Green Book</i> is going to be dishonest, half-assed, Caucasian-congratulatin' bullshit. Tony Lip and his buddies converse in Italian, which is helpfully translated into English on the screen right up until the moment they get to the word <i>mulignana</i>. The subtitles use the literal translation of the word, which is eggplant, rather than its slang translation. You don't have to be from my beloved home state of New Jersey to know that, in a certain context, <i>mulignana</i> also means <i>nigger</i>.<br />
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<i>This is why I would never order eggplant parmigiana at an Italian joint.</i></div>
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Viggo Mortensen doesn't get to say the N-word in the film, but he felt quite comfortable <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/10/viggo-mortensen-n-word-green-book-screening" target="_blank">saying it</a> at a post-screening Q&A in Los Angeles. "Nobody says nigger anymore," said Mortensen. When the Twitterati went up in arms, Mortensen and his defenders demanded everyone look at the context in which Mortensen used the word. Believe it or not, I agree! Context is everything here, and while I'm rather stunned Mortensen felt ballsy enough to drop the word while surrounded by two Black men, he <i>was</i> attempting to make a point, no matter how misguided his point actually was. Viggo's comment was wrong as fuck because <i>people still say nigger</i>! Read my hate mail sometimes! Or the comments under my pieces.<br />
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But context is everything, right? Too bad the subtitlers didn't follow this rule. And you know why? Becuase they didn't want to make Tony Lip and his crew seem "too racist." They needed to be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM" target="_blank">Avenue Q-level</a> racist, not <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2011/08/those-southern-folks-sure-got-it-maid.html" target="_blank">Hilly-Holbrook-in-<i>The-Help</i></a>-level racist. Dolores digs the plumbers' glasses out of the trash and shakes her head the way Edith Bunker probably did, but I just have one question: Who the fuck called all those people over when the Black plumbers showed up in the first place? I have a good guess!<br />
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Anyway, these are trivial matters compared to what comes next. Tony Lip gets a bead on a job. Some doctor is looking for a driver to take him through what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5338B36j0M" target="_blank">Timbaland referred to</a> as the "dirty South." Oddly enough, this doctor lives atop Carnegie Hall. And he's <b>BLICK</b>, to use the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQtw-sINTYc" target="_blank"><i>Lethal Weapon II</i> pronunciation</a>.<br />
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<i>"I was Black Moses YEARS before Ike."</i></div>
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Our first look at Dr. Shirley is amazing. Here's this beautiful, dark-skinned Black man with a voice so mellifluous it would shame the gods, and he's decked out in regal garb that looks as if Wakanda and <a href="https://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/you-aint-never-met-martin-luther-king.html" target="_blank">Zamunda</a> had a baby. If the makers of <i>Green Book</i> put out the Don Shirley Line, I'd max out my credit cards buying his threads, his throne and his shoes. I'd be dressed up at critic's screenings, throwing shade and saying "bitch, don't sit next to me! You COMMONER!!"<br />
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Speaking of shoes, Tony Lip is on board with doing the drive until he hears that he has to shine Dr. Shirley's shoes. "Youse supposed ta be shinin' MY shoes!" I said, reading Tony Lip's mind. The guy says he has no problems working for a Black man, but that shoe thing's a bridge too far! Secretly, I hoped Shirley would offer him a drink and then toss the glass into the trash after Tony Lip finished. "You people have cooties!" the good doctor would have said. But no, Dr. Shirley's gotta remain noble nad magical.<br />
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Tony Lip takes the job. Otherwise we'd have no movie. At this point, nearly an hour in, we finally see the item that gives <i>Green Book</i> its title. Dr. Shirley's manager hands it to Tony Lip and explains its purpose. What we learn about them in this movie is in stark contrast to what I learned about them. (Full disclosure: I actually own a few that were bequeathed to me.) Since <i>Green Book</i> has a White martyr complex, it says nothing about how the book explained sundown towns or how useful and important it was for Black travelers. Instead, we learn that the Green Book listings were all rundown and dangerous places where Black people have never seen anyone who looks like Don Shirley. The movie hasn't done enough damage, so now it has to piss on the thing that gives it its title.<br />
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<i>Have a good look at it, because Farrelly and Co. aren't gonna give you one.</i></div>
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Dr. Shirley is smart enough to know that having muscle like Tony Lip is a good idea in the deep South. And there's a very believable scene where his bodyguard intervenes to make sure his contractual demands of a Steinway piano are met. But most of <i>Green Book</i> is Tony Lip trying to "loosen up" and "Blackify" Dr. Shirley. Nowhere is this more cringe-inducing and blatant than in the movie's centerpiece, an interminable scene that involves Kentucky Fried Chicken. You know the filmmakers thought this scene was important, because the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC-_Gon2p9M&t=8s" target="_blank">trailer for <i>Green Book</i></a> highlights it, as does every single commercial. I'm absolutely stunned that KFC didn't do a movie tie-in, complete with an endorsement from their "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzWjXlZObq8" target="_blank">Crispy Colonel</a>" incarnation of Colonel Sanders. Because fried chicken is on screen so long it deserves consideration in the Supporting Actor category at this year's Academy Awards. It shows up again later at a ritzy dinner, sticking out like a sore thumb on all that that good china!<br />
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<i>This is George Hamilton as "The Crispy Colonel"--I did not make that shit up.</i></div>
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The fried chicken-eating scene occurs while the duo is driving through Kentucky. Tony Lip is excited that he can buy Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky! I lived in Florence, Kentucky for four months, and I'll be honest, I went to KFC just to say I bought it in Kentucky. So I get Tony Lip's enthusiasm about this. However, the scene quickly goes awry when Tony Lip tries to get Dr. Shirley to partake in the eleven herbs and spices-infused subject of a hundred thousand racist Black jokes.<br />
<br />
Dr. Shirley declines, and for a second, I thought the movie would make a sly dig at the idea that some Black folks would NEVER eat fried chicken in "polite company." I was instead reminded that this is a film written by three White guys who know as much about Black people as I do about open-heart surgery. Dr. Shirley responds with a line that I guarantee you the writers thought was a means of bypassing stereotype:<br />
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"I have never eaten fried chicken in my life!" protests Shirley.<br />
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"Shirley, you can't be serious!" I thought. "Nigga, you from FLORIDA!"<br />
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Now I hear you muthafuckas reading this. "Odie, you a racist!! All that 'we are not a monolith' talk, and here you are painting this poor man with stereotype." Well, y'all can kiss my natural Black ass <b>two times</b>! Unlike the makers of <i>Green Book</i>, I actually looked into what Don Shirley's relatives <a href="https://shadowandact.com/green-book-is-full-of-lies-dr-don-shirleys-family-speaks-out" target="_blank">had to say</a> about him. His brother, Maurice said Shirley "had definitely eaten fried chicken before" he went on this road trip. So the only reason this scene exists is to show Tony Lip teaching his boss to be "more Black." Hell, this is the scene where he says "I know more about your people than you do."<br />
<br />
Of course, Dr. Shirley discovers he likes KFC. I bet he'd like Popeye's, Bojangles or Church's even better, but <i>Green Book</i> doesn't have time for taste tests. Tony Lip is too busy teaching this classically trained pianist about other Black musicians like Little Richard. He asks if Shirley can play in a similar vein, which is obviously foreshadowing the moment when Shirley goes full boogie-woogie on an upright piano in a juke joint later in the film. "Now, you're <b>truly</b> Black!" the movie seems to be saying as the juke joint audience applauds the performance. I suppose Farrelly would have had the patrons looking at the camera all confused, saying "what de FUCK is dat shit?!" had Shirley played them some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E6b3swbnWg" target="_blank">Chopin</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc" target="_blank">Scott Joplin</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>Green Book</i> is an incredibly offensive film, but its decision to isolate Shirley from Black people and Black culture is its most egregious sin. The assumptions it makes are uninformed and harmful. It posits that Black people would not appreciate an educated man like Dr. Shirley because they share more in common with a racist Italian with a sixth-grade education who knows how to play cee-lo. It never gives thought to the notion that Dr. Shirley might be someone his people could be proud of, or could aspire to be. Dr. Shirley is presented as noble for playing for rich White assholes, but also problematic because he's too "White-acting" to fit in within his own community.<br />
<br />
Dr. Shirley is never allowed to tell us what he really thinks about his life. The question of why he's even interested in playing in the segregated South isn't answered by him. Instead, it's answered by one of his fellow musicians, who says a bullshit line that's so cliched that I'm not even going to print it. Instead, Shirley gets a rain-soaked monologue where he asks Tony Lip "where do I belong?" Ali plays the hell out of that monologue, but I couldn't believe for one second that his character would deliver it.<br />
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In order to elevate Tony Lip's White Saviorism even further, <i>Green Book</i> also isolates Don Shirley from his own family. He tells Tony Lip that he has no idea where his brother is and that they're no longer in contact. (<a href="https://shadowandact.com/green-book-is-full-of-lies-dr-don-shirleys-family-speaks-out" target="_blank">This is a lie.</a>) One would be forgiven if one assumed this had to do with Shirley's homosexuality, but it does not. There's a scene here where Tony Lip has to save his boss after Shirley gets caught having sex with a gay White man in a deep South YMCA. All I could ask myself was "is this man really this stupid? Does he not know of the dangers of being horny, Black and outside at night in the deep South?" Tony Lip's nonchalant reaction to learning Dr. Shirley is gay is actually more believable than the situation in which he discovers it; he basically says he's seen this stuff before at the Copa and that, if it got out, "this could ruin your career."<br />
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<i>Green Book</i> bills itself as the story of "an unlikely friendship." According to the film, however, this friendship is built completely on Dr. Shirley's need to be constantly saved and educated. Tony Lip not only gets a lost lamb, he also gets his own personal Cyrano de BergerBlac to help him woo his wife. But what does Dr. Shirley get out of this "friendship"? A Guardian angel who shows him how to keep it a hunnert with Black folks?<br />
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<i>They even had a "Tell us about your one Black friend, White people!" contest!</i></div>
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When Shirley shows up at the Vallelonga residence for Christmas dinner at the end of <i>Green Book</i>, there's the expected initial shock from everyone. But then the guys who were formerly racist against the plumbers welcome him in practically with open arms. <i>They're gonna have to throw away an entire place setting after he leaves, including silverware!</i> I thought. <i>That's gonna be expensive.</i> And Mrs. V. even thanks him for helping her husband write better love letters, which I can believe she would do. Her comment is the last line of the film, in fact, a sweet sentiment designed to send the audience out beaming over the end of the racisms!<br />
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<i>Green Book</i> won the Audience award at the Toronto Film Festival and is being positioned as the salve we need in this era of neo-Nazis and the president who loves them. You'd be forgiven if you got this impression from the reviews, the award nominations and the critics awards. (As of this writing, it <a href="http://www.nationalboardofreview.org/2018/11/national-board-review-announces-2018-award-winners/" target="_blank">won</a> the National Board of Review's Best Picture and Best Actor awards.) Earlier, I said White critics were dancing the Hucklebuck over this movie, and there are plenty of reviews that support my point. But to be transparent and truthful, not everyone was fooled:<br />
<br />
A.O. Scott <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/movies/green-book-review.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>: <i>"As I said, there’s not much here you haven’t seen before, and very
little that can’t be described as crude, obvious and borderline
offensive, even as it tries to be uplifting and affirmative."</i><br />
<br />
The always elegant Richard Brody <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/green-book-reviewed-peter-farrellys-bland-regressive-flip-on-driving-miss-daisy" target="_blank">wrote</a>: <i>"“Green Book” offers a vision of racists changing their views, but in a way that doesn’t in any way threaten racist prejudices"</i> and ends his review with the word "bullshit."<br />
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And my good friend Sean Burns <a href="https://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/11/15/green-book-mahershala-ali-viggo-mortensen-review" target="_blank">wrote</a> that <i>Green Book</i> <i>"<span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">plays like a bizarre
Trumpist’s anti-Obama empowerment fantasy, in which a proudly ignorant
white prole is constantly humiliating an erudite, sophisticated black
man and showing him how the world really works."</span></span></i><br />
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<span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">Speaking of conservative fantasies, if those folks really wanted to own those Northerner Libs<i> </i>and call them on their racial hypocrisy, all they'd have to do is look at some quotes from the director himself and critics like David Edelstein. Farrelly gave a <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/peter-farrelly-on-trading-comedy-for-drama-with-green-book.html" target="_blank">very telling interview</a> to Vulture where he kept pulling executive producer Octavia Spencer's name out whenever the question leaned toward "why the fuck are you making this dated embarassment?" But this is my favorite part of the interview:</span></span><br />
<span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"><br /></span></span>
<i><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"><b>You’re talking about the scene where Viggo can’t believe that
Mahershala’s character has never eaten fried chicken and basically
browbeats him into trying some for the first time. It is great. But when
it started, I’ll admit I got queasy, thinking the scene might go in a
racist direction.</b><br /><br />Yeah, well, the strength of it is that
when [Viggo] says, “Hey, if you told me Guineas like meatballs and
spaghetti, I wouldn’t get insulted.” He kind of is opening it up and
saying, “This is bullshit. Don’t bring up this race shit. I know what
you like.” And there’s so much humor in there with it, you know? “You
have a narrow assessment of me, Tony,” Don says. And Tony Lip goes,
“Yeah, I’m good, right?” It’s that kind of stuff. When she was in the
editing room with me, Octavia was howling, and it just gave me such
encouragement. </span></span></i><br />
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<i><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"></span><span data-reactid="277"></span></span></i><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">I imagined Spencer in the editing room rocking back and forth while chanting "Minny don't burn chicken" like a mantra. </span></span><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">And I don't recall any <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ti1hnLiLw" target="_blank">Prince Spaghetti Day commercials</a> causing Italians to be discriminated against. So this is major-league false equivalency. Plus, Farrelly's comment proves my exact point about how his entire movie is some White guy doling out Blackness advice to an African-American: <b>"Don't bring up this race shit, I know what you like."</b> Really, now?</span></span><br />
<span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"><br /></span></span><i><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"></span></span></i>
<span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">Also at Vulture, film critic David Edelstein got in as much hot water as Prince Spaghetti when he ended his <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/green-book-spoon-feeds-you-but-it-goes-down-easy.html" target="_blank">glowing review</a> like this:</span></span><br />
<span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"><br /></span></span><i><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"></span></span></i>
<i><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">"</span></span><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277">And I have to confess that in the current, insanely divisive political climate, I enjoyed <i>Green Book</i>’s
spoon-feeding mightily. The movie taps into a kind of nostalgia for
when everything — even racism — seemed simpler, and ready to be
legislated out of existence.</span></span><span data-reactid="216"><span data-reactid="277"></span></span>"</i><br />
<br />
It took him 2 days, but Edelstein eventually tried to clean that shit up, saying: <i>"I find to my horror that my closing line reads as if I have nostalgia
for a time when racism was even more pervasive and deadly than it is
today. I don’t." </i>Rather than question the sincerity of his apology, I'd like to quote an earlier line from his review as the last point in this thesis:<br />
<br />
<i></i>
<i>"After abrasive hits like Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and Lee Daniels’s The Butler (as well as flops like Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit),
the thinking is that audiences will be in the mood for a warmhearted,
mismatched-buddy, racial-bonding drama-comedy that spoon-feeds you
everything and goes down real easy."</i><br />
<br />
<i></i>
<b>THE BUTLER IS ABRASIVE?!</b> I <a href="http://moviemezzanine.com/lee-daniels-the-butler-pg-13-prestige-with-a-hint-of-freaky-deaky/" target="_blank">reviewed it</a> and there's a <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Black Man Talk</a> on it right here at this very site. It's far from a "let's scare de White People" movie. But what the three films Edelstein singled out have in common is that they <i>all show Black people interacting outside of the gaze of White people</i>. No matter what one thinks of the quality of these films, they show things other than what the White characters see or know about these people. In <i>The Butler</i>, it's even a comic counterpoint--we see how the servants (led by my doppelganger Cuba Gooding Jr.) interact amongst themselves as opposed to how they act in "polite company."<br />
<br />
Apparently, that's abrasive to the good White viewers who don't consider themselves racist. This thinking is why shit like <i>Green Book</i> still gets made, and why any <a href="https://shadowandact.com/green-book-film-review-white-savior/" target="_blank">complaints from critics of color</a> are being met with protests that we're "ruining its Oscar chances!" (I still say it'll win Best Picture if its box office picks up.) Well, if "abrasive" racism onscreen makes you uncomforable, try dealing with it in real life every fucking day of your existence. Sharing a bucket of KFC isn't gonna fix that.<br />
<i></i><br />
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<i>"Write this down. Why was I the only person who <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/green-book-mahershala-ali-don-shirley-apology/" target="_blank">had to apologize</a> to Dr. Shirley's family?"</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-9765965588865259712018-03-08T20:20:00.002-05:002018-03-08T20:56:33.571-05:00Black Man Talk: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, or Please, T'Challa Don't Hurt 'Em<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Steven Boone and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Odie "Od<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ienator" Hender<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">son </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(The
following is a conversation between Big Media Vandalism
founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie
Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other
installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">42</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,</span> <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Lee Daniels' The Butler</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2014/10/black-man-talk-dear-white-people.html" target="_blank">Dea<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">r White Peop<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">le</span></span></a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/11/black-man-talk-12-years-slave.html" target="_blank">12 <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years a Slave</span></a></span>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2016/04/black-man-talk-sidney-poitier-defiance.html" target="_blank">Sidney Poitier</a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2017/03/black-man-talk-get-out-never-trust-tea.html" target="_blank">Get Out</a>)</i></span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #1: Odie</i></b></u></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Brother Boone,<br />
<br />
Have all the Black Man Talks we've done in the past been leading up to this one?<br />
<br />
Since its announcement, Marvel's <i>Black Panther</i> movie has had Black folks, to use Tim Curry's pharsing, shivering with antici...PATION. The optimism hit fever pitch when it was announced that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3363032/" target="_blank">Ryan Coogler</a> would direct it. What a perfect choice for this material! With <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/creed-2015" target="_blank"><i>Creed</i></a>, Coogler bent a beloved White creation at a right angle and refocused it on the character he rooted for as a kid. And he did it without diminishing Sylvester Stallone, the creator of the franchise. Coogler returned Rocky to the underdog status that made viewers shed tears for him back in 1976, yet he also made the movie a showcase for his own themes and characters within Stallone's universe. Here was a guy who had proven he could step into something and make it his <b>OWN. BLACK. THING</b>.<br />
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Had they announced that J.J. Abrams was directing it, Black folks would have still been dancing in the streets, but it would have looked like the two Black dudes in Billy Joel's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E" target="_blank">Uptown Girl video</a> instead of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDVzvW-cwlI" target="_blank">wedding dance number</a> in <i>Coming to America</i>.</div>
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<i>What kind of fire are you starting with these Negroes, Billy Joel?</i></div>
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Speaking of <i>Coming to America</i>, ten years ago on this very site, I <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/you-aint-never-met-martin-luther-king.html" target="_blank">proclaimed that film</a> "the Blackest movie ever made." I took a lot of shit for that, but I stood by my words. Now, methinks I must run a retraction. Is <i>Black Panther</i> the Blackety-Black-Blackest movie ever made? Let's discuss that!<br />
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Speaking of people named Abrams, you and our mutual pal Simon Abrams (no relation to J.J., verdict still out on affiliation with Colonel) did a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/black-panther-debated-by-a-marvel-fan-a-superhero-skeptic-1086542" target="_blank"><i>Black Panther</i> piece</a> over at <i>The Ho'Wood Reporter</i>. I'm glad you got to jibber jabber with someone who knows about comic books and universes and all that shit. Because, as you know, I'm pretty clueless in this department. I was not allowed to read comic books as a kid. My mother said they were "only for stupid people" and had them banned from the home. The only superhero I can speak about with any historical context is Spider-Man, who was rather ubiquitous in our childhood era. He was on <i>The Electric Company</i> and in those cartoon reruns with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtziaZlDeE" target="_blank">bomb-ass theme song</a>. Spidey's comics were the only ones I snuck into the house for years. In fact, Spider-Man is responsible for one of the more memorable childhood ass-whippings I received. But that's a story for another time.<br />
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Since I'm digging back here in my chlldhood, let me show you a memory. When I was a kid, my male cousins and I would tuck my aunt's towels into the backs of our t-shirts and play superhero games. Unlike me, they had superhero <a href="https://underoos.com/" target="_blank">Underoos</a>, so their outfits looked more "realistic." My Mom said we were too broke for Underoos, and my therapist will tell you that my being deprived of said fancy kiddie underwear is why I'm willing to spend 90 bucks on a pair of drawers today.</div>
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<i>I discovered that they make these for adults now. I'll pass.</i></div>
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Back then, I just had my towel-as-cape and my imagination.</div>
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Like all kiddie games, the ones we played had some wacko rules. The one that affected me dealt with the fact I wore glasses. When we played Superman, I was only allowed to be Clark Kent. "<i><b>Superman doesn't wear glasses</b></i>," my cousin Al once told me. The fact that all of the superheroes we portrayed were White never struck us as a reason we couldn't play them; it was a given that all superheroes and villains were White. I mean, as far as Blackness goes, we had the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrfZCvTe-Ko" target="_blank">Verb guy</a> from <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/imagery-saturdays-soul-house-rock.html" target="_blank"><i>Schoolhouse Rock</i></a>, and later, the Brown Hornet on <i>Fat Albert</i>. On the villain side, we had Eartha Kitt's sexy Catwoman--and the shoddy animation on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy7jgSvGICg" target="_blank"><i>The Adventures of Letterman</i></a> made the turban-clad Spellbinder occasionally look like he might be a redbone. But we knew nothing of Black Panther, who'd been around since 1966 but had never been in a medium that trickled down to us.<br />
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I bring this up because a lot of responsibility has been thrust upon <i>Black Panther</i> in terms of representation. Coogler and his cast can't just deliver the standard issue superhero movie. Like Patty Jenkins before him, the director had to shoulder the burden of the hopes and dreams of those who finally feel their time in the sunshine had finally come. For Jenkins, it was all about women and for Coogler, it's Blackness. I don't think either of these added pressures were fair to the filmmakers or the movies themselves. Chris Rock said--and I used this same line in our Black Man Talk on <i>42</i>--that we'll have finally "overcome" when Black folks are allowed to be as mediocre as their White counterparts.<br />
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So, the initial theory was that <i>Black Panther</i> would have to be absolutely perfect in its execution in order to satisfy all of the souls yearning for something like Wakanda. Which is why I welcomed you and Simon's carefully measured takes on the material. Specifically, I want to focus on this statement of yours:<br />
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<i>For all its concessions to modern style, Black Panther is a very '60s movie whose hero may be royalty, but whose burdens and pitfalls are ultimately those of a Pan-African revolutionary. It leaves T'Challa and his genius sister right where Newton and Seale began: making plans to shepherd self-determination and innovation in America.</i><br />
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I love this and want to use this to begin our discussion of T'Challa's ideologies vs. Killmonger's ideologies. More than one White film critic has tried to position this as a Martin Luther King vs. Malcolm X "battle royal," which to me is not only rather ignorant but also forgivable because the schools don't teach <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey" target="_blank">Marcus Garvey</a> (or either of the names you site in the above quote). How would you describe the differences between Killmonger's ideas of world domination and the Wakandian ideal of isolation and Swiss-like neutrality? <br />
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<i>Please be as Black as possible and show all work.</i></div>
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Also up for discussion as our talk progresses: What interaction, if any, did you have with Black superheroes as a kid? Did Coogler's vision of Wakanda, made real by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1121126/" target="_blank">Rachel Morrison</a>'s ace cinematography (she knows how to light and shadow <b>brown skin</b> in ways that evoke Gordon Willis in <i>The Landlord</i>) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0141921/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Ruth E. Carter</a>'s jaw-droppingly tactile costumes--did this vision speak to you both as a filmmaker and as a viewer? Whom would we side with? Killmonger or T'Challa? And most importantly, did the beautiful, smart and dangerous Dora Milaje make you wish for a kickass reunion of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx3AD9VmN9k" target="_blank">Zhane</a>?<br />
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We should also discuss something <i>The Hollywood Reporter</i> piece went into at length, the film's battle sequences and its violence. I gave <i>Black Panther</i> four stars <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/black-panther-2018" target="_blank">over at Roger's</a>, but that doesn't mean I think it's perfect. I liked the scenes more than you guys did, but I'm gonna have to take Col. Abrams behind the woodshed for some of his ideas. And I'm sure you'll be taking me behind the woodshed for some of mine. It's gonna be our ass-whuppingest Black Man Talk yet! Let's break off some switches and get started, shall we?<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #2: Boone </i></b></u></span> </div>
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I'm glad my tete a tete with Colonel Abrams at <i>The Hollywood Reporter</i> provoked such a rich response. <br />
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I'll get to the most important issue first: I never pay more than ten bucks for <b><i>drawls </i></b>(TM), but if somebody comes out with adult Wakanda Underoos, an exception shall be made. <b><i>[Ed. Note: They got some <a href="https://underoos.com/adults/mens/star-wars-chewbacca-guys-underoos.html" target="_blank">Chewbacca Underoos</a> for adults, but no Lando Calrissian ones, the bastards.]</i></b><br />
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You mentioned that Coogler and <i>Wonder Woman</i> director Patty Jenkins <i>"had to shoulder the burden of the hopes and dreams of those who finally feel their time in the sunshine had finally come."</i> I agree with this, though I still yearn for creators of color or underrepresented gender to take up an even heavier and riskier burden: make your own universe. Now that <i>Black Panther</i> has put some heat and shine on Afrofuturism, let's have a renaissance. When I hit the lotto, I am going to give <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0234506/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Andrew Dosunmu</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2284226/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Bradford Young</a> $200 million to make a sci-fi epic out of whatever they damn please, with no supervision. If they go over budget, thas they problem. I'll slide Janizsca Bravo, Khalil Joseph, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2033604/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Hiro Murai</a> (our great ally), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0768434/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Malik Sayeed</a>, Shaka King, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0415409/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Arthur Jafa</a> $10 million each to make something that, to their individual satisfactions, fits the description "next level." And I'll let <a href="https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/charles-burnett" target="_blank">Charles Burnett</a> name his price for any lingering lost project or quixotic dream he wants to put onscreen. And I will fight to get them all in the multiplexes and on major streaming platforms.<br />
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Look, if politicians can make empty promises, why can't a random blog weirdo? But I do hope somebody who can move some cash around is listening. What I've learned during the past decade of Marvel Studios' ascendancy is just how vast is many grown black folks' knowledge of that companies' comic book properties. I've listened in on perhaps hundreds of passionate debates about Marvel storylines that tend to get as raucous as sports, politics and religion talks. And if you happen to praise any aspect of the Bryan SInger/20th Century Fox renditions of <i>X-Men</i>, brother, <b>PREPARE TO GET CUT</b>.<br />
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Is <i>Black Panther</i> the blackest movie ever made? Naw. But it is the blackest mainstream fantasy film since <i>The Wiz</i>. (In my worthless opinion, <i>Coming to America</i> shares the crown with <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2011/02/aint-im-clean.html" target="_blank"><i>WATTSTAX</i></a>.) It is indeed blackety-black, most def. There are many indexes of its blackety-blackness, but my favorites are the simple exhilarating closeups of African women with short, natural hair (or no hair), stunning all to silence with their beauty--the ecstatic truth so long denied. Images that answer centuries of slurs and falsehoods against the great wondrous wellspring of our people. Of all people. All this to say: <b>Lupita I love you,</b> <i><b>we can be happy</b></i>!!<br />
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<i>Lupita responds "New phone. Who dis?"</i></div>
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So anyway, I'm with you on the Chris Rock-inspired notion that we will really have overcome when we no longer expect a director hired by a major corporation for a popcorn movie to deliver us to the promised land while tap dancing like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb9hTyLjfM" target="_blank">the Nicholas Brothers</a> and pounding the keys like Oscar Peterson. Coogler is indeed some kind of burgeoning genius, but let's let that brother breathe. Right now he could probably use the gift of a small, intimate film. It would be great to see all the international attention drawn by his association with a blockbuster lured over to some amazing, life-affirming story of an ordinary Black Life. Or whatever Coogler wants. We have to show this brother love by letting him be. I was going to say "setting him free" to make a corny reference but no: the whole point is that there is no liberator more powerful than one's self.</div>
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One of the interesting aspects of the Killmonger character is that his Field Nigga cynicism and siege mentality could have been harnessed for revolutionary muscle but it didn't "free" him. You are not free when you live in constant unresolved trauma and rage. And on the flipside, you are not any more or less a prisoner of a white supremacist system if you adopt non-violent resistance. Malcolm and Martin died the same way, <b><i>and for the same reasons</i></b>: they had reached a place of boundless mental freedom that, given their international influence, ran the risk of contagion effect. <i></i> </div>
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Garvey's Pan-Africanism, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Point_Program" target="_blank">Huey's 10 Points</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Nkrumah" target="_blank">Kwame NKrumah</a>'s socialism, Elijah Muhammad's capitalism, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba" target="_blank">Lumumba</a>'s reforms--all these efforts boil down to free men attempting self-determination and, acquiring, be it on the economic or diplomatic level, some standing in the international community. Garvey probably saw most clearly that the international community was no community at all but a collection of self-interested colonizers and exploiters. Like Killmonger, he preferred the relative honesty of his sworn enemies (Garvey's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey#Conflicts_with_Du_Bois_and_others" target="_blank">pact with the KKK</a>; Killmonger's with Klaw) to the hypocrisies of "friends" who gave public endorsement to reforms while plotting coups and sabotage through their intelligence agencies. His beef with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois" target="_blank">W.E.B. Dubois</a> was a matter of approach (capitalism vs socialism, segregation vs "equal opportunities") and style (Garvey's brawling grandiosity, Dubois' "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Talented_Tenth" target="_blank">Talented Tenth</a>" finesse). <br />
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T'Challa's Wakanda reminded me a bit of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie" target="_blank">Haile Selassie</a>'s Ethiopia, only with sick tech. A proud, strong country that sets itself apart from the rest of Africa, astonishingly impervious to colonialism... yet, during the revolutionary era, more than willing to back up African nations resisting colonial powers. At the end of this origin story, Wakanda is guardedly joining the UN, but mainly as a set up for its participation in the upcoming <i>Infinity War</i>. In the Marvel imagination, the impending threat to all humanity that Thanos poses makes all that colonial/slavery/tribal infighting/Jim Crow/redlining/COINTELPRO/Tuskeegee stuff water under the bridge.<br />
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But there are no neat parallels for the T'Challa vs Killmonger conflict. Each has attributes of legendary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas" target="_blank">Field Niggas</a> and infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson" target="_blank">House Niggas</a>. (And who is which depends on how one interprets their actions in the context of history and one's level of cynicism.) The film wants us to get past labels and remember that "our" conflict is a family conflict. In its climactic sequence, a few characters are suddenly seized by that awareness. They get woke to the simple fact that carrying out vendettas for wrongs within the family while the house is being robbed brings only the robber satisfaction.<br />
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As for the Dora Milaje and going behind the woodshed, I would... well, never mind.<br />
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Let me hear your thoughts on the movie's battle sequences before I do my usual obsessive "go-in" on technical matters that only me and three nerds somewhere even care about...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #3: Odie</i></b></u></span> <br />
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I can just see you stepping to Okoye and she flings your ass over that waterfall. I love Lupita and Danai, but my science major heart belongs to Letitia Wright’s Shuri. Not only is she Wakanda’s resident Q from James Bond, she is as nimble with her brain as the Dora Milaje are with their weaponry. “<i>Just because it works doesn’t mean it cannot be improved,</i>” she tells her brother. Wakanda runs as smoothly as it does because her technology game is tighter than good cornrows. Her brother may be King, but it’s Shuri who’s keeping the lights on in Wakanda. Behind every great man there’s a great woman, as the saying goes. Behind every great Black man there’s a great Black woman—at least until he gets some money and decides to get a White girl.<br />
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But I digress. <br />
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<i>Ain’t no White girls in Wakanda!</i></div>
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But there is a White dude in the kingdom, Martin Freeman’s CIA agent, Everett K. Ross. I like how his character was used—<b>he got the Black role</b>! That is, the guy who makes a difference but isn’t the hero. He’s thrown in as a token, but not a racial one. Ross is what’s tethering this beautiful, self-contained Ryan Coogler Universe to the much larger and more traditional Marvel Universe. We need to be reminded that <i>Infinity War</i>’s coming, y’know!<br />
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I got some hate mail that claimed I’d left Freeman and Andy Serkis out of my RogerEbert.com review because I was a racist who didn’t want to give any praise to White actors. <i><b>If only I were that devilishly evil!</b></i> I left them out because motherfuckers are <u><b>always whining about spoilers and other bullshit I don’t believe in</b></u>, and I was trying to err on the side of caution by not revealing too much. I start talking about Klaw, and then I have to explain that he knew where Wakanda was and how he ties in with Killmonger and Ross.<br />
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The letter writer didn’t point out that I also didn’t talk about Winston Duke or his character M’baku’s great line about vegetarianism. That, and Shuri’s “Colonizer!” line, are two of the best moments in the script. I also like that M’Baku’s people drown out with noise the people they don’t want to hear. They kind of sounded like the audience on <i>The Arsenio Hall Show</i>. We need to adopt that noisemaking philosophy the next time a GOP politician speaks, or when one of the relatives starts drunkenly talking shit at the cookout.<br />
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Your analysis of T’Challa’s philosophy vs. Killmonger’s was great (and you really took my “show all work” to heart—thank you!). So I want to focus on another aspect of their duality. Both of them undergo the same spiritual baptism when they become king, and both visit the fathers who have left this mortal plane for the afterlife. T’Challa’s visit to his Pa takes place in a land that, forgive me, looked like the origin story sequence of Paul Schrader’s <i>Cat People</i>. T’Challa yearns for wisdom while expressing his fears about his new role as successor. It’s a positive experience for the most part, fitting in with other comic book movie style visits to “a home planet.” (See the Christopher Reeve <i>Superman</i> movies for another example.)<br />
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<i>"Ain't this a bitch? They sent me to the wrong goddamn Heaven!" -Richard Pryor</i> </div>
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Killmonger’s vision, which takes place in the realistic setting of Oakland, is a scarier mirror image of T’Challa’s. He’s trapped at the scene of the most traumatic event in his life, the death of his father. This development haunted me, because it seemed to be saying that even at our happiest moments of achievement, we as Black folks still carry tremendous psychological baggage. It’s here that Coogler makes his most direct connection between the two characters who represent Africa and America. Both T’Challa and Killmonger know they are descended from royalty (as we all were), yet like the slave, Killmonger’s birthright was snatched away from him, leaving him to ultimately stew in poverty.<br />
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In his vision, T’Challa’s father tells him “a man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed as a father.” That line resonates throughout Killmonger’s vision; he has not been prepared for this death, but his father’s true failure was making a deal with the wrong people. On his spiritual journey, Killmonger is visiting Hell, or at the very least, Limbo, whereas T’Challa is experiencing Heaven. This goes a long way in humanizing Killmonger, making him a very complicated villain worthy of empathy despite his vicious nature.<br />
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This brings me to Colonel Abrams’ comment about the film’s violence:</div>
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<i>“Don't get me wrong: Coogler and his fight/stunt choreographers and second assistant directors arguably never really break the Marvel mold, but rather impressively build on it. But the one area that they deliver too much of the same ol', same ol'? The fight scenes.”</i><br />
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I don’t agree on this one. Granted, some of the scenes (like the Korean section) have characteristics of other Marvel (and DC) movies, but I could follow the action for a change. Coogler and his editors are nowhere near as good at clearly staging frenetic action as the master of this, George Miller, but their staging is far more coherent and interesting than the standard fare. Many of the battles are on a smaller scale, especially the fights for the throne. Additionally, I liked the way the climactic battle played out, with Coogler hopping from the epic attack on Wakanda to T’Challa and Killmonger fighting for dominance on a literal Underground Railroad.<br />
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You as a filmmaker have a better eye for layout and framing than I do, so can you sum up what bugged you about these scenes?</div>
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One more thing: Did you see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=expKmfdoo28" target="_blank">that video</a> of fans meeting Chadwick Boseman? Under normal circumstances, I’d never subject you to Jimmy Fallon’s late night show, but you gotta see this.</div>
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One guy bows to Boseman like Vondie Curtis-Hall does to Eddie Murphy in <i>Coming to America</i>. The importance these fans place on <i>Black Panther</i> is ingrained in the movie. That Coogler stages Killmonger’s youth and T’Challa’s outreach in Coogler’s hometown of Oakland speaks volumes about this; in a way, Coogler is aligning the Marvel Universe with the place where he probably played his own versions of the superhero games. He probably couldn’t afford Underoos, either.<br />
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Let’s talk about the performances and our favorite scenes. And since you think <i>Coming to America</i> still holds the crown for Blackety Blackest Movie, let’s do a Zamunda/Wakanda comparison! I might be leaning back in this direction, but I’m with you on <i>Wattstax</i> being #2. Convince me, bruva!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #4: Boone </i></b></u></span> </div>
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I'm sorry-- I want to get into my technical peeves, but the clip of Chadwick Boseman meeting <i>Black Panther</i> fans just short circuited my critical faculties. That video is what popular movies are all about, leaving people inspired and encouraged to dream. Not feeling left out of visions of the future. All the <i>Coming to America</i> parallels folks you've noted are quite apt: Both are fantasies that link African-Americans and Africans through sheer charm and imagination. Impeccable casting in both cases makes the films fly high above more mundane filmmaking concerns.<br />
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Yet all that collective charisma is why I yearned for better, less programmatic editing. <i>(As I wipe tears and collect myself after the Fallon video.)</i> In the fight scenes, such is at least in line with contemporary hectic-affectless film editing practice. But in the intimate scenes and dramatic turns, such cutting feels like being rushed out of the restaurant while there's still coffee in your cup. T'Challa's return from the void at M'Baku's compound was a thrilling moment, but the filmmakers didn't juice it, build to it with all the patience and grace it deserved. It was just, Okay, Next!<br />
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Type "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6hmQwfEmzc" target="_blank">You Are the Pan</a>" into YouTube to see a scene from Steven Spielberg's worst movie, <i>Hook</i>, that nevertheless drinks deep of a pivotal moment. Or even that scene in <i>The Dark Knight Rises</i> where Bruce Wayne finally climbs out of that goddamn prison tunnel thing, with all the goons chanting and Hans Zimmer's score building to a heart attackgasm. That silly shit was granted more room to unfurl than any of the lovely flourishes and grace notes in <i>Black Panther</i>.</div>
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Of course, this probably all reads as a typical Old Man Complaint, since, in the Age of Meme, folks are now quite comfortable with experiencing the Cliffs Notes/<i>Last-week-on-Hill-Street-Blues</i> version of screen events. But so long as humans are still capable of appreciating the deeper pleasures of time-based storytelling, there's always an opportunity to relate moments as something more substantial than a screenshot of same. The beautiful thing is, audiences remain so open and willing to engage with what speaks to them in the material that their enthusiasm often bridges the gap. It's like a relationship where the one who's in love does most of the heavy lifting. In this case, <i>Black Panther</i> would have had to be reeally poorly told in order to defeat the excitement the fans had going in. And with Coogler's own Oakland-kid enthusiasm at the helm, that wasn't gonna happen. I just wish the ghost of an African griot (or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0579673/" target="_blank">Sally Menke</a>) had invaded the editing room.<br />
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I can't pick out favorite scenes from <i>Black Panther</i> but there are many, many images that stirred the soul. </div>
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I was just out of high school when I saw luminous closeups of Tisha Campbell and Adrienne-Joi Johnson in the movie <i>House Party</i>. That was my first full-on view, on a movie screen, of what the Internet now calls <b>Black Girl Magic</b>. Maybe I'd had glimpses of it on TV, in blaxploitation clips, Josephine Baker or <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/musical-mondays-me-and-miss-jones.html" target="_blank"><i>Carmen Jones</i></a> dance numbers or a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kSZVtLFygs" target="_blank">Grace Jones music video</a>. But I hadn't seen the crush-inducing everyday black girl glamour I experienced in reality reproduced in a movie theater. Usually black girls were on the margins, bickering or sobbing. Not since <i>House Party</i> have I had as strong a revelatory big screen crush-jolt, not until Danai Gurira's bald, majestic profile in <i>Black Panther</i>. She and the bald Dora Milaje warriors, along with Shuri's (Letitia Wright) and Nakia's (Lupita Nyong'o) natural hair are an answer to hundreds of years of Eurocentric Fair Maiden programming. While it feels a bit harsh when Okoye (Gurira) calls the straight wig she's forced to wear during an undercover mission "a disgrace," the induced shame black women have had for what naturally grows out of their heads is indeed a disgrace, and its <b>time is up</b>.<br />
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Of course, we can't forget Gurira's appearance in the wondrous Andrew Dosunmu's <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094890/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>Mother of George</i></a>, an Africans-in-America film whose use of skin and fabric color must have been a reference point for <i>Black Panther</i>'s night interiors and royal court pageantry. If Coogler ever taps out of the <i>Black Panther</i> franchise, Dosunmu and his cinematographer on <i>George</i>, Bradford Young, have my vote for next at bat.</div>
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As for M'Baku's Dog Pound, I'm just waiting for the inevitable supercut of it alongside Arsenio's, Snoop's, <a href="https://youtu.be/R3XvtkpYGS0" target="_blank">She's Gotta Have It</a>'s and Baha Men's Dog Pounds.<br />
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Anyhow, friends of mine are already calling this film a <i>Black Classic for all time</i>. But where do you place <i>Black Panther</i> in the short long history of Black Fantasy? Or is it silly to draft that history at this early stage? </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #5: Odie</i></b></u></span></div>
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Ah yes, House Party! The subject of the <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/chandelier-downstairs-has-fallen.html" target="_blank">first piece I ever wrote</a> for our <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-history-mumf-recap.html" target="_blank">Black History Mumf series</a> here at Big Media Vandalism. The cinematography in that was by David Lynch’s cin-togger <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005687/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Peter Deming</a>, who made those beautiful ‘round the way gurls <i><u><b>glow</b></u></i>. He made them look the way my heart felt when I gazed up at them from my theater seat. Rachel Morrison has taken this a major step further: Her lighting of the Dora Milaje conjures up all sorts of emotions, from conflict to joy to excitement to, aw hell, I’ll say it, <b>full on arousal</b>. The way Okoye is lit when she decides to adhere to tradition no matter what the cost is different from the way she’s lit in any of her action sequences. If only Pam Grier had these cin-toggers to highlight the halo around her ‘Fro!</div>
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I hear you about wanting more patience within scenes. I didn’t really give it much thought while watching <i>Black Panther</i>, but you do have a point worth considering. It made me think about how much slower movies of our generation (and before) were. For example, I recently watched <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/wargames-1983" target="_blank"><i>WarGames</i></a>, a movie I adore, for the first time in years and was struck by how long it takes to get to its central plot. Director John Badham takes his time letting the viewer get to know the characters, to live with them for a bit before they get in trouble. We had much longer attention spans back then—MTV and Nintendo hadn’t yet started short-circuiting attention spans. Whatever crimes of pacing <i>Black Panther</i> commits, they are sins that cater to the impatience of today’s audiences.<br />
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Hell, I’m willing to congratulate folks who have made it this far reading this conversation. I’ve had people complain that these pieces are too long. My response is <b><u>“bitch, you don’t have to read it all at once!”</u></b> So thank you if you've made it this far. I’m tempted to give you a reward!<br />
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<i>So here’s a Jungle Fever cookie!</i></div>
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You said:<br />
<i><br />“I can't pick out favorite scenes from Black Panther but there are many, many images that stirred the soul.”</i><br />
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I agree about the soul-stirring imagery, but I can think of a few scenes I loved. The scene where Okoye removes her wig of oppression and uses it as a weapon in the casino; any scene with Winston Duke; Killmonger’s final scene; the arrival of those kick-ass rhinos in the climactic battle. And lest I forget, the moment we first get a glimpse of the spectacle that is Wakanda.<br />
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Seeing Wakanda realized onscreen immediately made me think of the opening credits of <i>Coming to America</i>, when images of the Kingdom of Zamunda were accompanied by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJF87m4_k88" target="_blank">Ladysmith Black Mambazo</a>. It was the first time I ever wanted to just climb into the screen to live--can somebody give us an IMAX screening of <i>Coming to America</i>? I was too chicken to mention Zamunda in my <i>Black Panther</i> review, so I’m glad <a href="https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/2/14/17011910/black-panther-film-review-marvel-ryan-coogler-michael-b-jordan-chadwick-boseman" target="_blank">Kam Collins mentioned it in his</a>. These are two places that live in Black viewers' hearts, places that evoke such joy and freedom because the Black folks there aren’t worrying about racism in any form (colorism might be another story, but that usually doesn’t get you shot). </div>
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So I gotta ask you where would you rather be? Zamunda or Wakanda? I’m too old and out of shape to be on Wakanda, so unless I can get a job as one of those rhinos, I’ma have to ask King Joffee to adopt my Black ass and get me some royal bathers.<br />
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<i>Come visit me at my new address, y'all!</i></div>
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You asked where <i>Black Panther</i> place on the Black Fantasy and/or Black Classics lists. I’m not sure yet, but I will say it’s perhaps the biggest game-changer we’ve had in Black cinema. But while we’re on the subject of Black Fantasy movies, I saw <i>A Wrinkle In Time</i> at an advanced screening held by the Walter Reade. Disney hyped the hell out of this movie, which I think will hurt it. The reviews have been less than kind (some have been outright racist and hostile), but I really liked it. It’s a kids’ movie, to be sure, but Ava DuVernay cast a strong young Black actress as her lead. Storm Reid is excellent here, and will surely inspire some young girls to get into science. And it has a gigantic Oprah, whom I’m sure will stomp the shit out of Mister’s son, Harpo when she finds him.<br />
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There’s a scene in <i>Wrinkle</i> that’s as subversively Black as anything Disney has done (those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3xc_RvJS1Q" target="_blank">crows in <i>Dumbo</i></a> don’t count—those muthafuckas were RACIST). Reid’s character, Meg, is being tempted by an evil force that wants her to succumb to the dark side. The temptation takes the form of Meg being transformed into a more “popular” version of herself. Her naturally kinky hair gets straightened out and her dorky attire is replaced by more revealing clothing. The evil force tells Meg this new look will make her the top dog at school. My jaw dropped. “The Devil is giving out free ULTRAPERMS!” I thought. Meg’s rejection of this image of herself sends the same message <i>Black Panther</i> does: Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud. <b><i>And I ain’t changing</i></b>.<br />
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I would love to see Bradford Young work with Coogler on a small scale movie, or with Wendell Harris if he ever decides to come out of retirement. Just don’t make it science fiction. Young shot <i>Arrival </i>and that looked like shit! Of course, he got an Oscar nomination for it instead of <i>Selma </i>or <i>Mother of George</i>. Shit, now I’m starting to sound like you!<br />
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Did you notice that Stan Lee’s cameo was a huge swipe at his image? At the casino, he takes the winnings won by a Black character in a franchise he helped create. They do all the work and he gets the money. Talk about symbolism!<br />
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Enough of me! If you could influence <i>Black Panther 2</i>, which I’m sure Coogler will direct, what would you suggest? And can we live with T’Challa being sent back to supporting character status for <i>Avengers: Infinity War</i>? Wouldn’t it be fucked up if he were just the Sidekick Negro in this?<br />
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Take us home, bruva!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #6: Boone </i></b></u></span><br />
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In his cameo, I half expected Stan Lee to say something like, "Lemme bet on black this time around"--or whatever folks say when they "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTDeOPFr9e4" target="_blank">always bet on black</a>" ((C) 1992, Wesley Snipes). And then lose his shirt and start yelling at his black assistant. But that would have slowed the movie down.<br />
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Speaking of slowing down <i>(oh brother, Jeezus Crys, Boone, shut up!)</i>: I fundamentally, respectfully disagree with the "attention span" defense of modern film editing practice. But lazy editors get away with it cuz it goes down easy and studios/producers don't know the difference between holding an audience's attention vs. superficially averting potential impatience by simply cutting around to shit. And when relatively slow-burn films like <i>No Country For Old Men</i> or <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank"><i>Django Unchained</i></a> or <i>Sicario</i> manage to keep folks engaged, it gets chalked up to some mystical auteur magic rather than the director and editor simply giving the story room to pull us along of its own momentum rather than superficial inducements. We're so many years into this status quo that this is <b>largely my problem</b>, not the world's. <br />
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<i>Mr. Boone, after the aforementioned editing status quo drove him insane</i></div>
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I do agree that old school first acts now tax the patience of even codgers like me! That's where modern screenwriting has actually improved some things. We no longer need to spend a half hour establishing the "norm" that will be uprooted in order to begin Act Two. In <i>Black Panther</i>, we get arguably the most elegant and mesmerizing expository passage in Marvel movie history in that opening flight through Wakandan tribal history. As you say of the film's first landing in Wakanda later in the film, it reminded me of the soothing, soaring approach to Zamunda in <i>Coming to America</i>. Can't front: the first Wakanda approach put a lump in my throat. Metaphorically, it is the "promised land" and the view of it that T'Challa grants Killmonger as he dies is from "the mountaintop."<br />
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Where would I rather live? I was with you on voting Zamunda, with its fairytale charm, until I thought about what it must be like for the lower classes there, as opposed to in Wakanda. The regular folk in Wakanda seem to have at least a decent amount of leisure time and disposable income, judging by the occasional cutaway to a Wakandan marketplace. In Zamunda, everything is lovely if you're the prince. But I doubt my broke ass is getting rose petals and <b>Victoria Dillard Executive Cleaning Service</b> (TM) over there.<br />
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I guess we are stuck here in America for the time being, bruhman. As long as I can say "we," anyplace is about as good as any other place. That's the Wakanda that we've learned to fold up and take with us, through all our troubles. If we can keep laughing together and dreaming together, we'll be alright.<br />
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<i>These are our comment moderators. So be nice!</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-27567346649219780542017-08-21T20:59:00.002-04:002017-08-21T20:59:11.651-04:00The Rachel Dolezal Double Featureby Odienator<br />
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Happy 85th Birthday, Melvin van Peebles! </div>
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A few weeks ago, New York's <a href="https://quadcinema.com/" target="_blank">Quad Cinema</a> did me a solid and showed Mr. van Peebles' first (and last) studio film, <i>Watermelon Man</i> in their newly-renovated theaters. It played on the same day as my favorite romantic comedy of all time, Diahann Carroll's <i><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/make-yours-happy-home.html" target="_blank">Claudine</a>. </i>Unlike that film, I had never seen <i>Watermelon Man</i> on a big screen. Until I'd seen it on VHS, my experience with van Peebles' 1970 satire had been relegated to its appearances on TV. I always found it fascinating that, while edited for language, the TV censor did <u><i>not</i></u> edit out a crucial piece of comic nudity. <i>Watermelon Man</i> may be the only time a big, Black ass was beamed across 70's era airwaves in New York City. The Quad returned that ass, in all its big, Black glory, to the big screen where it belonged. </div>
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While we're on the subject of Black people showing their ass, I'm here to show mine by talking about two movies about White people going...um, <i>trans-racial</i>. One goes against his will, the other goes on purpose. Since I have no tact, and even less common sense, <i>Big Media Vandalism</i>'s latest double feature is named after that pioneer of "put my race down, flip it and reverse it," the White woman formerly known as <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/25082450/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black" target="_blank">Rachel Dolezal</a> (unpronouncable symbol pending). Ms. Dolezal has changed her name to something that would get her resume shredded by 95% of human resource departments, so technically my title refers to someone who no longer exists. You know what else I wish ceased to exist? The part of my memory that contains the first time I read about <i>muthafuckas being</i> <i>trans-racial</i>.</div>
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<i>Watermelon Man</i>, the first film in our double feature, has a great tagline. The poster referred to the film as "The Uppity Movie." Now, <b><i>uppity</i></b> belongs to a special class of word, namely words that most often precede and modify a specific other word. Uppity's significant other of a word is <b>nigger</b>. I'm sure the folks at Columbia Pictures knew this, though I suspect van Peebles had something to do with the marketing. I don't recall if anyone says the word <i>uppity</i> in Herman Raucher's screenplay, but you'll certainly hear its partner in crime word more than once in <i>Watermelon Man</i>. The film's White protagonist, Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge), would certainly use it if given the chance.<br /><br />Gerber is a racist, sexist asshole. He's a fitness freak in love with exercise and the daily use of his tanning bed. Gerber's daily commute to work involves successfully outrunning the bus for several stops before boarding it in triumph. As the Black bus driver tries to outpace him, his primarily White passengers cheer him on. But traffic and the fact he has to pick up passengers at other stops prevents the bus driver from besting Gerber. "Oh shit!" the passengers say collectively as Gerber wins the race yet again.</div>
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"Arrogant! Arrogant! They're all arrogant!" mutters Gerber when the bus driver angrily asks for his fare. From the back of the bus (an odd place for Gerber to sit), he yells "in the good old days, you'd have to drive from back here!" </div>
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Gerber works in a lily-White office selling insurance. He makes sexist comments to the women there and constantly works the room with a racist joke or anecdote. None of his co-workers seem to like him, but he manages to be a hit with his customers, many of whom are presumably the same type of privileged prick Gerber is. </div>
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At home, Gerber puts up with his extremely liberal wife, Althea (Estelle Parsons) and his precocious son and daughter, the latter of which is played by a pre-Happy Days Erin Moran. Althea is constantly on her husband's back about not caring about the "Negro problem." Althea's radio and TV are always tuned to some liberal news program that drives Gerber crazy. He spouts the typical Archie Bunker-ish things while holding court at the dinner table.<br /><br />Though he's a horrible bigot, Althea puts up with her husband's nonsense, chastising him but never once considering finding herself a more enlightened partner. She seems perfectly content with the status quo of a suburban home and scheduled sex once a week. When Gerber presses her for some good lovin', she reminds him that it's Tuesday and that he'll just have to wait until tomorrow. In the Gerber home, Wednesday is Hump Day in more than one respect.</div>
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It's here that I should point out that, a few paragraphs ago, I said Jeff Gerber was played by Godfrey Cambridge. Not only is Cambridge a Black actor, he's a <i>dark-skinned</i> Black actor. In his natural state, he couldn't visually pass for White even if the entire viewing audience was blind. So, in an unprecedented move, Cambridge plays Jeff Gerber in whiteface for the first act of the film. This is 19 years before Rick Baker's stunning work changing Eddie Murphy into a White Jewish man in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/you-aint-never-met-martin-luther-king.html" target="_blank"><i>Coming to America</i></a>, so a grain of salt is required to buy Cambridge as a White man. No matter--the subversiveness of the act far outweighs any visual hiccups. Since I first saw this film back in the 70's, I was able to accept Cambridge as Beckworth With The Good Hair. <br />
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It would seem that only an act of God would cause Althea to leave her boorish husband. <i>Watermelon Man</i> provides a catalyst, though whether it's God's work or Satan's we'll never know. But one night, while making a middle of the night bathroom visit, Gerber catches a glimpse of his ass in the bathroom mirror. We get to see it too--van Peebles fills the entire screen with it. Gerber screams in panic, because he realizes he's turned Black as hell. </div>
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The way van Peebles films this scene is hilarious and masterful. The soundtrack pulsates with heartbeats and strange musical instruments before the big ass reveal. Gerber then reacts with intense panic as the screeen turns colors and the editing becomes jagged. "This is all a dream!" Gerber keeps telling himself. He splashes water on his face, trying to wash that Black right out of his hair. But no amount of scrubbing will cleanse his new pigmentation. Eventually, he wakes up Althea and drags her into the bathroom to see his transformation. Of course, she freaks out, screaming about "that strange Negro in the bathroom!"</div>
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<i>"I'm that strange Negro in the bathroom!" yells Gerber.</i></div>
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"You can't go to work like that!" says Althea before calmly introducing their kids to their colorized Daddy. They don't care, but their father's terrified concern picks up the slack in the caring department.<br /><br />Grasping for any logical excuse, Gerber blames the tanning bed he's been using. This would be credible if Gerber were the color of John Boehner instead of Wesley Snipes, and even more credible if Gerber's straight blond hair hasn't pulled a reverse UltraPerm and gone native. After unsuccessfully complaining to the tanning bed company (they offer to send him a new bed; presumably this one would turn him Asian), he takes the day off to soak in a bathtub full of milk. It doesn't work.</div>
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Gerber's next step is to "go to <i>their</i> neighborhood" to get skin bleachers. Gerber buys enough to turn the Harlem Globetrotters into the Boston Bruins. "Tell me it's coming off, Althea!" Gerber begs while covered with an obscene amount of bleacing product. It's not coming off.</div>
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Eventually, Gerber has to go to work. Now, his skin color may have changed, but he's still a White asshole underneath because he thinks its temporary. He'll still say boorish things and expect to get away with his everyday routine. Unfortunately for him, the universe has other ideas. Gerber's race for the bus turns sour mid-run when a White woman wrongly accuses him of theft. Her rationale is that he was Black and running, so he must have done something. As an angry mob surrounds him and the cops try to take him in, the Black bus driver comes to his aid. Welcome to Negritude, Mr. Gerber!</div>
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"I didn't realize you were..." begins the bus driver, but Gerber's not having it. He says it's a tanning accident, the same excuse he uses at work. Gerber tries to get through his day by purposefully ignoring his color, but that privilege doesn't come with brown skin. He's not only noticable at the ritzy club where he's supposed to meet his biggest client, he's not welcome. Gerber's angry protests are met by, you guessed it, the cops. </div>
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After two unfair run-ins with the cops, you'd think Gerber would have some empathy for "the Negro problem." But no! He still thinks we're shiftless and lazy. He also thinks his doctor will find a medical cause for his condition. Meanwhile, Althea thinks of a more genetic cause for it. "My mother always thought you looked a little Negro," she says, which insults Gerber to the core. Althea makes it worse by pointing out that her husband's Black-sounding full name, Jefferson Washington Gerber, might have been his parents' subtle way of revealing the results of his DNA test. "I'm not Negro!!" Gerber persists.</div>
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No matter! It's Wednesday, which means sexytime with the Mrs. Unfortunately for Gerber, Althea finds a way to forget her liberalism. "I can't!" she tells him, resisting his advances. Althea may have problems, but Gerber's buxom, Nordic secretary finds Black Gerber a turn-on even if he is the same sexist pig he was when he was White. Gerber's boss also sees him in a different light--here's a chance to corner the untapped Negro market! "We've never had a Negro salesman before," he tells Gerber. Ever the company man, Gerber goes along with selling to Black customers while awaiting deliverance from his doctor.</div>
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<br />Alas, the doc finds nothing wrong with Gerber. Not only does he tell him he's really Black, he suggests Gerber finds a Black doctor. Gerber's neighbors also have a suggestion for him, which they convey in a series of phone calls that say "move out, nigger!" Althea can no longer stand the threats. She sends the kids to her mother's, then joins them after the neighbors make an absurd bid to buy the Gerbers' home. Her problem isn't that the neighbors are forcing them out, it's that Gerber uses their racist panic to get a ridiculously high amount of money for the house. She bitches that Gerber "took advantage of those nice people!" </div>
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With Gerber's marriage gone, he hops on his eager, willing secretary. But her fetishism for Negro flesh gives way to extreme racism once Gerber calls her out for bigotry. The secretary is so mad, she screams rape, sending Gerber running off into the night. </div>
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<i>Watermelon Man</i> ends with Jeff Gerber moving to the "colored part of town" and opening up a practice to corner that untapped Negro insurance market. The last scene finds him joining the revolution, so to speak, finally accepting his Blackness and planning to do the one thing Althea used to pester him about--pay attention to the plight of his Black brethren.</div>
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That's how <i>Watermelon Man </i>ends, but it's not how Columbia nor Raucher wanted it to finish. Both wanted Jeff Gerber to wake up from his nightmare a new and improved White man, sort ot like how John Howard Griffith turned back White in <i>Black Like Me</i>. van Peebles wasn't having it, citing that "Blackness is not a disease to be cured." Shockingly, this wasn't the dumbest idea Columbia had for this movie: They wanted Jack Lemmon to play Gerber in both incarnations. Can you imagine Black Jack Lemmon married to the Oscar winning actress from <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i>? This film wouldn't have made a dime!</div>
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The most unusual thing about <i>Watermelon Man</i>, besides the funky, very strange score van Peebles composed (it includes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZkxJl8hcSM" target="_blank"><i>Love, That's America</i></a>, which was commandeered by Occupy Wall Street), is van Peebles' casting of Mantan Moreland. van Peebles was once asked what types of studio system Black characters he had problems with, and his response was "every damn last one of them." So seeing Moreland, a contemporary of Stepin Fetchit, onscreen in a van Peebles production was certainly jarring. Moreland doesn't do anything offensive--he's actually pretty funny responding to racist White Gerber and his newly Black alter ego--but his presence here is still a surprise.</div>
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The attitudes presented in this satire still have the power to sting today, for nothing has changed. <i>Watermelon Man</i>'s skewering of White beliefs and actions, liberal or not, remain fresh, sharp and biting. And Cambridge, who died way too soon, creates a role as memorable as Gitlow, the hilarious character he played in Ossie Davis' <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-integrated-funeral-in-sovereign.html" target="_blank"><i>Purlie Victorious</i></a>. </div>
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<i>Watermelon Man</i> probably couldn't be made today, but the next film on our roster certainly has a shot. 16 years after Godfrey Cambridge put on whiteface, C. Thomas Howell put on blackface to star in <i>Soul Man</i>. <i>Soul Man</i> is an embarrassing fiasco that doesn't deserve mention in the same post as <i>Watermelon Man</i>, because any similarities between the two are easily overshadowed by the hideous amount of misguided racism contained in this 1986 disaster. But I have to go here, if only to show how fucked up '80's movies were about race before The Black New Wave ushered in a slew of Black directors to tell our stories. Lest you think I'm trying to push some form of 2017 "wokeness" on a 30-year old movie, keep in mind I haven't seen this thing since 1986. it was so offensive it stuck with me all these years.</div>
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How the fuck did this film get made, and why the fuck would I say it could be remade? Simple: Affirmative Action complaints. This is a film about a rich White boy who gets into Harvard Law School but can't afford to pay for it because his Dad (James Sikking) cuts off the pursestrings. Rather than get a job (or blackmail his neurotic Dad), Howell decides to apply for a scholarship specifically earmarked for Black students. He dyes himself black with tanning pills, buys a nappy wig and wins over the scholarship people. If you thought Godfrey Cambridge made an unconvincing White boy, feast your eyes on the reverse:</div>
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Not only does Howell not look Black, he looks like a cross between a faded Willie Tyler and Lester ventriloquist dummy and Chris Rock's evil White twin. </div>
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<br />Now, if the film really wanted to be honest about who benefits most from affirmative action, Howell would have stayed White, slapped on a blonde wig and some tits, and played Christina Thomasina Howellina instead of "Mark Watson." But no, he's gotta be Black. So let's play along for a minute. </div>
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<br />Unlike Cambridge's condition, Howell's is easily reversible. He can go back to being White anytime he wants. Additionally, despite all the stereotypes Howell must endure, from the White girl who complains that his fake Black dick is too small, to the White kids who think he's good at basketball, to the parents who see him as Prince or a pimp in cringe-worthy fantasy sequences, none of these transgressions are treated with the response or repercussions a person of color would have, thereby negating any satirical power the film thinks it has. </div>
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Howell is teamed up with Rae Dawn Chong, who plays the original recipient of the scholarship. She has a daughter and a working class job, so she's certainly less privileged than Howell. But the film doesn't treat Howell's fraud with the life-changing seriousness it deserves. Chong falls in love with him, and even after she discovers he's not only White but the reason she's busting her ass to get through Harvard Law, she still takes him back. Howell gives up the scholarship, which he must now pay back to Chong. He also gives up his "color," but gets to keep the chocolate fantasy. </div>
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<br />James Earl Jones, who got an Oscar nomination the same year <i>Watermelon Man</i> came out, is on hand as Negro John Houseman. His job is to scare Howell's character, who thinks he's got an in because both he and Jones have brown skin. Jones has certainly been in more embarrassing roles (here's looking at you, <i>BloodTide</i>), but he's tasked with employing a level of gravitas that this film does not deserve. Jones gets to make speeches about how great it is to be a Harvard Law graduate ("a Harrrvard Lawwww GRADUATE!" he repeatedly says) and gets to play the bad guy while Howell's buddy Arye Gross tries to defend his actions in a court-like setting. Jones is the best thing in <i>Soul Man</i>, but that's saying very little.</div>
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At the end of <i>Soul Man</i>, we're supposed to believe that Howell has a better understanding of what it means to be Black, and of his own privilege. But, as Melvin van Peebles said, "Blackness is not a disease to be cured." We know Jeff Gerber fully understands Blackness, because he's stuck with it and he'll learn the full-immersion way. In <i>Soul Man</i>, the main character is let off the hook with no punishment outside of a financial one. Viewers today may see Howell's actions as a "blow" to "unfair" practices for minorities, but in actuality, it's all about the joys of cultural appropriation without consequence. If being Black were as easy as <i>Soul Man</i> makes it, everbody would be a disciple of Dolezal. </div>
odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-611260887633255862017-07-25T15:41:00.004-04:002017-07-25T15:50:21.329-04:00Causing Trouble With Odienator: I Got Some Alt-History Shows Too!by Odienator<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUW9IsQjb-Ye1SjYj8uTLMvxXq6tpj2ChsBVev1bKj8Z6yX5zoNDSMr7g8LCwGGwvc_oIh7GwA2WzOdtL1_sNt0Y08gdovU9dkYS33dlMY-R0uXFhZHTAXEbOHBVUzvZ3tzx7Tw/s1600/odie_simpson2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="108" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUW9IsQjb-Ye1SjYj8uTLMvxXq6tpj2ChsBVev1bKj8Z6yX5zoNDSMr7g8LCwGGwvc_oIh7GwA2WzOdtL1_sNt0Y08gdovU9dkYS33dlMY-R0uXFhZHTAXEbOHBVUzvZ3tzx7Tw/s200/odie_simpson2.jpg" width="107" /></a></div>
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<i>(Ed. Note: Using his awesome foot massaging skills, Big Media Vandalism blog runner Odienator has managed to secure a meeting with the bigwigs at HBO. He is currently on-site trying to get a show-running gig at the network responsible for such classics as The Wire, Oz, Deadwood and The Sopranos.</i></div>
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<i>We here at BMV have wired Odie, because we heard there are dragons and shit over there at HBO. Considering they rarely get to eat dark meat, we feared that Odie might look like a three-piece from Popeye's to these fire-breathing creatures. Big Media Vandalism's creator and spiritual lifeforce, Steven Boone stands ready to intervene should any shit go down. Let's listen in to Odie's meeting.)</i></div>
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ODIE</div>
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Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Big. Seriously, I can't believe that's your actual name. Is your last name short for anything?</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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No, that's my full name. I'm a member of the New Haven Bigs. Our surname goes back to the Mayflower. </div>
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ODIE</div>
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Cool! The <i>Mayflower Bigs</i>! That's real cool! I appreciate your time today, sir. I promise you won't regret it!</div>
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MR. BIG </div>
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Time is money, kid. Grab those matches and light my cigar, will you? (Puff puff) Good. Good. Now, pitch me. </div>
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ODIE</div>
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OK. What had happened was: The other day, somebody in my Twitter feed tweeted a press release about your new show, <i>Song of the South</i>...</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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You mean <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/hbo-confederate-tv-show-game-of-thrones-creators-david-benioff-db-weiss-1202500538/" target="_blank"><i>Confederate</i></a>?</div>
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ODIE</div>
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Yeah, yeah, my bad! <i>Confederate</i>! Anyway, the showrunners' defense was that they were into "world creating" and that this new genre y'all got called "alt-history" was the hottest thing in TV.</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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Indeed, we want to do something like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740299/" target="_blank"><i>The Man in the High Castle</i></a>. We were rather pissed Netflix beat us to the punch in the alt-history game. And this sounds perfect--what if the South won the Civil War?</div>
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ODIE</div>
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Didn't <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932551/" target="_blank">that brother</a> who co-wrote <i>Chi-Raq</i> already <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389828/" target="_blank">do this plot</a>?</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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There is nothing new under the Sun, Odie. Your Sunday School teacher taught you that, I am sure. </div>
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ODIE</div>
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She was too busy telling us that frankincense and myrrh were what the New Testament called weed. I guess she was dealing in Alt-history, right?</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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The clock's ticking kid. Can't you hear the Hans Zimmer <i>Dunkirk </i>score playing on the PA system here? </div>
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HANS ZIMMER</div>
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Tick-tick-tick-tick. <a href="https://inception.davepedu.com/" target="_blank">BRAAAAAAHHHHHM!!</a></div>
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ODIE</div>
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Sorry. OK, I'll be quick! So I got an idea for a new show that'll be as edgy and gritty as the shows HBO is known for. And it's a costume show with fierce creatures like <i>Game of Thrones</i>. Check this out. It's called <i>Lions</i>.</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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What? Is this a spinoff of <i>Empire</i>?</div>
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ODIE</div>
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Not Cookie Lyon! <i>Lions</i>! You know, like the thing in the MGM logo?</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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I see. Continue.</div>
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ODIE</div>
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OK, so we're in an alternate history where the Roman Empire never fell. </div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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Great! We won't have to cast any minorities in this.</div>
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ODIE </div>
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It's not gonna matter, you'll see! So you know how, back in Roman times, the emperor would have Colisseum events where he fed people to the lions? </div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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Yeah, I saw <i>Gladiator</i>. </div>
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HANS ZIMMER</div>
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(Few notes of Gladiator score plays, then) <a href="https://inception.davepedu.com/" target="_blank">BRAAAAAAHHHHNMMM!</a></div>
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ODIE</div>
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Your Muzak is <i>fuckin' lit</i>, Mr. Big. But anyway! Anyway! We're going to tell this story from the lions' point of view. </div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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Wait, what?</div>
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ODIE</div>
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An example! Just hear me out. You mentioned the Bible a minute ago--well, remember when Daniel was in the Lions' Den? Well, we recreate that shit as a flashback because our main human is a descendant of Daniel's. And when God delivers Daniel from the Lions' Den, we'll have a lion saying "Ain't this a bitch? That mu'fucka looked delicious!" </div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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This is absurd, Odie. Lions don't talk, for starters, and we haven't done animation at HBO since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happily_Ever_After:_Fairy_Tales_for_Every_Child" target="_blank"><i>Happily Ever After</i></a>.</div>
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ODIE</div>
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No no! This will be live-action. We got some CGI lions voiced by famous actors. Anthony Hopkins can be a lion. Al Pacino--he's done like 40 movies for you guys already--he can be a lion. Oh, James Earl Jones! He can bring <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw45nBcWNbQ" target="_blank">that Mufasa shit</a>! And Patrick Stewart too!</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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You really think Patrick Stewart would play a talking lion, kiddo?</div>
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ODIE</div>
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Hey, he's playing a talking piece of shit in that Emoji movie. A chatty lion with a nappy-ass mane would be a step up for him!</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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I've heard enough. Security!! Get this fool out of my office!</div>
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ODIE</div>
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Wait! Wait! Security, please! Before you drag me outta here, I got one more idea. Please, Mr. Big. You know you need more minority show runners up in here when the shit truly hits the fan over this slave fan fiction show you're doing. You need me, dude! Give me one more pitch!</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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All right. But this better not have any talking ferrets or tubas and shit in it.</div>
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ODIE </div>
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No. No. Just real people! OK, this time, it's an alt-history look at the last 8 years. Remember how some folks were scared that, if Obama got elected, he'd enslave all of White America? Well, I'm pitching that this shit ACTUALLY HAPPENS. Every White person's a slave! We can get Margot Robbie as a runaway slave doing illegal TV transmissions on a network called <i>Br'er Fox News</i> and...</div>
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MR. BIG</div>
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Security!! Drag his dumb, country ass outta here!</div>
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ODIE</div>
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Wait...waaaaait!</div>
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HANS ZIMMER</div>
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<a href="https://inception.davepedu.com/" target="_blank"> BRRRAAAAAAHHHHHMMM!</a></div>
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(End transmission)</div>
odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-61207759431607278622017-03-07T10:23:00.001-05:002017-03-07T12:36:22.721-05:00Black Man Talk: Get Out: Never Trust A Tea Cup and a Smile<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Odie "Od<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ienator" Hender<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">son and </span></span></span>Steven Boone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(The
following is a conversation between Big Media Vandalism
founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie
Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other
installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">42</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,</span> <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Lee Daniels' The Butler</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2014/10/black-man-talk-dear-white-people.html" target="_blank">Dea<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">r White Peop<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">le</span></span></a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/11/black-man-talk-12-years-slave.html" target="_blank">12 <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years a Slave</span></a></span>)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: red;">THIS IS VERY SPOILER<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">IFIC! DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>GET OUT</b>.</span></span></span> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #1: Odie</i></b></u></span></div>
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Brother Boone, I was hoping our next Black Man Talk would be about the vengeance-filled tell-all book President Obama wrote once he got out of office. Alas, he only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/business/media/obama-book-deal-penguin-random-house.html" target="_blank">signed the book deal</a> for that last week. So unless he's as quick as Stephen King and can turn out that book by the end of
this sentence, we're going to have to choose another subject. </div>
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<i>Don't rush me, goddammit!</i> </div>
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I propose we look at Jordan Peele's social horror hit, <i>Get Out</i>. This is the
story of a brother whose dalliance with a White woman yields terrifying though hilarious results. It's a cautionary tale that will immediately
evoke memories of conversations between Black men and their parents. Finally, we've got a movie that will do what millions of warnings from
Black Mamas couldn't: It puts the symptom of chills back into Jungle Fever!</div>
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I admit I was skeptical about this movie. First of all, I am not fan of <i>Key & Peele</i>, the Comedy Central show that Get Out's writer-director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peele" target="_blank">Jordan Peele</a> did with his old MadTV colleague, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keegan-Michael_Key" target="_blank">Keegan-Michael Key</a>. I just didn't find them funny, and I was hard-pressed to find another Black person who did. Couple that with the absolutely <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/get_out" target="_blank">rapturous reception</a> by film critics, and all I could see were red flags. You and I both know the film critic
world is as White as a blank sheet of paper, but outside of Armond White, there were no critic howls of outrage. Immediately, I was suspicious. "This shit is probably toothless!" I thought.</div>
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I was happy to be wrong. This thing bites and breaks the skin. How on Earth did this movie get made?</div>
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Let's talk about not only the movie but the recent outpouring of White Tears against it! And let's comment on OUR boy, Get Out co-star Lakeith Stanfield's tweet about YOUR boy, Armond White's review. And let's talk about the cinematic precedents of this film's race-tinged horror movie plot. The film that immediately sticks out for me is <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-drop-of-black-cinema-lucien-ballard.html" target="_blank"><i>Three the Hard Way</i></a>, whose poisoning of the Black neighborhood's water supply plot was adapted by the GOP for Flint, Michigan.</div>
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But first, I'd like to present a skit detailing what would have happened had I brought a White woman home.</div>
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<b><i>Me: Mom, Pops, this is my girlfriend, Heather Kardashian Winthrop. We're in love!<br /><br />Heather: HIIIIII! It's so nice to meet Odie's parents! (to my mother) Odie tells me you like Turtles candies so I brought you a huge box!<br /><br />Odie's Mom: Oh thank you, dear! That's very nice of you.<br /><br />(Takes box, hands it to my Pops)<br /><br />Odie's Mom: Put those in the refrigerator, please. (to me) Odell, can I see you in the other room for a minute?<br /><br />Me: Sure, Ma. Be right back, honey! (We leave)<br /><br />(Cut to the outside of my parents' house. Suddenly, the roof flies off the house in a huge explosion. The blast sends me flying straight into the sky. The roof falls back on the house crooked.)<br /><br />(Cut to back inside the house)<br /><br />Odie's Mom (re-enters room, smoothing down her blouse and skirt before opening her arms to hug Heather) Welcome to the family, girl!</i></b><br />
<br />
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I exaggerate. <b><i>Slightly</i></b>. My mother always thought I was gay. She once told me that, if I ever brought home a White man, <i>he better not be broke</i>. When I brought home the Black woman I eventually married, my mother said "OK, so you like girls too. Whatever. Still, don't bring home no White woman." It never ceases to amuse me that the roof would have stayed on the house in the above skit had I brought home a White man.</div>
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But
I digress. There's a great throwaway bit in Malcolm Lee's <i>Undercover
Brother</i> where Chi McBride reacts to Eddie Griffin bringing Denise
Richards' White She Devil character to Undercover Brother HQ. McBride
says something like "he did NOT just bring that White woman up in here!"
The line isn't as funny as his delivery of it; he sounded exactly the
way my mother--and a lot of Black parents--would have sounded. Because,
unless you come from a biracial union like Peele and his parter in crime, Key, there's a parental expectation attached to future
children-in-law. Sometimes it's unspoken, and other times it's blatant as
hell. But the expectation is there. Society has hammered into our heads
a series of givens: everybody's straight and everybody's gonna bring
home someone that looks like them.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Of
course, these givens are quite often disproven, and there's usually
more fallout than people acknowledge. Peele hints at this in the first
scene between lovers Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose (<a href="http://www.hbo.com/girls" target="_blank"><i>Girls</i></a>' Allison
Williams, perfectly cast). Chris asks a very valid question: "Do your
parents know I'm Black?" Rose responds with an answer that immediately
infuriated me. "Should they?" she asks. "Hell yes!" the loud, talk back
to the screen Black kid inside of me yelled in his head. "This is your
cue to RUN, Chris!!"</div>
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Rose's response is the first of many microagressions <i>Get Out</i> blatantly explores and exploits, though, as we find out later, her response is of a bigger, more sinister piece; it's pure aggression rather than microaggression. I fucking hate the word "microaggressions," because they damn sure don't feel micro when you're subjected to them every day. But I guess it's the word I'm stuck with here, and the way Peele works these microaggressions into the horror fabric of his film is the movie's best asset. You and I both know what it feels like to be the only person of color in a room, and how much more worrisome it can be, whether that worry is justified or not, when we're the center of attention in that room. Let's talk about that great party scene where Chris meets the way too friendly denizens of Rose's small hometown. Without the overambitious pleasantries, it could have been a scene from a slavery epic.</div>
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Before I get too deeply into the delicious minutiae of Peele's mise-en-scene (and also tell the watermelon-centric story of the time I met a White girlfriend's parents), I'll turn the floor over to you. What did you think of the film overall? How was your moviegoing experience? (My audience was VERY vocal--more on that later.) What was the deal with Rose's creepy ass brother?! Do you think Catherine Keener's character was Peele's less than subtle commentary on the stigma that often accompanies Black folks who seek therapy? And what woulda happened if you'd brought home a White woman?</div>
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Take me to the Sunken Place, my brother. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #2: Boone</i></b></u></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I saw the movie with our buddy Simon Abrams and a diverse, very game and vocal New York crowd. It was the loudest, funnest time I've had at a horror movie since seeing <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/drag-me-to-hell-2009" target="_blank"><i>Drag Me to Hell</i></a> at the Court Street multiplex in downtown Brooklyn some years ago. This film has a comedian's sense of the crowd.<br />
<br />
I hadn't any high hopes for this flick, either. Key & Peele are clever but somewhat generic comedy writers, and lackluster as performers. Plus I couldn't tell from the trailer whether we were in for an eccentric horror or just an extended K&P skit. So Peele's really rich writing and subtle, visually astute direction in <i>Get Out</i> were a nice surprise.<br />
<br />
It's bursting, roiling with ideas, but at the center of the maelstrom is a question: <b><i>What do white people want from us</i></b>? Now, bruvas of the world like you and I definitely have white friends with whom this question never comes up. That's why they're our friends. But all my life I've had unsettling encounters similar to those played for horror-comedy in <i>Get Out</i>: being placed, out of the blue, on a kind of impromptu stage, under a spotlight at work or in a social setting where I am the only dark person in the room. And then holding, essentially, a press conference on my race.<br />
<br />
The focus of the symposium varies, but I'd say the top three subjects are<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The size of my Johnson </li>
<li>Whether I agree or disagree with some controversial statement a black celebrity has recently made</li>
<li>Am I as pissed off as they (the questioner) about some recent political or social justice outrage affecting my people (if the questioner is essentially liberal) <b>OR</b> </li>
<li>Am I as pissed off as they about some racial double standard that has resulted in an injustice against an innocent white person (if the questioner is essentially conservative and has assessed that I am fair-minded enough to hear them out).</li>
</ul>
These kinds of encounters are awkward, amusing and maybe a little irritating... but how do you get a horror movie out of 'em? Easy. Give the people asking the questions a vast, unknown amount of power. Make them friendly and ingratiating on the surface. Like kindly old corporate rep Will Geer in <a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/seconds" target="_blank"><i>Seconds</i></a> or Ruth Gordon in <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rosemarys-baby-1968" target="_blank"><i>Rosemary's Baby</i></a>.<br />
<br />
But in so-called black life, friendly faces that could determine your fate are a daily reality. There is no sweeter, more inviting face than Catherine Keener's, and look how it masks her affluent white character's power--until she's good and ready to use it. Her husband and creepy ass son, being restless alpha males, have a harder time hiding that they don't mean entirely well. It's Chris, their black house guest, who has to stay fully on his toes in their presence. If any of the tension boils over into something physical, he is the one who will have the most explaining to do, and fast, if the police arrive.<br />
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<br />
Yes, Peele plays a lot of black folks' hangups and internalized oppression like a fiddle. This includes the psychology stigma.The Sunken Place is all that suppressed shit that paralyzes us. It's also a handy metaphor for being "woke" yet powerless to act.<br />
<br />
You know, I have no idea how my parents, who grew up in the South during the Emmett Till years, would have reacted if I brought home a white girl. No roof explosions, for sure, but definitely a Fred Sandford chest-clutch or two. <br />
<br />
I want to hear more on the micro stuff, the subtle messages and flourishes you spied on Peele's work here. Abrams told me of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/get-out-jordan-peeles-radical-cinematic-vision-of-the-world-through-black-eyes" target="_blank">Richard Brody's observation</a> that with this film Peele has become America's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Bu%C3%B1uel" target="_blank">Bunuel</a>. That sounds so right.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #3: Odie</i></b></u></span> <br />
<br />
The experiences you've described mirror both my own experiences and the ones <i>Get Out</i> puts Chris through. Except Peele throws them at Chris all at once, which makes things more terrifying. Surely we can handle a few of these aggravations, but every single one in succession would make even the strongest person start doubting their sanity. Like Ira Levin, a master of the social thriller subgenre <i>Get Out</i> belongs to, Jordan Peele's screenplay keeps us off-balance. As in real life, we question whether our perception of events is being altered by our innate paranoia. Because to be <i>Black in America</i>, or, in Levin's character Rosemary's case, to be <i>female in America</i>, is to have an almost deer-like awareness of potential danger: Sometimes it's just a harmless noise in nature, but sometimes it's really a hunter with a gun. We just aren't sure until we have a moment to reflect, and such moments tend to be scarce. We need to ACT accordingly and immediately.<br />
<br />
It's no coincidence Bradley Whitford's character, Dean, brings up his hatred of deer during his initial meeting with Chris. His speech is the first indication something may be awry. Chris is lulled into a false sense of security by Dean's wife Missy (Keener) and Rose's embarrassment at Dean's Dad jokes and his attempts to be Negro hip. Whose parents don't seem tragically out of date to their kids?<br />
<br />
Chris' introduction, and Dean's use of "thang" and "brother" reminded me of the time I went to my first (and thus far only) White girlfriend's house for a barbecue (notice I didn't say <i>cookout</i>. <b>YOU KNOW WHY!!</b>) I was young--15 in fact--and stupid, but smart enough to know you do <b><u>not</u></b> eat the potato salad at a barbecue! Her dad seemed normal enough, and so did her Mom, though the Dad did call me "brother" and used jive phrases I swear he got from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzIcec_bQss" target="_blank">Barbara Billingsley in <i>Airplane!</i></a>.<br />
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<i>I love that June Cleaver says "Whitey" in this clip about her jive fluency</i></div>
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The only time it got uncomfortable was, after eating hot dogs and burgers (I purposely avoided the ribs--optics, y'know!), the Mom came outside with this HUGE tray of sliced watermelon.</div>
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She went around offering it to the guests, and when she got to me, the only Black person there, she froze. I could read her face: THIS LOOKS BAD! Optics, y'know! She was about to offer me <b>(sarcastic tone)</b> <i>the dreaded fruit of racism, WATERMELON!!!</i> </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Evil is only 19 cents a pound!</i></div>
<br />
Now, had she offered everybody else strawberries and came to me with a big ass <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oGKNrYrJho" target="_blank">Petey Greene slice of watermelon</a>, THAT would have been racist. But she was offering everybody the same thing. So it was fine. But it was the first time I'd seen that sense of social paranoia I normally felt being reflected back at me on a White person's face.<br />
<br />
"It's OK," I told her, "really it is." She offered, and I politely declined. Because I HATE watermelon. Hate it! Hate it! Hate it!<br />
<br />
Again, I am digressing. You said:<br />
<br />
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<i>"It's bursting, roiling with ideas, but at the center of the maelstrom is a question: What do white people want from us?"</i><br />
<br />
Peele's answer to this question is the film's most subversive touch--the one that made me say "shit, they let him make this?!"<br />
<br />
This is a movie about Black victims of theft. The body-snatcher angle makes it blatant, but it's more than just about the theft of Black bodies, a clear slavery metaphor that <a href="http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a53515/get-out-jordan-peele-slavery/" target="_blank">this great Esquire article</a> explores better than I could. It's also about the theft of achievement, the theft of culture and the theft of myths that were originally conjured up by the same folks now trying to commandeer the hype. The only way they can do this is by stealing the bodies of their victims, controlling them like marionettes while--and this is the most sadistic part--keeping just enough of the original host's psyche alive so that, in rare moments of clarity, they know what's happening to them.<br />
<br />
Peele runs with these thefts, bending them into horror elements.<br />
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<b>The myth theft:</b> Lakeith Stanfield is literally stolen in the film's creepy opening sequence, presumably because he'd make a believable Black buck for the horny middle-aged White woman practically glued to him at the big party. Sure, he'll sling the long john! To <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTX6Q6_VFW8" target="_blank">quote</a> <i>Lethal Weapon 2</i>: It's "because he's BLACK!!!" Why else would he be chosen, without prior carnal knowledge, by this woman? Plus, he's her personal Umfufu, the African lady Eddie Murphy married in <i>Raw</i>. In that movie, Murphy jokes that he has the perfect person to exploit, but the second Umfufu talks to "American woman" her brainwashed spell is broken and she has an important moment of clarity that fucks up Eddie's game. Look at how that woman tries to keep Stanfield from Chris! But the second he takes that picture, Stanfield is self-aware long enough to issue his ominous warning: "GET OUT! GET OUT!"<br />
<br />
<b>The achievement/culture theft:</b> Creativity and achievements have no color, but legitimacy is usually White, especially in the arts. You put in all this work to make something your own, but there's a possibility that you will get jacked for it. This is something we've seen over the years, from Elvis on down to Macklemore. Pat Boone could sing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFxTvffJqOg" target="_blank"><i>Tutti Fruitti</i></a> and make it a #1 song, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13JNjpNW6c" target="_blank">Little Richard</a> had to settle for it being race music when he released it.<br />
<br />
Here's where Chris comes in handy. He's an artist, a photographer of urban scenes. Jim Hudson (Stephen Root from <i>Office Space</i>), the blind art gallery owner, is able to visualize whatever pictures are in his gallery courtesy of someone describing them to him. Granted, the person describing the art must be a wordsmith on par with Cyrano de Bergerac, but Hudson isn't without his own talent despite his blindness. Hell, Stevie Wonder can describe a sunset better than somebody with 20/15 eyesight, so I could buy Hudson's genius. And yet, Hudson wants to see the world through Chris' eyes. Chris' harsh and joyful experiences as a Black man have shaped his photographer's eye, and now Hudson wants to steal it without having to do any of the work.<br />
<br />
Had Chris been more muscular and in shape, his body might have gone to Rose's creepy brother, Jeremy, whose fetishistic drooling indicated he would love to have all that perceived skill without doing any of the work.<br />
<br />
Or, as Peele's fellow comedian Paul Mooney used to say:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Everybody wanna be a nigga, nobody wanna be a nigga."</i></div>
<br />
What did you think of LilRel Howery, Peele's stand-in and the film's conspiracy theory-heavy Black id, and the two scary House Negroes responsible for many of those goose-inducing jump scares?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #4: Boone</i></b></u></span> <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Just last night I had an encounter that made me think of <i>Get Out</i>'s first act. I was delivering some groceries to an apartment on West 57th Street but my scanning device suddenly died. I hadn't memorized the customer's apartment number, and without my device I couldn't determine which of the mountain of sealed blank packages I was carrying belonged to this customer. So I took some time to sort everything out, with the help of my dispatcher over the phone. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After I got it together, I loaded only the packages I needed onto the elevator, just as a woman somewhere past 60--who happened to be white--entered the building. "You've got quite a lot of packages there!" she said brightly. I barely acknowledged her--this was a rush delivery, two hour window closing soon--but must have managed to mutter something between short breaths.</div>
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<i>Was this the old lady in question? Oh wait, the Dakota's not on W. 57th...</i> </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
She went on down the ground floor hall, saying, "..but you really can't hold the elevator like that." I said, "...for 20 seconds?" She went into her apartment.</div>
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After I delivered the stuff upstairs, I organized the rest of my bags before heading out. I was almost at the front door when a man--who happened to be white and about six foot seven--got in front of me. He asked me what I was doing. It took me a moment. He wasn't wearing any uniform or badge. I told him I'd just made a delivery. He said I had a lot of bags, was I sure I was delivering? I said these bags are for other drops. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He asked if he could see some ID, that "we" had "been watching" me "on the camera" in the lobby for "some time." I hadn't even thought about a camera but now I could see it up there in a corner behind him. "...so I'm just investigating." Investigating? Odie, this dude looked like <a href="http://www.stevewilkos.com/" target="_blank">Steve Wilkos</a>.</div>
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<i>(this is from stevewilkos.com)</i> </div>
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I felt like one of the rapists on his show. But I played it cool, searched my bag for my work ID, couldn't find it. He then asked what apartment had I delivered to, arms folded, eyes narrow. When I told him, he called the tenant to vouch for me.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Anyway, I'm writing this from jail.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRsuoAN7IDo48yqfqVXRkc5EiZm3_NxjE2sGiEesqGzCiLU4uFL8IUD6MLmdIC9cf3NWxX-StLkumgRVqyTFtwD5Y8iwCbQZfiRdf7koe2Y_CiDR3Nd-j1zVjFRtgog7lqvxjyhw/s1600/penitentiary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRsuoAN7IDo48yqfqVXRkc5EiZm3_NxjE2sGiEesqGzCiLU4uFL8IUD6MLmdIC9cf3NWxX-StLkumgRVqyTFtwD5Y8iwCbQZfiRdf7koe2Y_CiDR3Nd-j1zVjFRtgog7lqvxjyhw/s320/penitentiary.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<i>Not the real Steven Boone.</i></div>
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<b>Just kidding!</b> But as I walked down 57th Street after Wannabe Wilkos set me free with a lame apology, I had a slight sickly feeling. A clammy sensation similar to that I've had when in handcuffs, in police custody. This guy was doing his job, I supposed: looking after the tenants in a city where push-in robberies and assaults still happen on occasion. But I'd delivered to this building before. They get deliveries of all kinds all the time. What had he--or they, whoever they were--seen on the camera aside from a harried courier scrambling to get his shit together? A black hoodie I had forgotten to pull down, five o' clock shadow, a slender frame (crackhead? perc-popper?), maybe too much frantic motion and cell phone action. Maybe they'd had an incident in the past. Maybe the perp had been a courier or delivery man. Maybe their caution had absolutely nothing to do with my color. Wait, had the woman who complained about my holding the elevator called security? Is that why....?</div>
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I imagined if Wannabe Wilkos had been of a more George Zimmerman temperament. I imagined if this non-incident had taken place in suburban Florida, or Giuliani-era New York. Or present-day Long Island.</div>
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So there's <b><u><i>my</i></u></b> digression. I guess it has to do with the microaggressions that accrued early on in <i>Get Out</i> (from a highway patrolman; from Chris' girflfriend's dad and brother). They are ancillary to the central theme you've identified: theft.</div>
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It's the way Peele weaves this theme into the tight-knit fabric of his story that really grooves. It's in the art direction (the pictures on the walls, Chris' photographs, White Dad's hunting trophies, girlfriend's mementos) and the sound design (a miscegeny of sounds from an aristocrat's Victrola and an especially woke Spotify playlist). Spike was up to similar cultural/historical survey in his <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068619/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank"><i>Ganja and Hess</i></a> remake, <a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/da-sweet-blood-of-jesus" target="_blank"><i>Da Sweet Blood of Jesus</i></a>, which has more black art on the walls than the <a href="https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg" target="_blank">Schomburg Library</a>. That film, like its predecessor, was more about the spiritual costs of assimilation, upward mobility, lost ties to "our" heritage. And unlike <i>Get Out</i>, it's a mess. A fascinating, sensual mess, rich with vision. If I have any criticism of <i>Get Out</i>, it's that it could've done with a bit more mess and sensuality and, well, ig'nance, for all its crowd-pleasing propulsiveness. Imagine the fun Spike, a <b>Certified Freakazoid (TM)</b>, would've had with the Jungle Fever/Mandingo aspects of this story. (Or, <b>CF (TM) </b>Lee Daniels or neo-blaxploiter Craig Brewer, for that matter.)</div>
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Nah, I instantly withdraw that too-many-notes critique. LilRel Howery was enough glorious mess and ig'nance for three movies. As Chris' keep-it-one-hunned homeboy, he kept this heady movie on solid ground. Peele brings him on at the perfect moments to shake up the horror conventions--even though he himself is the latest in a long line of Real Brothers to track mud on a tidy genre carpet, going back to Eddie in <i>The Golden Child</i>, Kadeem Hardison and Bill Nunn in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/them-some-scary-negroes.html" target="_blank"><i>Def by Temptation</i></a>, Richard Pryor's <i>Wino vs. Dracula</i>...</div>
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As for those skeery House Negroes: I just wish I could screen this film with Dr. Ben Carson, and watch his nose bleed.</div>
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<i>Not the real Ben Carson</i></div>
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And oh, deer:</div>
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I was thrilled, though not surprised, that the deer became such an important metaphor for genocide and plunder. One dead deer's antlers-turned-weapon provided the most charged moment of catharsis. We've been apes in pop culture parables for so long, from <i>Planet of the Apes</i> to Da Lench Mob's one great song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFktf-Jtgn8" target="_blank"><i>Guerillas in da Mist</i></a> to Harambe memes. But, really, almost all of the "gorillas" are long gone. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Malcolm-Told-Alex-Haley/dp/0345350685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488856572&sr=8-1&keywords=the+autobiography+of+malcolm+x" target="_blank">Malcolm X</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton" target="_blank">Fred Hampton</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDh2J2N8jj8" target="_blank">Tupac</a>, etc. The surviving rank and file citizens are generally agreeable foragers whose most revolutionary act is to insist that our Lives Matter.</div>
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It's the artists who are stepping up most strikingly. 2016 was the post-Kendrick Year of the Woke. Black artists and allies were finally filtering history and far-flung influences into stunning popular art, guided by a vogue of music videos and short films that began coloring the Internet late last decade. <i>(One of those allies being Japanese-American Hiro Murai, the genius behind the Flying Lotus/Kendrick video masterpiece <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXD0vv-ds8" target="_blank">Never Catch Me</a> and co-genius of Donald Glover's <a href="http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/atlanta" target="_blank">Atlanta </a>series.)</i><b><i> </i></b>We had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxsmWxxouIM" target="_blank">Beyoncé</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qrinhNnOM" target="_blank">her sis</a> turning into audiovisual <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-CrDT8lQZI" target="_blank">Nina Simone</a> Sun Ras, FKA Badus. It all seemed to culminate in the triumph of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/movies/moonlight-review.html" target="_blank"><i>Moonlight</i></a> and extend into this year with films like <i>Get Out</i>. There have been many films "for us, by us" that express deep consciousness, but few that float like a butterfly, in a singular voice rather than the blunt, roaring voice of "the community." It's the nimble grace that's new. These children of Spike and Kanye and the Criterion Collection have a fine touch that I take as evidence of unprecedented freedom. Freedom not granted but seized.</div>
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You said: <i>"Creativity and achievements have no color, but legitimacy is usually White, especially in the arts."</i> </div>
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Goddamn, that's it right there. The irony is that we're discussing a film that would not have made it to the front of our Talk slate if the mostly-white critical establishment and Universal Pictures had not put it on the legitimacy radar. Nah, you know what? <b>Fuck that. Good is good</b>. It's enough that Peele traded on his television celebrity to make some art that scans as disquietingly aware of our connection to history as this year's Oscar ghost, <a href="http://www.august-wilson-theatre.com/plays.php" target="_blank">August Wilson</a>.</div>
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Speaking of da dead, what did you make of <i>Get Out</i>'s ending? It felt like a missed opportunity to go fever-dream bananas. A police chase into the night, like the end of <i>Lost Highway</i>. As it is, you know these dudes ain't riding off scot-free with a trail of dead rich white folks behind them.</div>
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Bring on the TSA Cavalry, Odie!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>The Final Chapter: Odie</i></b></u></span> </div>
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That ending showed just how conditioned we are vis-à-vis the cops and brown folks. I've talked to friends of all races, including a few who went to lily-White theaters to see <i>Get Out</i>, and the audience response to those flashing police car lights illuminating Chris has been consistent! People were like:<br />
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"AFTER ALL THAT?!! PLEASE GOD, NO!!!!"<br />
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At my theater, a voice yelled out from the darkness the <i>exact</i> sentiment that had popped into my head at that moment:<br />
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"Oh shit! He is <u><i><b>so fucking dead</b></i></u>!!!"<br />
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Knowing Jordan Peele had cited <i>Night of the Living Dead</i> as one of his inspirations, I immediately assumed Chris would be shot dead. Here's this bruva surrounded by a bunch of dead pillars of the community, with his hands around a shot White woman's neck. You couldn't tell me his ass wasn't getting shot up <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmUpso_xT8" target="_blank">like Bonnie and Clyde</a>.<br />
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But Peele lets us breathe easily. This final jolt is his most shocking one, and not for any horror movie reason. I thought back to that Melvin van Peebles story about how shocked Black audience members were when Sweet Sweetback got away at the end. We're so used to the trope of the Black guy getting killed first (or eventually) in horror movies that Peele jovially puts a twist on our expectations. That he made Chris' savior the audience's stand-in, LilRel's TSA agent, was just the icing on this surprisingly delectable cake of a movie.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4piiz-cbAuC7Hqtj0oDCFNTtNgHHil8oI4OXmALwjhC6Gc3RkvWnpsZbocxmC26_vu7jUbKEwb2pIwPvlPgc89dG8wWMZhNQyWLbOHI9OeZCXvOmIPQMS0PQkVJ7dzXaPRzLQZg/s1600/party.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4piiz-cbAuC7Hqtj0oDCFNTtNgHHil8oI4OXmALwjhC6Gc3RkvWnpsZbocxmC26_vu7jUbKEwb2pIwPvlPgc89dG8wWMZhNQyWLbOHI9OeZCXvOmIPQMS0PQkVJ7dzXaPRzLQZg/s400/party.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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This movie has a serious following, with near-unanimous praise. But of course, there are detractors. Let's start with the folks who think this film is misogynistic. The argument I've heard, and ONLY from White viewers, is that the film is too hard on Allison Williams' character. Her demise, as well as Keener's, is too brutal; therefore it's misogynistic. This reminds me of the similar outrage leveled at Tarantino for having Django shoot the mistress of CandieLand. "What did she do?!!" people asked, faces awash in White tears. We talked about that particular scene in our <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Black Man Talk on <i>Django Unchained</i></a>, so I'm not beating that ignorant dead horse today.<br />
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As for the dead females in <i>Get Out</i> argument, I'd like to point out that:<br />
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a. Williams doesn't even get the most brutal demise--that's reserved for her brother.<br />
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b. She is responsible for the deaths of numerous former Black lovers, male and female (that box with the pictures in it is almost as gasp-inducingly hilarious as Williams' search criteria for her next victims) and she's the most villainous character in the film.<br />
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c. This actress acted her ass off, as did Keener, to create a palpable source of terrifying menace. She deserved a major-league exit. The one thing I hated most about <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/04/20/manypeeplia-upsidownia" target="_blank"><i>Street Smart</i></a> was that it didn't give Morgan Freeman's complicated, yet evil pimp an exit worthy of the Oscar-nominated work the actor put into that role.<br />
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Truth be told, I thought Williams got off easy compared to the character who got the Ryan Gosling/Drive elevator treatment. She still got a great exit, one she milks for maximum effect.<br />
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All this chatter over White woman deaths in a horror movie (a genre where violent death always befalls good Black and female characters by default) is a red herring. It has the same tinge of eye-rolling faux-outrage that accompanied Mookie's trash can through Sal's Pizzeria's window in <i>Do the Right Thing</i>: "But all that property damage!" instead of "someone died just before that scene!"<br />
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And then there's this:<br />
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This is how OUR dude, Lakeith Stanfield, responded to YOUR dude, Armond White's expected pan of <i>Get Out</i>. This ruined the film's perfect rating on the reprehensible yet extremely well-visited website, Rotten Tomatoes. Readers can go find White's review on their own, as I ain't linking to it. My favorite part of the review, however, is the comment on the dark-skinned features of Daniel Kaluuya, a comment written by a man who ain't passin' no Paper Bag Test either. Seek it out, if you dare!<br />
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I wonder if Peele had to fight to cast an actor with Kaluuya's skin tone, even in a film that cost so little money to make. Regardless of how Kaluuya got into this movie, I'm glad he's there. Every frame he's in resonates with a familiarity I felt deeply in my bones. The way he brushes off comments with an uneasy smile, the way he lights up with temporary relief when he sees potential running buddy<b>*</b> Stanfield for the first time. The way he wears his horrific childhood trauma on his stunned, tear-stricken face when Keener hypnotizes him. This is a performance worth remembering. In fact, everyone here is impeccably cast and brings not only their A-game but a sense of fun to the proceedings.<br />
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<i><b>*</b> a "running buddy" is that one other person who looks like you at an event. If shit goes down, you'll know you have at least ONE person to run with as you're being chased.</i> <br />
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One final thought: I wonder if the little sliver of the body-snatched person that's intentionally left is there to teach them a lesson about how to behave around their "superiors". What made me think of this is Dr. Ben Carson's comments today about slaves. Addressing a room full of GOP White Folk, Carson said <i>“[t]here were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder, for less.” </i><br />
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Immigrants, Boone. Not property. Immigrants. Sam Jackson went batshit on Twitter about this, calling Carson a "dick headed Tom!" But Carson's words are exactly what his audience wanted to hear--how the slaves were "treated well" and "came here" rather than "were fucking kidnapped, sold and brought here against their motherfucking will." It's so weird how, in order to be a brown person down with this party, you've got to completely obliterate anything about Black reality that may upset them, even if it's an awful truth whose denial would violate the common sense God gave you. You see it in so many KNEE-GROW celebrities cheering for this team. It makes me wonder if these folks, some of whom were once revered or respected by Black folks, are trapped in the Sunken Place. Maybe <i>Get Out 2</i> can be about their rescue.<br />
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I'm out! Let's do this again soon!<br />
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<i>Another Black Man Talk?!! Oh no! No no no no no no noooo!</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-91818307365669475112016-04-08T11:01:00.002-04:002016-04-11T10:32:15.155-04:00Black Man Talk: Sidney Poitier: Defiance, Determination and Dinner<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Steven Boone and Odie "Od<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ienator" Hender<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">son</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(The
following is a conversation between Big Media Vandalism
founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie
Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other
installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">42</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,</span> <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Lee Daniels' The Butler</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/11/black-man-talk-12-years-slave.html" target="_blank">12 <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years a Slave</span></a></span>)</i></span> <br />
<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #1: Odie</i></b></u></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Brother
Boone, it's been quite a while since we've done a Black Man Talk on a
person. Our last honoree was writer, director, studio head and every
Black Church Lady's favorite female impersonator, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>. This
time, I propose we chat about actor, director, humanitarian and Oscar
winner Sidney Poitier. Like Denzel Washington, his heir apparent, Sidney
Poitier mesmerized viewers with his acting and his good looks. His
destiny is intertwined with Denzel's in so many ways: Poitier was the
first Black Best Actor winner, and Denzel was the second. On the
occasion of Denzel's Best Actor win, Poitier was given a second Oscar as
well, this one honorary. Both men were widely seen as bringing dignity
to the Black men they played onscreen, though Poitier had to carry a
much heavier weight in the respectability department. Denzel's been able
to get his hands dirty in ways Sidney never could. Can you imagine Mr.
Tibbs fucking hos, doing dope and yelling about how <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj4adAAHa68" target="_blank">King Kong ain't got shit on him</a>? He would have been run out of Hollywood on a rail that led
straight into a <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/they-said-you-was-hung-they-was-right.html" target="_blank"><i>Blazing Saddles</i></a>-style pit of quicksand.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>And they still would've only saved that hand truck.</i> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You
know I love Sidney Poitier. On this very site, I have written almost
20,000 words on his work as an actor and a director. And I still feel
it's not enough. That inadequacy aside, two things made me choose him as
a topic for us: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1. The <a href="http://www.movingimage.us/" target="_blank">Museum of the Moving Image</a> is doing <a href="http://www.movingimage.us/programs/2016/04/09/detail/sidney-poitier-retrospective/" target="_blank">a retrospective</a> on Poitier's
work starting on April 9th. They'll be showing several of the movies
I've written about here at Big Media Vandalism--the <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2012/02/poitier-cosby-trilogy-cuz-im-from-off.html" target="_blank">good</a><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2012/02/poitier-cosby-trilogy-biggie-smalls-is.html" target="_blank">parts</a> of the
Cosby-Poitier trilogy for example--as well as others I'd like to revisit
like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055278/" target="_blank"><i>Paris Blues</i></a>. Our chat would be a timely addendum to the
retrospective.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2. Our friend and mentor <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/contributors/matt-zoller-seitz" target="_blank">Matt Zoller Seitz</a> got my brain buzzing when he
commented on how Poitier's films might play to 23-year old kids today.
He wondered if White kids would dismiss films like <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/imagery-saturdays-slap-heard-round.html" target="_blank"><i>In the Heat of the Night</i></a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-dream-deferred-but-not-for-long.html" target="_blank"><i>A Raisin in the Sun</i></a>, with a glib "we know racism exists, so I
don't need to watch this." I agreed with him there, because those kids
have the luxury of privilege and can afford to not give a fuck. But Matt also
wondered if Black kids today would react in the same dismissive fashion.
I disagreed with that notion. The law-enforcement racial
profiling of <i>In the Heat of the Night</i> and the housing issues of <i>A
Raisin in the Sun</i> are still instantly recognizable to young people of
color today. The storytelling may feel a bit dated, but the issues that
leap from the screen are not.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Maybe
I'm wrong. But who gives a shit what 23 year olds think about Poitier?
They weren't even in Kindergarten when he made his last big screen
appearance in 1997's remake of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119395/" target="_blank"><i>The Day of the Jackal</i></a>. We, on the other
hand, are much older. We were around in the 70's when Sidney Poitier
shook free the constraints of old studio system Hollywood. As a
director, he returned himself completely to the Black audiences who
loved him despite the sometimes embarrassing restrictions put upon him
in his earlier output. Do you remember how you felt as a kid when he
showed up onscreen? Let's talk about that.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Let's
also discuss Poitier's image over the decades, and how it did or didn't
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
affect us. He debuted on the screen in a powderkeg of fury and
indignation in Joe Mankiewicz's superb <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/physician-heal-thy-enemy.html" target="_blank"><i>No Way Out</i></a>, playing a doctor who
was allowed an unprecedented level of rage for a Black character in
1950. But after that, he started to become a symbol in several films, a
glowing beacon of Good Negro who more than once sacrificed his own
well-being to teach White viewers lessons of tolerance. Poitier played
those early symbolic roles quite well, and every so often he was given a
chance to be the kind of deeper, unapologetic and complicated Black
character that sidestepped White comfort. There's a big difference
between the convict in <i>The Defiant Ones</i> and the slap-happy Mr. Tibbs of
<i>In the Heat of the Night</i>, the role which served as the turning point for
Poitier's image in my opinion. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Along the way, he played Walter Lee
Younger, one of the great theater roles of any persuasion, Black or
otherwise, as well as Homer Smith, that kindly Negro handyman who helped
out those nuns in <i>Lilies of the Field</i>. That he won his Oscar for the
latter, lesser role and not the former is a reminder of how Hollywood
likes its brown people. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Speaking
of Hollywood and brown people, Zoe Saldana is playing Nina Simone in
that upcoming biopic.<i> </i>(The trailer is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3EWygLE_No" target="_blank">here</a>) Al Jolson's makeup man came out of retirement (and
the grave) to do Saldana's makeup, applying so much brown makeup on her
that I could have played Nina Simone underneath it--and I could have
used my own nose. Saldana's getting a lot of shit for this, but there's a
bigger problem at hand. Hollywood, and White directors, have always had
problems figuring out the myriad of shades we folks come in. This ties
to Sidney because, if you recall, he played the much-lighter Thurgood
Marshall in the 1991 TV movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102879" target="_blank"><i>Separate But Equal</i></a>.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqAKA3RU-IQ1teq8yxxHBsWWpgyNmIEtnhb6ZtxYmaAuhRWZagJWzwDL2sNYSlsXCVgqbp7xh1Z1Dd6d893vYEzOg-O_7wjtm65OWMnwaEmeZ4SiQmCx6vUs-vk1n8HmjofKFUDA/s1600/thurgood_marshall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqAKA3RU-IQ1teq8yxxHBsWWpgyNmIEtnhb6ZtxYmaAuhRWZagJWzwDL2sNYSlsXCVgqbp7xh1Z1Dd6d893vYEzOg-O_7wjtm65OWMnwaEmeZ4SiQmCx6vUs-vk1n8HmjofKFUDA/s320/thurgood_marshall.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>This is Supreme Court Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall" target="_blank">Thurgood Marshall</a></i></div>
<br />
With that picture in mind,
perhaps the Nina movie is some kind of O.J. Simpson-verdict-level of
intraracial karma for the <i>light-skinded</i>. At least they didn't try to
paint Sidney with Beyonce's makeup foundation; they let him be his natural
color. Of course, I'm being facetious here, but physical appearance does
tie into our conversation. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We're going to talk about Poitier as both actor and director. But first, lemme start off with a few questions for you: </div>
<br />
1. What was the first movie you saw Poitier in?<br />
<br />
2. What's your favorite movie of his?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
3.
When Melvin van Peebles was making <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-make-me-too-nice.html" target="_blank"><i>Sweet Sweetback</i></a>, he was asked what
Black roles in Hollywood movies upset him. He replied "every last one of
them," which included all of Poitier's roles. There was a good amount
of side-eye being thrown at Poitier, especially in the 1960's, and I
think some of it might have been justified. What do you think? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
4.
On that same token, do you, like me, think <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-1968" target="_blank"><i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i></a>
is Poitier's worst movie and should be set afire and flushed down the
toilet?<br />
<br />
Let's Get This Party Started!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #2: Boone</i></b></u></span><br />
<br />
Hey Odie,<br />
<br />
Good to be back with you, brother, chopping it up on the blackhand side. Sidney is a great actor who came up through Jim Crow America to distinguish himself without having to undergo the ritual lobotomy or the obligatory castration. It's still a marvel and something of a mystery how he did it. He even went on to become a talented comedy director. For all his poise and regal charms, his performances never put him out of reach from we, the everyday working kneegrows.<br />
<br />
As for the 23 year old kids: depends on the kid. Once you settle into the rhythms of Sidney's signature roles, looking past some of the dated '60's studio stylings, there are riches to move any thoughtful soul of any age. That said, it's damn hard to imagine Sidney on something like <i>Empire</i>, that smash hit soap opera in which a family of narcissists trample each other in pursuit of riches and Grammys. I may be wrong but I can't recall a single petty, venal or self-absorbed Sidney character.<br />
<br />
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>With that attitude, he ain't surviving on this show.</i></div>
<br />
This isn't in praise of his acting so much as his choices. He knew where he was in history, and he knew precisely what his rare image on a 30 foot screen meant to us and to them, at the time. He loosened up a bit in the '70's, funning with Bill Cosby in those buddy comedies, but never so loose as to make us forget that we were watching a man and not a Hollywood novelty toy. By the time Denzel and Morgan Freeman came along, the cost of playing a black pimp or a gangster wasn't quite so steep, thanks in part to the humane image Sidney had provided as a backdrop--evident as if suddenly lit up behind a scrim every time his successors reached a Sidneyesque plateau of rage and torment cooled by deep compassion and intelligence. A grace we were told only white people possessed. In that sense, Sidney was as radical as it gets.<br />
<br />
To your questions:<br />
<br />
<b>1. "What was the first movie you saw Poitier in?" </b><br />
<i>Probably Lilies of the Field or Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?</i><br />
<br />
<b>2. "What's your favorite movie of his?" </b><br />
<i>Tied: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059573/" target="_blank">A Patch of Blue</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056370/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Pressure Point</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<b>3. "When Melvin van Peebles was making Sweet Sweetback, he was asked what Black roles in Hollywood movies upset him. He replied "every last one of them," which included all of Poitier's roles. There was a good amount of side-eye being thrown at Poitier, especially in the 1960's, and I think some of it might have been justified. What do you think?" </b><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZPhVKRn79LZ3BDOnwwiUhUAknewdfN7O1oQ9Dz3Sm04urdQyPJODbvxlgzJzvEKBWNqa7tfudFUGvTEtvuqXWoF-rUGEEHivgESM_IuAry6x5AA5LeYCcEB0ja6w-Xz6Ft6yY2w/s1600/pressure_point.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZPhVKRn79LZ3BDOnwwiUhUAknewdfN7O1oQ9Dz3Sm04urdQyPJODbvxlgzJzvEKBWNqa7tfudFUGvTEtvuqXWoF-rUGEEHivgESM_IuAry6x5AA5LeYCcEB0ja6w-Xz6Ft6yY2w/s320/pressure_point.jpeg" width="212" /></a></div>
Any black artist of any visibility at that time had to take so much shit, kick so much ass behind the scenes that a stance like MvP's is understandable. He was tired of chaste, infallible, almost apologetic black characters. At a glance, many of Sidney's portrayals might seem to fit that bill. And I'll bet that while writing, financing, producing, directing, editing and starring in Sweetback, Melvin was <i>only</i> glancing at Sidney. This less-of-a-sellout-than-thou stance wasn't just a black thing. It defined 60's and early 70's radicalism, a cultural divide that the ruling class easily exploited. You had to be one or the other. Either you were ready to kill and fuck your way through The Man's treacherous bullshit or you laid down and took it. In that understandably intense post-assassinations climate, the subtle triumphs of Sidney's work (long before he slapped that white man in <i>In The Heat of the Night</i>) were buried.<br />
<br />
Just because clueless white people are applauding your efforts doesn't mean that your work isn't reaching suffering, poor and disregarded black folk in profound ways. It takes the time and contemplative space to see it--often a luxury that had to be stolen. The same subtleties and glories we appreciate in the music of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNV1Y01xNk8" target="_blank">Curtis</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbHeNkqRWtI" target="_blank">Marvin</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcRoNGsI07o" target="_blank">Stevie</a>--they course through Sidney's pre-Mr. Tibbs performances. To Melvin I say, "Take another look. Sidney was as much of an auteur as you were."<br />
<br />
<b>4. "On that same token, do you, like me, think <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i> is Poitier's worst movie and should be set afire and flushed down the toilet?"</b><br />
<br />
GWCTD is horseshit. Stanley Kramer, who also produced <i>Pressure Point</i>, came to specialize in liberal-sentiment Honorable Horseshit movies, though some of them, like his chaotic collaboration with <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/john-cassavetes-about-john-cassavetes/548/" target="_blank">John Cassavetes</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056930" target="_blank"><i>A Child is Waiting</i></a>, actually had a pulse. He should have just produced <i>Guess Who's...</i> and somehow lured Cassavetes away from <i>Faces</i> to direct it (yeah, right). The perfected character Poitier was handed is probably what mad Melvin van Peebles spit. It's so bland and featureless that I don't think even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eitsutpOc" target="_blank">Petey Greene</a> could have given it any color. (But I would <b>looove</b> to remake the film as a <i>Being There</i>-grade satire, with deadpan comic genius <a href="http://www.colmandomingo.com/" target="_blank">Colman Domingo</a> in the Sidney role).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lj66AQ2uzug/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lj66AQ2uzug?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Watch this clip of Mr. Domingo in action. There will be a quiz later!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As for the Nina SImone makeup controversy, until I see the movie, I can only marvel at how well they sculpted the latex to approximate middle aged Nina's cheekbones and overbite. Yow. Maybe they should have just used Zoe Saldana as an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Serkis" target="_blank">Andy Serkis</a>-type motion capture performer to get the face truly perfect with CGI. But I'm pretty sure then they'd have just hired Serkis to portray what would have been his most outlandish, exotic creature yet. I'm more looking forward to Thandie Newton's comeback role as Harriet Tubman.<br />
<br />
And now I gots ta know what are your answers to the above four questions? And can you give me your take on Sidney's pimphand turning point?<i> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i> </i><span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #3: Odie</i></b></u></span> </div>
<br />
That little Colman Domingo clip from <i>Lee Daniels' The Butler</i> made me crack up, just as it did when we first <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">chatted about it</a> in a prior Black Man Talk. Because of directors like Sidney, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Van_Peebles" target="_blank">Melvin</a>, and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-integrated-funeral-in-sovereign.html" target="_blank">Ossie Davis</a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/krush-grooving-car-washing-and-loosed.html" target="_blank">Michael Schultz</a>, Lee Daniels was able to create a film where Black folks were shown relating to each other in an unfiltered, realistic and funky manner. The casual way Domingo pauses before he says "oh yeah, you'll make a good house nigga" to Forrest Whitaker highlights a knowledge of the absurdity of their situation. The struggle doesn't always have to be depicted with somber cinematography and some downtrodden Black lady humming <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg_8L96E3eU" target="_blank"><i>Wade in the Water</i></a> on the soundtrack. Our struggle can be laced with the dark humor that often comes with knowing you've been dealt a shitty hand at life's poker table.<br />
<br />
As a director, Sidney put a lot of that humor into his movies. Look at poor Sharp Eye Washington, Richard Pryor's hapless hustler-cum-private detective in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2012/02/poitier-cosby-trilogy-cuz-im-from-off.html" target="_blank"><i>Uptown Saturday Night</i></a>. You know he's a con, and he's trying to hustle our heroes, but his sense of desperation is as funny as it is pitiable. Some part of me wanted him to get away with his crimes. And in that same movie, Poitier's climactic jump into the water after that lottery ticket came with an equal amount of comedy and pathos. Here was a guy risking his life to have a better one, one that, when you think about it, was kind of illegally obtained. But we were willing to let Sidney have it; we understand the side hustle.<br />
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<i>Sharp-Eye ran a scam in my hometown of Jersey City!</i></div>
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To answer the questions I posed to you:<br />
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1. The first time I saw Sidney was in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNNTkKe0B5E" target="_blank"><i>A Warm December</i></a>, the movie I affectionately refer to as "Put Your Damn Shirt Back On, Sidney!" I remember watching it on the CBS Evening movie, the same show that introduced me to the Satanic eyes of <i>Rosemary's Baby</i> and the devilish salesmanship of Tatum O'Neal in <i>Paper Moon</i>. My Mom and I were laying on her bed watching Sidney's defiantly Black love story, and I saw smoke coming out of my Mom's foam curlers. She loved her some Sidney! I'd next see him at the Pix Theater in the aforementioned <i>Uptown Saturday Night</i>.<br />
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2. My favorite Sidney movies are <i>In the Heat of the Night</i>, which I'll return to shortly, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-dream-deferred-but-not-for-long.html" target="_blank"><i>A Raisin in the Sun</i></a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/physician-heal-thy-enemy.html" target="_blank"><i>No Way Out</i></a>. I like <i>A Patch of Blue</i> quite a bit as well; pairing Sidney with Shelley Winters gave me a two-fer on favorite actors. And I'd be lying if I didn't mention my undying adoration for that corny as hell teacher movie, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E06E3DF103AE63ABC4D52DFB066838C679EDE" target="_blank"><i>To Sir, With Love</i></a>. If I were braver, I might submit that as my<i> </i>favorite Sidney Poitier movie.<br />
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<i>Hell no! I ain't crying after watching this clip! You lie! <b>You lie!</b></i></div>
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I'll address 3 and 4 together, as they both bring me to <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i>, a movie that deserved all the side-eye it got from enlightened brown people. Long before they made that Bernie Mac/Ashton Kutcher <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372237/" target="_blank">remake</a>, I imagined rewriting this abomination to give it more honesty and less hand-holding. The only realistic character in the movie is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000075/" target="_blank">Spencer Tracy</a>, whose performance is wonderful. Hepburn is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sKkiNAiVP0" target="_blank">Edith Bunker</a> minus the eventual self-awareness. Sidney is so perfect that he ceases to be human, and his relationship with Katherine Houghton is unrealistic even for that era. The one time he kisses her, it's not even shot full on. It's reflected in a mirror and it has as much passion as if Sidney had been kissing Lorne Greene on the set of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH7l56FC3xI" target="_blank">an Alpo commercial</a> (just before the hungry German Shepherd bit Sidney's ass off).<br />
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Your suggestion of a Cassavetes-directed version intrigues me. It would have been quite interesting, especially since they worked so well together as co-stars in Marty Ritt's directorial debut, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050347/" target="_blank"><i>Edge of the City</i></a>. Cassavetes would have dug much more deeply into the relationships and the repercussions of the impending marital union. There'd be less lecture and more levity.<br />
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<i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i> came out in 1967, the year that Sidney was the top box office draw in Hollywood. That same year marked the turning point for Sidney's image with <i>In the Heat of the Night</i>. If you think about it, this is Sidney's <i>Beverly Hills Cop</i>. Except he's from Philadelphia. But like Eddie, Sidney takes an almost sadistic joy in upstaging these White folks who think they are better. Rod Steiger's police chief Gillespie sums it up when he accurately reads why Tibbs won't leave before the case is solved. "You've got such a big head that you could never live with yourself unless you could put us all to shame," Gillespie says.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgakz7F6adHMqlfvs_-Pj8Q_sxttjohPyZXsKZF52ITJlqeKvRhEmSRtnvaJNcwLZw96ENzLfWq5qic5nM1C5rk7_Y44k4qfpq1BeszcEwsTKlUNuXcHLqRnZxs6ywGVWjVzyZe/s1600/steiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgakz7F6adHMqlfvs_-Pj8Q_sxttjohPyZXsKZF52ITJlqeKvRhEmSRtnvaJNcwLZw96ENzLfWq5qic5nM1C5rk7_Y44k4qfpq1BeszcEwsTKlUNuXcHLqRnZxs6ywGVWjVzyZe/s1600/steiger.jpg" width="200" /></a>For the first time since his debut in <i>No Way Out</i>, a movie explicitly hinted that Sidney Poitier might be better, bigger and smarter than those White folks. It used to be that the movie would prove he deserved their begrudging respect as someone, I don't know, not better but not equal either. Here Norman Jewison and company are telling you Virgil Tibbs is the best homicide detective you've ever seen in a movie. And he walks into the movie knowing this. Like Eddie's big <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvzIRuIg288" target="_blank">redneck bar scene</a> in 48 Hrs., Mr. Tibbs is saying "let's see what we can fuck with next!" The line "they call me MISTER Tibbs' is a Black man announcing that you are not gonna be referring to him as "boy". It's as big a shock to audiences as the moment where Sidney slaps the taste out of that racist rich White man's mouth. That's what I meant by a turning point in Sidney's image. It's not that he didn't possess these qualities in other roles; it's just that they hit the forefront in a huge way in this movie.<br />
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Of course, In the Heat of the Night came out in August. Hollywood must have looked at the movie and said "oh shit, this nigger is getting <u><i><b>way</b></i></u> too uppity" because Guess Who's Coming to Dinner came out in December and slowed that momentum!<br />
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You said:<br />
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<i>Just because clueless white people are applauding your efforts doesn't mean that your work isn't reaching suffering, poor and disregarded black folk in profound ways. It takes the time and contemplative space to see it--often a luxury that had to be stolen.</i><br />
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Exactly. That contemplative space, at least for me, has only grown wider with the passage of time. I've lived with most of Sidney's movies for over 40 years, and my respect has only gotten stronger because I'm realizing what he was able to do within the constraints of a system that didn't want his characters to be too scary for public consumption. It's like how working within the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code" target="_blank">Hays Code</a> made the filmmakers more crafty in slipping things past the censor. I'm noticing that the more superficially written attempts at dignity (like <i>Lilies of the Field</i>) run much deeper thanks to Poitier's performance. He brings it and it can't be denied.<br />
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Still, it was somewhat creatively stifling from an artistic perspective. Granted, I wouldn't want to see Sidney wrestling with Cookie Lyon on <i>Empire</i> (and I'm a bigger fan of the show than you are), but it would have been interesting to see Sidney in a role like the early villainous one Denzel played in Sidney Lumet's <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/power-1986" target="_blank"><i>Power</i></a>. I guess <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047885/" target="_blank"><i>The Blackboard Jungle</i></a> is as close as we've come to villainy on Poitier's part.<br />
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Is Denzel our generation's Sidney? It's a bit of a loaded question, as our generation had Sidney Poitier as our Sidney. So maybe the better question would be: What actors today have the same qualities as Sidney Poitier did?<br />
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Also, in honor of my Mom's smoking foam curlers, I'm throwing out for discussion the romantic leading man roles that Poitier played. I'm thinking about <i>For Love Of Ivy</i> and his 70's output, but also anything that strikes your fancy as constituting a love story. What I like most about Sidney Poitier as actor-director is how he focused on making romance a part of his characters' lives. It seems so weird to say it that way, as romance is a normal part of everybody's lives--except for old school Hollywood Negroes! We apparently reproduced by osmosis back then.<br />
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Let's give some shout outs to Sidney's women!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #4: Boone</i></b></u></span><br />
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Black actors these days take turns at the Sidney wheel. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005024/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Terence Howard</a> might be a soulful pimp one year (<i>Hustle & Flow</i>); neo-Sidney another year (<i>The Brave One</i>, <i>Crash</i>, etc.) Will Smith handled a huge share of Sidney duties over the past 15 years, on up to his stalwart NFL doctor in <i>Concussion</i>. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004937/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Jamie</a>, Don--even Tyler Perry. But, really, there can't be a new "Sidney" when the context of his prime years is gone. We're all still in the struggle, but everything about black pop culture changed, post-assassinations, post Mr. Tibbs. The only place where a contemporary actor being Sidney would truly feel like Sidney would be at a <i>Council of Conservative Citizens</i> dinner theater. To be Sidney was to stand in the same crosshairs that <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/paul-robeson-about-the-actor/66/" target="_blank">Paul Robeson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_%28boxer%29" target="_blank">Jack Johnson</a> wore like capes. Since black men have generally been neutralized as an economic and political force, no single dignified actor can pose much threat-of-influence today.<br />
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Except for Obama. He's probably responsible for more youngblackman dreams than the whole lot of black male movie stars. He's Sidney in <i>Pressure Point</i>, keeping his cool on the razor's edge but always a nudge away from a <b>Lookeehere Moment*</b> (<b>© Odie Henderson</b>).<br />
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<i>Wait'll y'all read that tell-all book I'm dropping in January.</i></div>
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Some of the younger actors embody the simmering Sidney of the 50's and early 60's. Michael B. Jordan, Chadwick Boseman, David Oyewolo, John Boyega, Keith Stanfield and Stephan James could play his pissed off slave character in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050166" target="_blank"><i>Band of Angels</i></a> or, of course, Walter Younger in <i>A Raisin in the Sun</i>. Oyewolo in particular would tear hearts out in a remake of my controversial choice for favorite Sidney movie, <i>A Patch of Blue</i>. (Controversial not for the film's content--about a black man who befriends a blind young white girl in a racist town--but for Shelly Winters and Wallace Ford as characters as cartoonish in their racism as Poitier was bland in <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i>. Again, it's Sidney who takes this film to the stratosphere, with the help of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMwzAGFWqJY" target="_blank">Jerry Goldsmith loveliness</a> on the soundtrack and soulful black-and-white photography from Hitchcock's ace, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0122079/" target="_blank">Robert Burks</a>. (Good lookinout, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Patch_of_Blue" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)<br />
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Aside from Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/content-of-their-character-actors-diana.html" target="_blank">Diana Sands</a> in <i>A Raisin in the Sun</i> (of course) and Rosalind Cash in <i>Uptown Saturday Night</i>, I can't quite conjure up the black women in Sidney's films. Wait, <i>Uptown's</i> Madame Zenobia too! But yeah, even without the names, I was always impressed that "black love" was effortlessly, naturally part of the fabric of his comedies with <i>(cough)</i> Bill Cosby. Their characters were happily married men who were chasing the American Dream in hope of an even happier marriage.<br />
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Just peeking at scenes from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062985/" target="_blank"><i>For Love of Ivy</i></a> on YouTube, I realize I'm unqualified to weigh in on the subject of Sidney and love until I watch the whole movie. I'm already amazed at singer Abbey Lincoln, whose performance in the classic <i>Nothing But a Man</i>, charming as it was, showed her inexperience. Here she's a star. The storytelling is alive and raw. Feels like it learned all the right lessons from the flaws of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058414/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank"><i>Nothing but a Man</i></a> and Melvin van Peebles' <i>Story of a Three Day Pass</i>. (After those <i>Ivy</i> clips, I have to take a long look at director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0542702/" target="_blank">Daniel Mann</a>.) <b>[Ed. note: Watch out for <i>Butterfield 8</i>]</b><br />
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I'll have to pause this part for now. I somehow missed this film all my life and ten minutes of it already has me falling in love.<br />
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While I go watch Ivy, can you respond to this Sidney-related joke from this year's Oscars ceremony? It pours a bit of cold water on our whole conversation. Or does it explode?<br />
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<i>“Why are we protesting this Oscars? It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this ‘no black nominees’ thing happened at least 71 other times. You got to figure that it happened in the ’50s, in the ’60s. One of those years, Sidney [Poitier] didn’t put out a movie. I’m sure there were no black nominees some of those years, say ‘62 or ‘63. Black people did not protest. Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time. We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematography. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short.”--Chris Rock</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Post #5: Odie</i></b></u></span> </div>
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<b>*Lookeehere Moment: When a Black person has had enough and snaps. Usually preceded by someone saying "NOW LOOKEE HERE!"</b><br />
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Remember when Obama had Bernie Mac at some White House function and liberal White folks and respectability politics prone skeered Negroes clutched the pearls? Stop me if you've heard me say this 100 times here at Big Media Vandalism: <b>Comedians are pure id</b>. Black Comedians are <b>Pure Black Id</b>, which is far more prickly. Rock's joke also hints that there were no protests back then because nobody expected Black people to be nominated for shit--unless it was Sidney. Rock said folks didn't care about the Oscars back then, but he did <u><b>not</b></u> say they didn't care about movies. Despite all the atrocities committed against us--then and now--we still went to the movies. So Rock's joke doesn't throw cold water on our discussion, though it <b>does</b> elevate how important Poitier's choices were, and how much pressure he must have felt to make the right ones.<br />
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You ever notice how, when a White person makes a positive gesture toward a minority, it's lauded as a big thing, but when a minority makes a gesture toward his or her own group, it's never enough? I'm digressing here, but that's a topic for a future Black Man Talk. Also, we need to do a postmortem on the Obama Presidency next January. Let's get the Klan <u><b>and</b></u> the NAACP mad at us with that one!<br />
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Enough coming attractions! Back to the lecture at hand.<br />
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MADAME ZENOBIA! Aren't the names <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wesley" target="_blank">Richard Wesley</a> dreamt up for <i>Uptown Saturday Night</i> and <i>Let's Do It Again</i> just glorious? Leggy Peggy! Kansas City Mack! BIGGIE SMALLS! And isn't it even more glorious that when we meet Madame Zenobia in Uptown, she's not even remotely as bougie as her name? She's beautiful, gap-toothed and carefree, like so many people we grew up knowing in our respective 'hoods. Regal Blackness, even if it's just hinted at by a name, was always placed within our grasps and our realities by Poitier. He did so in front of and behind the camera.<br />
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You picked some great names last time--Stanfield, Oyelowo, Jordan and Chadwick "I'm Every Black Hero" Boseman--but the name that popped in my head vis-a-vis a Sidney Poitier of today was Idris Elba. Again, he has the luxury of roles Sidney could never have played in his day, but there's a Poitier-like elegance to him even in his harshest roles. That jackass writer who said Elba was too "street" to play James Bond had blinders on; a simple glance from Elba can register a lethal suaveness most actors can only dream about nowadays. As good as (cough) the Cos was in the role, I still think those folks who made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOwQWDSzjYw" target="_blank"><i>I Spy</i></a> chose the wrong half of the Cosby-Poitier duo.<br />
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<i>Just in case folks have forgotten what Mr. Elba looks like</i></div>
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I used to think that it was Cosby who caused Poitier to loosen up and be more comic in front of the camera, but in hindsight I realize it was Harry Belafonte who did the honors. In <a href="http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/337125|87680/Buck-and-the-Preacher.html" target="_blank"><i>Buck and the Preacher</i></a>, a Western that reminded us of the importance of Blacks in the early days of the West, you can almost feel Belafonte goading his sometime rival to relax. The two of them have such a history together, coming into prominence around the same time in the 50's. Belafonte's book, <i>My Song</i>, devotes many pages to their relationship. It's a beautiful thing to see them together onscreen, and as flawed as <i>Buck and the Preacher</i> is, it's still an enjoyable first look at the characteristics of Poitier's directorial work. As Vincent Canby noted in the NY Times: "[Poitier] showed a talent for easy, unguarded, rambunctious humor missing from his more stately movies".<br />
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If only he'd brought that talent to <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ghost-dad-1990" target="_blank"><i>Ghost Dad</i></a>, his last film behind the camera! (That "PUT THE BITCH ON THE PHONE!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcR1KG2rVRA" target="_blank">scene</a> may be the nadir of Poitier's career as a helmer, but I still laughed at it.)<br />
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In the immortal words of Kanye West, "I'ma let you finish" this Black Man Talk. But before you do, a few final notes from me:<br />
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1. One of my favorite Sidney Poitier moments is a rather embarrassing one. In <i>Shoot To Kill</i>, director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006854/" target="_blank">Roger Spottiswoode</a> (who co-wrote <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/48-hrs-1982" target="_blank"><i>48 Hrs</i></a>.) has Sidney save mountain man Tom Berenger from a bear. When Berenger expresses surprise that Poitier's methods worked, Sidney says something like "I bet that bear has never seen a Black man before!" Yes, it's a goofy pander to the brown folks in the audience, but I liked the moment anyway. Plus, Sidney Poitier singlehandedly makes Leonardo DiCaprio in <i>The Revenant</i> look like an <i>absolute fucking pussy</i>!<br />
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<i>This is how Oscar winners deal with bears, Leo! No eating!</i></div>
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2. Do you remember a movie called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073901/" target="_blank"><i>The Wilby Conspiracy</i></a>? Poitier stars with his future <i>Mandela and de Klerk</i> co-star Michael Caine. It's Poitier's reteaming with director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625680" target="_blank">Ralph Nelson</a>, and Rutger Hauer is in it. I ask because, if memory serves, it's the only film I can think of where Sidney has an outright sex scene. My memory might be fuzzy there.<br />
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3. He's retired now, but if we could coax him out of retirement, who would you like to see Sidney Poitier work with today, both in front of and behind the camera? Tarantino used Poitier's daughter in <i>Death Proof</i>, but I wouldn't want to see a Sidney-QT collaboration. My choice would be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasi_Lemmons" target="_blank">Kasi Lemmons</a> as co-star and director. Considering her work on <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/holding-out-for-hero-eves-bayou.html" target="_blank"><i>Eve's Bayou</i></a>, I'd be fascinated by what she'd do with him.<br />
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The floor is yours. Bring us home, Mr. Boone.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><i>Da Final Chapter: Boone</i></b></u></span> <br />
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Thank you, bruh. To address your notes:<br />
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1. I always liked <i>Shoot to Kill</i> and hoped at the time that it was the start of some kind of Lethal Weapon knockoff franchise. Sidney somehow seemed younger and more spry than LW's Danny Glover (20 years his junior at the time).<br />
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2. I remember <i>The Wilby Conspiracy</i> being one of those 70's movies in heavy rotation on local and cable TV back in the 80's and 90's. While I haven't seen enough of it while channel surfing (remember channel surfing?!) to remember a sex scene, the Internet backs you up by saying that Sidney's black South African character gets it on with an Indian woman. Wooo.<br />
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3. I'd like to see Sidney direct a simple, down to earth everyday people comedy with a character written for him at or near the center. Preferably Southern or going back to his island roots. Something with the patience, warmth and wisdom he radiates at 89. He deserves it. <u><b>And we need it</b></u>.<br />
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You said: "<i>Comedians are pure id!</i>"<br />
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Thankyouthankyou. My blood pressure was in jeopardy, reading YouTube comments under <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z-D2AMKYmo" target="_blank">Tracy Morgan's spoof</a> of <i>The Danish Girl</i>--which was the best thing in the entire 2016 Oscars telecast. His line, "These danishes is good, gurl!" is the closest I've come to laughing myself into the hospital since the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2_eBuhHF5s" target="_blank">snake bite scene</a> in Woody Allen's <i>Bananas</i>. Yet gangs of outraged black folk took to the web to call Morgan a sellout for dressing in drag in the skit. Apparently he was "cooning" for the white man. He was the latest evidence of Dave Chappelle's "black man in a dress" conspiracy theory. The theory goes that only black male comedians are pressured to perform in drag at certain pivotal points in their careers, the aim of which is to further an emasculated image of black men. I love Dave, but the theory is a stack of horseshit. More comic actors of every race, gender and nationality have dressed in drag for a cheap laugh than have slipped on banana peels or taken a pie to the face. That's how Comedy 101 that shit is.<br />
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<i>I'm the Danish Gurrrl!</i></div>
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Yet out there in the audience, we have black folk who are ready to turn on Tracy for being his sillyass self. It's this regimental humorlessness and paranoia that do more harm to "us" than, say, Tyler Perry's Madea (a character anyone watching closely could see was conceived as a loving homage to the everyday Harriet Tubmans who hold black communities together against monstrous outside forces.(...and this feels like I'm saying something you wrote along those lines in the past but I'm too lazy to go check, so <b>© Odie Henderson</b>, just in case). <b>[Ed. note: I done said this shit many, many times!]</b><br />
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These conspiracy theories represent black men internalizing oppression on such a cellular level that the most basic joys and freedoms start to look like a noose. We build a fortress around this notion of our masculinity at the expense of our humanity, our imagination and our capacity to love. The only real grand conspiracy in America had precisely that aim: to reduce us to a jumble of animal impulses, like a whipped mule; to turn us against each other in myriad ways, until we are doing the oppressor's work for him. As an NYPD cop in Spike Lee's <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/content-of-their-character-actors.html" target="_blank"><i>Clockers</i></a> adaptation said while standing over a dead black boy, "Self-cleaning oven."<br />
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So anyway, yeah, Tracy Morgan in lingerie! Hilarious and brilliant. That skit was something I suppose Sidney would have had in his 70's comedies. The outrageous outfits he and Bill (and everybody else) wore in <i>Let's Do It Again</i> might be construed as "cooning" or evidence of "Illuminati clones" by today's iPad militants. (They <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GK0Xo-KI2M&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">almost hanged</a> poor Spike by his Jordans in Chicago for <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/chi-raq-2015" target="_blank"><i>Chi-Raq</i></a>)<br />
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Sidney showed us how to let ourselves be. When he left the Bahamas for Miami, Florida as a teen, he wasn't consciously prepared for American racism but the fact that he'd grown up never knowing it subconsciously prepared him to reject it on sight. In an NPR interview, he said "Florida said to me, 'You are not who you think you are. We will determine what you are.' And I decided, '<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104305795" target="_blank">No, I will determine who I am</a>'"<br />
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The lesson his body of work offers is in how to stand up for yourself without losing yourself in the fight. This is crucial for artists. You see him confronting and conquering this problem in nearly every film he's in or directs (<i>Guess Who's Coming to Ghost Dad</i> notwithstanding). It's not just what separates the men from the boys but <b>the artists from the slaves</b>.<br />
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Thank you for giving me so much to think about, as usual, my brother. Let's do it again, soon.<br />
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<i>Only if we get to dress like this, Mr. Boone!</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-47736693039522053042015-06-12T12:41:00.000-04:002015-06-12T12:59:23.925-04:00Causing Trouble With Odienator: We Need To Talk About Earlby Odienator<br />
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<b><i>(Spoiler alert for a spoiled ass movie.)</i></b> </div>
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Long ago, I gave up on any hope that Hollywood would see the error of its ways and try to craft non-White characters of substance. I am resigned to the fact that your average screenwriter, who is statistically a White male, falls into one of these three theoretical categories:</div>
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1. They've never come in contact with people of color. At all. </div>
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2. They learned about how to write Black characters from the Hollywood studio system or episodes of '70's cop shows like <i>Baretta</i> and <i>Starsky And Hutch</i>.</div>
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3. Everybody has the same token Black friend, whom they use as an inspiration. This guy fits so neatly into every single Black stereotype that staring at him would incur the risk of being blinded by the racist version of a solar eclipse. </div>
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As the token Black friend of a number of people (and you know who you are, and YES I KNOW I'm your token, so please stop acting like you're enlightened), I have at least tried to establish a baseline that would not embarass my mother in public. I have multiple degrees and speak several languages. And yet, I'm never seen onscreen, unless you count every time my doppelganger Cuba Gooding Jr. shows up. And all Cuba's been doing lately onscreen is running--he's <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/cuba-gooding-run-o-simpson-article-1.2254734" target="_blank">playing O.J. Simpson </a>on TV and a runaway slave in a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2584018/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Christian movie</a> at theaters right now. You're killing me, Cuba.</div>
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<i>"Are you gonna drive my Ford Bronco, Mister Whitaker?'</i></div>
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Readers of this blog know I'm an extremist. I now reside at the opposite side of the minority character equation; rather than drown in false hope, I backstroke in the pool of mocking Black stereotypes in film. It's a deep pool, folks, and you all know how much we love picking apart these travesties of justice here at Big Media Vandalism. With that said, some kind of award should be given to <i>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl</i>. I've always wanted to meet #3 in my list above, and thanks to screenwriter Jesse Andrews, I have been formally introduced.</div>
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<i>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl</i> was huge at Sundance, winning the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. Until today, it held a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating. After seeing the film at an advanced screening at the Museum of the Moving Image, I went to read those reviews. Every positive review I read said very little about Earl. One of them didn't even mention him at all! Plus, if you watch the trailer, you'll see how little Earl is referenced there as well. He's in the damn title, but his appearance in the trailer I saw is not much longer than the Fox Searchlight logo's appearance. I wonder why. Hmmm...</div>
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We need to talk about Earl. Yes, I stole that line from <i>We Need To Talk About Kevin</i>. Fuck Kevin. If Tilda Swinton had just called my mother, no discussion about Kevin would have been necessary. Mom would have shot a few arrows in Kevin's ass and told him to sit his ass down. Tilda and my Mom would then bond over Lipton tea and Shop-Rite brand Windmill cookies. <i>We Need To Talk About Kevin</i> would have been over in 5 minutes.</div>
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I'm almost tempted to send my mother to see <i>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl</i> if only to get her sure to be memorable take on the movie. Alas, I don't want my ass beaten, so I'm going to pass on recommending any movies to Miss Arlene.</div>
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Let's talk about Earl, and while we're at it, somebody call Guinness Book to see what the world record is on racial stereotypes in a movie.</div>
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<b>Earl Lives In A Bad Neighborhood </b></div>
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We're immediately told that Earl lives on the other side of town. The movie doesn't say "the wrong side of the tracks," but it damn sure doesn't look like any right side of the tracks I've visited. Earl's house is rundown in a way that screams "Ghetto Designs By Tim Burton." Considering how much gentrification is going on, I guarantee you there's some bearded White hipster with ugly feet crammed in some flip-flops living next to Earl. Yet we only see Black folks in Earl's area, including Earl's brother, who is even more of a stereotype than Earl. More on him later.</div>
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<b>Earl is Greg's Token Black Frie--I mean, Greg's "Co-worker."</b></div>
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Greg is the "Me" in the title, and since he is telling the story, we'll be treated to his viewpoint, a viewpoint that solely exists to romanticize and justify how fucked up it is that people must suffer and/or be marginalized so a straight, White male can "grow as a person." Greg is supposedly so detached that Earl is his only friend. Greg can't even call him "a friend." He refers to Earl as "my co-worker" because they make parodies of classic movies like <i>Peeping Tom</i> and <i>Midnight Cowboy</i>. These parodies are a huge pander to the type of all-knowing, snooty cinephiles who feel they're above standard movie fare. Like those folks, these kids are too cool to enjoy current movies, even to mock them.</div>
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<i>Me and Earl</i> is so dishonest about this plot element it doesn't even mention <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799934/" target="_blank"><i>Be Kind Rewind</i></a>, whose plot featured a Black guy and a White guy making their own versions of classic movies. This isn't even an homage to Gondry's film, it's a damn ripoff of it. And Jack Black and Yasiin Bey's remade movies are far better. If we see more than 20 seconds of any of Greg and Earl's lazy film parodies, I'll eat my hat. </div>
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Being Greg's Black friend has numerous perks, all of which are stereotypes. </div>
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<b>Earl Knows About Drugs</b></div>
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When Greg and Earl eat the weird soup whose recipe their teacher got from Costa Rica or some other brown place ripe with "Other"-ness, it's Earl who points out that they're high on drugs. "The soup had drugs in it!" Earl tells Greg. Perhaps Earl learned about dope from his brother, whose vocation seems to be toking on the porch while holding a giant pit bull. Because all Black folks have vicious pit bulls and love sitting on the porch smoking their reefer, right? Confidentially, I have never smoked weed, but I did have a Maltese. She was no pit bull, but that bitch would have ripped your balls off nonetheless.</div>
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There's another character in <i>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl</i> who sells drugs on school grounds. He's White, but his only defining characteristic is the type of music he's constantly singing. Nope, not emo or heavy metal or even <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU" target="_blank">Toxic</a></i> by Britney Spears. This fool is rapping. Fake-ass Eminem wannabe comes into play when we discover</div>
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<b>Earl Knows How to Fight</b></div>
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Greg doesn't know how to fight, but Earl appears to be an expert on scrapping. Greg gets into a fight, but once he starts getting his ass kicked, Earl runs in like a superhero and takes over. Leave it to your tough token buddy to save your ass when you write a check it can't cash! It's a well-known, yet incorrect given that we all know how to fight, which is why we're presumed to be far more dangerous than we actually are by the cops.<br />
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Later, Earl whips Greg's ass in front of <i>Pit Bull Porch Manor</i> aka Earl's house, and Earl's brother screams out ignorant comments before threatening Greg with a new, improved ass-kicking-slash-pit bull chewing. Earl's bro also calls Greg a pussy, which leads me to</div>
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<b>Earl Is Oversexed</b></div>
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He's a teenager, so of course he's oversexed. Greg is also a teenager, but we rarely hear Greg talking filth-flarn-filth about fucking. No, instead we get Earl's constant running commentary on "dem titties." The breasts in question belong to the Dying Girl. She's dying of leukemia, yet all Earl can ask about her is if Greg has played with, touched, looked at, lusted over or done any other number of activities one can do with "DEM TITTIES." Earl says "dem titties" so many times that you could make a damn good sample of him saying "dem titties" over a rap beat, and you wouldn't even have to loop it. Earl talks about titties so much <b><i>I stopped liking them</i></b>.</div>
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Every Black character in this film is preoccupied with sex and utters sex-related dialogue. The chauffeur who takes Greg to the prom has two modes of dialogue: One is him saying "HUHHHHH?" as if he were channeling Stepin Fetchitt. The other is him practically demanding Greg fuck his date in the back of the limo. Nobody else talks about sex. Greg makes allusions to making out with Rachel, the dying girl, but his dialogue is respectable and chaste by comparison to the brown and oversexed folks.</div>
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<b>Earl Teaches Greg About Soul(TM)</b></div>
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It's Earl who chastises Greg for being cold and distant, even to a girl whose suffering is beneficial for Greg's character growth. Once again, the Black character helps his White friend pull the stick out of his White ass and FEEL or GROW or CHANGE or GET FUNKY or whatever else these Bagger Vances do in these movies. </div>
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<i>"See the way youse holdin' dat club, boss? That's how ya needs ta hold dem titties!"</i></div>
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Speaking of Bagger Vance:</div>
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<b>Earl Sounds Like a 1930's Movie Character--With Curses</b></div>
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"Why does Earl sound like Eddie Rochester Anderson?" I kept asking myself while watching this movie. Earl's dialogue is peppered with profanities and occasionally broken English I assume I'm supposed to take as "Ebonics." I suppose it's meant to be charming but again, only the Black folks in this movie talk like this. Fake ass Eminem Drug Dealer also talks like this, but this movie had already gifted him with a Ghetto Pass, so I'm taking a tip from the movie and including him as an honorary member of the tribe.</div>
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I could go on about Earl, but why bother? The far more egregious sin is in this film's treatment of Rachel. Since <i>Love Story</i>, pretty girls have died of cancer in order to teach
White dudes lessons about life. The illness is treated callously--it
becomes all about the dude and not the poor, suffering girl. Not only does the dying girl in this film's title suffer, the final joke in the
film mocks her death. If that weren't offensive enough, she then assists him from "beyond the
grave" as it were, taking time from her busy schedule of dying as slowly and as painfully as possible to pen a fucking letter of recommendation for Greg's college application. He gets it after she's gone to glory.</div>
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Sundance movies have a bad reputation that I sometimes think is unearned. But <i>Me and Earl</i> <i>and the Dying Girl</i> should have its poster in the dictionary next to the term "Sundance movie." It exemplifies every single worthy complaint about Sundance movies, and yet critics and audiences ate it up and will continue to shovel heaping spoonfuls of its poison into their gullets on opening weekend. To quote Bugs Bunny, "I hope ya choke!"</div>
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Every year, there's a movie that the critics love that I find dreadful. <i>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl</i> is this year's version of that, but I at least am in good company amongst my circle of critic friends, all of whom hated it. Sheila O'Malley <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-2015" target="_blank">called it</a> "a pandering, self-flattering mess, featuring unearned catharsis,
lazy clichés and characters presented in broad, sometimes-offensive
stereotypes." Matt Prigge <a href="http://www.metro.us/entertainment/me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-is-all-about-white-people-problems/zsJofi---ZlqAeehp5HY/" target="_blank">says</a> "[i]f you need to know what hipster racism is, then here’s a great example:
a film that trades on ignorant stereotypes but think it’s above it
because it’s enlightened." And Sean Burns summed up my feelings better than anyone else in a tweet he wrote eons ago. </div>
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He simply said "Fuck this movie." </div>
odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-5792432948272031442015-03-31T14:11:00.000-04:002015-03-31T14:11:18.492-04:00Quick and Dirty: Guess Who Might Ruin The Wiz?by Odienator<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBF3-0tZI90bOYaBkK0lK2U69h3zgnTkSYtzhCUjpz-XDpu0kfcP0TjdlK7bVgACYZb-F0mGReAklWCgs2JerPPZiIFV3vHdhVQBN1QukWAVx6J10r5O1PZ8ut8u85mOXzKyE5RA/s1600/wiz.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBF3-0tZI90bOYaBkK0lK2U69h3zgnTkSYtzhCUjpz-XDpu0kfcP0TjdlK7bVgACYZb-F0mGReAklWCgs2JerPPZiIFV3vHdhVQBN1QukWAVx6J10r5O1PZ8ut8u85mOXzKyE5RA/s1600/wiz.gif" /></a></div>
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During the first year of my <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-history-mumf-recap.html" target="_blank">Black History Mumf series</a>, I wrote a piece on the 1978 big screen version of <i>The Wiz</i>. It was entitled <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/quick-dirty-guess-who-ruined-wiz.html" target="_blank"><i>Guess Who Ruined The Wiz?</i></a> I answered the question by pointing to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaYHRx9-v2M" target="_blank">Miss Ross</a> and her director, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001486/" target="_blank">Sidney Lumet</a>. The piece was a bit meaner than I intended; despite all the scorn I deservingly heaped on the miscasting and misdirection, the movie has a special place in my heart. At least I did mention that in the original piece.</div>
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Fast forward to today, where it was announced that, after fucking up <a href="http://www.nbc.com/the-sound-of-music-live" target="_blank"><i>The Sound of Music</i></a> and <a href="http://www.nbc.com/peter-pan-live" target="_blank"><i>Peter Pan</i></a>, NBC is <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/wiz-set-as-nbcs-next-785343" target="_blank">now tackling</a> <i>The Wiz</i>. And they're doing it with Cirque Du Soleil! I will not hide my utter hatred for Cirque Du Soleil--or any circus for that matter--so my excitement is really tempered by this announcement. After all, to appease <i>Deadline Hollywood</i>'s <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/deadline-ethnic-casting-story-apology.html" target="_blank">skeered White editor</a>, the one so concerned with "too many ethnics" on TV, NBC might cast that White lady rapper with the Blaccent as Dorothy. I ain't saying her name because she might be like Beetlejuice and show up here if I do, and I do not need that right now.</div>
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When it was rumored NBC was considering a live version of <i>The Wiz</i>, Big Media Vandalism creator Steven Boone and I had a conversation about casting. I said Usher should be The Scarecrow and Cedric the Entertainer should step inside Ted Ross' furry Mean Ole Lion mane. I couldn't decide on Dorothy, as there are so many superb choices. Denzel would make an interesting Wiz (and his singing isn't bad--see <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/03/quinn-tessential-denzel.html" target="_blank"><i>The Mighty Quinn</i></a>), but I have a sneaky suspicion that NBC might make the same mistake the 1978 version did and cast Kevin Hart as The Wiz. Like Pryor before him, Hart has too much electricity to be this character. Now, Kevin Hart as the Tin Man--that might be entertaining. </div>
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On February 7, 2014, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens <a href="http://www.movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2014/02/07/detail/the-wiz" target="_blank">ran a print</a> of <i>The Wiz</i>. It was an appropriate venue, as much of the movie was shot behind the museum at Kaufman-Astoria Studios. Boone and I attended (I told him our attendance was MANDATORY), and we were suddenly transported back to our youth. </div>
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Aftewards, I wrote a Facebook post about it that I'm reposting here, both as an update to my prior piece and a timely mention now that we know NBC may be singing Mike's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVpMxVn6mk" target="_blank">classic Scarecrow number</a> from the movie version of <i>The Wiz</i>.</div>
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Here's what I posted on Facebook on February 7, 2014:</div>
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Watching The Wiz tonight on the big screen was a bittersweet
experience. I still stand by everything I said in that infamous 2008
piece I wrote on the movie, but I reconnected with the reasons why I
watched it a million times growing up. As a kid, New York City WAS the
Emerald City to me. Sitting in a theater on the Astoria Studios lot,
where most of The Wiz was shot, was a little surreal. MoMI has items
from the movie in their museum exhibit right now.</div>
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When Diana Ross sings <span class="text_exposed_show">Home,
Sidney Lumet wisely keeps the camera on her (she acts the hell out of
the song, I must say). I used to think it was cheesy to have the faces
of the people she met in Oz going by as she sang. This time, it was
profoundly sad. My eyes started to water, because it played like an In
Memoriam reel. Nipsey Russell, Mabel King, Richard Pryor, Ted Ross, Lena
Horne, Michael Jackson--all dead. Hell, Sidney Lumet is dead. Dede
Allen, who edited <i>The Wiz </i>is dead too.</span></div>
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My least favorite scene in the movie, the extended Emerald City color
coordinated fashion show, also hit me hard this time. I had totally
forgotten where it takes place--between the Twin Towers. The globe has
the OZ logo on it. <i>The Wiz</i> also apparently is at the top of the Trade
Center, as we see Miss Ross and company take one of the elevators.<br />
<br />
They showed a 35mm print, which made me happy even though it looked as
grungy as the old <span id="goog_228225664"></span><span id="goog_228225665"></span>Universal logo. There were sound problems at times as
well. Despite all that, it was great to hear Mike sing my theme song
"<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVpMxVn6mk" target="_blank">You Can't Win, You Can't Break Even</a>." through theater speakers, and to
see Lena Horne returning to the screen, even if her attire made her look
like she's in a Tyler Perry movie.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8n3IhF_5u4IzTUZfYy9NyWe7G-lvRKHnyiJ9O_Hwnt1ZTLXdmjVsX3fCWs18Eud6mQL-_r0rTIN276y_h9P8QEe0PTYSnd3GeRDXb1fH8ukm_7W9CIHKoAId7SMyWkkMBqiGZQ/s1600/lena_horne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8n3IhF_5u4IzTUZfYy9NyWe7G-lvRKHnyiJ9O_Hwnt1ZTLXdmjVsX3fCWs18Eud6mQL-_r0rTIN276y_h9P8QEe0PTYSnd3GeRDXb1fH8ukm_7W9CIHKoAId7SMyWkkMBqiGZQ/s1600/lena_horne.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Tony Walton's art direction
remains a high point of the movie. It is so deliciously ghetto that the
Yellow Brick Road is made of the same kind of linoleum my Mom used to
tile our floors with, and he gets maximum mileage out of both real
locations like the Brooklyn Bridge and the studio backlot.<br />
<br />
Over
the years, I have softened to Miss Ross, even if I still think she's
miscast. Her interaction with Jackson's scarecrow has always been a
highlight for me, and I love how, in order to scare off the crows, she
throws out the favorite line of all Black aunts: "YOU GO ON ABOUT YOUR
BUSINESS NOW!!" Jackson is even better than I remembered. Russell and
Ted Ross (recreating his Tony winning Cowardly Lion) have a lot of fun
with their roles, and it's infectious.<br />
<br />
All in all, a very
nostalgic return to a staple of my youth, a film that I first saw on a
double bill with <i>Which Way Is Up</i>? back in 1978. The director of that
film, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/krush-grooving-car-washing-and-loosed.html" target="_blank">Michael Schultz</a>, should have directed this one.<br />
<br />
Me again:<br />
<br />
I look forward to the Black Twitter live tweet of this blessed event in December. Especially if they cast <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/content-of-their-character-actors_22.html" target="_blank">Cookie Lyon</a> as Evillene. I know that is probably miscasting, but I'd kill to hear my Taraji P. say <b>"I'll get you Boo Boo Kitty, and your little dog, too!"</b></div>
odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-33093348199284952222015-01-21T22:58:00.000-05:002015-01-21T23:46:59.055-05:00VANDALS: NATION'S PRIDE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/alsolikelife/status/557203101707673600" target="_blank"><img alt="https://twitter.com/alsolikelife/status/557203101707673600" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgtjQZhJ_yClVKhxS8zTx_MWAb9nTFlWuhYYGemsbMCemBxs8m0E2VJD2EEWKk-S1qWcqKTcjiN3sCsVqiUgR4SDGz_dMTsSTgxwloDjWgITuz4kosNbdS3SdCKOsPl7-g-r-Fg/s1600/MLK2.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a> </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" class="ajC"><tbody>
<tr class="UszGxc ajv"><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI"><span class="gD" name="Steven Boone">Steven Boone</span> <span class="go"><stevencboone@gmail.com></span> </span></td></tr>
<tr class="ajv"><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI">to: Kevin B Lee <alsolikelife gmail.com=""></alsolikelife></span></td></tr>
<tr class="ajv"><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI">Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 8:41 AM</span></td><td class="gL" colspan="2"></td><td class="gL" colspan="2"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Al Sharpton's <a href="http://madamenoire.com/504004/rev-al-sharpton-outraged-white-oscar-nominees-announces-task-force-meeting/" target="_blank">outrage over the whiteness of nominees</a> just illustrates
the industrial mindset that both Howood's fans and detractors are
trapped in. It keeps <a href="http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/the-biggest/the-10-biggest-hollywood-studios/" target="_blank">the studios</a> at the high center of our cultural
conversation against all reason. For Sharpton, the studios are just
another corporate job creator that should <a href="http://jezebel.com/2014-hollywood-diversity-report-isnt-particularly-promi-1585488162" target="_blank">embrace diversity</a> and reward
excellent job performance. In other words, his POV is that of a
non-artist. That's great when we need somebody to stick up for a civil
rights victim but not when some insular awards committee expresses its
tastes.<br />
<br />
I want to write something beseeching black folk and others to drop
the plantation/stockyard mentality. The Academy Awards are unimportant,
always were. All this cheap <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/genre/short-film" target="_blank">moviemaking technology</a>, all these
<a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dasweetbloodofjesus" target="_blank">freewheeling new ways to watch a movie</a>, and folks are still petitioning
the hairpiece-and-Porsche set to give them justice at the movies. What
passive, retrograde horseshit. There is no center, and no top. Fuck a
<a href="http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/tmnt/images/3/3e/Giant_NInja_Turtles_movie_billboards.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140729193910" target="_blank">billboard</a>. <i>Look around, motherfuckers!!!</i><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/115476131?byline=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/115476131">Litefeet</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/scottcarthy">Scott Carthy</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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<br />Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-187887530712272302014-12-09T21:16:00.000-05:002014-12-09T21:16:46.305-05:00VANDALS: PLAGUE DOGS<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0vqWzquBh0c" width="420"></iframe><br />
by Steven Boone<br />
<br />
This is the last time I will ever write about race. Until the next time. Or maybe I mean it this time.<br />
<br />
Was riding with my cousin from her home in Crenshaw, Los Angeles the other day. She is a schoolteacher with a beautiful home in a quiet neighborhood. We were on our way to visit her adult sons, who share an apartment in Inglewood. Both of these young men are educated professionals. They have their mother's charm, eloquence and gracious good humor. The apartment complex they live in is immaculate and charming. On the ride there, we were accompanied by another female cousin, a very successful WNBA executive from the East Coast.<br />
<br />
Nobody got shot.<br />
<br />
Yet the subject of getting shot for no particular reason (other than a <i><a href="http://youtu.be/Gn9L0w53ql8" target="_blank">particular reason</a></i>) came up. Crenshaw cousin was still visibly shaken by recent news items involving various slain black men, some younger than her sons, others around my age, whose killers the justice system protected from any legal repercussions. Her melodic voice strained and cracked as emotion pressed down on her words. It was all just too much. She didn't mention them, but I knew she was thinking of the "boys" we were on our way to see, the ones she raised to be such pillars of responsibility, compassion and respect. They only recently left the nest. Will they be alright out there in a land that now seems to have legalized the killing of black men (so long as the killer is not black)?<br />
<br />
- <a href="http://unclecrizzle.tumblr.com/post/104128900443/a-blog-post-about-being-big-black-scary" target="_blank">Big, Black and Scary Uncle Crizzle</a><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/10/ta_nehisi_coates_on_white_supremacy_and_a_life_of_struggle.html" target="_blank">Superthug Ta Nehisi Coates</a><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://gawker.com/my-vassar-college-faculty-id-makes-everything-ok-1664133077" target="_blank">America's Nightmare: Kiese Laymon</a><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-american-skin-of-nathanial.html" target="_blank">Prime Suspect Odie Henderson</a><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://www.whosampled.com/sample/119582/Ice-Cube-Who-Got-the-Camera%3F-Richard-Pryor-Niggers-vs.-The-Police/" target="_blank">Rich the Villain (courtesy of Cube the Killer)</a>:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IKq3Gm1mbT8" width="420"></iframe>Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-2186045989472867602014-11-27T00:12:00.001-05:002014-11-27T00:12:18.587-05:00VANDALS: ELECTROCONVULSIVE SOUL<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" src="https://screen.yahoo.com/film-clip-184302523.html?format=embed" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">by Steven Boone</span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">The press conference comic relief in the James Brown bioflick <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/get-on-up-2014" target="_blank">GET ON UP</a> made me think of a passage in the book <i><a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/" target="_blank">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a></i> (1974), in which philosopher Robert Pirsig, a <b>WHITE </b>American of Swedish and German descent, is trying to define his Metaphysics of Quality without <i>defining</i> it. Madness. Referring to his former self (pre-<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19201545" target="_blank">electroconvulsive therapy</a>) in the third person the way, say, a Soul music superstar might, he recalls a pivotal encounter with some real cool <b>BLACKS</b>:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.7272720336914px;">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.7272720336914px; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="color: #fce5cd;">"Squareness. That's the look. That sums it. Squareness. When you subtract quality you get squareness. Absence of Quality is the essence of squareness.</span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.7272720336914px; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.7272720336914px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.7272720336914px;"><i><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Some artist friends with whom he had once traveled across the United States came to mind. They were Negroes, who had always been complaining about just this Qualitylessness he was describing. Square. That was their word for it. Way back long ago before the mass media had picked it up and given it national white usage they had called all that intellectual stuff square and had wanted nothing to do with it. And there had been a fantastic mismeshing of conversations and attitudes between him and them because he was such a prime example of the squareness they were talking about. The more he had tried to pin them down on what they were talking about the vaguer they had gotten.</span></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.7272720336914px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.7272720336914px;"><i><span style="color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.7272720336914px; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="color: #fce5cd;">Now with this Quality he seemed to say the same thing and talk as vaguely as they did, even though what he talked about was as hard and clear and solid as any rationally defined entity he'd ever dealt with. Quality. That's what they'd been talking about all the time. ``Man, will you just please, kindly dig it,'' he remembered one of them saying, ``and hold up on all those wonderful seven-dollar questions? If you got to ask what is it all the time, you'll never get time to know.'' Soul. Quality. The same?"</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial;">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Like <i>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</i>, GET ON UP sorts through one brilliant man's memories, triumphs and traumas. Unlike<i> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, </i>GET ON UP can't quite catch the groove. <i>Zen</i>'s beautiful prose, for all its nerdy tangents, embodies soul; Tate Taylor's James Brown movie, despite its ultramagnetic star, only reaches it when the music is playing. Its flow of images is network-TV square.</span></div>
Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-41592513098230607262014-11-13T01:59:00.002-05:002014-11-17T01:23:10.441-05:00VANDALS: BRIGHTNESS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
By Steven Boone<br />
<br />
There is a hushed and lovely view of planet Saturn in the movie INTERSTELLAR that makes it worth any amount of congestive techno-expository dialogue and colossal corniness (of which this flick has a heaping amount). Godly beauty. Christopher Nolan regards celestial wonders the way Mike Leigh (via his cameraman, Dick Pope) regards ordinary people suddenly stricken with insight, love or compassion in MR. TURNER: steadily, patiently, avidly. Turner, the romantic painter, spends much of the film hunched and squinting at the world. It's all too much for him. He has to filter. But when his eyes catch something of surpassing beauty, they open and get that rounded, boyish look of astonishment. Nolan loves the universe and its impenetrable mysteries the way (Leigh's) Turner loves the sea and women who bear life's trials with grace. There is a shot of one woman gazing out at the night sky through a window, in profile; another shot of another woman cleaning a window in daylight. Leigh sees them both the way Nolan sees Saturn. The secret is in the light.<br />
<br />
By the way, here's YEELEN:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xxmvhh" width="480"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxmvhh_yeelen-1987-pt-1_creation" target="_blank">Yeelen (1987) pt. 1</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/karimberdi" target="_blank">karimberdi</a></i><br />
<br />
<br />
Photo by <a href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=1649&picture=galaxy&large=1" target="_blank">Peter Kratochvil</a>.<br />
<br />Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-1049637193268043672014-10-29T18:55:00.001-04:002014-10-29T18:55:17.355-04:00VANDALS: AEROBICS<br />
by Steven Boone<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Devoid of spirituality, art carries its own tragedy within it. For even to recognize the spiritual vacuum of the times in which he lives, the artist must have specific qualities of wisdom and understanding. The true artist always serves immortality, striving to immortalize the world and man within the world."</span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19.1978435516357px;">-</span><a href="https://archive.org/details/Andrei_Tarkovsky_Sculpting_In_Time" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19.1978435516357px;" target="_blank">Mitt Romney</a><br />
<br />
-My latest hero is <a href="https://vimeo.com/hiromurai" target="_blank">Hiro</a>.<br />
<br />
Hiro Murai, directing a music video for Flying Lotus that rescuscitates a walking dead form.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-ds8" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
-more jumping<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1DccbvzZNrc" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
-more running<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wdl4XOugCCE" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
-more flying<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CRd8kyYkibc" width="560"></iframe><br />
<div>
<br />
Amen and amen.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8DjBeiCjfNk" width="560"></iframe></div>
Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-35153221978661315132014-10-27T00:11:00.002-04:002014-10-27T11:16:24.571-04:00Black Man Talk: Dear White Peopleby Steven Boone and Odie "Odienator" Henderson<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>(The
following is an E-mail conversation between Big Media Vandalism
founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie
Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other
installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">42</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Lee Daniels' The Butler</a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/11/black-man-talk-12-years-slave.html" target="_blank">12 Years a Slave</a>.)</i></span><br />
<br />
<i>Editor's note: Mr. Boone's text is in standard Big Media Vandalism blue. Odie's text is in <span style="color: #6aa84f;">green</span>.</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">ODIE</span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Allow me to start this edition of the Black Man Talk with a letter that some of our readers may have received recently.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>Dear Black Person,<br /><br />This is an eviction notice. You have 30 days to vacate the premises so that we can turn your tiny apartment into TWO even tinier apartments that some White people will rent because the location is primo. Don't forget to take your roaches with you! On second thought, leave 'em! They'll add to the mise-en-scène.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q26d23oA-DY" target="_blank">Love you, bye-bye</a>!!<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Your Landlo'</i></span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Gentrification is a hot issue in the news, from Spike Lee's <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/spike-lee-amazing-rant-against-gentrification.html" target="_blank">controversial rant</a> to the Dropbox <a href="http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2014/10/13/dropbox-apologizes-in-mission-soccergate-protest-planned/" target="_blank">soccer controversy</a>, where two privileged techies shamed my profession by trying to kick some brown kids off a public soccer field in San Francisco. <i>"Who cares about the community?!"</i> one of those I.T. people asked in the viral video. This "who cares?" comment could be the rallying cry for those like Lee who feel racial history is being wiped out by hipsters with big assed, irony-filled Negritude erasers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">I bring this up because one of the main plotlines in <i>Dear White People</i> deals with location entitlement. Samantha (the great Tessa Thompson--more on her excellence later) wants to repeal the housing mandate that will alter the living arrangements at her Predominantly White Institution of Higher Learning. These changes would prevent the small number of Black students from choosing the historically Black Armstrong Parker housing complex. 50 years ago, Winchester University would not only have been happy with these Negroes wanting to live "among their own," it would have <i>demanded</i> it. But now, as the Winchester dean so nonchalantly puts it, "racism is over" in Obama's Post-Racial America. Only by spreading out the Black student body and making them a literal and figurative minority presence in White housing do we truly overcome racism. Because nothing says "post-racial" like being the token Black person some place!</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">History and tradition are of utmost importance to the small faction of Black student protesters who want to keep Armstrong Parker Black. To lose that would feel like the final dismantling of racial identity for Samantha, Ricky and the others at the Black Student Union. As I've <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/01/better-be-good-black-history-mumf-2010.html" target="_blank">said before</a>, my interpretation of "post-racial" is that everybody is now White and homogenous. You give up your identity for admission to a world whose actions constantly remind you of the identity you supposedly no longer have.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Which leads me to this paragraph from your spectacular RogerEbert.com <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dear-white-people-2014" target="_blank">review</a> of <i>Dear White People</i> (and we agree on the 3-1/2 star rating):</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>"If it sounds like I'm talking around this film's supposed central subject, Race, I sho' is! This whole race thing is exhausting. Caucasians are generally as tired of hearing Negroes' race-based grievances as we Negroes are of being profiled, passed over for opportunities and murdered in the street with impunity. It's all so played out.</i>"</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">First of all, thank you for showing your age (and mine too) by using the term "played out." The millenials whose interpretions of race <i>Dear White People</i> projects are now scrambling for UrbanDictionary.com to <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=played+out" target="_blank">translate</a> your outdated Ebonics. Second, you may have wormed your way out of a discussion on race in that review, <i>but I gots yo' ass now</i>! <b>We gonna talk about that shit!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">It's a great jumping off point, because every character in <i>Dear White People</i> has a side hustle of racial overcompensation to go with their regular jobs as students. Let's face it head-on, and talk about Samantha, Kurt, Ricky, the Allstate guy, Troy and my favorite character, Tyler James Williams' Lionel. And to show you that I come in good faith, and even agree with you that race is a construct, I am hereby rechristening this chat as a "B---k Man Talk." We'll pretend to be post-racial just this once, at least until the readers send <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/dog-bites-dawg.html" target="_blank">White Dog</a> to eat our asses.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">What say you, my bruva? I mean, my fellow human being of indeterminate origin?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you, my n---a. My roaches and I are dying to see where this convo takes us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I didn't really groove to Simien's more jaded and calculating characters, from the bitter Allstate guy to his charismatic but rudderless son, Troy (Brandon P. Bell). No doubt, these are all accurate "types" of individuals, each pursuing a different path to security and prosperity in a country that still doesn't know what to do with unfiltered Colored people. But they didn't speak to me much.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Perhaps you related to me when I played the baseball player in Major League?"</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Samantha and Lionel, on the other hand, spoke <i><b>volumes</b></i>. These kids were trying to find some simple truth beyond the politics of survival. Samantha, so willful and commanding, didn't see it until someone (her sweet white boo, Gabe) had the guts and insight to assert it; Lionel, quiet and wily, didn't see it until he stumbled upon the campus newspaper editors he thought dug him for his talent, instead of relishing his value as a token. What Samantha and Lionel saw was the trap of identity politics, on the blackhand side <i>and </i>the whitehand side.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The (unexpressed) horror is that running away from all that, and instead becoming a cultural crazy quilt, does not ensure security. It's actually the most dangerous move you can make in this country composed of voting blocs, ethnic enclaves and wondrous varieties of racism. If you can't identify a sizable community that has your back on the basis of national/cultural heritage (and economic networks) your ass is grass. You are depending upon the kindness of strangers, which, <b>ha-ha</b>, good luck.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is why <i>Dear White People</i> ends with all the black kids learning to get along, to make room for each other's non-regulation traits and to understand that their lot is inextricably bound. That's beautiful, but also sad and realistically conformist: The only way forward for the Coloreds is to follow the same formula that helped other groups in this country prosper even as we swung from ropes and our gains were rolled back under our own country's relentless terror attack. The only way forward is the spiritual miserliness that insists there's not enough room and resources for all of us, so you best stick with your own kind and fight. It's the antithesis of what America claims to be but never was.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We know that certain parties clamor for post-racial utopia only because it takes the headachy issue of longstanding injustice off the table, with the added benefit of keeping the one ethnic group without a national identity (Africa <i>be a continent</i>) scattered and powerless. It's what gives that I.T. punk in the SF story the nerve to dismiss the idea of community. The only community people like him will acknowledge is one built around his comfort zone and backed by private capital. Or, if persistently public, policed to protect the money and the money people only. All this privatization jazz has turned the underclass into the <i>trespasser</i> class. So, I get how the campus housing battle in <i>Dear White People</i> is a miniature version of the gentrification shuffle happening all over the country.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's just sad that it has to come down to fighting over territory. Same shit, different century.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBcpkigV4oWYOSdVSgZHjnP_9VS5YJbJGYtO1kKSO2GhouZWE25TGsA5wBfvXfprQUGfGptl4c95aXgXQs6_aXAUY3ulfZJdowZnEehKkYVTF8kpxrKNTPRBAuEeQUntz2N3WeQ/s1600/TheLandlord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBcpkigV4oWYOSdVSgZHjnP_9VS5YJbJGYtO1kKSO2GhouZWE25TGsA5wBfvXfprQUGfGptl4c95aXgXQs6_aXAUY3ulfZJdowZnEehKkYVTF8kpxrKNTPRBAuEeQUntz2N3WeQ/s1600/TheLandlord.jpg" height="175" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">ODIE</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">The one character with whom I did not connect was Coco, the wannabe celebrity. Simien's least interesting material is the reality TV stuff, though I did like Coco's moment of clarity at the frat party. Until that moment, I didn't find her very compelling. I found Troy a more useful element in Simien's chess game.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Simien uses Troy and his dean daddy (Dennis "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPSgo-Bw5RA" target="_blank">Are You In Good Hands</a>" Haysbert) in an intriguing way. These are characters who think they can change the system while they're gaming the system, but their self-serving actions will eventually cost them. The dean points out that he was summa cum laude, but his former classmate barely passed the same classes and wound up being the university's president. The dean personifies the old adage my mother beat (<b>literally</b>) into me: You have to be twice as good as a White counterpart to get almost as far as they do. For some, my mother's notion may have come off as self-defeating. For me, it was an inspiration. I would not be the success I am without that mindset, <i>psychological collateral damage be damned</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">His lower-pay position is why the dean's so adamant about his son being down with the swirl created by the college president's daughter. This is the dean's ultimate revenge because, as we all know, a major component of racism deals with the fear of <b>jungle fever sex</b>! The university is sticking it to me, and my son is sticking it to your precious daughter.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">The dean also knows that, if Samantha succeeds in causing "trouble on his massa's plantation," his ass is under the bus. He thinks Troy will uphold the status quo of a Negro flying under the radar, which makes it deliciously ironic that Troy neglects to tell him about the party that threatens his daddy's collegiate reign.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Troy is a character on both sides of the fence. His reign as the head of Armstrong Parker ties him to that storyline and his desire to be accepted by the lily-White "comedy" magazine, Pastiche, ties him to the blackface frat party. Troy is willing to resort to being as racist as editor Kurt in order to get on the Pastiche staff. He sees this as a small price to pay for a possible catapult to Saturday Night Live. But Troy has the "illusion of inclusion"--he thinks that a spot on the Pastiche will earn him the respect of Kurt and his fellow writers when, in reality, he'll be just as big a token as Lionel is on that newspaper staff.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Troy knows how to curry favor with "self-deprecation," which is read by his White peers as acknowledgement that brown people are inferior. Hell, they're hearing it from the horse's mouth. Troy would make a great GOP candidate!</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">About Samantha and Lionel, you wrote:</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>"These kids were trying to find some simple truth beyond the politics of survival. Samantha, so willful and commanding, didn't see it until someone (her sweet white boo, Gabe) had the guts and insight to assert it; Lionel, quiet and wily, didn't see it until he stumbled upon the campus newspaper editors he thought dug him for his talent instead relishing his value as a token. What Samantha and Lionel saw was the trap of identity politics, on the blackhand side and the whitehand side."</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Maybe it's me, but I found Samantha's sweet White boo's speech to her a tad condescending, as if he's saying "you're not as Black as you think you are!" He and I do share a fondness for the word mulatto, though, and his hollering of "mulatto, mulatto, mulatto!" was a high point of comedy for me. Far more fascinating is Samantha's later speech to him, easily the best patch of dialogue in the film. Thompson nails it, too. You can see it in her eyes, feel it hanging on her body like a ghostly apparition tugging at her clothes. The speech plays like a reverse "Douglas Sirk's <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-last-bit-of-black-history.html" target="_blank">Imitation of Life</a>" moment; this time Imitation's Sarah Jane is ashamed of her White father rather than her Black mother. Sam's father's illness jars her more into newfound consciousness than her boo does, though their romantic relationship is credible and hopeful.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">I loved Samantha, but Williams' Lionel <i>c'est moi</i>. I didn't fit in anywhere growing up, and I had fantasies like Lionel does; fantasies where I'm accepted not only by my own people but everyone else as well. I was the neighborhood weirdo, the square peg on top of the round hole. I too felt weird about labels, but, after all these years, I've held on to at least one label:</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>"I'm Black, y'all..."</i> </span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Like Lionel, I was wary of the Black students in my early days at school too, except they kicked the shit out of me for being smart. They didn't know about my bisexuality until they read this sentence, so I never got the kind of tormenting Lionel did.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">At university, I was the only Black student in ALL of my classes. There were enough Black students at the university to have a Black Action Committee, but the meetings were the only place I saw 'em. And I know quite a bit about White people touching my hair without permission, especially when I had dreds. They can't do that shit anymore--I've kept a shaved dome for the past 20 years.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Lionel's disgust at the frat party helps him "conquer" his fears and seek the help and camaraderie of the Black Student Union. His scene with Samantha is especially good. "What do you want me to do?" she asks him, and when she finally shows up at the party, Lionel's confidence level visually increases. He feels united not in a racial context but in a purposeful one: He has a shared goal. It ties into what you said about not having to "depend on the kindness of strangers."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">What messages do you think Simien and company are imparting to viewers Black and White? And why do you think the White folks who attended that frat party chose to go as racist Black stereotypes rather than, say positive Black people like <a href="http://www.oprah.com/index.html" target="_blank">Oprah</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou" target="_blank">Dr. Maya Angelou</a>? Can you imagine some blonde chick trying to imitate Dr. Maya Angelou's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6LMr-rXEc" target="_blank">voice</a> or some White guy holding <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates" target="_blank">Skip Gates</a>' multiple degrees?!!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>(Some costume suggestions for your next racist Blackface party.)</i></span></div>
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I didn't connect much with Coco but did appreciate her rude awakening at the Pastiche party. All of the black student characters arrived at an understanding of their relative powerlessness but also of their untapped power, which comes down to specific choices. Coco observed white kids celebrating her video rant as a mere ghetto fab stereotype, laughing at and not with her. To them she was 100% surface. Substance? <i>Ain't nobody got time for that.</i> Teyonah Parriss's regal beauty helped sell the cruelty of this moment.<br />
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It's the same queasy moment Dave Chappelle reported having when he saw white folks on his set laughing at one of his ridiculous characters for the "wrong" reasons. At some point he chose to walk away. From what? The hand that was feeding him. But it works both ways, not just with demeaning caricatures but also with the plum situation Justin Simien probably finds himself in right now.<br />
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<a href="http://www.hiltonals.com/about/" target="_blank">Hilton Als</a> once <a href="http://swelleganza.tumblr.com/post/95099390375/hilton-als-gwtw" target="_blank">wrote the following</a> in <i>White Girls</i>, about being invited to write an essay meant to accompany lynching photos:<br />
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<i>"So doing, I'm feeding, somehwat, into what the essayist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._S._Trow" target="_blank">George W.S. Trow</a> has called 'white euphoria,' which is defined by white people exercising their largesse in my face as they say, Tell me about yourself, meaning, Tell me how you've suffered. Isn't that what you people do? Suffer nobly, poetically sometimes, even?" </i><br />
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Als, too, chose to walk away: <i> </i><br />
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<i>"This is my farewell. I mean to be courtly and grand. No gold watch is necessary as I bow out of the nigger business."</i><br />
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<i> </i>I hope that young Colored filmmakers like Simien and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3363032/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Ryan Coogler</a> and <a href="http://www.avaduvernay.com/" target="_blank">Ava Duvernay</a> grow in their courtly grandness. I hope they continute to find stories that celebrate and lament in truthful, human proportions.</div>
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You said:<br />
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<i>"Troy knows how to curry favor with "self-deprecation," which is read by his White peers as acknowledgement that brown people are inferior. Hell, they're hearing it from the horse's mouth. Troy would make a great GOP candidate!"</i></div>
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Despite his rant this year against "humility," <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsO6ZnUZI0g" target="_blank">Kanye West</a> long ago opened up the pop culture floodgates on self-deprecation (and general weirdness) that contribute to a more nuanced interaction between white admirers and kids like Troy and Lionel. It's a fascinating mess. Give us a million years, we could never untagle the strands of admiration from those of condescension. It's one huge contributor to my own racial paranoia: Is this white person commiserating with me right now or rewarding what he (mistakenly) supposes is my lack of confidence?<br />
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With my closer Caucasian friends, I take a leap of faith and assume it's all love. (A fragment of an old Armond White quote about filmmakers taking a "<i>leap of faith, a pledge of felllow-feeling</i>" reverberates in my mind when I go to movies like <i>Dear White People</i>, and whenever my paranoia wants to turn to anger or withdrawal.)</div>
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Lionel is such a heroic figure to me, from the moment he first appears, just for going his own way. But he's also such an anomaly in pop culture that I fear most viewers immediatlely jump to <a href="http://familymatters.wikia.com/wiki/Steve_Urkel" target="_blank">Steve Urkel</a> and Eddie Murphy's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_83GEvXOZA" target="_blank"><i>Norbit</i></a>. A black man who isn't loudly trumpeting his worth (another cultural glue trap) is seen as emasculated, ineffectual. It's like, "fool" if you do, "fool" if you don't.<br />
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<i>Williams nails this perplexed look. How many times have you felt this way?</i><br />
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Samantha's white boo Gabe is undeniably an admirer, but admiration doesn't prevent anyone from occasionally stepping in it. He makes a valid point about the damage of denying a portion of your (known, expressed) heritage just because it bears some historical scars. He's an apt pupil of race, but his blind spot might be the simple irony of the fact that THE CAUCASOIDS INVENTED THE ASININE ONE-DROP RULE. So, it should come as no surprise when the palest of Colored folk assert their blacketyblackness and downplay or outright deny their white heritage. This is what y'all wanted, White Man.</div>
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If split screen didn't already exist, the endlessly splintered "milennial gaze" would have had to invent it. Their lives are playing out on screens and in text boxes, and their filmmakers are finding cool ways to reflect that.</div>
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<i>Future filmmakers of America, unite!</i></div>
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">ODIE</span></div>
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Ah yes, the One-Drop Rule!<br /><br />You ever notice how math is always invoked in relation to <i>Cullud</i> (not Colored, my bruva!) folks? We were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise" target="_blank">3/5ths of a person</a> in the Constitution and they have a shitload of names to refer to just how Black you are. <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/octoroon" target="_blank">Octoroon</a> (1/8th Black), <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quadroon" target="_blank">quadroon</a> (1/4th Black) and Gabe's favorite word, mulatto (HALF, Ed-DEE!). I wonder if all these fractions subconsciously made me pursue math at university.<br /><br />Since I saw <i>Dear White People</i>, I've thought about what happens next for each character. The university looks like it's about to enter into an unholy alliance with reality TV, thereby finding another way to exploit the youth of all races. But what about the main characters? What happens after college? How did it shape them? What are their futures? How will they differ from what happened to me a generation ago?<br /><br />You expand that and ask what the futures are for some of our newest directors (note I left out the Black part, because these are directors who just <i>happen</i> to be Black). I had the privilege of sitting on a festival panel last year in Poland with Ava DuVernay, and I'm excited to see her latest, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank"><i>Selma</i></a>. Coogler is rumored to be helming the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3076658/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1" target="_blank">Apollo Creed movie</a>, which means I'll get to do the <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/when-i-grow-up-i-wanna-be-clubber-lang.html" target="_blank">Clubber Lang</a> one!<br /><br />It took Simien seven years to get his vision on the screen, but I don't think he'll have the Kubrickian or Malickean luxury of spacing his movies out that far. There's also that sophomore jinx thingee the<i> ar</i>-<b><i>teests</i></b> and critics always fear.<br /><br />The other thing <i>Dear White People</i> made me consider: How differently I see race and racism than these millenials do. There's a show on TV now called <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/blackish" target="_blank"><i>black-ish</i></a>, where Anthony Anderson plays a Dad whose views on race seem outdated to his son. I've found myself agreeing with Anderson's viewpoint, which the show kind of negates every week. Now I know how the folks who liked <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Bunker" target="_blank">Archie Bunker</a> felt!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>The Candy Man not only can, he also DID.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i>All in the Family</i> tried to tell us how common, yet out-of-touch Archie's beliefs were in that era's universe. Archie didn't understand Meathead's perspective because it made no sense to his way of thinking and his way of life. This post-racial shit makes no sense to me, either, especially when many of the same things that were happening to us in 1974 are still happening to us in 2014.<br /><br /><i>"No gold watch is necessary as I bow out of the nigger business." -Hilton Als</i><br /><br />This made me think of Al Pacino's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU" target="_blank">famous line</a> in Godfather III.<br /><br />Your comment about racial paranoia hit a nerve, and not just because I've worked in a predominantly White career for 27 years (Blacks make up 4.1% of programmers). I've dealt with plenty of racism--explicit racism--as well as comments that I got my job through Affirmative Action or because the employer felt sorry for me, etc. The fact I'm a great programmer is the biggest <i>fuck you</i> I can offer back to these people. I'm still here, and I'm still working.<br /><br />I've experienced this nonsense, though on a smaller scale, in the film critic world. For example, a film critic who shall remain nameless because we both know him, had the audacity to tell me that my 3-star take on <i>Boyhood</i> was due to the fact I "didn't get it, because you're Black." Never mind that I was once a boy (who grew up) or that I have more alcoholics in my family than the Betty Ford Clinic. Because <i>Boyhood</i> wasn't a masterpiece to me, it meant I couldn't identify with this White kid who went through things any boy would go through. I even got a Bible for Christmas once, like the kid does in <i>Boyhood</i>, but I didn't get a gun to accompany it like he did. Darn!<br /><br />Whenever I dislike something that the general consensus loves (like <a href="http://moviemezzanine.com/her-is-as-cold-as-a-computer-program/" target="_blank"><i>Her</i></a>, for example), somebody will bring up my Blackness as a possible reason why I'm not on the bandwagon. With <i>Her</i>, I found it especially amusing: I'm a fucking programmer, critic dude! <i>You're</i> the one that doesn't get operating systems, muthafucka!!<br /><br />Pulling us back on topic: Will this fear of "not getting it" keep White audiences from <i>Dear White People</i>? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br />Also, when the blackface frat party got heated and the cops came, were you afraid that Lionel, Samantha and the BSU were gonna get shot? I slumped in my seat fearing the worst, and I wonder that feeling of dread and suspense was Simien's intention. </span></div>
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Here's hoping fashion cycles back to Cullud or at least a more flowery, early American pronunciation of Negro, such as KNEE-grolle. Any well-dressed Colored person should be considered a <i>KNEE-grolle</i>. Used in a sentence: "The stylish kids of <i>Dear White People</i> are some natty KNEE-grolles." <br />
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(Brief detour: I'll never forget the little KNEE-grolle girl in my first grade class who, when we were all summoned to stand around the giant classroom globe, shouted, "Oh no! ILLL! Nigger?" She pointed to a spot in Africa: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger" target="_blank"><i>Niger</i></a>.)<br />
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You wondered about what the future holds for <i>Dear White People</i>'s Negroblacolered kids. I didn't worry so much about the fates of CoCo, Troy, Lionel and Samantha. They're not exactly <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-survive-in-south-central.html" target="_blank">Tre and Doughboy</a>, knowhamsayin? They are at an Ivy League school, benefiting from circumstances 99% of us will never know. Any trials or left turns ahead of them will only help manage their expectations, bring them in better touch with "reality."<br />
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So I contemplate their next chapter in the same swipe I contemplate mine, yours and ours. Their generation is better suited than ours to navigate the exponentially breakneck pace of technological change, but ours is better prepared for the Third World <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4aOaDXIfY" target="_blank">Thunderdome</a> economic picture fast unfolding. We are from the physical world and our minds were formed under the influence of analog media; of actual, not virtual environments. So those kids who get past the Ivory Tower gates will survive just fine. Those who find themselves stuck outside the net when the empire collapses in earnest will have to rely upon those of us with some unplugged experience. But this is the tutorial generation we're talking about here--the quick (if superficial) studies. <i>Walking Dead</i> episodes have probably taught them all they'll need to know.<br />
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Otherwise, I regard this group the way Ben Stiller's Greenberg regarded the young Caucasians in the <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/greenberg-2010" target="_blank">film of the same title</a>: they have an outsized confidence, narcissism and meanness that counts as toughness in a world that bows to youth markets. Except here they're black. The warring impulses, perceptions and expectations could produce a tornado.<br />
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As for the fate of filmmakers, my blood pressure is quite level. We are living in the future once dreamed of, where anybody can make a film and get it before the people. Any filmmaker who would measure his or her success against enduringly absurd and inhuman Ho'wood commercial expectations is beneath my interest. The only suspense is which filmmakers will retain a plantation mentality and who will remain an independent artist.</div>
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<i>The cast of black-ish</i></div>
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In your ingenious contrast of <i>All in the Family</i> and <i>black-ish</i>, you said, <i>"This post-racial shit makes no sense to me, either, especially when many of the same things that were happening to us in 1974 are still happening to us in 2014."</i></div>
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Yeah, the further we get away from the Slavery/Jim Crow/Civil Rights, the less precise of an accounting for its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Man" target="_blank">Plastic Man</a> reach into our present circumstance we get. Segregation is still in force and class warfare has been streamlined, Photoshopped. When everybody in one's social circles is affluent, this reality stays at a safe distance. You can visit hardship via Netflix and HBO, but you don't have to grapple with what provides for it or perpetuates it. In that scheme, it's easy to laugh off both Archie Bunker and Anthony Anderson's character, without ever seriously weighing the merit of their claims. Archie was mostly wrong, but the show's writing let us in, over time, to the America that shaped him, lied to him and deposited him into a post-60's world for which he had no point of reference. I haven't seen <i>black-ish</i>, but I suspect there's a lot more to Anderson's discontent reflected in reality. Naturally, his relatively privileged kids (future Winchester University students), might think he's only seeing ghosts. They might feel differently in a few years.<br />
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Yo! I never once thought about the possibility of the black kids in <i>Dear White People</i> getting shot at the blackface party, but that could have been amazing. That's a Spike Lee move right there. It would have been too much and just about right.<br />
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You ask, <i>"Will this fear of 'not getting it' keep White audiences from Dear White People?"</i><br />
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Probably. But that's no great tragedy. Every day I leave Skid Row to go to work in downtown Los Angeles. Once I cross Los Angeles street on 6th, the street traffic goes from predominantly black and Hispanic homeless people in tents to predominantly white urban professionals clutching Starbucks mugs. A movie about race that will coax these people to cross the street and find out something new about those they fear, loathe and pity will have to be a lot craftier than <i>Dear White People</i>. It would have to be borderline science-fiction and beautiful beyond words, especially beyond that word <b>"race."</b><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">ODIE</span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">That's a great sentiment to end this thing on. We out!</span><br />
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<i>'What the hell did we just read?"</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-47726870934024676032014-10-10T00:28:00.001-04:002014-10-10T00:28:14.529-04:00Causing Trouble With Odienator: Fitting the Descriptionby Odienator<br />
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Not to be outdone by the return of the ghost of Big Media Vandalism's founder, Steven Boone (see his <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/search/label/Vandals" target="_blank"><i>Vandals</i></a> columns on selected Wednesdays), I have decided to start my own regularly scheduled column here at BMV. It's the return of the familiar though infrequent <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/search/label/Causing%20Trouble%20With%20Odienator" target="_blank"><i>Causing Trouble With Odienator</i></a> series. You'll be able to find the column here on Fridays, and the subject matter will remain up for grabs until the moment I sit down to type this into Blogger. These are meant to be rambling streams of consciousness, and they're not for the faint of heart.</div>
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The idea for this week's column started with an E-mail I received from a reader who stumbled upon this blog. How she got here I'll never know, but she was outraged--OUTRAGED!!--by what she read. After bitching that my writing here was far less polite than what I do at RogerEbert.com, she lowered the boom on my big Black ass. "I thought you were <i>one of the good ones</i>!" she wrote. </div>
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One of the good whats? I asked myself. She couldn't have meant what I thought she meant, because we live in Post-Racial America (<i>coughcough<b>bullshit</b>cough</i>). After about 3 seconds of contemplation, the red whorehouse light bulb came on over my head. </div>
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"Oh!" I said aloud. "She thought I was one of the good Nig-[TRAIN WHISTLE]!"</div>
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Honestly, I never knew what exactly constituted designation as "one of the good ones." But I tell ya, this heffa ruined my fucking day. </div>
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<i>"You've got to remember that these are just simple readers. The common clay of the Internet."</i></div>
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Suddenly, I had a complex. Now, all writers have complexes--it explains why we're all alcoholics--so I should say that I had a <b><i>new</i></b> complex. I'm a compulsive, so I like order and consistency. Immediately, I started wondering if my writer's voice sounded different here than it did at other outlets. Granted, I'm far more profane and potentially offensive here at Big Media Vandalism, but even Redd Foxx could <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaZpTKbN4g" target="_blank">work clean</a> and still <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uldt6Y-CE3s" target="_blank">sound like Redd Foxx</a>.</div>
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For clarification, I re-read several of my pieces at Roger's site. It was still me, albeit a kinder, gentler version. (But not too much kinder.) Perhaps that's what threw my letter writer, or perhaps it's because I write more about Black issues here than I do anywhere else. Regardless, I felt stupid because I let her ignorant, racist perception of me cause me to temporarily question my abilities. </div>
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I also feel badly because I wrote my letter writer back and cussed her trifling ass out for about 9 paragraphs. Bad Odie, indeed! If I were a woman, the New York Times would have written <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/arts/television/viola-davis-plays-shonda-rhimess-latest-tough-heroine.html" target="_blank">an article</a> about how I got away with being angry. I blame my parents for making me a boy and costing me an opportunity to be in the paper of record. <i>Thanks</i>, Pops!</div>
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<i>My Pops' response to my sarcastic thank you.</i> </div>
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No matter how old you get, or how many times it happens, preconceived notions will affect you personally. If you're a minority, an LGBT member or a woman, there's always some clueless motherfucker just fixing to ruin your day. You could be labeled an ignorant thug, a pervert or a bitch by people who know nothing about you outside of what they saw of your type on TV. Heaven forbid you call these people on it! Suddenly, you're "overly sensitive," an amusing idea if ever there were one. Your skin grows thicker than any amount of cocoa butter can penetrate when you deal with this shit every day.</div>
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My writer's anecdote above was an intentionally minor example, but the awful truth remains that the way we are perceived can have devastating, physically harmful and fatal consequences. The powers that be don't wanna hear that, and I don't give a fuck if they don't. I've no sympathy. They don't have to live it. We do. No matter how thick one's skin is vis-a-vis dealing with discrimination, it can't stop a bullet, a beatdown or a sexual assault.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"He Spoke So Well And He Fit The Description"</i></b></span></div>
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This will be my epitath, a little goose from beyond the grave for any Black folks who walk past my tombstone. If I had a dollar for every time I heard either of those two phrases, I'd be able to vote Republican. </div>
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<i>This coulda been ME!!!</i></div>
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I want to close out with two brief stories about my experiences with speaking so well and fitting the description. Of course, the latter one is far more dangerous, and it's only by the grace of a God my mother prays to on her children's behalf that the worst fate that befell me was a broken wrist and a few knots upside my hard head. That's a story for another time. A less violent tale is in order today.</div>
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I was working in Nacogdoches, Texas in 2000. My boss and I went to the college dorm of a work colleague to pick him up for dinner. We had plans to hang out at the dorm after dinner. As we walked on campus, a police officer appeared out of nowhere. I swear, he must have come straight out of the ground like manhole steam on a Manhattan street. When he appeared, he did not draw a gun or threaten in any way. In fact, he was incredibly polite. </div>
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"Gentlemen," he said to us, "please forgive my intrusion, but--and I swear this is true, I have the paper in my car--you guys <i>fit the description</i> of a thief we've been looking for. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"</div>
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Here's the description we must have fit:</div>
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<b>Me:</b> Black male, 30, bald, light-skinned (like Cuba Gooding Jr.), 5'9" tall, clean-shaven, chunky. Has very visible physical disfigurement that is not easily forgotten.</div>
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<b>My boss:</b> Black male, 24, dark-skinned (like Wesley Snipes). 6'2" tall, goatee, skinny. Short, black hair on his head.</div>
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<b>Our colleague: </b>Black male, 19, Denzel Washington complexion, full beard and cornrows on head. 5'4" tall. Muscular as hell. </div>
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We couldn't have even been cousins! And yet, we somehow all fit the same description! Whoever called that robbery in must have been one indecisive son of a bitch. "He was light skinned AND dark skinned, bald AND had hair! Beard, goatee AND clean chin!"</div>
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After 10 minutes of questioning, the cop let us go without incident. </div>
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As for <b>speaking so well</b>:</div>
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Early in my career, I visited a customer whom I'd spoken to over the phone for years before we officially met in person. I knew she was White, but I don't think she picked up that I was Black. It's odd, because when I talk to people on the phone, I can always tell if they're Black, and vice versa for me. </div>
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No matter. I went to visit her office dressed to the nines. This was back when Casual Friday didn't exist. I had on a suit and tie, and since it was winter, a full length leather coat and (this is gonna get me teased) a leather hat like Eddie Murphy wore in <i>The Golden Child</i>.</div>
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<i>"O-DEE! I want to talk to yoo-ooou!"</i></div>
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I stepped to the reception desk and told them I was there to see Barbara (not her real name, of course). Reception told me where to go. When I got there, it turned out to be the mailroom.</div>
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"Um, I think they sent me to the wrong place," I said to the gorgeous Latina in the mailroom window. "Oh, this happens a lot to us brown people," she said, laughing. "Reception automatically sends them here. Go back downstairs and ask again."</div>
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The second time was the charm. Reception sent me to the right place, but I had to wait for Barbara. While waiting, I made the acquaintance of a White gentleman named Kevin. He was there for a job interview. We chatted for about 10 minutes before Barbara appeared.</div>
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"Odie," she said, "it's so nice to finally meet you!" She extended her hand to the White guy. Kevin silently pointed at me.</div>
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Barbara's <b>eyes flew out her head </b>like a Tex Avery cartoon!</div>
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"Hullo," I said, trying not to laugh.</div>
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Barbara tried to play it off, and I was willing to let it go. But then...</div>
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"You're Black," she suddenly said to me. </div>
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"Yes," I replied. (I actually wanted to look at my hands and scream "I'm Black!" like Godfrey Cambridge in <i>Watermelon Man</i>. I refrained.)</div>
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"But <i>you speak so well</i>!" </div>
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"Well, next time we chat, I'll speak in rap lyrics, if that's OK?" </div>
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"No, it's fine! I was just surprised."</div>
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The last paragraph of my review of <i><a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pride-2014" target="_blank">Pride</a></i> holds the moral I wanted to impart in this piece. Yes, I'm going to make you go read it. I'm proud of it and there's a connection here: I got hate mail for that review too. I didn't write that fool back. Maybe that'll make her think I'm one of the good ones.</div>
odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-16700659332192435902014-10-01T18:47:00.000-04:002014-10-09T20:35:05.866-04:00VANDALS: SATANIC YOGA, GODLY CURLICUES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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By Steven Boone<br />
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I'm nearly a year late to this video, but it deserves another round of acclaim. April and Wayne Show's <a href="http://youtu.be/mr2JDyKJpfo" target="_blank">SATANIC ILLUMINATI DANCE EXPOSED</a> is a brilliantly edited celebration of the world's various youth-powered dance movements, from East to West; from the ghetto streets to mainstream pop culture.<br />
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It works hard to be just the opposite, condemning secular dancing as satanic hedonism, but I can't imagine a hyperactive kid coming away with any message louder than its call to the dance floor. The sequel, <a href="http://youtu.be/MOjNUtaWFqA" target="_blank">RESPONSE TO THE DANCERS</a>, is just as thrilling. It reminds me of conservative filmmaker John Milius striving to make mean, jingoistic war films but crafting them with such avid, <a href="http://youtu.be/lmJovfpVzYQ" target="_blank">florid</a> detail that we feel more love and exhilaration than rage. April and Wayne want to sew fear of eternal damnation, but their editing has such irrepressible rhythm and sense of drama that my primary reaction was laughter.<br />
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That's God. God is Love. God is in the details. And God is laughter.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Much love to Maciel Marquez for the links.</span><br />
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<br />Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-24297715275098122892014-09-24T12:22:00.000-04:002014-10-09T20:35:25.608-04:00VANDALS: MISSION MIND CONTROL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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by Steven Boone<br />
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Like my bruva-from-anuva-muva, Big Media Vandalism editor-publisher <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2014/09/tiff-2014-reviews.html">Odie Henderson</a>, I have an ambivalent attitude toward Twitter. We both hate it, and yet we're on it. Fear of missing out?<br />
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Twitter offers sample-sized thoughts, ephemeral quips, self-promotion and petty outrages subbing for discourse. It turns all of us into chirpy salesmen and 13 year old wise-asses. And yet, some have worked wonders with it. BMV friend-hero-mentors <a href="http://techland.time.com/2013/03/25/140-best-twitter-feeds-of-2013/slide/matt-zoller-seitz/">Matt Zoller Seitz</a> and <a href="http://techland.time.com/2012/03/21/the-140-best-twitter-feeds-of-2012/slide/roger-ebert/">Roger Ebert</a><a href="http://techland.time.com/2012/03/21/the-140-best-twitter-feeds-of-2012/slide/roger-ebert/"></a> mastered the powers of Twitter for good, not evil. They've lent it a casual, stately, cool. In return: success! (Odds are you first heard of this blog because of something one of those guys or others in their networks Tweeted about it.) Millions of other sharp minds have done the same over the years. And people fighting for freedom all over the world have gotten the word of their struggle out in the talons of that stupid little bird. Most important to this fool, Twitter links you to <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/trapped-by-the-rules-of-the-game-terry-gilliam-takes-responsibility-for-the-zero-theorem">brilliant reads</a> and rich content.<br />
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So I will speak only for myself when I say that maybe I hate Twitter so much because, as Eddie Murphy said of the Moonwalk, I can't do the shit. I'm as clumsy and inarticulate at Tweeting as I am in real-world small talk. As a medium of expression, it best suits party people.<br />
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This space at BMV is my personal alternative to Twitter, by the grace of <a href="http://youtu.be/sWyLHU4ZaN0">H.N.I.C.</a> Henderson. On Wednesdays I will share links to stuff and offer some brief comments--but with no arbitrary character limit. It's up to me, not the ADD police force, to be as clear and concise as I care to be. I will also strive to be as untimely and untopical as possible. In the current scheme of things, this only means you might see items a week after everybody's done chewing on them, or ten years...<br />
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Finally, following the example of computer programmer-polymath Odie, I have a design in mind for this thing which will emerge only over time, as a pattern. Tap out at any time.<br />
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-<a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/joan-rivers-a-trailblazer-who-got-stuck-in-the-mud-20140916">Laura Bogart basically says</a> Joan Rivers was the <a href="http://youtu.be/zdmCFXZO5iM">Sergeant Waters</a> of misogyny.<br />
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-This fearless <a href="http://www.thedestroyermag.com/reviews.php?author=andrew">Andrew Schenker essay</a> put something in the air this summer. A lot of searching, confessional pieces after it seemed to catch its vibe.<br />
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-<a href="http://youtu.be/5lp4EbfPAtI">Chaplin Today (beautiful)</a><br />
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-<a href="http://youtu.be/Wcfi49pmDjw">Radical Fred Rogers</a><br />
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-<a href="http://youtu.be/beTI_H9wK7Y">Wild Bill</a><br />
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-<a href="http://youtu.be/U7fNBKI1QQc">ABC's "Mission Mind Control"--with commercials!</a><br />
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-Courtesy of <a href="http://www.festiwalgdynia.pl/en/">Gydnia Film Festival</a> Artistic Director Michal Oleszczyk, <a href="http://solidarityshorts.org/solidarity-shorts-2014-a-simple-answer-by-nelson-algomeda-centeno-from-venezuela/">delightful handmade cinema by a young marvel</a>.<br />
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-Don't assume that the <a href="http://youtu.be/zeh4Ivk2rJg">sudden availability of this masterpiece on YouTube</a> will dissuade folks from <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/chameleon-street/id353718096">buying it</a>. This movie is an <a href="http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/the-essential-black-independents">essential</a> you wanna stock up on for emergencies.<br />
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<br />Steven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-45092635438558101292014-05-13T20:06:00.000-04:002019-08-07T15:52:49.927-04:00Celebrating Stevie: List Three: 10 Perfectly Random Selectionsby Odienator<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC2FLOdU4GooJEGldfuHyIXjCFC-i-FSMmtv5q0MZ-TTy98j8Xy9YxHMN2zT5-TYGyhNCl9DGegpe40WsS2AuZhEVkFE8KGsRUEsngULUj3nYEzDBTFAKwfCVzVa_Qx3nmvcD81A/s1600/f_1st_finale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC2FLOdU4GooJEGldfuHyIXjCFC-i-FSMmtv5q0MZ-TTy98j8Xy9YxHMN2zT5-TYGyhNCl9DGegpe40WsS2AuZhEVkFE8KGsRUEsngULUj3nYEzDBTFAKwfCVzVa_Qx3nmvcD81A/s1600/f_1st_finale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Happy Birthday, Stevie Wonder!</div>
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If you even remotely know who I am, you are probably on your way to bust me upside the head with your keyboard. Before you get here, I've got some 'splainin' to do.</div>
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Last year, on Stevie's 63rd birthday, I started writing a trilogy of pieces on Stevie Wonder songs. I explained it thusly:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>To celebrate Stevie’s 63rd
birthday, I wanted to do a top 10 list of his songs. This proved
impossible; I know what my favorite Stevie song is, but after that,
there were way too many choices. So I did what I always do here at Big
Media Vandalism: </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">I cheated. </span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>This is the first of three lists of Stevie Wonder songs. The lists are: <b> </b></i></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-stevie-list-one-15.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Love is Wonderful</i></b></a></span> </li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/06/celebrating-stevie-list-two-15-songs-of.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Peace, God and Protest </i></b></a> <b><i><br /></i></b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>What the Fuss?</i></b></span> </li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>There are 40 songs in total, 15 for the first two lists and 10 for the
last. It's a safe bet that Stevie-Prince-En Vogue song will make an
appearance on that third list. </i></span></div>
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I got through two of the lists, which I've linked to above. <b>Please read them</b> if you're new to the series, for they explain much of what I've been doing. Keep in mind that this is <b><u><i>not</i></u></b> a best-of list, and my order of the songs isn't that important. Chime in with your own selections for random Stevie songs (and check my other lists before you bitch about what I didn't include, please). </div>
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This will serve as my third and final leg of the trilogy. My apologies for keeping everyone waiting, but sometimes life happens to ya and things fall by the wayside. Perhaps a better way of saying that would be to quote our subject:</div>
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<i>"There's a time when playing ends, and the serious begins."</i></div>
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So Let's Get Serious! (Stevie wrote <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQEWoQOaBNI" target="_blank">that song</a> too, for Jermaine Jackson.) </div>
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For Stevie's 64th birthday, I'll finish what I started on his 63rd. Herewith: 10 Perfectly Random Stevie Selections, or <b><i>10 Songs of What the Fuss?</i></b></div>
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10. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg7TBTb4SHQ" target="_blank">So What the Fuss</a></i>- It makes sense that I start here, as this is the song that gives this list its title. It's from Stevie's last full album, 2005's <i>A Time to Love</i>. Back in the days of Michael Jackson's <i>Bad</i> album, there was a rumor that the title song was going to be a duet between Prince and Mike. That never happened, but Prince did rub elbows with Motown royalty by providing Stevie with musical accompaniment on this song. This is their first direct collaboration, but not their first collaboration: Stevie plays harmonica on Chaka Khan's remake of Prince's <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObjLb6ElTvs" target="_blank">I Feel For You</a></i>.</div>
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I still get a giddy kick when Stevie calls out "Prince! POP IT!" and Prince drops his effective little minimalist riff on <i>So What the Fuss</i>. I get even giddier when Stevie presents his girl-group back-up singers, and they turn out to be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4QX4aXeWkI" target="_blank">En Vogue</a>. </div>
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The song itself is a take on the old "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" adage. Stevie sings different scenarios, then applies shame to the appropriate parties: me, you, them and us. As usual, what sounds simplistic in description is given deeper credence by Stevie's singing and writing. The scenarios that put the blame squarely on us have a power that practically moves you to act for change.</div>
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It's not a top Stevie song, but it's a damn catchy one, and did I mention he's got Prince and En Vogue on it? Stevie even has an answer for those who find this a sub-par number:</div>
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<i>"If we're jammin the music and somebody's got the audacity<br />To say that they can jam it better than us<br />Shame on them!"</i></div>
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Shame indeed! </div>
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Extra points for the clever use of "fuss" instead of the word old-school Prince would have used.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgneLHe_voLDP3qpZtP2QN3l69f5a-yK0-rFiI0x6Eph2P12wc7AhpABoYnqFvZlNompc4hLFEh_i5RTnSPusUGQRlhNLT9Ctq0wdBxSHyy-H-r2c1p87OoIHLK50WVAI9vFzl4yg/s1600/jungle_fever.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgneLHe_voLDP3qpZtP2QN3l69f5a-yK0-rFiI0x6Eph2P12wc7AhpABoYnqFvZlNompc4hLFEh_i5RTnSPusUGQRlhNLT9Ctq0wdBxSHyy-H-r2c1p87OoIHLK50WVAI9vFzl4yg/s1600/jungle_fever.jpg" width="200" /></a>9. <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev_-RfTmAl0" target="_blank">Gotta Have You</a></i>- Readers of this trilogy are already hip to my love of Stevie's <i>Jungle Fever</i> soundtrack. Here's yet another song from that movie. What I love about this song is its focus (for lack of a better word) on <b>sight</b>. "Never been too much for watching," Stevie sings, "'cuz
there's too many things to view. And when eyes begin to wander, they
more than rightly never get through." The chorus sings of a girl who is
"a sight for sore eyes to see." Even the video I linked to focuses on
seeing, with Stevie jokingly taking off his glasses several times to
observe his surroundings.<br />
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Ruth Brown used to joke that Ray Charles was faking his blindness, because his sense of where things physically were was at times eerily accurate. Especially when there were titties involved. Stevie Wonder may be blind, but I don't for one minute believe he can't "see." Listen to the viscerally descriptive lyrics he's been writing for the last 50 years. The colors he describes leap out like Vincente Minelli's Technicolor. You can close your own eyes and vividly visualize exactly what Stevie is telling you. "But beyond my own temptation," he sings here, "I'm enticed by what I see."</div>
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Some part of me wants to believe that this song, with its emphasis on the visual, is Stevie's secret way of revealing "I'm not really blind, I've just been fuckin' wit' y'all since 1962!" I know it's not true, but considering how some of the greatest images in music have emanated from Stevie's records, it's not entirely implausible.</div>
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8. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQ0AlV_XF0" target="_blank">Skeletons</a>- OK, I'm just gonna come out and say this: <i>This song is too damn long</i>! </div>
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Stevie goes to the lyrical well a few times too many, but before he makes the extra trips, this is a tight, funky little number that drips with the nightmarish fear that <b><i>your lying ass is about to be exposed</i></b>. "Skeletons in your closet, itchin' to come outside," begins the song, and as the hand-clappy, bass-driven groove makes your head bob, your might start reflecting on that cemetary in YOUR closet. "What did yo' Mama tell you 'bout lies?" Stevie asks accusingly, before revealing that what yo' daddy told you 'bout lies is even worse: "He said one white one turns into a black one!" </div>
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In this song, Stevie is your prosecuting attorney, your guilty conscience and your hanging judge. As you dance your way to the gallows, his most accusatory sentence rings in your ears: "Yet you cry why am I the victim, when the culprit's Y-O-U." </div>
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<b>Extra points: </b>This is the song the limo driver is listening to as Bruce Willis evades terrorists in <i>Die Hard</i>. And they BLAST it in the movie!</div>
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7. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GtOYL5axMk" target="_blank"><i>It's You</i></a>- Let's get a Stevie duet in here! In addition to containing most people's least favorite Stevie song (I addressed that in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-stevie-list-one-15.html" target="_blank">part 1</a> of this trilogy), <i>The Woman in Red</i> soundtrack features the PSA friendly <i>Don't Drive Drunk</i>, <i>Love Light In Flight</i>, and several songs by the delightful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxCx6KIpJVE" target="_blank">and psychic </a>Dionne Warwick. I almost chose <i>Love Light In Flight</i>, as I love to sing its airplane metaphors, but the romantic in me won out. </div>
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Stevie and Dionne duet here, and it's an interesting combination. Granted, Warwick had great duets with Luther Vandross, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOViqvRsIgo" target="_blank">her duet</a> with The Spinners is one of my all time favorite songs, but she was widely seen in the 60's as sounding "too White" for R&B. Of course, this is bullshit; Warwick was a fantastic singer who was fearless in how she used her voice--just like Stevie. So, we get two vocal sadists together, and what do they sing? A mild, by vocal comparisons, love song that plays over the opening credits of a French remake. </div>
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Gene Wilder directed <i>The Woman In Red</i>, a remake of the awesomely titled <i>Un éléphant ça trompe énormément</i> (translate it yourself). I haven't seen it in 30 years, but I recall Gilda Radner's pretty good in it, and also that they show Kelly Le Brock's bush despite the film being rated PG-13. </div>
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The story goes that Wilder sought Stevie to do one song for the movie, and after he showed the film to him, Stevie returned with an entire album. I give Wilder credit for managing to put the entire album in some form into the movie, and for using this song to open it. It has a good harmonica solo and a nice melody that announces something good is coming. (Unfortunately, it's not the movie.) </div>
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There's a lyrical nimbleness as Stevie and Dionne volley back and forth before joining on the chorus. Said chorus once again proves that Stevie's simplicity is the most beautiful thing about his love songs:</div>
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<i>It's you.</i></div>
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<i> Nobody has to tell me so.</i></div>
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<i> It's you. </i></div>
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<i> You're that angel sent from Heaven above.</i></div>
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<i> It's you.</i></div>
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<i> Nobody has to tell me so.</i></div>
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<i> It's you. </i></div>
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<i> You're that angel sent from Heaven above for me.</i></div>
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<i> If only I had not waited, I would have picked the wrong one.</i></div>
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To show my dedication, I rented the movie just so I could get that credits shot above. And maybe I looked at Kelly Le Brock's perfectly coiffed pudenda again. Stevie would approve. </div>
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6. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKRqzxeJ0bc" target="_blank">Front Line</a>- Like my second favorite singer-songwriter, <a href="http://brucespringsteen.net/" target="_blank">Bruce Springsteen</a>, Stevie sings this song as a blue collar character. He's a Vietnam War veteran who "up and joined the Army back in 1964." For his trouble, he got his legs blown off in the war. Lieutenant Wonder sings zingers about how anti-Christian war is, and how recruitment usually came from the impoverished and downtrodden. He also sings about how few opportunities existed for vets who come back from <i>any</i> war. "They had me standing on the Front Line," he sings, "but now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to gettin' ahead."</div>
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One of the songs on <i>Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium Vol. 1</i>, <i>Front Line</i> contains one of my favorite bitter passages from Wonder's lyric universe:</div>
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<i>My niece is a hooker and my nephew's a junkie too.</i></div>
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<i>They say I have no right to tell them how they should do.</i></div>
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<i>They laugh and say "quit braggin' 'bout the war you shoulda never been in."</i></div>
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<i>But my mind is so brainwashed I'd probably go back and do it again.</i></div>
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Like <i>You Haven't Done Nothing</i>, Stevie employs a catchy, funk-infused rhythm (here represented by a distorted guitar) to deliver a vicious, pointed message on the nature of being poor and used in the U.S.A. A year later, Springsteen would deliver <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZD4ezDbbu4" target="_blank"><i>Born in the U.S.A.</i></a>, a misunderstood classic told from the same perspective as this song. </div>
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5. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZf3Byq8oLA" target="_blank">Uptight (Everything's Alright)</a>- Those drums, that horn section, that bass line! The first song Stevie got a writing credit on, back in 1966 (the same year he wrote <i>All I Do</i>) is pure joy. You want to find something to bang the drum parts on while it plays. And like <i>Ebony Eyes</i>, Stevie presented the younger version of me with the false hope that my broke ass might be able to secure someone to love. The narrator of the song is "a poor man's son from across the railroad tracks," but he has something richer than money. He's the apple of some rich, bougie girl's eye. </div>
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He laments about how he can't give her "the things that money can buy." She loves him anyway, and how can't she? Hasn't she heard the song he's singing about her? The Funk Brothers' musical interplay alone is enough to get ANYBODY laid. </div>
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Stevie's voice sounds like the teenager he was when he recorded this, which made my a hopeful adolescent. I wasn't even trying to get some rich girl; I was pining for the broke-ass chicks on my block. Uptight gave me confidence and hope, and as I said in the first part of this trilogy: <b>Stevie Wonder, you LIED to me!</b></div>
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<i>What did yo' Momma tell you 'bout lies?</i></div>
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4. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sIjSNTS7Fs" target="_blank">Sir Duke</a>- I play the trumpet. I wanted to master this song, with its tricky runs and its swing-era horn section "ba-dahms!" Eventually, I did, but before it happened, I managed to get so winded I threw up in my horn. Stevie Wonder is NOT for amateurs!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKnJr8y0JzRHyFsFkEiGTWPsoZqw5IbM_pR1XLQ__xiRP-bfIiTe_gao4vKIRhawWPVa6saBcmJ5WifiXvQNVKN7MRfxczGm5tPA76KIisyi0FpEgP9oiWdJ-0BHETwZdCigi_A/s1600/songs_in_the_key_of_life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKnJr8y0JzRHyFsFkEiGTWPsoZqw5IbM_pR1XLQ__xiRP-bfIiTe_gao4vKIRhawWPVa6saBcmJ5WifiXvQNVKN7MRfxczGm5tPA76KIisyi0FpEgP9oiWdJ-0BHETwZdCigi_A/s1600/songs_in_the_key_of_life.jpg" width="200" /></a>Easily one of the catchiest records Stevie Wonder ever did, if not the catchiest, this is a tribute to the era and the music of the Sir in the title, Duke Ellington. Stevie gives shout-outs to Count Basie, Glenn Miller and Louie Armstrong. He also big-ups my favorite jazz singer of all time: "And with a voice like Ella's ringing out, there's no way the band can lose."<br />
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Whenever I hear this song, I like to focus on one musical part of it, usually the horns as I know the notes to play. But other times, I bask in the percussion section or the guitars. I've sung plenty of Stevie songs, but this one has my heart because, shit, I puked in my trumpet trying to master it. It's the one song of his I kind of feel I've earned as a crappy musician. It damn near killed me.</div>
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Lest I forget Sir Duke's chorus, which I know you're already singing:</div>
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<i>"You can feel it all O-o-o-vuhhhh! </i></div>
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<i> You can feel it all Ohhh-vuh, people!"</i></div>
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Good Lord, yes I can.</div>
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3. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE" target="_blank">Superstition</a>- Click that link to see just how cool Sesame Street was when I was a kid. This clip is one of the earliest memories I have. Stevie came to Cookie Monster's 'hood and <b>turned the joint out</b>! I wish they had shown Mr. Snuffleupagus doing the bump with Big Bird, or Gordon and Susan going down an alphabet-studded Soul Train Line. Listen to how Sesame Street gets worked into the lyrics. They wouldn't do this on today's Sesame Street!</div>
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When I was in high school, I interacted with a lot of guys who knew little about soul and R&B because they were into rock. But whenever I mentioned Stevie, they knew THIS song. Later I'd discover that Wonder had written it for rocker Jeff Beck. Guitarist Beck even composed the drum section of the song with Wonder, and eventually recorded his own version. But the original is still the true classic, the rare Stevie song that gets played on AOR stations, oldies stations and R&B stations. Every guy I know who plays guitar can play this song. Jeff Beck does a helluva job of it in this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsRoXg5akks" target="_blank">live clip</a> with Stevie.</div>
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But what the hell is it about? Superstitions, I gather, but is that all? I know as a kid, the words scared the shit out of me. "When you believe in things that you don't understand and you suffer." It still gives me the creeps. The opening drum solo is KILLER.</div>
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2. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOz3p6k5O2g" target="_blank">Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing</a>- This song makes me happy. In fact, that's really all I want to say about it. I could be having the most miserable, fucked up day in God's creation, and this song will pull me out of my despair, if only for the 5 or so minutes Stevie devotes to it. Its Latin influences are on its sleeve, from its piano rhythm, to its shakers, to its chant that everything is really <i>chévere</i>. My grin stars at the beginning, with Stevie butchering Spanish almost as bad as Mike Bloomberg. It gets bigger as Stevie reaches the first chorus' run on the word "off." Like Aretha Franklin, for whom he wrote <i>Until You Come Back To Me</i>, Stevie turns a one syllable word into a spine-tinging, multi-syllable stretch over a series of notes.</div>
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By the time it reaches its joyous finish, where it sounds like the folks who played on this song have broken free of any restraints and surrendered to its groove, my grin is so big it feels as if my head is about to fall off. This song makes me happy. That's all I wanted to say about it.</div>
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1. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ubgVjp3CY" target="_blank">Fingertips (Part I and II)</a>- You knew this was coming. Little Stevie Wonder takes the stage at age 12 and this is the result. A tour-de-force for his harmonica playing and his infectious personality. "Clap yo hands just a little bit louder!" he commands, and we comply. When I was a kid, I relentlessly made fun of this song, clapping and jumping around the house, moving my head like Stevie and credibly imitating him saying "Everybody say YEAAAAH!!" Who am I kidding? I was just doing that shit right now as this song blared through my house. Some things never change.</div>
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Stevie Wonder's voice did, however, change, and Berry Gordy was forced to find another little kid to promote. That kid turned out to be Michael Jackson, Wonder's occasional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlP0SwyUIGU" target="_blank">duet partner</a> and the background singer on several of his early 70's songs. Wonder's talent kept him from getting ditched by Motown, and as we saw with #5 on this list, he started writing his own material, eventually besting Gordy and taking control of his own music. This led to the 70's run of genius that will never be duplicated. </div>
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I know how much fondness folks have for that period, but in this trilogy I tried to spread the love, picking songs from Wonder's later periods and a few more obscure faves of mine. </div>
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It would be impossible to compose an all-encompassing list of great Stevie Wonder songs, as there are WAY too many. Hopefully, this served as an appetite-whetter for fans and newbies alike. </div>
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I'll end this trilogy with Stevie singing Happy Birthday to himself! </div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-9026930115234006702013-12-24T13:59:00.002-05:002015-12-09T15:34:19.212-05:00The Big Media Vandalism Christmas Special 2013by Odienator<br />
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Welcome to the 3rd Annual Big Media Vandalism Christmas Special. Every year, on Christmas Eve, I spin Christmas tunes while I wrap my presents. It's a tradition here at the Fortress of OdieTude. My wrapping skills remain as good as they were when I was six years old, so I need something to distract me. Big thanks to all the artists who recorded the songs in this edition, as well as the editions from <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-big-media-vandalism-christmas.html" target="_blank">2012</a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2011/12/big-media-vandalism-christmas-special.html" target="_blank">2011</a>.</div>
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Check those links out if you don't see your favorites here.</div>
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As far as holiday wishes go, I'll leave you with what I've said two years running: </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7L65em0d88" target="_blank">Surrey down</a> to our Stone Soul Christmas Picnic and
sample our Christmas playlist. Merry Christmas to the Christians, Happy
Hanukkah to our Jewish audience (even if it was last month), and Happy Kwanzaa to the folks who are
Blacker than I'll ever be. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>1. 'Zat You, Santa Claus, by Louis Armstrong</b></span></div>
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Knock on Louis Armstrong's door unannounced on Christmas Eve, and you're likely to get busted upside yo' head with a trumpet. Unless, of course, you're Jolly Old Saint Nicholas (of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb9hTyLjfM" target="_blank">Nicholas Brothers</a>). Even so, Satchmo doesn't trust you enough to open the door and let you in. "Would you mind slipping it under the door?" sings Armstrong of the present he's been patiently awaiting. Santa should just drop a coal-filled horn down the chimney.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2. Silver Bells, Stevie Wonder</b></span><br />
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In 2011, I posted Stevie's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgGBgpNcIo" target="_blank">best Christmas song</a>. This is a heartwarming, sweet cover of the song Bob Hope sang in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lemon_Drop_Kid" target="_blank"><i>The Lemon Drop Kid</i></a>. Stevie gives it more soul and some impeccable phrasing (listen to his delivery on "this is Santa's big scene"). One of the most visual Christmas songs ever written, it romanticizes a city block during the Christmas season. Anyone who has ever tried to walk through Herald Square in December knows that Stevie and Bob Hope were both full of shit. It's hell out there during the holidays!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>3. Children's Christmas Song, by Miss Ross and The Supremes</b></span><br />
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Let's stay on the subject of Christmas bells. I hadn't thought about this song in decades because, honestly, it scares me. But it was a fairly large hit back in 1965, and it is catchy enough to have you singing it before it ends. As a kid, I imagined Miss Ross dressed as a nun with a VERY large ruler conducting the kids who provide the cute, off-key background chorus of this song. Listen to the names of the kids she addresses--they'll be familiar to Motown fans. Two things I noticed about this song: 1.) You don't hear any of the other Supremes on this record, and 2.) Damn, Diana sounds Whiter than Perry Como.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">4. Sleigh Ride, by Johnny Mathis</span></b><br />
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The quintessential version of this song was recorded by Mathis in 1958. His silky vocals are enough to melt the snow under the sleigh that carries you and your beloved through the "lovely weather." Back when I was a hopeless romantic, I took Mathis' advice and went for the titular event. I froze my ass off. Only the Salsoul Orchestra's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRhMdxoZjy0" target="_blank">version</a> comes close to this one.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">5. Up On The House Top, by The Jackson Five</span></b><br />
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Released the same year I was, Up on the Housetop features Michael singing a personalized version of the classic written by Benjamin Hanby 106 years prior. Each of the brothers Jackson gets a mention, with Michael asking Santa to bring a guitar for Tito, a 3-foot tall basketball hoop for Jackie, socks for Marlon and condoms for Jermaine (OK, it's mistletoe but still...) For the rest of us, Mike asks Santa to bring "love and peace for everyone." I'm still waiting for that, Santa.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">6. O Holy Night, by Mahalia Jackson</span></b><br />
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OK, I need to be serious here a moment. Mahalia Jackson was (and is) the greatest gospel singer to ever walk the Earth. Readers of Big Media Vandalism know the special place in my heart she holds, even after I stopped going to church. This version of O Holy Night is incredible. It sends chills up your spine and tears to your eyes, even if you don't believe. It's so great and reverential that I must say "Sorry, Ms. Jackson," because I'm returning to sin in two entries.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">7. Soul Holidays, by Sounds of Blackness</span></b><br />
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Staying on the gospel tip, Sounds of Blackness sing about "the day that Jesus Christ was born," wrapping the message in a bouncy, danceable, joyous four-minute ode to spending the holidays with one's family. This music video gets me right in my nappy soul. Try to sit still while this plays. I put it on this list solely for the moment the lead singer yells out "I know you betta have my present!" <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">8. Santa's Rap, by The Treacherous Three</span></b><br />
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After two unsuccessful tries, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/musical-mondays-gotta-rock-it-dont-stop.html" target="_blank">Beat Street</a>'s ode to Christmas FINALLY makes this list! The Treacherous Three masterfully execute a back-and-forth argument between two hoodrats and the apathetic, alcoholic Santa who pays them a visit. Funny, too profane for <i>Beat Street</i>'s PG rating, and a tad too real for comfort at times, Santa's Rap does eventually have a happy ending. These kids get an awesome beat-boxer named Doug E. Fresh for Christmas. It beats the hell out of coal in one's stocking.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">9. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, by Lufer Vandross</span></b><br />
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Truth be told, I was looking for a Luther Vandross version of "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjwiwcUKK1c" target="_blank">I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas</a>." Unfortunately, he didn't cover that. Instead, here he is on Judy Garland's Christmas classic from <i>Meet me in St. Louis</i>. As always, Lufer makes the song his own, complete with seductive vocal and a sexy sax solo smack dab in the middle. Not for nothing is Mr. Vandross' Greatest Hits collection called <i>The Best of Luther, The Best of Love</i>. <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">10. Baby It's Cold Outside, by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan</span></b><br />
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So, so, SO many great versions of this song, from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IM3weosOTY" target="_blank">Ray Charles and Betty Jordan</a> to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3zfqVnPAVs" target="_blank">Lou Rawls and Diane Reeves</a> to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MFJ7ie_yGU" target="_blank">the original</a> by Esther Williams and Mr. Corinthian Leather himself, Ricardo Montalban. (If you're prefer an X-rated take on Frank Loesser's brilliant Oscar winning duet, have I got <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUyMaRtbyKk" target="_blank">a version for you</a>.) I chose Ella and one of two guys named Louis with whom she recorded this song because, well, it's Ella Fitzgerald, people!!!<br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">I've
never understood why <i>Baby, It's Cold Outside</i> is a Christmas song. But I
understand even less this new bullshit notion that it's a date rape
song. Really, people? "Say, what's in this drink?" is apparently the
line that supports this "thesis." I always thought she was inquiring
about the alcohol, not if she were being roofied. (She wouldn't KNOW she
was getting roofied.) Also, it doesn't see<span class="text_exposed_show">m like the female singer is in fear for her life. Otherwise the song would have gone like this:<br /> <br /> Lady: I really can't stay<br /> Guy: But, baby it's cold outside.<br /> <i>(Sound of guy getting kicked in the balls)</i><br /> <br />
I acknowledge that the guy in the song clearly wants some ass, and is
trying to sweet talk his way into it. He doesn't succeed, because the
woman says no. The end. At no time is the female in grave danger in this
song. She's just as flirty as he is. "Well maybe just a cigarette more," she sings at one point. </span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">Hell, watch Neptune's Daughter and see how unthreatening the number is.<br /> <br /> If trying to talk a woman into bed is a crime, all you straight men and bisexuals turn yourselves in. You too, lesbians! Santa's going to be visiting all our asses in jail this Christmas. Hope he brings a cake with a file in it.</span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">Happy Holidays, Everybody!</span></span><br />
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-27528661429922385812013-11-04T01:10:00.000-05:002013-11-04T08:09:39.978-05:00Black Man Talk: 12 Years a Slaveby Steven Boone and Odie "Odienator" Henderson<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>(The
following is a Google Chat conversation between Big Media Vandalism
founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie
Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other
installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">42</a>.and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank">Lee Daniels' The Butler</a>.)</i></span> <br />
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Another Black movie, another Black Man Talk. I say our next chat should be on the Whitest movie we can find, like David O. Russell's <i>American Hustle </i>or something by Sofia Coppola. For now, it's <i>12 Years A Slave</i>, based on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Years-Slave-Solomon-Northup/dp/0991052323/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383539403&sr=1-1&keywords=12+years+a+slave" target="_blank">1851 narrative</a> by its main character, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Northup" target="_blank">Solomon Northup</a>. Adapting it is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0725983/?ref_=tt_ov_wr" target="_blank">John Ridley</a>, former writer for Martin Lawrence's old sitcom, <i>Martin</i>. Directing it is a Black man whose first two films were about White men in anguish--and therefore more palatable to general audiences--British artist/moviemaker <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2588606/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Steve McQueen</a>.</div>
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Let's start with a juicy question: Where does this rank/fit in the admittedly small subgenre of movies about "Black History" aka "American History that Texas Textbooks keep whitewashing." </div>
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I'm not sure yet. Let's say it ranks highly by default. McQueen is a meticulous researcher, so the film is teeming with brute facts. It would be interesting to see this film played as a <i>Scared Straight</i> for racist high school kids--particularly a certain slave-on-overseer Lookeehere Moment(TM)<b>*</b> that stirred the audience I was in at each of two screenings.<br />
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<i><b>*</b> LookeeHere Moment, trademark Odienator, is that moment when a Black person cannot take the aggravation any more and loses control. Generally includes an NC-17 rated cursing out and/or an ass whipping.</i> </div>
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With the film so fresh in our minds, that was probably an unfair question. But I'll step out on a limb to state that this film has a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Are_There_%28series%29" target="_blank"><i>You are There</i></a> quality I've not seen before in this type of narrative. There's a transformative power to McQueen's matter-of-fact way of shooting, a trait that burned him severely in <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shame-2011" target="_blank"><i>Shame</i></a> but worked well in <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hunger-2009" target="_blank"><i>Hunger</i></a>. Watching this, there were times when I felt as powerless as the slaves roaming by as Solomon hanged from that tree.</div>
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It does give us that sense of powerlessness, and of the lingering shock of being abducted and enslaved. Solomon spends the entire movie in shock--which is to say, the entire 12 years. Still, I think <i>Hunger</i> is the more confident, inspired film. There is no Hans Zimmer soundtrack to commiserate with the Irish prisoners in <i>Hunger</i>, and it makes their situation that much more palpable. McQueen shoots this film in that you-are-there fashion, but some of the window dressing (the score, the ungainly attempt at period dialogue) softens the blow. Even so, I have never seen an American or European film on the subject of slavery that was this immersive and this concerned with the visceral moment-to-moment experience of the slave.<br />
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<i>Hunger</i> is the more confident film, because it's not an American film. Europeans are used to that kind of starkness; McQueen had to calibrate this one differently. Like Lee Daniels did in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-man-talk-lee-daniels-butler.html" target="_blank"><i>The Butler</i></a>, he had to sprinkle a little mainstream-movie seasoning to make sure his message stuck with American audiences. We're brainwashed to expect certain things. In both Daniels' and McQueen's cases, neither were harmed by softening their blows a bit. <br />
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As for that florid dialogue, which I admit is a tad off-putting, that's how folks talked back then! What are you gonna do? It's a lot more preferable than that ignorant patois White writers put in the mouths of <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/get-to-know-your-movie-negroes-part-i.html" target="_blank">Movie Negroes</a> back in the studio system days.<br />
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Plus, Ridley gets great usage out of it in two scenes:<br />
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1. The Alfre Woodard scene, which we must come back to<br />
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2. The scene where the weeping slave, Eliza, lashes out of Solomon. She's wailing far longer than a regular director would have had her wail (it made me think of the coach tormenting Jackie Robinson with epithets in <i>42</i>), and when Solomon tells her to shut up, she hits him with both barrels. I loved her speech, superbly delivered by Adepero Oduye from Pariah.<br />
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"Let me weep for my children!" she tells him. <br />
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It's like a message to Black America. <i>Weep for your children</i>.<br />
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Well, the dialogue was an impediment to my engagement with the film. It made me sometimes see excellent actors wrestling with the language like entry-level Shakespearean actors. I get it, but if we want to talk about "mainstream movie" necessities, I think a language that was simple and functional for the actors and the audience (with maybe a little historical flavoring a la Westerns) would have done the trick.<br />
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And, yes, I can sense McQueen, as a Black British director, addressing African-Americans in a kind of triangular conversation (similar to Tarantino on Django) involving the contemporary black underclass/wage slaves/middle class and our historical counterparts. Solomon hanging from a rope while his black neighbors go on about their business says a great deal about our history of being terrorized into complacency. Was it <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokely_Carmichael" target="_blank">Stokely Carmichael</a> who said, "All the scared niggers are dead"? <i>[Ed: Yup. The exact quote is: "You tell them white folk in Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead!"]</i> Well, that's a flattering half-truth. Some of the scared niggers are dead but most of the dead niggers fought their fear and struck back. How many Solomons didn't survive to write a book because they'd rather have died than bargain with an evil system?<br />
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Plenty, I am sure. Look at Patsey, the film's horribly put upon object of Massa Fassbender's affections. She begs Solomon to kill her, to save her from the horrors that visit her every day. Had Solomon done so, he would have lost the American audience for sure, but he would have also struck an unrecoverable blow to Massa.<br />
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In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Toni-Morrison/dp/1400033411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383540082&sr=8-1&keywords=beloved+toni+morrison" target="_blank"><i>Beloved</i></a>, Sethe kills her daughter to spare her an enslaved nightmare. When I read <i>Beloved</i>, I was stunned by this, but as time passed, I realized just how powerful a statement Toni Morrison was making. Patsey is far less a caricature than I’d read in some reviews; she's very real, but very much a symbol of both Blackness and womanhood. She picks more cotton than the men, even the White guy who's forced to pick alongside her ("Treat him like Jerry," as Don Johnson says in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank"><i>Django Unchained</i></a>), yet this goes unrewarded. She also has to deal with Sarah Paulson's angry (and deservingly so, I suppose) wife. McQueen draws a sharp, straight line between Patsey and today's sista: "You may be free, but your problems ain't over."<br />
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"Black women are the mules of this world," my sister said to me recently, doing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asf4InKVo8k" target="_blank">John Lennon one better</a>. Patsey is the jewel in this movie's crown. She's played by a breathtakingly beautiful actress with short, natural black hair. When she first appeared in the movie, I was fine with anything she might do or say from that point on, because this kind of beauty, which we see every day, almost never makes it to the screen. A black Audrey Hepburn who looks nothing like Audrey Hepburn. Patsey's predicament is only a horror show extreme of actress Lupita Nyong’o's possible predicament in Ho'wood: What kind of mule/victim/maid/ho roles will be thrown at her in the coming years? She is clearly meant to carry any film that would go to Angelina Jolie or Kate Winslet.<br />
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What will be her compensation for being brutally stripped and whipped in lingering long take? It was effective as horror, but seeing black women physically tortured is no great shock at this point. The real shock would have been imagining a moment of tenderness and beauty that momentarily stole Massa's sadistic heart. What's eating at Massa Fassbender is that Patsey is the most alluring woman he has ever laid eyes on. That truth is something he must kill before it kills him.<br />
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Nyong’o is STUNNING. She’s of Kenyan and Mexican descent. Her looks are completely foreign to Hollywood, and if the pundits are right, the Oscar is hers to lose (Sorry, Miss Sofia!). Her fate in getting future movie roles is probably too terrifying to consider, but this is a star-making turn. Solomon is the audience's state of shock; Patsey is our emotional core.<br />
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McQueen is on record stating that he felt some compassion for Epps, and you can see it bubbling beneath the surface. Fassbender's portrayal is a cog in a much bigger machine. Like Ford, Solomon's benevolent (by comparison) first Massa, Epps is part of a societal institution, one that Whites, even the ones who acknowledge injustice, would rather allow it to remain status quo to their emotional detriment.<br />
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It's a lot harder to fight the system when the system is giving you perks.<br />
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You do bring up a valid point about Epps, however. If he had been given some of the characteristics of Perry King's slaver in the exploitation trash classic, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2011/02/prez-day-double-feature-mandingo.html" target="_blank"><i>Mandingo</i></a>, the Patsey whipping scene would have emotionally short circuited the audience. King's affection for some of his slaves (like Agamemnon, his “right hand man”), such as it were, afforded him a human quality that McQueen and Fassbender either withhold or play way too closely to the vest. A truly tender moment between Epps and Patsey would have forced audiences to feel conflicted, maybe even have the amount of pity for Epps that McQueen hints at. Imagine how explosive that would have been.<br />
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<i>Of course, King eventually murders Mandingo when Mrs. King gets too friendly with him.</i></div>
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Exactly. Epps just being rotten is too easy, and there is some complexity there, like when Epps' wife breaks up the almost-fight between him and Solomon over Patsey. Epps is stone drunk at that point, so he momentarily forgets that Solomon is his property and that his wife is not his mother or teacher or school principal. She stands between them as if they were two boys on the schoolyard. I imagined what aw shucks comedy a Golden Era Ho'wood director would have made of this moment.<br />
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That's a <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2011/02/for-sale-one-negro-as-is.html" target="_blank">Skin Game</a> moment right there...<br />
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But to your point about the system: That's what gives this movie its electricity, McQueen's and Ridley's fascination with everybody's moral cowardice in the face of a faceless system--an economy, really, that determines fates as unpredictably as a roadside bomb. <i>Shame</i> could be an alternate title for this movie. So could <i>Husbands and Wives</i>: the film starts by showing us domestic bliss between a free black man and wife and also that same black man later, a slave, helping a female slave steal a moment of intimacy that she might have had with her husband, who we presume is sold off somewhere, dead, escaped or never existed because she never had a chance at a proper life.<br />
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<i>The Northups in happier times.</i> </div>
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This film is secretly about what we are willing to do to preserve a man-woman union and a family in a time of constant terror and oppression. Which is why you were so right to single out the wailing slave woman, whose cries McQueen seamlessly extends across two scenes.<br />
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Did you notice that McQueen has her wail under Benedict Cumberbatch's reading of Scripture? It's not the first time he juxtaposes Scripture with injustice: Epps later uses it to justify whipping his slaves as mercilessly as he does. This is some subversive shit, and another of the many straight lines <i>12 Years a Slave</i> draws between its timeframe and ours. The Daily Word is used by Republicans and churches to justify treating people like second class citizens. If I didn't know any better, I'd expect Jesus' second coming to be Him showing up wearing a wifebeater and holding a Pabst Blue Ribbon, yelling about how much He hates all that isn’t straight, White and male.<br />
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<i>"Odie, you're goin' ta Hell for that last sentence." </i></div>
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Ha ha!<br />
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<i>12 Years</i>' points about the system are its greatest assets. That scene of Solomon hanging has been described as a directorial setpiece that's more about McQueen than Solomon. I vehemently disagree. That scene is society in microcosm, not just the slave society, but ours as well. When that female slave suddenly comes into frame and offers Solomon water at her own risk, it's a marvelous "fuck the system" shout-out. She's like an Ebony Florence Nightingale, a ghost who's gone as quickly as she came.<br />
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And McQueen isn't done. When Epps hands Solomon that whip, the power of that transaction indicts today's society more than it indicts Solomon. I had hoped Solomon would use that whip in a repeat of the earlier scene with Paul Dano, but instead he whips Patsey. She lets him off the hook a bit (I wish Ridley had left her line out of the screenplay), but <i>12 Years a Slave</i> codes this moment as a direct parallel to what I see happening every day. At times, Solomon is, dare I say, a representation of the bougie Negro looking down at the 'hood denizen. His enslavement is a brutal reminder that, to society's eyes, he's <i>just another nigger like the rest of them</i>.<br />
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A <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/solomon-northrup-and-the-code-of-silence-the-respectability-politics-in-american-cinema-12-years-a-slave" target="_blank">piece by Rebecca Theodore Vachon</a> at rogerebert.com called <i>Acting Right Around White Folks: On 12 Years a Slave and Respectability Politics</i> (and a <a href="http://alineinthesand.com/respectability-politics/" target="_blank">blog post</a> by Maurice Dolberry that it references, called <i>"I Hate Myself!”: What are Respectability Politics, and Why do Black People Subscribe to Them?) </i>really get into this problem. What <i>12 Years</i> could have done better is dramatize Solomon's awakening, and to do that, we could have spent much more time spent with him and his family before his abduction. This would have served two purposes: we could have gotten to know his wife and children as something more than the perfect and loving clan, making the eventual terrorism sting that much worse. It's as if the "acting right around white folks" syndrome affected McQueen's and Ridley's choices in the first act.<br />
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On the plantations, we don't get much sense of tension or alienation between Solomon and his fellow slaves (who are mostly faceless bystanders). There's that lovely bit where they all pat him on the back after he's navigated down the swamp in his handmade raft, but the filmmakers' concentration was mostly fixed on Solomon vs. Slavery.<br />
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I loved that moment, because it made me think of both my own experiences in corporate America and Sorrell Booke's Cap'n Cochipee in <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-integrated-funeral-in-sovereign.html" target="_blank"><i>Purlie Victorious</i></a>. In those cases, a Black idea that works is completely beyond the scope of White thinking. Those slaves were patting Solomon on the back because he made the far more intelligent overseer look <b>stoopid</b>. I can't begin to tell you the horrors of my early career, where I wasn't sent to customers because it was believed that a Black programmer would be rejected by the consumers of the software he wrote.<br />
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Damn.<br />
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ODIE</div>
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As for more of a depiction of Solomon's early life: I'm glad you brought that up because I'm very conflicted about whether the film needed that.<br />
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I liked how McQueen doles those scenes out as flashbacks, but I saw the lack of them later in the film as a sign of Solomon losing his hope and humanity. I think your criticism is valid, but I brought to the movie my own shorthand. It didn't take much for me to connect the dots between his past and present. The ending, where he reconnects, held more power for me because it forced my focus on the amount of time lost, of kids growing up without their father and of a father missing out on his children's life events. The way Ejiofor says "I apologize" just hit me so hard.<br />
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Still, I need to consider the possibility that you, and others who have noted how distant McQueen keeps the material at times, are correct. <br />
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BOONE</div>
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Yeah, it's partly my failing that I wanted more of Solomon's family up front, and then nothing of them until that tremendous ending. It's a backhanded compliment, I guess, and I wanted a lot more of this movie. Give me an hour with Solomon's family, then two, three hours of the horror (it's called <b>12 YEARS</b> a Slave). Let me see the shadow. Let me feel the lack. (Sorry, James Jones.) Some films grow on you. <br />
<br />
Our friend Keith Uhlich wrote <a href="http://letterboxd.com/keithuhlich/film/12-years-a-slave/" target="_blank">some thoughts</a> on the film for Letterboxd that scratched at why this film grew OFF me somewhat on second viewing. It's still quite powerful and McQueen's inventiveness never rests, but in the end, this film, like <i>Django Unchained</i>, is merely a gate opener. As Keith put it, "The subject is not closed because someone addresses it—to your mind—as well as you've ever seen. There is always more to see." And what I'm interested in seeing next is more of what happened in the bedrooms, bathrooms and back rooms besides cruelty and exploitation--not to cast a sanitizing light on an evil institution, but to draw darker, deeper lines between then and now.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
Speaking of Keith's great review, an example of a negative take that lacks the snarkiness of other negative reviews of this film, he also draws attention to Alfre Woodard's character. He writes: "The Alfre Woodard scene is spectacular, in part because it seems that McQueen briefly handed the reins—<i>Sin City</i> guest-director style—to Lee Daniels."<br />
<br />
It's spectacular for another reason too: It shows us exactly what you just stated: "more of what happened in the bedrooms, boardrooms and back rooms." Woodard is married to her Massa (the thought of her and this White man literally jumping the broom filled me with such amusement and joy) and she tries to impart to Patsey the benefits of this arrangement. They're sitting there drinking tea and shit! Woodard refers to Solomon as "Nigger Solomon," and he to her as "Mistress Shaw," which also shows some fascinating form of power structure. <br />
<br />
Woodard's dialogue with Patsey reminded me of that similar conversation between Shug and Celie in <i>The Color Purple</i>. "You make it sound as if Mr is going to the bathroom on you, Miss Celie!"<br />
<br />
<i>12 Years a Slave</i> is peppered with these moments of Black folks doing what they needed to do, for better and for worse, to survive. Again, yet another set of straight lines drawn between now and then.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
My favorite of these was when McQueen seized the opportunity to use the slave ship (in this case a riverboat) as metaphor for The Struggle. That amazing three shot of Solomon and two captives plotting their next move. Michael K. Williams' chiseled black face is slashed by sunlight as he makes it clear he's ready to go down fighting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEU1vyfdWcp4n-Imu5IKGNmuWy1hCLYTGt6BKeKfScrJxdpBXhGzHv__rl82J99cMYMNuaDGKSOLWZqulEZ2sQOK5s03zvnnpW8n0YtgEiCiucWDzcldIrZ6N9hAT4ot1qmHcHpA/s1600/12_years_three_Shot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEU1vyfdWcp4n-Imu5IKGNmuWy1hCLYTGt6BKeKfScrJxdpBXhGzHv__rl82J99cMYMNuaDGKSOLWZqulEZ2sQOK5s03zvnnpW8n0YtgEiCiucWDzcldIrZ6N9hAT4ot1qmHcHpA/s320/12_years_three_Shot.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
And he does. This scene has the bit of Hans Zimmer music I have no problem with: the relentless percussion based on the flap-flap of the boat's water wheel. And that swift cut to Williams' body floating away in the vessel's wake. This sequence almost belongs in the first act of a slave rebellion action-adventure movie, except that it’s not meant to set up audience expectation of revenge but to dramatize a relentless machine.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
It's the dramatic version of that Eddie Murphy moment in <i>Delirious</i> when he talks about slavery. “Brothers act like they couldn’t have been slaves 200 years ago…”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
"Bale that cotton! I ain't balin’ a MUFFUCKIN THING"<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
“The first dude off the boat tried that shit! I ain’t pickin’ nothin’! WHAP!!”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
“The other muffuckas said I’ll bale the shit!”<br />
<br />
<i>[Ed: These guys can't do it the justice Eddie does it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAG2X3G8hHw" target="_blank">here</a>]</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
When <i>12 Years a Slave</i> won the Toronto Film Festival Audience Award, the Oscar buzz was louder than a swarm of bees broadcasting through trunk speakers in the 'hood. Of course, that led to some backlash. The criticism I want to focus on is "the film is too brutal for audiences and Academy members." Hello! It’s fucking slavery, not an episode of <i>Mary Poppins</i>. Of course it’s going to be brutal.<br />
<br />
Did you ever notice that, whenever a minority group tells its own story, the majority immediately complains that it's "too much?" Whether it's women, gays, or brown people, there's always chatter about brutality or feminist touches or reverse racism. <br />
<br />
Could this notion of something being "too Black" or "too incendiary" be a contributing factor in Black directors not being able to finance or make more stories like this? I don't know about you, but I would kill to see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0501435/" target="_blank">Kasi Lemmons</a> do a Reconstruction picture or Sojourner Truth's story, for example. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
It's a complicated tangle of discomforts. And African American filmmakers are nervous of this burden, to make something that tries to "fix" us in some way, but everybody gets around to trying it. <br />
<br />
I think the "incendiary" part is less an issue in generally liberal Ho'wood (and its various corporate doppelgangers worldwide) than the "too black" and "too depressing" issue. The 15 year dramatic television renaissance set off by HBO has made "dark, complex" characterization and plotting a new national pastime. But when that darkness and complexity goes beyond the bounds of entertainment to become more of a practical tool or weapon rather than a gruesome plaything, there's trouble. The prelude to <i>The Wire </i>was <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224853/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>The Corner</i></a>, a mini-series of Baltimore drug game scenarios that director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001165/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Charles S. Dutton</a>, a seasoned black actor from the August Wilson camp, hijacked to insert earnest testimonials and interviews from the cast, speaking directly to the audience--presumably to some of the very at-risk or almost-gone ghetto-dwellers dramatized in the mini-series. Generally, when mainstream critics and audiences ooh and ahh over the "darkness" of something, they mean sexy Tony Soprano or <i>The Dark Knight</i>. <i>The Wire</i> was said to explode all those boundaries, but I still have my doubts.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
<i>The Corner</i> was more harrowing than <i>The Wire</i>, though you know I love <i>The Wire</i> intensely.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
In this society, when you add "black" to just about any formula, commercial or non-commercial, you increase the complexity exponentially. I always wanted to write <i>The Last Hood Movie</i>, the one film that shocks the ghetto into mental un-slavery. But one can go mad in the attempt.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Some Hood Movies drive the audience mad too. Works both ways, Boone.</i></div>
<br />
Plus it starts to make trouble not just for white folks but for unsuspecting, culturally underfed or miseducated black audiences, too. Just ask Kanye "Yeezus" West.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
Kanye is a whole 'nother Black Man Talk altogether! But since you brought up rappers and music, we have to talk about Paul Dano. Dano, the unlucky recipient of Daniel Day-Lewis' milkshake theft in <i>There Will Be Blood</i>, plays Solomon's second overseer. A lot of time is devoted to the rending of Black flesh by vicious White men (Solomon's first brush with slavery entails having a paddle broken across his back). Dano is the recipient of a taste of his own medicine in the one "stand up and cheer" moment McQueen offers. The viewer pays for it later, of course, but for that moment, the movie goes all Nat Turner on us.<br />
<br />
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<br />
When Dano is introduced to the slaves (and to us), he gets a musical number of sorts. With the slaves as his percussion section, Dano sings a mad cross between country music and Dr. Dre's lyrical output. As disturbing as that song was, I could not get it out of my head. "That's horrible," I thought, "but damn if it ain't catchy." I had to find out more about "Run, Nigger, Run!" The internet led me to this <a href="http://undercoverblackman.blogspot.com/2007/09/run-n-gger-run.html" target="_blank">great piece</a> on the <i>Undercover Black Man</i> website. Turns out the song was originally sung by slaves, which changes the entire thrust of the song. Dano, and the numerous folk and country singers who've recorded this song, make the titular command a taunt. It was originally a cheer of sorts, a piece of advice from those who weren't as bold as the runner. <br />
<br />
See, they were jacking our beats long before Rock and Roll did it! <br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[Ed: Listen, at your own risk, to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0glq4A0Tb0" target="_blank">famous recording</a> by The Skillet Lickers. Dano’s version is better.] </i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
I'm doing the Running Man to that right now, like an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGisre9xNU" target="_blank">EPMD background dancer</a>. That's amazing, and it extends on up to Ghostface Killah's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOAHm9hYMI" target="_blank">Run!</a>, The Last Poets' <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfNgYShR_Wc" target="_blank">Run Nigger!</a>, and Melvin Van Peebles' Come on Feet! <br />
<br />
I think a similar slave song was mentioned in the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bullwhip-Days-Slaves-Remember-History/dp/0802138683/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383542806&sr=1-1&keywords=bullwhip+days" target="_blank"><i>Bullwhip Days</i></a>, a collection of oral history from the slaves collected by, I believe, WPA historians and journalists in the 30's. (I read it during my own fledgling attempt at a Nat Turner screenplay.) <br />
<br />
Dano's performance is a little burst of brilliance, and it helps the film rhyme with <i>Django Unchained</i> and its obsession with white male insecurity versus a black man who may or may not be "exceptional." A key phrase from <i>Django</i> is even reversed here. I believe Ford says to Solomon, a free man forced into a slave role, "You are one exceptional nigger!" whereas Calvin Candie in <i>Django</i> labeled a slave posing as a free man an "unexceptional nigger" with great doubt.<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
That slave song was commandeered, absorbed, and reflected with all its subversive power intact as <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-make-me-too-nice.html" target="_blank"><i>Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song!</i></a> Except in that case, the runner vows to return.<br />
<br />
McQueen's last shot of Patsey, seen from Solomon's vantage point as he is driven away to reclaim his freedom, left me with more sorrow than joy. I wonder how many slaves secretly hoped that the runaways or the freed would return, <i>Django-</i>style, to free them as well.<br />
<br />
Someone in my theater yelled out "Take her with you!" to Solomon.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
Yes! My romantic mind leapt and had him hoisting her up into the coach and them hightailing it out of there under gunfire. (Something like a certain famous escape in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051808/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank"><i>The Hidden Fortress</i></a>.) Upon learning that Solomon joined the abolitionists and the Underground Railroad, I imagined that he did so with Patsey and others he left behind in mind. Imagine, imagine, imagine. Imagine the reunion, the rescue. It's a fantasy, but a fantasy that defines me.<br />
<br />
Patsey's loveliness and soulfulness and resilience and creative spark (shown in that gorgeous, quiet scene of her making dolls by hand in a grassy field) cries out for a rescuer. What Solomon is forced to do to her (or is too weak to resist) instead, kind of broke me a little. Because in the 21st century, there are still so many desperate black folks who have inherited this kind of desperation. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
Exactly. And that is why this film is so powerful for me, and why I rejected the notion that it’s just a cold, directorial art installation. It is not. It is a snapshot of the past that defines the present. This is a film about an institution that brought great prosperity on this country at the expense of the humanity of not only Blacks, but Whites as well. Warts and all, no other film has done this before.<br />
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<br />
<br />
It boldly answers the questions of where current attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts originated. The Confederacy may have officially surrendered in 1865, but Whites like Dano's overseer feared that abused, running nigger they sang about was going to return with a vengeance. So we got 100 years of Jim Crow. <br />
<br />
That takes us through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964" target="_blank"><i>Civil Rights Act of 1964</i></a> to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965" target="_blank"><i>Voting Rights Act of 1965</i></a>. The latter was enacted 5 years before I was born, and is currently being dismantled piece by piece because of <i>Post Racial America™</i>.<br />
<br />
When people speak of a "post-racial America," it's a marketing ploy, not truth. Granted, we've come a long way, baby, but <i>12 Years a Slave</i> reminds us that a lot of its harsh truths are ingrained in both the DNA of the descendents of slaves and this country proper. For that, it deserves to be commended and analyzed further for years to come.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
Well, <i>Hunger</i> was also not an "art installation"-- it was just so formally precise, tight like a great concept album where track listings don't matter. One brief shot of a prison guard cowering and crying in his riot gear while his colleagues were busy brutalizing political prisoners gave the entire grisly film its humanist light. I would have welcomed even more such rigor and sparseness in <i>12 Years a Slave</i>, not less. It's all there in the images: The last flickers of a letter that might have saved Solomon, burning in the dark, matched by the flame light dying on his face. The iconic tiptoe lynching.<br />
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<br />
McQueen just hedges a bit by giving us music that weeps in a conventional way. It doesn't quite trust the power of the images and sounds McQueen has gathered to be their own music. But all my quibbles don't weigh much against where this film arrives emotionally--and it is through universal emotions (represented by Chiwetel Ejiofor’s compassionate and despairing eyes) that the dehumanized view of blacks might burn off in the hearts of modern day Eppses.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/" target="_blank">Hans Zimmer</a> is the poster boy for inappropriately assigned musical cues, though McQueen leans on him far less than other directors. Like I said, McQueen felt the need to lean on familiar American movie tropes on occasion, but he and Ejiofor's eyes execute the film's most visually oriented indictment-slash-identification moment. When the camera lingers on Ejiofor (whose internal acting matches the physical rigors of his biggest Oscar competition, Robert Redford in <i>All Is Lost</i>), and he turns to directly face us, it was so painful I almost looked away. I impressed so many personal things on that moment, and other moments as well.<br />
<br />
Final thoughts on <i>12 Years a Slave</i>?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BOONE</div>
<br />
This film is just one more gate-opener to a subject that I, like. Mr. Uhlich and others, find inexhaustible. It left me worrying about Patsey the way Fellini said he continued to worry about his greatest creation, <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-nights-of-cabiria-1957" target="_blank">Cabiria</a>. As for Patsey's creator, Lupita Nyong’o, I'm not as worried as I let on earlier. There are too many inspired and capable filmmakers out there right now to think that she won't get to shine (and thus overturn a whole world of internalized oppression for dark girls everywhere) in films that match her potential. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2011696/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Dee Rees</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1148550/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Ava Duvernay</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0234506/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Andrew Dosunmu</a> (and the visionary cinematographer each has collaborated with, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2284226/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Bradford Young</a>) along with fascinating inside men like Lee Daniels and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0831690/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Charles Stone III</a> are doing the kind of work that matches McQueen's artistry. This is a great jazz age for American cinema.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ODIE</div>
<br />
I got nothing to add to that, outside of my complete agreement. We're done here.<br />
<br />
Next time, a certain maligned actor who looks like yours truly gets a Black Man Talk Redemption!<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> We're comin' for you, Cuba!</i></div>
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odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-52567081250856406292013-08-19T11:55:00.001-04:002013-08-19T12:30:11.196-04:00Black Man Talk: Lee Daniels' The Butler<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>(The following is a Google Chat conversation between Big Media Vandalism founder Steven Boone and Big Media Vandalism's proprietor Odie Henderson. It is the latest in the Black Man Talk series. Other installments include <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-gagsters.html" target="_blank">American Gangsters</a>, <a href="http://odienator.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-colored-boys-who-have-considered.html" target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a>, <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/01/unchained-melody-two-troublemakin.html" target="_blank">Django Unchained</a>, and <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/42-a-conversation-between-odie-henderson-and-steven-boone" target="_blank">42</a>.)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today's topic is Lee Daniels' The Butler, so named because Warner Bros. didn't want to relinquish their ownership of the film's original title, The Butler. Since this is your first Lee Daniels movie, let me provide the Cliffs notes version of what his films are all about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>This man is a freak.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I mean that in the most positive of ways. Let me give you an example: In <i>Shadowboxer</i>, Stephen Dorff is screwing some woman. Outside his door, people are making way too much noise. So Dorff comes barging out of the room, full frontal and wearing a condom, and starts shooting people. Also in this film, my doppelganger Cuba Gooding Jr. is a hit man getting his freak on with his stepmother, Helen Mirren.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I love <i>Shadowboxer </i>already</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That in a nutshell, is Lee Daniels' style. He managed to put interracial, May-December quasi-incestuous screwing in a film with full frontal male nudity and gunfire.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I repeat, on that summation alone, I LOVE SHADOWBOXER AND LEE DANIELS ALREADY.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wait! There’s more! In <i>Precious</i>, he has Mo'Nique playing with herself and throwing TV's. In <i>The Paperboy</i>, Nicole Kidman gives John Cusack an orgasm from across the room AND she pisses on Zac Efron. I haven't even gotten to the hog-tying, rape and gay Matthew McConaughey character.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So <i><b>of course</b></i> Daniels was the <b><u><i>perfect</i></u></b> guy to direct a PG-13 rated pseudo-Noble Negro movie!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm over here oohing and aahing like <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2010/02/when-i-grow-up-i-wanna-be-marrrrrrcus.html" target="_blank">Boomerang</a>’s Nasty Nelson.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The MPAA probably told Daniels what <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccs61-EHnC8" target="_blank">Marcus told Nasty Nelson</a> in Boomerang: "I like the orange and I like the ice cream. You gotta get rid of the cherries, and lose the banana." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Exaaactly. Listen: Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitars when he wasn't playing them with his teeth. He humped the air as he played <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu-IuX-HSSk" target="_blank"><i>Foxy Lady</i></a>. We need a black filmmaker like that, not just skilled professionals. We need an uncaged freakazoid or two.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lee Daniels is our man. The last thing he's about is presenting bland racial interactions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maybe the more precise Daniels collaboration would be with Nasty Nelson's onscreen muse, Grace Jones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>POOSEY!!</i></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If Lee Daniels made a movie with Grace Jones, they’d need to make a rating after NC-17.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Which begs the question: How did they let this crazy man anywhere near the White House for a film the whole family can enjoy?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I've read interviews with Daniels, where he said <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/lee-daniels-dicusses-the-ratings-struggles-of-lee-daniels-the-butler-and-a-musical-remake-of-nights-of-cabiria-20130804" target="_blank">he was being driven crazy</a> by the constraints of the rating. Remember that old <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-kTlSE959o" target="_blank">In Living Color skit</a> with David Alan Grier as Luther Campbell from 2 Live Crew trying to make a clean album? That's how I imagine Daniels shot this film.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>"Oprah, pull ya titty out! Oh wait, that's R. SHIT! Just pull out<b> the top </b>of ya titty!"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I am going to be first in line (at a Times Square adult video store) for the Director's Cut. Hopefully in 3-D.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">They'll have it on bootleg DVD in front of the Beacon Theater.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Daniels may have wrestled with the PG-13, but he pops up in the corners of the screen every so often to yell out "FREAKY DEAKY!" like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Spinks" target="_blank">Leon Spinks</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I just read an interview with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1148550/?ref_=sr_1" target="_blank">Ava DuVernay</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3363032/" target="_blank">Ryan Coogler</a> where Ava complained that they, as black directors, rarely get asked questions about their technique, just the content of their work. It seems like there's a similar general blind spot happening with Daniels. This film has a lot of style and control, beyond the freakazoidality<span style="color: red;">* </span>and negritude.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">*</span><i>Kids, look that one up!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So let’s talk technique. The first shot of the movie is the huge White House room where Whitaker is sitting. It’s almost a parody of the “by the numbers” opening for a message picture. Then Daniels immediately thrusts us into the harsh world of Cecil's plantation-set youth. It's as if he had to wash the gloss off with dirty reality. Throughout the film, he goes back and forth like that, as if he's saying "here's what you want to see" then flipping it to "here's what you <i>need</i> to see."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yes! It punched the audience right in the stomach! I heard people gasp at the plantation scene.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He really screws with audience expectation there. When the plantation owner, who has just finished raping Mariah Carey, points his gun on her husband, Daniels waits a few beats. The audience is lulled into thinking it's just a threat. But then he tightens the frame just before the gunshot…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And the father (David Banner) was so hesitant and docile. You wouldn't expect him to get blown away like that, just as you wouldn't expect an unarmed teenager with a bag of Skittles to get taken out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I immediately thought of <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/questlove-trayvon-martin-and-i-aint-shit.html" target="_blank">?uestlove's article</a> about how he wasn't worth shit. Banner looked big enough to jump down, turn around and pick multiple bales of cotton, yet his "boss" just shoots him, as if to say "Plenty more niggers where that came from!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Vanessa Redgrave's reaction to this would be comical if it weren't so damn sad. She tells young Cecil "you're gonna be in the house now. I'll teach you how to be a house nigger." Never mind that the kid's just seen his father get his brains blown out. Daniels frames the scene as a Great White Father moment, but with Vanessa Redgrave instead of a man. No doubt, one of Daniels' fascinations is with depictions of racial power in the compositions of his shots.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yeah, I was mentally cataloging various scenes as still frames as the movie went along. There are some that tell the whole story in one composition. He also boldly puts, in vibrant, high definition color, scenes we're used to seeing in very sketchy, grainy black and white: Lynchings, racist mobs attacking freedom riders, the FBI and police assaults on the Black Panthers. Not that we haven't seen these things re-enacted in full color before, but there's something really garish and disturbing about the way Daniels has them photographed here, somewhat similar to the extreme closeups of a slave being picked apart by dogs in <i>Django Unchained</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The cinematography is another character here. In all the scenes involving the Presidents and the rituals of serving them, the screen is lit up like Christmas. It's TOO bright.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But the scenes where Black folks convene, whether it's in the underbelly of the White House where they prepare, or at Cecil's house--those scenes are shot in an almost noirish way at times. For example, I could smell the gin, cigarette smoke and leftover collards whiffing through Cecil's house when Terrence Howard tries to seduce Oprah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">YES!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The only time a president is shown in a darker setting is Nixon, which was a funny visual joke. Cusack almost looks like the Phantom of the Fucking Opera coming out of the shadows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I find Daniels' comic book universe a lot richer, deeper and truer than Christopher Nolan's.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Daniels is definitely the Joker in his universe, or at least the Two-Face Tim Burton <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVpUdzcjMa8" target="_blank">promised us</a> when he cast Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Because it's all about "two faces"--and don't we know a thing or two about that? It's even spoken of at some point, by whom I forget. The face you wear when serving the dominant group, and the one you wear at home. Some will argue that we all must modify our behavior in a professional setting, but that's something different from doing that while black.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Exactly. Cuba Gooding Jr. makes that comment about having a face for the White man and one for the Black folks. In the world of <i>The Butler</i>, the Black faces are like that Billy Joel line from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnlvPoDU5LY" target="_blank">The Stranger</a>. "We take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone." Not because we want to, but because, as Redgrave (and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man_%28novel%29" target="_blank">Ralph Ellison</a>) put it, we were supposed to be invisible in "proper company."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gooding’s Carter, by the way, is Lee Daniels' onscreen stand-in. I'm so proud my doppelganger gives a great, randy performance here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cuba is a genius. He has made about a dozen shitty movies at this point and he's brilliant in every one of them that I've seen. I have witnessed him leaving an entire room full of unsuspecting viewers in stitches just by the way he uttered "vagina" in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdMVzxis5vs" target="_blank"><i>Rat Race</i></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Speaking of vagina: Cuba tells the old Redd Foxx joke about the woman with the huge punany! As I said in <a href="http://moviemezzanine.com/lee-daniels-the-butler-pg-13-prestige-with-a-hint-of-freaky-deaky/" target="_blank">my review</a>, he’s the film's Black id. The PG-13 keeps censoring him, but you can read his lips. He blew up our audience when he addresses Whitaker at the White House table the way I'm sure he wanted to address all those White folks he served:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"You Black motherfu--" [FORCED PG-13 CUT AWAY]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We should talk about that White House dinner scene, where the Reagans invite Cecil and his wife Gloria (Oprah) to sit at the same table Cecil has set for 8 other Presidents. In a regular film would have been the film's "We Shall Overcome" moment. But that's not what Daniels intends. Instead, both in editing and tone, it's a mini-collision of both Cecil's worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That White House dinner scene resonated so much. Cecil was suddenly face to face with what a farce the whole setup was, and the empty, ceremonial race relations of the Reagan era, a la Nancy and Mr T on <i>Diff’rent Strokes</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>[Ed.: She <b>should</b> have been talking to Willis and Kimberly.]</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This isn't <i>Glory,</i> where the ultimate honor is being given the privilege to serve in the guise of "proving" yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Did you notice how differently Daniels shoots each President? He goes from a straight on, almost 50's portrayal of Robin Williams' Eisenhower to an ass-shaking, long shot of a cameo by Jane Fonda as Mommy Reagan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Casting Fonda as Nancy Reagan is like casting Wesley Snipes as David Duke--it's designed to piss off the right people.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Marsden's Kennedy (and Jackie O, post assassination) are shot with the reverential glances of the old Black Grandmother who has JFK, MLK and Black Jesus on her mantle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">JFK is the equivalent of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_S3eaY6lv0" target="_blank">Benita Buttrell</a>’s Ms. Jenkins to a certain segment of the older black population. “Can't nobody say nuthin’ bad about JFK!!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Exactly. There's emotional weight in the scene where Cecil observes Jackie O, still in blood soaked dress, weeping openly. If I remember correctly, it's an overhead shot of her bloodied skirt as the dialogue makes a thinly veiled reference to Emmitt Till: "She kept the dress on because she wanted the world to see what they did to her husband."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's kind of funny that LBJ gets no credit for passing the actual laws. Ain't no Black folks got a picture of LBJ on their walls, not even in Texas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Well, to play mindreader to an entire race, I think black people sensed that Johnson was carrying out policy as a pragmatist whereas Jack and Bobby appeared to have true passion for civil rights. At the very least, they LOOKED more like people who could be in genuine sympathy with negroes, whereas Johnson looked like the kind of jowly redneck who would shout "nigger" at his staff while sitting on the toilet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Of Liev Schrieber’s constipated LBJ, Cuba says "When did he start calling us Negroes? That nigga says nigger more than I say nigga!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's the killin’-est line in the whole movie! Like falling through the nigga looking glass.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wonder if, in different hands, we would have had a window into Cecil's home life and the camaraderie he has with other Black folks. Daniels and writer Danny Strong use Cecil's family as a microcosm for the times that are a-changing, but they also use these scenes to flesh out the characters. Without these scenes, Whitaker's Cecil would be more like Peter Sellers' Chance in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/" target="_blank"><i>Being There</i></a>, that is, a blank slate for the audience to impress their own ideas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oh, fuck that shit! LET'S TALK ABOUT OPRAH!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>"Look under my seat! It's another OSSSSS-CUUUUUR nomination!!"</i></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hahaha! Oprah is so sexy and electric in this movie, as I always expected she could be. It's just a crime that she hasn't done more movies. Daniels knows how to put her to work in a scene.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If Cuba is this film’s Black id, Oprah is its strong Black backbone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Absolutely. And it just points out how tragic Whitaker's character truly is, since he's clearly not weak or incompetent. He's suffering from lifelong PTSD, and it’s clear that Oprah’s Gloria understands that. She's deeply frustrated but, in the end, she is devoted to him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Whitaker, who I should mention is excellent, has to be so internal. It's a pleasure to see that he has a wife to back him up, to elevate her man when life is whipping his ass. It's in stark contrast to the Black Panther chick with the fucked up Angela Davis Afro who uses Cecil's son as a stepping stone. Oprah's confrontation with that girl is the “Tyler Perry jump up and cheer” takedown moment of 2013.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Just like Oprah’s TV show, this film traffics in such raw, grand emotion and sentiment that it can be easy to OD on it. It's such an emotionally charged subject that I already have people attacking my generally positive <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/lee-daniels-the-butler-2013" target="_blank">three star review</a> of the film essentially for not being positive--or reverential--enough. It's but one of the backlashes a film this powerful (and its commentators) will face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In your review, you point out how Daniels uses David Oyelowo's character to mend that riff between the older and the younger generation of Blacks. I also mention his character, Louis, in my review, because he didn't really exist and some reviewers have pounced on this "dishonesty." Yet Louis is important to the film, however clunky his insertion is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He's the militant while Cecil is the MLK follower. In the documentary, <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/demanders/black-history-written-with-lightning" target="_blank">The Black Power Mixtape</a>, we see that distinction between Stokely Carmichael and his mother. In her time, if she made one false move, she was dead. Her generation was more in tune with Dr. King's nonviolence methodology. The same fate of "wrong move, you die" is faced by the younger generation, but they also feel more compelled to fight back. That had not been beaten out of them yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I also love how somebody (I think it's Terrence Howard's wife) says "I love me some Dr. King, his militant ass!” MILITANT! That's what ?uestlove calls Dr. King in <i>Black Power Mixtape</i>--and Dr. King WAS back then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Exactly. King's antiwar, anti-American Imperialism, anti-racism <a href="http://nyc.indymedia.org/media/audio/5/16MB_beyond_vietnam_mlk_jr_april4_1967.mp3" target="_blank">speech from April, 1967</a>, a year to the day before his death, was as radical as it got. He was meeting the late Malcolm X halfway. He caught hell from the mainstream press for it. It was essentially his "ballot or the bullet" speech and could be the spiritual script of this movie. What the movie arrives at is that, fundamentally, it’s about resistance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The way David and Cecil reconciled just physically shook me. It's a tension in the black community that still isn't reconciled and now has so many layers of new troubles and dysfunction on top of it since the Reagan Era.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Louis had become a Senator by this time. So now he's dealing with the White House on a more level playing field than Cecil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Which resonated so much for me as an 80's kid who saw a lot of veterans from Civil Rights and Black Power move into politics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Louis also figures in the film's best montage, superbly edited by Joe Klotz. The scene where Cecil sets the table while Louis and his fellow Fisk University students are trained for the sit-in is a great visual juxtaposition. Neither Black person is allowed to sit at the table, and in both cases, it's preferred that they remain invisible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Yes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The White person who shows the most empathy in the ENTIRE picture is the bespectacled young man who is very uncomfortable calling Louis' girlfriend nigger during the sit-in training.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">YES.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He says "I'm very uncomfortable with that," and it felt so genuine. I felt sorry for the guy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I've never seen a re-enactment of young civil rights activists done so naturally, without the actors being too busy trying to convince us that they are upright, model, Poitieresque good kids. In such scenes I usually feel the filmmakers being careful to make the (white) audience comfortable with the fact that the kids aren't simply human but GOOD and CLEAN. Here, Daniels just gets them to be real people reacting to real and anticipated terrorism. The post-<i>Django Unchained</i> movies on American race make it plain: <b>this was terrorism</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The violence perpetrated on these kids is terrifying. Daniels shows a dark chocolate skinned girl getting hit in the face with the whitest vanilla shake I have ever seen. It's done with such force that I jumped. It splatters so obscenely that it looked like a violation of epic proportion. I thought "ooh, the nasty version of Lee Daniels directed that moment!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Your review and your comments here get at how Daniels uses light, shadow and color values to push past our jadedness at four decades of tidy, solemn Black History Month Civil Rights Moments on TV. He might have had an easier job of it if he'd just shot in black and white, but he went the other way, putting these images we've seen so many times in high definition stereo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Through the brothers Charlie and Louis, The Butler also shows what options there were for Black men in the 60's. One could work either in a blue collar capacity (as Howard does), get involved in the movement as Louis does, be a servant as Cecil does, or go to Vietnam. We know of Charlie's fate as soon as he tells Louis his intentions. But what else could he have done? My Pops went to Vietnam, and when he came back, he eventually became an auto worker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I liked the dynamic between Louis and Charlie--their brotherly banter is great and far too underrepresented in Black movies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cuba’s Uncle Carter also gets involved in the brotherly dynamic, as the guy one could turn to in "Don't tell my parents" situations. "Y'all better GIMME BACK MY MONEY!" he says after bailing Louis out of jail.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>"Quotes about money are my stock in trade, baby!"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That one scene of Charlie and Louis chatting at the jail is such a rare thing. The spontaneity, the humor, the effortless way they express their loving bond. It seems so standard as I write it down, but we are still starving for this kind of thing onscreen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have three brothers, and it sounded like the shit we popped growing up. "What's with all the leather, Louise?" Charlie asks Louis. Isn't it crazy that we're talking about minor dialogue in this fashion? It shows just how thirsty we are for REAL communication onscreen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We're in a rich time, though. The Ava DuVernays and Ryan Cooglers are seizing the moment with the new technologies and <a href="http://www.affrm.com/" target="_blank">distribution platforms</a>. They are making movies with these small gestures and pleasures, which are really everything we need. The audience at large needs to remember that people are interesting, but the black audience in particular needs to see it in the worst way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with DuVernay in Poland at the 2013 <a href="http://www.offpluscamera.com/en/informacje/szczegoly/70/3265" target="_blank">Off Plus Camera Film Festival</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>(l. to r.: Odie,<span dir="ltr" id=":15p"> Małgorzata Radkiewicz</span>, Ava DuVernay, Michał Oleszczyk)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Her film, <a href="http://www.middlenowhere.com/" target="_blank"><i>Middle of Nowhere</i></a>, was screened in competition, and I loved how it tells its story visually. Her cinematographer on that is a brother named <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2284226/" target="_blank">Bradford Young</a>. He also shot <i>Pariah</i> and <i>Ain’t Them Bodies Saints</i>. Like the masters <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932336/" target="_blank">Gordon Willis</a> and <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2012/02/one-drop-of-black-cinema-john-alonzo.html" target="_blank">John A. Alonzo</a>, he knows how to make Black skin GLOW. Watch out for this dude. He's gonna be big.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And jumping back to the dialogue: The Butler has some prime nuggets of Blackness! They sound improvised too. Oprah saying "Get yo' YELLOW ASS offa mah couch and go home!" to Terrence Howard almost gave me a stroke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That is probably second only to Cuba’s "That nigga says nigga..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Let's close this out with a few words on casting. I called the Presidential celebrities stunt casting, but in actuality, I thought this was Daniels' most subversive stroke of genius. It's as if he's saying, to these Negroes in my film, these high-power White folks could be anybody--aliens from Mars or some shit. Who cares who plays whom, so long as it's somebody you immediately identify as famous. At the end of the day, Cecil and company see just another White person giving orders and/or treating them like shit. "Y'all all look the same."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yeah, and I also think of Dave Chappelle's super-fake beards and wigs when he does famous characters. And his kabuki-makeup white newscaster. Daniels doesn't go that far, but there's a similar sense of play. He might also be giving back a little taste of the ridiculous casting for famous black people in Ho'wood movies, like light skinned brothers playing Miles Davis or some such.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. Because I just saw <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqNhuoguiFE" target="_blank">a movie</a> where Terrence Howard played Nelson Mandela. I kept looking at him cross-eyed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i> Because Nelson Mandela is not high yella.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hahahaa</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(watching movie) "Did he get bleached while in jail?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Those Apartheid motherfuckers had some cruel tortures. Took ten years to get him back ta his original color.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I mean, Mandela has been played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1057500/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Morgan Freeman</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093490/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3" target="_blank">Danny Glover</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119607/" target="_blank">Sidney Poitier</a>…and Terrence Howard. I could hear the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ect-kgxBb4M" target="_blank">Sesame Street song</a> going "One of these things is not like the other..."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I think you're onto something. Maybe this is Daniels' way of giving back to the community that thinks Nina Simone was Zoe Saldana's complexion. It would explain why Rickman's Ronnie looked like Boris Karloff's Frankenstein.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When I took my glasses off he looked like the <a href="http://puppet.wikia.com/wiki/Spitting_Image" target="_blank">Spitting Image Puppets</a> version of Reagan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What was that puppet show from the 80's? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._Follies" target="_blank">DC Follies</a>? That's what Rickman looked like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">OK, closing thoughts! You first!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This was my first Lee Daniels film, and it came preceded by a trainload of reputation. Daniels was supposed to be either so bad he's good or so brilliant his garish style is misunderstood as unintentional. <i>The Butler</i> turned out to be simply a very good and rich historical melodrama made for the general audience by, as you observed so well, a lusty freakazoid who is nevertheless in control. I dig that. Not to fall into the habit of validating a black auteur by comparing him to a Euro legend, but didn't that describe Luis Bunuel? An art filmmaker who knew how to play in the commercial arena, flashing a little nylon-stockinged leg occasionally to show us he's still untamed. As much as great civil rights strides, we need that. We need minority artists who are just as free play in the mainstream film arena as they tend to be in other arts. Miles and Michael and Jimi and Isaac and Stevie in popular music always pointed up the need for similar artists in popular cinema. <i>Lee Daniels’ The Butler</i> is no masterpiece, but it is clearly the work of an artist, not merely a Hollywood hustler. An artist who is thinking long thoughts about the history, legacy and destiny of his people and his country. Cool!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Absolutely. When our fellow Ebert Contributor Michał<i> </i>went to see <i>Lee Daniels' The Butler</i>, he said it was preceded by about 12 trailers, all of which were for Black themed movies. I can only hope that not all 12 of them were for variants of <i>Soul Plane 9</i> (the Black version of <i>District 9</i>). Just hearing the sheer number of Black movies, not to mention how much I enjoyed the ones I've seen this year, made me smile. We can only hope that these adventures in cinematic Negritude are undertaken by directors with strong, independent visions. And yes, they can be freaky, because regardless of what the snide society of film critics say, we need more Lee Danielses out there. Blacks and Hispanics and gays and women who are beholden to their passions, perversions and fears, and are willing to exorcise them onscreen for our edification and pleasure. <i>Lee Daniels' The Butler</i> will play in schools for years to come, and I just hope that none of those kids' parents rent any of his other movies thinking they have the same kind of educational value as <i>The Butler</i>. Unless these kids are as perverted as we were growing up, the poor bastards will probably be traumatized.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Until next time! We outta here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-84350997726428973712013-06-25T00:12:00.002-04:002020-05-14T01:14:47.833-04:00Celebrating Stevie: List Two: 15 Songs of Peace, God and Protest<div style="text-align: justify;">
by Odienator</div>
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Love dominated <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-stevie-list-one-15.html" target="_blank">the last Stevie Wonder entry</a>. This time, the focus is on both an angrier Stevie and a more spiritual one. Never afraid to put God in his lyrics, Wonder’s albums contain blatantly religious songs. After all, for the believers, God is the ultimate expression of Stevie’s favorite subjects, peace and love. Stevie wants us to love, respect and look after one another; through these actions we can deliver a more peaceful universe.</div>
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Stevie’s into all that hippie-dippy shit, but you still don’t want to piss him off. He will use minor keys to chew your ass out on a record. These howls of protest and anger are some of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs. He can make you want to passionately rip someone’s clothes off in one song, and punch someone in the face in another. Stevie reminds you that the punch is figurative—you can get more done with activism than ass-kicking. </div>
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Herewith, 15 songs in this vein of<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Peace, God and Protest</b></span><br />
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15. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2LNsifEzg" target="_blank">Love’s In Need of Love Today</a>- The opening cut on <i>Songs in the Key of Life</i> is a summation of the entire album’s quirks and characteristics. It’s a tad too long, musically daring (those opening chords are striking) and lyrically suspect at times. Stevie still handles it brilliantly, haunting us with his call to arms against hatred and injustice. “The force of evil plans to make you its possession,” the “friendly announcer” of the song warns us. “We all must take precautionary measures.” The song is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telethon" target="_blank">telethon</a> asking donors to call in not with pledges of money, but of love. It sounds cheesy as hell, but it only highlights just how good Wonder is at selling his lyrics with his voice. This is the musical equivalent of Robert Mitchum’s tattooed hands <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X20XIg38GcE" target="_blank">re-enacting the fight</a> between love and hate in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048424/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3" target="_blank"><i>Night of the Hunter</i></a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4amYKVCwWQBGeHiioAAUYPO2KSk2COUHj4sU0J-3SLga5GHV-qaUgtofT1PvdURsfCTyuhNwXgf7yWStwVoPC254Bya5Bsb-rqxf095iBmGqnH16GM5gf8-_GXYjUPa2qygA_g/s1600/talking_book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4amYKVCwWQBGeHiioAAUYPO2KSk2COUHj4sU0J-3SLga5GHV-qaUgtofT1PvdURsfCTyuhNwXgf7yWStwVoPC254Bya5Bsb-rqxf095iBmGqnH16GM5gf8-_GXYjUPa2qygA_g/s200/talking_book.jpg" width="200" /></a>14. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJV-ExBT7DU" target="_blank">Big Brother</a>- Stevie takes on the powers that be, and not for the last time on this list. Big Brother is the FBI (“they say that you got me all in a notebook, and writing it down every day”), politicians of both parties (“I live in the ghetto. You just come to visit me ‘round election time.”) and powerful folks who prefer the status quo of oppression continue (“you say that you’re tired of me protesting”). His message to the oppressed is to not give up hope despite Big Brother’s intentions. (“someday I will move on my feet to the other side.”) To Big Brother, he issues the stern warning that “you’ll cause your own country to fall.” With its harmonica and clavinet subbing for the acoustic guitar a folk singer would have employed on this track, Wonder brings a little Dylan, Seeger and Mitchell to Motown.</div>
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13. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFP9eh1ocvU" target="_blank">Chemical Love</a>- Stevie rarely teams up with other writers, but when he does, it’s usually on lyrics. A few songs on this list have lyrical contributions by others. Here, the words are by Stephanie Andrews, who injects dark humor into what could have been just a preachy anti-drug message. Stevie supports her with a bouncy, playful melody and more than a hint of snark in his vocal. <i>Chemical Love</i> has Curtis Mayfield’s tone on his classic song, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCDAfa-NI-M" target="_blank"><i>Pusherman</i></a>. Like Mayfield, Stevie’s also practically taunting you for being hopped up on whatever shit you’re on. “Ain’t nuthin’ to it, getting cash when you’re broke,” Stevie sings. “Doin’ lots of time is worth a little snort of coke.” The song collapses in the home stretch, with its simplistic notion that you should try God instead of yayo, but I’ll forgive its trespasses. “Some people find themselves hooked on the weirdest things,” Stevie tells us. I believe it; I’m hooked on this song.</div>
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12. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt8uLIC9_yk" target="_blank">Conversation Peace</a>- The title track from the album that brought us the superb Grammy-winning <i>For Your Love</i>, is a faster, more direct retread of <i>Love’s In Need of Love Today</i>. Instead of donating love to help the peace effort, Stevie wants us all to talk to each other. Again, it’s a simple, obvious message made compelling by the singer, aided by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiB6vT5HT3U" target="_blank">Ladysmith Black Mambazo</a> on background vocals and a few lyrics that come out of nowhere like a sucker punch. His line about the number of casualties during the Holocaust and slavery is a shocker. </div>
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11. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNbM781v7M0" target="_blank">Jungle Fever</a>- When I first heard this song, I thought “man, this is some lazy ass songwriting! I’ve got Jungle Fever, she’s got Jungle Fever, we’ve got Jungle Fever?!!” But I couldn’t get that shit out of head for hours. Wonder sings this “go eff yourself” song to racists over the opening credits of Lee’s second collaboration with Wesley Snipes. Stevie places himself in the shoes of Snipes’ Flipper Purify character, a Black man in lust with a White woman. He tells the naysayers “get real, come on!” and “you don’t know jack shit!” It’s more fun, and a lot shorter, than the movie’s uninteresting interracial story line. A few years later, Stevie would once again upstage the director’s vision with an opening credits song. Stay tuned.</div>
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10. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3I41ULN2m0" target="_blank">Higher Ground</a>- Wonder’s wah-wah and gospel infused hand clapper is smack dab in the middle of <i>Innervisions</i>, my favorite album. Written in 1973, it played a crucial part in Stevie’s recovery from a near-fatal automobile accident. The crash left him comatose without an optimistic prognosis of recovery. Apparently, Wonder’s manager sang this song in Stevie’s ear, and Stevie responded by moving his fingers in rhythm. That’s some powerful shit right there, especially when you consider the lyrics. “I’m so darn glad He let me try it again,” sings an eerily prescient Stevie. “Gonna keep on tryin’ til I reach my highest ground.” As we’ll see later in this list, Wonder used his most spiritual songs to take some brutal swipes at the status quo. “Powers keep on lyin’,” he sings, “while your people keep on dyin’.” That might not be the most Christian thing to say, but it’s not wrong either.</div>
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9. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FchMuPQOBwA" target="_blank">Happy Birthday</a>- Only Stevie Wonder could turn “Happy Birthday” into a protest song with a killer synth hook. The birthday boy in question now has a federal holiday in his honor, thanks in part to Wonder’s activism and his songwriting skills. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQmKcJ6ZhNgpIu3ijbIW1uz-B6eMigM9zRC9Xbo4Ov5OcdNlj89kRanw5YB_1E2UKsyZpXC4JarotEhssq3jZzyHGD27DW685NBcUaRBVCEpXkMZ4yupE5_01PL1PGnKqNNftAQ/s1600/mlk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQmKcJ6ZhNgpIu3ijbIW1uz-B6eMigM9zRC9Xbo4Ov5OcdNlj89kRanw5YB_1E2UKsyZpXC4JarotEhssq3jZzyHGD27DW685NBcUaRBVCEpXkMZ4yupE5_01PL1PGnKqNNftAQ/s320/mlk.jpg" width="320" /></a>After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day#History" target="_blank">bill was introduced</a> in Congress to make a national holiday in King’s honor. The bipartisan sponsored bill floated around until 1979, where it was voted on and failed to pass. “Oh HELL NO,” said Stevie (<i>at least in this re-enactment of events</i>). To protest, Wonder closed out 1980’s <i>Hotter Than July</i> album with this 6-minute argument for creating a national holiday “where peace is celebrated all throughout the world.” Its verses shamed and scolded those who opposed Dr. King Day, and its chorus gave Black folks a new way of singing “Happy Birthday To You.” <br />
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Wonder used the song to kick off an active campaign to pressure the government via public opinion. Concerts were given, and the biggest petition in history was signed. In 1983, the MLK Day bill became law. (That’s right, Republicans! Your Lord and Savior, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVd5xiA8_QY" target="_blank">Saint Ronnie</a>, had to sign a bill honoring a Black person. Imagine if Obama tried that shit!) Of course, many states refused to celebrate the day, including the Alabama of the West, Arizona. Senator John McCain was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day#Reluctance_to_observe" target="_blank">one of the biggest opponents</a>, which is why <b>a stroke of</b> <b>Negro karma</b> fried his ass in the 2008 election. See, John, if you’d just gotten with the program, <i>you might be President right now</i>.<br />
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<i>"That Negro Karma, it will fry you ev'ry time. </i></div>
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<i>Ev'ry time it comes around, it comes to fry!"</i></div>
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8. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFNQcIFfZg" target="_blank">Feeding Off the Love of the Land</a>- If I did a top 5 of Stevie Wonder lyrics, this song would be on it. When I first heard it, at the end of <i>Jungle Fever</i>, it packed a far bigger emotional punch than the movie. Spike Lee prints the lyrics onscreen as the credits roll, recounting the story of how doomed we selfish human beings are. We’ve learned nothing, Stevie tells us, and therefore we’re deservedly fucked. This is a devastating little number (it’s even more heartbreaking in its original version, which is just Stevie and his piano). “Seems to me that fools are even more foolish,” the singer tells us early on, only to ask later “has the good in man expired?” It’s one of Stevie’s most hopeless songs; it almost feels as if he’s given up. It made me cry when I first heard it. It still does.</div>
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7. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv_wZQJYlo0" target="_blank">Master Blaster (Jammin)</a>- This buoyant ode to Bob Marley musically yells out “boogie on, reggae woman!” From its opening drumbeats, <i>Master Blaster</i> is designed to make you feel irie with or without the ganja. “Everyone’s feeling pretty, it’s hotter than July,” sings Stevie, name-checking the album on which this appears. He also shouts out Marley while reassuring us that, despite all our troubles, everything’s gonna be alright. Wonder’s output is like the great reggae singers to whom <i>Master Blaster</i> pays tribute, a positive vibration full of love, Jah, freedom, struggle, and joy. “Won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom?” Marley once asked. We know what Stevie’s answer was and is.</div>
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6. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ztSuiv9Ba8" target="_blank">They Won’t Go When I Go</a>- When I was a kid, this song scared the shit out of me. I misunderstood Yvonne Wright’s lyrics, and thought they were about going to Hell. “People sinning just for fun, they will never see the sun,” warns Stevie as his piano cranks out ominous chords. There’s also a choir of Stevies wailing between verses, which is genuinely creepy. I now realize this song is some kind of Christian taunt (it practically says “I’m going to Heaven and you’re not, nyaah!!!”) but I still love every note of it. To warn us of the wages of sin, <i>They Won’t Go</i> quotes the same Curtis Mayfield lyric Bob Marley does in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdB-8eLEW8g" target="_blank"><i>One Love/People Get Ready</i></a>: “There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner.”<br />
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<i>"But there IS room in Hell for y'all."</i> <i>says Joe </i></div>
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<i>Gideon-lookalike Jesus from <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2009/02/himes-on-harlem-pop-goes-weasel.html" target="_blank">A Rage In Harlem </a></i></div>
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“Whatever,” says this lapsed Baptist, but I’m still terrified of this song and I’ll tell you why. It was almost the last thing I ever heard on this Earth. My tire blew out on Interstate 78, and as my car veered out of my control toward a tractor trailer in the next lane, I saw my life flash before me. I knew I was dead. Everything happened in slow motion, and while it was happening, I could hear this song’s choir of Stevie Wonders moaning and wailing on my CD player. “Well, if I’m going to die,” I thought, “at least I’ll die listening to a religious record.” I knew I was going straight to Hell too, with my eyes wide open just as my mother always told me I’d go. Suffice it to say, nobody had to sing <i>Higher Ground</i> to bring me out of a coma; I didn’t go when they went. Still, my superstitious ass will NOT listen to this song in the car, not even the rather excellent <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UmoCbWIZBY" target="_blank">George Michael cover</a>.</div>
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5. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNHjwRHtNPY" target="_blank">Misrepresented People</a>- Stevie’s <i>History of the Negro World, Vol. I</i> takes us on a brutal tour of the history of Blacks in America, sparing no one as it ticks off events. Starting with the arrival of Columbus in 1492 and treading a path of injustice into the 1990’s where “our color fills the jails,” the misrepresented people in the title begin and end the song in some form of slavery. This is an irony not lost on Wonder, who sings phrases ripe with sarcasm and bitter truths: “In the so-called land of God,” he sings, “my kind were treated hard.” The song basically says “we’ve broken our backs doing your free labor, defended the country and invented countless things, yet we continue to be misrepresented.” Supporting his lyrics is one of Stevie’s most clever melodies. From its classical, harpsichord-like opening notes to the surprise key change 2/3rds of the way through, <i>Misrepresented People</i> fills the listener’s head with knowledge while making it nod to the beat. Spike Lee commissioned this song for his misfired satire <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2012/02/spike-lees-modest-proposal.html" target="_blank"><i>Bamboozled</i></a>, and once again, his composer upstages him by stating the cinematic thesis statement better and more succinctly than the director’s film does.</div>
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4. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILet5F31nwQ" target="_blank">Village Ghetto Land</a>- Again, here’s Stevie with the classical music angle, this time evoking madrigals* while guiding us on a scorching, ironic tour of poverty. (When Stevie’s live version with the Tokyo Philharmonic on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Wonder" target="_blank"><i>Natural Wonder</i></a> replaced the recorded version’s synthesizer with classically trained musicians, one hears just how in tune with all musical genres Stevie was.) Imhotep Gary Byrd’s lyrics give the ghetto a theme park-like ad campaign: “Would you like to come with me, down my dead end street? Would you like to come with me to Village Ghetto Land?” The sights you’ll see on your visit are harrowing, and the unsparing visuals are a striking counterpoint to the music. The jaunty melody brings out a pitch-black humor to the proceedings, resulting in blistering, devastating satire. The last two lines of the song twist the knife for those who think the singer is overreacting or merely complaining about the situation: After the litany of atrocities, Wonder asks “tell me, would you be happy in Village Ghetto Land?”<br />
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<i>*classical people, don't kill me. I'm just writing what I read...</i> </div>
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3. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIE6unjkXmc" target="_blank">Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away</a>- Stevie’s most pointed comments are sometimes hidden in his most<span id="goog_245421265"></span><span id="goog_245421266"></span> religious songs. God loves everyone, yet His followers were some of the biggest purveyors of racial hatred during slavery and segregation. Their excuse was that it was God’s will. Stevie addresses this in the song’s most stunning lyric, which hit me like a swift kick to the gut: “Why must my color Black make me a lesser man?” he asks. “I thought this world was made for every man. He loves us all. That’s what my God tells me.” Even more stunning is Wonder’s explanation for those who ask, in times of trouble, “Where is your God?” The response is that we’re not good enough for His return yet. “It’s taking Him so long ‘cuz we’ve got so far to come.” Before the situation becomes truly hopeless, he adds “but in my heart I can feel it. Feel His spirit.” I’ve long since left the Baptists and the church, but this song never fails to make me cry. There’s something just so <i>beautifully perfect</i> about its logic, right up to the final response to the question of God’s location: “Where is your God? Inside please let Him be.” Not at the megachurch, not in Rev. Money’s wallet, not in Congress. Inside you.</div>
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2. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQCJ6PzRdA" target="_blank">You Haven’t Done Nothin’</a>- Curtis Mayfield, no stranger to songs of peace, God and protest, once sang “and Nixon talkin’ ‘bout ‘Don’t Worry!’ He say ‘Don’t Worry!’” The former President and owner of Checkers the Dog gets a Watergate Hotel-sized boot in the ass courtesy of Stevie’s funkiest song. It’s damn near impossible to sit still when this comes on, but if you pay attention to the lyrics, you’ll hear one hell of a political beatdown. With the Jackson Five on background vocals (Stevie calls them by name to assist him), Wonder rides his killer bass line and horn section to the conclusion in this song’s title. “We are sick and tired of hearing your song,” Stevie tells the gov’ment, “cuz if you really want to hear our views, you haven’t done nothin’.” Though explicitly about Nixon, this song has been used by detractors as a poison dart for every president after Tricky Dick, including President Obama. YouTube is full of videos set to this, making it one of the few things liberals and conservatives like. Funk brings the universe together. Just ask George Clinton.<br />
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<i>"Make my funk the P-Funk!"</i></div>
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1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzR51V82tnY" target="_blank">Living for the City</a>- This list could only end here, with Stevie’s masterpiece from Innervisions. Wonder tells the story of a Hard Time, Mississippi native and his hardworking family, folks living just enough for the city. The character descriptions are Hemingway-spare, yet their familiarity sears a vivid, detailed image into your brain. “His sister’s Black, but she is sho’ nuff pretty,” Stevie tells us. “Her skirt is short, but Lord her legs are sturdy.” Every time I hear that lyric, I close my eyes and feel her presence as she walks past me down the street, underscored by the catchy “da-da-da-da” melody sung by Stevie after every verse. The main character, who’s “got more sense than many,” finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, the country mouse victimized by the city mice from New York City. On the album version, Stevie stops the song for a skit detailing a harsh prison sentence for our protagonist. (Wonder even gets a studio employee to deliver the song’s immortal “COME ON! COME ON! GET IN THAT CELL, NIGGER!” line.) When the song resumes, Stevie warns “if we don’t change, the world will soon be over.” <br />
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<i>Living for the City</i> ends with the most haunting final moment of any Motown song since Marvin Gaye cycled back to <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f39Zs0gB87c" target="_blank">What’s Going On</a> </i>at the end of <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1uelY2SGmw" target="_blank">Inner City Blues</a></i>. (it’s at 4:26 of that link.) Both songs tell tales of ghetto strife and have repeated “no’s” in the lyrics. Wonder uses his repeated “no’s” to end <i>Living for the City</i>, and I always ask myself if Stevie is pleading with us to change, or calling out to us a second too late to stop something horrible from happening. I always think it's the latter.<br />
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<b>Next time: 10 random yet great Stevie Wonder songs, including his collaboration with His Purple Badness.</b></div>
<br />odienatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com1