Boy, between this third cover and last issue’s (true) journalistic hit-job on McCain, Rolling Stone has set a new standard for clarity. 🙂
OCTOBER 30th ADD-ON: I bet Rolling Stone would like this.
Category Archives: magazine
40 of "60"
Wow! Kinda relevant, huh? 🙂
Wow! National Review Columnist–A Buckley, Even!–Endorses Obama!
Brief Book Review: Post-HipHoppers
This brand-new book occupies the intellectual space between Kevin Powell’s essay collections and Bakari Kitwana’s seminal work.
M.K. Asante, Jr., a filmmaker, poet and college professor, adds his name to the list of young (under 45 🙂 ) Blacks who’ve written works that seek to combine journalism, personal essays and contemporary history, using hiphop of the point of departure. He is an optimistic self-described “artivist,” a 26-year-old writing to inspire younger people who will pick up this book because of its title. It’ll be their text for Black Contemporary Socio-Political Development 101, and believe me, they need it.
Get this book for the teenager (or college-aged young adult) in your life and make him or her read it. Then make him or her look up all of the authors he mentions.
Trailer Time!
Although I will never be a fan of Reginald Hudlin’s first arc (see my comments at the bottom of this link), I admit this trailer (check the interview below it)—a word-for-word, scene-for-scene adaptation of that story’s first few pages—had me quite excited.
He’s greatly improved (I really liked BP 38), but to be honest, I’ve always thought that Hudlin’s Panther work would make better movies and television than comics. But I think it’s more about me being too old to read modern Marvel Comics. Judging by the first issue, the writer who replaced Hudlin for the current arc made the BET exec seem literary in comparison. 🙂
Did You See……….
….the excellent Harlem Book Fair panel on James Baldwin? The S. Pearl Sharp discussion of Baldwin’s Hollywood adventures—trying to produce a film on El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz—was worth the time alone. And Herb Boyd’s masterful work of moderator-as-narrator. And Baraka. Damn. That’s all they wrote.
CONGRATS To………
…..my nephew Andrew Burroughs Jr., who is being honored this week by the Newark Black Film Festival. His film won the Long Narrative Competition. The award, the 2008 Paul Robeson Award, is being presented by Paul Robeson Jr.
JULY 30th UPDATE: My nephew tells me last night Mr. Robeson is sick, so Richard Wesley is doing the honors. Get well soon, Mr. Robeson.
P.S. In an unrelated note, enjoyed this NPR story on Kevin Powell’s Congressional run. Congrats to you too, K.P.
P.P.S. More unrelated: Congrats to Pacifica’s “Democracy Now!” and NPR’s “Tell Me More” for actually covering what Obama said at “Unity” about reparations, et. al.
One-Word Review Of "The Dark Knight"
Masterpiece.
P.S. I’m off to see it tomorrow for the THIRD time, but I’ll see it again with anyone who wants to see it.
Black (Activist Commerical) Radio, R.I.P.?
It was great hearing Bob Law’s voice on the radio again. The occasion was a new documentary film he’s narrating.
Enjoyed the recent NPR discussion about it, and Black radio. I agree with the host—the time for Black Activist Commercial Radio might be past, but not necessarily for the same reasons she brought up. Check here for my five-year-old rant on the subject. Here are a couple of great books and two great radio programs on the subject.
The Death Of The Magazine, The Birth Of The Magazine
I like “NOVAScienceNOW,” even though I’m not hosting it. 🙂 Believe me, that’s high praise. It’s clear we’re in the Golden Age of the Magazine—the BROADCAST magazine. I’m happy that I can listen to three national Black(ish) radio newsmagazines in a week, watch the NOVA spinoff show every summer and check out what the brother’s doing on “History Detectives,” but it’s hard to let the dream go of working full-time for a national (Black) general interest magazine. (Aside: It’s really too bad that too many of these broadcast magazines don’t have full-time [or sometimes any!] correspondents.) Soon it’ll be time for the local library to get my Gordon Parks autobiographies, I guess.
