GREAT CHOICE! I couldn’t like Jabari’s book any more if somebody paid me.
I’m glad the brother is stepping into the historic continuum of Black magazine journalism on such a (deserved) high level. We know well his past work, and The Ancestors are watching…….
……then Cornel West should be very happy with these two tributes. LOL! 🙂
Here’s more, if you want it.
Ebony and Jet are online. No, a real site. Really. With punchy, well-written, original content on it. More proof we’re in the 21st century. 😉
………. Mark Anthony Neal’s interesting explanation (I won’t call it a defense, but I could 🙂 ) of Michael Eric Dyson?
Lemee get this straight……..
Black Southern teens get railroaded by an all-white jury after a fight with whites over a Jim Crowed tree(!)? Nooses hanging from that same tree later? A century in jail without parole?
I watched it, and only the fact that it was live and in color made me tackle my sense of denial and pin it to the ground, because I knew I had to be watching some leftover “Eyes On The Prize” footage…..
Meanwhile, the National NAACP takes significant time, ink and electrons having a funeral for the “N” word. *SIGH* 😦
JUST GOT BACK FROM THE MOVIE, and WOW!!!………
OFF. THE. CHAIN.
Which is kind of funny, because it’s an epic film in which “nothing” happens. “Phoenix” is essentially a war flick, with a little bit of the psychological thriller genre (complete with a couple of very subtle torture scenes!) thrown in. It’s really the beginning of a NEW, tragic HP trilogy. The cute stuff is gone with Cedric and none of it is ever coming back; from now on, leave the kids at home or put them in “Ratatouille” or whatever. 🙂 It’s the Beginning Of The End now, and the End is going to be very scary and bloody.
FROM JULY 10: I really can’t believe how important the Harry Potter film series has become to me over the years. And the reviews, of course, are overwhelmingly positive.
Only two more left………..*SIGH* 😦 It’ll be a hard wait until November 2008.
I haven’t read any of the books yet, but now I’m thinking of getting the last one.
What an amazing contribution to world fantasy! I look forward to other groups of people coming from their own cultural centers and making equal or better text and picture contributions.
The 8-year-old (or so) I was with Friday night loved it. And my 9:15 p.m. Silver Spring showing looked sold out. When my friend Raoul Dennis asked for my verdict right after it was over, I said, “Well, it’s better the first, but what is that really saying?” We both laughed.
This is the reality of “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.” Believe it or not, no mistakes were made the first time around, because all Tim Story did was make a better version of the first film. And I can’t be too mad at the brother; if my film made $300 million worldwide, would I really change that much?
That said, it IS better and worth seeing—even if you are a die-hard fan. At least the F.F. acted like the scientists/explorers they are in cartoons and comics. At least there were more scenes with Alicia Masters (and both her banter with Johnny Storm, and his conversations with and about her, were GREAT).
And Ol’ Chrome-Dome was on point. Visually, very much the character who blew my mind as a kid.
I’m excited about the Silver Surfer spin-off that’s in development. I hope in that film Galactus will be portrayed more traditionally. The storm thing DID work for “Rise,” though. As one poster said on “The Fantastic Four Message Board“: “While seeing Galactus looked cool back in my younger days I think we have all become a bit more sophisticated and I don’t think a big guy setting up some equipment on the the rooftop of a NYC skyscraper would have been better than the ominous looking Galactic Storm that threatens to consume the planet. Perhaps one day the original trilogy can be done by a top flight outfit like Pixar because I think he would look more plausible in that type of film.”
Blah, blah, blah. 🙂 None of this—including the weird (read: too fake) look that Jessica Alba’s very blond wig and too-blue contacts generated, the critics-reinforced opinion that many, MANY scenes could have been better acted—really matters. Silly Rabbit; Tricks Are For Kids. As I explained to a colleague on Friday before seeing the film: “I’m stuck. I’ve LOVED these characters since I was 10 years old.”
So with the Surfer risen, The Cosmic Quartet gains another group of 8-year-olds as a fan base, while the 10-year-old in me waits to join the next batch on line Opening Day for “FF3” in 2009. Not EXACTLY a lose-lose. 🙂
I’m biased, but AJR—the winner of an Mirror Award for Overall Excellence from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications—can be a very good magazine when it wants to be. It’s a solid resource for its targeted audience—the small group of white men (and some white women) who guide American mainstream journalism. It’s important to point out, however, that the percentage of white females who write for it, and/or help manage it, has traditionally been VERY strong.
1) Lana’s not dead. She pulled a David Copperfield, and got into that vehicle that was passing by her car.
(Aside: Folks on the Web LOVE to hate Lana. But she’s too beautiful to hate. 🙂 )
2) Chloe will either be dead, alive or dead-but-a-permanent-part-of-Lois. And wouldn’t the third be crazy??? From the very beginning, some rabid “Smallville” fans have been theorizing that somehow Chloe would morph into Lois. Erica Durance joining the show killed that idea……until now. Hmmm…….. 🙂 I love Chloe, but her essence transfer would be a “solution” to the problem of her on this show—taking up Lois’ historic space. And it would give this Lois a boost in the attributes and characteristics she needs to be a proper part of the Superman mythos.
3) Lionel’s not dead. Just knocked out.
4) Clark will find a way to kick Bizarro‘s ass, and he won’t put on a costume to do it.
5) This was a strong ending to a weak season.
May 18th UPDATE: Understand that Chloe’s alive and will be on next season.
Says Al Gough, “Smallville”‘s executive producer, in this interview (which I didn’t read carefully enough yesterday):
The idea that Chloe had a power was always something in the back of our minds, but we didn’t want it to be a cheap trick, we wanted the audience to be invested in the character and her relationship with Clark, and if we were going to do it, it was to deepen the character, which we think it does, and will allow us to keep exploring Chloe in season 7. You’ll see her power first manifest in the season finale.
Okay, there goes the theory. For now. 🙂
P.S. I guess it means NOBODY died after all. Oh, well, I would cry “gyp,” but it was an entertaining hour, so…….
Enjoyed Studs Terkel being interviewed today on “Democracy Now!” I’ve wanted to be the next coming of Studs for at least 15 years now. Happy 95th Birthday, Studs!
Wanted to post some excerpts I particularly enjoyed. So here they are.
I’m known as a poet of the tape recorder, right? The fact is I have no idea how the hell it works. I’m terrible, I’m a nut, mechanically. I can’t drive a car. I can’t ride a bike. I don’t know what “internet†means, or “website.†Google is an old-time comic strip — “Barney Google†— with his goo-goo-googly eyes.
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And so, you see, I’m not up on all the current stuff. And people say, “Boy, on that tape recorder, you capture those people.†No, they capture themselves, because I am inept. That comes out quite clearly.
Sometimes I turn the wrong button down. And that person in the housing project, she sees it doesn’t work, and she reminds me of it. And as I say, “Oh, I goofed,†at that moment, she is my equal or better than my equal. In other words, I am not, whoever it is, [inaudible], “Today” or “60 Minutes” or Kathy, whoever she is. It’s me, a guy who’s in trouble, and she helps me out. And so, I’m playing this tape recorder for this woman, very poor, very pretty. I don’t know whether she’s white or black. In those days, the early public housing projects were all mixed. And these little kids running around want to hear their mama’s voice on this new machine. And so, I’m playing it back, and she’s hearing her voice for the first time in her life, and suddenly she says, “Oh, my god!†And I say, “What is it?†She said, “I never thought I felt that way before.†Well, that’s an astonishing moment for her and for me, one you might say are fellow travelers together. So that’s the exciting stuff. She discovers that she does have a voice, that she counts.
The key word, by the way, in all of these people is they must feel they “count.†Nick von Hoffman, the columnist, used to work for the organizer Saul Alinsky, and he said once people get in a group and that group thinks as they do, he feels he counts or she counts more than alone. And so, that’s what it’s about.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want them to think of when someone says “Studs Terkel�
STUDS TERKEL: I want them to think of somebody who remembers them, to be remembered, whether it be me or anyone else. They want Studs Terkel, maybe as somebody — I’m romanticizing myself now — somebody who gave me hope. One of my books is Hope Dies Last. Without hope, forget it. It’s hope and thought, and that can counting. That’s what it’s about. That’s what I hope I’m about.
Drums in the Global Village 
