Category Archives: newspaper

R.I.P. "Boondocks" (THE COMIC STRIP, *NOT* THE TEE VEE SHOW)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Hmmm……

NOT surprised—neither by the news, nor how he chose to make the break.

I prided myself on reading EVERY McGruder interview that ever came my way. In virtually every one that went beyond than 200 words, I remember him complaining about how grueling it was to do the strip. (Here’s the most in-depth profile of McGruder I’ve yet seen.) To do a comic strip was my original ambition, so I both sympathize with him AND feel he was whining all the way to the bank.

I guess in the 21st century, everything is just a platform to another platform; every spot someone gets is just a temporary space to nap while preparing their next (upward, hopefully) hustle. Ed Gordon and Tavis Smiley use National Public Radio as a forum to keep their very public profiles while setting up their television vehicles. Hiphop Gen stars Queen Latifah and Ananda Lewis were among many that fell into cookie-cutter syndicated daytime Tee Vee talk shows that came and went, but at least their demos haven’t forgotten them, Heaven forbid. 🙂 

Ultimately, McGruder—who wrote in the introduction of one of his “Boondocks” anthologies that he wanted to continue the strip because it kept a foot in The Man’s @ss—didn’t want to be Charles M. Schulz or Garry Trudeau. He had always wanted to leverage the characters and the concept into a Tee Vee deal, and he got a very successful one. So why kill yourself? I guess he thought. 

And, to be real, for the most part, it’s not like he wasn’t phoning it in for the last couple of years.

If you are going to miss the strip, get this collection and you’ll be straight. It’s the best of the early ones—those made when his full attention was on the task, the ones that came before the Tee Vee show jumped off.

Speaking of the Tee Vee show, here’s the first-season episode that I rank as one of the best Black half-hours of Tee Vee ever.

As these characters become more and more multi-media, we’ll see some of the characters he created that had yet to make the strip. We’ll see, but, sadly, we’ll no longer read.

Obama 'Endorsed' By Biography Channel? And Why Don't Women Get Better Political Roles On Tee Vee?

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

An interesting CampusProgress.org article that I thought you’d want to read.

Biography’s Unnatural Women: On and off TV, men get better political roles than women

By Sarah Laskow, Yale University
Wednesday, September 6, 2006

The names are already familiar: Clinton, McCain, Condi. Inevitably, the next presidential election will be about celebrity: The media has already begun obsessing about the details of the event with all the ebullience of E! before the Oscars.

Unexpectedly, that media includes the Biography Channel, which seems to have implicitly endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Recently a series of paired profiles aired under the rubric “Then & Now,” and with a heavy hand matched Obama with John F. Kennedy. The all too obvious implication was that Obama is a sort of inevitable President.

The Biography Channel trades in celebrity; naturally they would prefer that the candidate with the handsomest face win the nation’s highest office. But the “Then & Now” series distinctly understands what it takes to be president, and demonstrates why Obama has a better chance of being elected in 2008 than either of the high profile women who might run.

There’s a key moment in each hour-long Biography program, and it comes precisely at the 30-minute mark. This juncture always portrays pain or absolute triumph, as when, in a typical Hollywood bio, Vivian Leigh (best known as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind) becomes mentally ill. Right before the half-hour, after the usual obstacles to success have been overcome and accolades won, a wide-eyed picture of the subject will take up the screen as the emotion intensifies. The camera will close in just a bit more. At this moment, the text of the inane narrator ceases to communicate anything at all (though he’s still talking), because the only thing that matters is the pair of eyes on the screen. From the still frame, the celebrity gazes out, and for that one moment, succeeds in telling his or her own story.

This moment works wonderfully in Biography’s profiles of politicians. President Kennedy and Senator Obama, when playing their roles well, are idealists who might actually accomplish some of their goals. With all of the real political compromise edited out and only the personal motivation left standing, you can read into their eyes all the hope in the world.

Click here for the entire article

Doing For Self (More Katrina From The Prism Of Black Media)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Here’s the press release and trailer link to the Nation of Islam’s Katrina documentary.

The provocative new documentary ‘The Unmasking of New Orleans’ includes exclusive, never-before-seen coverage and reports revealing the true nature of events in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) August 22, 2006 — On the eve of the one-year anniversary of what is the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, the provocative new documentary The Unmasking of New Orleans, produced by Final Call Incorporated (FCI) Broadcasting was released.

The ongoing struggle of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina is being swept away from the minds of the public as swiftly as the floodwaters washed away properties and lives when the levees breached. Is there truth to the numerous reports of rapes and murders? Who is going to tell the story of the heroic acts of the young men and women portrayed
as senseless looters by the mainstream media? It is important to obtain the truth.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan commissioned a crew from The Final Call newspaper to travel to New Orleans and film this documentary about the conditions and concerns that our people face since Hurricane Katrina, which the world must not be allowed to ignore, as we near the one-year anniversary of what is the worst natural disaster in U.S.
history.

Included in the documentary are insightful perspectives from New Orleans Councilman Oliver Thomas, Author Michael Eric Dyson, community activist “Mama D” as well as the nameless and faceless residents whose stories have not been told in this way before.

Bonus footage includes a visual tour of the Lower Ninth Ward featuring a conversation between Minister Farrakhan and New Orleans residents.

To view a trailer for ‘The Unmasking of New Orleans’ go to
http://www.finalcall.com/katrina.

Interviews and perspectives are available upon request.

Hope You're Reading……….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…………….BlackAmericaWeb‘s five-part series on Katrina, One Year Later.

While you’re there, check out BAW’s article on the current state of Black television.

I’m beginning to no longer remember a time in which we didn’t have immediately accessible, national Black-generated print reporting. It’s a good feeling for this Black media historian and AFRO and NNPA News Service alum. 🙂

The Child's Choice That Won't Go Away

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

I heard about it, but I didn’t see it until today. While sitting at my desk reading about Philadelphia’s Civil Rights and Black Power movements, my filmmaker nephew, Andrew Burroughs, sent me a link to a recent documentary about shadism and Black self-hate that should be seen and forwarded around to everyone.

“Check this out it’s really disturbing,” he told me in the message field. “This is one of the reasons I’m a filmmaker.”

You’ve heard of that doll test from 1954, right? Long time ago, right? Well, think again. I’ve heard about this update for a while now, but this was the first time I’ve actually seen it. Here’s an article on the issue by my hero, Hazel Trice Edney.

The Afros and the dashikis and “Black Is Beautiful” were supposed to fix this. But as someone who constantly grapples with his own shadism (and classism) issues, I know this is a hard problem to lick.