I’m known as blksista on the pages of DailyKos, Jack and Jill Politics, and Booman Tribune, among others. If you don’t readily know who I am, you probably heard that I wrote a series of blog articles about the drowning of New Orleans, my birthplace. It took a long time for me to find my voice blogging, and these articles basically made my rep on DK.
I finally realized that I wanted my own blog to continue to talk about New Orleans, black people, culture, gossip/public intellectualism, politics, Buddhism, journalism and ethics, looksism, cooking, fiction, history, womanism, writing, race, fashion, music and other topics of interest during this rather fractious time in American life and the life of the Republic.
I’ll also be posting pieces of my essays and fiction for people to read and enjoy. I can accept thoughtful feedback and criticism.
Finally, I would like to say that I have a patron saint of blogging, and that, for all intents and purposes, is the late Steve Gilliard. I discovered Steve’s blog while I was living on 132nd Street in Harlem, New York between 2003-2005. Through him, I got a real introduction to New York politics. We talked privately online here and there, but I never got to meet him. I’m sure we even passed by each other while at I-HOP without knowing it. I am so sorry he is gone, because he would have truly enjoyed seeing Obama in the White House, and his former nemesis Steele in the dog house as chairperson of the GOP. I know that I could never be as audacious or as knowledgeable as Steve was during his short career, but he did teach me a few things. One: to be yourself and two: to say what is real. Then you’ll never be alone.
If you like my work, if you like visiting This Black Sista’s Page, and if you can contribute $5, $10 or more, I may be able to weather some crises and stay afloat. You can use your bank account, Visa, MasterCard, AmerEx with the PayPal button to the top right.
Some of you may ask, what’s a krewe?A krewe (pronounced like the word, crew) is an group that organizes a parade or a ball during Carnival or Mardi Gras season in New Orleans.Season? Carnival is a season, too? Mardi Gras is not just celebrated the Tuesday before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, but for three weeks before Mardi Gras. All of the krewes mentioned above have parades, parties or balls during Carnival season or at Mardi Gras. During the rest of the year, some support charities, or care for other members and their families in times of need (social aid) and put on picnics, parties or social occasions for its members (like Zulu, the African American krewe that eventually became a foil to Rex), or sponsor other fundraising events.
What to expect:
In Tuesday’s parade, more than a dozen local marching bands, a horse-pulled steam fire engine, modern fire trucks from New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, and the Budweiser Clydesdales and wagon will be sprinkled among the floats.
Saints owner Tom Benson, Saints players and the team’s staff will be toasted at Gallier Hall by a wide array of public officials, led by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, acting Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot and Gov. Bobby Jindal, and including several of the state’s congressional delegation, other local elected officials from the New Orleans area, and several from neighboring Mississippi.
While stopped at the reviewing stand, the Saints also will be serenaded with a rendition of “Halftime (Stand Up & Get Crunk)” by the Ying Yang Twins, said Ceeon Quiett, communications director for Mayor Ray Nagin.
“How could you have this parade and not have this group that’s coined the theme song that everyone loves,” Quiett said.
One thing is for sure, unless he’s incapacitated or dies, sticky-fingered Joe Jackson is going to be on Larry King or any other cable news joint that gives him a mic and a forum. Expect LaToya, Randy, Jermaine, or any of those under-employed middle-aged brothers special guesting on HLN or Nancy Grace, too. And the accusations will have little basis in fact. It will all be about loosening the grip of the conservators of Michael’s estate, and holding management firm AEG responsible for his death, but I doubt whether it will work, unless Dr. Murray actually confesses to exactly what they believe. It won’t happen. And the longer it goes, through the preliminary hearings and then the trial, the worse it will get. From the bizarre to the creepy to the contemptible. Sorry, but I think even TMZ isn’t drinking this Kool Aid.
Murray was with the pop star when he died on June 25, 2009.
The Los Angeles County coroner ruled Jackson’s death a homicide, resulting from a combination of drugs, primarily propofol — a powerful anesthesia — and lorazepam.
Joe Jackson suggested it was more than a doctor making a fatal judgment.
“To me, he’s just a fall guy” Jackson said. “There’s other people, I think, involved with this whole thing. But I think that [if] he’s interrogated — he would come clean and tell everything he knows.”
He said Michael Jackson told his mother, as he was preparing for his comeback concerts in London, England last year, that he thought he would be killed.
“He was afraid to even do all of these shows, because he was afraid that he wouldn’t get a chance to finish all of the show,” Joe Jackson said. “He couldn’t do all those shows back-to-back. Even his kids say that he had told them that he would be murdered.”
Um, I wouldn’t pin all my hopes on one witness–and the one who allegedly caused Michael’s death–to ‘fess up to a conspiracy so immense. As I said in previous articles about a murder one charge against Dr. Murray, it is much harder to prove. One cannot go on a hunch. And after being burned on several high-level murder cases, Los Angeles County prosecutors don’t want to eff this one up–not after O.J., Robert Blake, and Phil Spector. The weeks-long delay in formally charging Dr. Murray came about because the District Attorney’s office didn’t want to tip too much of their hand to the L.A.P.D., touching off a big time feud between the two law enforcement agencies.
H/T to blog Put Me On It, whose proprietor is a big Withers fan.
Understand that just because I like Bill’s work, it doesn’t mean I approve of his past marital violence towards Denise Nicholas. Yeah, I’ve always thought that the stories were true, although Withers, now 71, and Nicholas have never said anything about it, anywhere. And Withers doesn’t mention it during this interview. For them, it’s ovah. Let’s face it: if that marriage was anything like one of my favorite Withers songs, “Use Me,” that some say was really about their relationship, as well as songs like, “Who Is He, and What Is He To You?” then they deserved a break-up before the marriage or an annulment sooner than the year they had together.
Bill remarried another woman, Marcia Johnson, had two children now grown, Kori and Todd, and for all intents and purposes may not have visited his previous behavior on his second wife or on their children. All three work in his song publishing company.
Nor does it mean that I’m a fan of Tavis Smiley, with his sucking up to Hillary Clinton during the last campaign, using the now-cancelled The State of the Black Union as an exercise of self-promotion and hackery to promote himself as some sort of black leader or gatekeeper. Or of his rampant egomania and his questionable corporate connections (Wells Fargo! Washington Mutual!) either.
It just means that I like Withers’ songs out of nostalgia and appreciation of his songwriting gifts. I’ll never stop loving “Lean on Me,” “Use Me,” “Can We Pretend,” “Lovely Day,” and “Grandma’s Hands.” And I’m glad Tavis decided to include him on the schedule.
Prosecutors on Monday charged Michael Jackson’s personal physician with involuntary manslaughter in connection with administering a combination of surgical anesthetic and sedatives blamed in the music legend’s death last summer.
The complaint filed in Superior Court accused Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist caring for the 50-year-old pop icon during an ambitious comeback attempt, of causing Jackson’s June 25 death by acting “without due caution and circumspection.”
The criminal case comes after a seven-month investigation that stretched from the master bedroom of Jackson’s Holmby Hills mansion to the heart clinic Murray ran in a poor neighborhood of Houston. The focus, however, rarely left Murray.
Yeah, but this latest acquirer of 15 minutes of (in)fame(y) wants to have the spotlight on him, too. A couple of days ago, TMZ reported on and took pictures of Murray trying to visit the final resting place of his former client. I’m shaking my head at this gross disrespect, though from what I heard, no one from the public is allowed to go pay their respects there. It may be locked away. But any conscious individual wouldn’t have dared. The effort calls attention to himself, tries to make him out like he’s some kind of tragic figure. Please.
TMZ just reported that “the media has finally been let into the courtroom. Jackson family members spotted: Joe, Katherine, Jackie, Rebbie, Jermaine, and La Toya.” (Remember, as it is about 4:20 p.m. Central Time as I am writing this, it is about 2:20 p.m. Pacific Time, and 5:20 p.m. Eastern Time.)
Yes, I popped the champagne cork, especially after this play by Tracy Porter. As the Niners have “The Catch” made by Dwight Clark, the Saints will probably have “The Interception” to look back on as the beginning of everything:
They fought hard for New Orleans, and it may indeed be raining today in the Crescent City, with many nursing gargantuan hangovers, hoarse throats, and aching feet. However, it is not raining in many of the hearts of those who are still hanging on there after Katrina.
No more paper bags. Hell has indeed frozen over.
Drew Brees wasn’t like Broadway Joe Namath of the Jets forty-one years ago, but he was just as adamant that he and his guys, like Garrett Hartley, Jonathan Casillas, Jeremy Shockley, Thomas Morstead, Chris Reis, Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush, were going to win his one, while the whole nation appeared to be in Indianapolis’ corner.
The Saints were five point underdogs. I mean, haven’t the Colts learned anything in the intervening years? Blah dee blah, Peyton Manning is the king of the world, blah dee blah. CBS’ Katie Couric essentially asked Drew Brees whether he and the guys should even show up because they were going to lose. Peyton had his bloodlines and years of being pumped up as a paragon by the media and the sports hierarchy.
Drew wasn’t anybody until he became Somebody with the Saints and with the people of New Orleans. That game was won chiefly by heart, and some may say, by heart alone.
New Orleans, you’re gonna make it, no matter what. And now, you’re king of the world, from biting the biggest king cake of them all.
John Crane, 43, an ex-con with a history of violent crime, turned himself in to Richmond authorities Tuesday (January 20) evening. He is thought to be the final suspect in the gang rape of a Richmond High teen during and after their homecoming dance (Courtesy: S.F. Chronicle)
RICHMOND, Calif. — Prosecutors charged a seventh suspect Thursday (January 22) in connection with the Oct. 24 gang rape of a 16-year-old girl outside Richmond High School’s homecoming dance, Deputy District Attorney Dara Cashman said.
John Crane Jr., a 43-year-old Richmond resident, was charged with rape in concert and the special allegation that he personally penetrated the victim, an allegation that makes him eligible for a life sentence, Cashman said.
Crane, who turned himself in to police Tuesday night, was scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Richmond this afternoon, but the arraignment was delayed because of a transportation mix-up.
He is scheduled to be in court Friday morning instead, Cashman said.
The other six defendants were in court Thursday to set a date for a preliminary hearing, but that was postponed because the district attorney’s office is still waiting for the results from forensic tests to be processed.
Those suspects include San Pablo residents Cody Smith, 15, and Ari Morales, 16; Pinole resident Marcelles Peter, 17; and Richmond residents Manuel Ortega, 19, Jose Montano, 18, and Elvis Torrentes, 21.
According to police, as many as 10 people robbed, beat and raped the victim for two and a half hours in a secluded area of the campus beginning at about 9:30 p.m. while as many as a dozen others stood by and watched.
There was an intense manhunt for Crane after a $100,000 arrest warrant was issued identifying him as being one of the participants in the rape on January 15. A $10,000 reward was offered for information leading to his apprehension.
Richmond police admitted that John Crane brings a “unique dynamic” to the case, because he is more than twice as old as the younger assailants. They do not believe that Crane knew any of the young men with whom he is charged, or even knew his victim.
My feeling is that Crane probably lived around or hovered around the vicinity of the school many times, and saw his opportunity that night.
Later, on February 3, Crane pled not guilty “to charges of forcible rape in concert and a special allegation that makes him eligible for life in prison if convicted.” He is being held on $100,000 bail.
More about this case later: what is happening in Richmond now, what is happening with the survivor and her family, and the lynch mob atmosphere among a large number of people, including the media, in the Bay Area.
Of major significance at the meeting, the four learned from what they all described as a “red-faced” Captain Martin that he was not forthright about there not being “any videotapes” of the missing woman at Lost Hills, and his previous assertions that there are only live-feed cameras at Lost Hills were inaccurate.
Martin told Baca that he has tapes “in his desk” of Richardson in the “booking cage” and other video/audio, some of which may be from the restaurant.
Croft said they were told that the tapes could not be made available to them until the tapes have been edited “to protect” other people. He said Martin did not clarify whether this is because of the presence of other inmates (which it is believed there were none at the time), or because of the civilian jailer who processed Richardson. The jailer, Sharon Cummings, declined a request by The News to be interviewed or to provide a photograph.
“The tapes are being edited to protect other people”? What people?
TMZ and ‘nem are going crazy over the news that Dr. Conrad Murray is set to be arrested and arraigned for manslaughter in connection with the death of singer Michael Jackson. I’m not. They’re saying he’s going to be arrested this week. No, Wednesday. Now, it’s Friday. It could be today for all we know. If anything, what is believable is that the man is in L.A., with the cops watching his every move. He’s at his latest baby mama’s address, according to TMZ. He was supposed to be in court in Las Vegas over some other financial shenanigans, and the judge had to call him in default and award the case to his creditors. Well, they can’t collect if he’s in the slam or close to it.
Just stay tuned. When it’s announced, with the perp walk recorded with the one pool camera for all of the media, I’ll have a few things to say. Otherwise, I am dropping back from The Stupid.
Controversial spiritual leader James Arthur Ray was arrested today and charged with three counts of manslaughter connected to the deaths at a Sedona, Ariz., sweat lodge in October.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest in a statement on its Web site.
“With the arrest of James Ray, Sheriff [Steve] Waugh hopes the familes of the three victims will now have some measure of closure to this tragedy,” the post said.
Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman died following a ceremony in the sweat lodge led by Ray on Oct. 9.
Bond was set for Ray at $5 million, the sheriff’s office said.
Ray’s lawyer, Luis Li, called the charges “unjust” and said that Ray would be proven innocent.
“This was a terrible accident — but it was an accident, not a criminal act,” Li said in a statement released after the arrest. “James Ray cooperated at every step of the way, providing information and witnesses to the authorities showing that no one could have foreseen this accident. We will now present this evidence in a court of law, and we are confident that Mr. Ray will be exonerated.”
Brown, 38, and Shore, 40, both of whom paid nearly $10,000 to spend the week with Ray, died in the lodge.
Neuman, 49, spent more than a week in a coma and died Oct. 17. Eighteen others were injured.
Talk about a fall from a great height. When you hurt and kill people rather than help them, then there is something essentially incorrect about your teachings.
(This excerpt is from a series that was made in Britain.)
I saw this recent article over at AlterNet about what women will undergo or do about their vaginas. Currently, it’s the number one article over there.
It looks like a lot of self-hating, truly. Someone’s got to explain it to me if it isn’t. To me, you’re perfect if everything works well. If it doesn’t, and it disturbs your mental and physical health, then get help or in extreme cases, surgery. Otherwise, why muck with a good thing? It seems, though, that it is happening in response to several things: to conform to men’s expectations, to stay in competition with other women; to paranoia about bodily functions, and also to paranoia about getting older.
Don’t even think that this is merely a white woman’s thing. That’s what some black women will say. No, it ain’t. I’ve seen the TDS sprays and the douche kits in black women’s apartments and homes, too. And now that some black women have some real disposable income, I wouldn’t put it past some of them to secretly research and try even more invasive procedures to make themselves appear and smell normal. Whatever that is. They’ll call it searching for self-esteem and self-acceptance. It would put a new spin on how black women look at themselves. To have agency and to decide on such a thing would cut both ways. I would hope that through the law of averages, negative wouldn’t win out over positive.
Shaniya Davis, in a fuzzy photograph taken around 2007; her assailant, Mario Andrette McNeill, had photos of a young black female below the age of 10 on his cell phone (Courtesy: WTVD 11)
Police investigating the disappearance of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis found explicit pictures of a child on a phone belonging to the suspect in the child’s murder, according to unsealed court documents.
Mario Andrette McNeil’s phone was seized by police after his arrest Nov. 19, the warrants say. The Fayetteville man is charged with kidnapping, raping and murdering Shaniya.
Search warrants in the case were unsealed this week by a Cumberland County Superior Court judge. According to an affidavit attached to one warrant, Detective Jason Sondergaard “observed photographs of a sexually explicit nature and some of the photographs appeared to be that of a female juvenile under 10 years of age.”
The warrant says Sondergaard contacted a doctor who specializes in developmental and forensics pediatrics to help identify the approximate age of the girl in the photographs. A precise age could not be determined..
But the doctor confirmed that the explicit photos were of a young black girl.
Shaniya, who was black, was reported missing by her mother, who lived in a trailer park off Murchison Road. Video footage from a Sanford motel showed McNeil carrying the child into the motel on the morning she disappeared. Shaniya’s body was later found in woods near Sanford. Her mother has been charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.
Senior Resident Superior Court Judge E. Lynn Johnson ordered nine search warrants unsealed Monday. The documents had been sealed since mid-November at the request of Fayetteville police, who thought the information could compromise the investigation.
The warrants covered searches of cameras and computers belonging to McNeil and Shaniya’s mother, Antoniette Davis, along with searches of McNeil’s home, two cell phones, a GPS system and two searches of Davis’ trailer on Sleepy Hollow Drive.
You have to have seen this one; it’s been running since about mid-January. Seems like a rip-off of part of the story line of Barbershop 2, and even the competing businesses have nearly identical names (Nappy Cutz versus Nitro Cutz), but I can go along with it. There is such a thing as homage.
Brother Dan’s been in business for days; he probably inherited the barbershop from an uncle or a father. This is his livelihood; he’s a neighborhood mainstay. And he knows how to cut hair.
Then this chain mofo, Nitro Cutz, blows into town. Opening day, they advertise $6 haircuts in the windows of the mega-barbershop. Six dollar haircuts? How can one stand up–or stay in business–against that kind of offer to customers? The manager and the barbers are salivating running Dan off the main drag.
Dan, though, has a brainstorm. He goes to Office Depot and talks to an associate in their reprographics department (or the Copy and Print Depot) Next thing you know, Dan has put up his own banner…and the rest is history. That is, Nitro Cutz is history.
What I love about Dan the Barber is not just that he’s black. He’s a small businessman, and he’s not surrounded by those markers–a low-income neighborhood, kids loitering, a corner grocery store with an ATM–that make for failure. It’s just between him and Nitro Cutz. This rivalry could have taken place anywhere in the United States. Dan’s resourcefulness is low-tech, accessible and inexpensive. His prices may be higher than Nitro Cutz, but he knows how to cut hair–anybody’s hair–especially hair that someone else has fcked up. Everybody has been in that kind of situation before–and that’s why Dan survives while Nitro Cutz is run out of town.
Ad Week said about this 33-second commercial created by Young and Rubicam that it was stretching reality that one banner could cause such a reversal of fortune. They don’t get it. It was more than just the banner. It was the resourcefulness, the banner, and the skillz. It was about what Office Depot could do for Dan, using his specs. AdWeek also speculated whether the commercial could invite comparisons between Office Depot and the small businesses that it ran out of business when it blew into cities across the country. Whatever. I think that it’s a great David versus Goliath story in these times of undisguised populism. Big doesn’t exactly mean good. And quality always trumps quantity.
Straight from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), these are the biggies. The Oscar ceremony will be telecast March 7, starting at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time; 7:00 p.m. Central Time and 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
Best Picture
* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
* “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
* “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
* “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
* “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
* “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role
* Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
* George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
* Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
* Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
* Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”
Actor in a Supporting Role
* Matt Damon in “Invictus”
* Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
* Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
* Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
* Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”
Actress in a Leading Role
* Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
* Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
* Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
* Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
* Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”
Actress in a Supporting Role
* Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
* Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
* Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
* Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
* Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Directing
* “Avatar” James Cameron
* “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
* “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
* “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman
A few notes: Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is running neck and neck with Avatar made by her ex-husband, James “King of the World” Cameron. The Academy expanded the voting for films from 5 or 6 to ten a year or so ago. And District 9 is about aliens and South Africa and Invictus is about using sport to bring South Africa together. Why the focus on South Africa in at least two films? Dunno…maybe yall gotta clue. It certainly looks like more than a co-inky-dink. And Lee Daniels is only the third black director to be nominated for an Oscar.
The word “project” in the title indicates that we are meant to take this seriously (its meaningless use in “The Rachel Zoe Project” notwithstanding). It suggests hard work and the possibility of transformation. That the subject of the series is also one of its producers is worth noting but also par for the course in the new reality we call “reality.”
The game plan is laid out clearly in the opening narration: “Against all odds, one man escaped and uplifted a family. But his humble beginnings led to a very tragic ending. But from darkness he saw the light. Blessed with a second chance, he must once again rise above to heal his family, his community, his legacy.” (Heal his legacy?) It is a redemption story, couched in religious terms: “I’m Michael Vick,” Vick says over the opening credits. “My fall from grace was tragic, but it was all my fault, and I’m on a mission to get everything back. Not the money and the fame, but to restore my family’s good name.”
You can decide for yourself whether this process is already, for all intents and purposes, complete. That Vick’s Philadelphia teammates recently voted him the Ed Block Courage Award, for players who “exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage,” seems to indicate that it is, as does a BET online poll in which 85% of those responding agreed that the quarterback had already done enough to “repair his image.” It also indicates that the likely audience for this show is already on the star’s side.
Not really. The Humane Society and other “against animal cruelty” organizations will be monitoring the show as well. So far, reviewers are saying that the show does not delve into the reasons why the quarterback tortured and executed dogs; and when he goes back to the scene of his crimes, that it is almost a nostalgic moment for him. What? If it was a nostalgic moment, then why was he happy there once upon a time? That’s something that I would like to know as well. And if the film does not provide answers, Vick must in the near future.
I would suggest that their adherents as well as other outraged members of the public also view this show, because as much as Vick has been called everything but a child of the Universe and an inhabitant of Turtle Island, it may just humanize him–humanize him enough for him to be accessible to them as another human being. Forgiveness isn’t warranted here–that won’t come until much later, and perhaps not at all for many of them–but acceptance.
One scene in the film, in which Hitler launches into a furious tirade upon finally realizing that the war is truly lost, has become a staple of internet viral videos. In these videos the original audio of Ganz’s voice is retained, but new subtitles are added so that he now seems to be reacting instead to some setback in present-day politics, sports, popular culture, etc. One parody implied that Hitler had been angered by his being banned from Xbox Live. This video accumulated a vast number of YouTube views and was posted on video game related sites, including IGN, Joystiq, and Kotaku.
One video released during the 2008 American presidential campaign imagined Hitler as Hillary Clinton, enraged by Barack Obama’s victories over her in presidential primaries; in February 2009 the New York Times described this as the best-known of these videos within the United States. Another video featured Hitler as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, outraged over the NDP–Liberal Coalition.
In February 2009, a Downfall parody video protesting parking problems in Tel Aviv, Israel sparked a heated debate with Holocaust survivors about the legitimacy of jokes involving Hitler and the Nazi regime.
The film’s director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, spoke positively about these parodies in a 2010 interview with New York magazine, saying that many of them were funny and they were a fitting extension of the film’s purpose: “The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it’s only fair if now it’s taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like.”
An article in The Times said of these parodies, “The dramatic weighting of the scene itself makes it endlessly versatile. Hitler is given bad news, dismisses it with a counter-suggestion, is told why that won’t be happening, then pauses before dismissing most of the room in order to blow his top, while outside in the corridor everyone eavesdrops in terrified silence, apart from a weeping secretary who is comforted by a comment from her colleague.” The article also stated of the parodies, “Films in which the Führer explodes with frustration at events in the sporting world over which he has no control are funny because they locate the ranting, screaming, infantile little Hitler in all of us. They are the comedy of identification. This applies even more to the hilarious series of mash-ups in which Hitler, like the rest of us, has problems with his software. He can’t get Windows Vista to work, his Wii is malfunctioning and then he tries his hand with a Mac. The joke here is that our inner Luddite is on Hitler’s side.” The same article quoted one maker of these parodies as saying, “It works well… because it fits within the parameters of sketch comedy. We have conflict, a high level of tension and an emotional, over-the-top character, who is also safe to ridicule, due to him being such a despicable person. The structure is already in place, it’s just a case of making the dialogue fit and timing it right.”
I’m a bit of a Hitler buff, too. Don’t ask me why I’m fascinated with the Anti-Christ and murderer of millions, but maybe it’s because this nothing, possibly bisexual, failed artist and product of a marriage between a niece and an uncle rose inside of a decade to become sole ruler of Germany. All the documentaries I own about him and his henchmen always have a happy ending, and Universe hear me, that’s the most important thing.
This viral commercial about the Apple iPad both celebrates and critiques this so-called answer to Kindle; it hits all the negatives about the gadget. The genius part is placing it before one of the hardest people ever to please in an imperfect world. It even looks like a day in the life of Adolf in his bunker, who’s carpet chewing like he just lost East Prussia to the Russian onslaught.
I think we have to give Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be, Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator, and Moe Howard of the Three Stooges in You Nazty Spy! first credit for laughing at Hitler. After the war, it was Mel Brooks in The Producers. Television sources are Hogan’s Heroes with the late Bob Crane and the BBC series, ‘Allo ‘Allo. Get it? It was long before Inglourious Basterds came on the scene. Once in a while, one of the characters would dress up as Hitler or mimic his harsh ranting. The Germans of these series were always oafs who managed to help the Allied cause or the Resistance; but as I had to once explain to my sister who was in elementary school at the time, real Germans–the Nazis–were not funny or stupid during World War II. They were busy murdering Jews, and killing civilians and soldiers alike. And Hitler didn’t like black people either. It was going to be a world without Jews, blacks, gays, gypsies, dissidents–in short, anything that marred his vision for Germany and Europe.
Using Hitler in this commercial doesn’t diminish his crimes or his responsibility for them. It does, however, humanize him a bit, because his frustration is our frustration with modern gadgetry or technology that is supposed to make us better workers or better people, and unfortunately, the opposite is always true. It isn’t a perfect world after all. And because of that, Apple will keep trying; I don’t doubt that we’re in for yet another version for the iPad in about six to eight months, and people will pay up front for perfection again in another “losing” battle.
It’s a good thing Adolf Hitler wasn’t given a day longer for him to get things “right.”
It’s been seven months now since the news broke that Michael Jackson had died, and these children may not have been given closure. I saw the Grammys last night, and outside of Pink, Lady GaGa and Beyonce, this was one of the highlights of the show. But I felt like the children’s grief had been reawakened once more. It made me wonder, once more, about the dangers that these children face about their elders using their grief and bereftness over their famous father’s death to make money or to get the public’s attention. Understand that they were flanked by the latest generation of Jacksons to enter show business, their cousins, who also seemed to have had nose jobs and processes. Ew…
Worse yet, The Grammys were held at the same location as the memorial service for their father, the Staples Center.
Her school will finally be rebuilt, but Ty’Sheoma will not be there to see it happen, or to walk through its doors on the first day of classes. Her mother lost her job in August 2009 when she was laid off from her job assembling ambulances. The family no longer lives in Dillon. And Ty’Sheoma’s growing up–she entered high school this fall. Occasionally, at functions like these pictured at the below right, Ty’Sheoma will be invited to attend.
Ty'Sheoma Bethea receives a hug January 17 from filmmaker Charles Ferillo, who produced the documentary, "Corridor of Shame" about J.V. Martin Middle School and scores of dilapidated, structurally dangerous schools in South Carolina; however, Ty'Sheoma no longer lives in Dillon, S.C. (Courtesy: The Post & Courier)
Ty’Sheoma Bethea, now 15, received her invitation two days before Obama’s speech, and most of Dillon, S.C., helped prepare her for the trip. She owned only jeans, so school administrators bought her two dresses. She splurged on a fancy haircut. A friend gave her new tennis shoes to wear on the airplane.
J.V. Martin Junior High School held an assembly to celebrate her return, and 300 students cheered Bethea. She stood in the gym, a converted boxing arena with a leaky ceiling and a wooden floor that buckles and slopes, and regaled classmates with stories of visiting the White House bowling alley and posing for pictures with the president. Obama had visited J.V. Martin twice while campaigning, once spending two hours touring the decrepit building in 2007, and Bethea believed her visit had confirmed the inevitable: “He’s getting us a new school,” she told classmates.
Dillon, population 6,500, enjoyed a buoyancy it hadn’t experienced in decades, residents said. A Chicago company donated $250,000 worth of school furniture, installing new desks in the middle of the night. Bethea gave speeches and accepted scholarships. Architects and CEOs flew in to propose plans for a new school. Gone would be the condemned auditorium with busted-out windows, the cold classrooms in mobile trailers and the dirt playing fields surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. School officials contemplated a $55 million proposal called the 21st Century Promise: a 100-acre “community campus” funded in part by government money, where the doors would remain open 24 hours to allow access to a swim center, a community center and a laundromat.
“They said people would be coming from China to look at this school,” Dillon Mayor Todd Davis said.
“We were seeing these plans, and our eyes were about to burst out of our heads,” said Ray Rogers, superintendent of Dillon schools. “We just wanted a working ceiling, and now we were talking about having the finest of this, the best of that.”
But South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford hesitated to use federal stimulus money to build new schools, and Dillon struggled to procure a substantial loan in an unstable economy. CEOs stopped touring J.V. Martin, and architects moved on to other projects. Dillon even lost Bethea, its most public activist, in August after her mother, Dina, was laid off from her job at an ambulance manufacturer. Dina found work in Atlanta, where Bethea now attends high school.
They left behind a town where hope now feels like a distant memory. The unemployment rate is 18 percent. The largest employer, a chicken-processing plant, pays $9 an hour. The only stimulus money has gone to road resurfacing. All six schools remain in various stages of disrepair. “All of them are about as eye-appealing as sausage,” the mayor said.
I’ve seen this recording in various video collections on You Tube, and yeah, when something like this pops up several times in my line of vision, there’s a reason why.
Some of what Abani says is almost like Buddhism. You could say that he’s a preacher of ubuntu. That is, the only way that he can be more human is to have his humanity reflected through the lives of others. There is no way, he says, that we can be human without other people. He says that we are “never more beautiful than when we are most ugly, because that’s the moment when we really know what we are made of,” and that “the world is never saved in grand, messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible everyday acts of compassion.”
This is his Wikpedia entry:
Abani’s first novel, Masters of the Board, was about a neo-Nazi takeover of Nigeria. The book earned one reviewer to praise Abani as “Africa’s answer to Frederick Forsyth.” The Nigerian government, however, believed the book to be a blueprint for an actual coup, and sent the 18-year-old Abani to prison in 1985. After serving six months in jail, he was released, but he went on to perform in a guerilla theatre group. This action led to his arrest and imprisonment at Kiri Kiri, a notorious prison. He was released again, but after writing his play Song of a Broken Flute he was arrested for a third time, sentenced to death, and sent to the Kalakuta Prison, where he was jailed with other political prisoners and inmates on death row. His father is Igbo, while his mother was English born.
He spent some of his prison time in solitary confinement, but was freed in 1991. He lived in exile in London until a friend was murdered there in 1999; he then fled to the United States.
He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the 2001 Prince Claus Awards, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Selections of his poetry appear in the online journal Blackbird.
Even Faux Noise (Fox News) knew it was a lost cause when they cut away 20 minutes before it all ended to start sniping and griping. The C-Span server crashed from so many people streaming live.
So they thought that they could ambush Barack “can’t explain domestic policy without a TelePrompter” Obama? Now the Republicans are openly grumbling that they should never allowed cameras at this summit. Because the proof is there. They have nothing but talking points. Nothing. It showed all their asses to the world; that the Party of No have no clothes. None. The man was brilliant; his strategy of meeting them on their own ground was brilliant. He countered and confronted them with facts. He told them that their Rovian strategy of always campaigning was killing their ability to help their own people.
This was the lead story on all the 5:30 p.m. news shows tonight. I know they’re not going to do this again.
The moment President Obama began his address to Republicans in Baltimore today, I began to receive e-mails from Democrats: Here’s an except from one of them: “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that it took a f$$@&$* year for Obama to step into the ring and start throwing some verbal blows… I’m definitely praying at mass on Sunday morning that this Obama doesn’t take another 12 month vacation.”
This e-mail comes from a very influential Democrat.
Accepting the invitation to speak at the House GOP retreat may turn out to be the smartest decision the White House has made in months. Debating a law professor is kind of foolish: the Republican House Caucus has managed to turn Obama’s weakness — his penchant for nuance — into a strength. Plenty of Republicans asked good and probing questions, but Mike Pence, among others, found their arguments simply demolished by the president. (By the way: can we stop with the Obama needs a teleprompter jokes?)
More than the State of the Union — or on top of the State of the Union — this may be a pivotal moment for the future of the presidential agenda on Capitol Hill. (Democrats are loving this. Chris Hayes, The Nation’s Washington bureau chief, tweeted that he hadn’t liked Obama more since the inauguration.)
During the presidential campaign, it was John McCain who proposed a form of the British Prime Ministers’ questions for the president. It was derided as a gimmick. This is no gimmick. I have not seen a better and perhaps more productive political discussion in this country in…a long time. 90 minutes worth!
Obama performed as well as any British prime minister during Question Time. The same cannot be said for the Republicans who, by and large, tried to use dishonest arguments and demonstrably inaccurate statistics only to have Obama tell them to get serious and stop trying to score cheap political points. I can honestly say that if as many Americans watched today’s Q & A with the Republicans as watched the State of the Union, our political problems would be over. If we had Question Time, we’d have a much easier time winning over public opinion and sustaining support for progressive policies.
For those of you who have never seen the British Prime Minister’s Question Time, which happens each week in the House of Commons and is broadcast and recorded for even international audiences, you’ll never see such a political free-for-all in your natural life (barring fisticuffs that explode in the Japanese Diet or the Korean parliament). Tories, Liberals, Social Democrats and Laborites lob questions like hand grenades at the Prime Minister for policy decisions that s/he’s made during the week, and it’s almost like the last man or woman standing. But it sure does clear the air and doesn’t allow for many talking points.
This is the first time that I have ever seen You Tube allow the recording of an event rather than hacking it up into distressing increments. This video goes on for more than 90 minutes. If your family members and friends w/o Internet connections missed it and want to see it, tell them to see it again just to savor the humiliation, it will be rebroadcast tonight at 7 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern, and 9 p.m. Pacific on C-Span. MSNBC will most probably rebroadcast it at 9:00 p.m. (Central), and will have Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and the notorious Chris “Tweety” Matthews critique this amazing talk in a repeat at 11 p.m. (Central).
I swear, this was the Obama I voted for. Took the battle right into the nest of the enemy, pulled the pin, and walked away dusting himself off.
There have been a lot of deaths recently, those of Jean Simmons, Kate McGarrigle, Howard Zinn, Pernell Roberts, and J.D. Salinger. They were great, and then, everyday smaller miracles like Jasmina Anema make their transition. Wednesday night, this brave little soul returned to the Universe. Inside her six years, she had crammed a lot of living.
Jasmina Anema lost her fight against leukemia, but her plight stirred many to become bone marrow donors (Courtesy: NYDN)
Jasmina’s year-long fight against an especially fatal form of the disease ended at 10:55 p.m. Tuesday night at NYU Langone Medical Center, her mother, Thea Anema, said.
“She was an incredible fighter to the end,” said Jasmina’s godmother, Mariana Verkerk. “Her attitude was always incredibly positive. She fought her battle so hard, and unfortunately she didn’t win it.”
Thea Anema was too devastated to speak, but she sent a message through Jasmina’s godmother.
“Thea wants everyone to know that Jasmina had a wonderful life…and she died peacefully,” Verkerk said.
New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl Parade Celebration Webcast This Afternoon...and What the Win May Mean to The Ninth Wa… http://wp.me/psAK5-1hW7 hours ago
The State Journal's story about the environmental harm that can come from road salt was sure to create a stir among many drivers who drove into work through several inches of snow this morning. Predictably, the gist of many comments on the story was: Why stint on salt when the lakes are already in bad shape? Well, if it's any consolation, Madison i […]
As a relatively content Verizon Wireless user who fled AT&T's weak coverage a few years ago, I was looking forward to the predicted possibility of getting an iPhone in 2010.
Through most of my career in Madison, news consumers would understandably look to The Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal for words and pictures, and to one of the television stations for motion and sound. But the Internet has forced change at a pace unimaginable even a few years ago, and our newspaper company on Fish Hatchery Road is producing vid […]
Scammers are using two tried and true methods on area residents this month, but the intended victims fortunately could see through the "you've just won" and the "Nigerian letter" scams.
One of the most hilariously funny -- in a bad way -- episodes in tech history was when Apple sharply cut the price of the iPhone just months after it went on sale.
A major snowstorm forced pre-emptive school closures in New York City and grounded hundreds of flights on the East Coast for the second time in a week.
The Obama administration and state insurance officials pressured Anthem Blue Cross on Monday to justify its decision to raise rates by as much as 39 percent for thousands of outraged and frustrated California customers. U.S. Health and Human Services...
A school assignment system that for nearly a decade has failed to desegregate San Francisco's public schools while frustrating parents in its complexity is about to be replaced. The new system is expected to make it much easier for parents to apply to schools...
Federal and state lawmakers called Monday for a closer examination of Mercury Insurance Group in the wake of a state report that suggests the firm may have engaged in illegal practices, including deceptive pricing and discrimination against military personnel...
More than 10,000 San Francisco city workers - from librarians and gardeners to secretaries and street cleaners - would be laid off and most rehired for jobs with shorter hours under a controversial plan being examined by Mayor Gavin Newsom. The idea, which...
Another jobs bill, this one with the name of state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg attached to it. Actually, it's a collection of 27 bills, which the Democrat unfurled at a Chronicle editorial board meeting on Tuesday, aimed at creating 140,000...
A 13-year-old student was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of bringing a loaded gun to Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge a day earlier. Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, said the student, who...
A three-block segment of Magazine Street near the National World War II museum will reopen Wednesday after being closed to motorists since the summer. The Times-Picayune archiveThe latest addition to the National World War II Museum was nearing completion...
When they gaze up at their famous skyline this morning, the people of Los Angeles will be rubbing their designer sunglasses and spluttering on their non-fat lattes in disbelief: the Hollywood Sign is being rebranded.
The charge, when it was read out, consisted of the two words that Michael Jackson's former physician, Dr Conrad Murray, and his team of headline-prone lawyers never wanted to hear: involuntary manslaughter.
Preparing, perhaps, for yesterday's announcement that they are to sue the News of the World over "false allegations" that they are splitting up, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie turned the game into one big Public Display of Affection. The starry couple, who own a house in New Orleans' French Quarter, spent Super Bowl afternoon at the stadium […]
'Amen". Such was the banner headline in the Times-Picayune newspaper yesterday, and such was the feeling that infuses America's most bewitching, most blighted and most beloved city after the magical night of 7 February 2010, when the Saints won the Super Bowl. New Orleans, you can at last believe, is back.
Bring in the cameras, turn on the lights and perhaps the ever-squabbling politicians on Capitol Hill can be shamed into getting things moving again on overhauling America's astronomic healthcare system.
Marine scientists are reporting that a colony of sea lions, previously unique to the Galapagos Islands, has unexpectedly decamped 900 miles south-east to an island just off the coast of Peru in what may be another symptom of global warming.
Michael Jackson's doctor was today charged with involuntary manslaughter, capping an exhaustive investigation into the pop star's stunning death last summer and setting up the prospect of another sensational celebrity courtroom drama.
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