The Reality Nightmare

Can't you see

Lawd can't you see
What these TV shows
Been doin' to me

It's been a while since I have been here and it kind of feels good to be back. Lately I have been saying my peace on SoundCloud but I thought I would take it back to the blog for a minute.

Reality TV got me and everybody fucked up. I avoid it at all costs although I must admit the TV networks do a great job of advertising and promoting these shows. They have the right hook to suck you in, sit you on the couch and hold your eyelids open to the unholy shit that is occuring on your screen. On occasion, my wife will fill me in on a commercial or two about a show, on a rare occasion I may watch. Let me tell you, most days I can't last 10 minutes, as was the case with "Big Ang." All of the talk about her says she was the nicest on the cast of the show she was on before VH-1 gave her a spinoff. When I saw her on the screen, I was in shock. Put it to you this way, if I saw her on the street I would be wondering if she would beat my ass or if she gave me a hug would she squeeze the life out of me. I tapped out, I couldn't take it.

Forward to last night with the premier of "Here comes Honey Boo Boo" on TLC. I'll admit the name got me but I couldn't figure out what the hell the show was about. My wife fills me in to tell me this is a spinoff of a girl from "Toddlers and Tiaras." The family is from Georgia and let me tell you, they are EXTRA as hell! Thank God the show was only 30 minutes, time that will never be recovered no matter how hard I work to do so. After that was over, I turned on a jazz station for some culture because I felt slightly dumb after watching! None of what I saw or expected to see was a surprise. What was a surprise was the upcoming  reality shows that network which includes a show about conjoined twins. I teach anatomy, I have watched specials about the operations that conjoined twins undergo but where is the boundary? There seems to be no life or lifestyle that is unknown to us now because of reality television. After watching "God Bless America" directed by Bobcat Goldwaith, it is true that we are truly a civilization going to hell in a handbasket. We don't talk about ideas, we have ideas driven into our heads by people we have made celebrities instead of the other way around or through hard work and TALENT! I'm going to keep it tuned to ESPN for sports, Netflix for all the TV and movies i've missed and i'm going to pick up a book a bit more often because TV as it is has nothing to offer me anymore!

The Spectrum of Nasty

So now there is a new kid on the block, Nicki Minaj. Just heard about her this weekend and I may have seen her on BET but wouldn't have known her from a hole in the ground. Yeah, I must be getting old because I don't know half of any of these celebrities nor so called MCs anymore. Maybe if any of them did anything that DIDN'T SUCK, maybe I would give a shit who they are! I did a web search for her today and then started to look at her pictures. Similar searches included Trina (aka The Baddest Bitch) and Lil Kim. Interesting similar searches as what I read has made comparisions of Nicki Minaj to Lil Kim. Funny, to me her body is more similar to that of Trina which leads me to call Minaj "Trina lite".

Now I don't know what kind of MC Minaj will be, but one thing is pretty certain is that her sexuality will be an asset as well as a major part of her emceeing. As I thought about this and the comparision I made to Trina, I was thinking where would Ms. Minaj fall on a list of the raunchiest female MCs? I thought of 3 MCs and one R&B singer who has a bit of a rep in her music to be raw in her sexuality. The contenders are:

Trina: Miami's own, famous for such hits as "The Baddest Bitch" and of course my all time favorie her duet with Trick Daddy on Nann N*gga,

Lil Kim: The Queen B, admiring her shoes from Gucci, eatin sushi playin with her p*ssy! (Classic line amongst many from the Lil one)

And the R&B "star" Adina Howard: You remember when "A Freak Like Me" came out. Seems like all the freaks got a bit freakier when that dropped. Since then, she fell into obscurity for a few years but has had moderate success with songs like "Nasty Grind", "(Freak) And U Know It" and "T-Shirt & Panties" played in the film Woo.

So my spectrum would be from top (freak of the decade) to bottom (up and coming freak):

1. Adina Howard: Gotta love those song titles. I mean yeah she is half remembered but more forgotten but her s*it is raw. This is beyond baby making music, this is "put on this construction helmet so I won't kill you whilst I bang you to this nasty ass song" music. I think her next album she may start singing about Cincinnati Bowties, Dirty Sanchez's and Rusty Trombones.

2. Lil Kim: A close second, Lil Kim has some lines where I wanted to J*zz in my pants. And her videos...well don't get up and go anywhere in public for about 15-20 minutes.

3 Trina: Never trust a big butt and smile...

4. Nicki Minaj: As I said, it will remain to be seen what kind of nasty, freaky ass s*it she will be throwing on a track. I just hope she's decent, try to not fall into the mold of the current state of hip-hop. Or at least don't get booed off stage a la OJ the Juiceman.

What an age we live in!!! All the sex you can stand and all you have to do is have iTunes!!!

Class dismissed....

Pimps? Damn, it's Hard Out Here For Everybody!

Good morning all, thought I would hit you with a blog rewind. I wrote this one on June 7, 2006 when the economy was crazy but not as hellish as it is now. Enjoy, hit you with some fresh out the oven blogs later...

No disrespect to pimps (shout outs to Pimpin Ken and Bishop Magic Don Juan) but I went to Wal-Mart last night and I observed people shopping as I was and I saw the faces of sticker shock. I mean wages are flat (ain't nobody getting a raise and some of us work all the time!) and everything is steadily going up! Even the prospect of education which is supposed to mean a better standard of living is out of reach. We have to incur massive debt just to work hard enough to get by, in the words of Johnny "Guitar" Watson..."Aint that a Bitch"! But really, if you think about the song and I know you saw "Pimps up, Hos Down" is it really hard out here for a pimp? Technically, they ain't doing shit!!! I guess it is hard out here for a pimp to give orders! It is hard out here for the poor man!

Submitted for your disapproval:

1. The last couple of weeks, I was noticing that gas had got down to aroung 2.60 a gallon. I got excited, my heart started beating wildly in my chest, I started to sweat and I got a bit lightheaded. Could we see gas under 2.00 a gallon soon I thought? Actually, I was under the influence of the fumes of the 10% Ethanol in the gas as I pumped $25 into my 4 cylinder Sentra. So I guess I was high for once in my life. Those oil company executives should be shot...yet another example of pimpery at it's finest. As soon as we all make the money, we go running to the pumps for gas so it's like payout to the oil pimps.

2. I haven't seen this many bank robberies in the news since I was a child. I thought bank robbery was played out considering the technology that aids police in catching the thieves (ask the cell phone bandit about that...dumbass!!) and CSI has us believing we can extract DNA from anything and voila...I GOT YO ASS!! It's got to be pretty tight out here when you walk into a bank in the middle of summer with a gun, a sweatshirt and pantyhose on your head looking to run off with a sack of dough!

3. How about Lay and Skilling at Enron? Now you either have to be a heartless SOB or just plain greedy to do what they did to those people. The working man don't stand a chance. You make better time keeping your nest egg in a Mason jar under your mattress with a pit bull standing guard instead of investing. The man will find a way to get his and get yours. And after the verdict was read, how about one of them still insisted he was innocent and plans to appeal? If I was a member of the press corps and I heard that ignant ass shit (yes, not ignornant...ignant) I would have taken my microphone and knocked the cowboy shit out of him!

MC Hammer said it best, We got to pray just to make it today. Which makes me wonder...is it hard out here for Hammer too?

Have You Had Your Pain Today?

I am a big Mary J. Blige fan; I have all but one of her albums. She has evolved greatly over her career as a singer and as a person. The major theme of her music has been the pain that she had to deal with growing into womanhood as well as those pressures after the fact. Add onto that the pressure of success after her career took off and that makes for a lot of stuff to write and sing about on her albums. But then that great day occurred, she found happiness through religion, a good relationship and I suspect some rehab. Then the music changed, it got lighter and happier. I am not someone who wants to see anyone suffer for any reason but my gf pointed out to me that since she has been happier, her music hasn’t been as good.

Does this mean that pain makes for better music?

Let’s think about that question for a minute. Take yourself back, if you don’t have a proper frame of reference, think about all of the movies you have seen about music groups (i.e.: The Five Heartbeats, The Temptations movie etc.) and reflect on the question. What are the common themes that these groups share? Love of music, talent, some members had tough upbringings but became successful, gave back and helped their families. Think about just that for a minute, the pain of just rising to being a success is good for at least three albums (in between writing some sweet booty getting ballads),

What happens after the success? As Biggie so eloquently put it “Mo money, mo problems”. These singers have reached heights that they could only dream about and now they have new elements of life (good and bad) that they now indulge in. Some singers continue to give back and live a positive lifestyle. Others want to life the wildest, craziest life possible with fast cars, faster women and the best drugs and alcohol money can buy. In the recording studio, there are more scenarios to write about and record as the artist(s) attempt to snort drugs off any flat surface they can find. On the flip side, some do this because it is an escape from being famous and it ultimately leads to an untimely demise. Or their demise comes from the drugs, alcohol as fuel to the fire (bad drug deal, getting robbed, getting shot because the drugs and/or alcohol told them they could be Big Billy Bad Ass etc) the permutations of scenarios just go on and on.

It seems to me not much has changed in regards to pain being a catalyst to writing music, I just think some of the more obvious aspects of this have, like smoking a joint live in concert or performing blitzed out of your mind. There is another aspect of this that hasn’t been discussed and that is how current music is affected, more specifically Hip-Hop. Pain has been a part of this genre for a while but it seems to be a part of it more so now. Maybe that is why Hip-Hop is in trouble, the trends that we see reflect a larger problem of the African-American community in pain. When the music goes from banging out beats on a park bench and rapping about partying and what neighborhood you rep to how many kilos you pushed and your gang affiliation is problematic and reflects the breakdown of fundamental institutions which bind us a people. At the heart of all of this is pain in many forms from childhood, upbringing and adulthood for many African-Americans.

Should we continue to buy into this pain by supporting these artists?

That is a difficult question. On one hand since Lil Wayne is what is hot right now the question that I just posed will not enter anyone’s mind. Most who listen to Lil Wayne are REALLY not thinking that deeply about the problems of our people (correct me if I am wrong but if this were false, maybe Hip-Hop wouldn’t be such a cluster f*ck).

On the other hand, isn’t it time for us to take this into our own hands and say ENOUGH of bulls*it hip-hop? I don’t know about you, but I am sick of all of these so called “experts” getting together for discussions which lead us to the same conclusions that we already know that the music and the trends it produces are toxic to our community, especially our youth.

One thing is certain, as long as there is pain and baggage, there will be songs to write and stories to be told. Will this be the ultimate form of dealing with your problems? Sure, we as consumers will be listening to an ongoing counseling session that WE are paying for, not the artist.

Hope you had a great thanksgiving, next stop Christmas!!!

Class dismissed…

Who remembers this...

Ok all my peeps out there, raise your hand if you had a Big Wheel growing up! Were these joints not the bomb! You tried to ride this sucker long after you got too big for it! I hated giving mine up...a tricycle!!! WTF!!! You did wild crazy manuvers with big wheels, rode down hills, up the sidewalk like a freakin mad person on this thing! Thinking back, I think I went through 3 or 4 because all that hard riding led to cracked tires! My brother was worse, he used to ride his through our basketball game and when he did, my cousin would throw the ball at him while he was making that quick get away! Ah, memories!!

Livin' for the Weekend...The Week in Review (My 25th entry on Blogger!)

I saw Dunkin Doughnuts bag on the ground today and I thought, are they are still around? Dunkin Doughnuts are the worst doughnuts on earth! How do they stay in business? Seriously, if you f*ck up a Blueberry muffin you should not be in business! Simply awful, Krispy Kreme needs to get to my town quick! Bruce Bruce was right, when you see that Hot Now sign come on, you almost cause an accident trying to change lanes to get there!

While awaiting election results, my remote control ADD started acting up and I was flipping channels. BET was covering the election results. Let me repeat that...BET was covering the election results. One word to describe this...embarassing! First of all, I have never seen such a large panel of no-names assembled ever in life (Jeff Johnson with this braids and baby hair edge-up was hosting), Second, they interviewed folks who in my opinion were out of their element (in fairness, CNN interviewed Will.i.Am virtually and I could have cared less what he thought, he sucks anyway!), Third, Why did Toure look like a broke ass Fonzworth Bentley? I think he knew he was going to be on TV, wear a suit and tie and if a hair cut is not in plan, smooth out the naps in the fro dude! His jacket looked like it didnt fit, with one button fastened. Fourth, their electoral map was on a board with pictures tacked on of the candidate and the state they won. I think the board was left over from Walter Chronkite's coverage of the 68' election! Nonetheless entertaining but it makes me wonder, why bother? I would have appreciated it more if they just covered the outcome and Obama's acceptance speech. Harsh huh...

McCain's consession speech was classy, someone made the comment that he isnt as big of an ass afterall. I agree, in 2000 he appeared to be the guy until Bush railroaded him. Only thing, he had to be a douche to get elected and that along with Palin dragging his ticket down it cost him. Well and W played a big role in this as well, but I think we all knew that! His crowd was a bunch of punk ass sore losers! I still dont think he has done enough to quiet their discontent over Obama. I think he will have to do more to address this issue and soon!

During and after the election of Obama, I have seen a couple of Conservatives who have surprisingly approached this positively. William Bennett, former Education Secretary said on CNN during the returns that Obama's election does show that there is and was never a Bradley efffect, it shows that we have made progress in this country but we cannot forget the past transgressions as we move forward into this new chapter. I was floored, the average conservative feels that whenever a black person makes it that automatically means racism is dead and that we need to "get over it" and stop being a "victim". I hate that, I had a friend who would always give me that argument when we debated politics growing up. I wonder if he still feels that way? It's ironic, he is a minority as well but as I would always say to him is that he would be better accepted in those circles than I ever would. Then on the View yesterday Elizabeth Hasselbeck, America's most tortured conservative said that she would support our new President. I about fell out of my chair when I heard that! I think not much more can be said to that but stay tuned!

I am trying hard to avoid as much news as I can at least until the inaugration. They are going to cover, discuss and scrutinize everything Obama does until then. If the man rips a fart, I think Dana Bash from CNN will remote live to discuss smell, loudness factor and collateral damage to the environment and his underwear! Geez, there are other things going on in the world like hoping W doesnt embarass us in his remaining 70+ days in office! We do have 70+ more days to add to the Bush lexicon, maybe he will create or mispronounce a few more words for us. I know a few English teachers have died from his poor grammar and speech.

This week, aside from the election has been a real cluster f*ck! I like (not love) my job, being a problem solver when alot of stuff goes wrong in a short period of time sucks! I think the only blessing is that my night call has been almost non-existant. (I am knocking on wood as I say that) I guess some alcohol consumption is in order...it's Throwdown Thursday and the Real Men Council is meeting...The Real Men (not the ROC Boys) are in the building tonight!! I think that will be a good way to blow off some steam, try to get reoriented and my head back on track at work and HOME! Lately I have been mentally and physically tired... the physical was from treking to San Diego a couple of weeks ago for a conference and you know once you get used to a new time zone, it is time to go back to your time zone. I wasnt dragging as much as I thought I would be, but it did take its toll. Getting back into the flow of work wasnt too bad, I just hate coming back to things that you thought were getting done and they turn out to be still outstanding. The mental has been a combo of work and home, I just come home drained. Then I want to relax knowing I need to continue my academic persuits and trying to keep happiness and peace in a long distance relationship is tough. Lately, we have been seeing each other quite often, alot due to football season but it is hard. I knew it would be, but sometimes it gets me down a bit. I am used to having my gf around (for better or for worse) but having someone there is always the more preferred option. But whatever it's worth, living here a long distance is better than being single in alot of respects.

San Diego was a great town, lots to do although I didnt feel like I had alot of time (the conference was jam packed and I had to present a poster) and my hotel was near nothing. I did meet some cool folks from other organizations and schools and the networking was awesome! And what is a conference without great swag! I got lots of pens, bags and a coffee cup that I have been rocking hard!

The Gaslamp district is where it's at, just bring alot of money because it is an expensive town! Lots of great restaurants but you will pay a grip for some grub! I would like to go back, the weather was great and I went off-peak so that was a plus. I would designate San Diego a good getaway to escape the fall or winter blahs, if just for a moment. Traveling has me thinking more about where I want to go in 2009. Hell, I wish i could go to Vegas early next year! Maybe a couple (or three) vacations may be in order in 09!

Thanks for hitting me up, i'll holla! Class dismissed...