Long Live THE MESSAGE

Death to the Filibuster

2009-12-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

The only thing more controversial than Bashir's review of AVATAR is the filibuster.

Republicans are using threat of filibuster 70% of the time, to stop any part of any piece of legislation working its way through Congress. That's ridiculous.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times says its time to go back to a 90s piece of legislation, drafted by Sens. Tom Harkin and (wait for it!) Joe Leiberman (!) to do away with the filibuster.

See article here.

Not sure how I feel about dismantling the filibuster, especially as Democrats face potential congressional losses in next year's midterms. What say y'all?

Word Verification

2009-12-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

Long-time viewers of the site have no doubt noticed the incredible amount of comment spam we have been dealing with lately.
Well, we are going with a very basic form of word verification. Hope you guys don't mind. Continue with your lives.

Avatar Sucked

2009-12-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

This contains spoilers.

1. the story and plot is retarded and predictable. it's as bad as the trailers looked. people at work told me, "the dialogue is bad but the visuals more than make up for it"...um, no they don't.

As my good friend told me as we were leaving the theatre, "damn, I'll never get those two hours back."

2. the dialogue is incomprehensible. you kind of have to stop listening to what the characters are saying in order to enjoy the visuals.

3. the visuals are amazing...but so fucking what?

the reason I tolerated shitty dialogue in star wars is because the STORY and PLOT were compelling and visionary. Avatar is Dances with Wolves meets Pocahontas. Only way shittier than both. Believe me, if star wars had a BAD story, (see Star Wars, Phantom Menace) i wouldn't have sat through it.

4. this movie is racist as fuck. I mean gut twistingly so...to the point that my friends and I were dying laughing by the end at how disrespectful it was.

once again, the natives have to be saved by a white guy.

I didn't wanna see it in The Blind Side and I don't enjoy it now. not only does the white guy have to save the stupid colored natives...but of course the best woman the natives have, the hottest, smartest most capable woman...falls for the "outsider". I mean falls fast and completely. And not because he brought dopeness to her life, in fact, she had to keep his incompetent ass from dying about 20 times.

"But doesn't that romantic type of thing happen in real life, bashir?"

sort of:

(a) This is sort of what happened with Cortes and The New World, you guys should read "Aztec" by Gary Jennings. It's an amazing book that details exactly how some chick sold out her entire peoples. But, to be fair, the chick in Aztec was a slave girl who was elevated by Cortez to a queen...at least, from the point of view of self-interest, that makes sense. I mean if an alien came to earth during slavery and told all the black people, "hey, you guys wanna not be slaves anymore and help us enslave your masters"...I'm sure a few bruh's would have said "fuck the humans" and taken them up on that...

but in the case of Avatar, she's the Queen to be of a peoples fighting for survival, and she falls for a hapless idiot over a fierce warrior. This is something dorky writers (like me) have been telling audiences for years is totally in the realm of possibility. It's not.

shit, at least in Dances with Wolves he got the outcast chick no one was feeling.

(b) It also sort of happened in the true story of Cleopatra with Anthony as an example that sort of works in this paradigm of outsider dude getting the baddest chick, but again, Cleopatra was a bored queen who had everything before Antony showed up and at least he was different and interesting, hell he was near a king himself so it made sense on the "why do celebs only date other celebs" POV.

I dunno, for some reason, that's the part of the movie I found the most annoying. There's something hidden and emasculating about it.

5. the acting is a mixed bag. Main dude and Sigorney are okay but the rest suffer under the burden of the shitty dialogue.

6. 3D is OVERRATED! I've now seen two movies in the new 3D. It's not that good. the corners are fuzzy. and while the old 3D made it look like the movie was coming for you...the new stuff makes it look like you're IN the camera watching...kinda cool, but ultimately not good enough to be trumpeted.

Not yet. Maybe one day, but not yet. for now, it's just sort of cool but kind of annoying.

ALL THAT SAID...

Sadly, I think you have to see it cuz it's wrong to take my word for it and Metacritic (whom i usually trust) gave it a score in the 80's which is amazing.

So go see this bullshit and let me know what you think.

you horny as I am right now?

I now feel about James Cameron the same way I feel about Spike Lee and M. Knight Shyamalan...

"you're an amazing director, but for the love of GOD...let someone else do the writing."

And THAT...is why little Stevie Spielberg is a genius.

Hear It Here First

2009-12-18T11:12:00.001-08:00

British cat. Donae'o.

That chorus will sound ridiculous should you hear it in a club soon.

Flashback Friday

2009-12-18T05:48:00.000-08:00

For a multitude of reasons, folks tend to get stressed out at this time of year.

Final exams, gift buying, long distance travel, trying not to make an ass of yourself at the company holiday party, etc.

There's a lot of isht on our shoulders when we should be just winding down in order to gear back up for the new year.

In order to decompress myself, I've been relying heavily on the music of a British group that seems to lower my blood pressure the moment they play their first note.

Here's a challenge: Try to find a Loose Ends' song NOT in the 104 BPM ballpark. It's hella hard.

And as an added bonus, another great cut from one of the smoothest groups ever to exist...

Ok. The chill time is over. We still gotta get that health care bill through the Senate and find out what shift Tiger girlfriend #4 is working at Perkins.

Have a good weekend, y'all.

Henson Takes on Lieberman?

2009-12-17T13:59:00.001-08:00

Not sure, but that puppetry design looks familiar...

Very quick, very funny, very true.

Lieberman, Nelson, and Lincoln have all the power these days.

FELA is Amazing

2009-12-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

Go see FELA.

It's an amazing feat of choreography and song. Also, I have rarely appreciated the unique-ness of African dance as much as I did during this show. It's a towering achievement.

So...if you've EVER wanted an excuse to come to NYC...you have it.

It's the musical based on this dude:

The story falters a little in the second act.

The music never does.

The dancing never could.

All Hail Colbert

2009-12-16T14:03:00.001-08:00

He's no Jay, but I give him props for writing his own verse...

Something Great

2009-12-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

(via Bossip)

Everything about this story made me happy.

of course, when this kid is the new Rupert Murdoch in 15 years and we all work for him we'll hate his guts.

For now though...get yours, young man.

Joe Lieberman is Exactly What Democrats Deserve

2009-12-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

I'll keep it short and sweet.

The man has opposed every major Democratic initiative in the past 3 years. He even tried to defeat the Democratic nominee for President.

Ta-Nehisi Coates describes Lieberman perfectly.

But I can't even get mad at Lieberman. How could someone let a person so venomous to their cause stay in his chairmanships. It's lunacy. Can you imagine any other political party in the world, not just America, that would tolerate someone being, not just apathetic or passively derisive...but active in his work to defeat every initiative? I can't.

Yet the Democrats seem okay with it. So I can't bring myself to join the chorus of Lieberman hatred. Sure, I think the guy's scum...but who's worse? (a) the priest who molests children or (b) the bishop of knows and moves that priest from parish to parish? The person who does the wrong or the person who broadens the reach of the wrongdoer?

Like Oliver Stone said in Natural Born Killers: "bitch, you knew I was a snake".

To some degree, "bitch, you knew I was a snake" is my guiding philosophy in life. It's very zen.

Everything that happens between people is the direct result of the nature of the people themselves. If you don't know the nature of a person, then it's ok to be surprised by their actions, (see Woods, Tiger)...but if you KNOW someone has done everything in their power to hurt Democrats...

...you don't get to be mad at them for hurting Democrats.

It would be funny if real people's lives weren't at stake.

He's Tiger Woods

2009-12-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

As I said before, Tiger should just come out and be like...

I am Tiger Woods from TWoods

Our friend Donald Glover knocked this one out the park.

Congratulations to The Foreign Exchange

2009-12-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

Didn't I say it?

Didn't I tell you guys Leave It All Behind was the album of 2008?

My boys got a grammy nod.

The Foreign Exchange's Grammy nomination video from The Foreign Exchange on Vimeo.

With Friends Like These

2009-12-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

one of my boys just wrote me about how Tiger just made infidelity acceptable. made me laugh.

"look, i'm telling you, tiger hooked it up for everyone. because people now realize you have no choice. it's in your DNA. apparently there is no force strong enough to stop a man from fucking every plain-to-possibly-really-ugly white girl on the face of the planet if she's going to let you do it. which they all are. tiger never had a childhood. that's his problem. if he grew up like the rest of us he would have known better than sending them bitches texts and identifying himself on they voicemail. what the fuck was that?"

uh.

no comment.

All Things Black Including Princesses

2009-12-14T08:55:00.000-08:00

The Princess and the Frog is the number one movie in America.

this seems like so long ago.

Housewives and Hoda

2009-12-11T09:19:00.000-08:00

Bashir, doing it big...

Flashback Friday

2009-12-11T05:49:00.000-08:00

I missed out on a Public Enemy show here in D.C. last month. By the looks of it, though, I could've still written or edited a story passage dealing with one song on the playlist better than what appeared in the Washington Post:

Here's the updated story. Needless to say, hip-hop was all over this one on Twitter. My personal favorites of #washingtonpostcorrections came courtesy of @phontigallo:

My guess is this isn't the error of the writer and there seems to be some acknowledgement that it's not her fault. Personally, I have a hard time believing a Howard grad who's approximately 28 years-old would've f'ed up this bad. The likely culprit is (probably) a (middle-aged)(,) (white) copy editor. Having had the word "whack" substituted for "wack" on more than one occasion in a story I've written, I'm almost 100% certain this is the case.

But for the record, I was in the 5th grade when this song came out. 9/11 definitely wasn't in our national line of sight. We were worried about Panama and, in my case, going to Bensonhurst.

Canibus - Revisited

2009-12-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

I never understood why kids thought LL shut this guy down.

Still don't.

Listen to that track. He was as nice as early Em, in his mixtape days )come to think of it, they sounded really similar).

His lyrical style feels dated now, but at the time, dude definitely had rhymes... and his beats A&R was bananas.

I'm just saying, I think y'all did him wrong.

New Music Monday (four days late)

2009-12-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

Late entries into our Best Of Year Consideration.

She's baaaaaaack....

How many of you old ninjas had crushes on Sade growing up? I might have been blasting No Ordinary Love on my first date.

Or was it Chante Moore, Love's Taken Over?

FLASHBACK TRAK - Chante Moore's Love's Taken Over

And what about this one, from Big Boi and the incarcerated scarface himself, Gucci Mane...it's called Shine Blockas.

Sometimes I think you can see a MAJOR club hit coming from a mile away...this is one of those times. "Miss Chocolate" by Lil Jon feat. Kellz and some dude who sounds like Usher.

That bassline is sick. Sorry.

New Kid Cudi Video

2009-12-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

In my opinion there seems to have been a sea change in America while no one was looking.

Kanye's GOOD Music label seems to champion it, but at its heart, there seems to be a whole generation of young dudes who are literally wildin' (but it's on bass and drum, even violins).

Seriously, something tells me if I was at Harvard in '09 instead of '97, my experiences there would be a lot more wild and out of control. Is it just me, or are Cudi, Drake, Ye, and others like them letting us know there is a new paradigm on the way?

Or is it just the latest in the string of fads, like mid-90s Horror Rap?

One Hit Wonders of the 2000s

2009-12-09T06:35:00.000-08:00

A post at Billboard on the subject is getting a lot of buzz, so I want to know....

Who do you remember as having ONE hit in the decade, and then fading into obscurity.

I'll start with this guy:

Bubba Sparxxx

More Trash From Politico

2009-12-07T11:18:00.001-08:00

DailyKos lets you know how they operate in the clip below:

Politico reporter Daniel Libit sends me this query:

"Working on a story with another reporter about the increasing similarity between Barack Obama’s policies and Hillary Clinton’s primary platform and whether Democrats might have viewed the primary differently if they knew then what they know now. Would love to get your thoughts on the state of buyer’s remorse. Might you be able to send me something before day’s out?"

My response:

"My god, what a stupid premise."

Of course Obama and Clinton had similar platforms. They're both mainstream Democrats! But for a publication addicted to Drudge headlines, what could be better than a screaming headline proclaiming that Democrats had "buyer's remorse", even if that sentiment was wholly manufactured by Politico reporters?

Best Tracks of the Year?

2009-12-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

Last year, this track made the list:

What should make the list this year?

It's time for the Best Of Lists and let us know in the comments section what the ten hottest tracks of the year were for you...

Crisis Avoided! Jeezy & Gucci Squash Beef.

2009-12-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

Two thoughts:

1. Dear DJ Drama. You are not Jimmy Carter. This is not Israel vs. Palestine. These are two RICH rappers that finally realized there's more money to be made by not beefing.

2. What language are these people speaking? I feel like I just listened to 500 catch-phrases spliced together.

Nevertheless, I can't wait for "So Icy 2.0". Do it for "the city"! LOL!

Flashback Friday: Jay-Z's 40th

2009-12-04T05:37:00.000-08:00

It's J-Hova's 40th birthday today, which I find a little hard to believe.

I can't think of many rappers who've hit that milestone and still commanded his level of attention.

I'll be honest, there was a period of time after Reasonable Doubt that I couldn't stand Jigga, but he gradually put his work in to gain me back.Here are some of the vids that, I think, mark different points in his career:

Your requisite low-level start:

A first shot at breaking out:

The breakout:

That dumb isht you did because it was popular:

Getting back on track:

And, fortunately, the story is still going and growing. Just think for a second. There are several big name rappers who never made it to 30. There was that whole stabbing event that could've sunk him back in the day. Somehow, though, Jay's managed to position himself (damn near) perfectly and become a bigger star than anyone could've imagined. I never would've thought after hearing "Dead Presidents" 13 or 14 years ago I'd see Shawn Carter in the Congressional viewing gallery during a president's inauguration in 2009 (or Sean Combs, for that matter). But I did.

Happy birthday, man. You've earned it.

Hot House Track

2009-12-03T18:16:00.001-08:00

In case you, like me, heard it in the new Jeep commercial...

I searched on the net for a while and finally found it.