Archive for the ‘Social Upheaval’ Category

Do The Right Thing 2nite!

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

do the right thing

I remember when SPIKE LEE’s ‘Do The Right Thing’ was premiering twenty years ago. The supremacy apologist New York Times claimed that this movie was going to incite race riots across the city. As a supremacy bellwether, the NYTimes was trying to forecast the reaction to the disillusionment of justice Black felt towards the Yusuf Hawkins case. Little did we know at that moment, but the NYTimes was a co-conspirator in placing the five(5) innocent youth in prison for the infamous “Central Park jogger” case.

New York City still suffers from racism as do most metropolitan areas but now in the year 2009 it has become more clear to some that the real enemy was always the person behind the curtain pulling the strings. SPIKE LEE isn’t feared or reviled in Hollywood any longer. Even the band Public Enemy is viewed with whimsical nostalgia. What we thought was bad under the first Bush presidency we found was exponentially worse under the second Bush administration. And with that perspective lens I will view tonight’s screening of ‘Do The Right Thing’.

ImageNation Cinema Foundation proudly announces its 5th annual collaboration with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to present ImageNation at Lincoln Center: A 20th Anniversary Celebration of “Do the Right Thing” with Spike Lee.

Sponsored by BET and our venue host, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, this Black History Month event will take place on Thursday, February 26, 2009 in Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater and will include a rock rendition of “Fight The Power” performed live by Chuck D and Apollo Heights, a screening of the Academy Award nominated film and discussion with members of the cast and crew, which will be moderated by actor/playwright Stew of the Tony Award-winning musical “Passing Strange”.

Where & When
Thurs. February 26th
@ Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza 165 West 65th St.

Reception: 6pm
Program: 7pm

For more information about ImageNation please visit the link

Shifting Personnel And Policy…

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

troops

Hooray! The U.S. will begin plans to draw down their forces in Iraq.

Booo! The president just signed off on more than 30,000 troops to be sent to Afghanistan.

This is essentially double-speak. The American people want all of their children home from the middle east. Not simply to have them moved into the house next door which has become as dangerous as Iraq once was. Afghanistan has been producing opium at the highest levels ever since the U.S. started dropping bombs in 2001.

With a global economic crisis on the horizon the one crop that doesn’t seem to lose its luster is the narcotic type. The U.S. poured all kinds of resources into Iraq to wrest control of the petroleum production. Is this troop surge in Afghanistan for the purpose of controlling the opium trade.

If so at least we will have access to awesome painkillers when the shit hits the fan.

Twitter Is Killing Shit…

Monday, February 16th, 2009

army twits

Twitter goes to the front lines in Baghdad.

Congressman Twitters, Raises Security Concerns

The real issue with Twitter is that the army doesn’t want their soldiers Twittering about how life sucks in the military.

Thanks to VeE for the graphics

Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner…

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

beef

BILLY X. SUNDAY stays giving the people what they want.

Survey says that the people who frequent XXL mag dot com are mostly into shit other than music. The Chris Brown beatdown of his former beatbox Rihanna is now the most discussed story while the ongoing internets shenanigans of the raptors Fisty Scent and Rick Raws is more popular than the music they are releasing as the soundtrack. Rap music now has to play the background to weblogs about… Rap music.

Don’t act like you didn’t see this coming. This is what you asked for. You were gullible enough to imagine that someone had amassed wealth from illicit narcotics trafficking prior to recording songs in which he claimed to be a wealthy narcotics trafficker. Enough of you bought into that fantasy to let the survey takers know that you would also consume ringtones over orchestral productions. This simultaneously followed the idea that simple call and response lyrics were more palatable than rhymes containing too many polysyllabic words.

As the music component of Hip-Hop was dumbed down for packaging the audience followed suit. Why do you think the WWE has such a tremendous following in the south, midwest and Philidelphia? This is where the dumbest populations in America reside and where they crave the entertainment of actors dressed up in underwear grabbing each other’s crotches. Wrestling was always the pastime for teh ghey mongoloids. Professional wrestling is definitely entertaining but the viewers with any sense have left reality at the door. We know the actors all have lunch together from the same craft services buffet table.

Rick Ross had his actor facade removed last year with the disclosure that he was formerly a correction officer prior to his career change to a recording artist. Fifty Cent was on a downward trajectory since releasing his monumental album Get Rich or Die Trying back in 2003. These two artists needed this Vince McMahon type excitement to justify the amounts of money that their respective labels have invested in them. What the labels should be doing is arranging for a cage match between the two since the survey says that is what the fans want to consume. Are music labels ready to convert themselves into fight, er, concert promoters?

All that is left now is the spectacle since we are no longer interested in the lyrics or the music. At the end of the day the so-called fans gathered around for the negativity and the controversy. And you know whose legacy those marketing strategies belong to…

Tupac.

Anti-American Graffiti And Post Apocalyptic Armageddon…

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

dilla rip

The assignment was simple in its design. BRANDON SODERBERG asked if people would like to create a drop or several commemorating a track from Jay Dee’s album ‘Donuts’. I already knew which song I wanted to discuss. I love the track called ‘Anti-American Graffiti’. I also knew I wanted to make a video that used the song as its soundtrack. I hope I did a good job of transferring my thoughts on the track with the images that I clipped and pasted together.

The song is almost like a marching anthem in the way that the drum kicks keep their time. I see an army stretching across the horizon goose-stepping in time. It isn’t a human army though. Well, not all human. They are cyborgs. Stepping on human skulls strewn about the landscape. Even though the human life has been muted there is still something lively about these man-machines and their march. This is the sad future of this planet.

In the last few weeks my thoughts have been on the war that the U.S. is still embedded in across the Middle East. From Afghanistan to Iraq and the tacit support and endorsement in Gaza there is so much blood on our hands as American citizens. I understand that everything that I enjoy as an American comes from the real sacrifice that is made by the U.S. military personnel. All the while their rate of suicide skyrockets to unimagined heights. Can the president wrest a control of this precedent?

When Jay Dee passed away in 2006 the country was almost three years deep in the tumult of Iraq and only six months removed from the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. Jay Dee saw a world that was folding in on itself as if it had eaten a cosmic Black hole. Maybe we deserve this fate? At some point someone will have to take the weight and bear the burden for all of our complicit sin. With each generation the penalties and interest increase. Will our grandchildren even know what sunlight looks like?

Rest in peace James J.Dilla Yancey. Donuts forever.

J Dilla – Anti-American Graffiti from dallas penn on Vimeo.

dilla rip