Senator Barak Obama’s game changing speech on race relations in our country sparked a lot of talk about the speech itself, though mostly on what he didn’t say rather than what he did. A lot of the discussion on talk shows and blogs still focused on the controversial statements of Rev. Wright, whether condemning Obama for not outright repudiating his pastor or offering up videos that showed the reverend in a more ecumenical light.
Here in Nashville, a discussion of the speech and a subsequent discussion of race popped up on one popular local aggregator, Music City Bloggers. There are a suprising number of comments from a small number of readers, and, as one person noted in the replies, a dearth of African American voices (or for that matter, any people of color, Asian, Latino, or otherwise).
I hope that FREESTYLES listeners check into the blog linked here and that they will continue the discussion here and over there (mostly here, hopefully)
Tonight on Freestyles with Ron Wynn on WFSK 88.1 FM in Nashville, we’ll discuss the Marion Jones steroid use admission and the future of Black owned businesses in the US. Join Ron Wynn, Tim Dillenger, Diallo and me at 6:00PM.
Last night on our radio show “Freestyle” (Airing locally on WFSK, Monday at 6:00PM) I predicted Karl Dean would win the mayor’s race by a couple of percentage points. We shall see . . . .
Seems that reports of Isaiah Washington’s career death have been greatly exaggerated. AP reports he returns to series television with a recurring role planned for NBC’s remake of the old Bionic Woman TV series. I for one thought that with all the accusations and back and forth following his being let go by ABC, his career was pretty much over. However, looks like NBC hopes to draw viewers, rubberneckers and controversy freaks to it’s new series with the addition of Washington.
Questions of his talent should not be in dispute. According to Ben Silverman, NBC co-chair, it was Washington’s reputation for talent, rather than controversy, that got him his new job. The job talks began not long after he was fired. Well, for Washington’s sake, I hope it works out, lessons learned, etc.
I was all set to write about Beyonce Knowles for the Scene this week only to have the assignment snatched from under me. Well, that gives me room to expand my thoughts.
Beyonce’s handlers are master star makers. It appears her father’s influence seems to have waned in recent years, so I don’t know who is to blame, whether producer David Foster or an army of highly paid Hollywood automatrons. Still, they’ve managed to turn a moderately talented R&B singer into an all-entertainment diva of Diana Ross proportions. She’s got this schizophrenic mega personality going, hip-hop hag, polished Hollywood star, and staid, virtuous role model all at once. (more…)
I’m not a big an NBA fan as my blog bud Ron is. I haven’t paid too much attention to the NBA since the Johnson/Worthy days of the Lakers, and after that, only a passing interest in the finals. I’m a Tar Heel alum, and even I tired of Jordan’s dominance. However, I love watching college hoops (ACC games especially, of course). So I do get interested in the draft and seeing where the players I’ve watched closely over the season end up as professionals, how they may contribute to their team, and if they’re underclassmen, whether or not they should have waited.
With that, let’s take a look at this year’s draft. (more…)
1408John Cusak
Samuel L Jackson
Dir: Mikael Håfström
It sounds like a horror film written by Jerry Seinfeld. “Hey, you know those hotel rooms? Man, what’s up with those hotel rooms?” That, and a maudlin sub-plot involving a child who’s passed into the beyond, are about all there is to the new Stephen King adaptation 1408. Then there’s John Cusak, the eternal young rebel kicking and screaming into middle aged responsibility. As a one note joke, King’s oft repeated treatise on the fear of commonplace inanimate objects being given a malevolent soul, the film could have been a dreadful bore. However, Cusak’s presence morphs the drudgery into an interesting look at a man forced to modify his outlook on life. (more…)
Ron hosts a radio show on 88.1 FM WFSK Nashville called Freestyle, if you didn’t already know. This week, topics include Isiah Washington’s dimissal from Grey’s Anatomy, the upcoming Conscious Music conference in Nashville, and should standards be lowered so more students from poor families can get scholarships from the Tennessee state lottery. I’ll be able to sit in this week and join Ron and Regina V. Clark and Diallo. Stop on by at 6:00PM.
How rap is performed and recieved in other countries is one of my significant interests. I’m particularly interested in the scene in Japan. Though B-boys have been doing it big in Japan since the 80’s, many peeps are still a bit surprised that Japanese cats rap, let alone that the music is best selling and has influenced the pop music landscape there. For reasons I’ll get into in a follow up post, some people have an almost reflexive reaction to non-African Americans performing rap music — that those non-Black, non-poor people are “stealing” the music and culture, that they’re committing “cultural appropriation.”
I disagree. For now, I’ll hook y’all up with some youtube flicks of Japanese MCs and DJs doing their thing.
First up, Shing02, an indie rapper best known to the anime nerds for his contribution to soundtrack for the animated TV series “Samurai Champloo.” Here he is doing his Nujabes produced songs “Luv Sic and Luv Sic (pt.2)
Tha Blue Herb, a crew representing Hokkaido
Dabo, coming more from the pop side, collabin with a R&B singer Pinky
Skip the dorks from the TV show at the beginning and forward to the kids freestyling in the park
The following info will go on the “about” page, too, however, we need some posting up in here!
We are a group of writers, artists, musicians, bums, and ne’er-do-wells based in Nashville, TN. Many of us write for local and national magazines, some have appeared in plays and movies, some slave away at 9 to 5’s, keeping one eye on the clock and the other on the local entertainment scene.
So if we’re all such big mainstream media stars, why a blog?
Well. We’re also mostly people of color. Women. GLB. We like the freedom the Internet provides us to discuss things in a way that we sometimes cannot in print or on television or wherever the corporations are in control. Also, we hope to engage a like minded audience, people who may well want to hear about things, events, ideas, controversies, that aren’t discussed in the media.
We want readers to engage in the conversation as well. However, we don’t want things to get ugly. We understand people get hacked off and jacked up (and may even let fly with the occasional profanity). Still, that’s no reason for:
name calling
harassment
race baiting
And the like. Like Russell Simmons said, let’s chill on the B-word, N-word, and H-word.
Look at me, using “we” like I speak for everyone involved. I’m sure others will have their say on the matter as well.
