The latest community member to start their own site is Cedric. If you haven't checked out Cedric's Big Mix, you need to get over there. Now. We're not kidding. We'll wait.
Cedric's epitomizing the do it yourself motto and not waiting for someone to bring up issues he wants to talk about. Make a point to check in regularly with Cedric.
When we going to make it onscreen?
Last night my cousin comes over. You got a relative you like but feel like you need some distance between? That's me and my cousin.He brings over this DVD and CD that's sold together. The movie was a piece of crud and I'm not even dropping the name in here because I don't want anyone looking it up. The soundtrack was worse.They want you to think that they recorded it in 2003. Maybe so. Rap songs require rapping.Infomercials are not rapping. There were two tracks, without music, that were nothing but infomericals and best I can figure they were a) trying to raise awareness on Project Pat and b) making fools out of themselves. Help us raise some money for Project Pat so we can buy beers and cigarettes isn't a message of truth to power.
I kept thinking it was a put up but my cousin swears it was for real. If it was for real then it's still a joke but a joke on the people who shell out almost 25 bucks for this crud.
My cousin kept telling me "It's like Mike Jones." No, it ain't. Mike Jones drops his name nearly every track but he's got a beat and he's got some rhymes. The two guys doing "raps" had no beat and they stumbled around trying to figure out what to say sounding like really bad talk radio. I kept waiting for one of them to holler, "With four payments of $19.99 you can have your own thigh master!"
When I wrote about Dutch, C-Murder's upcoming movie, a few wrote in to say it was "Dutch" and that it would be great. Those are the same fellows swearing up and down that the third Fridays was incredible.I want more representation onscreen too. And I don't care if it's a "noble" character or not. I do care if the movie's worth watching or not. A few years back, you couldn't turn on HBO early in the morning without catching an Ice (not Vanilla) in some straight to cable movie. That didn't help any of us.
But I don't think every film needs to have Denzel "uplifting" us.
But even a bad Denzel film works better than some of the crud that's being made.
What I'd really like to see isn't Denzel as a doctor, lawyer or some other white collar guy. I also don't need him to try to play it up by being bad cops.
I'd like to see people on the screen like my grandfather.
My grandfather ain't Donald Trump. He didn't make a pile of money.
But what he did and what he taught us mattered.
Same thing with my mother and grandmother.
I see a lot of ghetto fabulous movies and a lot of films where Denzel or Hallie seem to be up on the screen because maybe Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts wanted too much money. They play these cartoons and I just wonder where are the real people I know.I got a neighbor who just got off parole. He's worked hard to put his life together and I don't see him up onscreen. I got a lady living 1 floor below me who is working 2 jobs and raising 3 kids and she's not a crackhead and she's not a slut so I don't see anybody like her onscreen.
I see people who have either cashed in or are doing anything they can to cash in.
And I got to wonder if that's all we're going to be about in movies from now on? Cash hungry, money grubbers.
There are kids I grew up with that are living it up ghetto fab and disgracing themselves. There are 2 kids I grew up with who "made something" of themeselves. And there's this huge section of kids who are just trying to do the right thing. That's the group I don't see much of at the movies.
That's the group I want to see. People living lives where they try to hold on to dignity.
They aren't saints, they make mistakes, but they're trying to keep it together.
They're not exchanging gun shots or doing lines or hits. They ain't all about the next booty call. They're trying to make their lives just a little better. If they got kids, they're trying to make sure their kids have it a little better. And they are out in the community doing something not clubbing or running some scam.
There were a few films worth seeing when I was a kid. When Cornbread Earl and Me would come on TV, it was a big deal. I got a 12 year old brother who thinks The Fast and the Furious is a great movie and what life's all about. So I wonder how we let Hollywood screw us up so bad?
I don't have links at this site and that's cause of the way blog drive is set up. But I do like all the bloggers from The Common Ills community. C.I., Betty, The Third Estate Sunday Review, Rebecca (and Elaine who's subbing), Kat and Mike.
So when I can remember to, I'll copy and paste them at the bottom of my post. If you haven't checked them out, you should.
Links
The Common Ills
The Third Estate Sunday Review
Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
A Winding Road
Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man
Mikey Likes It!
Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
DIY Dragon
Cedric's Big Mix