Jim (Con't): Today is the New Year and we say Happy New Year to all of our readers. Karin e-mailed a Happy New Year and wondered if we ever expected to be still here in 2012? Hell to the nah! Drink up! No, seriously we're not having a drinking game in the roundtable. Though many of those here at C.I.'s house are drinking. Jess, Dona, Kat and myself have beer. Ava and C.I. are drinking both Diet Coke and Bloody Marys.
Dona: They have glasses of Diet Coke and glasses of Bloody Mary. They have not made a new drink featuring the two combined.
Jim: Yes, that is true. Ty, is that a screw driver?
Ty: It is.
Jim: And Betty's nursing a glass of wine. Also before anyone e-mails about Dona's breast feeding our baby --
Dona: Thank you, I forgot about that. There was some piece, not identified by the reader, that resulted in an angry e-mail to me about how I have a baby and breast feed and shouldn't be eating whatever it was I was eating that was so objectionable. That wasn't identified either. I breast fed for the first seven months and planned to breast feed for at least the first year. But about seven months in, we were at my folks and Jim and I ended up going out with some of my friends from high school. I did use the breast pump beforehand but when the baby was hungry that got dropped on the floor and my parents ended up using formula. Which is fine. But after that the baby didn't want to nurse. So I am no longer breast feeding. I didn't know that it was ever anyone's business that I was other than myself and the baby. Since it wasn't Jim's nipples, I don't think it was even his business. But apparently I need to make that note to reassure some people that our baby is fine and healthy.
Jim: And while we're doing our house cleaning, Wally wanted Ava, C.I. or Kat to say something about an event. Who wants to grab that? Kat?
Kat: Sure. It's four a.m. our time, PST, as we start this and nearly everyone's been New Year's Eve partying for the most part which is why everyone's not participating in this roundtable. I'm going to mention Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix and Wally of The Daily Jot and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Wally and Cedric do joint-posts, they do humor posts. Last week, there were some complaints about the two not posting on Thursday or Friday. You're lucky you got anything from them last week. Jess, Ava, C.I. and I were out in Florida early last week for a funeral. Wally had a death in the family. He tried to stay on schedule but everyone, including Cedric, knew that wasn't going to happen. And at some point, when things got quiet, Wally was going to need some time for himself. As a general rule, I would argue that, without any knowledge of a death, people should have been aware something was up. And they should have grasped that if the two weren't posting it wasn't due to Cedric because Ann and Cedric are married and she made no mention of any problems Cedric was having at her site and she posted Monday through Friday like she always does last week. After the funeral, Cedric had told Wally that if he needed time off, he should take it and if he was worried about the site, Cedric was willing to solo or bring Betty in -- because Betty had told Wally anytime he needed it to call her and she would fill in to help out. But Wally didn't want to put anybody out and was pretty sure he could make it through the week. But those two are writing humor posts. They're trying to make you smile or life. And when someone in your family has just died, it's not real easy to find the place to be funny. Wally and Cedric get on the phone together and are silly together for about 10 minutes about the news, then one thing sticks out that they've joked about and then they try to write a post around that. That's how they write. And he realized last week that he needed some time off. Cedric told him to take it and not worry about. Wally surprised him by calling on Saturday and saying he thought he could try a joint-post if Cedric had the time.
Jim: Anything to add?
Ava: I'll add a few things. First, Wally did want us to say something and that was basically just to toss out that there was a death because of questions that were popping up. Second, what Kat's saying? I agree. That's not what Wally wanted emphasized but I agree with her 100%. And this wasn't an unexpected death. I mention that because, in November, there was a hearing that C.I. and I covered -- I covered it at Trina's site -- and there were complaints of why didn't 'everyone' cover it? Meaning that Kat at her site, Wally at Rebecca's, me at Trina's and C.I. at The Common Ills. That's what usually happens with big hearings. Kat would explain, due to the outcry, that she was hung over at the hearing, she'd been partying the night before with an old boyfriend. Wally wasn't at that hearing and was spending time in November back and forth. Sometimes he'd be with us -- and if he was that week, he did a post at Rebecca's site on any hearing -- and sometimes he'd be back home in Florida. Wally's been dealing with this for some time and he's gone out of his way to keep his site going and keep things online as normal as possible. There were two e-mails here that I read of people noting it wasn't like Wally not to participate last week in our edition and wondering if he was okay? I'm sure there were others like that. For those people who were concerned, Wally wanted something said. But I'm like Kat, for the other people, grow the hell up.
Jess: On last week's edition, a number of questions came in. In the roundtable, C.I. noted she was moderating because Ava said she did it last time. Several readers disputed this saying Jim had moderated the roundtable last time. Jim always moderates the roundtable when he's here. That's because Jim came up with the idea for the roundtable back in 2005. However, when Jim is not working on the edition, someone else grabs the role. That's generally Christmas week but not just Christmas week. In the past, I've grabbed it, Ty's grabbed it. One time Kat grabbed it, leading to complaints that she wasn't part of the core group of Third -- complaints from readers -- and shouldn't have grabbed it. Ava and C.I. right now are taking the notes for the transcript that we'll type up. They do that every week. It's why they prefer not to guest moderate. But due to various objections, they've had to. The last time, that C.I. was referring to, was when a roundtable took place without Jim. At that time, Ava filled in as moderator so it was C.I.'s term. Who worked on what was also an issue? Ava and C.I. wrote the TV piece themselves as always. "Highlights" had the writing credit in it. The rest of the pieces? They were written by everyone participating in the roundtable. Some people last week -- as with this week -- worked only on "Highlights." That's fine. We could have gone into that more in the note but (a) we were tired and wanting to finish, (b) we also wanted to get it up early and, in fact, we had everything up at about the time we're doing this roundtable right now and (c) it was obvious to us who worked on what and we wrongly thought it would be to readers as well. Marcelo wondered why, "since it's just one day a week," Jim or Dona or anyone needed time off? Because they do. That's the explanation, because they do. The only people who have worked on every edition are Ava and C.I. Dallas finds links for us and is a sounding board and much more and we thank him but he'll tell you even he has taken time off. People need time off. And we have encouraged Ava and C.I. to take time off but they know that there are readers who would be bothered -- their pieces are always the most read of any week's edition. I think that covers all the questions from last week's edition.
Ruth: I will add that I always work on the Christmas edition because I do know that, especially if Christmas is on the weekend, it can be very difficult for people to spend time with their families and also taking part in the marathon writing sessions. I can work on the Christmas edition with no problem because I am Jewish so it is not my holiday.
Jim: Thank you, Ruth, and thank you to everyone who worked on last week's edition. The year has passed. Let me do this slowly because I know C.I.'s planning to tack this on to the year-end pieces at The Common Ills. The Common Ills year-end coverage included C.I.'s "2011: The Year of the Slow Reveal," Ruth's "Ruth's Radio Report 2011," Martha and Shirley's "2011 in books (Martha & Shirley)" and Kat's "Kat's Korner: 2011 in music." In addition, community coverage of 2011 also included Ann's "2011 best in film (Ann and Stan)" & Stan's "2011 in films (Ann and Stan)", Cedric's "Barack finally gets something right!" & Wally's "BARACK BEST 2011 MOVE!," Rebecca's "best of fall tv 2011" and Trina's "New Year's Parties." First question, Betty, why no year look back from you?
Betty: Honestly? I wasn't even thinking about it Friday when I posted. In years past, I have thought about it and sometimes offered something and sometimes not. At The Common Ills, it is a yearly tradition that C.I., Kat, Ruth and Martha & Shirley do year-in-review pieces. Three years ago -- three? -- Ann and Stan started up their look at film. That made sense as well because Stan covers film every week at his site and Ann covers radio but will frequently sneak in a movie when she can as well. Cedric and Wally ended up with a year-end piece this year. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. It has to do with what they can come up with. Trina's happened in response to readers e-mails. So three of those were -- Cedric and Wally and Trina -- were completely by chance. Rebecca, what about your piece?
Rebecca: I find my way in the post. I start out talking about TV to reply to some e-mails. Then I was done with the e-mails and looked at my post and thought, "That's kind of short for a post." I looked around for some news that interested me enough to blog on and couldn't find anything. At which point, my husband comes into the room with the phone and asks, "The Good Wife or American Horror Story, which was the better show?" Because he's debating that with his brother. I gave my answer and then thought, "Hey, I can do that." And steal the always talked about piece here at Third but never done. We're always talking about a TV piece here where we basically lay out Emmy picks. Ava and C.I. wouldn't be a part of that, that's understood. It would be written by the rest of us. And usually, Betty, Stan and I are all for it but nothing ever comes of it. So I ran with it at my site to extend my post and it gave me a year-in-review type feel. C.I. called me when she was cross-posting it to a mirror site and said that two community members had already asked if it could be cross-posted. Of course it could. And Trina was so funny, her piece was cross-posted too, and she couldn't believe the e-mails, she checked her account at 7:00 pm her time to see if there were any party emergencies from her regular readers, she couldn't believe how swamped with e-mails she was. And she asked me, "Would Jim tell me how many views it got at The Common Ills if I asked?"
Jim: And I did. The only one who doesn't want to know that is C.I. I go in there and check and I check here as well. I'm interested in seeing what ends up popular and what doesn't. And C.I.'s attitude, which is correct, TCI is more hard hitting and news whereas this site is an online general interest magazine, C.I.'s attitude is that popularity doesn't matter at TCI, that you cover what needs to be covered and that you don't look at what was a hit and try to rewrite that to have another popular piece. And Ava and C.I. don't like hard numbers here. If a piece is over a year old, I can mention it got X number of hits. But less than a year, it's too fresh and they don't want to know.
Ava: There is enough pressure each week to come up with a TV piece without us trying to figure out how to make it like this one or that one or how to copy ourselves or any of that crap. This week, we're not even sure what we're writing.
Jim: Kat, your music piece was very popular and you've also gotten a ton of e-mails on it. How do you sum up 2011 in music?
Kat: If it was really worth listening to, it didn't make Top 40 radio. I can't stand top 40 radio, little boys who pluck their chest hairs and pop tarts who, regardless of age, all sound like 6th grade girls. I could have easily done a top 20 albums and still not included one album that broke out on top 40 radio. There's nothing but garbage. It's truly like right before grunge emerged, you've got this Tiffany-like crap and this New Kids On The Block-like crap and all this garbage.
Betty: I loved Kat's piece and downloaded Alexander O'Neal's 2011 album immediately, didn't even know about it until I read Kat's article. And I want to talk about Tell Me More, the NPR program, for just a minute. That show is embarrassing more times than not and those women talking about music -- pretending to talk about music -- so they can have a gossip session, and sounding like Rose and Mary on 227, that's not up to NPR standards. I'm getting real damn sick, as a Black woman, of NPR lowering the standards for Black people. We don't need the standards lowered. We don't need to hear, in a news story about federal funding, some Black 'reporter' telling us about a "baby bump." This is not E. And if that's the best of Black America that NPR can find, that says a great deal about the racism at NPR. There's this one Black woman who laughs in her reports. NPR needs to start imposing standards. And Black NPR on air employees, take your job seriously. You insult our race when you ignore your responsibilities -- and your age -- to try to have 'fun' on the air as if you're on shock jock radio. Tell Me More is nothing but a race to the bottom to determine who can demonstrate the least journalistic standards.
Jim: NPR has had some difficulties growing their Black audience and Tell Me More is seen as an attempt to foster that. Does anyone else want to weigh in? I'm not saying Betty's not right. I actually agree with her. But no one grabbed on that topic after her and I know that will be one of the comments we'll get the most e-mails on in this roundtable.
Isaiah: I'll grab it. Yeah, I agree with Betty. And, Jim, you're right that NPR thinks Tell Me More is going to increase their Black audience. But the mistake they're making is that what they do with Tell Me More is lower the standards. It's chatty little gossip that doesn't even pretend to be for adult thinkers. And while that might bring in a bit of audience -- I don't think it will -- that audience then does what? Goes to All Things Considered? No, they listen tot hat and they're like, "Where's my sugary snacks! Why are they talking news! I want my TMZ!" So, no, it doesn't work at all.
Jim: You say it won't work, that you don't think it will. Why is that?
Isaiah: Because that's an hour program. It's not like NPR, it doesn't maintain their standards. One hour surrounded by programs completely different. You can hear that sort of crap on any number of commercial radio stations -- because it's cheap and tacky. So if you like that sort of crap, chances are you're not going to seek out Tell Me More. You're just going to listen to some local radio program instead, especially with 'gossip to go's Flo.' I mean, that's the level we're talking about here.
Betty: Flo is a staple of the Tom Joyner show, just FYI. And an idiot, a world class idiot.
Stan: I'll jump in to add that it's insulting that NPR thinks that's the way to get us to listen. First off, as Isaiah points out, that sort of crap's already all over the radio dial and we can hear it if we want to. Second, it's really insulting that some White executive at NPR was thinking, 'Hmm. We need Black listeners. How can we get them? I know, let's offer a gossip who with dumb guests and dumb hosts and let's have them act like teenagers and talk like them and laugh a lot. That's what them Black folks like.' It's really insulting when you think about it.
Marcia: Like NPR was presented with two things. 'Hey, to grab Black listeners, how about we do a new show that explores the economic plight of Black America in this recession. Or we can do a gossip show, a sort of look at celebrities and shucking and jiving on the air. Which one should we do?' It really is insulting that someone thought the way to reach Black America was with the s**t that Tell Me More offers. And I agree with Kat that those bitches -- bitches is the only term for it -- were embarrassing. Saying they were talking about the year in music and how it was the year of the woman and then ignoring music to talk about divorces and TV commercials and reality shows and all the other crap. And let's be really clear, you're a stupid whore if you're calling Beyonce an artist. She's a flavor of the month that's gone stale as her sales indicate. Millie Jackson, that's an artist. Betty Wright, that's an artist. Aretha Franklin, that's an artist. Artists are people in control of their work. Beyonce just a puppet and when you can name check the producer of some one's album, that's your first clue that you're dealing with a studio creation and not an artist. And Adele, shut up already. Damn.
Betty: You're so Prince!
Marcia: I am. He says that in a song. I forget which one.
C.I.: "Housequake."
Marcia: I should have known you'd know. But, damn, Adele, we're tired of you and your relationships. Whitney's got an amazing voice, Whitney Houston, but not everything she sang was about the guy who screwed her over. One of her best known songs, one that she'll be remembered for is "The Greatest Love of All" and it's not a romantic song. "I believe the children are our future, teach them well . . ." I'm not sure whether Adele's turned herself into a joke or been turned into one by the women -- women, not girls -- who go around treating Adele songs as deep literature. Unlike Beyonce, Adele can sing. I will give her that. I can remember, growing up, complaints about Madonna and Janet Jackon's 'live' shows and how there were suggestions that artists 'sweetening' or replacing their vocals with pre-recorded ones in concert should have to carry a disclaimer of some sort on their concert tickets. I wish that had happened. If it had, it would be harder to treat fakes like Beyonce as 'artists.'
Jim: Okay. Well what was the standout album for you, Marcia, in 2011?
Marcia: For me it's Joss Stone's LP1. Like Kat, I think the top spot belongs to all three women. PJ Harvey explored serious topics and did so in a serious manner but never forgot the need for melody. Then there's Stevie Nicks who made the best rock album of the year and did so not when she's 18. I don't want to emphasize age too much here but it needs to be noted that she's older than Roy Orbison was when he died. This rocks way harder than Mystery Girl or any album by a man that got praised just because he was old. Stevie's made a vital album and I'm so glad that Kat gave it the attention it deserved. So both of those are year's best. But Joss is as well and, at the end of the day, when I want to wind down, when I want to open a bottle of wine, maybe when I want to make out, Joss' album is the one to put on. In fact, I'd argue the make out song of 2011 is Joss Stone's "Drive All Night."
Ty: I would agree that "Drive All Night" is the make out song of the year.
Ruth: It has a groove to it that make out songs pretty much require. It could be easily be side-by-side with a Marvin Gaye make out song and hold its own.
Jim: Dona's given me a wind down sign. But before we do, let's talk some more about "Drive All Night." Kat, you talked about Joss' vocal in your piece.
Kat: Right. It's the perfect vocal. She sounds sleepy, tired and turned on. It's not just that she hits some amazing notes, it's that she performs the song, she becomes it. She sounds a little f**ked up like maybe she's been at the club and had a few or maybe she went home and drank alone. And then her lover shows up in the early morning. "I'm glad that I was wrong, baby."
Rebecca: And the way she sings it. I mean, it blows me away. "And then you drive all night. Saying what use is a night when you can't sleep anyway. You might be tired but you're standing right in front of my face." She stops it in places and it really does sound like she's just talking, in the mid-morning, that her lover showed up at 2:30 or so, woke up her up, and she's letting him in the front door. Her vocals like she's smoothing back bed hair or something. It's very sensual.
Ty: And the drums on that are really good. They accencuate. It would be really easy for the drums to try to drive the song and most of the time they would. But instead they accencuate it. They puncuate it. They get louder as she gets more intense. It's just a really incredible track.
Jim: Who wrote the song?
C.I.: Joss Stone and Eg White.
Dona: I think it's a highly sensual song. I hadn't thought of it as the make out song of 2011 but I agree with that. In fact, I'd like us to do a feature on that. I'm not joking.
Jim: And on that note, we'll go ahead and wind up. This is a rush transcript.