Props to Ahmad who just recently obtained his bachelors from Stanford.
Author: Warin
After A 20 Year Hiatus Arsenio Hall is Back
Arsenio Hall made his triumphant return back to late night television this month and the initial results have been promising.
In its first full week on the air, “The Arsenio Hall Show” won the coveted 18-49 TV demographic, which is certainly a good sign. Arsenio has had on a number of well known entertainers and musical guests ranging the gamut from Chris Tucker, to Magic Johnson, to Angela Basset and Kendrick Lamar. I only got see the first show, but I enjoyed it.
I will say this however. If anyone from “The Arsenio Hall Show” happens to be reading this (and just in case you are, I’d love to come visit Los Angeles) it’s not a good look to have ads literally in the middle of a show. As a matter of fact, while ads are common on internet streams and on podcasts (Hello, ESPN) I have never seen ads in the middle of a live show. It just seems jarring, which is why I took a photo of it. Also, it just had to be McDonalds? Maybe it’s just my television that saw this, or perhaps others saw it as well, but please, no more ads in the middle of interviews.
Russell Simmons, Harriet Tubman, and the Continued Degradation of Black Women
Harriet Tubman is considered an American hero freeing hundreds of black folks from the horrors of slavery during her time. Last month a video was released that desecrated her legacy and made her appear anything but heroic.
The video was the creation of Russell Simmons’ All Def Digital company which released the parody and subsequently has had some serious questions to answer. First, a little back story on Russell Simmons. This is a man who is considered one of the original hip-hop moguls (he co-founded the record label Def Jam), a man who launched the clothing line Phat Farm and a man who used his own name to promote the ‘Rush Card.’
So Russell has been in the music/media/entertainment industry for awhile now. Online video has exploded in recent years and Russell has decided to put his hat in the ring. This was not the way to make a first impression however.
In the video we see Harriet Tubman using her sexuality as a way to trick her master into freeing more slaves. We also see a slave hiding in a closet with a crude video camera recording the encounter. The slave then jumps out of the closet in sort of a gotcha moment and pledges to use the video evidence against master as some sort of blackmail. Yup.
Needless to say, people were pissed. And rightfully so. Simmons had to personally apologize to the family of Harriet Tubman and later issued a public apology through this video. What’s even more concerning, is the fact that Russell Simmons claimed that he didn’t know the video was offensive until his friends from the NAACP gave him a call telling him the damage he had done.
An even more disturbing fact is that this video (along with a host of other media outlets) devalues the contributions that black women have made throughout our society. Whether it’s marriage articles, or personal net worth, or out of wedlock births, it appears as if black women have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to media representation these last few years. To see this lack of sensitivity and disrespect shown to a historical icon by a fellow person of color is disheartening to say the least. What this parody video says is either Russell Simmons did not know enough about the significance of Harriet Tubman to see the pain this video would cause, or simply didn’t care enough about her legacy in the first place. Either way, Harriet Tubman deserves better than this.
The Program 20 Years Later
This is probably one of the most underrated sports films of the last 20-25 years. I loved it when I first saw it 10 years ago and it continues to be one of my favorites.
“The Program” is a film about a fictional college football team and the challenges and obstacles they must overcome during the course of a season. That’s really just the icing on the cake however. Over the course of the film we get a view to varying degrees of the men who makeup the squad. There’s the alcoholic quarterback. The freshman running-back trying to supplant the senior in the starting lineup. The fierce linebacker who trash talks the opponent to psych himself up during the game before it eventually costs him. And finally, there’s the coach played by James Caan who is fighting to keep it all together.
The film does a good job delving into issues that affect not just college football programs, but college sports in general. Whether it’s boosters putting pressure on an administration, who in turn shifts that pressure towards the head coach, or players going through personal problems that they rather not have highlighted by the media, “The Program” touches on many of these things. It features a young Omar Epps who plays freshman running-back Darnell Jefferson and Halle Berry who plays Autumn Haley, who is Jefferson’s academic tutor.
2Pac – Changes (1998)
One of the best to ever to do it.
Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff Making History at PBS
Though it may come as a surprise to some, nightly news broadcasts across the major networks in the United States are still largely a man’s world. That’s why it’s refreshing and good to see Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff becoming the first women co-anchors for a nightly news show when they make their debut tonight on PBS.
Ifill and Woodruff will become the regular co-hosts of the PBS program “NewsHour.” They are both veteran journalists who have definitely paid their dues over the years. For more, you can check out this Associated Press article.
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| Photo by The Associated Press |
Barry Jenkins on Being A Black Filmmaker
“I’m a black filmmaker. I must be. When I think of characters, or rather, when characters come to me — as the best ones do, outside of conscious thought — overwhelmingly they are black. And when I introduce these characters and films into the production framework of this industry, the funding and distribution “restrictions” I’m met with as a result of those characters’ blackness would remind me, if it weren’t clear already, that I am indeed black.”
The above quote comes from the NY Times piece 20 Directors to Watch in which the Times profiled 20 filmmakers who are making their voices heard. Barry Jenkins directed the 2008 film “Medicine for Melancholy,” which centers around a young couple who spend a day with each other in San Francisco. It’s a film that I highly recommend. The piece also features Dee Rees, who directed the 2011 highly regarded film “Pariah.”
Ryan Coogler Speaks On His Sundance Institute Journey
Writer and director Ryan Coogler, who directed the critically acclaimed “Fruitvale Station,” speaks on the impact that attending the Sundance Film Insititute Labs had not only on his career, but his life.
50 Years Later Following the March On Washington
This past week was a big anniversary when it came to the fight for justice here in the United States. For it was 50 years ago on August 28, 1963, that the Civil Rights March on Washington took place.
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| Photo from Hulton Archive |
The March on Washington represented a crescendo in the movement for racial equality in America. It wasn’t just that people were marching either. They were voicing their opinions, participating in sit-ins and boycotts, being beaten and even killed for challenging the law of the land in which they were not merely seen as unequal, but forever subjugated to a second class existence.
http://www.npr.org/v2/?i=129470920&m=129497826&t=audio
Martin Luther King typically gets most of the credit and acclaim when we look back on the March on Washington, but there were a bevy of people who also made the moment so special. People such as: Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, Bayard Rustin, Dorothy Height, Rosa Parks, and countless other young people as well who took part in the movement. Their sacrifices are ultimately what lead the groundwork for the U.S. finally beginning to live up to its creed nearly 200 years after the signing of the Constitution. As great and symbolic as the March on Washington was in 1963, we can’t stop there. We must keep moving forward everyday.
Scarface – My Block (2002)
One of my all time favorites.
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