and another one

because we haven't had enough of these movies


and this time they're in Brazil! hold on to your seats!!

Idris Elba and Michael Ealy

to piggyback off of my post about the mainstream film industry, i wanna talk about two actors that are, unfortunately, starring in "Takers". Idris Elba and and Michael Ealy, both of whom i have a great deal of respect for, but they're starting to lose points by doing movies like this. i'll start with Elba...

i can't speak on the shows he did before "The Wire", because i havent seen any of them. but i can say that his performance in "The Wire" was great. now he seems to be going off the deep end, doing "Obsessed", "The Losers", and now, "Takers", of which the latter two are strikingly similar featuring a group of gun-wielding badasses with stuff exploding left and right. he has an overwhelming capacity to be captivating, but the opportunities to showcase that are non-existent

and now on to Ealy...

i didn't take him seriously back when he was in the "Barbershop" movies and "2 Fast 2 Furious". but then came "Their Eyes Were Watching God", and i was like, okay, this guy has potential. then he started taking on more serious roles, starring in "Miracle at St. Anna" and "Seven Pounds". he even earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role in "Sleeper Cell". in almost everything you do, you have to start somewhere and work your way up, so i'm not gonna knock him for the earlier roles. but now it seems as though he's taking a step backwards by getting involved with "Takers".

again, good scripts are not being green-lighted in Hollywood, so now good actors are faced with having to settle for the nonsense that's being presented to them. i'll never be in that situation, so i can't judge too harshly. but maybe if more actors spoke out, and turned down these sorry excuses for films, the execs might take note. it saddens me to see such talented people selling themselves short. it's like watching a genius work at McDonald's

Rainy Day

A relaxing rainy day, staying in, listening to some Lena Horne and John Coltrane
what should i discuss? i could go on and on about how disastrous "Takers" and "Lottery Ticket" look, but i'm tired of ranting about stereotypes, and the general demise of the entertainment industry. mmm what the heck, i'll rant just a tiny bit...

so we have Chris Brown, T.I. and Bow Wow in box office spotlight. and i speak for a lot of people when i say, WHAT THE FUCK?! they're are amazing actors out there who actually study and respect the craft, and dedicate their lives to it. sadly, we'll never see these people on the big screen. it all comes down to money, and hollywood execs would rather pollute minds and make millions instead of putting together quality films. i'm just tired of the bullshit. they'll put rappers in a movie to fill seats, and unfortunately it works, so they'll just keep doing it. For the most part, I've thrown in the towel. and i'm not saying that good movies aren't being made, but those movies aren't getting any publicity or recognition.
every now and then, though, some artist will give me a little glimmer of hope. like anthony mackie. nia long commented on Beyonce and Obsessed, and how singers shouldn't be acting. she caught a lot of heat for it, but she was just speaking the truth. Beyonce cant act, but to fill seats, they give roles to superstars who know nothing about acting. recently, anthony mackie has spoken out about rapper-turned-actors. if you don't know who he is, he was in the Spike Lee joint "She Hate Me", and the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker", and he went to Juilliard, so he knows what he's talking about.



“I don’t go into the hospital and let the janitor perform surgery on me, you know what I mean?” Mackie told Details magazine.


and i'm sure he's gonna catch some heat too, because people are ignorant. see the Clutch article on him here.

ha, i didn't even read the article until after i wrote this post, and then i saw how many similarities there were between my thoughts and those in the article. but anyway, on rare occasions, there are multi-talented people, but that's just not the case with what's going on right now. People need to stay in their place. If you're a rapper, rap. and on the flipside, if you're an actor, act, stop trying to get a record deal.

wknd

This weekend went by wayyy too fast. Andrea was in town thursday night. our plan was to go to Bob & Barbara's for the drag show, but that didn't happen. we went to see a friend at Copa, and hung out there for awhile. when we got to Bob & Barbara's it was too crowded, so we just went home, and the night was kind of a bust. but that didnt stop us from trying to make the best of it. We secretly recorded our friend singing "So Beautiful" by Musiq.....and then he realized he was being recorded lol. you may need to turn your volume down before playing this

and that's my current jam

LeBron vs. Oscar Grant

http://newsone.com/nation/srobinson/opinion-how-much-is-one-black-man-worth-lebron-vs-oscar-grant/

The Modern Day Mammy

Some (informal) background: during, and immediately following slavery, there were several caricatures to categorize Black people. some were used to justify slavery and discrimination, and they were all, for the most part, derogatory. The Mammy is the housekeeper. she cooks, cleans, looks after the children, and does it all with a swish in her hip, and skip in her step, while singing and smiling. she is just so happy to be serving her master, and she loooves those kids. physically, the mammy is portrayed as heavyset, and completely desexualized. the message: a black woman's only business is being a servant. of course, this was perpetuated on television and on film. in the beginning, the only Blacks you saw in the media were servants. in commercials, Black women were used to advertise cleaning products and food, so that they were still seen as cleaners and cooks.
today in the media, we can see Black women as intelligent beings, sexual beings, comical, emotional, dynamic beings. but that doesn't change the fact that some of those old stereotypes still exist. they're just not as blatant.

1.) The Pine-Sol Lady

what's funny is that the article i got this image from is called "Is Aunt Jemima back?" Ahh the Pine-Sol lady. she couldn't fit the description any better. and that line: "That's the power of Pine-Sol, baby". To a mammy, everyone is "baby", as she is everyone's nurturer.

2.) The Popeye's Lady

while looking for this image, i also found articles accusing the Popeye's commercials of being racist.
This is from theurbandaily.com: "the Popeye’s Chicken ad campaign featuring a new-growth-scratching sassy black woman who introduces herself as Annie “the Chicken Queen” is but a biscuit and strawberry soda away from being a full-on minstrel show."
now i don't agree 100% with this quote, but i could do without watching yet another Black woman on t.v. perpetuating a stereotype, twisting her neck, with her hand on her hip, saying with sass: "mmm hmm" and "honey"

Booty Warrior

Movie Recommendations

If you're looking for a unique spin on the romantic comedy, Watching the Detectives is great.

It's not as cliche as you would think. Lucy Liu is surprisingly good. she's always been typecast as fiesty or bitchy, and those characters tend to fall flat. i didn't know she could be so real and funny. i laughed out loud a few times. and Cillian Murphy pulls off "the sweet vulnerable guy".




If you want something a little less sappy, and a little more gory, see Shaun of the Dead. Genre: Horedy (Horror/Comedy, i made that up)

i promise this will crack you up. a couple points got way too serious for a comedy, but overall i enjoyed it.

The End of The Bachelorette

i basically had to force myself to watch the finale. it was so excruciatingly boring and cheesy. but when i start something, i finish it lol. Alright, i'll start with "The Men Tell All". neither Justin nor Frank were there, who were the only ones that did anything scandalous. it came down to talking about psycho Kasey's tattoo, and Kirk, because he was the one there who made it the furthest. really, no one gives a shit about Kirk. i was kinda looking forward to the finale, "The Final Rose", only to see a confrontation with Frank. so it's on, and they say "at the last minute, Frank backed out", and you could see on Ali's face that she was upset, and really wanted to see him. i don't think Ali's completely over Frank. she let's Chris go, and chooses Roberto, and he proposes. how many times have we seen this? Ali's just googly-eyed because he's cute, and Roberto's just looking for a trophy wife. they're all gushy and giddy now. i give it 6 months.

the ILLZ - My Public Apology

this video is so beautifully shot. and i'm going through a tough time in my own relationship, so it made me tear up a little bit

The ILLZ - M.P.A.(My Public Apology) (Official Video) from Delgis Mustafa on Vimeo.

Fell in love with the sample, so I had to find out what it was. It's called "Breathe" by Telepopmusik.

i wish the song stayed slow throughout, but maybe right now i'm just in the mood for slow, mellow music instead of uptempo stuff. sorry this video is so WEIRD.