Another blast in the culture war

The enemy's been lobbing howitzer rounds over the front line and right into our laps. Here's the latest in the slow destruction of black literature. Thong on Fire. Note what Publisher's Weekly says: Last seen during a short walk-on (or rather, incall) in Thug-a-Licious, Saucy Robinson returns with a vengeance in Noire's latest Harlem street tale, with Noire's most sophisticated plot to date. Born in Harlem to a black ex-G.I. father and a junkie Korean prostitute mother, Saucy (named Seung Cee by her mother and Sarita by her father) ends up in her uncle Swag's care by age eight, after her mother pimps her out to various men and her lesbian lover. Saucy's upstairs neighbor is a black girl named Tai, and the two are on-again, off-again frenemies for the rest of the book. Saucy, a total hottie, ends up attached to various drug dealers and working at a strip joint, the G-Spot. She breaks into doing rap videos, and ordinary-looking Tai, who is working for super-rapper Freedom Moore, hooks them up. Free wants Saucy to act straight, and if she can, her happiness might be assured. Beyond the sex, what drives the book is Saucy's vivid, trash-talking unreliability."

Now, whte authors can write a best seller about a mouse who dies and is reincarnated as a harried single mother cancer survivor's granddad, and they all live on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland in 1942. Oprah might even endorse the thing. If we deviate from the norm, however--thug books, church lady romance, softcore porn, melodramatic "thriller" soap operas/saucy romps--I doubt you'll see Publishers Weekly so kind. As if to say: "Stick with your own 'gritty, edgey' stuff. Leave the real fiction [ie plotlines as described above] to us." Even if we can break out the current mold, we HAVE to write about race. Gotta be. Gotta do it. And it's not Al Sharpton or Jesse or Young Jeezy or Russell Simmons shaming us into doing it. It's a incarnation of "Charlotte York" from "Sex & the City" who works for a major publisher who's calling those shots. Come on now...fans and fellow authors. You know I speak the truth, eh?

When I speak of the front line, I speak of those well-meaning'd, "deep-thinking, culture-plus New Yawk literatti" like Kevin Powell who have begun a "new movement," a new ethos. Hurray for them. Yet they either shrink away, apologize, rationalize or hazelnut latte-deep think-crunchy-granola-I live in Ft. Green theorize away the truly base, bling and utterly unredeeming creature hip hop and hip hop culture has become; part and parcel of a greater decay that includes black literature, nonfiction...hell, the whole milieu of social, economic, political life. I guess as a man in my now mid 40s, I've got a foot in the old world and toe in the new, and I wish I had fins instead of feet so I could dive away from both! My choice of the artillery imagery is apt. The rounds are arcing high over the heads of the stalwart folk like Powell and decimating the rear areas. Areas they themselvs depend on for logistical support. All this while they write scholarly pieces and debate pithily on talk shows on PBS and attend neo-Soul concerts. The first four or five Hip Hop Summits that such folk empanelled mave have touched--delicately--on matters of culture, but around the seventeenth or eighteenth, well, it's microwave tripe and treacle now. More of the "white man and old-libe Civil Rights era folks don't get us." In the meantime the enemy--and as the cartoon character Pogo expound, that is a piece of us. Their supporters are the greedy/clueless/unscrupulous/craven/paternalistic members of the majority in publishing/music/TV/film/sports ownership/sports management/academia. Street fiction authors basking in the glow, like rappers and running backs--have they uttered a word in support of the kids in Jena, Louisiana, or for Glenarlow Wilson? I dare say we do...

...I dare say so for "we" in genre fiction, we who attempt to entertain AND educate, we who drink Yeungling rather than Pinot or kefir, we who aren't living in Ft. Green or on the cusp in LA and who see the so-called future and young professionals yapping at a Buckhead, Atlanta happy hour not about Kevin Powell's razor analysis, or Martha Southgate's prose, or the turn of a muscial phrase in a Jazz composition or the architecture of one of Cedric Smith's photographs. No, we are among them, hear them loudly proclaim Thong on Fire as the new Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the cut of Jay-Z's new linen suit, and bounce of Beyonce's tits. Or we see baggy-troued andtight-dressed young black folks in the park and they shout "Whatchew writing next?" and you tell them, and they say they'll buy it and they don't because they ned to cash to detail their cars or get new rims or buy new stuff at Marshalls for their cousin's babymama's kids. And we also hear the true rumblings of the streets. Not the theoretical & mythological musigs and machinations, but the practical ugly effect of nihilism and tragic disregard for social norms, for decency, for an education. Oh we confront or speak to or mentor or avoid or endure or are mugged/robbed/raped abused by folk who have not a clue who Kevin Powell is, but appreciate that black folks like him say that their behavior is due to poverty and no male (or female) role models and a disconnect. And when they do, they laugh and destroy each other to a Slim Thug soundtrack and maybe they'll read another literary tour de force penned by C-Murder as they sit on the toilet or wait for the No. 27 bus...

The shrapnel and the concussion's ripping us to pieces. Kevin and those of your ilk with the one-word or Afrocentric names or noms de plume, put down those lattes and those rites of passage essays and those scripts for yet another summit. Put on your goddamn helmets. Let's start firing back! And let's do it with the same bloodlust as is visited on us...

For today let's pray from the UK and this wave of terrorism. 7/7 anniversary is coming up. Billions for law enforcement solutions and intelligent intelligence...not one more m-f'ing cent for an idiotic war started on lies and cynical politics, that did nothing and solved nothing and made things worse. Bring the National Guard units home from Iraq. NOW.

Ahhh...the plot thickens

That's the flip side of scaring the public with Random Scary Black Man (here, Bobby Cutts, Jr.). The crimes, though horrific, are actually boring. Devoid of intrigue, as black folks usually dont have powerful shadowy forces lurking beyond the draperies--unless they are in the NBA or NFL. Carnal beasts we are, and carnality well, his swift and...boring. But here: ATLANTA - Investigators had not yet discovered the bodies of pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and their 7-year-old son when someone altered Benoit's Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death, authorities said.
Authorities said Thursday they are trying to determine who altered the entry on the collaborative reference site 14 hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their son.
Benoit's Wikipedia entry was altered early Monday to say the wrestler had missed a match two days earlier because of his wife's death.
A Wikipedia official, Cary Bass, said the entry was made by someone using an Internet protocol address registered in Stamford, Conn., where World Wrestling Entertainment is based.
An IP address, a unique series of numbers carried by every machine connected to the Internet, does not necessarily have to be broadcast from where it is registered. The bodies were found in Benoit's home in suburban Atlanta, and it's not known where the posting was sent from, Bass said.
Benoit strangled his wife and son during the weekend, placing Bibles next to their bodies, before hanging himself on the cable of a weight-machine in his home, authorities said. No motive was offered for the killings, which were discovered Monday.
Also Thursday, federal drug agents said they had raided the west Georgia office of a doctor who prescribed testosterone to Benoit.
The raid at Dr. Phil Astin's office in Carrollton began Wednesday night and concluded early Thursday, said agent Chuvalo Truesdell, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. No arrests were made.
Hours before the raid, Astin told The Associated Press he had treated Benoit for low testosterone levels, which he said likely originated from previous steroid use.
Among other things, investigators were looking for Benoit's medical records to see whether he had been prescribed steroids and, if so, whether that prescription was appropriate, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because records in the case remain sealed.
Astin prescribed testosterone for Benoit, a longtime friend, in the past but would not say what, if any, medications he prescribed when Benoit visited his office on June 22.
State medical records show that Astin's privileges were suspended for three months in 2001 at a Georgia hospital for "reasons related to competence or character."
Astin did not return calls to his cell phone from the AP on Thursday.
Anabolic steroids were found in Benoit's home, leading officials to wonder whether the drugs played a role in the killings. Some experts believe steroids cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as "roid rage."
Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said in a statement Thursday that he could not immediately comment on the raid.
Benoit's page on Wikipedia, a reference site that allows users to add and edit information, was updated at 12:01 a.m. Monday, about 14 hours before authorities say the bodies were found. The reason he missed a match Saturday night was "stemming from the death of his wife Nancy," it said.
Reporters informed the Fayette County district attorney's office of the posting Thursday, and the agency forwarded the information to sheriff's investigators, who are looking into it, a legal assistant said in an e-mail to the AP.
WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt said that to his knowledge, no one at the WWE knew Nancy Benoit was dead before her body was found Monday afternoon. Text messages released by officials show that messages from Chris Benoit's cell phone were being sent to co-workers a few hours after the Wikipedia posting.

Grown-ups' films this fall...

Screw Bruce Willis, Harry Potter and Optimus Prime! I'm salivating for American Gangster, coming this Fall. Based on crime boss Frank Lucas, with a little sprinkling of Nicky Barnes, both of them almost untoucheable heroin kingpins in 1970s Harlem. All star cast--hell, Ridley Scott directing, Nicholas Pileggi ("Wiseguy" author--Scorsese made it into "GoodFellas")...this just may out-Wire "The Wire," and make "The Departed" look like the "Birdcage." Mi comadre and fellow Baltomoron now Brooklynite, author/Vibe magazine/XXL reporter Mike Gonzales, relayed this to me as an addendum: New York Magazine article that inspired the screenplay. Lucas (Denzel's character) claims to have grossed $1million dollars a day from heroin sales in Harlem. His claim to fame, or infamy if you may, is how he procured his drugs. The Return Of Superfly: By Mark Jacobson

So if you're white, it's roids?

I know I'm switching up on my positions, but I'm playing Devil's Advocate here.

ATLANTA - Pro wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his son before hanging himself in his weight room, a law enforcement official close to the investigation told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Authorities also said they are investigating whether steroids may have been a factor in the deaths of Benoit, his wife and their 7-year-old son. Steroid abuse has been linked to depression, paranoia, and aggressive behavior or angry outbursts known as "roid rage."

Now, the Chicago man who murdered his wife and two children recently is being "evaluated" by shrinks. So let's be honest, whether you see structural and/or personal racism in society, the criminal justice system etc or not: I don't think they are checking Bobby Cutts, Jr. for roids, nor are any talk show pundits debating mental illness. I think you know what I'm getting at.

As for the roid angle....so what? Vince MacMahon's pr flacks & lawyers willhandle it, and Red Staters with nothing better to do will continue to support WWE. It's better than 90% of the realty shows and sitcoms out there, after all...

STAY TUNED for interviews with authors Lisa Jones Johnson, Cora Daniels, Tananarive Due Steve Barnes and Blair Underwood...

Two things we need now like holes in the head...

...are (1) the coverage of the murder of pregnant victim Jesse Davis (a white woman) and the arrest of Bobby Cutts (left) and his alleged accessory/accomplice "Myiesha," ... and (2) the iPhone. Just a note: regarding Cutts, I mean as African Americans, this is the last thing we need, after an early summer of Juneteenth riots, defense of nihilistic hip hop, Bill Jefferson and a self-aggrandizing Congressional Black Caucus, Mike Nifong, Glenarlow Wilson still rotting in prison while black Attorney General coons, and the murder/crime uptick in 5 cities yet not a single black leader has the moral balls to confront it.

As for the iPhone, I mean for American society/quality of life in general. FYI, a recent survey on G4--the mecca for young gamers and comics fans--found that 70% of respondents aged 16-21 said they'd rather go without sex for a month than their phones/PDAs. Given that sex is the ultimate expression of human contact and inter-personal affinity, that doesn't bode well...even assuming some answered the survey as a joke.

So...don't you love the cop-outs of the Bill Gates' and Steve Jobs' and all the millionnaire gamer geeks in their hottubs when they say "don't worry, be happy?" They sound like Russell Simmons defending the indefensible aspects of hip hop!!! This isn't the classic situation of me or grandma not wanting to give up the horse, or the typewriter. I think we are reaching the mindless saturation point now, the pinnacle of personal technology...and these things become toys rather than things that truly benefit society--other than employing folks making more toys. Investors go where the fads and cash are, not where they're needed, and needed desperately. And when we have enormous resources committed to this stuff, and not enough going to stuff like non gasoline cars that run on mag-levs, or boundless fusion energy, then we have a problem. This technology is making people (starting with little kids and teens) dumber, less creative (ironically), lacking in social-personal skills and FATTER! Unable to write, or read a book. More isolated, living without any social bounds and meaningful interaction. Even grandma saw how technology once made folks smarter and more able to communicate and express things. Nope, we can't trust parents, teachers, or CEOs or even politicians to keep this balance. This technology is nothing but self-indulgent masturbation, and we are susceptible to it because we are disconnected.

Like Bobby Cutts. Three kids by three women...married (in name only) to one. And look at them. Hoes? "White hoes?" One of them, yes, sleeping with Shawn Kemp while Cutts is kicking down the door? Jesse Davis knew what she was doing and gladly got knocked up. Cutts gladly inseminated all of them. Why--isn't this the Midwest's version of the Bible-Belt, decency, values? NO. Disconnected, all of them. Disconnected suburban, track housing, strip mall existence, with this patina of "decency" and "religion." Morality isnot about Jesus, etc. It's about connections, mutual suport, selflessness. We don't have that. Cutts didn't. Jesse didn't. Now Jesse's dead, and the baby. So will Blake grow up like that--lots of women, white or black? Will Cutts' daughters be selfish tramps like their moms? Well that's not important, is it? They'll live in a dangerous, polluted world. But at least they can send photos, page each other, watch stories about each other, over their cool iPhones, and what comes next...

Them A-rabs!!!

CHRIS CHAMBERS (talking to my Dick Cheney fan/Grenada Invasion vet neighbor in line with me at the bank): "Um...dude, that guy's a Sikh...from India."

DICK CHENEY FAN: "Huh? Same difference...ragheads. Them A-rabs...Jesus is stronger than Allah but you'd get arrested by the 'sensitivity cops' for discrimination for saying that publicly around here!"

CHRIS CHAMBERS (smirking because this is the same guys who despises "rich Jews" here yet loves the Israeli Army...'descendents of Joshua's soldiers,' he calls them): "Didn't you think I was a Muslim when you first met me?"

DICK CHENEY FAN (shrugging...and whispering now that some Africans in line are raising their eyebrows): "Only when I saw you at the mailbox at a distance, but you were dressed like an American and your wife wasn't wearing a bedsheet. You're one of the few black guys I can have an interesting debate with."

[n.b.--he doesn't seem to mind his portrayal on the blog...for now, at least. I'm worried such will change, now that the NY Yankees are winning again. He hates them more than he hates Hillary Clinton]

"Everybody Loves Abdullah."

Gumbo for the Soul

In addition to Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III, check out Gumbo for the Soul and my attempt at inspirational, "Chicken Soup"/touchy-feely short fiction: "Heritage 1976." You can get the collection online at amazon and Barnes & Noble, or at your favorite indie bookstore. Enjoy and be comforted...

Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III

It's coming out Monday. The "warmly-received" (per Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly) sequel to Dark Dreams I and II (Kensington-Dafina). Find it at bookstores or online at Amazon (buy by clicking to the right sidebar on the Amazon direct link), bn.com, etc. Unless you've lived under a rock or read only titles like Every Bitch Needs a Church-Going Thug, Brandon Massey's Dark Dreams series has featured national bestsellers and fan/critic favorite black authors, from Zane to Eric Jerome Dickey, moi, Tananarive, Steven Barnes, Robert Fleming, LR Giles, Linda Addison, my girl and horror queen LA Banks, plus actor turned thriller author Michael Boatman (you know him from "China Beach," "The Glass Shield," HBO's "Arli$$," "Spin City"...Mike, me, T. Due and LR Giles are have been in all three Dark Dreams).

Brandon is the new Dean L. Koontz, and has been lauded so by lit. critics and fans alike. Thank God for Brandon. That's all we need to say in this culture.

My experience with my own stories hasbeen nothing short of a bizarre suspense thriller, of course. My first story "I, Ghoul," drew down the ire of the University of Maryland Medical School and the Med Chi Society over the facts of grave robbing and slavery in 1803, per the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore City Paper. My second story, "Leviathan," for which I should have sued Disney and Jery Bruckheimer for stealing re: the "Krakken" in Pirates of the Caribbean was about a giant octopus--a freak of nature hiding in the caves and the shallow shelf off the coast of West Africa? Or the embodiment of a sea spirit worshipped by the cultures along the Gambia River? You decide. It's 1750 and the Portuguese and English are going nuts because this thing is attacking slave ships. The human cargo seem to willingly give themselves to the monster, as if it's a savior and they are sacrifices. A true scientist, Owuda and his young son are enslaved over a debt (and because his Gallileo-like mind enrages the local Fulani Muslim imams and the Fulani Viceroy, who's feeding slaves to the Europeans in return for gunpowder etc.). Of the creature's an allegory for the dutch, British and Portuguese trading companies that are the true tentacled monster. Well, high school teachers in maryland , DC and Columbus, Ohio wrote me and loved it, as did there kids. Yet a certain well known black professor/activist in New York excoriated me over the portrayal of Muslin overlords feeding other black folks into the Middle Passage meatgrinder. I'm not anti-Islam, nor am I Larry Elder or Clarence Thomas. Far from it. But facts is facts. Now I have a major premium cable giant (no, not HBO) interested. So bite me...

Now comes the story in Whispers. "Mr. Bones." 1893, Buffalo NY. A minstrel show(with black actors in black face). The show's manager may or may not be the Son of the Morning Star himself. Flash forward to 2006. Mindless thug/bling/hoochie video Hip Hop world. No redeeming value regardless of what Russell Simmons gushes on talk shows. And the same dude seems to be in charge. Again, somebody leaked the topic and some "industry" folk who read XXL, etc. called me on it and this same professor/activist have recently "called" me on it. Day-um.

So pretty please go out and buy Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III. You can read the original manuscripts of I, Ghoul and Leviathan by clicking the story titles--for you unlucky few and new fanboys & girls who missed DD I and II...

...and perhaps LA Banks and I should write a story about a werewolf who takes revenge on the DA who prosecuted Glenarlow Wilson. That guy smirks while they disbar Nifong? Hmmm...

American kids are so spoiled!

Thoughts? Be honest--yeah, like female circumcision, there're some quaint local customs about which we CAN be ugly Americans.

A nice snapshot of culture

Interesting snapshot of our early 21st century millieu in this story. From celebrity worship to terrorism to rank capitalism & the media and marketing to race. Compliments of SaveDarfur.org media coordinator Allyn Brooks-Lasure comes this excerpt from Mariane Peal's interview in Newsweek recently--of course released to help pub Brangelina's latest self-righteous, self-indulgent swoon, A Mighty Wind...oops...A Mighty Heart. Am I staining Daniel Pearl's memory? NO. He was not the martyr the mawkish machine (and his wife--more on that below) demands in today's politico-marketing culture. But he died digging into an important story with implications about Pakistan, al Qaeda, the supposedly-defeated Taliban and the seduction of Islamic extreme fundamentalism that folks on BOTH the left and right are going to have stop ignoring or twisting. However, my focus here's on Mariane:

NEWSWEEK: Do you feel you and Angelina have shaped each other's worldviews?

PEARL: We have very passionate conversations. I always learn from her, and I never walk out of a conversation with Angie without learning something. She doesn't acknowledge borders so much, and neither do I. It's a voluntary view of the world. She's capable of respecting other cultures while remaining herself.

NEWSWEEK: What was your reaction when she said she wanted to play you?

PEARL: She didn't ask me. I asked her.

NEWSWEEK: Really?*

PEARL: We had talked a lot and shared a lot of things. We had known each other for about a year, and I just felt that she understood my heart. That is what I wanted. I thought, "If somebody is going to play me, I don't care that she looks like me." It's about something much more important. I asked her because I trusted her.
...

NEWSWEEK: Angelina said she had a tough time perfecting your accent.

PEARL: She said, "I love you, but your accent drives me crazy!" I'm not even aware of all the difficulties she went through, and that's not having to do with skin color or accent. To be friends with someone and then have to embody the most difficult thing in her life, that's not easy.

NEWSWEEK: Speaking of skin color, there was a lot of uproar about Angelina playing you because she's white. Some people think a woman of color should have played you.

PEARL: I am Cuban, but I'm also Dutch. Should a Dutch person play me? It's not about skin color, it's about how a person behaves that matters. Aren't we past this?

Hmmm...well, remember when right wing harpy-in-chief Ann Coulter accused 9/11 widows who attacked Dubya of sufferig from Munchausen's Syndrome (basically sympathy and attention sponges)? That trick was dead wrong, as usually. Here, I dunno...a suriving spouse--especially a woman--can take on heroine/"strong woman"/role model status simply by a spouse getting iced in the horrific way, during and incident of extreme public concern. Mariane Pearl did of course ask Angelina to play her, and of course Angelina slyly positioned herself to do so--imagine if a big star suddenly wanted to have play dates between her kid and yours? I don't relish being either a cynic or skeptic, but the facts behind all this are manifest if you look into the right sources, such less star struck (and color struck--as we'll see) members of Mariane's family, entetainment beat reporters (not National Enquirer tabloids, but rather Vanity Fair and GQ).

Look, Dan and she were blithe yuppies super-blithely shedding all that nasty baggage of global politics, race, religion (but hey, not Judaism). Well, the world and reality said, "hey you lovers, not so fast. I'm still ugly." There could be no fairy tale life that Mariane saw in Brangelina and their UN of kids.

Her color "Aren't we over this?" comment plays so well to her seduction by Angie on the one hand, to her savvy marketing (to a white female audience) on the other. This is something that isn't about "getting over." You either feel it is important or you punt it because the majority doesn't want to face it and you want to fit it. Mariane doesn't want to embrace the 500 yeas of racial turmoil and oppression in Cuba that reflects in her face and flows in her veins (ironically, it's only been due to Castro and the commies that this thing has ceased; many millions of black Cuban don't want to live under that dilapidated regime, but they also fear a return of the bad old days of rich white Cubans with feet up the black Cubans' asses--and that's what they see in Miami...). Apparently Marianne's immediate family had a Clarence Thomasian view of this stuff. It is about point of view and orientation. Remember Chris Rock jibing at Rae Down Chong and Tiger Woods years ago when they were exaulting their exotic backgrounds, blah blah.

"Dawn, you're black, okay? Just marry a Kennedy and you'll see how black you really are."

Face it. Any intelligent person of color knows that unless you want to rap, survive in prison (or write truly base fiction hahahaha), there's no utility in being black in America or Europe. Notice I said "intelligent" people, for such persons know damn well these anti-affirmative action/we're too PC/we indulge Al Sharpton too much stuff is all a sham, and a scam. Being black is a burden, a stamp that you are automatically ambivalent about many many things. And what about these rappers peddling car candy and seemingly live the charmed life? Even Jay-Z has to answer to shadowy white guys who run the banks that extend credit and the private equity/hedge funds that own the frigging stock. But here's the flip side: it is a burden you bear with fierce pride--in our historical survival, in our hope for the future, whether you are from San Francisco or Sao Paulo, Harlem or Brixton, Trinidad or Toronto. And given the virtual "blackout" in Hollywood, Mariane's statement stings doubly. Brangelina's Namibian daughter is "darker looking than Mariane and Daniel's son. But lots of people are darker than me and my wife. And if you look at our baby pictures, and the kid we mix up, well, let's say the toddler pearl could be our kid. We are proud to say African American. We are proud to add Caribbean. Yet we always rap it up and say in a nutshell: "We're black." That's not something to "get over," Mrs. Pearl. Even Colin Powell says that. And if Angie wasn't even more self-righteous, perhaps she should have cast Thandie Newton (who's a better actress) or any number of black actresses who ca't get jobs because they don't want to play hip hop hoes. Then again, who'd buy movie tickets? And if Dan's wife is "black" and not "exotic" and Dan's little son is just a high yella little fellah--who'd really be inspired by this story? Who'd uy the book or do the interviews?

Hmmm, again. A lot fewer people--that's the answer. And that's what sould be gotten over, Mariane.

Look these are just musings of someone who refuses to give in to marketing on he was saying have always contended that this lady i

Happy Fathers Day!

Daddy. Everyone has one. Me, the Duke Lacrosse Team, Suge Knight, Hitler.
It's a tough job. So much riding on it. Aren't dad's worth a little more than power tools, etc. or some cartoonish macho appeal? Do you think if people were like emperor penguins, dudes would huddle together and protect and nuture their kids in perpetual dark and cold? Hell yes. Hell yes...

Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, Steve Barnes

No, they're
not conspiring to minister injustice to more poor defensless white preppie lacrosse players. Oh the humanity, and God forbid! Actually this is to whet your stone for my interview. Casanegra. A true collaboration, transcending book and film. The next evolutionary step from the primordial ooze of selling the rights for pittance to some celebrity miscreant, only to see it languish on her lounge chair, to the amphibian first steps onto land: partnering up with other writers, finding investors and shooting it yourself. Casanegra A Tennyson Hardwicke Thirller pretty much among those first forays of proto-man, out of the trees, walking upright. We'll get to the pinnacle soon, we promise. And Steve and T. are showing us the way...

"You won't have Mike Nifong to kick around anymore..."

The Duke lacrosse prosecutor is resigning as a ploy to keep from getting his paper yanked. Thank God. What would Fox News, the rabid right wing radio rabble, the blogging buttholes et al have to do if he didn't stick around? How they "wag the dog," or deflect from the real world's, not the cartoon world's, racism, ignorance, white male insouciance? The best thing for them would've been for Nifong, a clown in his own right, to drape himself with the misguided moxie of a Marion Barry, a Bill Jefferson, a Michael Vick (hahaha). You the analogy to the world of black politics, black athletes, rappers: My core loves me no matter what I dirt I do, and indeed they love more, the Mr. Charlie says I'm doing dirt. A win-win for them. But alas not for a middle-aged white dude like Nifong. He can't even sing like Robin Thicke, so the brothas have definitely washed their hands of him.

Speaking of singing, did you see the poor preppies, whining about the unhumanity of it all as they testified before the Bar Committee (and when since did these hearings become OJ Trial televised circuses? Hmm...when it behooves certain folks to claim victimhood as a re-assertion of dominance, perhaps?). Yes dominance. I went to school with younger versions of these kids. The only difference now being that their dads, believe it or not, might have picked up another perspectiveof how the other 90% of the human race lives and is treated. But iwe have a MTV's "Next" WWE Raw and X-box wretched excess culture, our Paris Hilton and Lindsay and any trophy wife as role models for white girls...our ethos that says whatever white males have done or are doing is excused because blacks/lesbians/fags/hispanics blah blah are out there doing dirt/killing people/destroying our "morals"/sapping our manhood/etc. etc. I swear to GOD from what I know here they learned nothing except don't mess with Mr. Charlie's cubs. Do not f**k with us before we get the keys to the kingdom or you will be crushed! And we can count on the same right wing turd machine that our older hero, George W. Bush, can summon when he needs help.

Oh they learned a lesson, all right. Don't you dare turn them into "Sherman McCoy" from Bonfire of the Vanities. Don't you dare!

In the meantime, true to form, as Glenarlow Wilson rots--and no one seems to be questioning the ethics of the prosecutor in that case, Congressman Walter Jones (R NC) wants the so-called Justice Department (I was in the Justice Department. What Gonzales is running now is an oxymoron) to do a civil rights investigation as if this is the Schwerner-Chaney-Goodman murder in Mississippi in '64! Makes perfect sense...our young middle class white youth. At risk, under siege. I shudder.

Interesting counterpoint--more so than the Glenarlow Wilson case, emerged two days agao...after SIXTY YEARS. MONROE, Ga. – Newly released files from the lynching of two black couples more than 60 years ago contain a disturbing revelation: The FBI investigated suspicions that a three-term governor of Georgia sanctioned the killings to sway rural white voters during a tough election campaign.
The 3,725 pages obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act don’t make conclusions about the still-unsolved killings at Moore’s Ford Bridge. But they raise the possibility that Eugene Talmadge’s politics might have been a factor when a white mob dragged the four from a car, tied them to a tree and opened fire.
“I’m not surprised. … Historians over the years have concluded the violently racist tone of his 1946 campaign may have been indirectly responsible for the violence that came at Moore’s Ford,” said Robert Pratt, a University of Georgia history professor who has studied the case. “It’s fair to say he’s one of the most virulently racist governors the state has ever had.”

Gee whiz...ya think the living relatives of these two couples, out on a double date, can count on the pro bono services of Reade Seligman's barrister to sort out justice here crushing the equally evil and pernicious Mike Nifong? Let us pray. Let us praaaaaaaaaay!

Tim Duncan. Hero. Finally?

Before I dish on Joe Lieberman and Thubert the Traitor (AG of Georgia, unwitting ally of the most scumbag redneck prosecutor in the state) I must shill my boy. Finally, will somebody give Tim Duncan the props he deserves. And I don't mean a geeky Bob Costas type doing the lauding. I mean brothas.

Would it be easier if he wasn't articulate, avoided hubris? Would it better if he was a little darker skinned? [don't get mad. I'm just trying to exhaust all the possibilities] Would the praise be more forthcoming if he was covered with tattoos, had four baby-mamas, was a knuckle-dragging thug, plaited his hair in bizarre rows no one in Africa has ever seen? Lived in an 8000 square ft house with no other furniture but a 72 inch LCD TV and a leather sofa and a stripper pole? Huh? Huh? Seriously...

...or maybe he needs a new publicist? How about ghettocrat Prof. Michael Eric Dyson? He'd reform his image considerably. ;-)

COMING ATTRACTIONS!

Coming soon, fanboys & girls. Interviews with Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes on their collaboration with Blair Underwood: Casanegra. Cora Daniels, author of the controversial study on the negative influences of our culture Ghetto Nation. Lisa Jones Johnson, author of the thriller A Dead Man Speaks.

That's Lisa above, dolled up for the NAACP Image Awards--Lisa's was a finalist in the literature categories.

You demand better. I give it to you.

But next, we'll do some damage to clueless scumbag Sen. Joe Lieberman (the "Loserman" in the "Sore-Loserman" epithet coined in 2000 by the very same scum feeding him idiotic talking points today) and my favs, the prosecutor in the Glenarlow Wilson case in Georgia, and the Attorney General of the State (who's a brother, by the way). Atlanta as black mecca. Negroes, please...

Sopranos. Fuhgeddaboudit

All time greatest TV finales:

1. The Fugitive
2. Six Feet Under
3. Newhart (the second series)
4. M*A*S*H
5. Mary Tyler Moore Show
6. Lassie
7. The Lone Ranger
8. Hawaii Five-O
9. The Larry Sanders Show (Gary Shandling on HBO)
10. Cheers

Some shows--mostly comedies--died ignominous slow deaths by "taste-ticaluar cancer." Lawd, "Good Times" comes to mind. "Cosby Show" Some just got so stupid and outlandish (again, comedies) that you're glad they're frigging gone. Think "Happy Days." Most shows are just plain non-renewed and pass like a tapeworm--with initial terror, then relief.

But after last night, here are my all time true finales that absolutely sucked (and, strangely they are from some of TV's top shows):

1. The Sopranos
2. Seinfeld
3. Amos n' Andy
4. Dallas
5. The X-files
6. Sex & the City
7. St. Elsewhere
8. Friends
9. Will & Grace
10. Daniel Boone

Then there're shows like Chappelle Show, which, well, vanished.

I dare you to differ...

"How ya like me know?"

Colin to the right wing bastards who hosed he & Alma: Bite me, rednecks...


Powell Gives Obama Foreign Policy Advice
By Associated Press

3 hours agoUPDATED 2 HOURS 49 MINUTES AGO
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has sought out former Secretary of State Colin Powell for advice on foreign policy matters.
While Powell served in the administrations of two Republican presidents, he said Sunday it was too early in the 2008 race to say whether he would back a GOP nominee.
"I'm going to support the best person that I can find who will lead this country for the eight years beginning in January of 2009," Powell said.

My sources says this was the second of two LONG meetings between the Big Jamaican and Barack. Veiled meaning here, boneheads, Glenn Beck, Hannity et al: if Obama's the nominee, Colin's in the Adminstration a la Bill Cohen. Payback's a bitch. Note he said "the eight years." Hmmm...

(PS, see post below--Reunions should be wild in 2010 if Barack wins and Michelle, Class of 85, says we gotta roll to the 25th. And you know she will...)

Random Movies from Reunions

A few random Princeton Reunions shots I pulled from YouTube. Apologies I couldn't embed but YouTube's gotten lame and corporate. The Fireworks Saturday night. Vignettes from the one and only P-rade. More P-rade--the younger folks. Older farts at P-rade (older than me). Some our class's Friday night festivities, featuring Zyedco impressario Terrence Simien (our theme was mardi gras, and our noblesse olbige Ivy League probably raised more skrilla for Katrina-housing rehab than Ray Nagin promised and Cong. Bill Jefferson stole). Nothing on there from Saturday night's truly old fart stomp featuring Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes (nope...Little Steven Vansandt "Silvio Dante" from the Sopranos did not show up, as hoped). They went back to their stint as house band for Conan O'Brien. YouTube and bands are funny--even at a private event (though 2000 people under our tent isn't private) they still frown and folks recording their gigs. Oh well.

Will post my own pictures, especially from the black folks midnight party at the Carl Fields Center and our class dinner, where they actually flashed a photo of me with one of my novels. Quite proud, was Mrs. Nat Turner, as it was right behind a photo of my classmates who proudly orchestrated the Iraq War and $3.20/gallon gas. LOL

Why did I post this? Because unless you're in church, there's nothing good on TV on Sunday mornings, so you might as well click the links. Talk at you Monday night...

Lawd...

31 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Screaming and crying, Paris Hilton was escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her Hollywood Hills home.
"It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton, who violated her parole in a reckless driving case. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the audience.

Now if they'd just lock up this porn dwarf known as Little Oprah...

No duh, Reverend

NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton denounced Paris Hilton's release from jail on Thursday, saying it had "all of the appearances of economic and racial favoritism."
"I think that it's both another glaring display of how race and money seem to get different treatments. There seems to be a different criminal justice system for some than others," Sharpton said.

Now, even the douches at Fox News and the right wing bloggers can't find fault with this. And indeed, they are REMARKABLE in their support! To-wit: John Gibson, as big a piece of dog stool as is on Fox, said:

"Al Sharpton is right. Today when Paris Hilton got sprung from jail 20 days early — from a sentence that was just half of what was originally imposed — the story turned out to be that Paris' shrink went to the jailers and said she was about to have a nervous breakdown. So they let her go home early with an ankle bracelet. Sharpton immediately said there may have been racism involved here. Look, when he's right he's right. No matter what you think of Rev. Al, it is hard to imagine that anywhere in America a black woman is getting out of jail today because her shrink says she's about to have a nervous breakdown. He says it wouldn't happen, and I agree.It shouldn't happen either. It shouldn't happen with "little miss just anybody," whether she's African-American or white or Asian or Hispanic or anything. And it shouldn't have happened with Paris Hilton."

Story is, her family foundation made a sizeable donation as a de facto fine (bribe?) to LA County. How this engenders respect for the law, decent behavior, I don't know. But I expected the county to keep her locked up at least for appearances-sake. I guess I can scratch my Scooter Libby-Bill Jefferson post, below. Guess the folk who say leave Bill alone, or leave Mike Vick and Tank alone and look at that cracker Tom Brady, are wagging their big greazy kielbasa-like fingers at me.

On a non-related note, look for my interview with Cora Daniels, author of Ghetto Nation, coming up. And in July: excerpts from my novels coming out in 2008...inteviews with folks you DON'T see in Essence but wish you did...tips from REAL authors...oh, and yes, more YouTube goodies...

Thank you, Scooter...

Scooter Libby might be the double espresso black folks needed. No, it's not because brother Reggie Walton (he's an imposing dude...I sat with him in the cafeteria at the Federal Courthouse at 3rd & Constitution last year and he frightened even me) presided, and slapped him down with 2 1/2 years in prison. And it's also not because this is but one of many evil chickens coming to home to roost in the coop that is the Bush White House (Scooter being the highest ranking White House aide to go to the slammer since the Nixon Administration, and yes, Cheney and Rove are still lying).

Nah, it's not for any of these admittedly venal reasons that I thank Scooter.

Rather it may serve to shut up the assorted miscreants, activists and trivial fools who defend the likes of Bill Jefferson. It serves to jolt others to their senses. This clown is caught literally red-handed, abusing the public trust, for who--the slimey dictators and other corrupt turds who run Nigeria, and pretty much every other African nation. I digress, but perhaps we as African Americans need to leverage regime change over there, and stop this wistful, mythic/fairy tale view of the place. (Also, this is the same nation who's bishops see fit to tell our Episcopal Church how it should be run...when there is disease, death, corruption and the utter pissing away of all of that oil cash). But again, I digress. See, we have folks who excuse Jefferson by saying "Oh, white politicians do this all the time. Oh, they never get caught and never get punished. Oh, he serves his constituents, and Mr. Charlie's afraid of him, so they set him up." Yeah, the same way they set up Mel reynolds when he tried to have sex with a 14 year old girl? There are folks here in DC who are trying to excuse the actions of the crackhead who ran over dozens of people in Southeast this weekend. How? "Oh, the cops were chasing her. Oh, the cops should have stopped her but didn't." Neither was true. Almost as silly as the folk who actually think Rep. Cynthia McKinney is normal...or the this retard Sheriff Harry Lee & bammas misguided churchladies who re-elected Jefferson despite what has happened. READ THE INDICTMENT, SET DOWN FROM THE GRAND JURY IN THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA BY CLICKING HERE.

We have politicians like Bill because there are too many folk like the excuse makers. White America can afford Scooter Libby (and no, Bush will not pardon him). We can't afford Bill Jefferson. Maybe he and Scooter can share a cell...tattoo each other names on their thighs. In the mean time, I'll be enjoying a double espresso, saying with sadness and not gloating "If I told y'all once I told you a thousand times..."

'Zo in The Darker Mask

NEWSFLASH: As you know, we had to find a replacement for Eric Jerome Dickey in the upcoming graphic/short story/comic collection The Darker Mask. Well, Lorenzo Carcaterra, better known for his stint penning Law & Order episodes and best known for his million seller Sleepers, which became the hit film starring Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and yes even Jason Patric as Lorenzo, has stepped in and we're very excited. Thanks, 'Zo, for looking out. Click on his name for his website, his updates on new fiction and a foray into the world of computer games (the next frontier for we mystery/suspense/thriller authors now that we're getting chased out by Rachel Ray, etc.) And for look for The Darker Mask, edited by yours truly and Gary Phillips, chock full of original stories and art, in Spring '08. See the sidebar for our contributors.