Yes, it's bein' brung in September...

Crapy black books and film, good black books and film. Amazing plays. Amazing lapses in judgement on the part of too many folk. A new feature I call "Archie Bunker Mondays." Vent on your least favorite ethnic group's antic in complete safety...but it has to be clever and relevant, e.g. "Yes, they I saw them parking their 5 beat-up used cars on their lawn" stuff. No invectives like "Hitler had the right idea," or "If I'd known about Obama in advance I'd have gone back int iem and told my ancestors to pick their own cotton or enjoy being white trash at the bottom of the totem pole." Stay tuned.

Oh and which of these douchebags above is a Palin? It's not "The Spanish Inquistion" or "Biggus Dickus" items, right? Er...close. Will elaborate. And pray for our cocaine addles President, our blood thinner addled VP and our fearless GOP nominees to be as they bravely re-write Katrina History along with Suckwinder Jinadal and Mayor "Bigger Douchebag than Palin" Nagin (see, it rhymes!).

Yeah, he nailed it...

I could nit-pick, but that would imply there are crawly nits to pick. Sure, it would be nice to address the usual "tax and spend" crap and combine it with the "he loves our enemies and the folk at home who blame America" by saying what about "borrow and spend?" and indeed mortgaging the nation to folks who hate us, just so bigwigs can make a buck. But hey, this was one for the ages. Amusing to see the Fox News and blogger punditry and gargling. But hey, they must clear their throats for the usual flag and cross snowjob bread and circus to mezmerize Joe and Josephine Sixpack next week. Lord, can't let the trance be broken on Joe and Josephine. Lest they absord what Barack said...

I was relieved. I am happy. And as for the "beyond the campaign" significance, this speech is history--especially given that this is the party of Jefferson and Jackson, and of the traitors who decided to leave the Union in 1861 and condemn thousands of men and women war and misery rather than admit that we were human. But that will make words he speaks on Inauguration Day even more paramount.

Thoughts on "The Speech" Tonight

I'm likely blaspheming in the eyes of some of you but isn't this thing being hyper-hyped, over-talked about? Will he be his usual pie in the sky/philospher or will he be the intelligent tiger he needs to be now?
There seems to be this religious call that all African Americans must drop everything they are doing to watch this speech, and I certainly will, and I will do whatever's necessary to get him elected...BUT there's only ONE speech that counts to me: when he takes the oath of office in sight of places we were once dragged in slave coffles , and 150 miles from where we were first put ashore at Jamestown to work and die. Then I will fall to myknees and weep. Anything before that is just cake without the icing...hype in a football stadium...
And let us not forget that, in the words of a commenter on this blog, the "Nuremburg Rally" begins next week--complete with songs, flags and invective and the loving nuture of bloggers, Fox News and Glen Beck. Speeches before January mean nothing till those voices are humbled and shamed.

Hillary in bloom

No matter what you think of her she nailed it tonight. She stuck a foot in Bush/Cheney/the GOP of the last 15 years' ass, shamed McCain and held a mirror up to her more maniacal supporters who've whispered about jumping from the Democratic ticket. I still think Barack will win by a hair, but the speech tonight was indeed reminiscent of FDR's endorsement of Al Smith at the 1930 Convention...

The Blues

Quote of the week:

"White people singing and playing the Blues? Huh? White people should concentrate on what they do best: giving people the Blues, not singing about it."

--George Carlin, 2007

Cruelly Ironic Blues of the Week:

Margaret Thatcher is suffering from dementia. Like Reagan was. Like my former hero Mr. McCain is. I call it karma. Remember, V for Vendetta was written and illustrated in the 80s as a slap in her face. This was the same lady who lobbied to keep Augusto Pinochet a chishy guest of the people of Britain. Yes, the Iron White Woman caused a lot of Blues in her time. Now you know how it feels.

Finally!

The word "finally" is such pregnant term. One meaning--finally this milquetoast campaign has a mean, snide cagey ol' bastard. Just what the doctor ordered! But answer me this Joe--your state is small as hell, yet it takes 2 hours just to get through I-95 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge (unless you work for Dupont or a rapacious credit card company, why the hell would you actually get off the highway unless it's at that huge "pee and eat" rest stop?). Oh, and why must we suffer one lane highways and loitering behind puttering chicken trucks and rusted pickups to get to the damn beach? Joe, as much $ as I've pumped into your lilliput of a state in Bethany (and then visits from our house up to Rehobeth) through property taxes, purchases, etc. you'd think you'd have that figured out? On the flip, please put the brakes on the developers before they pave every inch of green and dunes. I'm just sayin'...it's quid pro quo for my vote...and I'm a lot less petty than the average American voter, trust me, Joe.

RIP Gene Upshaw

The Oakland Raiders of old. Lord, if Barack was a little more Jack Tatum and a little less...er...Barack, McCain would be embarassing all white people everywhere. And Gene, you were the anchor of a silent, grim, smart o-line. Equally terrifying as that barbarian tribe on defense, the running backs like Marcus, receivers Branch and Belitnikoff, the qb's, from Daryl Lamonica to Snake Stabler to even Plunkett. But with none of the flashiness.

I disagreed with a lot of the positions you espoused while head of the NFLPA, and often it seemed you and the azzhole billionare owners were running the same game on retired players and fans, but you were always an advocate, and never talked mess. Now we're left with Pacman and Chad Johnson...

WTF? Only in America...

The Amish population is growing at a faster "rate" than that of recent Hispanic immigrants Central and South American, Mexican), says this first of many articles. Of course the flipside as featured on ABC News, CNN , etc. is the meth, the booze, the closet partying, cheating on the trappings of modern life, the child brides/pregnancies (of the Amish, that is. And yeah that photo's of Woody Harrelson in "King Pins"). Good. Means more shoo-fly pie and ham salad for yours truly!!!

Redeem Team musings...

Now that the reality TV-ratings portion of the Olympics (e.g., swimming and gymnastics selling out to NBC to create the Phelps mythos and the usual teen pixie soap opera) is over, I suppose the next marketing focus will have to fall upon the Redeem Team (how much money did a PR firm get to come up with that? I'll tell once my source uncovers the billables...no this wasn't something homey or a media convocation...PR firms regularly now feed reporters this stuff as a part of image-making)
Dodd White hipped me to this column from by LZ Granderson on ESPN.com's "Page 2." Now, I know the cosmetic annointance of D-Wade as team leader and metaphor for self-less courage in in full effect, but please, read between the lines of this piece, which I reprint in it's entirety:

A few years ago I was working on a profile of a high-salaried NBA player who happened to be black, and who hailed from a poor, inner-city neighborhood. The guy had been in the league during the time when $100 million contracts were common.
I remember thinking that with that much money, the entire planet literally was his playground.
So when he told me that Atlanta was his all-time favorite vacation spot, I was more than a little disappointed.
That's like calling Olive Garden fine Italian dining.
But at the same time, I understood where he was coming from. When I was in college, studying abroad wasn't even something I thought was available to me. It just sounded expensive, unnecessary and, to be quite honest, something only white people had the luxury of doing. I didn't know any better. Growing up poor and unexposed in Detroit, my ideal vacation spot was Sandusky, Ohio -- home of the Cedar Point amusement park.
Talking with that player reminded me that having money as an adult doesn't automatically free your mind of the limited world view you develop as a child.
I was reminded of that conversation this week when I watched a profile of the USA men's basketball team taking a tour of the Great Wall of China.
Tayshaun Prince called it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My first thought: Why? People visit the Great Wall all the time. Prince is rich. He could probably go every summer for the rest of his life if he wanted. But Tay is from Compton, Calif., and went to Dominguez High School, historically one of the worst academic schools in the nation. There's a good chance he didn't see any globetrotters growing up. If you don't see it, you don't know about it. If you don't know about it, how can you pursue it?
I'm not out to embarrass Prince -- and he might not have meant the statement the way I took it. Still, I couldn't help but wonder if he was a Sandusky, Ohio, brotha the way I used to be.
This is why I have two hopes for Team USA Basketball -- both men and women.
First, Gold.
Second, they take their considerable resources and expose the underprivileged to the wonderful world of, well, the wonderful world.
Stop building basketball courts in the 'hood -- little kids already know about basketball -- and do something that could open the eyes of a young person who is not even aware their eyes are closed.
Tennis great Andre Agassi used to make his shoe sponsor, Nike, donate to his foundation, and in 2001 he opened a college preparatory charter school in West Las Vegas, one of the poorest areas of his native city. Agassi wasn't a rich kid with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was the son of an Iranian immigrant and is a high-school dropout. But he took all that he was exposed to and brought it back to kids who needed someone to care.
I'm not saying the current efforts of a Chris Bosh or Carmelo Anthony are ineffective. Quite the contrary. I'm sure seeing successful athletes returning to lend a hand helps a great deal in cities such as Baltimore and Dallas. But while new basketball courts can give a kid something to do, education can give a kid something to build on. And let's face it, no matter how many points they might score their senior season, most of our children will end up as fans, not players. The real question is, what kind of fan will they be?
Could you imagine the impact of Kobe Bryant and Candace Parker spearheading a charter school or study abroad program in Los Angeles? Or something similar in Cleveland with LeBron James? Then Nike's brightest stars take the graduates abroad at the end of the year. That's not a ridiculous pipe dream. Affluent middle and high schools take their students overseas in the summer all the time. Why? Because travel can light a child's curiosity and implant a hunger for knowledge. Given that high school graduates make less than half of what college graduates make -- according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- it's no wonder the poor get poorer. Education is how you begin to break the cycle of poverty.
And as Agassi has shown, athletes can play a role -- if they really want to.
With all of the excitement over the Redeem Team, there's a chance for one or more of our bright, young stars to make a lasting change here at home. And refurbish a basketball court or two if they still want.
My take: Of course you know what I'm gonna say! When pigs fly is when these dudes will do the stuff we hope. There will always be exceptions, but come on, they have absolutely no incentive--spiritual, economic, cultural, moral--to do it. Indeed, forget the bamma and ghettofab fans--we have too many so-called public intellectuals, leaders, etc. who are also more than willing to cut them a break. But like I said, there are always surprises. Someone as scumbaggish as Ron Artest might be starting a charter school, funding free dialysis and foreclosure relief for folk and saving up $ to put one of his extra ho's kids into Princeton for all I know. But, ah...

48 Hours...The Darker Mask descends on you!

Tor/Macmillan announces coming of THE DARKER MASK August 18, 2008. See the San Diego Comic Con interview with Prof. Christopher A. Chambers and Gary Phillips at www.comicon.com/pulse . Available at bookstores and online. Booclubs contact alexis.saarela@tor.com
The Darker Mask, Christopher Chambers and Gary Phillips, (Tor, 2008) ISBN-13: 978-0765318503 (hardcover), 978-0765318510 (trade paper) Featuring original artwork by Marvel, DC/Vertigo and Newsday illustrators Sean Wang, Shawn Martinbrough, Jeff Fisher and Brian Hurtt. Original stories by Walter Mosley, Tananarive Due, Lorenzo "Sleepers" Carcaterra, Alexandra Sokoloff, "LA" Banks, Naomi Hirahara, Mat Johnson, Victor LaValle, Reed Farrel Coleman, Peter Speigelman, Ann Nocenti, the late Jerry Rodriguez, Chambers & Phillips

Can forgotten, ignored, reviled or weak people like heroin addicts, tattoo artists, lonely wrinkled old women, Darfur refugees or maids be Superheroes? Are Superheroes always in costume, always buff? Always conflicted rich white boys or cheerleaders? Aw, you know the answer...

"Why’re you reading this blurb? Carcaterra, Mosley, tough, juicy stories... What else you need? This is the good stuff. Pay for the damn thing already."--Brad Meltzer New York Times bestselling suspense and graphic novel author

"This collection of smart and raw stories out marvels Marvel and makes me want to strip down to my inner tights. “The Darker Mask” cuts superhero mythology to the bone; leaving neither the characters nor the reader invulnerable to its mesmerizing power."
--Tom Fontana, Emmy-winning Writer/Producer of HBO's "Oz," NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street," and NBC's new hit "The Philanthropist."

"Intriguing, entertaining and cutting edge!"
--Zane, New York Times bestselling author

Whence, Journalism? In...New York Magazine?

No, not The New Yorker. The prize for keeping non-brain candy journalism--and the writer's craft--alive goes to New York magazine. Of course it's the rag that gave Tom Wolfe his start, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked. Of course no ghettofab clowns or texting teenagers or NASCAR Dads or Wal Mart Moms have a clue about either, and that's part of the problem.

So bravo on the article among many in this issues fingering the one thing whitefolks--dumb or smart, liberal or conservative, hillbilly or Yalie don't want to acknowledge...that Barack isn't even farther ahead in the polls because he's spook. Ink spot. Spade. Jiggaboo. Colored guy. Period. Forget the "uppity" thing, forget the not ghetto enough stuff or mixed race stuff, forget the cute nonsense of texting VEEP choice to appeal to Gen X yuppies stuff. He's black. This is America. He's not a clay homunculus of some right wing white mad scientist. He's just black. Can you holla COGNITIVE DISSONANCE?! Oh and there's the piece on why the Beijing Olympics are the pinnacle of dumbed-down, insidious "reality TV,"--including the cloyingly terrible lack of piggybacked political or between the lines economic insights. Then there's my favorite quote from Al Roker: "I'm not a journalist, I'm a weatherman." And then he goes on to sorta/kinda paint Matt Lauer, tongue in cheek, as something less than Edward R. Murrow. Finally, there's a missive about the layoffs at Time, Inc. News bureaus, decimated. Yet subsidiary People spends $14 millions on the Brangelina Twins photos? The RIF'd real journalists, photographers, editors from flagship publication on down to specialty magazines like Fortune Small Business--you know, the folks who try so hard to keep us from all descending into Idiocracy--were not amused. If you want to be even more cynical, perhaps that cash could have helped with the severance. Recall what I said about ghettofab clowns, texting teens, NASCAR Dads and Wal Mart Moms? is their diet for crap the

Finally--and this is a severe digression having nothing to do with New York but tangential to journalism (hence it involves FOX News and Glenn Beck hahaha), I was amused by the painful ambivalence shown by these wingnuts regarding coverage of this insane Russian smack down of pro-western Georgia, and American Airlines charging returning troops hundreds of dollars in these bogus baggage fees (the latter story as metaphor for 1. the sick airline industry, 2. the failure of pro-biz almost criminal laissez-faire regulatory posture of Bush-Cheneyism and 3. big business in general). Schizophrenia isn't fun, is it Roger Ailes, Glenn? I mean not badmouthing our so-called ally Vlad Putin, and eight years of nausea-inducing Administration foreign policy versus aggression and a spit in the eye at the West even worse than anything Iran has done. Or soft-pedaling anything American big business does versus our sacred, iconic troops. Oh the sores. Oh the hypocrisy. Stuff even the ghettofab clowns, texting teens, Wal Mart Moms and NASCAR dads could discern. But you shucked and jived enough to keep us confused. Thank God you aren't New York magazine. Brain candy journalism & idiot America, saved...

Random Rant: Why wait until October for a Surprise?

Oil prices, sliding. I've always contended that Adam Smith is the Tooth Fairy of capitalism: paraded around to when convenient. There're apparently mysterious patterns pre-election: upticks in the US economy every time a White House GOP incumbent is up for re-election and foreign policy "dangers" in contested years. We learned our lesson (some of us) and cut demand for oil. We're trying to go "green." Will we keep on this track? Hmmm--maybe not, and there's always room for more market manipulation and propaganda, per Foreign Policy magazine.
Then there's Ossetia. I blame Bush. A bait and switch war? Oh, we'll see what happens over the next month regarding the Iranians, or the terrorists who are supposedly on the run (by way of plain ol' flatfoot sleuthing and police work--not military adventures, spying on regular folks, shredding the Constitution, torture, or uber-high tech bullshit. I can say this: Bush has signed a pact with Satan...Vlad Putin...in this so-called War on Terror. Hand and hand with his, the GOP's and American businesses and bankers mortgaging our nation to Red China, we have given this vampire-looking scumbag a blank check. Now, of course this war makes the European Union look fairly limp-dicked, but come on, I think it was reasonable for Georgia, a more pro-American, pro-Western former Soviet republic than any in the region, to expect someon had their back. Russia or Urkraine (the primary sources of gangster identity fraud, organized crime and rancid porn in the world) are not our pals. Neither is China. Neither was Musharraf in Pakistan. But hey, expect the script to flipped...if we can't foment some mess with Iran, perhaps with the help of Rupert Murdoch we can re-cast this pals (maybe just Russia; as blogger jackandjillpolitics mused, you can't piss off your banker, so I suppose we'll forever be kissing China's ass) as dire threats and still increase the fear factor.
Time to speak, Barack. On oil, on this stuff. Turn the other cheek, all you get is slapped again...

RIP, Isaac Hayes

Black Moses of the Memphis sound, Stax. Remember the photo? Aside from Escape from New York, your career was an inspiration. Remember the Oscars, 1971, when you performed Shaft and pissed off all those old tools like John Wayne? Worth the price, for sure.
Rest in Peace. Pray for peace between the lunatic Russians and Georgians, by the way...

RIP, Bernie Mac

Another original, another genius, gone. Leaving us again with manufactured clowns, derivative fools. "But ain't that America, cuz? Yeah, I thought so..."

Friday Funnies-Tropic Thunder

This may be THE only reason for black folks to see this film. And frankly it's the most amusing, multi-layered interchange (including the rapper-turned-actor thing Sam Jackson got geeked over) I've seen in a long time. Kudos to Ben Stiller for not putting Seth Rogen in this movie. I'm sick of that white boys who never grow up genre already...
Enjoy:

Requiem for the "Hip Hop Mayor"...or, Kick the Bum(s) Out

I wanted to keep this short and sweet, but I've failed. Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor of that town that oscillates between unbridled potential energy and a sinkhole of inertia and everything ghetto, De-troit, has got to go. Whether the bastard goes to jail or not, he must resign. His presence is, in the words of Terrance Howard to Ludacris in the Oscar winning film Crash (and Obama to Ludacris for that matter) "You're an EMBARASSMENT!!!" His momma barely survived a primary run off. Such is the mold, breaking. I mean, an incumbent black politician, entrenched and powerful, almost loosing an election to an energetic newcomer without all the damn baggage and corrupt cronyism, pandering to mega-pastors and hoodlums alike? Wha' th' Fudge? Well, I'm PROUD to say we did it in Maryland first, knocking out yet another self-serving Congressional Black Caucus knucklehead, Albert Wynn, and putting in Donna Edwards. This despite Wynn's eleventh hour conversion to Obama. Now, should Barack be the litmus test? No, but reality makes things shake out that way. Almost all of the US and state/local black democrat incumbents who supported Hillary Clinton most certainly held the immutable genetic trait of being entrenched, surrounded by cronies, in bed with developers, mega-pastors, lunatic cliques within powerful unions, and all sorts of other such foolishness. living in the time of 19th Cenutry machine politics. Trust me, such tribalism with the polity and through interest groups is likewise historically entrenched. Centuries now. But Barack is the hammer of change (pardon the 1966 Mao Cultural revolution prose). Seriously, just as the Barack-Ludacris interchange is metaphor for the new world vs. old ghettofab culture war, Kwame's demise is allegory for a younger generation that's eager to copy the fatuousness and power politics of his mom's. Thus his age doesn't immunize him from tsunami that will hopefully sweep away old tools like Major Owens or even Maxine Waters and insert more folk like Donna, like Kevin Powell, or, on the local level, leaders like our very own DC Hercules of buppy nerds, Adrian Fenty (the anti-matter Marion Barry). Oh look--lemme keep it simple. Kwame's a crook, an embarassment. I could care less how many bammas and rappers think he's cool. He's done. An embarassment. Can we start using that word again? The Black Arts folk scared it out of our vocabulary in the late 60s, for the meaning for which it was intended. I'm happy to see it making a comeback. Now if it would only trickle into the book biz! Even if Barack loses to McCain, at least this revolution, of quiet cool, of polish, education and getting things done, has been fomented. Rent Crash and drink in the metaphor...

The Best Damn Show on TV

Sorry for the hiatus fanboys & girls, but these bones (and stomach, heart, whatever...at least I don't pop Cialis) can fail on a brotha once he passes age 45 but still thinks he's 25. Will forward musings and relayed reflections on summer boondoggles such as Comic Con, UNITY (journalists convention) and the vaunted National Bookclub Conference (sponsored, it seems by the Gibraltar of African American literature...Triple Crown publishing) soon.

And now back to the topic at hand. With The Wire kaput (and Simon & Burns' new project Generation Kill a bit disjointed but still damn good), what is there to watch? Showtime's offerings such as Weeds are a bit too idiosyncratic; unless you are an unrepentent bamma there's no solace in Tyler Perry's House of Payne or Flavor Flav's coonfest, Under One Roof. Clowns lobotomized by too much G4 banter are drooling for Heroes. And maybe we do need Jesse, Sr. and Rev. Al to shut down VH1 once and for all. Have you seen the latest crap like Jamie Foxx and "Farnsworth Bentley's" From G's to Gents, and the frightening new stuff on the way, including the return of "New York?" Look, that foolishness with Ludicris and Barack was allegory for deeper divisions between normal people and miscreants. As DC native, radio/ol' Channel 20 star and street bard the late Petey Green once said: "I was a thief, a junkie and a plain damn fool, but see, I knew that about myself and never fronted, and I took the skills I learnt in those things and built myself a better man, not glorifying that shit." Lord, where did that 'tude go? Just because we can do something, does it mean we must? That should be the mantra for America in the 21st Century. So as an antidote to this comes--with all due irony--a show about the un-politically correct, plain vanilla, racist, sexist, robot world of our nation at the dawn of the 1960s. AMC's Mad Men. Nominated for beaucoup Emmies, star vehicle for perpetually despondent hunk John Hamm (and only the cool people realize the cute touch in making Robert Morse senior partner in a 1961 ad agency--reprising his role in the 1962 comedy, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Damn, if Rock Hudson was still alive he'd be perfect in a cameo). Critics love it. Hell, even NPR talked about. Even Newsweek. Of course Wal Mart/Dancing With the Stars "middle" America (I'm using an amalgam of mine and Bill O'Reilley's terminology) hasn't embraced it, and it's no surprise neither have the texting- and Xbox 360 youngsters to whom the current braindead ad biz is a slave, nor have the Fox News scumdits. That's some irony for you, as this show's a creature of the caricuture of the a halcyon US of A the Hannity and Limbaugh types and certain ne-cons seem to pine for. Smoking, drinking...white boys large and in charge and luvin' it. Negroes running elevators, women swishing their girdled asses. Hispanics, well, out of sight...Jews, well, annoying, left-wing and yet unobtrusive unless you live in Brooklyn or Greenwich Village. So it's the Bush White House in cuffed highwater slacks and collar pins. M-M-Maybe not. The Hitchcockian opening credits animation should give you a clue...

Rather, writer/creator Matt Weiner gives us a mirror on history--as shown through the banal activity of living. Reality, almost, though a TV drama. The prose and plot archs of the scripts are wonderful; unlike the overkill period-piece vernacular of a Deadwood, you don't have the flat sitcom language you hear in Bewitched reruns. People speak and act as they did back then, when yours truly came into this world, a babe of JFK's "Camelot," of a civil rights movement oiled and ready to spring, of a space race, of an arms race, of rural denigration and the first inlings of urban decay. Yeah, speaking of Bewitched, Sterling, Cooper (the ad agency) is Darrin Stevens's "McMahon & Tate" on a diet of benzadrine and Scotch. This is the world of Madison Avenue advertising agencies in the TV and magazine media's "golden age." It was a corporate hustle, man-in- the- gray- flannel- suit rat race, but it was also artful, poetic. You see and hear it in the both the prop copy and artwork and commercials on the show, and real ones. Yyou see and hear it lived through amazing characters. Yep, even through the black folks pushing mops on the show, because that's how it was. Even through the "girls" in the "secretarial pool" (in the 80s it was called "word processing") pushing their boobs up in reinforced bras. Actors playing "real" people engaged in selling fantasy. You gotta love those layers.

Funny, around that time in "real life," then FCC-chair Newton Minow declared TV a "vast wasteland;" Edward R Murrow delivered his famous RTNDA Convention speech (see the fictionalized version here from Good Night and Good Luck). Minow's aged and Murrow's long dead. Still I wonder what Murrow's ghost would say to Minow about television now, the fate of journalism, new media, info-tainment, advertising...our America? Yeah, I'd bet they'd hang with the late advertising guru, David Oglivie, and Minow'd lament wilst Oglivie and Murrow wail/chain-rattle in disgust like Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. Both the living and the dead would have nothing to atone for but failing to beat it into our heads, so we could in turn beat into the heads of twentysomethings and teens, that we can do better, we can aspire, we can enrich a commonweal spiritually (and materially) and not just enrich ourselves or build fences around our households. But hey, they'd all be tuning in on Sunday to AMC's Mad Men, for sure. So should you. [Watch Season One episodes with your digital cable on-demand... Mrs. Nat did in two damn nights, no lie]. Other than Barack's nomination acceptance speech, a few Olympics events and an NFL pre-season game or two, what else better's on TV?