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Just me flexing my jaws on random entertainment topics

Random...

It's about Damian Marley aka Jr. Gong being SO HOT, yet looking SO DIRTY at the same time. I mean, I'm sure the man showers and washes his hair, but he just don't look like it. [Note to Diddy: I don't think he smells like incense. My guess is pee.] BUT, "Welcome to JamRock" is not only a hot to death song, it is a PHAT video. It's very 1980's in its feel...not complicated, yet very political in its portrayal of life in Jamaica.

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The 70s House is a new unscripted game show on MTV. They picked something like 12 contestants who didn't know what they were signing up for exactly and sent them to this extra-gaudy house that Mike Brady would have designed back in the 70s. They have to eat, drink, speak, and think like someone from the 70s. It's actually a genuinely fun show -- corny, but purposefully so. If you like watching reality shows to peep the new hotties, then you need to check out Peter and Andrew. Couldn't get any pictures, sorry!

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Before I hit my most recent bout with depression, I had a gay day. I damn near ODed on everything gay. I went to Lambda Rising Books in Dupont Circle and got three books: Infants of the Spring by Wallace Thurman, Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin, and Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing (Edited by E. Lynn Harris). From the music and movie place next door, I bought the movie Brother to Brother, which I had seen on PBS but wanted to own for myself. THEN I messed around and went to a used bookstore in Takoma Park and found In the Life (Edited by Joseph Beam) and Brother to Brother (edited by Essex Hemphill). I've been familiar with the last two works for years but had never really found my own copy. It wasn't imperative that I own them until now.

I really feel as though if you are a black gay writer, you need to love black gay writers. Not just your peers, but your ancestors. Not just the people in your own gender, but the other one, too. Please do not step to my craft -- my livelihood -- and not know your history. And please believe that my little "timeline" of black gay literature that I did in college -- that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea back then; indeed, nowhere to start.

To say that contemporary black gay literature began with E. Lynn Harris is like saying black history begins with slavery. It's convenient to believe, but it's just not true.

[/rant]

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What happened to BET Uncut? I've been staying up REALLY late these past few days and been thinking I'm going to catch some boobies and cooter on my favorite blaxploitation network. Alas, no boobies! What the deal, BET?

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There is a new documentary out called The Life of Rayful Edmond. I heard about it on WHUR, I believe the morning show. It wasn't bad. Actually, if you grew up in DC in the 80s and 90s, this will help piece together a lot of things we heard about as we grew up. See, the Rayful Edmond drug kingpin trial was this horrible circus that lasted FOREVER. Witnesses were being murdered and intimidated. But this Rayful Edmond guy....we are talking a street millionaire. I kinda hate him for what he and others like him did to DC during the crack epidemic. And we were most definitely in an epidemic. Crazy times back then.

I have two main complaints with the documentary. Well, maybe three or four:

1. I didn't like the narrator at all. Osei Kweku seemed like he was trying too hard to be dramatic at times. At other times, the cadence of his voice didn't seem to match the scene he was narrating. This film would have been much better with minimal narrating. In fact, the strongest parts of the movie where the parts where the reporters from the time period were speaking.

2. I believe that the role of Alta Rae Zanville was horribly miscast. Don't get me wrong -- Erica Terpstra is a beautiful young lady. But Alta Rae was a middle aged white woman! Erica CAN'T be more than 30, and is probably much much younger.

3. Naked cocaine lady. That's all I have to say.

As independent films go, I think that Kirk Fraser does an excellent job bringing this story to light. I'd like to meet him one day and talk more about the project.

But I also have to say, one of the low lights of the documentary was the commentary of Curtis Chambers, aka "Curtbone" or something like that. I really, REALLY feel like he was glorifying his life back in those days. It made me uncomfortable. But, in all fairness, Kirk Fraser did a good job at being fair and balanced. He interviewed several cops in addition to friends and the former attorney of Rayful Edmond.

I'd recommend this to DC folks in their late 20s or older. People younger than this really won't feel as invested in the story and just might take the wrong message away.

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I am reading a novel called The Era of My Youthful Ways (did I mention this in an earlier blog?) and it is pretty damn funny so far. It's a "college novel" if there is to be such a genre. Lori V. Lincoln is funny as hell, too. Her main character is sassy and bright and in several ways reminds me of Nina Bradley in Lazarus -- if Nina had pledged. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

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Later this week, I want to tell you all about the Deadly Viper Literary Squad (DeViLS), of which I am a member. It's a super secret group of gay black authors, but I'm gonna have to reveal myself soon....

Posted by Rashid on July 13, 2005 9:59 PM

Comments

Commented by Bernie on July 14, 2005 9:19 AM

Commented by Nic on July 14, 2005 11:17 AM

Commented by Diddy on July 15, 2005 11:19 AM

Commented by Misty on July 20, 2005 4:13 PM

Commented by Joseph G on July 23, 2005 6:11 PM

Commented by curtbone on January 11, 2006 4:20 PM

Commented by jai b on January 11, 2006 7:13 PM