movie comment: cadillac records

k. so i saw the movie. . .
i was so impressed! i guess because i didn't expect it to be good (i actually cringed in anticipation of beyonce's first line when she came on the scene) but i really liked it! adrian brody was great. the surprise (to me) appearance of cedric the entertainer is always welcome. jeffrey wright was (and is always) great--you can tell he really studied muddy waters! beyonce held her own--they made her sing more than they let her talk, but when she was talking, she got over that tendency she has to sound like she's reading. you can tell she really tried to channel the emotions of each scene. although i have to say, beyonce is and always will be beyonce. her 'people' have put us on so much beyonce overload that she will never be able to transcend her beyonce-ness the way jamie foxx was able to stop being jamie foxx and actually become ray charles. when i look at her, i see beyonce--no matter how many etta mannerisms she studied and adopted. which kinda sucks for any potential acting career she may have wanted. sorry b!
anyway, i really liked it and was intrigued bc i only knew a little about these people--muddy waters, chuck berry, etta james are people i know to respect but didn't know their stories (to my credit, i do have 2 etta james songs on my ipod). and i hadn't even heard of little walter (who knew columbus short was that cute??) or howlin' wolf. it was a very entertaining movie. i barely got the wiggles that i get whenever i see a movie in the theater (i have always had an issue with doing nothing but sitting and staring at a screen for 2 + hours). it was a learning experience for me!
in order to enjoy this movie, you have to realize what it is and what it isn't. it is the story of the rise and peak of cadillac/chess records. it isn't the etta james story, the leonard chess story, the chuck berry story, etc. it isn't a story about the time period that all this was happening in. so you will be left wanting more context and more details about the lives of these individuals. you only learn enough about them to either know their contribution to the label, their motivations, their weaknesses/tragic story, and maybe their downfall if it occured at the same time as the peak of the label. they couldn't fit everyone's story in that short timespan, but it was great for telling the story it was trying to tell. i also think i just love the feel of the music from that time period, it made me want to have the soundtrack and an etta james album by the time it was all over with. the bf says it was too much of a musical not to be a musical. . .i think you couldn't tell the story without the music, but that doesn't necessarily mean it had to be a musical! idk, maybe i liked it bc i didn't expect much, but i definitely liked it. you have to go see it. . .even if you don't love it, you won't hate it.
this, ladies and gentlemen, is the history of rock and roll. . .

ps- pay very close attention to your ticket. they are doing that thing again where they don't give the movie its sales--my mom's ticket was for the transporter movie, or something like that.

power to the people?

my thoughts have been provoked by the news of the dismal opening of the movie cadillac records. i admit that i had very little interest in seeing this movie in theaters. i love beyonce as a singer and performer in that capacity, but her acting has always left much to be desired--as does almost anything where i have to listen to her talk, unfortunately. i hadn't heard much about the movie--i read more posts about the cast and premiere parties in blogs than i've seen commercials for the movie. but i felt guilty when i heard about the poor showing at the opening. this movie had black star power--jeffrey wright, gabrielle union, the mighty mos def (swoon!), and of course beyonce (who gained weight for the role--you guys know how hard it is for that girl to stay in shape, so this was a super important role!) and it chronicled the rise of chess records, which gave us important black singers like etta james and muddy waters. in short, the movie was black history and pretty much coonery free--it portrayed the kind of images of black people that we say the big (and small) screen is lacking. so why weren't we out in droves to support it? this is the same problem the great debaters, eve's bayou, and other movies about black firsts/history have.
i get it. people like to laugh, comedies tend to do well across the board. but in a barack obama era--why can't we pull large audiences without shucking and jiving, killing each other, a man in a dress, cooning, or movies produced by a man in a dress? white people have always loved to laugh at us--we were allowed to entertain them long before we were allowed to drink from the same water fountain as they were. and true to form, they will still turn out in droves to see movies where we are cooning, thus inflating the box office numbers . . .i'm not really talking about them, but about us. we can't complain about bet, mtv, and other derogatory forms of black entertainment if we won't support the few times someone breaks through and can get funding for a movie that shows us in a positive light. if as many of us would have put secret lives of bees at the top of our priority list the way we did sex and the city, it would have done much better. if we were as excited to see denzel in the great debaters as we were to see him in training day, we would have been sending a message. we aren't doing a good job of letting studio executives know that we mean it when we say we want to see positive black images and we don't need a laugh track or a punchline to support it.
therefore, i will suck it up and go see cadillac records. it might not mean much, but it makes me feel like i'm doing my part so i can feel good about complaining about the lack of real, positive 'us' to go with my popcorn

barack my world!

so i'm in the middle of reading michelle obama's biography (review coming later) and besides learning how much we have in common (thus earning me the nickname "mini-michelle") it made me think about how she has become a role model for so many black women. black women are and will be stepping up their respective game to be seen as a 'michelle'. they may even have to update webster's to let the world know what it means to be a michelle! my friends and i talk about her at length and one of my friends, who i will call cocoa kitty, even wrote a note where she aptly and eloquently ponders the real question for so many successful black women looking for their complement:

"I wonder am I strong enough on my own yet submissive enough to allow the right man to lead our future family and me? It’s a balance that the self-described “mom-in-chief” has gracefully achieved. She hasn’t given up who she is to let her man shine. Best friends for sixteen years, her light helps him shine. I’m sure he’d tell you that any day of the week. "

all of this makes me proud, but it also makes me wonder. . .are there enough baracks for all the aspiring michelles? so this post isn't so much about how to become a michelle, but more about if the guys we date could really handle a michelle--despite the fact that they are saying that's what they're looking for. i'm not talking about the obvious--she is one tall glass of water (taller than the average man), she graduated from two ivy league schools, and when she was working she made close to a half a million dollars a year--these things alone are intimidating, but that's not what i'm talking about.

we see all of the adorable loving pictures of michelle and barack. their love is real, their family is strong, and you know that she admires and supports him. . .but what you may or may not know is that he has earned every bit of that admiration and support and continues to have to do so. michelle is not easily impressed. there are stories about how she treated her suitors before barack. . .most romances were short lived. she didn't take anybody's crap and was looking for someone who was worthy of her and what she had to offer. pause there ladies--did you hear that? she didn't stoop, make excuses, or lower her standards so that she wouldn't have to be alone. better yet, did you hear that gentlemen--if you were late for a date without calling, couldn't hold an intelligent conversation, or had no ambitions or passion, michelle wasn't going to wait around for you to get yourself together. and the thing is, she wasn't materialistic--she didn't expect for you to make the same amount of money she did, or have the same educational pedigree or familial background as she had. i'm sure you've heard that barack used to drive her around in a car with a hole rusted in the floor--and she smiled and watched the ground go by as they chatted. she knew to look for what really counted. . .and when she found it, she knew it! barack was trying to be the typical 'intelligent male' and would go on and on about how marriage was a superficial institution and all that really mattered was how they felt about each other--michelle wasn't trying to hear that. she let him know what she wanted and clearly she got it. (can you believe b thought he was going to get away with that? you betta put a ring on it!)
and he also jokes about how she told him that he couldn't take for granted that he had her vote for the presidency--she told him he'd have to earn it! he knows he can look to her for support, but that she's also going to tell it like it is. . .she is just as quick to yank off the rose-colored glasses as she is to rub his head after a long day. she's been criticized for being emasculating (code for not letting him play the victim or toot his own horn for too long), and it is kinda funny to hear him say things like 'yes, she said 'congratulations on becoming the first black president--you're taking the kids to school in the morning, right?'' or to see her check him in interviews ('umm, when was washing the dishes ever soothing for you??'). but you know when he lays down beside her at night he knows that her love is real, that when she says 'good job' she means it, and when she played mariah's 'hero' backstage before the election results that he really is her hero--and that ain't no small thing.
if you know like i know, you know that a lot of men need coddling. they don't care if they're really doing a good job as long as you tell them they are. they get defensive if you criticize them, they let their past issues keep them from present success, and some of them even get envious if you begin to outshine them. they love that 'she got her own' until 'her own' is more than theirs. forget dishwashing being soothing--they will cop an attitude if you ask them to do domestic work. they want to collect the gold stars and brag about being the man. . .but don't want to put in the work and don't want you to call them on it. if you point out ways they can improve, you're trying to 'change them' and if you don't support every pipe dream ('sweetie, i don't know if it's a good idea to quit your job and try to start a rap career at 40. . .') then you are an evil, nagging, dream crusher. sadly, many of the nasty stereotypes about black women come from our own brothers--the ones who couldn't recognize their michelle because she was wrapped in that hard exterior to protect herself from the world and they were too lazy to work to get to the softness in the middle, too complacent to let her help their shine, and too scared of having their player card revoked by their friends to settle down and build a family. there is something to be said and understood about the fact that she loves you the way you are. . .but loves you too much to leave you that way. every man is not going to be a barack in the sense of being the first black president, the first black editor of the harvard law review, or being able to speak to move crowds. . .but they can be more barack-like. recognize that you're not perfect and the woman you love knows that better than anyone, let her shine up your armor by pointing out the dents; come to her for the comfort that only she can give, but also come to her for the knowledge and understanding that she has that is different from yours; and be man enough to want to have to earn her love and respect. understand that if all she ever does is agree with you and tell you how great you are, she's doing you a huge disservice. pressure makes diamonds--not rubbing the coal with a gentle cloth.

housewives of atl--reunited!

soooooooooooo.
first, smooches to my girls who joined the 'virtual watch party' and to all of those who thought it was a cute idea but could only be there in spirit. lol.
now, i still haven't seen episode 7--i will catch a marathon and update the blog. i really only want to see it so can see mychael knight tell sheree about herself. what i was really looking forward to was the reunion show!! it was pretty juicy, huh?

preliminarily:

• wheeeeere did they get that goofy white man host?? was that some kind of joke?? the show would have been so much juicier with someone who would have instigated instead of reading the questions like they were poetry and trying to control the back and forth like it was a therapy session
• further, why do white people always think everyone needs to be friends?? if you find out someone is trifling and have a falling out, nothing obliges you to be friends with a trifling person! nene and kim may never be friends again. . .maybe they will. get over it, goofy white host.
  
• they are taking the georgia peach thing TOO far. those peaches on the table looked too random! and were those mimosas? none of the girls touched them until dwight, like maybe they thought they might have been poisoned. i mean, who really has time to sip bubbly when you have other things popping off!
• those questions were so random. i wish someone would have let me submit one or two.

the good stuff:

• hair check: kim-always a no. sheree-what was she thinking with that high ponytail AND the full swoop bang?? you can leave some weave in the bag honey. nene-love love the new cut and that color was sooo pretty. lisa-eh. her whole ensemble just seemed like she didn't really care about this reunion thing. and deshawn-she just tried to do too much i think. it was right at the cute level and she pushed it over into not that cute anymore. better luck next time
• kim: 1) i'm going to go ahead and say she's 39, she threw out that number like it was a joke, but it sounds more realistic than 29, soooo... 2) omg to her crocodile tears! whyy are you crying about the cancer that you don't have?? and yes, people do choose to wear wigs, hair pieces, etc. . .what are you talking about?? 3) heaven help us all if she really has an album to come out in january. please let that have been another one of her lies. 4) i told you guys a while ago that she would get dumped for not playing her position. and whyy did she lie as if there wasn't footage that shows her saying that big poppa asked not to be named?? we know you don't have any discretion, kim. that idea would not have come from you.
• deshawn: omg, o-m-g. she is cute and all, seems very sweet, and hasn't done anything to anyone but that child is SLOW! did you see her blank stares throughout the show?? she just sat with her hands neatly folded, smiling when she thought it was time, daydreaming about gaudy oscar statues. and the host really threw her off when he asked her a question outside of her designated 'segment'. they had to rescue her, she had already started flailing her feet in an effort to stall for time. poor thing. it doesn't help that she can't close her mouth bc of all the money and time she's invested in getting all of her top teeth to be the same size. you just want to hug her and send her back home. there, there shawni.
• sheree: umm, it's really like her to have ripped her oddly long, short sleeve sweater dress and have tried to play it off like it was fashion. . .so that's what i'm going to say happened. did anyone else notice the hole on her shoulder-neck area?? besides the fact that it was assymetrical and hole-looking, i kept waiting for her to move that 'tail so i could see the other side to see if maybe i was wrong--there wasn't a hole on the other side! i really think she tried to fool us! there was a hole in her dress! and how guilty do you sound when someone accuses you of being a gold-digger and you reply 'what is a gold digger?' puh. leez. lemme hand you a mirror. and she her groupie kim are such liars--she still can't even say with a straight face that it was an accident that nene was left off that party list. ugh, i cannot stand sheree.
• lisa aka 'i am the wrong one!' aka 'i will flip you over this couch, really'. i believe her!! besides the fact that she is diesel, she seems a little off. if i was kim, i'd be scared! kim seems not to have learned the cardinal rule of getting in fights with black girls--when they are mad, do NOT turn your back on them, you will get snatched by your hair and dragged to the ground--just bc you think it's over, doesn't mean it's over! anyway, i was less than impressed by lisa's outfit (but i see those boots!!), her makeup was pretty, but everything else left much to be desired. she was cute trying to hold nene back tho--that's a lot of woman to keep back, little lisa! and lol to her prescribing medication to kim! there is nothing wrong with kim that a good old fashioned beat down won't cure. . .too bad we know she'll sue (she's got to be on the hunt for something or someone to support her now that big poppa's gone). i was disappointed to have finally confirmed that she was the one who told about nene's song--but i was glad that she had already apologized and come clean to nene so the hyena sisters couldn't use that against her. and while i loved her reaction, who let the gay boy waste a question by asking about her sharing her husband??
• and saving the best for last, nene! she was full of quotables, some of my personal faves: "i'll see you outside" "i will wear that wig off your head" "close your legs to married men" "you trashy hooker" "give him my number though"(re anderson cooper's crush! how crazy is that? lol). anyway, nene brought the real, like we all knew she would. i wish she would have put kim on blast and said who big poppa really is. and i thought it was funny when she called kim on that 'chicken' thing and then proceeded to say 'we had lamb and shrimp, thank you very much' lol! and she definitely 'owned' that stripper thing. . .i don't know why people were suprised anyway, she was a single mother and it *is* atlanta where a significant population of women who haven't been formally educated see it as a viable means of putting food in their children's mouths.
  
• and i have to mention dwight (and how excited am i that he's getting his own show??) 1) why does his weave look better than kim's?? 2) he was really brave to put his hands in kim's hair. . .it looks like it smells and may have occupants 3) loved the way he came on the set and plopped himself between tweedle-lame and tweedle-liar and proceeded not to waste the liquor that had been sitting there all hour. lol

the better stuff:

• if you are like me you were waiting for a throwdown!! something happened on the set that made both lisa and her husband feel the need to 'clear the air' and talk to essence, among other things, denying allegations that lisa threatened to kill kim and that there was a restraining order. and we know lisa did not flip out and get that mad just from the allegations about the nene song. rumor has it that kim said that lisa was a "crack whore" and that's why she didn't have her kids. . .and that's what set her off.
• speaking of lisa's kids, i want to hear more about her abusive relationship with keith sweat. that man knows he's no good. . .
• it has also been said that all of the girls were asked to pose in playboy (can you imagine that job 'hey guys, i love the show! wanna get naked? no? a little naked??') but it seems only kim has agreed, and lisa kinda stabs at her when she says why she herself would never pose for playboy. don't you feel sorry for kim's daughters and their futures?
  
• there have been rumors that the house nene was in for the show was actually rented for the show (not that i can blame her for not wanting people in her real house, regardless of what it looks like!) and that she and her husband are having financial troubles. i wonder how that's going. . .

anyway, i'm ready for season 2!! this is such a guilty pleasure. . .

colorism in 2008

besides yung berg's recent proclamation about not dating 'dark butts', some real life events, and my watching an old movie where all the love interests were light-skinned, but not necessarily pretty, this is a topic that never seems to stay away long enough. i always longed for the day where people would see colorism as symbolic of the ravages of mental enslavement. where our people would realize that having lighter skin, a skinnier nose, or light eyes does not make you 'better', does not make your 'kids cuter' and doesn't mean you're prettier than your darker featured counterparts. i am admittedly biased in this discussion, i'm a cinnamony color (but will round up if you have a 'chocolate deluxe' wu tang shirt--i really want one!) that no one would consider light-skinned and am proud of it. i grew up around mostly white people so i didn't directly experience colorism as a child--either you were white or you weren't. there was no one to compare hair textures or skin color and make value judgments among the black kids. i somehow still picked up the 'white/light is right' idea at an early age and had to unlearn and unshackle myself. . .but that's a different story.
anyway, i just want to know what it's going to take for us to see each other as equally beautiful regardless of hue. when guys are going to stop saying 'you're pretty for a brown girl' or when my eyebrows will stop raising in shock when the love interest in a music video is a pretty brown girl (note i say 'love interest' and not booty shaker--brown girls have always been chosen to shake their booties and be sexualized). when is having features unique to black women (besides a large butt) going to be admired as much as having features that point to having white people in our recent ancestry? and why do we continue to legitimize their beauty standards while they themselves are going under the knife and spending thousands of dollars to look more like us??

**i wanted to update after i read the new newsweek with michelle obama on the cover. i feel a special appreciation for michelle (i can't wait to be able to meet her! and will definitely be saving her vogue cover when it comes out) and was secretly pleased the first time i discovered barack had a brown wife. i think she can do so much just by being herself and i'm so excited about the possibilities. the article featured an author chronicling her brunch discussions with her 'sister friends' about what michelle means to them, which i think is right on:

our conversation wandered into one area we seldom discuss, even among our families and closest confidantes. Michelle is not only african-american, but brown. real brown. in an era when beauty is often defined on television, in magazines and in moves as fair or white skin, long straight hair and keen features, michelle looks nothing like the supermodels who rule the catwalks or the porcelain faced actresses who hawk must-have cosmetics. yet now she's going to grace the march cover of vogue magazine--the ultimate affirmation of beauty.
who and what is beautiful has long been a source of pain, anger, and frustration in the african-american community. in too many cases, beauty for black women (and even black men) has meant fair skin, "good har" and dainty facial features. over the years, african-american icons likelena horne, dorothy dandridge, halle berry and beyonce--while beautiful and talented--haven't exactly represented the diversity of complexions and features of most black women in this country. that limited scope has had a profound effect on the self-esteem of many african-american women. . .

grown women and chris brown

i was reminded of this topic when i saw how chris brown had cleaned up at the amas: i was able to hold off until 'with you'. . .which is a long time if you think about it. but eventually i had to admit i had a grown woman crush on the barely legal chris brown. it just felt too cliche--can everyone really have a crush on this little boy?? it's not the same thing as my crush on chris paul (whom i affectionately refer to as my pyt), but it's still there. doesn't chris brown just put a smile on your face? he's so talented and sings with such passion about things that he probably shouldn't know about. and he stole my heart when he was on 'punk'd' and showed such protectiveness over his mommy. he's not really built--actually he's tall and lanky, kinda pale, and his teeth are a little big. . .but somehow you end up completely understanding the teeny boppers and their swooning! i even felt like i had to approve of his gf--it wouldn't have been okay for him to be booed up with anyone less than rhianna.
it's a really strange phenomenon--but come on ladies, 'fess up, you know have a grown woman crush on c-breezy!

book review: a mercy by toni morrison *spoiler alert*

another of my fiction exceptions is literary greats. . .how can you deprive yourself of toni morrison?
anway, so i bought this the day it came out, but i was wary because of her 'stream of consciousness', william faulkner-inspired writing style. you know what i mean, the style that made beloved a much better novel than a movie, because there was sooo much going on that couldn't be translated onto film. . .
anway, this book was very good! it was about slavery, but not really. . .and i love books that have a line in them that tells you where the title comes from. albeit, this one was at the end, but that's part of the 'magic'. the most important voice for the foundation and understanding of who i would call the main character was at the end. it was like all the pieces finally came together right in the last few pages.
the story is told in a few different viewpoints. as the chapter changes, so does the viewpoint. you have the white master/owner, his mail-order bride, and the rest of the 'family': lina--a native american, sorrow--a shipwreck survivor, and florens--the 'main character' whose mother offered her to the white man. this 'offering' is what shapes florens' personality and exposes her vulnerability. although florens is introduced to us as a potentially vulnerable character, you can forget about her vulnerabilities. . .until you can't. she is introduced as a slave child with the hands of a slave, but the feet of a portuguese lady--she has a thing for shoes and refuses to walk barefoot. there are also two white men--indentured servants--whom we learn about but don't really meet until you think all of the 'introductions' are done. there is also the blacksmith, who, while he doesn't have a 'chapter' is still an important character. he is both florens' shoes and shoes removed throughout the story (umm, is he alive and injured? or is he dead?).
the benefit of the time period of this story is that the idea of 'slavery united states' is still forming--the master, jacob vaark, doesn't like 'dealing in flesh' in there are other ways to make oneself rich. he is a kind, but pragmatic man when it comes to people and perhaps is given too much credit for being kind, when sometimes it is just pragmatism that he is displaying. anyway, instead of being a book about slavery, it is a book about several things, you are distracted from the idea of slavery (and it's not easy to distract someone like me from the idea of slavery!) with talk of other things--religion, death, smallpox, and character development--toni definitely makes you reach for scraps to form images of the characters. i still don't think i have even a muddy picture about what florens looks like.
i liked the book and would recommend it, but if i were to waste 3 wishes on this book, I would wish the book was longer, i wish for more character development, and i wish for a happy ending.
too bad t-mo's not a genie!!