Cultural Artifact C-198P - Category: Decline of American Empire

Blackhole sun, won't you come.

Oh Snap! You Got Served, B-Rock!

This is becoming so tiresome.

Does Obama really have to defend himself for articulating the obvious? People in the Rustbelt are bitter because they’ve been economically disenfranchised for nearly three decades now. This is somehow slanderous and/or elitist? What? Oh, that’s right: HRC completed her law degree via a correspondence course and spent her nascent legal career doing pro-bono work for unwed mothers working in sweatshops. Nope, wait: she graduated from Yale and worked for a white shoe law firm. Yet somehow she understands the working-class better than fellow Ivy-leaguer Obama? You can almost hear the machinery in her head clicking as she cranks out this disingenuous drivel.

I feel like Roddy Rowdy Piper once he gets the sunglasses in “They Live"; can’t anybody else see through this $#!t? Didn’t the Dems lose the White House and Congress precisely for the reasons Obama stated? Didn’t these “optimistic” working-class people turn to Bush whose basic platform was: “Hey, I’m a decent guy, just like you! And I don’t cheat on my wife, because I love Jesus!” Are you really going to tell me Americans aren’t angry about the ramifications of globalization? Really? And Obama’s out of touch?

All respect I ever had for the Clintons has completely evaporated. The needle’s going into the red in that respect; I’m actually starting to loathe both of them. Man, I cannot wait until August.

Spin it Back: Appreciating the Golden (Not-Really-That) Oldies

I've purchased maybe one full-fledged hip-hop album in the past five years I think, the thoroughly satisfying debut album, "Below the Heavens" from a duo named Blu and Exile. I guess I should count the last two Kanye albums, but those are just empty calories--the music equivalent of summer tent-pole movies. I don't know if I ever thought hip-hop would necessarily grow with me, but it pains me to find how much it's regressed and remained stagnant for the last I don't know decade and a half?

I'm not about to go off on a "$#!t was way tighter in my day!"-rant, but for the record it was. There's no subjectivity applicable here. It just was. Anyways, I recently picked up "Blowout Comb" the second and sadly last LP of new material from the Digable Planets. I owned the album when it first came out in '94 and gave it a few spins before burying it in my burgeoning record collection in favor of exploring the strange sounds of the newly emerged Wu-Tang Clan.

Unfortunately, the disc was also a casualty of a car break-in many years later (why take somebody's music of all things? Stereo, fine. Whatever you can find! But stealing music is like stealing memories--some things are just irreplaceable.) Now nearly fifteen years later through the magic of iTunes, I've been reunited with Butterfly, Doodlebug and Ladybug Mecca. I have to say, the album's aged really well. The heavily jazz-oriented production along with the trio's mellow deliveries meld into one fluid groove over the album's thirteen tracks. In retrospect this may have been one of the last great records of hip-hop's Golden Age (1987, period beginning with Eric B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full"-1995, period ending with Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx"). The hip-hop landscape was so diverse in that period. And the quality was uniform coast-to-coast. Random groups would just drop solid albums out of nowhere (Heltah Skeltah, Boogiemonsters, Goodie Mob, Lords of the Underground, Das EFX, Black Moon, Pharcyde...).

Uh, oh. Let me stop. I'm headed down Nostalgia Ave. Alright, so today's music isn't so bad. Timbaland gets crazy praise for his inventiveness and seemingly inexhaustible supply of infectious compositions. As much as I'm loathe to admit, Lil Wayne could very well be the best rapper around--and that's not meant to be a backhanded compliment. I'll admit that much. Now get off my lawn.

Lyrics from Digable Planet's "La Femme Fetal" off their first LP Reachin'...
it was 8:49 on a beautiful 9th day of july
there was not a cloud to speak of so the orange sun hung
lonely in the sky
i was laying prone in my cabby home
listening to fine nappy jackie and his jazzcat's horn
sliding in a tape of bird on verve when suddenly rang my phone
hello butterfly , a voice said
slip on some duds comb out your fro and slide on down to my pad
the vibe here is very pleasant and i truly request your presence
a problem of great magnitude has arose
and as we speak it grows
damn, what could it be i thought
a juice i bought and rolled on down to her spot
seeing bros i know slapping fives i arrived and pressed G-5
and there was nikki
lookin some kind of sad with tears fallin from her eyes
she sat me down
and dug my frown and began to run it down
"you remember my boyfriend sid that fly kid who i love
well our love was often a verb and spontaneity has brought a third
but do to our youth and economic state we wish to terminate
about this we don't feel great , but baby that's how it is
but the feds have dissed me
they ignore and dismiss
and the pro-lifers harass me outside the clinic
and call me a murderer, now that's hate
so needless to say we're in a mental state of debate"
hey beautiful bird i said digging her somber mood
the fascists are some heavy dudes
they don't really give a damn about life
they just don't want a woman to
control her body or have the right to choose
but baby that ain't nothin'
they just want a male finger on the button
because if you say war they will send them to die by the score
aborting mission should be your volition
but if souter and thomas have their way
you'll be standing in line unable to get welfare while they'll be out
hunting and fishing
it has always been around it will always have a niche
but they'll make it a privilege not a right
accessible only to the rich
hey, pro-lifers should dig themselves
cause life doesn't stop after birth
and to a child born to the unprepared
it might even just get worse
the situation would surely change if they were to find themselves in it
supporters of the h-bomb and fire-bombing clinics
what type of shit is that? orwellian in fact
if roe v wade was overturned would not the desire remain intact
leaving young girls to risk their healths
and doctors to botch and watch as they kill themselves
now i hate to sound macabre
but hey, isn't it my job
to lay it on the masses and get them off their asses
to fight against these fascists
so whatever you decide make that move with pride
sid will be there
and so will i
an insect til i die
rhythms and sounds
spinning around
confrontations
across the nation
your block
my block
dreadlocks
what a shock
land of the free - but not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me
not me

Needless to say, you should pick them up if you don't own either album. Later!

At Least the Baltimore City Tourism Board is Happy

I recently “marathon-ed” my way through the fifth and final season of David Simon’s “The Wire.” I watched episodes 3-10 (8.5 hours) in about a thirteen-hour period, stopping only for bathroom breaks. I am now barred from watching any televised media for at least 6-months. My brain has reached its supersaturation point. No mas.

David Simon and HBO (even if they short-changed him a few episodes in the final season) deserve a standing ovation for producing a series that examined arguably the greatest tragedy of late twentieth century America: the decline of the inner city. Throughout its run, despite tackling unwieldy issues such the drug war, municipal politics and public education, the show never came across as pedantic or exploitative. The writers created a painstakingly detailed and realistic portrait of a decaying metropolis. The show was often thought-provoking and never less than entertaining. It must be noted too that this show was perhaps the most important dramatic series for African-Americans since Roots. How many prime time dramas with a predominately African-American cast have there been? There are no less than two dozen black characters worthy of discussion from the show’s five season run. I can’t think of any series that has ever come close--not even Good Times.

The fourth season of The Wire eclipsed anything I have ever seen in American television and I don’t think it was necessary for the last season to try and top that. That’s not really what The Wire was about. Season 5 was about bringing everything full circle, completing the various cycles we’ve seen over these seven years. Simon and his crew have examined all the major facets of a city’s infrastructure from inside and out. Some might feel the show ends up being too steeped in cynicism, but it seems Simon only wants to spur reflection on how/why this has been allowed to happen. In our apathy and detachment, we're all just as culpable as the drug dealers and corrupt pols. Maybe that's too harsh. I'm not so sure though. The Baltimore he depicts could just as easily be Detroit or East New York or South Central or any number of places that get routinely neglected. So what's to be done? I guess stick it out like Mr. Prezbo.

So what about Season 5? Well, all I'll say is that in the end the finale feels quite satisfying. In fact, the last four episodes all contain some of the most memorable highlights of the entire series as the fates of some long-standing favorites play out. It is odd that the newspaper subplot feels so unsatisfying considering David Simon was a newspaper man for fifteen years. Maybe the material was just too close to his heart. Reading around, it seems he had quite the ax to grind with his former employers. Simon's defense of the Baltimore Sun storyline makes perfect sense from an academic perspective. I get what he's saying. It's almost impossible to disagree with him. The problem is that it's just not dramatically compelling. This is unfortunate, but it doesn't detract from the overall impact of the series. Heck, I watched it for five consecutive hours at one point, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Looking back, it's amazing HBO ever put this show on the air in the first place. So encourage them to take more chances with this kind of material. I hope this series finds the success it deserves on the home video market. I've done my part. You do yours.

My man Bobby Drake raves about this place...

Call me crazy, but I really want to make a trek to the Ice Hotel in Kiruna, Sweden. It's located 200km north of the Arctic Circle. Each year they build it with ice that is "harvested" from the Torne river. Also the proprietors invite a diverse group of artists to come and design the interior of the hotel (completely from ice, natch). What a unique experience it must be. Who cares if the average temperature is 20 degrees Celsius (which is warm compared to the below freezing exterior temps)? Considering the extraordinary lengths the creators of this place have to go through each season, the cost per night for the suites and regular rooms are surprisingly reasonable ($900/$600 respectively). I figure it'd be worth dropping a few grand to fly to Sweden, stay a night in the Ice Hotel and a few days in the adjacent normal hotel.

Check'em out on the web: The Ice Hotel.

"I win for me! FOR ME!"

Man, I feel bad for big Yao. Seems like every year he gets better and then catastrophe strikes. This is his third season-ending injury in as many years. He's averaged over 20ppg and over 10 boards for the last three years and seems to only be getting better. He's inarguably the best player over 7'2" to ever play the game (Need we even compare him to the likes of Shawn "Lurch" Bradley [7'6"], Manute Bol [7'7"] or Gheorghe Muresan [7'7"]?). Only Ralph Sampson showed comparable skill, but injuries cut his career short. With three leg/foot injuries in such a short time and his massive frame, you have to wonder if he's not headed down the same path.

Yao has the potential to be up there with Olajuwon and Shaq as modern great centers, if he can stay healthy. This is what's so frustrating about his commitment to play for China in the Beijing games. He should be up on the shelf resting until the pre-season rolls around. No question about that. Yet as soon as it was announced that he'd developed a stress fracture in his foot, the Chinese were on the phone like, "But you're still playing, right? Right?" It's insane. Wouldn't China benefit more if Yao has a successful decade long career in the NBA than if he plays this summer especially when their chances of grabbing gold are just slightly better than North Korea's? Maybe this is a part of the current Five-year Plan. What maroons.

Yao, for the sake of your career and China's basketball future, you need to defect. We'll get the CIA to get your parents out. Don't sweat it.

The Great American (Televised) Novel

So I've finished the first four seasons of The Wire and I'll probably be cozying up to anybody with HBO On-Demand so that I can watch the final season. I've never watched a show where I was more invested in the characters and the ebb and flow of their lives. Producer/writer David Simon has shot to the very top of my "people I'd like to have a three-hour lunch with"-list.

Season Four was such an accurate portrayal of the issues facing our public education system from the classroom all the way up to the city council chambers. The story-line never struck a false chord or overplayed its hand. How the creators of this show managed to juggle three major plot threads plus innumerable subplots boggles the mind when you actually begin mapping the various plot progressions in your head. Not one uninteresting narrative thread among the bunch.

Through four seasons The Wire has mined nearly every aspect of the modern urban metropolis. What began as a show about the seemingly intractable drug trade in our inner-cities, has grown to encompass politics, education, our transitioning economy and (currently) the media. The show doesn't sermonize: it merely lays out the issues and gives views from a few different perspectives. And it's not just that the show subverts your expectations of what the characters do, what choices they make, etc.; there is genuine depth to even the minor characters. The show never makes things easy. I love it.

This isn't just great television; it's thought-provoking television. I've refrained from talking about specifics until I've finished watching the whole thing. All I can do now is suggest anyone who hasn't do himself a favor and check out The Wire.