....on whatever crosses my mind

Ron Weasley Promo Shots

Has anyone else noticed that Rupert Grint's Ron Weasley promo shots for the new Harry Potter movie are the hottest of the whole crop?

 

 

Hot!

Beating the Racial Double Standard Horse Dead; Or, How We Continue to Miss the Point

Perusing The Root during my lunch break today, I came across this headline, "TV's Golden Age of Rage: O'Reilly, Hannity, Olbermann and the rise of white rage on cable television."  I immediately clicked on the link, ready to read what I thought would be a brilliant dissection of white paranoia and white frustration with non-white male progress (and its perceived byproduct, white male stagnation) as propagated by the "news media."

But then I got to this part:

But now, try to think of a single African-American newsman who's exhibited—and gotten away with—the type of antics their white counterparts do each and every day on America’s top news channels. Don’t feel ignorant if you can’t. There aren’t any. But why?

Ugh.

This article, which isn't entirely wrong about the racial double standard, does succeed in diluting the force of an argument against such a standard by arguing that what Black folk want is the ability to do stupid ass shit too. 

Look, I'm all for reminding people of racial double standards.  But in this case, I don't know that we should be arguing for Black people to act a damn fool on the news. 

Or, to put it another way, the article misses the point.  The issue with cable news right now isn't that its unfair that Black folks can't behave the way Hannity, Beck, and O'Reilly behave. 

Peep Rahsaan and Lalah in the Studio

I'm definitely one of those fans who would like to be a fly in the wall when one of my favorite artists is recording. Like - what would it have been like to have been in the room when Jan, Jam and Lewis came up with That's The Way Love Goes? And did erebody involved know that Meth and Mary would record a classic when they were in the studio? Could they tell? And I wonder if Jay really never writes anything down and if 'Pac actually recorded a billion tracks per session. We don't really know, but part of the fun of listening to your favorite artist's work is wondering how in the hell they came up with it.

In this video, we get a small peak into Rahsaan Patterson and Lalah Hathaway working on a song called "6 in the Morning." The banter between them is fun and light, but I'm intrigued by the working dynamic that is hinted at here. Specifically, we see a bit of Rah as producer and get to watch how he guides Lah's vocal. Vocalists like Rah and Lah are peerless so a peak into the process - even one as small as this - is revelatory.

Dope. Enjoy.

My Favorite Performances at the Mike Tribute

Usher, classy brilliant vocal stylist he is, does a terrific version of Gone Too Soon

Jermaine, reminding us that the brothers are phenomenally talented vocalists in their own right, does Smile good.

What I liked about both of these performances was that two terrific vocalists took pretty maudlin, cloying songs and gave them emotionally understated treatments. That works so well for me, because generally, I'm just not a fan of these kinds of songs. Neither would make any list of my favorite MJ vocal performances.

That said, I think Usher and Jermaine reminded us with these performances that Mike's gift with this kind of material - going all the way back to Ben -- lies in his delicate, light approach that beautifully undercuts the melodrama built into the song's structure. Both performances felt lived in, genuine, and beautiful.

Buff vs. Edward Cullen

This is pretty genius. I have to say that though the Twilight series is the rare series that gets better with each book, it is still frustratingly two-dimensional in its portrait of its central characters, Edward and Bella.

It's nice to be reminded how dope Buffy is, though.

Something not noted here is actually how different the performances are. I never thought Robert Pattinson was very good at Edward at all, but up against Sarah, dude looks positively amateurish.