Potent Quotables

I thought it would be good to use my blog to sometimes record quotes I make or thoughts I have. I hesitated doing this for a while because I felt like my blogs should have a certain length. But in truth, they should only have substance. And if I can serve that up in one sentence, I'll share it.
So, here goes [something]!

"The world seems acceptable at any one moment in time. Hold it for an instant and all the madness and beauty can be explained away. Take into account its history, with and without our presence, and the effect is dizzying. You'll grow sick before you grow wiser."- Dec 9th

Reel Talk: For Colored Girls

*Contains Spoilers*

This weekend I ventured to see For Colored Girls, Tyler Perry's audacious adaptation of Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Having seen the extended 'choreo-poem' on stage some years ago, I was drawn in by the prospect of witnessing these great monologues come to life on the big screen, and being performed by some larger than life actresses.

And the actresses really are the draw of this film. Ignorant of the story, as the stage production has no linear narrative, that wasn't there to pull me in. Nor was there the lure of a director who's work I respect or admire. This movie, for me, was all about the cast and how they would portray the 'colored girls' the title refers to.

The casting is truly inspired in many respects. Loretta Devine is pitch perfect as the vocal, conflicted Juanita Sims. Struggling with living the life she preaches to women at her clinic. The young Tessa Thompson is captivating from her first scene as Nyla. All eyes on her in a dance studio as she recounts her first time, listing the names of boys off effortlessly. And again as she lay in a hospital bed, post-back-alley abortion, describing what she remembers of the event. And Phylicia Rashad can do no wrong as Gilda, whether delivering a hard truth to Crystal (Kimberly Elise) or as she cradles Tangie (Thandie Newton) and slips into another of Shange's spellbinding monologues. It makes me wonder how much better that would have been were Lisa Bonet cast as Tangie. Hmmm.

But it's not all good. Janet Jackson was pretty dull throughout as Jo. She's really more a set piece in most scenes, as Perry felt it necessary to lift the character of Miranda strait from The Devil Wears Prada and have Janet do an imitation. And speaking of imitations, her fictional magazine even uses the same font as VOGUE for its cover! The flat Anna Wintour/Miranda caricature did not bring me into the story the same way the others did. Nor did Whoopie Goldberg's Alice, a religious fanatic that sometimes feels like a ripoff of the mother from Carrie.

Perry makes Alice a hoarder, which is a small detail that adds to her character and gives audiences something current to relate her craziness too. It was unnecessary, but not as unnecessary as Jo's cheating husband who she contracts HIV from, thanks to his infidelity with other men. The husbands ambiguous sexuality was, again, a stab at being contemporary, but it really just shows the filmaker's lack of understanding about the issue he's dealing with.

SIDE NOTE: The film has moderate parts for men, as the 'play' has none at all. One scene that feels like an approach at a male monologue finds the character struggling to say "I'm not gay. I'm just a man who likes to have sex with men." One can't help but hear the directors voice there, since that line- like the character- is an invention of Perry himself.

Much of the film suffers from a "lack of understanding" on the part of the director. Do rapists usually get buck naked before they go for it from behind? I don't know, but that terribly mis-scored scene with Yasmine (Anika Noni Rose) and Bill (Khalil Kane) will no doubt get several homo-erotic readings. Mostly thanks to Perry's preoccupation with the male form and the type of penetration.

The original production is bold in it's simplicity. The women have no connections, excepting the ones the audience makes for them. Their journeys are different, but their outlooks are colored by their experiences. The film version feels in part like half-hearted homage to The Women of Brewster Place, finding many of the characters sharing the same apartment complex. Why not keep them separated, and let their experiences link them? Even with all of the characters in the same city, the story is still all over the place.

I can't recall discerning a 'message' when I saw the original, but the film seems pretty explicit: Avoid men at all costs!!!

The beauty and the struggle of these lives is corrupted in a way, into a tale of how terrible men are. Feminism is not about hating men, it's about empowering women. You get both with this film, and it's simply too much.

And that shouldn't suggest a black woman should have directed this, or would have done a better job. One of the best film adaptations of a story about blackness, femininity, and hardship, that incorporates song, deals with rape, forgiveness, and maintains it's literary origin was made by a *white man. I'm just suggesting it shouldn't have been, or at least didn't have to be, Tyler Perry.

Improvements in style aside, it's more of the same from Perry. Overblown drama, a gloss of subject matter, and a profound love of 'the diva'- complete with her sharp looks, clever dialog, and scenes of 'going off.' The film is worth seeing for the performances alone. Even Macy Gray is haunting as, Rose, the abortionist from the aforementioned back-alley, who's speech rambles on in a nightmarish way as she sanitizes her tools in liquor. But overall, the film suffers from it's contrived nature at Perry's hand.

Is this movie really for colored girls? Not if those colored girls aren't also critical of what comes off the screen. I wonder how other men felt leaving the theater. Did they feel 'eyes crawling up' on them? It would have been hard not to. Love for women is present without question, but as a male, I felt Perry has colored me 'bad.'

*Thanks Stephen Spielberg. I still quote lines from The Color Purple.

In[Natural] Light and Magic

Lightning bugs in the grass...
They're just bits of magic really.
Like the bits of gold that fall from the sky when it rains and the sun is out.

Minutes old light from the sun,
Catching eons old water from the heavens.
Taking it, for a second.
Transforming it.

Alchemy.

The light, deadly when focused, is beauty when it's scattered.
It casts all its personality across the clouds...
Or the clear, blue sky.
And it delights us.

Like lightning bugs in the grass.

Primal

Think with no words.
Only instinctual knowing.
Move forth with clear directive.
KILL of be Killed.

No reason ruling. Only nature.
Ride on the very back of nature.
Yet conceive no word for nature.

None.

Know what it is. Its truth.
Know that giving it a name,
Will only diminish it.

Swallow up its beauty and its cruelty with your eyes.
Call to the moon.
But do not be like it.
Do not be phased.

Oh, how good is a night song?
At home in the country these creatures call.
The crickets create a chorus with no cane or top hat,
Rubbing their legs together like the lovers indoors who listen and are soothed.

Contours of the wild, amplifying amphibians,
From the frogs through the trees
On the seasons warm breeze.
Their Lilly pads- their soap boxes.
Their song- their argument: "I'm best...pick me."

Owls constantly questioning identity,
A lone wolf, crying for company.

These voices, these songs,
Black, only because they are swaddled in the night.
Night songs.
And what a masterful conductor.

(Please play video below then read my post)



HI,

I’m [insert professional athlete name here]. I play games for a living. Somehow that makes me important enough to endorse products and garner enormous wages. It also makes me an automatic role model. When I win games, people behave like we've just secured Peace in the Middle East. If I make an unpopular career decision, people react like there is a Revolution going on- burning things and the like. People watch what I do more closely than their own leaders. It's rare that I comment on how Unbelievably F*CKED our country/world is. Advertisers don't want spokespeople who are too political :/ So instead of speaking out, I just play with my Balls. Good day.

*I saw this video and decided to write the previous statement. Just look how people show up and show out. It’s true, it's entertainment. I've been to more films than I have political rallies. But I also strive to be more informed and make better choices. I never learned to do that from athletes. Teachers on the other hand...

But, no one shows up for them like this. Or for the countless others who fill positions in society that we could not do without.

Kobe Bryant never taught me anything. Lebron James never gave me a DIME that he made up North, and he won’t when he goes down South either! But if he wins a ring in Miami, I'm certain there will be a parade.

NOH8: UNCG Edition

On March 21st I participated in a photo shoot for the NOH8 Campaign. Since California's passing of Proposition 8, which amended that states constitution so that it can continue to discriminate against Gay's and Lesbians who previously could legally marry in California, there have been countless protests and people speaking out against it.

The NOH8 (No Hate) Campaign, designed by Adam Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley, has garnered world-wide attention in the last two years. That may have something to do with its growing celebrity status. While the first shoots were of average, everyday Californians, the celebrity community jumped on the band wagon (they love a good cause) and has since popularized the campaign and helped inspire it to spread.

Recently, it spread to Greensboro, NC- thanks to my good friend *Brandon Lee! He organized the first NOH8 Photo Shoot in October of 2009 for anyone in town who wanted to participate. This March he and Brittany Clark conducted a second shoot and people representing UNC-G specifically got the chance to lend their face to the campaign. And I was happy to be one of them.

All the pictures have a couple of things in common:
1)A silver piece of tape covering the mouth (this is a silent protest!) and
2)the NOH8 logo adorning something in the picture.
But that's where the similarities stop.

And that's really my favorite part of the pictures. They allow a certain amount of individuality to come through from the subject. The poses are varied and the props are unique. Most wear white, but some don't. One of my favorite images is of Lt. Dan Choi, an Iraq War Veteran who was discharged under 'Don't Ask Don't Tell,' wearing his Army fatigues. His fist raised high, he stands defiant, refusing to accept the prejudice that made him a celebrity when he really just wanted to be a soldier.

His story, like hundreds of others, is told through the photograph. Elements of individuality are there, and they are great. But it is the common elements which speak the loudest. His mouth was covered, just like mine was. And he, like I, wore the NOH8 logo. Pictures say a thousand words. I'm glad that with these, we were all saying the same thing.

NO
H8

Here's a link to the NOH8 website if you would like to know more http://www.noh8campaign.com/

*Check out Brandon in this video, talking about the first NOH8 shoot that he organized in Greensboro!