Will There Ever Be a Child Named Katrina Again

What to say what to say what to say.....

I was at work today, and took a break on the computer to catch up with what's going on in NO and saw that the worst reared its head after we were told be the media outlets that the city had escaped Monday.

I'm watching the cable coverage now. The only channel I can stomach for more than a few minutes is CNN. This jackass Scarborough in MSNBC, CNBC whichever it is, was showing just how useless he is. He's one of these talking head commentary show knits who wouldn't know journalism if he was run through printing press. He was the first to start talking about the looting, expressing his outrage at the idea that city officials weren't taking the proper stand & disparagingly mentioning that city officials were choosing to concentrate their efforts on saving lives. He made the comment that he couldn't imagine Rudi Giuliani would let it happen. No time like the present to politicize an issue, is it...
So, Fox jumped on the bandwagon of flashing the same videos of people leaving stores carrying cloths and boxes. Strangely enough the stories on these channels all seemed to shift to that at the same time. Ironically, I went to the Times-Picayune website about 30 minutes later and there was already a story up about Gov. Blanco vowing to end the looting and violence featuring a shot of an officer standing outside a store holding a shotgun, appearing to bark orders.
Something I found interesting in that story was this line:

"At one store, hordes of people from all ages, races and walks of life grabbed food and water."

Interesting to me because all I keep seeing is video of Black folk running amok. I guess White people are invisible when carrying stolen goods. The only images I saw that seemed to imply White looting was very pixelated digital video and that spot was focusing on the assertion that the looting was initially people breaking into stores to get food and water.

Part of what has me so taken aback with this is that the VAST majority of faces you see in these images (regardless pf the theme of the accompanying story) from NO are Black. Black people on roofs begging to be picked up. Black people waiting with growing impatience to be bussed to refugee centers...

I can't understand why, if the expectations for the storm was THIS bad, why wasn't more done to get people who didn't have means to leave or places to go get out of the city. At the risk of politicization, I wonder how much more man/machine power would be available for this effort were there not such a military presence in Iraq.

I'm in a play that's opening on the 15th. I'm nowhere near off-book. Frankly, I have no urge to study lines. Everytime I resign myself to the fact that there's nothing I could really do, I start watching again and want get in my truck and go. I just watched the video of the first busload of people to get to the Astrodome.

I thought I was going to have something constructive to say about what happens when the underlying anger in poor people has an opportunity/excuse/reason to manifest itself, but I don't.
I'm trying to figure out what people who are stealing merchandise plan on doing with it. You won't be able to sell it - who with money is still there? There's no point in stealing electronics for personal use - no electricity for what, a month? Jacking ambulances? The line between real close to and way past crazy is real, real thin - especially when hell has broken loose. But BLack people PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!!! STOP IT!!!!!! Minister Farakhan, get your bassboat and head to Orleans Parish. A Million More warmup is needed in the delta.

Well, it's 12:45. I'm watching Fox Sports now. I may just muster the desire to look at my script.

Oldest Settlement of Freed Slaves in US...

I just found out that the oldest community of freed African slaves in the U. S. is right here on Staten Island.

I would say that I wish I'd known sooner, but I know now.


(and knowing is half the battle....)

why isn't lunatic pronounced with the stress on the second syllable?

(see, strange behavior has long been associated with the moon - particularly when full. "Luna". Get it? You do know "luna" means "moon", right?)

Today's musical paradox

So, I was shirking my line-learning duties just now (as I have been for the past 5 or so hours) and scanning some audio streams. Something wack-ish came on so I clicked on AfroRadio, and on popped Love TKO. Yay.

So, as I swayed and I began to croon (hah!) along to the verse. I came to the realization that this is one of those songs that people will probably never really hear the words to. Oh, the words will be memorized and sung - but the only thing anyone ever really listens to is the molten-granite-smooth beat.

A beat which is, well, directly indicative of sex. It's drawz gettin' music if ever there was.

The words, however, are all about Teddy throwing the big, fat middle digit at love. As fed up as the two-time loser sounds, it seems like luscious nether regions is the farthest thing from his mind. Le proof (from the second verse):

Tried to take control of the love
Love took control of me
'Cause you lose all thoughts, sense of time
And have a change of mind

Takin' the bumps and the bruises
Of all the things of a two-time loser
Tryin' to hold on, faith is gone (<- damn, bruh, don't give up...)
It's just another sad song (<- then again, you know what, you're right. Eff it.)

Not really mood music....

Now listen to this.

Once it gets into the chorus, you'll probably notice your hips begin a small, involuntary swirling motion.

By the time you here "TKO", the pugilistic metaphor makes a quite different inference from that apparently intended by the writer.

Don't play. You know you've wondered on more than one occasion what it would be like to have some nookie that would cause you to blackout for 8 to 10 seconds (male tendencies toward post-coital slumber, notwithstanding).

It's like somebody in charge of the money told Teddy, "OK, man, continue to write all this sad, woeful, the-whole-town-is-laffin'-@-me stuff if you must, but it's time to sell some concert tickets. Make me a banger."

Bang, indeed. Bang.

Bang Bang Bang.

BANG

I'm just sayin'...

Craig Brewer - Expert on the Black Experience (sic)

From now on, I'm going to tell all the Black folk I know that have been trying for years to get their screenplays (which generally involve Black folk) produced to contact one Craig Brewer.

He's seems to have figured out the mystery.

The past week

Went to see March of the Penguins. It contains the best directed, least gratuitous love scene to ever leave an image on emulsion (aka: film).

After seeing said film, sat on a bench at 110th and B'Way 'til about two in the morning. During this time I witnessed my first purse-snatching. Didn't see the grab itself, but I saw this cat hot-footin' it across the street with these people hollering "thief" behind him. I thought for a moment if I should take chase (even though I was prolly too far away to help), but there was no need. The dude that was yelling "thief" was actually catching up to the snatcher. The really impressive part is that he was deccked out in full Ambercrombie regalia: worn baseball cap, polo and - I kid you not - flip-flops. He ran dude down in flip-flops. He had people applauding his performance; Jeremy Wariner's influence extends to public safety.

Day before yesterday: I was coming up from the train tunnel at South Ferry. A young black man asks me am I an Isrealite. This is due to the current state of my facial hair, where there's no mustache, but there is a beard (albeit a thin one). Why's this of note? Only because it's something I've not been asked before. Of course, you really have to see them preach on the street to understand...

Um, not much else. My checking account got down to $8.20. That's always fun.