I really promised myself that I’d go to bed early tonight. But here I am again at 4am typing away. What’re you going to do?
Rumor has it that my roommate is getting a big screen tv from her fam. Which means that my TV will take it’s place in my already crowed room, and the one already in my room will go to the kitchen.
Plus she’s allegedly getting a VCR with it too, so that will bring the crib total of VCR’s to three. Meaning she can tape all of her crap ass “reality” tv shows in her room. Joy of joys.
Last Weeks Viewage
I honestly don’t remember everything that I watched last week, but I’ll try to give a pretty respectable rundown.
Real Time With Bill Maher
I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for this show and P.T.I. I would have no idea what’s happening in the world. Some people may find that scary, but I’ve chosen a life of ignorant bliss.
Saturday Night Live
This was the “Blackest” episode ever. There we so many skits that were geared toward a Black audience it was kind of jarring. But it was funny. Their debate spoofing is spot on. Sadly I didn’t want to hear Latifah sing, so I quickly turned to VH1 Classic, channel 359. But the Rodney Dangerfield tribute was perfect.
Desperate Housewives
This show may have me hooked. I’m curious what the whole mystery is. I’m annoyed by Teri Hatcher’s character and at how the children are portrayed in the show. They are either monsters or uber smart. But seriously I’m about to be a lawn boy.
The Wire
Stringer Bell is messing up. I love the character so much, but that chick is going to be his downfall. It was cool to see Cutty get back in the game and even better to actually see Avon’s coming home. But let me shed some light on a glaring error in the show.
One of the major storylines is that a white councilman wants to run for mayor. But no one wants to back him because Baltimore is a “Brown Town”, majority Black. The conceit is that people won’t vote for a white guy.
Reality check: Baltimore has a white mayor. Martin O’Malley is mayor of Baltimore and has been for at least four years. But aside from that mistake, the show rocks.
Pardon The Interruption
I love these guys. I’m not really a sports guy, but I tune in to this show every weekday. It’s hilarious. It’s the one show that I try to never miss.
Lost
Ok, I’m officially hooked. This show has got me completely intrigued. The way the story advances, and we get glimpses of what happened to get the people on the plane is such a powerful combination. So now I need to find out more about what secrets everyone has, what the creature really is, and who the mystery guy lurking on the island is. Dude, I’m so hooked.
Smallville I really liked this episode. I thought that it was well written and well directed. It was fun and funny. It’s kind of sad that Clark’s a head taller than the rest of the team and how Lex was a good deal shorter then the team. I’m also curious how Clark is going to react when he finds out Lana has been keeping a secret from him. Man, I’m such a fanboy.
And now for the The Greatest Show of All Time”¦this week:
Scrubs
My mom had been telling he about this show all last season, saying how much I’d enjoy it. My cousin claims that the show inspired her to become a nurse. I really tried to watch it last season, but I couldn’t make myself watch it. I enjoyed what I saw, but I couldn’t remember to catch it.
Well now I’m loving the show this season. This is everything that a sitcom should be. Admittedly I’m a fan of Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and the similarities are numerous. It’s in an awkward time slot, but I’m really trying not to miss an episode this year. What can I say, my mom’s got good taste, except for that whole Pope of Greenwich Village debacle. That movie sucked.
The Meat and Potatoes of the Column
This week VH1 has been devoting a lot of airtime to Hip Hop. I was reluctant to tune in for VH1 Presents And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop because I really wasn’t interested in Hip Hop through the filter of VH1. For some reason I thought with the VH1 Presents preface that it would just be the Best Week Ever crew remenscing about Hip Hop.
When I finally did tune in I was surprised to see that was an oral history, told by the participants, with no narrator. I really appreciated that VH1 was allowing Hip Hop folks to tell the story of Hip Hop. I really only caught two episodes, but I’m sure VH1 will rerun it ad nauseam some time in the near future.
For the most part VH1: Hip Hop Honors was a remarkably well-done affair. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
It started off terribly with Vivica Fox referencing “bling bling.” That was almost enough for me to switch to a certain channel 359, but I didn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t because I got to see Vivica dance. It was nice. She can move aight. (What was nutty was how slim she looked. I can remember having dorm conversations on Vivica’s shaggablilty. The topic of her weight flucations always came up, and she was deemed suspect, due to her Fat Potential, or as we called it F.P. Example: “Vivica’s got mad F.P., she gets the thumbs down, she would not catch one.”)
Next up was a tribute to Run DMC. The video homage was cool, as was the Beastie Boys performance. And when Doug E. Fresh came out, I was blown away. Doug is sick! I’m glad he’s still doing his thing.
Hearing Lean Back for the umpteenth time was as annoying as could be expected. I get it, it’s the hottest song of the year and a club banger. But at least perform the remix, which isn’t quite as played out.
The tribute to Hollywood and Kool Herc was perfect. They really managed to capture, at least for me, the essence of the DJing and MCing. As a guy from Tucson, I could never wrap my head around why Doug E. Fresh was so popular. I never felt him. I also didn’t get the importance of the DJ. But once I got to Baltimore and went to a party, I understood completely.
It’s a vibe and the atmosphere. Call and Response is something you have to experience to understand. The records Capri and the others were spinning are party classics. So what they were doing might not really translate to other parts of the country, but as someone who spent a great deal of time in the East, it rang particularly true. I was definitely bopping on my couch responding to Doug E’s calls.
Like I said, it you haven’t experienced it you may not have felt it, but as someone who has, the essence was really captured in that performance.
The Nas performance was dope. Nas is the future. It was also cool to see a Black man with a healthy relationship with his pops. The tribute to the Rocksteady Crew would have been much better without the crowd reaction shots. That segment was really poorly produced. I wish they had focused more on the dancers than the audience. The tribute to Graf was much better done. It was a nice touch to have an actual piece being done on stage.
The Beasties performing again was cool. The concept was nice and it was pulled off very well. The Foxy and Wyclef intro to KRS would have been better without the extremely poor editing. I honestly wonder what I missed. But the cut was glaring.
The video homage to KRS was perfect. I really hope that people who don’t know about this MC investigate him. He’s the reason I always give Hip Hop the capital “H.” I wish he got more respect from current MCs.
Diddy doing his voting pitch was interesting.
Having Al Sharpton intro Public Enemy was poignant. It also seemed to be the most genuine, considering he’s not really in the Hip Hop community.
For the record; I love Public Enemy, so this performance was probably my favorite. Sure there was too much going on at times, and it was odd that they were paying tribute to themselves. But they showed they still have it. The Elvis/Reagan switch up was a nice touch as was the John Wayne/George Bush one. And c’mon how often are you going to get a chance to see the Flav dance?
Warning: Tupac Rant Ahead
Of course nothing is ever perfect. Case in point the obligatory Tupac memoriam. Now I’m not going to bore you with yet another airing of My Beef With Tupac, but I will give my thoughts on this tribute.
1. Get the f#*k off his d&@k!
2. When did Hammer get is Hip Hop card back? And why wasn’t I notified?
3. But more importantly don’t you really think that Pac would be rolling over in his grave at Hammer reading his words? If he were actually dead I mean. (I keed, I keed.)
4. I going to have to deduct some point from Nas for the performance. Doing a posthumous duet, barely acceptable, but at this point who hasn’t done it? Actually covering his song while dressing and emulating him? Not kosher dude, not kosher at all.
5. Oh yeah, Pac has such a great resonance with the present. So much so that no one in the audience is singing along to the song.
We Will Now Resume The Regularly Scheduled Column
Taye Diggs sounded so uptight. He sounded even more uptight than he did in Brown Sugar and I didn’t think that was humanly possible. I didn’t believe that Taye had love for Hip Hop in that flick and I don’t believe it on this show either.
(However he brings up a serious issue. If you aren’t from a borough, the DJ doesn’t should you out at parties. And if you’re from Tucson, the DJ definitely doesn’t shout you out. Fortunately, since my crew and I threw parties in college. So one of them would tell the DJ to ask, “Is Arizona is the house?” to which I would respond appropriately, and of course solitarily. But what fun is power if you can’t abuse it?)
The Chic/Sugar Hill collaboration performance at the end was cool, but it would have been cooler if I hadn’t just scene the video of a performance Good Times last week on VH1 Classic. In that video Nile Rodgers performed the Rapper’s Delight rhyme by himself, while playing the bass. It was cool to see Chic reference the song, but ever cooler that Nile knew the words to the rhyme. Regardless the performance was a nice way to end the show.
My only real problem with the show was the lack of current artists. All of the current artists (Nas, Fat Joe, and oddly enough the Beasties) performed twice. And the lack of a proper tribute to Public Enemy kind of irked me. Couldn’t they get Talib Kweli or Mos Def to perform a tribute? All in all it was a tastefully done affair. The parts that I enjoyed, I really enjoyed because they struck a personal cord.
That’s it, that’s all, I’m done. Two hours to “freestyle” a column. There’s a chance I may get to bed before the sun rises. Wait you need to read this;
Carlos adds his thoughts on SNL.
Coogan’s got some thoughts to get off his mind. Meanwhile Steve covers lots of things, including the Eminem/MJ building controversy that I’m sure I’ll address at some point next week.
Didley talks about the Nip/Tuck season finale, something I neglected to mention. Strike up another for next week.
Cheri talks about two shows I was almost interested in. Read the thoughts and make up your mind.
Three Two Tha Friday
Aaron is full of The Goodness®. He covers a variety of topics, including why I’m not a genuine net writer.
Joe’s off this week. Rumor has it that it’s got something to do with him being forced to watch The Pope of Greenwich Village. However that can neither be confirmed nor denied.
Greatest Video of All Time”¦this week
Larry Graham – “One In A Million
This video rocks. Does anyone know if there is something that precedes this video because it kind of starts in medias race. Larry strolls up to a director’s chair wearing an ensemble that can only be described as a pimping jockey or a pimp wearing his jockey uniform. Either way he sits down and belt out this ballad. It’s all performance, and what a performance. If you get a chance peep this video.
