Random Thoughts and Musings - "Hit and Run" post, Pt. 2

Are you going to be in NYC this Thursday, April 28th?

If you are, come see me speak! I'll be at HousingWorks Cafe  (119 Chambers Street in Chelsea) with Daphne Carr, who is on a book tour for her awesome new book on Nine Inch Nails , Maura Johnson, who is the music editor at the Village Voice, and Raquel Cepeda at 7:00pm. There will be some readings and a discussion on music fandom. I think I'm going to read an early draft of a chapter from my book (without the parts that could get me sued, that is). But it should be cool. I'm really honoured to be included in this panel, and be with such talented people. I'm excited, but nervous as hell, as I tend to swear alot when I get nervous..........

I agreed to make this trip, partly because on Saturday, there is a symposium at NYC  on the writings of Ellen Willis, who was a noted rock critic. The line-up of speakers is astounding, and it was something that I wanted to see for myself. So it should be pretty cool.........

Jesus Christ Superstar - a true sign that this world is going backwards.......

I was chatting to Homegirl on the weekend, and she was watching the seminal Jesus Christ Superstar movie (1973) as we were yakking about bullshit, as usual. At one point, she says, "dude, there's a lot of Black folks in this movie!" 

And there was, as I changed the channel and we watched it together. This got me thinking about Black representation and how we see things today. Sure the movie is cheesy as hell, the Afro's a-plenty and some questionable outfits were apparent, but it was really interesting. 

When I was at university I took this film class that literally, changed my life. We saw Roots, Sweetback Badassssss Song, and a couple of other 70's-era films that really made an impact on me - the movie escapes me, but it was with Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda and they were bikers? Anyhoo, it made me really think about that era....the reaction against the Vietnam War, and the risks that filmmakers took in creating these great, subversive films. 

Homegirl told me about seeing a 60's era movie with Doris Day and that "there were black folks innit! Really, like Black customers, salespeople....really fuckin' cool!" We discussed the 70's movies that had not only Blacks, but Asian and Latino folks and they were just people...and then we discussed contemporary TV shows like  Friends and Sex in the City, in which you would think that no black folks lived in NYC. 

So what happened? I don't know. Now, it seems like the movie industry is segregated. You have Tyler Perry  nightmares or Bougie shit, and I guess mainstream Black folks are supposed to be satisfied. Mainstream "white" films sometimes have a peppering of Black and Latino, but they are the same actors that appear in every film. I'm generalizing here, but it was just another signifier that we have regressed in terms of showing the diversity of our world, instead of showing accurate depictions of how the real world actually functions. What do y'all think? And check out this snippet:

 

 

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