Heath Ledger
Why must all the wonderful cinematic eye-candies go and die on me? Dying isn't sexy. And now I'm going to be upset when I go see the new Batman movie this summer. I guess another song must be dedicated. This one will be easy, it is the song he sang in 10 Things I Hate About You to apologize to Julia Stiles' character.
Can't Take My Eyes Off of You- the Frank Valli version
Anyways, moving on to other dead celebrities, this week was Martin Luther King Jr. day. So yesterday evening I went to a showing and panel/audience discussion of the MLK Boondocks episode hosted by Underground Arts. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the basic story is that MLK went into a coma after the shooting instead of dying. He then wakes up and finds himself in modern times. He sees that his message and cause has been lost in the new urban gangsta bling kind of image. At the end he makes an angry speech to the youth gathered at what was supposed to be a political rally for a new black political party that was then turned hip-hop/club kind of event. In the speech he uses the N word numerous times and the audience is stunned, he then leaves to live in Canada. There are many things I learned from this event.
* In the episode, he is asked on a television show if his usual "turn the other cheek" method is how Sept. 11th should have been handled. He then agreed that it should and immediately he was booed and accused of being an "Al Qaeda lover." I thought it was interesting because I think that's how people really would have reacted.
* The mediator asked something along the lines of "Is it appropriate to use the N word? And if so, by whom?" This caused a very heated debate that went on for quite awhile. The main rift seemed to be the generation gap. There was an older woman who said it should absolutely never be used and it held to much meaning and history to be used by anyone. The younger crowd was trying to defend it's use in hip-hop but it seemed in the end everyone agreed that it does in fact hold to much emotional impact to be used so light heartedly. My own personal belief is that if it's such a bad word that other races would probably get their ass kicked for using it, then no one should. I don't really think it's one of those words you can "reclaim."
It was pretty cool overall and I think Underground Arts are pretty cool. Various members of theirs performed at a poetry reading I went to last semester and were quite good. It was of course, more hip-hop based but pretty interesting. One guy was especially interesting because he was from East St.Louis which is like next to Belleville but so far away at the same time. It was really cool to hear his perspective on the area.
We watched some more of Triumph of the Will in Film in the 3rd Reich. Creepy stuff. The scenes from the Hitler Youth camp were super homo-erotic and happy. Something interesting I learned in that class is that Hitler copied his gestures from silent movies. I think the creepiest thing she showed us was on the 1st day. It was a Michael Jackson teaser video for his History tour in the 90's. Look that shit up and be happy he doesn't have any real power in this world. I think that's all for now.
Can't Take My Eyes Off of You- the Frank Valli version
Anyways, moving on to other dead celebrities, this week was Martin Luther King Jr. day. So yesterday evening I went to a showing and panel/audience discussion of the MLK Boondocks episode hosted by Underground Arts. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the basic story is that MLK went into a coma after the shooting instead of dying. He then wakes up and finds himself in modern times. He sees that his message and cause has been lost in the new urban gangsta bling kind of image. At the end he makes an angry speech to the youth gathered at what was supposed to be a political rally for a new black political party that was then turned hip-hop/club kind of event. In the speech he uses the N word numerous times and the audience is stunned, he then leaves to live in Canada. There are many things I learned from this event.
* In the episode, he is asked on a television show if his usual "turn the other cheek" method is how Sept. 11th should have been handled. He then agreed that it should and immediately he was booed and accused of being an "Al Qaeda lover." I thought it was interesting because I think that's how people really would have reacted.
* The mediator asked something along the lines of "Is it appropriate to use the N word? And if so, by whom?" This caused a very heated debate that went on for quite awhile. The main rift seemed to be the generation gap. There was an older woman who said it should absolutely never be used and it held to much meaning and history to be used by anyone. The younger crowd was trying to defend it's use in hip-hop but it seemed in the end everyone agreed that it does in fact hold to much emotional impact to be used so light heartedly. My own personal belief is that if it's such a bad word that other races would probably get their ass kicked for using it, then no one should. I don't really think it's one of those words you can "reclaim."
It was pretty cool overall and I think Underground Arts are pretty cool. Various members of theirs performed at a poetry reading I went to last semester and were quite good. It was of course, more hip-hop based but pretty interesting. One guy was especially interesting because he was from East St.Louis which is like next to Belleville but so far away at the same time. It was really cool to hear his perspective on the area.
We watched some more of Triumph of the Will in Film in the 3rd Reich. Creepy stuff. The scenes from the Hitler Youth camp were super homo-erotic and happy. Something interesting I learned in that class is that Hitler copied his gestures from silent movies. I think the creepiest thing she showed us was on the 1st day. It was a Michael Jackson teaser video for his History tour in the 90's. Look that shit up and be happy he doesn't have any real power in this world. I think that's all for now.