Anglo Piracy

Remember way back in the day I said I was gonna blog about Anglo-piracy. How sectors of mainstream western culture take creations of others, usually some ethnic group, and make it theirs or don't recognize the creators as they welcome accolades? Think Elvis or music critics. I really started thinking about this last year after I watched Bird . Clint Eastwood produced and directed the movie, so I thought it would be legit. Clint, after all, is the white Bill Cosby when it comes to jazz, the most recognizeable, star figure that openly and generously supports the great American music, a dude who you really respect, who u'd think probably has like 1,000 vinyls and what not. someone who respects the music. See, a lot of jazz-entusiats don;t respect jazz, especially the creators. I was thinking that the Bird movie would really give me some insight into Charlie Parker, show me how this man revolutionized American music and instrumentation worldwide. Instead, I got a story that obsessed over his white wife and gave too much credit to Red, some white trumpet player that wasn;t even one of the 10 best in his generation. That always happens in Hollywood, in magazines and so forth.

That's the short version of my problems with Bird and the whole reason I started thinking about this again was because of this story in the Tampa Tribune. Leave it to some wack Flroida city like Orlando or Tampa to write a story on graffitti like it's the new thing. That's what initially annoyed me about the story, that they made this out to be some hot, new trend, like it hasn't been thriving as street art and high-end art for over two decades now.

But more than that, these idiots offered maybe two whole sentences about its roots in Ew York.

"Although the form is not new - it began in New York in the 1970s as the graffiti, hip-hop and skateboard cultures evolved - it lately has received more mainstream acceptance."

That was the only mention they gave to the artforms history and tradition. They act like Basquiat wasn't selling some of his graffitti back in the 80s. Like people are just gettin hip to graffitti as art. It just burns me that an ignoramous might read the article and think these fake, wannabe hipsters in Tampa, riding skateboards, are taking graffitti art to a new level and have no idea where the art began, how it developed and where it has gone. Fact is, Tampa, like everyone in Florida is just short, theyre slow, new to the game. So mention that, but don';t try to fake the reader into thinking these sloofoot, stuck in the (fill in decade) Flroidian artsies around here are breaking some new ground.

Guru, Jazzmatazz 2, Song 12. Do your knowledge.