Oldie but Goodie: Shuttin up Buppies

With all the NAACP posturing about killing the word "nigga", somebody shouldve walked up to them niggas and told them all "Well you somebody's niggas, wearin them nigga ties."

Hence a fav post from the past: Shuttin Up Buppies.

The Animal Kingom: The real Kings of NY

I love the random things I encounter in New York. For instance, you already know that I'm not exactly an "animal dude"...i dont like petting horses, squirels annoy me, i despise cats...dogs are about the only animals i rep with and even they arent my best friend. This makes me kinda leery when it comes to animals and I react to them in weird ways. Some even give me nightmares. I've told many of you about my nightmare, while living in Atlanta, of some spiders that crawled out the cereal box, into my cereal bowl and swam in the milk, mocking me. Many of you read about my Floridian nightmare involving a lizard I trapped in my guest room (its the third story in the post I believe).


Well, the interesting thing about NYC animals is that they arent afraid of humans. Rats runs the city. Squirrels will jog along side you like there's an invisible leash and you're taking them for an afternoon walk. The cats are mangy and moody. None of the dogs are trained. It's literally a zoo. You ever seen that scene in Madagascar where Alex, Mellman and Gloria were roaming Manhattan streets chasing after Marty? That wouldnt surprise me if it happened in real life...seriously, if when I left work, I saw a lion, giraffe and hippo looking for a zebra, I'd simplyrun across the street and keep it movin, but I wouldnt be like "how is this possible"...animals act like this is their domain around these parts.

This is all a long, convoluted way to get to my experience this morning, walking to the train. You can enter Bedford station by either walking up a steep hill and entering on Grand Concourse or going under an underpass. Its the summer, I'm obese, so I typically choose the underpass. But the underpass is unequivocally, inarguably the domain of the pigeons. The nooks and ledges are their homes and the cement that us humans walk on is their toilet. pure and simple. and they mosey around on the ground, often cutting off your path, the way toddlers, geezers and blind people do.

This morning a particular one straight gangsta'd me out of my path and then stopped as i sidestepped it, like it had a problem with me. This really concerned me, since I put absolutely nothing past an animal in NYC. Part of me thinks that rats mug young women at knife point when no one is looking. Anyways, this pidgeon is staring me down, but I keep it movin because I'm not really tryin to get into a scrap with this fowl, specifically since its hot and ultra-specifically since I'm about to head under the underpass where his crew is camped out. I'm a writer, not a fighter and I'm also not tryin to be rollin around on the cement covered in their ish. So I swallow my pride and keep going, but as I pass him, I'm lookin at the pidgeon out the corner of my eye because I dont wanna be caught by surprise if it chooses to hit the Kid with a sucker punch or somethin.

Here's where you know I've lost it tho and that these animals have really gotten in my head. As I pass the pidgeon and enter the underpass, the light changes and all of sudden the pidgeon's shadow gets ENORMOUS. This causes me, a grown, supposedly sane man to violently turn around with balled fist as I yell, "Yo!!!!!!!" In a moment of insanity I truly thought this pidgeon had morphed into some monster-pidgeon the size of an elephant and was about to pimp slap me with his gigantic wing. Straight-up, my heart was racing and everything.

When I turned around and finished yelping, sure the pidgeon was still ice-grillin me, but it was still the size of just a regular ol pidgeon. So I calmed down, unclinched my fists and briskly walked by the rest of his gang into the station. I was kinda embarrassed, specifically since the pidgeon's smarmy crew was heckling me. I don't know, for some reason, the way they were flapping their wings just had this mocking-air about it. it might have just been me.

To make matter worse, not more than 30 seconds after the train doors closed, a bum was hawking ONE unopened tube of Krazy Glue. This quietly sent me through the roof, since all I want out of my bums is a racket that begets some forethought and guile. WHY THE EFF WOULD I NEED KRAZY GLUE??!?!?!?!!!!! And is their a product that can more conclusively indicate that it was stolen? Bum, you obviously stole that unopened Krazy Glue, but it was the wrong product to steal, as no one sitting on a train is trying to repair a piano stool.

Whatevs.

NAACP: Niggas, Please

Cant necessarily recall the day of the week, but a week or so ago, I turned on CNN and saw some grandiose "funeral" staged by the NAACP to put the "N-Word" to rest. NAACP wants the word "nigger" and all its derivatives to die, cease to exist in our vocabularies. I think this is a bunch of BS and that them NAACP niggas need to wake up and get real.

There's just no way you can provide me with any valid argument to convince me that the black community's use of the word nigga is at the root of any larger problem.

I dont wanna be on some "NAACP has more important things to worry about", because I actually believe the organization truly thinks our use of this word is a microcsmic problem. And I'm also not the kinda dude that spouts the moronic "we use it as a term of endearment" rhetoric, either. Whereas that is definitely true in some cases (hence the Q-Tip lyric in "Sucka Nigga"), I use the word in a variety of ways and I'm not sure if my usage connotes positivity 50% of the time. Put it like this, I try my absolute hardest to never use the word around strangers, young people, white people, asians, arabs, some hispanics, older folks, in professional settings, amongst niggas rockin bowties. So its apparent that it's a word for which wide, rampant and indiscriminate use should be discouraged.

With that said, I will "nigga" my family and friends to death. I grew up in a "nigga" using household. My Pops is a "nigga"-using fool. My friends will "nigga" a nigga off a cliff. It is as much a part of my vocabulary as the word "is".

And lets be clear, if I'm upset with a black person -- or really any color person -- I'm most likely gonna call them a "nigga" as in, "Nigga have you lost your mind?! Why would you spit in my face?!" Or, if had an irritating experience with an El Salvadorian at my local Chipolte, at some point in the story I'm bound to say "And then this nigga hit me with about a pound of guac, when I specifically, in English, told the nigga 'No guac, but go heavy on the cream.' Sun, I wanted to strangle the nigga."

BUT, if me and my nigs are having a mini reunion and one walks in the door with a $70 bottle of single malt scotch, I'll most likely pound him up and say something like, "This is why you're my nigga." How many times have I said, "I love that nigga"? Probably a gagillion.

It's a complex word with complex usage. I watched LeBron's historic Game 5 against the Pistons in Buffalo with my Pops...only Pops was asleep for the whole 4th quarter and both overtimes as LeBron turned in the greatest Playoff performance of all time. I mustve shouted at him to wake up after each of Bron's buckets. he finally woke up around 1am while I was watching the press conferences. I said, "Nigga you just missed LeBron go OFF! The nigga scored the Cavs final 29 points!" Two different types of "nigga" in that sentence.

I mean, really, "nigga" is pretty much synonomous with "man". It's just that "nigga" or "nigger" obviously has a sordid history in this country. But then again, so does the word "boy". White men used to call black men "boy" to emasculate them, as well. That's why black men started calling each other "man" ("Wassup, man") -- to combat the disrespect of the white man's use of "boy". But then we started calling each "boy" too. "That's my boy." "Wuddup, boy?" "The boy is bad."

This has the same built-in fraternal use as the word "nigga". A couple years back, me and my nigga Rek hit up a Buffalo diner one early morning to kop some steak and eggs. Pano's can get kinda crowded at times, so we had to stand and wait to be seated. That's when some older white man, maybe in his 50s, condescendingly placed his hand on our shoulders and said "Xcuse me, boys. Let me by here." My nigga Rek (we were about 24 or 25 at the time) looked at him and asked super incredulously "BOYS??!?!?!!!!" That's when the idiot white man smirked and said, "Sorry. Fellas, can I get by here?" And we moved.

These words, as I said, are complex. It depends who says it, the tone, the context, etc. I see no point in why we need to put the word "nigga" to sleep. I'm not the HUGEST proponent of free speech. I'm a bit of a conservative on that front. I agree with the Supreme Court's ruling that high school campuses can be policed by adults for speech that goes overboard (this was recent when some kids had some wild display that disparaged Jesus). But, the same way I use the "nigga" frequently on this blog, I believe rappers should be able to do so in song, same as script writers should continue to write it into scripts.

(Note: I believe men should retire the word "bitch" and go to more classy terms like "broad", "bird", "dame", "skirt". The more innocuous and sophisticated, the better. "Tramp" and "slut" are OK, too.)

This is all just mindless venting and ranting. I just think this firestorm over the use of nigga in the community is overblown and the grandstanding by the NAACP was just stupid and not worth a drop of water in a bucket. Them niggas shouldve stayed in their air-conditioned office.

Yall know how I feel: Niggas Is A Beautiful Thang.

Music Dude: What I've Been Bumpin...

I wanna hip yall to some music that's been shredding my face lately...hold tight...it'll be up soon...

Music Dude: Back yappin' 'bout Common

Yes-yes, yall. Man, I haven't had a Music Dude post on the blog in millenia...at least it seems that way. So, I'm back at it. Actually, what I'm posting was part of a 50-msg email string I had with my niggas yesterday. The topic was Common and his new album, Finding Forever. A little prefacing context:

Comm's new album drops July 31st. Leading up to its release, one of the crew members always had some smarmy comment to make about how the album was gonna be wack, others were excited, me, I was guardedly excited. Well you know us ThisIsRealMusic.com kats get the drop on ish the second it hits the net, so we manage to scoop the album this past Monday. When it comes to dudes like Common, their releases usually call for a lot of discussion and that's what took place recently. What you'll read is a response to my nig Gee who thinks this album is a near classic (which it is not) and my nigga Trav who was ishin on Comm's lyrics like he's Young Joc and also made some comment like, "This is Comm's album for white people" which sent me thru the roof.

Anyways, in true Music Dude fashion, I think I wrote about 64,382 words in my response. dig...

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-- to me a 4.5 is a near classic. it means that there's just "something" that is keeping it from being a classic. I dont know that I can call Finding Forever a near classic, which is funny, because I think it is better than Be, but i rate Be as the near classic and Finding Forever as about as strong as a 4 can get. Let me explain...

For Comm to make a classic or near classic at this point he either has to return to Bridge or take a 3 or 4 year hiatus, come back and be just as dope. its very hard for someone to drop a classic or near classic album that is void of context. and by context i mean some extenuating circumstance that is either informing or imposing upon an album that is otherwise just really good sounding soundwaves. Be was a near classic because it was a return for Comm. He came "back" to regular, good ol' hop and returned as an even growner emcee. his classics and Be all had some kind of context and represented some sort of plateau or touchstone in his career. Ressurection was the album he dropped in the midst of hop's new golden age and it was an album where we first saw COMMON and not a pseudo Das EFX biter from Chicago. One Day It'll All Make Sense saw Comm at the peak of his frisky, young-boy emcee skills (like a 88-90 MJ). He was athletic on that joint, PLUS started making more socially conscious songs that we didnt hear on Resurrection (his joints with Lauryn and Lo come to mind). Like Water For Chocolate was Comm at his peak as a hip hop "artist" and introduced us to Soulquarians. Electric Circus might be the best Bridge album ever (it's really starting to challenge New Danger). Those were the classics. Then he came with Be, a near classic. What we have to realize is that Comm had an eight-year, four album string of bonafide classics. Resurrection, One Day, LWOF and Circus arent even borderline classics. There is no arguing those. 8 friggin years and 4 classics. That effin incredible. if u add Be to that equation, thats a 10-year span with 5 albums of impeccable quality, all of which represented some shape-shift, artistic progression, refocus or persona development. What I'm getting at here is that it is im-friggin-possible for Comm to do anything at this point to really shake things up, unless he returns to Bridge and helps further crystalize that young genre of music or if he takes 3 or 4 years off to make movies and then, after we miss him greatly, he returns to satiate us (similar to Desire, which is why i think niggas are semi-falsely giving that classic status).

So what we get is Finding Forever, another impeccable album that can only be rated but so high because there's no context to push it up any levels. EVERY artist plateaus...not some, EVERY artist. I find it interesting that Marvin dropped Hear My Dear as his last album. its friggin mind-blowing because its so good...but had he not died, he'd have finished his career and probably not had any more classics. Steve plateaued. By the time the 80s rolled around, he wasnt droppin classics. Prince's last classic was Sign O Times (i believe), his New Power Generation stuff wasnt classic. Stillmatic was a classic not because the music was so overwhelmingly dope, but because Nas returned to making great music. The albums he's dropped since have all been excellent, but none classic. What makes Finding Forever and Common so special is that he's plateaued but maintained the excellence. Every great artist -- and Common is a great artist, top 20 of all time in hop, no question -- anyways, every great artist has their classic run and at some point a human being has no room to really grow THAT much. the chore is staying relevant and good once the exploration stops. and thats what Comm did, here.

-- Trav comically said that Comm dumbed down his lyrics and made mention of the pop culture lyrics. I think its important to note that there's nothing wrong with making pop culture REFERENCES. For instance, on Kingdom Come, Jay had basically gone pop in a lot of ways, yappin about Chris and Gwyneth and that wack ode to his homey locked up in the clink. that annoyed me. Comm's pop culture references are basically punch lines. and, at least to me, they never come across as forced or contrived.

with that said, its VERY important to note 2 things. 1.) Common is the greatest lovesong writer in the history of hip hop. 2.) Comm is every bit the story teller that Nas and Pharoah are. Let me explain...

Hop has never been a genre built for love songs because its always been so charged with machismo and/or lust. So an emcee's primary goals has always been to trumpet his greatness, challenge competitors, release aggression, rebel...that kinda stuff. By the time an emcee gets to the topic of a woman, it's usually to describe some tramp that broke his heart, gave him the clap or to let a woman know how much he wants to bone her or its a story about how he pursued a vixen. Even when Pharoah writes a song like "The Light", he's really only giving us a tale about how this women blew his mind and how he made her his. There has never really been such a thing -- in hip hop -- as songs that earnestly speak of love and relationships with any sensitivity, because, well thats gay. And there also hasnt ever really been a slew of dudes that speak about love and relationships with any depth (Mos is Comm's only peer). Comm has a SLEW of these songs from "The Light" to "Nag Champa" to "Love Is" and his songs like "Go" are so much more complex than others. My fav of his love sogs is "Star 69" of Electric Circus which is an ode to Badu (he plays with her name in the chorus, calling her E-rot-ica). Its not his best lovesong and it uses phone sex as its theme and his flow is simpler but between his lyrics and Bilal's chorus, i just always finish that song thinking "no one else does this in hip hop."

Well, songs like "I Want You" and "Break My Heart" off Finding Forever continue this trend. btw, the way will.i.am spirals the track off into that fantasy-sounding bridge at the end of "I Want You" is the absolute ish. I grimaced on the train today when that part of the song broke. and then we get to his story telling. Not too harp on Trav's cornball agenda to trivialize Comm, but he had the nerve to scoff at Comm's "uplift the black people" motif as if he's tired of it. What i find incredible about Comm's uplift the people missions is that he often does this, not through preaching, but through stories that are often based around characters that falter or crush under the weight of whatever is inherent to being black in America. And that whole structuring of his songs is unique. Whereas Nas often takes full songs to tell his stories and Pharoah deals in a lot of metaphors and Ghost is extra theatrical; Comm usually has songs that are made up of three vignettes. For instance, i love how on "Driving Me Wild", the first two verses separately tell a story of an individual whose pursuit of some elusive, superficial goal is costing him/her something greater. "Black Maybe" is done the same way, with each verse telling a short story. And although Comm's topics aren't extra wide-ranging, he always profound. so how can u get tired of that?

As a former emcee and current writer, I envy the guy. When I listen to Stevie Wonder, i wonder (pun) what it's like to be that eloquent and Comm is one of the few emcees that have that same effect on me.

I also wanna reiterate that Common is the only emcee (along with Mos) that you can put in the same category as Smokey Robinson or Stevie or Paul McCartney or whomever when it comes to lovesongs. yall niggas may scoff at that because hop aint really about love songs, but when u start getting into arguments about hop's place with the other genres as a full, developed, three dimensional musical art, that has to be a apart of it and Comm and Mos allow hop to stick its chest out.

-- production wise...i gotta admit, i effin miss Comm with the Soulquarians. as good as he and Ye are as a tandem, nothing beat him working with Dills, ?uest and Poyser. With that said, Finding Forever is really cementing Kanye West as one of the great music producers in the history of music. That top 7 list needs to be extended to 8, because when Ye sits down and works on a full album (Dropout, Be, Late Reg, Finding Forever) he does not miss. What I like about Ye is that he's one of the few producers that is making music to really stand on its own as a piece of art. u can tell he slaves over the songs and is always thinking of inventive ways to approach things. its like he's trying to blow ur mind each time out and i think that goes in line with his personality of being very insecure and lusting for accolades. But the production this album is just so tight, and the guest producers ( will.i.am, Devo Springsteen) kept the level very high.

-- i'm giving this album a 4, but only because, at this point, its pretty impossible for Comm to go any higher, given the fact that he's already 10-plus years into a classic career.

Arabs vs Africans

I'm just here to let you know that Arabs stink just as much as Africans. I mean, Africans dont have a monopoly on stinch, naa mean. I walked past an Arab today on my way from work and he had the whole block smelling like his natural body odor stinch. 6th ave is a huge street, its the friggin Avenue of the Americas...if u can take over the smell of a whole NYC street with all the exhaust and falafel stations, hot dog stands, sewage -- that's some funk. And thats when it hit me that 96.7% of Arabs stink.

Trust me, I know full well the power of African funk. Everyday on my commute to work, I have about a six block walk down Broadway, which is lined with Africans hawking Nikes and watches and such. The smell is palapable. I stopped going to a pizzeria on 28th and Broadway because African stinch would mess up the way my slice tastes. In D.C., i lived in a NE suburb full of Nigerians, whose smell is a little less tart, but more musky than Kenyans. Africans can funk it up and the world knows it.

But Arabs, I believe, are underappreciated in this arena. Ask yourself, save some pretty boy son of an oil tycoon, have you ever encountered an Arab wearing cologne? Not me. Like Africans, they subscribe to the natural code. And, maybe its the curry, but their natural oils and body odors are more pungent. in fact, i kinda think i should be commissioned to study this for some hygiene association. this battle needs to be settled, because i know that everytime and African passes an Arab on the street, they secretly check to see which smell is the most powerful. I bet the Arab wins 4 out 7 times.

Yeah, I'm rambling...but I'm just sayin...Africans arent the only people doin serious damage with their funk games.

(note: Northern Africans -- somolians, ethiopians, egyptians -- are like African-Arab hybrids, based on their geographic locations. but i typically find them to smell more like Arabs. just thought u should know.)

NY Times piece on Rudy Gullianni -- read it

This New York Times piece is a really good read on Rudy Gulianni -- who could very well be the next President of the U.S. -- and his race-relations problems.

I remember how there was talk of reaaranging the double-term limit on a mayorship so that NYC could re-elect him...this was after the way he handled 9-11. But what that did was overshadow much of the controversy that clouded most of his 8 years in office. Although crime dropped and Times Square commercialized and delapidated neighborhoods gentrified; dude was a Class A prick, specifically with NYC's black population (I think there are like 3 million blacks in NYC). Much of this centered around police tactics, with Diallo's shooting being the most egregious well-remembered.

And Gulianni also has the Bush-sickness of simply not extending olive branches or seeking communication. Bush hasnt met with Congressional Black Caucus since he's been in office. Gullianni regularly rebuffed black leaders requests for face time. I partly understand why these politicians behave that way. Powerful blacks like pile it on Republicans. Groups of blacks can be like angry wives that wanna shove wrongdoing in people's faces, make irrational and ridiculous rquests and belittle/emasculate/triviliaze folks by condescension and accusations. So cowboys like Bush and Gulianni take it straight to the "I'm not even pumpin' wit yall" level; which is kinda gangsta, but wholly faulty for a country with America's history and ongoing problems with race relations.

Anyways...the Times provides a nice chronological look at the race-relations missteps of Guilianni's mayorship and asks some pretty logical questions about how that would translate if this dude was leading the friggin country.

Also, this dude has been divorced, like, 84 times. This means he's either a schmuck in the sack, a poor communicator, belligerent, gay or all of the above. I'm just sayin....

-- I'm in the midst of what has become an afternoon routine during my stints in Buffalo, where I watch my nig Wolf Blitzer on CNN's Situation Room, drink that last cup of coffee that was one too many (yall know i got self control issues) and procrastinate getting my writing done and/or excersizing.

Today, Wolf and "The Best Political Team on Television" or whatever he calls his troop are reporting some pretty interesting things.

For instance, Bush's approval rating is at 29%, its the lowest approval rating for any Preseident in the history of the U.S.; below his Pops' rating at the end of his term, Nixon during Watergate, Post-WWII and early civil rights Truman and Jimmy Carter, who looked like Mr. Rogers and perfect candidate to be a pedaphilic Catholic priest.

What's funny to me is that Bush seems no worse of a Pres than he did when America voted in 2004. I was stunned when he won. I dont vote due to religious belief and convictions of political neutrality (I have no faith in any human to run America or the world. I'm not sure John Kerry or Al Gore would have done DEMONSTRABLY better. The world keeps getting worse no matter whos in office)...anyways, I kinda feel like America is getting their just punishment for re-electing this bufoon. Did these people, in 2004, think he was gonna do any better? Hadn't he provided a claer track record of obstinance, dimwittedness, duplicitity and crony agendas?

But whats REALLY comical is that number -- 29%. Really, who thinks this dude is doing a good job? Who are these people that approve? Those are rhetorical questions. I atually met many people who pumped with Bush when I lived in exurban Florida. These are two types of people (here come the stereotypes)...one group is hillbillyish and say things like, "We need to keep bombin' the sh*t outta them Osamas for knockin our towers down." The other are white collar martians that wanna kick out all the mexicans and reverse Brown vs Board. They all make me chuckle and then furrow my brow. But its their America. I'm just livin in it, hoping theyre not serious when they tell me to "go back to Africa."

-- One other thing made me both laugh and shake my head. This dude David Vitter, a US Senator, is now involved in some scandal when he turned up in some ultra-exclusive D.C. escort service. Outrage has ensued. I just ask myself, What US Senator hasnt had some extra-marital affair? I think the perecentage is much less than 25%. Just sayin...

more randoms

Until my next caper or epiphany...you'll be stuck reading these random thoughts...

-- There's a tiled platform in my parents living room. It also has two arched six or seven foot mirrors. Whenever little ones come over the build they stand in front of it and perform for themselves. One of my lil sis' close friends has a daughter that attends the school she teaches at and sometimes she comes home with P and waits at the build for her Mom to pick her up. If I'm home she heads right for my iPod, asks for me to switch it to Beyonce and then spends her time in front of the mirrors in, what I'm sure, is her fantasy world where she is Beyonce.

Today the stakes were raised, though. As I said, my sis works for the schools, so she has summers off. During this time, she has volunteered to periodically watch my cousin Halima's daughters, Tatyana and Imani. They just spent the last 20 minutes putting on Cheetah Girls performances for P and I. I'm talking rehearsed renditions where they take turns singing portions of each verse and dance choreographed moves. Its special stuff. Theyre two years apart, 9 and 7, and remind me of my little brothers at that age. Except, instead of performing Cheetah Girls routines, my lil brothers were splitting globes in half, putting them in the back of the sweatshirts and performing Ninja Turtles fight scenes.

I didnt have a brother my age, so there wasnt any of that from me when I was younger, nor my sisters since they were 4 years apart. But when you're close in age and the same gender, you become like one person. Lil Mani said something revealed something very telling a moment ago when she stormed in the living room and pouted on the stage in front of the mirror. She said, "Vince, tell Tatyana to let me play the piano with her." Taty was in the foyer, bangin out some keys and crooning. I told Mani to let Taty have her time on piano and then she could play after her. Mani said: "But she dont sound right by herself. And I dont wanna play by myself neither." I asked why not. She said "We only sound right together." Like I said, one person. Taty is getting to that age where she's gonna want to be an individual, though. I dont rememeber when that happened with my lil brothers, but it was def before Chrish hit his teens. By that time, I could no longer expect for them to perform "Da Mystery of Chessboxin" (which would include Adam taking a squirt of his puffer and bloqin it out like weed smoke). Those were indeed the days.

-- speaking of my lil cousins. They watch a alot of Nickolodeon. Hannah Montana seems to be their favorite. Its basically a show about two teenage white girls that sing. What's important is that Billy Ray Cyrus plays their father. Whats more important is that they think Billy Ray Cyrus is cool. This just amused me. I'm struggling to figure if there was a sitcom figure of my youth that was a complete and disastrous cornball during my parents days. I cant imagine so. Its all disorienting.

-- speaking of Nickolodeon, do you realize how many programming options these kids have today? They have like three Disney channels with cartoons and sitcoms designed for them specifically, plus the Cartoon Network and a few others. Its crazy. Back in my day we had a few after school cartoons and Saved By The Bell....and Double Dare. remember that? And during the summer I watched David and the Gnomes and The Monkeys. Remember the Monkeys? I would actually buy that as a DVD if I could.

-- I'm on a TV kick right now and as such, I gotta talk about HBO for a moment. Have you seen the glut of new shows that'll be premiering this year. It must be something like 10 and NONE of them are based around black characters. this kills me. You mean not ONE pilot where the central characters were black or hispanic passed through HBO brass? Of course. So why wasnt any picked up as a series. There are probably a zillion answers for this, but none of them would truly be a valid reason. The most inane, trivial and weird subjects are used as a basis for dramas pitted around white characters, but chances are never taken otherwise. The reason why this frustrates me in HBO's case is because they do their shows so well. You know you'd get some well written shows with complex characters and useful dialogue, etc...instead we're forced to watch UPN or WB shows or corny FOX shows or blacks as criminals on serial crime dramas or token black doctors. it's all irritating. but whatever.

-- very quick: there's a brother in my fam's congregation that wears a ridiculously fake and tragic rug on his head. My lil bro calls him Toupe Fiasco. Yep.