BIG IDEAS

Too far under the radar has been the Reunion Tour of the seminal 80’s ska band, The Specials, shown here on Live with Jools Holland. Best of all they look and sound incredible for a band celebrating basically the 30th anniversary of its initial success.

No word yet on a U.S. leg of the tour.

The definition of musical bliss? A tour featuring Fishbone, The Specials and The Selecter.

Apparently, even though there are many decent cover bands around the country, no band I’ve seen in person or on You Tube seems to be able to get one particular rock song right: Living Colour’s Cult of Personality. I suppose, like a lot of Led Zeppelin’s tunes, it’s just one of those tunes that look a lot easier on paper and in theory than when you have to strap yourself in and amplify it.

A while ago I put up a bunch of bass players trying to rip Larry Graham, and some did better than others. These folks trying to channel Vernon Reid are all pretty universally not that great. But good efforts all around. Back to Guitar Hero, folks. For a reminder, I put the real thing at the end.

Photo courtesy of the New York Times

Fans of Richard Pryor will know the next line to the joke in title: ” The monkey live here. You just visitin’ “.

Say what you want about all this business with President Obama, the New York Post and monkeys, but the original story that started this whole mess - the one about the lady’s face getting torn off by a chimp - has stirred up some of the funniest journalism I’ve seen in years.

To wit, Thursday’s New York Times article of people who live with monkeys, entitled “My Monkey, My Self” by Joyce Wadler. Although I think “Love Me, Love My Monkey” would have been a better title.

The story’s best line:

Bob, who’s owned wild animals all his life, admits Higgins has not always been a model pet. When Higgins was 3, he slept with the couple, often awakening Bob in the morning by climbing to the bedroom rafters and dropping onto Bob’s stomach. On one occasion, they got in a wrestling match, and Higgins put one of his “steel-like fingernails” through Bob’s scrotum.

Bob has considered moving him to a sanctuary, but “I’m just too attached to him,” he says.

READ THE FULL NYT STORY HERE

When I first saw this picture on an article about a Bush pardon, for a minute I was hoping it was Washington DC deejay Ben Amin (real name Benjamin), one of my former students at Howard. Last I heard about Ben he was in a Dubai prison for having two marijuana seeds in his suitcase. That’s no joke. Two seeds. Dubai don’t play that. For a quick second I thought Bush had intervened on Ben’s behalf since he’s dead ringer for the guy pictured above. I’ll still hold out on that.

The real news came as even more of a surprise. John Forte, if you recall, was featured fairly prominently in Wyclef Jean’s album “The Carnival”, one of hip hop’s best and most classic albums (in my opinion). If you know John, you know the story - cocaine smuggling, friend of Carly Simon, the whole nine. Well, famous connections in high places get you favors you might never expect, and I can guarantee Forte did not expect this one from GW.

Just when you were ready to get rid of the guy, Bush goes and does something pretty cool. Slap him next week when he pardons Scooter Libby and Jack Abramoff.

UPDATE: My boy Ben is now out of Dubai - so say my peeps in DC.

For various reasons, likely some sense of what “cool” should look like, the entertainment business has developed a handful of people who have been able to parlay their decided lack of “hipness” and the ability to crossover diverse audiences without threat into mini-empires of Middle American mediocrity.Dick Clark is the reigning King of that, and Ryan Seacrest his ever-wealthier and ubiquitous student.

Quietly, there’s a Black counterpart - none other than Byron Allen. Yep, that Byron Allen. King of Hustle.
The one thing that Clark and Seacrest have had that Allen has not is the one huge breakout property that opened up the doors to investors. No American Idol, no American Bandstand, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve or American Music Awards. Which makes Allen’s hustle even more impressive. He’s made a good chunk of respectable change with the kind of sponsored branded entertainment shows that local TV stations rely on to fill scheduling holes. He’s effectively taken his ego out of the game and substituted being the famous guy in the room for being the rich guy in the room. Gotta respect a brother for that.

This week Allen’s company, Entertainment Studios announced a content and distribution partnership with MySpace that gives the popular social network access to thousands of hours of Allen-produced TV programming across ten content channels.

That’s right, coming to your computer very soon, scintillating hits like “Entertainers with Byron Allen,” “Beautiful Homes & Great Estates,” “Designers, Fashions and Runways,” “Urban Style,” “The American Athlete,” “Cars.tv,” “Latin Lifestyles,” “Recipe.tv,” and “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.”

Laugh if you will. Byron is too - all the way to the bank.

The organizers of the first Blogging While Brown Conference has announced that registration is now open. I’ll say it simply, this is a very important cultural milestone. If you blog, go. If you want to blog, go. if you care about Black folks’ place in this new digital universe –go.

Here’s a quote from their release:

“The first international conference for bloggers of color, the Blogging While Brown Conference will be three days of innovative panels, instructional seminars, and networking events. Blogging While Brown was formed in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the lack of diversity at some of the largest blogging conferences. Bloggers of color are excited about a conference, for, by and about them and look forward to moving beyond a single panel or discussion focusing on diversity typically featured at other blogging conferences.”
This year’s event will include workshops, seminars, panels, demonstrations, and small group discussions. The workshops are categorized in three tracks related to:

-News, politics, and social justice

-The business of blogging (including technology issues) and

-Entertainment, gossip, and lifestyle.
The registration deadline is March 15, 2008. Register HERE.

Yeah, I said it…the Black Nerd is back. But is anybody paying attention? This means “you” marketers and image-makers. We’re not talking nerd minstrelry (ala Urkel) who can’t get a date to save their lives; rather the plugged in, “Blade Runner” loving, XBOX playing, afro-proud version 2.0. The fellas at Desedo have gone viral with their script on the black nerd and it’s worth a read. For my money BN’s are one more aspect of the black consumer that doesn’t get the play it should. When we talk about consumer segments at my agency it’s sub-sets like the BN that get us excited.

Of course when you have a massively uncolored convention of this sort, you’ve got to have a Black Panel. And at Comic-Con, it’s actually called The Black Panel. Hey, they make books where fists go POW! ,are you looking for subtlety?

This year’s Black Panel features new and veteran Black animation producers: Andy Horne, a producer of Fox’s 24, and an instrumental engine in producing the live action versions of Spawn and Blade. Sidney Clifton of Film Roman, Marv Wolfman (the creator of Blade), Denys Cowan from BET’s animation division and Korby Marks.

BET’s moves will be a running theme over the weekend when Reginald Hudlin, BET’s president of entertainment and Cowan 9again) announce and preview their upcoming lineup.

Other black stardom: Will Smith may or may not show for a preview of I am Legend, a remake of sorts of the underappreciated Omega Man, this time with Smith in the Charlton Heston role. Smith’s version is purportedly more faithful to the original book inspiration.

Rosario Dawson will no doubt be the centerpoint of fanboy central when she signs copies of Occult Crimes TaskForce, a comic book she created and produces.

Why is an of this important? Simple. Big bucks in the comic world, especially when you add licensing for movies, video games and merchandise. It’s huge global opportunity for Black entrepreneurs with a whole lot of imagination.

And we’ve been in the game more deeply than you might think. Check these links:

The Museum of Black Superheroes
Milestone Media

That would be “geek” in the most loving and respectful sense.

Walter Mosely, back when he took a shot at science fiction, decried the lack of black writers in the SF and fantasy genres. From his point of view, Black life seemed just “too real” for people to take their minds out of today and create new worlds within their imaginations.

Well, a trip to Comic-Con might change that notion. You won’t necessarily find teeming hordes of Black folk at Comic-Con, the international comics, film and hype fest that takes place in San Diego each year. But you will find quite a few African Americans (yes, mostly men) who are deeply – really deeply – into the world of superheroes, wizards, Japanimation and fanboydom, the state of being that lets you feel no shame in trying to pick up a woman at a bar while dressed as a Power Ranger.

But while Black geekdom always seems a little more cool than white geekdom, the brothers and sisters digging on anime still find it way too hard to get love in the mainstream Black world. Let’s face it, it’s kinda tough in a social situation where people brag about the house they just flipped and the BMW they drive to bring up your excitement about the new film version of Ironman, and how the difference between one Japanese cartoon style and another is whether or not the characters make out with with dragons. I mean, that’s tough in any situation.

But despite its more esoteric elements, the comic world these days can be much more real than one might imagine. The most popular books by far are those featuring characters with real life problems – depression, mental illness, unrequited love, disease — wrapped brilliantly into their everyday problems with spacebots destroying the planet.

And since MAD magazine and Robert Crumb paved the way, comics have long since stopped being kid stuff. There’s likely to be as many 40 year old brothers with dreads as ten year olds with skate gear.

You gotta love a comic geek. There’s some real genius in creating a new universe from scratch, if only on paper. Now if they could only get a date.

Next post: Black stuff at Comic-Con 2007