BIG IDEAS

Luckily, after all those changes and many years after the fact, one of us is still rocking. There is always a silver lining.

Brian Tate, my dear friend, bandmate, brother from another mother, stuck with the music the way it was supposed to be done. After the last break-up, he and I became more business partners than anything, working together programming film festivals, concerts and special events.

I went back into presidential politics for a while then did a book that became a big deal and used that to launch a counter culture magazine called ONE (which is a whole other string of posts). It did really well until paper prices went crazy in the early 1990’s, which turned me into an early adopter publisher in the net’s pioneer/ pre-browser/”do it now and figure out how to make money later” days. I’ve been in that game ever since.

But my rock days are not completely over. Over the years I bought every instrument known to man and now my five and four year-old boys are baby rock Gods who ask me to turn off Sesame Street and put on David Bowie, Steely Dan and T-Rex. I’m lovin’ life right about now. A mind is a beautiful thing to open. and hopefully we’re opening yours a bit with EbonyJet Radio (sorry, shameless plug).

Brian, however, never let the dream die. He was able to make the work/rock balance thing actually work and led a pretty hot group called Salt Diamond Mine in DC while he also headed the city’s tourism promotion agency.

Now he’s based in Brooklyn making the rock/married/working/kids balance thing work and leading a killer band, Shrine for the Black Madonna, as well as a burgeoning indie rock label in partnership with Danny Simmons, big brother of Russell, with whom he also produces the Brooklyn New Music Festival and the multi-arts performance and lecture series, Full Spectrum.

Hit the links and check him out. It’s all very smart, forward, future stuff. Brian’s a major talent and frankly, a genius.

Well, so ends the story. Every guy who wanted to rock has one similar. You might leave the band, but the dream never really dies. It passes on a generation or it manifests itself in air drumming on your dashboard. It does not, however, translate well to playing the game, Guitar Hero, a skill that oddly seems to especially elude people who actually played guitar.

But still, Hail, hail, rock and roll! Rock on, old dudes everywhere.

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.

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