THE POWER OF THE FEW OR THE ONE

I am an avid movie watcher. I like the art as much as I like a good song. It bugs people that here I am knee deep in to the Arts; written, performance, graphic, underground expressive and then on a turn will sit and watch PBS, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and then talk about the intricacies of calculating the probability of Cosmic Strings in the Universe and Nuclear Clusters being attracted to Dark Matter in space. As an unpredictable Nerd, I can see how I could clear a room in one of my typical Schizophrenic Gemini Sybil Brain Farts but then again, I always made good company in my head anyway. It takes a unique mind and a lot of patience to understand and be around me much less, keep up in a conversation. So it is safe to say that when watching movies, I get the chance to rest my brain and just go with the flow. (even though while doing that I am dissecting the parts from beginning to end just to make sure all the elements of a good movie were in place. I can’t help it, I took a few film classes back in the day). This one film came to mind recently and I had this burning desire to Blog about it because as much as it is fantasy, its message reaches at the very foundation of human existence.

Recently there was a Lord of the Rings Marathon, which I watched. Anyone who has seen one of the three movies (Trilogy) knows that these films are not in the tradition of your 90-minute cinema. Besides the whole “epic” thing, what stands out through out the whole film is that there is a HUGE problem that is affecting everyone in the movie; EVIL, and that one thing that can prevent EVIL from winning, is by destroying a single ring. Thus the title, "Lord of the Rings". Well I won’t bore you with all the details but for the most part, what stood out is that throughout the Trilogy there was a Fellowship, a handful of “Warriors” who committed to help one individual, Frodo, to destroy the Ring of Power and defeat the raise of EVIL from conquering Man. A pretty simple premise don't you think?

As a teacher, the whole creating of the Hero and Adventure motif would be the obvious to concentrate on but I like the concept of the selected; the Fellowship, or as I would like to refer to as The Critical Mass needed to get the job Done.

Critical Mass, a theory taught in Sociology, Management and Political Science is a product of “group dynamics” and or “sociodynamics”. Critical Mass defined as the sociodynamic term describing the existence of sufficient or a minimum amount of people creating a momentum in a social system, which by its actions becomes a self-sustaining movement. Much of what Barak Obama's Campaign represents is an example of this.

I watched as this practices was exercised very early in life from my family’s involvement in the community and watching people gather and protest in the streets. It wouldn’t be until I became an adult that I truly understood its impact on a grander scale. Often in discussion groups and in my days at a teacher I would explain that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s was just that, an exercise in pockets of critical mass movements. Not all Black Americans were actively participating. In some cases, many were too afraid to take action and others were just too critical to be involved period. Regardless of the reason why people did not participate, a small number of bodies were only needed to begin “a movement” which was enough to shift a nation’s attention into the right direction.

When it comes to activism, those people NEW to the practice always make the mistake in thinking that one need hundreds of thousands of people to impact change when the reality is you only need ONE. In the film, “Lord of the Rings”, the character Frodo was told that there only needs to be One person who could save them all and if HE did not bear the burden, no one will. I mean, just think, you wake up in the morning and someone tells you that your Single Sacrifice MUST and WILL save the World? Kinda Jesus Like Don’t You Think?

So why my need to Blog about saving the World? It’s not about the saving of the World but how the pressures of being a single person doing positive things can be adversely affected by a Critical Mass of people. It is just as important to understand that just as a few people or ONE can do extraordinary things, the net opposite can break it down as well. Take the recent events with Tavis Smiley for example.

Pull back from THE BANQUET TABLE of the people because I know you are hungry, we really need to see the full bounty that is on display. The big picture is this, Tavis Smiley is a Doer in a World where people fit in three categories; those that Do, those that Don’t and those that Complain. He also is a good man with GOOD INTENTIONS. Now I have made note that people with good intentions do need to be watched, critiqued and held accountable when their intentions fall on the side of personal gain, abuse and or “evil” but in the case of Tavis Smiley, the Brother’s intentions are as transparent as a Glass of Arctic Water in Spring. The beauty of his Good intentions is that he is willing to be the ONE that will ask the questions that Black folk either do not think about or are afraid to ask due to this Nation’s unique political climate.

As a journalist and social analyst, Tavis Smiley has to ask the questions that will make people think, laugh, cry, become retrospective, introspective, create a pro-active consciousness and even make a person uncomfortable with accountability. His, like all good journalists, actions allow for TRUTH in character. In politics that is paramount. In American politics it is not only a must, at its core, character will be the glue that will determine the very nature of the US Super Power Status in the World. As a journalist, Tavis MUST walk as straight a line of non-bias practice as humanly possible for fear of being prejudiced towards the subject matter, showing favor and or doing an Oprah (catering to a specific audience or demographic). As a Black Man who has a non-negotiable COMMITMENT to Black People as well as having a proven commitment to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA AND THE AMERICAS, prior to the Obama phenomenon, Tavis Smiley was, without question, a dynamic individual. So as a fan, a political analyst, supporter, and a writer, I see Tavis Smiley as being one in a few who is truly dedicated to what he does and not loosing his way along the way within his own community YET when his own people turn on him for doing what he has been praised for doing for years, one has to wonder, "What if Frodo had kept that ring"?

No, serious I asked, What if Tavis did not do his job property and allowed certain People a pass on answering REAL questions or just fell in line with Corporately Run Journalism and read from the same TOP 10 Questions List of safe political questions and ignored the other questions, 11 through 50?

Fast-forward a few months in to the primaries and now we have a major violation committed by Tavis Smiley. Tavis’ crime against Humanity is he dared to do his job and asked or wanted to ask Political Questions 11 through 50 to Barak Obama. This, in our unique state of Politics is Taboo for Black folk in mass support of Obama. The temperament for doing this is somewhat a betrayal to RACE and looking even deeper, the Democratic Party, the Economy, the War, Immigration, Africa, Legal Issues, Prison Systems, Corporate Profiting, Labor, Universal Health Care, Education, Selling-Out to Hillary Clinton, Religion, Women, The Drug Trade, Gun Control, Trade and Exports, Political Fundraising, Terrorism and a whole host of American ills. What amazed me is that in the Black Community’s public ridicule of Tavis Smiley's attempt to ask or even criticize All the candidates (All meaning Obama would also be included in his critique) the very questions that each candidate had and has not answered to this very day. These are also the same unanswered questions that are frustrating the whole of America, Tavis included. So if one cannot ask the source, then asking around the source to get to the center is a necessary and professional process at getting to information and or the truth. When Tavis did this, he crossed into Taboo territory once again. So what happens when this occur? Black People complained and those complaints took on a movement to silence that “anti-Obama” hypocrite.

“I personally am SICK of Tavis Smiley, he claims to love Black people and I certainly think the (un-appointed) black spokesperson should be compensated for his work but he was beginning to pontificate his opinions as if his and only his opinion counted. I started to turn TJMS off when Tavis had his commentaries; he was preachy and full of self-importance. I say GOOD RIDDANCE Tavis.” – Dililia from Blog: BlackMenInAmerica

A movement developed in the form of phone calls, e-mails and Blog attacks on the very person that in Public and Private stated and displayed he has more LOVE for Obama than the Hate directed towards him personally. One day, Tavis Smiley is a product of the very best that the Black Community has to offer into the next where he had become the most Stuck-up, Arrogant, Self-Centered Opportunist to wear the mantle and badge of Sellout. Tavis’ Annual State of the Black Union once hailed as a positive event for Black representation and focusing of Black America towards a National Mission and Agenda, now is the Tavis Smiley Soapbox for Personal Grandeur. So the Tipping Point (also know as Critical Mass) of the movement was to limit Tavis Smiley’s exposure and speech.

“Tavis got hammered not because Obama supporters are crazed cultists operating in zombie mode, but because he insisted on trying to pull Obama's black card for trivial reasons, and TJMS listeners and many others called him on his crap.” – Political Session from Blog: Black Agenda Report 4. 16-22, 2008

"Barack Obama's campaign must come first. Hate mail is reprehensible, but Smiley's ego started most of it. If he really cares about the future for all races instead of his puffing ego, he'd shut up. Maybe he'd better go see Bill Clinton. Two blowhards in a state of denial." -- NoMugwump from the Blog: The Trail 2/16/2008

Although many people (knowingly or not) who participated in this addictive protest on Tavis’s journalistic style, now cheer in his radical bid to go into a self censoring from commercial radio where he spoke the most about the State of Black Liberal Politics. This Critical Mass of self-styled activist, feeling vindicated that Tavis Smiley has decided to leave Tom Joyner’s Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show. Actually what they did was become successful in maintaining the current status quo for keeping the REAL ISSUES off the table for any discussion from Black Americans as well as the Whole of America thus placing them deeper in limbo, possibly never to be asked of by Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain. It is no accident that Tavis Smiley prefers PBS to Commercial media outlets where the pressures of Commercial Advertising Dollars cannot interfere with his honest reporting.

I wrote not too long before the New York Democratic primaries in relation to the Cultural Group Think Mentality towards each other and how there was a vicious line draw between Black Clinton and Obama supporters:

“Some people are Liberal-Conservatives (Hillary Clinton) and some are Democratic Socialist (Barak Obama). The differences are slight but it is in that difference which is enough to be divisive and pit one Democratic ideology against the other. This is what we see now between Obama and Clinton supporters, the differences are that slight enough to split a Party in half and the national vote. The truth is, Blacks on a whole are voting on Racial Lines and it makes me crazy that NO ONE WANTS TO OWN UP TO IT. There has yet to be a dialogue that brings to question IF Black folk voted for Obama because he is Black? Just the same, people are slowly allowing for the reality that Women are voting on Gender Lines and are truthfully saying as much.” -- Shazza Nakim from the Blog: Mirror On America 2/29/2008

Tavis, the professional that he is was bold enough to have this Dialogue with Black America but as the Critical Mass dictated, it was a conversation that was not going to happen. Either now or later, if ever. One could argue that the conversation was trivial in comparrison to the importance of what is at stake. True enough, but what about the other questions not asked; Political Questions 12 through 50? From the very beginning Tavis Smiley have stood by his principles, his responsibility and dedication as a journalist to get at the REAL ISSUES. In his defense, he has often had to distinguishing himself from Celebrity or Entertainer and the Tabloid Reporter from that of the serious Journalist. In parting from the Tom Joyner Show, Tavis was noted as saying the following, "My job is to ask the critical question, to raise these issues and keep these guys focused. There are some people who are disappointed that I'm not jumping up and down saying, 'Vote for Barack Obama.' That's not my role as a journalist. That's not what I do.


And there lies the difference between a Tavis Smiley and an Oprah Whinfrey, Steve Harvey, Tom Joyner or a Whoopie Goldberg on MX Radio. Tavis is a Journalist with a stated Journalistic Ethic and an established and clear line that cannot (should not) be crossed and an Oprah and Whoopie which are more Media Personalities than Journalist hosts shows dedicated to demographics and specific audiences. For either Oprah or Whoopie (whom have Publicly endorsed candidates), to ask bias questions, the reactions would be slight or non-existent. For Tavis, his credibility as a legitimate, non-bias and honest journalist would always be called into question. Once that happens, he might as well do Access Hollywood or go back to BET.

For now, Tavis Smiley is taking an active break and waiting for the fever to burn itself off. Once the Body that is the Black Community cools, Tavis will returrn to ask the one question he has asked from the start, "What if Obama doesn't get the Democratic nod for President or even looses the election? What now? Where does all the energy and inspiration go for Black America and the Greater Nation?" I have an idea that this is a Contingency Plan Tavis is not hoping for but as a journalist, is preparing for.

EARTH KITT, A GRAMMY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

I watched the Grammys the other day and as usual, I was not impressed. I guess its age, maybe it’s my changing taste in music but regardless of the reasons I really wasn’t moved. There were a few high points when seeing the legends walk across the stage or perform. I mean who can’t get a little excited when you see The Artist; PRINCE with his androgynous, booty crack showing, high heal, pressed, flipped and rag tied back cheveux ass. I LOVE HIM!! Then you get one of his running buddies, THE TIME blaze the stage and all you can see are my Purple Pin-Stripe Jeans and Commander Salamander Purple shirt with the Members Only matching jacket and pink tie. OH MY GOD I was so Purple Rain. It was also the lowest level in my fashion sense, until I was saved by my girlfriend. She was a Rhythm Nation follower and if I wanted some, I had to get on board for my Passport to save the World in my Black on Black on Black wearing a Black Cap.

The Grammys were all about giving recognition to those that had come before. I like shows like that because you get to see Entertainers that entertained. None of the flash, special effects, the magazines and gossip, it was either you had the talent or you didn’t. I recall reading an article about how the current pool of entertainers today are passing out and checking into hospitals due to exhaustion after doing a few concerts. Comparing that to the artist of the past that would sing, dance, write music along the way, do interviews, etc and would not rest until their 20 to 50 city tour was over. Granted many experimented with drugs along the way, but many did not and continue to perform today. I look at Tina Turner performing with (Floor Crawling, Stair Falling, Wig Wearing, Country Girl Talking) Bouncey and I said to myself, “This woman is holding her own with this young girl and she is as old as my grandmother.” The fact that Tina Turner and many of the legends on the Grammys are still at the top of they "GAME" and the kids today are complaining about colds and stress and headache, I just shake my head. Tina showed the type of energy and professionalism from a woman that toured the Entire Country and then some and gave you SHAME to all the children. Proud Mary never looked so good when you see that the young ones need to go back and do some serious study, the same type of study Barry Gordy made every signed artist at MOTOWN do. I would ever make the Rappers today study under the Old Skool talents so that they would understand the real power of the CRAFT and stop calling it THE GAME.

So let me get to why I am writing this new Blog entry (since my past Blog commenters made mention I make them read too much), during the Grammys, I saw many legends from The Beatles to Aretha Franklin (P.S. Can someone do an intervention for her because she looks like she needs a few dozen enemas, some suction and Jenny) but I never see mentioned in Music, Film, Theater or Dancing circles another woman that has not only paved the way for many Black Entertainers but has posted and sacrificed her citizenship during the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s. This woman is Eartha Kitt. Her longevity in entertainment extends five decades and she is still going strong. Around this time of the year (BLACK HISTORY MONTH) its seen that we always go the same icons like Lena Horne, Besse Smith, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Dion Warwick, Nancy Wilson just to name a few. I often throw in names like Pearl Bailey and Earth Kitt when talking about the grand divas of the past and I either get, “WHO?” or “OH YEAH I FORGOT ABOUT HER” which is so sad because Pearl and Eartha has contributed to the Black struggle for acceptance and or American Change than all the other women mentioned.

Earth Kitt, if you really look at her life closely, started out as a tragic figure coming from a hard Southern upbringing and had consistently over come barriers to become an INTERNATIONAL STAR. I had the opportunity to see one of her shows and I was blown away. I remember in that concert she ended her show singing acappella, a song in a foreign language, which after a few minutes we (it was a double date) found out was German. Then Eartha switched languages in the middle of the song to Japanese, then to Swahili, then to Portuguese then to Spanish, then French and then to ENGLISH. Once the English hit, so did the music and the song became recognizable. The song was, LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER. I was blown away. Come to find out later, Eartha Kitt speaks 15 Languages Fluently. During the concert at THE CAFÉ CARLYLE in New York (a place she performs regularly for years) she came to my table while singing and extended a champagne glass, without missing a beat we poured Eartha a glass of the bubbly while she sang a tune about loving CHAMPAGNE. When we told her that one of our sitting party was having a birthday, she came back over and did a Sex Kitten version of Happy Birthday in French with a leg thrown over his shoulder in fishnets and high heals. The rest of the evening we kept calling him MARCUS. For those who have not seen Eddie Murphy’s BOOMERANG, it’s an inside joke.

Looking at Eartha’s life, she was abandoned by her family for being a Bi-racial child of the South, struggled as a dancer in Harlem, worked her way into the limelight to become a dancer and then a recording artist, actress of stage, then film and television. Eartha won awards and had become the standard for CATWOMAN that not ever Oscar Winner ( HA HA HA) Halle Berry couldn’t match.

Eartha was Black Listed in 1968 in the United States for speaking out against the treatment of Blacks during the Civil Rights era and Vietnam at Lady Bird Johnson’s First Lady’s Brunch at the White House. Eartha made known that as WOMEN and as a BLACK WOMAN she could not just sit and eat like the Rich and the Wealthy and pretend that the NATION wasn’t on fire with racism and war and as a First Lady it should be on her conscious to not pretend either. After that moment, Eartha had to live in Europe just to make a living.

I won’t go on and on with Eartha Kitt but I will say, look up her biography, she truly is a SOUL we need to remember and include in that list of BLACK PIONEERS and ENTERTAINERS. As far as I am concerned, she should have been on the stage at the Grammys as well. SHYT!!! They had Little Richard, Wooooooooooo !!

Musical interlude in a film with Sydney Poitier and Eartha Kitt

One of the best Video Biographies on Eartha Kitt.

I AM AN EMOTIONAL WRECK TODAY

Lately I have not been in the best of moods. “No shyt Sherlock?!?”, you might say but this is different. Normally I am frustrated at the lack of common sense in the world or the blindness people go about their lives without questioning or even examining the “why” they do and or think about things. I haven’t been frustrated lately; I’ve just been in a mood of absolute “surrender”. I don’t like that feeling because I am a fighter. I am also cursed with having near-infinite patience with people. Where others would throw in the towel and write a person off, I think about an old sign I had in my cubical back when I started out in my first job. It was a picture of a little Black boy looking angry and it read, “I know GOD loves me because he don’t make no Junk.” That picture got me though a lot of (at that point in my life) tough times. So when I get to a point where I look at a situation and I say, “This is JUNK”, its over. I’m done. This is the end. FUQ IT!

I have been fighting through these feelings and it is beginning to give me those “stress feelings”. You know what those are, the sleeping, the eating, the headaches, the muscle cramps, the idle thoughts of ….., well you get the picture by now. So I decided to take a day off hoping that by doing that, I can re-align my thoughts with my feelings and salvage what I feel is a build up of JUNK.

Today was to be my total BLACKOUT of media and technology. No television, news, cell phone, Internet, ATM cards, just me and my mind. It didn’t last long. From the time I left the house I got hit with train delays, loud kids screaming and cursing at each other and people with Ipods blasting music, kids with their portable video games and homeless beggars. I finally thought I found a quite place so I sat in a café for some tea and then this French guy sat next to me and started talking like he was at the center of a concert, was using his Skype and surfing YouTube with his brown tooth girlfriend. On the other side of me, a Brokeback Asian Diva was making out with this String bean of a White kid who looked every bit of an “ecstasy” burnout, then these pre-op YOUNG Black kids come in and stand in the middle of the room just staring and laughing and giggling and pointing and I said, "that's it …. NO MORE"! All this was within the first hour of me leaving the house. SO I do the next best thing, I go to the movies.

I pack up my book, THEM, by Nathan McCall and note pad (for my creative juices) and head to the local theater and decide that this should be close enough to a ME time without too much of an interruption. Once I get to the theater I had a choice; The Bucket List (too Baby-boomy), 27 Dresses (can’t stand Katherine Heigl, even before she sabotage’s Isaiah Washington’s career on Grey’s Anatomy), Rambo (Stallone, give it a break you are OLD AS HAIL), First Sunday (too Ghetto and it sound too much like a Friday’s sequel), Mad Money (if it ain’t SET IT OFF, women robbing banks is corny) Untraceable (I was swearing off technology today) and Coverfield. Cloverfield it was.

So I sat down in the theater and chilled. I won’t go into details as to what is was about since some of you reading this may not have seen it yet BUT I came out feeling even worst then when I had gone in.

So you know I am already in a FUQ IT mood, well now you have a bunch of White Folk (and an East Indian who by the way is guilty by association) go through the whole film being MOVIE STUPID. You know what I mean, Danger is on the left and Freedom and Salvation is on the right .. What do they do? They go LEFT. Not only do they do it once but they do it throughout the WHOLE FREAKIN’ MOVIE! Not at one time did any of the Mofo’s make a good decision. Even when they were getting chased by (and you should know this by now even if you haven’t seen the movie) a GODZILLA MONSTER taller than skyscrapers, and you still go toward the DANGER. I am FRUSTRATED more!

What got me through the movie wasn’t the acting, or the special effects (which by the way were EXCELLENT), it was the fact that it brought back my personal experience with 9/11 in such a vivid way. So vivid that it opened up serious wounds that I thought I had closed or at least come to terms with.

For my friends and fans who don’t know, I worked in the Wall St district as well as the Worlds Trade Center. It was, back then, my responsibility to work with clients who had offices at the Worlds Trade Center and many of the trading groups what were located in the area. On that day, I was to be in the towers on the very floor that got hit by the first plane. The very fact that I had decided to call in late so I could “vote” in the New York State primaries that day and take my time going in that morning was ground level just as the events began. Instead of going in to work at my usual 6 AM, I am blessed to be here blogging with you today. Not only did I witness the destruction and the chaos of the day BUT I had to go back down to Ground Zero on 9/12 and had been there working in a Disaster Recover role for months there after. In Cloverfield, and I know the people involved in making this film, had to have used Ground Zero photos, peoples' accounts and stills because it was TOO REAL. It was so real that I felt a sense of emptiness. Not because I didn’t care but because over the past 7 years I have been drained of all emotions pertaining to that day. Much like the last tear shear for a loved one that had passed and you finally begin to realize that at some point you have to begin living again, even with a hole in your heart. I sat there, in the dark with my mind being pulled in so many directions. Watching the people in the film screaming and running confused and dazed, walking in shock. There was a scene where people were leaving the city over the Brooklyn Bridge in a mass exodus wondering “WHY” was this happening to them? That too was me on 9/11. I marched from lower Manhattan over 200 blocks uptown to Harlem, over dust and dirt, fires, crushed cars and trucks, helicopters and jets over head, parametics and fire engines, military guard and Red Cross workers. Many people watched from the safety of thier homes or work, few lived it and are still trying to get through each day. Then there are people who were so disconnected from the event that they pretend to have Patriotic emotions waving flags and posturing buttons. Sitting there in the movie theater, I wasn’t quite as ready for Cloverfield as I had thought.

I didn’t like the ending much. Not that I live for happy endings, LORD knows I pray for a few of those every now and then, what bothered me was my personal test of LOVE and what I would do in a similar situation as a Cloverfield. Prior to 9/11 I would have told you I would “run into a burning building to save the love of my life”. Today, life has given me pause. I know it sounds COLD but I am a different person now. Try standing at ground level and watching a building over 100 floors crumble and fall and you watching as people you know either trapped or jumping out of windows to their death come down with it. Imagine the people charged with saving those lives knowing that from ground level, the building IS going to come down BUT you go in hoping that your Guardian Angle is at your back protecting you. I knew standing ground level that the Worlds Trade Center buildings were coming down, and in my personal wisdom I moved away before they did. As I moved blocks away, they eventually came down and I became numb. I was numb for a long while. I found out today, I still am. Cloverfield reminded me of those feelings again.

That day a few things were confirmed for me. Some things changed but I do know that I am not Movie Stupid. I also know that I will not DIE for love. In my HEART I think I am suppose to LIVE for love, and if I had to die for love it should only be for GOD or in the name of GOD for MANKIND. In 9/11 or in Cloverfield, that did not happen and I ended up more wounded by my past and real horror than cured of my initial emotions of stating to the world, "FUQ IT!"

So what did I do after Cloverfield? I did what any respectable, po’ Black man would do. I snuck in to another movie. (Yeah I know that was real Ghetto but a Brotha paid $11.25) I walked into the Suspense film, UNTRACEABLE. It was cute. It was about a Crazy White boy killing White folk he didn’t like and having people on the Internet assisting him in doing the killing. NOW YOU KNOW, THIS IS WHAT I NEEDED FROM THE START.

Sweeny Todd, The New Face of Evil

There is a new face of Horror and its name is Todd. Sweeny Todd. Move over Freddy, to the back of the line Jason, Hannibal Lecter you have been out classed because Mr. Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is open for business.

I just exited a screening of the movie musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and I have not been this excited, musically fulfilled, visually amazed and satisfied with acting performances since the movie musical Chicago. But, here is the difference between then and now, the Johnny Depp factor, by far the best actor in the business and every industry awards ceremony need to pay homage to this thespian. The actors actor, he not only became the role of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a Sweeney Todd, a wrongly accused, victimized man of tragic and vicious circumstances which was the catalyst by which the kids of today would call, “A Bloody Mess”, he became part of the background and foreground of this frightening and macabre version of Victorian London filmed so well, one would think you were on a rollercoaster ride into Dante’s Inferno. The visual effects of Sweeny Todd touched by one of best, if not the darkest screen directors in the business, Tim Burton. The creative marriage between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton is to date on par with that of Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino or Leonardo DiCaprio, simply magic.

In the beginning of Todd we are touched by the thinly and timid vocals of Jamie Campbell a.k.a. Anthony Hope, within the name, its played dramatically against the lack of light that permeated the dark London landscape. He is soon over shadowed by the even darker Todd with only one thing on his mind, “Bloody Vengeance” thus marking the arrival of the new face of evil. And we all loved it.

Unlike past movie musicals there were no big choreographed dance scenes and booming vocals that stood out among all others, every voice, like every character, blended into the overall story and lifted ever so slightly enough brightness to cast longer shadows in the background which hid even deeper horrors for the audience to find out. And what we found out were that those things hiding in the shadows were all the things we secretly want to do, the immorality things we think about and covert in the recesses of out mind. Sweeny Todd allowed us all the release with sinister giggles that gave slight pause and played havoc with our conscious mind. Johnny Depp and Sweeny Todd was a master at helping the audience to go to that place with joy and glee. With the help of Helena Bonham Carter a.k.a Mrs. Lovett owner of Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop, a restaurant that would give any Health Department nightmares, partners with Todd in his dark descent into a Bloody Hell for vengeance for Alan Rickman’s character and the focus of Todd dark passions, Judge Turpin. Truly Depp channeled the misfortunes of the genius gone mad such Edgar Allen Poe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Van Gogh, mix that with serial murder tendencies and you have the perfect Monster. The new face of Evil sits at the top of the list.

Now I did notice that there were three major actors that seemed were commandeered from another very popular film franchise, Harry Potter, but I did not mind the actors’ past relationship because you never want to fix what isn’t broken. Carter, Rickman and Timothy Spall who played Judge Turpin’s gentleman assistant; Beadle Bamford was a pleasant surprise and like puzzles, they were the pieces that completed the big picture .

In the triad of talent I could not escape the fact that they were all together in that other popular film and will all be needed again to reprise their characters when the young talent Ed Sanders a.k.a Toby, the youth who because of deadly circumstance executed by Todd becomes part of this sinister partnership with Mrs. Lovett caught mt attention. His bright youthfulness in the beginning soon become sucked grey yet his vocal talents and presence stand ladders above his age and is equal to the work invested overall to Todd. A first timer to a movie of this size and scope, Hollywood should seriously consider Ed Sanders for the lead on that other film that Carter, Rickman and Timothy Spall are attached to as a worthy replacement in the Potter series.

There were other standouts on Todd such as Sacha Baron Cohen a.k.a. Signor Adolfo Pirlli (we all know him from Borat), Jayne Wisener a.k.a. Johanna and Laura Michelle Kelly who played the duel characters of Lucy and the Beggar Woman play vivid and bright roles which kept the totality of Sweeny Todd from falling too deep into a black hole or sorrow but the true driver of this rollercoaster through Hell was Johnny Depp. We got on, we were all locked into place and we screamed, laughed and cried our way to the end and People, I want to ride this ride again.

Denzel's Hardcore ... AGAIN?

When they began filming American Gangster in Harlem I watched as the production team weaved through the area, watching how the crowds gathered to get a peek at Denzel Washington as he stood outside the iconic spot Lenox Lounge. As famous personalities go, Denzel Washington kept his distance, mostly pointing and waving from a distance. Cameras clicking, video cams held high, for the most part, the community was satisfied with what they got. I, on the other hand, wanted to know what that movie was about and what was Denzel’s motivation for doing the role. That wasn’t going to happen so I went home and did what I do best, research. I got home and googled Denzel for his current projects.

I was curious now. Denzel was filming American Gangster. For the longest I had wanted to see this film. I don't know why, maybe it was because I was caught up in the excitement of the NYC crowd, maybe part was that it was a Black themed film, or maybe it was bragging rights to tell people that I was there while the movie was being filmed in my hood. I guess it was more the fact that the story takes place in Harlem NY, although seedy, it was an American story.

I posted the film’s promos and linked it to my blog initially leading up to the premier but as the opening day quickly approached I must have been inundated with too much advertisement from shows like; COPS, JAIL, THE ACACDEMY, MSNBC: TO CATCH A PREDATOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS: PRISON NATION, MSNBC: LOCKUP SERIES and BET'S: AMERICAN GANGSTERS. I was burnt out. By the time I got to the theater I stood in line waiting to buy my ticket and as I stood there second in line I just wasn't feeling it. I didn't care who was in it, Black or not. As I got closer to the point of no return I asked myself, “Did I really want to see Denzel Washington now playing the Gangster?”

Lets look at Denzel’s recent body of work since his last good film, ‘John Q’ released in 2002 – my opinion. We saw him play a Bad Cop in (Training Day) and again in (Out of Time). We saw him play the Bad Bodyguard (Man on Fire). Then we saw him play the intense and Obsessive Cop (Inside Man) and again in (Déjà Vu) and now a Cold a Cruel Street Thug kind of like the Alonzo character in Training Day just that he has not badge and he is a gang leader in 'American Gangster'.

I just couldn’t do it. I decided to watch something else.The next day I read the reviews, “THE NEXT TRUE AMERICAN STORY”, “A NEW AMERICAN CLASSIC”, “A STORY THAT WILL DEFINE AMERICA” and this one was the best, “THIS FILM WILL BE CONSIDERED THE NEXT GODFATHER TO A NEW GENERATION’.

The Black Gangster is now defining America. I was done. Weeks later, I have detoxed my mind with several days of no media stimulants and started back with surfing the Internet. I surfed and came across a new website called the Panache Report. There I read the real deal about Black Gangsters and you know what, I think I did the right thing by not seeing American Gangster. They got is all wrong.

Oh and looking at what Denzel Washington is filming next, ‘THE GREAT DEBATE’, a drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.

It would seem he’s doing 'REMEMBER THE TITANS' meets a debate team. “Oooooooo I can’t wait to be in line for that one.”