ENDS & ODDS

• People need to get hip to Raphael Saadiq! You no know who Raphael Saadiq is? He's the former lead singer for seminal 80's r&b unit Tony! Toni! Tone!, musician and producer for artists such as D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Kelis, the Isley Brothers, Mos Def, Angie Stone, Anthony Hamilton,Macy Gray, TLC, and many others ; leader of his own short-lived "super-group," Lucy Pearl, which featured him, Dawn Robinson, formerly of En Vogue, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, formerly of A Tribe Called Quest, with whom he had a grammy-nominated album; not to mention solo singles on various soundtracks throughout the 90's. Then there is his first solo album, Instant Vintage, a sadly overlooked and underplayed recording that, at least, was also acknowledged by the Grammy academy. (They can get things right sometimes). Anyway, check out his Live CD, All Hits at the House of Blues. It's a real live album! I mean it sounds live! There's actual musicianship, improvisation, people interacting musically with each other - amazing!
  

• Mick Jagger just turned 62 last week. Concurrent with his b-day the Stones announced a new studio album, A Bigger Bang, their first since 1997. The thing is - who cares? The Stones haven't put out a musically relevant album since 1978's Some Girls, with their sexagenarian asses!

• How come celebrities rarely seem to lose any of their hair?

• I actually read an article that said that the San Bernardino City Unified School District was purportedly proposing introducing a curriculum that teaches so-called Ebonics! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! There were several quotes from members of a black organization called Project 21 that I thought were pretty much right on target, though some of them (the quotes) made me ever so subtly uncomfortable. Anyway, I looked up their website and the first thing that I saw was a picture of a very pleased looking, middle-aged black man being embraced and looked at approvingly by an older white man! I knew alarms weren't going off in my subconscious about these Project 21 cats for nothing! First of all, what's with the name? Who picks a sinister sounding name like that for their organization? Sounds like they're up to something! Turns out these "brothers" are, by their own description, "The National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives." Their own description on their website includes, "Project 21 is an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility has not traditionally been echoed by the nation's civil rights establishment." I bet that they consider themselves revolutionaries! Sign of the times - From the Black Panthers to the Black Conservatives. The thing is, I have quite a few "conservative" opinions myself; I'm all for "dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility," as are most black people, I'm sure. But I believe that one should always challenge theirselves to remain open-minded and not confine theirselves to one ideology or another. I believe that having the courage to do exactly that is what got Malcolm X and, to a lesser degree, Dr. Martin Luther King assasinated. I think that both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois had valid points. I do feel that we spend too much time blaming "the white man" for our problems. While there is a definite case to be made for the systematic oppresion of black people, the fact is that until we are willing to be accountable for our own mess, then we can't think about combating outside forces that conspire against us.
  
  

• THE PRESS IS ACTUALLY COVERING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF A BLACK WOMAN!!!
  

LaToyia Figueroa, 24, who is five months pregnant and the mother of a 7-year-old daughter went missing in Philidelphia on July 18th, reportedly after going to a doctor's appointment with a male friend, after which she never showed up to pick up her daughter from day care and has been missing every since. There has been a small outcry lately over the lavish press coverage of Laci Peterson, Natalee Holloway, and others, all white women, while black women (and men) go missing regularly without a peep from the press. In fact, according to USA Today, “…men account for slightly more than half of the nearly 50,000 active missing persons cases in FBI files and that blacks account for nearly 30%, although they make up just 13% of the population.” Apparently, lowly bloggers, just like me (well maybe not just like me - they have readers) decided that they'd had enough of this disparity and started writing about Ms. Figueroa's disappearance as well as the negligence of the major press outlets in giving equal time to non-white disappearances. BLOG POWER!!!

• There are reports that poor Michael Jackson had to be hospitalized after his recent acquital. I have to qualify what I'm about to say with the honest admission that I am a very suspicious-minded individual. That said - BALDERDASH! Really though, in all fairness to Mike and in the spirit of the open-mindedness that I spoke of earlier; it would have to be incredibly stressful to be facing major jail time for a despicable and heinous crime that you did not commit......of course, it could be just as stressful, if not moreso, if you were guilty! For the record: I really have no good idea whether my former childhood idol is a pedophile or not. Hope not.
  

• Former Miami City Commissioner Arthur E. Teele Jr. shot himself to death in the lobby of Miami Herald this past Wednesday, July 27th, after explosive and, in some cases, embarassing allegations were made regarding a host of illicit dealings that he was having behind the scenes. Seems Mr. Teele was being roasted alive by the press in his hometown and decided he'd had all he could take and he could takes no more! For more on this made-for-the-big-screen tale, see the story, "Tales of Teele: Sleaze Stories," an article that came out on the day of his suicide, that he may or may not have seen prior to his demise. It can be found at: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2005-07-28/news/feature.html For an interesting and informative viewpoint of the tragedy, see my man Leonard Pitts Jr. (I love that guy!) at http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/12250509.htm
  

• Black folks must read article about Rev. Al Sharpton’s speech to the National Urban League @ http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200507%5CPOL20050729c.html I have to admit that I used to think that Rev. Al was a joke - musta been the perm - but you know what? That brother has some things to say that a lot of people need to hear!
  

• Last, but not least: I just remembered…there’s a new pope, isn’t there?!