March 13, 2006

From the ACC Tournament

Business…here’s my redux on the ACC Tourney. Ummm, and I’m giving lots of props to Duke. Yeah, really.

Anyway, it’s so hard for me to explain how cool that tournament was. For a newbie like me, it was damn near religious. The colors in the crowd, the emotion from the folks, the thrilling basketball from the last two days. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Here are some particulars.

1. Being around all those writers. For the first time, I was able to see how other people handle business. How they put pieces together, the things they look for, etc. For me, that was refreshing. Also taught me that, in many ways, I was making things harder than they had to be.

2. Seeing sorta famous writers. Lemme tell you what I learned–the more famous they guys were, the worse dressed they were. That I wore jeans every day means I’m well on my way. That I brushed my hair means I might have a lot to learn.

3. The atmosphere. I’m just saying this–come to this tournament once in your life. Just once. If you love basketball, you have to. It’s that damn serious. Next year–Tampa.

4. People actually have heard of me. Those that know me know I’m stunned when anyone’s ever read anything I’ve written. At the tournament, I told at least three people my first name….to have them tell me my last name. Granted, Jones is a safe guess, but i thought that was pretty cool.

5. On the bad side, lots of guys seemed bored. I guess this stuff gets to be old hat, but I had so much fun at the table I could hardly contain myself. The old heads seemed to have figured it out. I just hope they’re not disillusioned. I hope to everything that this never gets old. It’s the most fun thing in the world to me, and I’m lucky to get paid for it. I’m more concerned about the former changing than the latter.

6. The food was spectacular. Yo, it’s been hard being back home and having to fend for my own food. Man, they had steaks and chicken breasts and bake potatoes and mashed potatoes prepared with mashed potatoes fixings and bottles of water and coffee everywhere and free Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars everywhere and really tasty green and red apples and really good pigs in a blanket in the hospitality sweet and all of that stuff. Then I got back here and was making a bowl of oatmeal.

7. Great folks. Special shouts to John Baker and Eric Eggers from Florida State. Hung with them on Friday night, and it was the funnest. Amazing who you can meet at these things.

8. Rode an elevator with Howie Schwab of Stump the Schwab. He’s much more socially adjusted than he might seem on television. The only thing about him–he just knows too damn much. I don’t know if it’s possible to hold on to all that sports knowledge and still remember shit like your social or address.

9. I learned one thing about myself. I’m objective enough in this job that I can sit at that table and not root for Carolina. I nearly got an ulcer sitting at that table not rooting against Duke.

10. I rode the bus with Woody Durham–Carolina’s radio voice–on the way back to the hotel. I can’t imagine just hearing that voice all the time. I bet he makes his kids sound as cool as Phil Ford when he talks about them mopping the floor.

And that’s what I’m thinking of right now. More if it comes up.

March 13, 2006

Just a quick thought

There’s an update coming later today with a new piece about the ACC Tournament, and I’ll share some fun thoughts from the weekend. It could best be described as a religious experience. Really. But then again, I’m as religious as a pint of whiskey.

Anyway, I just read somehwere that Toure said on Star and Buc Wild that Cam’Ron might be gay. Why? Because Cam called Jigga ugly and tsaid hat any man that could call a man ugly could probably find another man handsome.

Yeah, that makes a lot of fuckin’ sense. Here’s why that’s rather moronic.

1. I personally have trouble telling if a man is attractive. I’m just not attracted to men. You can’t even use the ability to meet women as a proxy because game makes the world go ’round.

However, I can peep ugly from a mile away. Ugly is universal. If saying another man is ugly makes you gay, then we’re all gay. In your head, document the first thing to come to your mind when thinking of the following people–Flavor Flav, Shabba Ranks, Biz Markie, Sam Cassell, Tyrone Hill.

You don’t have to be gay to think Jigga’s ugly. You just need to be able to peep those coolers.

But here’s the thing about Jay being ugly–so what? Ummm, have you seen that stunna he keeps on his arm? Lemme be ugly. You could throw chicken grease on the left side of my face and shove a stiletto through the right. For Beyonce, that’s a fair trade.

2. Even if I were able to tell if a man is handsome, that wouldn’t make me gay. Men and women are different animals, but women peep the attractiveness of other women all the time without wanting to get in their pants.

3. If someone were looking for a superficial reason to believe Cam’s gay, now wouldn’t be the time to start. Folks, he drove a pink Range Rover. Pink. That says a lot more to me than calling somebody ugly. And it still says nothing at all

4. Random question–why would Toure even go on Star and Buc Wild? I can’t speak for nobody else, but stupid people make my stomach hurt. And hanging with stupid people’ll make you look, well, stupid.

That’s all for now. I’ve been up since 3am making deadline, so I’m really lost as to what to do with myself. Guess I’ll go to the gym or something. Maybe some breakfast afterwards. After a weekend of wonderful AND free food, going back to cooking is really going to suck.

March 9, 2006

MAIL CALL!!!

Boy, I love my readers. Got some interesting responses to the segregation/steroids comparison. Most of the mail was positive but also confused. I can sum much of it up with this general synopsis.

“Bonds cheated! Ruth didn’t!”

That is true and definitely not disputed by me. However, that wasn’t at all what I was getting at. I was saying that records from two eras are tainted, and that seriously affects the integrity of baseball. Unfortunately, most of the people that hit me up didn’t see that. Oh well.

I won’t reproduce most of those e-mails because, well, that sentence says what they say a lot faster than I can c-n-p.

But let’s get to some of the other interesting one. Because this issue touched on race–though not really–I got lots of special stuff. Brian was very upset with me at first.

Just got done reading your article and you have GOT to be kidding me!! Let me get this straight. You are saying that Bonds is justified in taking steroids because he is tackling past racism single handedly? (Race Card Alert!!) I see your point, sort of. Babe played in an era when there were no blacks. There is nothing right or just about that. But to only give the reader two choices (you’re either for Bonds/ Steroids or your for Ruth/ Racism) is total and utter garbage.

Thank you for showing me, once more, that no matter what the situation, you can drop the race card and get people fleeing to Bonds’ side. I hope you’re proud of yourself for backing a lying, cheating, womanizing, drug abuser.

Since his e-mail came early in the day, I had time to go back and forth with him. After asking him to read through the piece again and putting emphasis on a few points, he said this.

Ahh, I see and I couldn’t agree more. You have opened my eyes Bomani Jones!!

That’s right, I open eyes. Call me the alarm clock.

The funniest came from John.

Barry Bonds would have hated segregation… not only would it have prevented him from entering the Major Leagues, it would’ve also made it much more difficult to be with white women, too!

Maybe more difficult, but maybe he needs to read up on Joe Louis and Jack Johnson. I’ve got my thoughts on interracial dating, but Louis gets nothing but dap for pulling Sophia Loren in her prime. I’d buy a time machine for the privilege of washing her car.

You know, the more I read the e-mail, the more I realize the e-mailers said the same thing over and over again. Another guy named John didn’t agree with me, but he gave the highest praise I could hope to receive on this piece. After a few paragraphs of why he didn’t agree, of course.

Although I disagreed with much of your article, it was thought provoking and you deserve credit for that.

And in the end, that’s all I want to do.

But here’s this week’s proof that racism is alive and well. There is no intro. Here’s Gary from Belleville, IL. If you know this guy, send me his address.

Let me start by saying you are a typical fucking Nigger,

You all have to have excusses for failure and want all of the Glory.
That article was the worst example I have ever seen in my life.
Steroids and Segregation are nothing alike. and as for your remark of what would Ruth have done against Negro Pitchers is totally fucking retarded
White athletes are just as good as blacks butt the tables have turned now days with all of your NAACP bullshit white people don’t get the same opportunities as blacks, look at Brad Johnson sitting the bench until culpepper goes down then he wins more games, and Joe Jurevicious same story I could go on and on butt it wouldn’t matter because black people in general are racists and everything is personal because you cant forget the past, I never owned a slave.
Replay if you have the balls.

Yeah, we won’t even get into all the spelling and grammatical errors. I just wanna know how someone can talk all that shit on e-mail and then tell me to replay if I have the balls. Takes a lot of chutzpah to respond to slurs offered over e-mail. Right.

But the most important e-mail came from Ray Doswell, the curator of the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City. The NLBM kind enough to answer some questions I had while researching the piece, and I thank them–specifically Bob Kendrick–for their assistance.

Read your column on ESPN.com with great interest. Very well done. The records ultimately don’t mean a thing in the final analysis. Your comparison of the two eras of baseball history was very good.

Negro Leagues baseball stands as a unique institution forged to success against the backdrop of racism and disenfranchisement. Exploits on the field can not give you the full story of being a Black or Latino off the field. The next frontier in Negro Leagues research will go beyond trying to prove Hall of Fame worthiness to a deeper understanding of black baseball in American society.

Hopefully, all this effort will reveal truths about waht it really means to be a citizen, not just a ballplayer.

For more information on the NLBM, please go to www.nlbm.com.

And that’s it. Covering the ACC Tournament for Page 2, so I’ll be sorta outta pocket for the next few days. Call me if you love me. And if you don’t have the number, just love me from afar.

March 8, 2006

Bonds and Puckett

Business…check this here lil ditty on Barry Bonds, steroids, and segregation. Yeah, they’re connected.

Anyway, Big Rell raises an interesting question on his always interesting blog (Blogroll)–how should we view our heroes after they’re gone.

This is a salient question now that Kirby Puckett has passed away. Puckett was a helluva baseball player, apparently the most pleasant man on Earth, and also accused of doing some really dastardly things including sexual assault and actually dreading some of the charity work that bolstered his image.

(Most of that dastardly information came from a piece in SI by Frank DeFord years ago. That piece is questioned by some, but DeFord might be the best in this business. Tough call all around. RW raised a different question at the time–should that piece have been run while Puckett was on trial? The answer–no.)

And to this question, my answer is pretty direct–we need to evaluate the totality of the person being considered. But if the issue raised doesn’t have much to do with why we love that person, then we need to think more deeply.

Puckett’s demons are interesting because they all seemed to surface after he retired, after baseball was taken from me. Those demons then serve as an interesting illustration of who he was and just how much baseball meant to him (not to mention what it must be like to go blind as a relatively young man). Without baseball, he seemed to have trouble telling up from down in the world. DeFord said that without baseball, Puckett went back to being fat Kirby and it ate him alive.

There’s something seriously illustrative to be taken from that. Kirby was a kid from the south side of Chicago. Baseball, from what I read, was what got him out of the ‘hood. And then to have all of that just vanish from thin air? Wow, man.

Long of the short–if you’re going to do pieces about how much Kirby loved baseball, you need to see what happened to him without it. Without doing so, any retrospective on his life is incomplete. In fact, doing so without talking about the bad stuff minimizes the effect of saying just how important and wonderful baseball was to him.

The goal in this job is to write the best piece you can, as far as I can tell. When i hit the keyboard, I want to offer a unique perspective and the highest level of quality I can. If adding that stuff about Puckett would have made my piece better or provided interesting insight, I would have.

I am not here to please my readers. I’m here to inform them, make them think and, if possible after accomplish those first two, entertain. The entertaining part is very important, but not until those other two things are taken care of.

But there are some grey areas. What do you do with something shocking that really doesn’t matter that much? Chances are you let those things go.

But consider this–we’re going to lose Muhammad Ali before too long (I don’t know anything, but he’s 60 years old). Over time, Ali has been changed in the eyes of many from being a demon to a plaster saint. Of course, neither is true. In fact, him being a plaster saint might be worse because that doesn’t encourage people to reconsider things and learn for themselves.

But Ali had big problems, most notably rampant adultery and his tendency to attack someone’s dignity in the name of promoting a fight. Should we ignore that he met Veronica Porsche (sp?) in Zaire while he was still married? Not sure.

But for a man that used religion and morality as a basis of his opposition to the war, it might be necessary to consider that to get a full portrait of who he was and to allow us to consider just how important his faith really was in his opposition to that war.

So adding such a detail isn’t quite necessary. But it does illustrate more about the man than we’d get just sayin, “man, he said he aint’ got no beef with Ho Chi Minh!”

But that’s my two pennies. Comment as you please.

March 7, 2006

Chappelle’s Block Party

Well, I actually have a couple of big things to say about the aftermath of the Oscars, but I have to save them for later. I said I was writing about this movie today, and Big Rell has already alerted his folks that I’d be writing about Chappelle. So I will.

I said it yesterday in the comments and I’ll say it again–go right now and see Chappelle’s Block Party. Fuck your job and your boss. Get up now and head to the theater.

First thing to understand going in–this isn’t a comedy. It’s a documentary of a concert hosted by a comedian. Don’t misunderstand–Dave’s pretty funny through most of the movie, but I wouldn’t go to see that looking for a yuckfest. Go see that movie if you’re a fan of hip hop or if you’ve never had the pleasure to see a concert featuring ?uestlove. ?uest still puts on the best live show in the business, and every act (save for Kweli) is known for doing a dope live show even without him. With him? You get some amazing arrangements of amazing songs done by two different amazing bands. More than once, I stood up and clapped.

And I don’t even like to stand up at basketball games. That’s how the music moved me in this one.

But this documentary may be one of the greatest clarifications on what Dave tries to do with his comedy. Like no one I can remember, Chappelle has done a fantastic job with his art of showing how remarkably similar people really are, even if they seem diametrically opposed. While much of Chappelle’s comedy is “black people do this, white people do this,” it’s done in a way that attempts to illustrate a commonality between human beings. Though we do what we do through cultural vehicles, people are pretty much the same across the bar. We’re all perpetually looking for ways to get by and all continually searching for a way to have a good time. That’s people in a nutshell. We can go deeper into the social constructs, biases, and barriers that make it difficult for us to get along and understand each other, but we’re all pretty simple when that stuff is removed from the equation.

Yes, I know that’s like saying water and Kool-Aid are the same if there’s no powder, but i think you get where I’m going.

To illustrate this, Dave just walked up and down the streets of Dayton, OH handing out free trips to his concert. If you wanted a ticket, he’d give you one. Didn’t matter if you were a teenaged black kid, the Central State band, or white women who I assumed were octogenerians. Who ever wanted to roll could roll.

And they all had a blast hanging out in Bed-Stuy listening to Kanye, Com, dead prez, Jilly from Philly, Erykah, the Roots, the Fugees, and others.

A good time’s a good time if you can chill out long enough to enjoy it.

Dave’s said before that’s how he sees the world and his work, so I’m not dropping rocket science. What hit me at the Block Party was just right he is in his belief in commonality. Being the music junkies we are, Aden, Pierce, and Tiffany stayed until the last credits ran.

And we weren’t the last people to leave.

The last people to leave were a pair of middle-aged ladies who stayed the whole way, nodded their heads and waving their hands for the entire movie. Right before we left, two almost-old folks got up and left.

I doubt it’s because those people just loved hip hop that much. I think it’s more that the film captured a helluva good time, and that carried over to the audience.

In the midst of all the controversy that surrounds Dave, I think that point gets lost. He’s got the greatest knack for identifying with people without compromising himself. If only more of us could find a way to do that.

So if you like great music, check it out. If you wanna see some really interesting human interaction, check it out. And if you wanna laugh, check it out. There are some scenarios that are almost too perfect to have been strictly unscripted nonfiction.

And if you see it and don’t like it, that’s okay. Not everyone’s blessed with good taste like I’ve got.

March 6, 2006

Hard Out There for a Piiiiiimp!

I live for moments like Three Six Mafia winning an Oscar. Every day, I wake up and hope for something like that. I don’t take too much from the fact that they actually won the thing. Oh no, it’s all about the acceptance speech.

It is in the acceptance speech that the fun starts. See, people are generally so happy when they get an award that they don’t stop and think what they might want to say. Especially when they don’t expect to win. So when Juicy J, Paul and the rest got up there to win the award, we knew we were going to get something pretty spontaneous.

And when brothers are being spontaneous, they really don’t give a damn about what white people think.

And it’s those moments that I live for.

The biggest hubbub about Three Six at the Oscars was Terrence Howard’s decision not to perform “Hard Out Here For a Pimp”–which is actually a pretty good song, definitely out of step with most of the Mafia’s catalog. I kept forgetting to write about that, but I’ll say it now–Howard’s a clown for not performing the song.

What’s the reason? Some have said he didn’t and should not have because he’s not a rapper. Whatever. He did a capable job on the soundtract, so there’s no reason that he shouldn’t have done it on the stage.

Others have tried to tell me that he didn’t want to represent that on the largest stage. See, that qualifies as caring about what white people think. No good with me. Plus, he had no problem doing that shit when there was a check on the line, and he had no issue when “Hustle and Flow” got a nationwide release. No problems at all.

If he got a little weak kneed doing that song in front of the Academy, then he’s got some issues that he needs to clear up. Big ones. Playing that role and rapping on that song are the reason that those same white people know his name. This was a career defining moment–and he put on a helluva performance, btw–and he didn’t perform the song that served as the emotional centerpiece of the movie. That makes absolutely no sense.

Sounds like tapdancin’ to me, and that’s just no good. Further, it makes no sense.

What also bothered me was the way that so many people felt the need to put this song in a larger context to justify its nomination. Ludacris introduced the song and had to use other songs that have won Oscars to somehow show this song deserved to be nominated. There was absolutely no need for that. The song was about a pimp in a movie about a pimp. There was no need to say anything more than that. To defend the song in a moment like that reminds me of what them country folks say–a hit dog will holler. Think about that one for a second.

(And props to Jon Stewart, who managed to handle the situation with great humor without poking fun at Three Six for simply being who they are.)

But oh no, that’s not what bothered me most from the Oscars. The worst thing to happen that night was that “Crash” actually on Best Picture.

You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me. That oversimplified movie won Best Picture. A movie that boiled racial animus down to a world where people get fed up and volley racial slurs and stereotypes won Best Picture.

Wow.

And don’t get me started on the plot, which was chaotically perfect by design but still took away from the socially important message the filmmakers tried to convey.

When “Crash” came out, I saw it. It was okay. It was obvious that it was one of thsoe movies I had to see just so I knew what people were talking about. And what were people talking about? How thought provoking it was. How it pulled no punches and forced people to reconsider their views on race.

If “Crash” made you rethink anything, you weren’t rethinking. You were just thinking for the first time. I firmly believe that anyone that finds “Crash” to be a great film needs to go get a library card.

The problems with race in America are way too nuanced to be encapsulated like they were in this movie. This wasn’t “Do The Right Thing,” which used a fantastic metaphor–the blazing hot day–to show what simmered below the surface. “Crash” was far more lazy in trying to make its point, and that made it something I didn’t feel bad about seeing but not worth no eight dollars.

And it’s the Best Picture.

Wow.

For those looking for signals on how far we have to go in terms of race, look no further than that award. Absolutely befuddling.

(If you liked Crash, please get on here and let me know why. I saw it so long ago that I can’t give direct examples.)

Well, that’s that. Going to the ACC tournament this week, so I’m pretty happy with the universe.

Oh, and does anyone know the score of the Carolina/Duke game?

March 3, 2006

And more…

Not a good week in Chapel Hill.

My hope–and this is worth its own post–is that no one tries to use something like this as added motivation for the game on Saturday. If someone didn’t hate Dook enough to want to win the game already without something contrived, they were up the creek anyway.

Best wishes and blessings to all those injured.

March 2, 2006

MAIL CALL!!!

Oh yeah, it’s that time again. I actually didn’t get that much mail. Most people were positive, but the people that weren’t…oh baby, that weren’t.

First, let me acknowledge a mistake I made–Vince did not wear a suit to the White House because his was lost in transit. That was largely immaterial to my thesis, but that was my mistake and I apologize.

(Here’s the original piece.)

I managed to pull of a rather amazing feat this go ’round. Not only have some black people called me an Uncle Tom, but some white person actually hit me all the way on hte other end.

I love my job.

Well, let’s start with my man Jo Jo. Jo Jo didn’t like the piece much at all.

you and all the black media are suckers. yall let the white media kill the black stars, but when it comes time to defend them you do nothing. do some covering up for them like the white media does for them white boys. i think yall are sell outs.

We’ll get to Jo Jo’s point later. For now, let’s see what Paul thought.

First of all, I want to say that wearing a suit to “Massa Bushs” house was GREAT! I would have worn traditional african gear myself. or a hoody and a baseball negro league cap. Kudos to Vince for not giving a YT that 10% or whatever it is that agents get. As for that test, typical White devil tricks! Well, my good brother, I am glad that I work for ME! I hire ONLY blacks and could care less if any crackers are left on the planet. I TRULY ROOT FOR VINCE AND HIS AGENT!

Black power!

Damn Paul, you won’t even get white folks to mop the floors? What kind of retribution are you really pulling off? If you’re so revolutionary, you should have a white dude or two shining your shoes and poppin’ your hair bumps, shouldn’t you?

But my favorite is Francene.

A stupid test? What an ignorant, ..no, what a nigger thing to say. Why else would anyone call a test stupid? No matter what your profession being somewhat “intelligent” is important. You are the idiot.

I told Francene to never talk to me like that again. That goes for many of you. No, that goes for all of you. Got me?

One of the best e-mails came from came from Dave.

How did he get thru school? How many classes or credits did he have/take? And, of course, did Texas cheat on academics?

In there is the can of worms.

To Dave and others who wonder about that question–I’ll have a piece on that either today or tomorrow on BSN.

***EDIT*** Here’s the link to that piece.

But now let’s get to Jo Jo and the folks that find criticism of black athletes in a public forum to be the behavior of a sellout. I have this argument with a lot of writers who seem to only want to write about black people when it’s time to celebrate them. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Sometimes, these cats need to be taken to the mat. Terrelll Owens needed to be taken to the mat, as have countless others.

Since I’m black, these cats seem to believe I’m supposed to just write them a pass. Hellllll no. I call things as I see them and that’s that. I do the same to white people, and there’s no one that’s quicker to point out racism when it’s in play. But just ignore things because the protagonist in a story’s a negro? Got me fucked up, pimp.

But I find people call me an Uncle Tom a lot because of that. People called me an Uncle Tom for having problems with Vince’s agent. So let me get this straight–I’m an Tom because I identified the primary reason that a kid was forced to endure the indignity of people openly questioning whether he is retarded? Is that what it is? That makes me a sellout?

The funny thing is those people seem to intimate that by saying Young should have gotten a more qualified agent that he should have gotten a white agent. Who’s the Tom now? There are experienced black agents, you know.

But all you cats that only wanna hear celebratory things about black folks, this ain’t the place for you and I ain’t the guy you wanna hang out with. I am nothing if not honest. I have no prior agenda. I see the world–albeit through a decidedly black prism–and I speak on it. But no one will be spared, not even if I have your picture up in my living room (like Vince).

Oh yeah, people think I’m just a UT hater. Yeah, that’s me. Check out Keith from LSU, who I think just wanted to dig at USC.

Vince Young carried a team on his back to the National Championships in California in front of a home-town crowd. Don’t try and rewrite history once again by getting on the bandwagon: as an LSU witness, we’ve gotten stomped by the media for the last two seasons fully unrecognized as the
true National Champions, recognized as the only National Champions for the 2003 season by the NCAA. Don’t perpetuate nepotism for your Southern Cal cohorts by glossing over the accomplishments of the 2005 Longhorns.

If you’re new to the site, just search the archives for mentions of UT and see what will come up. Then laugh as hard as you want to.

So yeah, that’s the mail for this piece. Gotta love it.

And before I go, let’s see revel in proof of another set of lies from our fair government. Not sure who cares, but I sure as hell do.

March 1, 2006

Business Right Fast

Business…today we’ve got a piece up on Page 2 on where Vince Young has gone wrong.

It’s hectic over here. Better updates later in the week or something.