August 31, 2008

P-Funk Fans…HELP!

Does anyone out there have a good copy of Parliament’s “Come In Out of the Rain?”  I need that like ASAP.  Hit me up if you’ve got it.

August 26, 2008

A quick lamentation

28 makes 30 seem really really real.  I think that sums up this point in life very clearly.

Thanks, everybody.

August 26, 2008

International Baba Day Radio

As a few of you know, today is the 28th commemoration of International Baba Day.  And while it’s great to make it to another year, I must also admit that it’s humbling.  I mean, if I was as big a star as I pretend to be, 27 would have been it for me.  But it’s not, so I guess I’m not the Jimi Hendrix of….whatever the hell it is that I do now.

Oh yeah, radio.  FYI, I’m hosting 10-1 (ET) show on 620 The Bull here in Raleigh for the rest of the week.  Please tune in if you can.  The combination of me, a microphone and my birthday could be a really strange star alignment.

I suppose annual Int’l Baba day lamentations will come later.  Whoa, am I really almost 30?  When did that happen?

August 25, 2008

International Rule #4080???

Oh boy, as if those Nigerian e-mail scams weren’t bad enough, now we’ve got the strangest quasi-justification ever.

Professor Olu Agbi said “greedy” Australians who tried to partake in these crimes – even though they are scams – should be arrested as well.

“People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money,” he said.

Know what?  He’s actually got a point.  Folks are trying to get in on a hustle.

But uhhh, when the scams are known as the Nigerian scams…it’s probably best to work on the Nigerians first.  Yanno, considering that when corruption indices come out every year, Nigeria lives at the top of the lists like Florida State did in the AP poll during the ’90s.

August 12, 2008

Bernie Mac was a really big deal

So I’m watching Larry King right now, and it’s a tribute to Bernie Mac.  Had this been ten years ago, would you have dreamed that Bernie “The Lord is my shepherd, and he knows what I like” Mac would get the royal treatment from CNN upon his death?  I sure as hell wouldn’t have.

Dudes like Bernie Mac don’t often get famous.  He’s the equivalent of a grimy underground rapper going platinum.  Mac’s standup wasn’t mainstream fare, but he managed to parlay that into the big time.  He reached the point of earning roles that allowed him to be himself without being “the black guy.”  Never mind the expansion of the role of the black father on television, which was certainly huge.  Just consider how much Mac was able to do without compromising his style so very little, if at all.

Not just any style, but that grumpy old black man style, replete with jokes that made you laugh in spite of your undeniable discomfort.

Most people in the business of selling ideas have to be somewhat judicious with their negritude.  You’ve got to pick your spots.  It’s almost impossible to be as black as you are in real life and get a lot of love.  Were that not the case, black folks in real life would get a lot more love.

Bernie figured out how to do it.  To sell yourself without selling out is a dream for most of us.  Congrats to Bernie Mac for pulling it off.

‘Til the other side, my man.

August 10, 2008

Damn

First Bernie Mac.  Now Isaac Hayes.  Jet’s gonna have to put out a double issue.

Til the other side to both.  In honor of Black Moses, I offer the full-length version of “The Look of Love.”

August 3, 2008

R.I.P. Skip

Rarely do I delve into sports here at Virtual Bomaniland.  That’s the game that’s sold, not told.  Do something for a living, and you don’t really want to talk about it that much when you’re off the clock.  This blog, if nothing else, is off the clock.

However, Skip Caray died last night.  For non-sports fans, Skip’s been doing the broadcasts for Atlanta Braves games for the last 30 years or so.  Given my life as a Braves fanatic, Skip’s voice has been a more constant voice in my life than anyone outside of my family.

When we moved from Atlanta to Houston, I remember being blown away when I found out the Braves games came on TV everywhere.  It was comforting news to a six year-old moving to another country (that country would be the Republic of Texas).  It’s not like the Braves were good or anything…but they were my team and, to this day, they are the only sports team that truly has a hold of my heart.

So when I think of Skip, I think of childhood.  I think of going from riding and slowly dying with the worst baseball team in captivity to spending every October watching my team in the playoffs.  I even think of games that he didn’t call, like the series the last weekend in ‘91 when the Braves won the West and that Sid Bream slide in ‘92 that I didn’t see because I couldn’t bear to stay awake as the Braves were sent home.

I guess that means, to me, Skip is Braves baseball.  He laughed to keep from crying when they were getting killed on a nightly basis, and he never got too arrogant when they were the class of the major leagues.

What’s interesting, though — none of the Braves broadcasters from TBS get any love when people talk about the great voices of baseball.  Maybe it’s because they aren’t the best.  Skip’s nasal tone doesn’t do it for a lot of people, and the broadcast teams seemed to fade into the background of most games.

That, to me, is what made those broadcasts so good.  There has never been a less obtrusive set of announcers than Skip, Pete Van Wieren, Don Sutton and Joe Simpson.  They know what they were talking about, but the game always took center stage.  Nothing ever felt forced, and never was there a distraction to stop you from being able to enjoy the game.  Somehow, they’ve never gotten proper credit for that.

One reason I wish that was different was Caray’s battle with alcohol.  Skip’s father, Harry, was an alcoholic…but we remember that fondly.  Harry Caray was blasted by the seventh-inning stretch of nearly all the games he called during my lifetime.  Calling people by wrong names, slurring words, the whole nine.

And we think of that and laugh.

I don’t think Skip sees it the same way.  Skip stared alcoholism in the face and beat it years ago.  No one ever talked about it.  I wonder, if we would, if we would look back so fondly on the drunken Harry Caray.  Clearly, his son doesn’t, which means that maybe we’ve got it all wrong.

Don’t feel as if this post does justice, but I had to do something.  As much as I chastise people that act all weepy over what happens to people they’ve never met, Skip Caray dying took a little out of me.  But over the years, I’m pretty sure I got more than I’m losing right now.

‘Til the other side, Skip.  I’m sure all those grannies that used to send you letters when the Braves were getting blasted 11-3 every night are very, very glad to get the chance to meet you.