Every Sunday Morning, a place where various things get thrown out, shot at, cut open, and dissected. Topics of interest: psychological, and medical anthropology, privatization, globalization, excess, language, humor, hip-hop culture, jazz, brain and mind, memory, urban space development, Los Angeles, the Chicago Bulls, UCLA Bruins, FC Barcelona, and mankind.
It might represent reality, but what I think it is at least for me is one important metaphor: The game is a business, it's nothing personal, but it's what's most important.
Business, business, business.
Anything that happens. Business.
Not too different from folks in LA who sling the drugs, extort pushcart vendors, hold dog fights. Business.
Not too different from them Libertarian bitches who think markets solve everything. Business.
Not too different from people who want to privatize water. Business.
Not too different from defense contractors in Iraq. Business.
What I glean from the show is a metaphor that human life is pretty disposable when it comes to business. Human emotion is definitely packed into the business, but ultimately business is "rational" and doesn't show any emotion.
Business is ultimately about contract and compromise.
In this show, they live by this code to NOT snitch to the police. This business, the drug trade, relies a lot on secrecy, and if the police find out anything, the business is in jeopardy.
So the contract is...you don't snitch, you don't give any clues, you're fine.
But the problem is if you even give the inkling to the higher ups in the business that you are going to snitch, they acutally use the term, you become a "liability."
And that's what happened to Wallace. He became a "liability" in the eyes of that star- Macroeconomist Stringer.
Throughout the show, Wallace was showing his interest in other things other than the business. We just get the feeling that this kid could do more than just sell drugs. He was telling people how Hamilton was no president, he was playing with mind puzzles, he got sick after he saw a murder, he was taking care of a bunch of kids, and he was even thinking about going to high school.
However, none of that mattered because he became a "liability." And it came down to it, it had to be two of his closest friends disposed of him like he was an old Packard Bell computer that needed to be replaced. Wallace meant something for them, but in the scheme of business, he was just another pawn to be sacrificed.
Bodie, soldier of soldiers, and trigger puller, thinks he's all about the game till his buddy Lil Kevin gets it from a new up-and-coming drug boss named Marlo.
After Lil Kevin is killed, Bodie and Poot even take time to reflect back on the conditions that led them to cap Wallace. Bodie ultimately blames the boss, Marlo, the individual.
Bodie: Cold motherfucker [Marlo]
Poot: It's a cold world, Bodie.
Bodie: Thought you said it was gettin' warmer.
Poot: World goin' one way, people another, yo.
To no one's surprise, when Marlo goes to jail, he only thinks of himself as a "business man."
No matter that he ordered the hits on Lil Kevin, Bodie, Omar...and whoever else. Business. Only a part of business.
Ironically in his last scene of the series, we see that he can only resort to what he does best.
The business is a metaphor for a game.
People in the series and even in reference refer to what's going on as a "game."
If it's just a game, everything becomes disposable. You're only pieces to move.
They made metaphor to chess.
"Pawn can never be king, but if it moves all the way to the other side, he can become queen. But he ain't no bitch, the queen's got all the moves."
Not sure who made it all the way to queen in the show, because anyone who was like a pawn ended up dying.
It all came full circle when Bodie was about to die.
"Game is rigged."
"We just like the little bitches on the chessboard."
What They Need to Add to PBS Programming To Make a Better More Understanding World
by B.J. on 11/14/2007 06:28:00 AM
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[Originally posted one of my "other" blogs: deconstructthat.blogspot.com on December 19th, 2006 and now edited for the date above. The feeling that I got watching MJ playing for the Wizards is the same feeling I got posting on any other blog than this. The feeling I get watching you and whoever the fuck the other guy is the same feeling I get posting on any other blog than this.]
Daniel once said that PBS is a liberal white people's television.
I wasn't a big PBS watcher at all back then, but that statement has forever "colored" my view of the way I see PBS and I still believe in it.
We got BBC News, British comedies, the European Journal, Rick Steves Europe. I enjoy BBC News and the European Journal, but still even if we are finding out about other countries outside of the US, we still haven't put a face and/or story to people anywhere else other than Europe and North America.
Why isn't there an African Journal or Asian Journal or hell even an Australian Journal? (Well, maybe not so much about that last idea, but you get the point.)
Obviously, people would say there isn't any market for the news kind of television, usually as a lazy way to block it, but it's not like there's a market demand for stuff like Deal or No Deal, or American Idol. The producers just find a way to make it interesting and then create a market for it. Perhaps someday I could be part of that for real news, news about international, national, local affairs.
But back to PBS. Whatever specials/documentaries on other countries they do have, it's still quite distant-feeling. These specials/documenatries are neatly packaged into one or two hours, and try to cover ALL the customs/ways of life of one particular region. The participants still come off as "the Other." The Exotic. Humans, but not ones you can relate to. No one you're going to have a conversation with, you can hope wins or loses something, you can have a relationship with. We the audience get the outsider, sociological view of people, which usually does not have an en masse appeal because it's just more data for people to process, devoid of meaning and different from "us."
[Edit: P. to the fuckin' S.
I also REALLY, REALLY hated their one special that played a few nights ago... the Ultimate Resource...a neoliberal one hour diatribe on the benefits of capitalism around the world.
Saying that capitalism is helping people is like chopping off someone's fucking legs, and then telling them that it's a great idea to go and get a wheelchair]
Only 1 episode but by and far the most important reality TV show I've seen, that shows us how much it sucks to be living on minimum wage like 30 days. Unlike books that people in our anti-intellectual, ADD society that don't like to read, he actually concretizes the issue by not only interviewing other poor folks, but living it himself. Like in the movie he made, Supersize Me, his health generally suffered as he strained his wrists taking on landscaping and a scope of other jobs. His fiance developed a urinary tract infection and had trouble making ends meet. I was surprised at their commitment to making it a reality, letting their own health suffer, just for the sake of a show.
Juvenile - Back Dat Ass Up
Ja Rule - How Many Wanna Die
DMX - Party Up
Filter - Take a Picture
Dr. Dre - Fuck You
Sonique - Feels So Good
Santana - Maria, Maria
Aaliyah - Try Again
Da Bears
Da Bulls
Leno
Conan
by B.J. on 8/24/2002 10:10:00 PM
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Sitting slapped up in the only room in my house with an air conditioner, I flipped my attention to this ABC special about Sports Legends, which I used to watch quite a lot as a chunky-faced wannabe-balling 13-year old, back and forth with that Snake game. The show finally hit the junction about their only female host, which erected my stance and entranced my eyes. OK not really, I just paid extra attention. Ya know I'm eyeing only 1 girl like that, haha ! (Pssst, here's a pic anyway)
Yeah, so she was hot, but I never realized how open-minded that show was. A black, female, host during the time of Ronald "women-have-no-rights-at-all" Raygun. As a 7th-grader watching this, I thought that the show was a bit quirky, as the interviewer and interviewee did some activity during the interview, and wondering what the hell all that bullshit and beating around was about. I understand now that it was to bring the interviewee's guard down. This particular blog might mean something someday when I connect concepts at SC !
by B.J. on 8/24/2002 01:15:00 AM
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Ebert and Roeper on the Tonight Show. They argued in front of Jay. A lot for show. A little because they were engaged in debate. Generally, people don't argue in front of an audience like that. People usually just state their opinions and discuss them like adults on those kind of talk shows. Ebert and Roeper get a two thumbs down for that lame performance, kinda like the acting in A Walk to Remember. That Simon guy from American Idol also takes things quite far in terms of what he says, which makes you wonder if he really thinks like that (or question his existence). However, sometimes what he says does contain a grain of truth, but that's only sometimes.
And sometimes, Conan comes up with funny stuff without trying too hard, like Partner thinks. First he starts off with a stupid tidbit I didn't catch elsewhere --- GWB tried to catch Stevie Wonder's attention by waving at him from the audience. Genius President. Then Conan busts out the Jesus statues. Jesus playing baseball. Jesus running track. In second place. Jesus playing basketball. Taunting kids with the ball. Jesus playing hockey. In a Robe. Jesus and football. #21 tackles Jesus. Jesus and Golf. Jesus and Tae Kwon Do. Great stuff. Thirdly, Conan takes us on a 50's-like documentary about how to get into his show and shows how you just take a ticket from a glaze-eyed guy standing next to an elevator, how you meet Joel Goddard (the announcer) in the elevator, how he spaces out, and stares at you, how a pre-show comedian picks his nose and rubs his boogers on you and laughs hysterically, how the band walks in and dances with its pants off, how Conan struts in complaining to his 3 female assistants, how he gives a fake smile when he sees the viewer, how he begs the viewer to laugh at his jokes and how he will go away if you do, and finally, how you'll be locked in as the show's prisoner. I'm gassed out like one of Ray's cars.
by B.J. on 8/11/2002 12:46:00 PM
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NEVER get news from Fox News Channel and their Republican snert anchors. Despite his hour-long vacation, they reported that he was working. . .as in jogging, having briefings, and most importantly "clearing branches from his 1600-acre ranch in Crawford Texas that will take a lifetime." Then one of them commented, "Doesn't seem like much of a vacation to me." Bitch, PLEASE !
by B.J. on 8/11/2002 11:26:00 AM
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1-800-700-2851. Feed-A-[malnourished]-Child. Only $8/month. Box 8, Okla. City, OK 73101. I know that some of this from the infomercials is staged, but the images of popping rib cages and these stats aren't:
-Worldwide, there are approximately 1.1 billion people without clean water to drink, and 2.8 billion who lack access to basic sanitation. (UNDP, 1999) �
-Since 1975, some 75 percent of cultivated plants have become extinct. Tropical forests are decreasing by some 37 million acres a year. (FAO, 1999)
-An estimated one quarter of the world will suffer from chronic water shortages in the beginning of the next century. (UNEP, 1999)
-Every day, 25,000 people die as a result of poor water quality, and waterborne diseases still represent the single largest cause of human sickness and death worldwide.
-More than 1.5 billion people depend on ground water for their drinking water.
-Currently, 1.3 billion people in the world live on less than US $1 a day. (UNDP, 1999)
-Forty-eight million children and women are victims of war, natural disasters, extreme poverty and other forms of violence and exploitation. (World Bank, 1999)
-An estimated $21.6 billion is needed to provide microfinance services to 100 million of the world's poorest families. (VLOM, 1999)
-Less than two percent of poor people have access to financial services (credit or savings) from sources other than money lenders. (VLOM, 1999)
-At a time of record global prosperity, nearly half of the least developed countries get less to eat than they did 10 years ago.
-Approximately 840 million live with hunger and uncertain food supply. (UNDP, 1999)
-In developing countries, almost a third of children under age five are malnourished. (UNICEF.1999)
-Fifty-five percent of the 12 million child deaths under age five is due to malnourishment. Forty percent or 226 million of the children under age five living in the developing countries suffer stunting and wasting. (Hunger, 1999)
-The annual budget of the World Food and Agricultural Organization equals the cost of six days of cat and dog food in nine industrialized countries and five percent of the annual cost of diet products in one single industrialized country. (FAO, 1999)
http://www.womensedge.org/development/developmentstats.htm
I know that almost everyone who reads this "entertainment freak show (bl. . .bl. . .bl. . .og)" is college bound or already in it and strapped for money, but I just feel the need to call the attention to this, and hope that ALL who read (but would be happy with even just one) takes this with them as a concern for the future. My job at Vector directly supports this hunger cause and is trying to raise 1 million for the Share Our Strength program.
by B.J. on 8/05/2002 05:25:00 AM
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On that same Today Show on Friday, I also cringed at the interview with Mirasylsisisisisis Gonzales, lustfully hot cousin of the infamous Elian Gonzales. While being interviewed on the #1 morning show in the nation, she was casually styling and swishing up some lady's hair. The customer just froze her face in the camera, only moving to blink her eyelids. I was thinking, "Stupid bitch probably demanded to be on TV." Well, you can't blame this customer for wanting to be on TV, because it's television, but on the other hand, she had no business on there and stealing some of the focus on the interview. She got lost in the super-fast, gotta-get attention, society ! All this on assumptions, so imagine what I could do with the facts. What is this ? Junior AP US History ? Those were good high times.
That's what Sis's liberralle ! friends were touching on during the road trip to SB. They ragged this one half-flip kid from the super-religious Pepperdine for loving business too much, being overpatriotic, and all that Conservative Republican crap. However, amidst all the trash I sling to the right, kinda like the splash fights at Partner's kickback, I do notice that these Conservatives do have some sense of responsibility, as this Jeff guy apparently cooked them breakfast. My right-wing teacher was there to read papers and crap extra late. Then again, none of this charity or philanthropy is noticed because their mentality is unbelievably ancient and rigid as they stick to values and almost disregard anything new. They were the ones that were damning cars and phones (I kinda agree there !) saying they were tools of the devil. A lot of them seem too smart to actually believe their own rigid propoganda. I believe that values remain the same because they are universal truths, but that you've got to be able to open up and accept new things. Tell that to your parents, girls ! HUG EM' AFTER EVERY TIME YOU GO OUT FOR CHRISSAKE AND PICK THEIR BRAINS !
I wish we could've seen more Spanish-style architecture in SB, but I was cool with it. Sis's friends said that SB is one of the great towns in the country but, I didn't feel any unique SB punch, like I did when I was in Byasten (Boston). Sorry Doc, for leaning on you too much ! Running doesn't make you any better of a walker ! The lack of waves reminded me of how lonely I felt staring at the lack of waves at SC. I was whatever that day because everyone was gone for the Summer. Little towns on the East Coast also mirror SC, which painted an ever bleaker pic of college life. On the way home from SB, however, we passed cool beaches with growling waves --- so much that I grew tired of it and leaned my head on the Doc. . .at least till today, when we went to "Planet Monica" (BLEP's name not mine !) that is Nocturnal Santa Monica. Looks like the set of the Truman Show or some alien planet. How would I know if I'm the real-life Truman Show and that everyone else is just acting to experiment on me or something ?! Whatever, I wish I could've had a better camera to soak up all the fun stuff this Summer because it seems like the last Summer of "carefreeness" we'll ever get, known to me by Cousin D.A. from UMass who gawked at how long a break we had. Think we can pull all this off next Summer ?!
Add me to your reading list.
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