Will hip-hop vocalist / producer Kanye West, as one blogger has insightfully observed, become the next African-American male to live his public existence as a symbol of the race divide’s vitriol? Will he become a scapegoat for white obsessions over the threat Blackness purportedly represents?
The virtual flood of racist, expletive-laden tweets that followed the artist’s brief rant at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards suggest a strong “Yes.”
As many know, West interrupted singer Taylor Swift during her “Best Female Video” honor and acceptance speech, taking the mic to tell her, and all watching, that, “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all-time. One of the best videos of all-time!”, referring to Knowles “Single Ladies,” which had also been nominated.
West’s rude and abortive outburst drew loud, droning catcalls from the audience, while an embarrassed and stunned Swift stood, shocked and still, before being escorted gently from the stage.
Excellent NY Times pic by photog Christopher Polk, above top, documents Kanye West’s September 13, 2009 bogart of MTV’s Video Music Awards 2009 stage. The act led to his web site apology, above, that same night, but not before he was ejected from Radio City Music Hall.
Best part: Taylor Swift’s “Huh?” expression, and the fact that the hostess in the back doesn’t even know what’s happening yet, either.
After disrespectfully yelling out “You lie!” to the President of the United States, in the middle of Obama’s address to Congress last night, Republican South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, above, quickly received the contempt of the body’s fellow members, on both sides of the aisle. (“Stand with me against liberal attacks: Today I need your help more than ever before,” he urged from his home page on Twitter, shamelessly plugging for money.)
Wilson may actually do all right in that department because, according to TwitterCounter.com, as of today, he also has more than 6,000 new followers on the popular social networking site.
Especially if the only clock these illiterati have in their cribs, for some odd reason, is this ultramodern, computer-controlled number, above.
We call it a “number” ironically, though, because, clearly, it’s absent any. The QLockTwo, by German manufacturers Biegert & Funk—and you know the Germans always make good stuff—displays timely text to tell you the time. Plus, fashioned with a polished acrylic face, and finished in a wood back under four layers of lacquer, it’s clearly made to time-tell a long time.
QLockTwo is also compact—17 3/4 inches square and 3/4 inch thick—yet large enough to see in any room. Most of all, it’s available in five yummy colors—that’s Cherry Cake (huh?), above, Black Ice Tea, below—and six different languages.
Five varied hues? Six diverse tongues? At only $1,282 each, I’m getting Flavor all thirty.
Random thought I had today: With the King of Pop’s death in June, the price of superstar conceptual artist Jeff Koons‘ famed 1988 sculpture, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, above, must be rocketing in value. (Made in an edition of three, plus an artist’s proof, one of the life-sized, 42 in. x 70 1/2 in. x 32 1/2 in. porcelain tchotchkes sold at auction for $5.6 million in 2001.)
Indeed, legendary art dealer Larry Gagosian, who reps Koons, right, told The New York Times back in July that if one of the creations
was to come up for sale now, it could make more than $20 million. “And that’s conservative,” he added.
Who’s the hardest? In the above photograph by BET exec Stephen Hill, rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z, right, and I take a break from our semi-annual lunch at New York City’s Sequoia restaurant to reenact a dramatic scene from the 1981 sci-fi horror film, Scanners.
To watch him make my head explode, tune in to Black Entertainment Television, next week, Thurday (9/10) eveningnight/Friday morning, atmidnight7 pm, and check out Food for Thought: Conversations with Jay-Z.
There, for a whole hour, Hot 97 NY on-air personality Angie Martinez, sportswriter Stephen A. Smith, and I will take turns ice-grilling America’s most wanted emcee about his music, business, and philosophy. Make sure you peep it. I think it’ll blow your mind, too.
The most interesting fact about a crappy economy is that it often compels people to finally take chances on long-cherished job dreams. In other words, once it becomes clear that, work-wise, nothing is promised, many people figure, “Why not? What have I got to lose?”
Eventually, I realized that my salary wasn’t worth the emotional price I was paying for it. My compensation package was standing in the way of true success, which for me meant doing work that was meaningful and made me happy.
Pamela’s the guest, today, in this repeat edition of my WBAI-NY / 99.5 FM radio show, NONFICTION, this afternoon, Friday, September 5, 2 pm ET.
You can hear her talk about how she made her great escape by tuning in at 2 pm. If you’re outside of the New York tri-state, check out our stream on the web. If you miss the live show, dig into our archives for up to 90 days after broadcast.
