Fifty-six points. Looks like a Madden score. The AFCE is definitely wide open. Without New England to Big Brother the whole division, it seems that anybody can come up.
Chiefs got their first win, riding Larry Johnson’s back. I’m not sure if they’d been getting away from him, or if Denver forgot he was there, but he definitely made them pay.
It’s hard not to get caught up in they hype of Cowboys vs. R*s, since I’m living in DC. I almost don’t even hafta watch the game. I can hear people from their balconies and know when somebody made a big play.
Speaking of which, that’s one thing I’ve never understood: the number of Cowboys fans in DC. I’m sure there are some who were grandfathered in, so I guess I can’t hate on that. But aside from that, I don’t get it. It’s not like Washington hasn’t won Super Bowls and whatnot. They’ve had every measure of success. I just don’t understand it. But it certainly makes for some interesting listening.
7:26 And the NFCE is officially open for business. The Redskins look GOOD. I’m actually concerned for next week. Shoot, I’m concerned for tonight!
8:43 It’s early yet, but Desean Jackson could be your Rookie of the Year. I sometimes take a dim view of Andy Reid the GM, but that was definitely a good pick.
10:47 I remember when David Akers was on Vinatieri status. Not no more. Time to get a kicker.
I still say this song should never be re-recorded. Ever. But I’m mindin my own business when I see a Canadian choir givin it a run. But not from T-Dot or somewhere Anglo-Canadian. Naw, son. From Quebec.
If you heard somethin, that was me fallin out my chair.
I might complain about some of the ramifications of our increasingly high levels of media access, but without it, I would never know stuff like this existed. Long live youtube.
Here’s the one for what may be my favorite P-Funk album of all.
You really hafta watch the video to get the full flavor, but in a nutshell, a white deputy, who had stopped a young Black dude because his pants were sagging, chopped the brother in the throat and tried to say he did it because the brother attempted to assault him. The young brother was arrested and taken to jail. Only problem was, his cruiser cam was on, and no such thing happened. The higher-ups in the department saw it and justice eventually ensued.
A couple things:
1. The line of the video, a KILLER if somebody was teaching irony is when the deputy says, “You wanna do somethin’ stupid, you’re gonna end up on TV.”
If I had written somethin like that, it would be dismissed as unbelievable.
2. While I’m glad this one got caught on video – on the officer’s own camera, no less – it just serves as more evidence to me that no matter where we are in life, we can’t really afford to be idiocentric. Just because something didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t won’t, or couldn’t have. It just means it didn’t. So in this case, there’s no question that the young man didn’t do anything wrong. His drawls were showing. The deputy said something. Homeboy covered his drawls. The deputy decided to take it further. Without the video, homeboy would probably still be in jail, possibly facing felony charges. For nothing. As much as I used to sag back in the day, I can easily see that being a younger version of myself. When I start to believe that only the things that affect me individually matter, it’s a tough way to go.
See, this is also why I can’t completely get behind them law-and-order type candidates or their supporters. I KNOW there are cops who overstep their bounds. Thankfully, I’ve never had any interaction with them personally, but it would be completely disingenuous of me to act like I don’t think they exist just because I wasn’t the one whose rights were being violated. So when I see somebody talkin about the incarceration rate like it’s completely accurate, and a reflection of fair, just policing I hafta give that person the side-eye. Of course the majority of the people in jail belong in there, but there are enough who don’t that it should really give us pause.
3. It goes without saying that I think the laws against saggin your pants are completely ridiculous. I think certain aspects of that style are ridiculous too, but that’s a matter of fashion and maturity, not something that the law should be brought in to handle. Fashion police is one thing. (I had to tell a boy the other day about tryina sag with them tight jeans on. I’ze like, ‘Young. That ain’t the move. ‘Specially and you got a hole in your drawls.) Five-oh police is another. The net effect of such laws is just what’s on this video: a reason for police to mess with young brothers.
I’m sayin’: somebody don’t like saggin’, fine. Don’t. I used to. I grew out of it. But don’t even TRY to tell me that there should be a law against it. That just means that our local legislators don’t think they have enough to do, which means they need to be workin a regular job while somebody else helps to make the laws.
I think we’re within a few presidential election cycles of having elections as a reality show. We’re halfway there now. The talk surrounding the candidates is almost as much about their persons, personalities, or personal lives, as it is about their actual position on the issues. This is especially the case for Obama and Palin, who, by the amount of attention she’s getting, could almost make a body forget that she’s not the top of the ticket.
Just think about it, though. We’ve (well not me, cuz I don’t watch television) watched and voted on okay-to-decent-to-pretty good singers on American Idol in far greater numbers than we’ve participated in presidential elections in the corresponding years. Yeah, some of that has to do with the fact that people can vote multiple times, and there’s no restriction on who can vote, but I can easily see somebody making that the argument for why the election process needs to be changed to a phone-in. It’ll increase voter participation, they’re gonna say. And as that model gains popularity, the candidates are going to change their campaigning style to match that format, much as they have done since television became the dominant medium. And when it really changes, it’s gonna be a reality show.
This election would actually make for some pretty compelling television. First of all, between Obama and Palin, you’ve got two telegenic people who, politics aside, who have fairly intriguing origin stories. Obama, the mixed-but-identifying-as-Black son of a single mother, who spent years trying to find himself but was an academic marvel, escaping his humble beginnings with the hopes to ascend to the top office in the land. Then there’s Palin, the everywoman who eventually made her way through school(s), juggling a career in government and family life. All the nonsense that seems to drive people’s opinions of the characters would be indulged. What’s Barack like at home? Do he and Michelle really get along that well? Is he a secret Muslim? Does he make go to church and make salat? And what’s up with Palin’s family? What’s she doing at home that her teenage daughter doesn’t listen? We’d get to see moose hunts and see exactly what goes on in tiny-town Alaska.
It’s coming. In the same way that media saturation is allowing for coverage of grade schoolers as basketball prospects, the way we look at and observe politics, or should I say political issues, is eventually going to be dictated by the new-style media. I’m not sure I won’t have completely tuned out by then.
Most times, when you hear somebody lamenting the breakdown of the family, they’re talking about the so-called “nuclear” family, or what the group that recorded The Sound Of Philadelphia was named for : Mother Father Sister Brother. Only thing is, the more I think about it, the shift in focus to the nuclear family as an independent unit had already undone some of the family structure. That is to say, the American ideal of ‘rugged individualism’ as applied to the family yields the results that we see today. While it’s true that the family is the smallest unit of society, that don’t mean that that’s the ideal size or composition. A morpheme is the smallest unit of a speech that contains meaning, and you could get some ideas across using disconnected morphemes, but that don’t mean that’s the best way to get an idea across. Same idea here.
Now I literally just thought about this on the way home, so I haven’t even started to look at any research, but I’m wondering what, if anything, is published. As many folks like to point out, the Black family (they mean nuclear) wasn’t destroyed by physical slavery. In fact, Black families were in tact for many years after emancipation. However, what I’m curious about is the degree to which the decline of the extended family negatively impacted us.
If, as I suppose, Black folks are the quintessential American, meaning that if you want a real picture of what America looks like, good parts, bad parts, and all in between, all you gotta do is look at the cross section of Us, then the emphasis on MFSB as the base unit of family life has had a tremendous impact on the way family issues have gone since then. Put it like this: in Kings of Comedy, Bernie Mac lamented the disappearance of Big Mama. But the thing is, the importance wasn’t the biological link, it was the role that she played. Big Mama could have been an aunt or even somebody who wasn’t really related. Nowadays, for a whole number of reasons, that role is no longer filled. So while Mama and Daddy make a lotta the difference, Big Mama and Big Daddy and Aunt Gayle (who Big Mama just kinda raised) and Aunt Niecey and Ms. Peaches ‘nem caught what Mama and Daddy couldn’t see. Even the wino back in the day was avuncular enough to make sure kids was on the straight and narrow. It ain’t just about a nuclear family, it’s about a whole family.
Course, I have no idea how we’d get back to that. Maybe we would have to build back through the nuclear family to get to the whole family, and who knows whether that’s even possible. What I do know, though, is that I think normalizing the idea of the nuclear family to the exclusion of the extended family is a big part of the reason we are where we are today.
The other day, I ran into two of my former students. Both of them had dropped out of school. While it’s certainly frustrating to hear, it’s not exactly surprising in either case. Some students enjoy school and want to be there. Some students don’t particularly like the academics, but they like the social and/or athletic part of it. Others have no interest in it in any way, shape, or form. One of the students told me what she’s doing with herself. For me to say I was disappointed would be a supreme understatement. Only thing is, even though I call em my kids, they’re not. They’re not mine, and really, they’re not even kids any more. They’re young adults who are making decisions that will adversely affect their futures. Are they doomed? No. Have they substantially increased life’s degree of difficulty? Absolutely.
9:30 I don’t know if I’ve been underestimating them or what, but I didn’t think the Eagles defense had it in em to be THAT physical. They actually beat up on Pittsburgh. Not that the Stillers ain’t get they licks back, but if anything, I would have expected it to be the other way around. But naw. The Eagles D was serious. Brian Dawkins got his get-back from last week. Although I wish he could’ve made just one play against Dallas. That would probably be the difference between the Birds being 2-1 and 3-0. But still, I’m pretty good with it. They followed an emotional loss with a good, physical victory. If Donny stays healthy, they’re a legit threat to go deep in the playoffs.
Not like that doesn’t apply to the whole NFCE tho. Pending the outcome of the Dallas-Green Bay game, the NFCE as a whole will have, at worst, a 9-3 record. If Dallas wins, the division will be 10-2, with the only losses coming from within the division. Any more discussion about the best division in football is moot.
I got Marshall on one of my fantasy squads. He’s a beast.
No way I was gonna write this over again. From November, 2004.
Jesus Can Work It Out (JCWIO) by the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Choir represents the last of the great bluesy gospel songs. Most contemporary gospel music seems to be oriented differently. Musically, it’s based on synthesizers with horn punches (sometimes synthesized, sometimes real) and occasionally some old-style arrangements, but more often than not, it’s a modified gospel structure. It’s kinda like post-70’s James Brown is based on earlier James and while there are some similarities within the music in terms of chord progression and preferred key, it’s easy to tell the difference immediately. You know what the difference is? No soul.
Now lyrically, modern gospesl seems to be oriented differently, as well, focusing on a more positive or faith-based message. I think this is an ecclesiastically correct approach but I wonder if it misses on connecting the experiences of the listener to the spiritual reality of scripture.
Using the book of Psalms as a model for song content, it seems obvious that there is a biblical legitimacy for an experiential, blues-style gospel music. In Psalms, we see a believer in nearly every emotional state known to man: joyous, enthralled, lonely, brokenhearted, destitute, reflective, resilient, contrite, it’s all in there. So my thinking is, if it’s okay for it to be in the Text, it’s okay for us today. Because ultimately, the psalmist always places his faith in God, regardless of the immediate situation. As I suggested before, this is the true line of demarcation between gospel and the blues, anyway.
So looking specifically at Jesus Can Work It Out, that song works on every. Single. Level. If it were a player on Madden, it would easily be one of those maxed-out 99s. It’s the gospel equivalent of Stevie Wonder’s As. When you get to this tier, other songs can only be equal. Nothing can surpass. And as blues-gospel choir songs go, thee is nothing within 10 miles of Jesus Can Work It Out. Here’s why.
Let’s start with the music. Having an “old soul,” I’m about the old-school instruments. There’s nothing wrong with synthesizers and brass and all that good stuff, but my preference is for the rhythm-heavy lineup found on JCWIO: piano, drums, rhythm guitar, bass, and THE church music instrument, the Hammond B-3 organ. (People think I’m a sucker for redbones, but they just don’t know. When I hear an organist who can really interrogate a B-3 (make it testify), it’s instant !TILT!) That’s the organic funk stew that works on me every time.
Now the roster of instruments wouldn’t mean too much if the players weren’t killing it. Those of you who were here over the summer may remember that this song was on my list of All-Onomatopoeia Jams. The organist is a manimal and everybody else plays his part well. This song would be a blazing instrumental. But it ain’t. Which brings us to the lyrics.
I think JCWIO is probably the best blues-gospel song for the reason that I alluded to above. It addresses the situation the listener in his current state but in every case goes back to God’s power to transform the situation. Perhaps the most famous lyric from the song is:
How you gonna pay the rent?
All your money spent
Little bit to buy some food
The baby need a pair of shoes
Look you got a light bill due
Even got a gas bill too
Telephone disconnect
Waitin til your next paycheck
Tell you what you oughta do (3X)
Jesus will see you through
I’m a witness he’ll see you through
That ain’t abstract theology, that’s somebody’s life. More than likely, it’s a whole lotta people’s lives. The lyrical greatness doesn’t stop there, though. The next part of the song consists of three examples straight out of the Bible, Abraham, Job, and Moses. Un. Beatable.
(I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that somebody bit somebody on the Job verse. The first couple lines, Job was sick so long/ flesh fell from his bones/ wife, cattle, children/ everything that he had was gone are found in both JCWIO and I’ve Got Confidence by Andre Crouch. I don’t know which song was released first, so I can’t tell who bit whom, but even then, it’s interesting to hear the lines in two different musical contexts.)
While the music and the lyrics are separately good, it’s the interaction between them that makes the song such an experience. I believe the appropriate adjective would be synergistic.
First of all, there’s the call-and-response element. Call-and-response is a staple in the tradition of the Black church, so it’s no surprise that it’s used in this case. However, its effectiveness is maximized in JCWIO. Particularly in the biblical testimony verses.
Abraham had a son (Work it out!)
Isaac was the only one (Work it out!)
Led him to a mountain high (Work it out!)
Boy gettin’ ready to die (Work it out!)
Abraham said the word (Work it out!)
Voice from Heaven he heard (Work it out!)
Abraham! Abe-ra-HAM!! (Work it out!)
Over there you’ll see a ram! (Work it out!)
What heightens the effect of the call-and-response even more is that the instruments pull out and let it go on, leader call, choir responding, backed only by foot stomping and hand-clapping.
The instruments backing out serves another purpose within the dynamics of the song. It allows them to participate in the call-and-response by “assisting” the singer, or sounding off after certain phrases. And in this case, even with all the assistance (check the Moses verse for the best example), they all come in ON THE ONE!! (And those of you who know the Funk know. This just goes to prove that after Cold Sweat, everything was on the One.)
Listen, I could break down Jesus Can Work It Out to the last scintilla, pointing out something significant in every verse. Suffice it to say that it’s just not possible to beat this song on any level.
What’s more, this is one of those songs that there’s no point in fooling with ever again. Even with its flaws (and there are a couple. The Job verse actually refutes itself [...wife, cattle children/everything that he had was gone/wife came runnin' to him/devil all in her eye...] and ignoring the pattern they’d set in the other biblical verses, the band doesn’t back out for the first half of the Moses verse) nobody will ever do this song better than it was as it was recorded. And I know. I’ve seen the original choir do the song. This joint was instant vintage.
The sad thing is that the original choir actually went in and re-did the song with synthesized instruments and updated lyrics, totally mucking it up. There was NO REASON to fool with that. It’s like colorizing Casa Blanca. For what?
This Happiness – Dietrick Haddon Lord, You’ve Been Good To Me – Jackson Southernaires Praise Belongs To You – Fred Hammond I’m Glad About It – The Mighty Clouds of Joy Jesus Makes Me Happy – Take 6 I Saw The Light – Five Blind Boys of Alabama I Love To Praise His Name – Harlem Gospel Singers I Will Never Leave You – Commissioned Without You – Kirk Franklin We Will Never Pass This Way Again – James Cleveland Jesus Is Lord – Andrae Crouch The Trust Theory – Tonex Nobody J. Moss
Entries (RSS)