Poplicks.com

BONGS & JOINTS ON NETWORK TV?

2009-07-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

High on Blair

When's the last time you've seen someone smoke a joint in a family-friendly scripted series on network TV during prime time?

Have you ever seen teenagers with bongs on NBC?

I can't think of a single instance except one memorable episode of The Facts of Life from 1980. (See video excerpt above.)

Am I wrong to conclude that this episode could never air today -- even with its clear anti-drug message?

Perhaps it's no coincidence that the FCC's push to regulate decency standards didn't begin until after 1980 when Reagan was elected.

It's hard to process how some rules have relaxed, while others have tightened over the last quarter century.

(It's also hard to process that I've witnessed over a quarter century of television history.)

Side note #1:

When's the last time you've seen Helen Hunt peddle ganja on television?

Answer: The last time you watched the above Facts of Life episode.

Side note #2:

When's the last time you've seen a scripted comedy series on network prime time tackle the subject of pedophilia by airing an episode about a friendly child molester who drugs kids with booze and pills, shows pornographic cartoons, and takes pictures of them bare-chested?

For me, the only show I know that went there is Diff'rent Strokes, which is the show that later spawned Facts of Life.

This was creepy when I watched it over 25 years ago. And it's even creepier now.

While it's great the show brought the issue of child abuse into our homes, I still have nightmares about what happened to Dudley. Plus, I am still very hesitant to enter bike shops.

Again, would any family-friendly show do something similar today?

Side note #3:

Could there be anything from Diff'rent Strokes that is creepier than the pedophilia episode mentioned above?

Answer: Yes. The opening credits from the show. If you change the music.

(Thanks to Hank for the f'ed up clip above!)

WHEN OVERT RACISM IS REFRESHING

2009-07-08T23:06:00.001-07:00

When George Wallace becomes the lifeguard

Would you rather live in:

(1) a society in which all racism is transparent, blatant, and in your face; or

(2) a society with as much racism as the one above but where the prejudice is largely veiled, subtle, and repackaged as something less insidious?

Put another way, would you rather have the KKK wearing white hoods or three-piece suits? (Note to self: we need to reference Ice Cube more often around here.)

In my head, I debate this question all the time.

On the one hand, option #2 seems like a far more pleasant place to live, as it erases the visible signs of hatred. One can claim to live in a post-racial society and believe, albeit falsely, in the hope of equal opportunity.

On the other hand, with option #1, you know where you stand with everyone and vice versa. No need to wonder if your prospective employer, father-in-law, landlord, or teacher is a bigot. If he is, he'll hurl racial epithets at you or burn crosses in order to leave no ambiguity.

This all brings me to this emerging story:

As you may have heard, the Creative Steps Day Camp paid $1950 to The Valley Swim Club, a private swim club in Northeast Philly, to use their pool. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership.

But the seemingly all-white club ejected the kids from the day camp when the club's pool became inundated with dozens of Black and Chicano children.

News segment with more info below:

Now, here's the kicker.

In explaining why the club ejecting the kids from the camp, John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club, said,

"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion ... and the atmosphere of the club."

Did you get that? The black and brown kids would "change the complexion" of the club.

His honesty is as refreshing as a swimming pool on a hot summer day!

So while I still can't answer the question I posed at the beginning of this post, I can say that one thing I like about option #1 is that it's a world where the discriminated will have a much easier time winning lawsuits!

THE DEATH OF MACHO?

2009-07-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

The Death of Macho - By Reihan Salam | Foreign Policy:

Reihan Salam, who I usually associate with The Atlantic writes for Foreign Policy this week with a very provocative essay that argues that the major transformation underfoot because of the global recession is a reconfiguration of gender relations. I'll just skip to a few key money 'graphs he puts out:

"the most enduring legacy of the Great Recession will not be the death of Wall Street. It will not be the death of finance. And it will not be the death of capitalism. These ideas and institutions will live on. What will not survive is macho"

"The axis of global conflict in this century will not be warring ideologies, or competing geopolitics, or clashing civilizations. It won’t be race or ethnicity. It will be gender."

I'm curious to see what reactions will be to this argument. While I think Salam makes several leaps in analysis with insufficient data to really prove his point, I agree with some of the basic tenets of his argument, namely that if male power is in decline (whether domestically or globally), this will create moments fraught with both potential and peril. Whether that will be the defining *conflict* of the 21st century is harder to say though there's no shortage of examples to suggest that, in local pockets, the fight for gender equality is being met with violent resistance by men unhappy with the idea of a loss of their (unearned) privilege.

RACE AND ROOMIES

2009-07-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice, Campus Studies Find - NYTimes.com:

Interesting study but what is up with this?

"Several studies have shown that living with a roommate of a different race changes students’ attitudes. One, from the University of California at Los Angeles, generally found decreased prejudice among students with different-race roommates — but those who roomed with Asian-Americans, the group that scored the highest on measures of prejudice, became more prejudiced themselves."

I think we need former UC Berkeley student housing coordinator, Junichi, to weigh in on this.

SHANGHAI: CITY OF LOST MEMORIES

2009-07-06T09:31:00.001-07:00

the road to m50

In early June, myself and my family went to Shanghai to visit my parents. This was the third trip I had made there since 2002; you can read my travelogues from the first two here and here.

It's been five years since my last visit and not coincidentally, it's the first time I've been back since El-Boogie was born. I'm sure I would have made it back sooner but the idea of flying with a baby or even toddler for 12 hours inspired too much anxiety for us to gut it out. As it turns out, El loved the plane trip out and what's not to love? Snacks + meals + a portable DVD player (best. investment. ever) + little gifts + coloring books + binky = everything she loves crammed into half a day. All the plane needed was a bouncy house but I don't think you get those kind of perks in United Economy.

The excitement began the moment we landed...mostly because Chinese officials, still smarting from the avian flu outbreak of a few years back, were hyper-paranoid of the swine flu. Planes coming in from the U.S. had to first be cleared by China's version of the CDC, which meant a bunch of white Hazmat suited guys going around the plane and zapping everyone's forehead with an infrared thermometer. Under other circumstances, I'd say it was surreal but somehow, it seemed like the proper way to kick off the week.
More after the jump:

The most immediate change I noticed about Shanghai was...change. I thought the city was already over the top in 2004 but that was before major construction had begun for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, a city-wide event that is rumored to bear a price tag greater than even the recent Beijing Olympics. Most obviously, there are some huge venues undergoing construction right now, including this inverted pyramid pavilion that wouldn't be out of place from Blade Runner (and indeed, Shanghai, more than ever, seems to realize futuristic visions of the neo-city as seen in sci-fi and anime from the past), the other a massive dome-like venue that reminded me of one of the space ships from ID4. However, many of the changes around the city are less spectacular but no less significant. All along the major thoroughfares, high-rises are getting "face lifts" to freshen up their exteriors. In some cases, that means giving some buildings fake brick facades - they have the look and texture of brick but aren't brick at all. It has also been striking to see the extent that pseudo-European styles have been applied to apartments; you have these 20-40 story buildings with out-of-place Italian or French motifs.

However, it's not the quality of the architecture that makes the biggest impression - it's the sheer quantity. This is what also struck me in 2002 and 2004 but seems even more omnipresent (and slightly oppressive) now. It's not unusual to see rows upon rows of massive, identical apartment buildings stacked towards the horizon. It's like this everywhere in Shanghai, especially Pudong, the newer part of the city that sits east of the river. Pudong is where the most aggressive development has occurred - 20 years ago, it was mostly farmland, these days I'd wager only Dubai would exceed it for the sheer degree of transformation and (over)development. I stayed in Pudong in 2002 and was already astounded by the outrageous of the skyscrapers and the skyline has only continued to scrape upward - the main building that wasn't here 5 years ago is currently (and only temporarily) Shanghai's tallest - the "bottle opener"-shaped Shanghai World Financial Center. Ground was recently broken on what will become the new tallest building in China once completed and I wouldn't be surprised if that will quickly be supplanted.

However, what was far more striking to me in Pudong was what was at eye level. My folks live off of Nanjing Xi Lu, one of the major E-W thoroughfare in downtown Shanghai and home to countless high-end shops but Nanjing Xi Lu feels positively quaint compared to Pudong's commercial makeover. There's simply more room to build in Pudong and developers have taken full advantage - everything tries to be taller, bigger, flashier, etc. There are few better embodiments of this than Super Brand Mall, a monstrous, 10 story mall that is probably at least 3-4 times the size of, say, the Beverly Center or Glendale Galleria. It doesn't have its own rollercoaster (yet) but it still is one of the great (and by that, I don't mean "good") monoliths to Western consumerism. Everything you could possibly hate about a mall is super-sized here though even I have to admit, the kid's playground on the 7th floor was pretty damn awesome. And I can't hate on the Orange Julius in the basement that serves up a guava-lychee milkshake. But otherwise, I just found it to be an exhausting, ostentatious palace to rampant consumerism (and hell, I live in LA so imagine what it must be like to find something worse).

This all said though, with change comes opportunity and Shanghai is teeming with that as well, at least based on the conversations I had with friends there, both local guys like Gary Wang and ex-pats from the U.S. and Europe. The city is dynamic in a way that few American cities were even before the recession and by the end of the trip, I could appreciate the attraction of why people are coming to live and work here (and it's not just for the xiao long bao) (more on food later). Everything feels possible and so much of the city's energy seems to be directed towards that ideal.

I saw there's a massive complex going up next to where my folks live but even though they've demolished most of the area where some new towers will eventually get built, there's an older, stately mansion still sitting amongst the rubble and I've been told the city is going to literally move the building a few dozen yards to preserve it while still putting it somewhere more "convenient." How you would exactly move a building of this size is beyond my engineering imagination but these kinds of projects can be found throughout the city. The past here is an obstacle and either you move it or destroy it. Nostalgia is too expensive.

All around the city are posters with the slogan "Better City, Better Life." Considering how forward-looking the Expo is supposed to be, you'd think they could come up with a better tagline than something that sounds dull even by Communist propaganda standards. This is only outdone by the bland posters that go with them; I don't mean to sound too "I'm a Mac" here but the design looks straight off of something Microsoft would have done, with the exception of the Expo's mascot, Haibao, who looks like he should be shilling for Aim Toothpaste.

At least the food is still good. At least, depending on where you can still find it. There's a popular food alley near my parents - Wujiang Lu - that houses Yang's Fry Dumplings, one of the better known spots in Shanghai to get fried xiao long bao. Unfortunately, they're going to be demolishing most of this alley to make way for new developments, a sad blow (I would think) to the rich street food culture of the city. Of course, when you compare Wujiang with Nanjing Xi Lu, it's easy to see why Wujiang is on its way out - it's like two different cities practically within a block of one another.

According to my friend Gary, who I trust in all things related to food, the main spot for all the good grub in the city is now the Jingan neighborhood, which is basically the northwest quadrant closest to where Chengdu Lu and the Ya'nan Elevated Rd. intersect. Lots of cool, unpretentious stores and restaurants, including possibly the best xiao long bao place I've tried in the city, yet (Fuchun).

Note: is it possible to overload on xiao long bao? Yes, yes it is. Delicious but man cannot live by soup dumplings alone.

There was also a really amazing DVD store in the Jingan area too. I wrote a lot about the bootleg DVD scene before but it's elevated considerably in the last five years. The packaging, especially, is astounding - if you didn't realize that all this stuff were bootleg copies, you could certainly be fooled when the complete Studio Ghibli collection is packaged nice enough to make the folks at Criterion notice. The days of thin plastic + paper covers is long gone...almost. There are still exceptions to that - I found this hilarious, the back cover for a bootleg of My Zinc Bed (I didn't even realize that was the actual title of the film...I thought for sure it was some "lost in translation" example). Clearly, whoever designed the back cover just cribbed notes off the web for it.

Culturally, I didn't get a chance to soak in as much as in previous times but I have to say: I had the best time DJing at The Shelter, a nightclub that Gary helps run that gets its name from the fact that it is built out of an old bomb shelter. Not for the claustrophobic but by far, one of the most interesting spaces I've ever spun in . Even though the headlining DJing didn't make it out (visa problems), we still had a healthy crowd (most ex-pats, quite a few Japanese trainspotters too) dancing to an evening of funk records (or, er, sound files). They're about to open a Beijing Shelter too, also built out of a bomb shelter.

S and I got the afternoon off one day to go visit the current center of Shanghai's arts scene, M50, aka 50 Monganshan Rd. Better minds than mine have already written about it but suffice to say, it's comprised of a dense series of overlapping galleries, some small, some sprawling. The thing about M50 though is that while it takes up part of the block, its integration into the surrounding buildings creates these mish-mashes of residential/commercial use that's quite familiar to anyone who's seen gentrification in motion. To wit...

I didn't take very copious notes on the art we saw (I leave that to my art critic wife) but I did enjoy the Su Jin exhibit at M97, "Memory City", which, to me, does a provocative job of capturing the chaos and cost of change in Shanghai. At first, I didn't even realize Su's work was montage; it seem plausible enough from a distance but I should have known better - like Hong Kong's bygone Kowloon, the real parts of Su's phantasmal Shanghai have largely been reduced to construction dust.

CHATTING WITH JOHN CHO

2009-07-04T09:24:00.001-07:00

cho gets serious

I was really happy to be able to do this; I knew John as a classmate from UC Berkeley - *15 years ago* - and I've taken a lot of pleasure in seeing his career accelerate over that time. I finally had the opportunity to interview him and at the risk of sounding immodest, I thought it was a great conversation, especially with his candor about issues of acting, media and race.

Here's Part 1 of our interview, part 2 is here.

ONE LAST ROUND

2009-06-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is (probably) going to be the last post I (O.W.) am going to do on M-J-5 for the time being, bringing to a close a rather crazy 5 day period where it was all MJ, all the time.

1) I just recorded this in the morning: The Soul Sides Kitchen-Cast w/ Ann Powers. Besides being a good friend, Ann also happens to be chief pop critic at the L.A. Times and I invited her over to talk about MJ's musical and cultural legacy in my kitchen (for the record, my green room provides Orangina and mixed nuts).

Here's the podcast in streaming form or you can download it here.

2) Murphy's Law and I recorded our Boogaloo[la] set from last Thursday which includes a 2 hour opening set that includes a good deal of lesser known J5 and MJ covers/remixes/songs. Then there was our 2 hour MJ5 set which slammed down all the "best ofs" into a party-smashing mix. You can download both:

Pre-Tribute set

Tribute set
(Just remember this was recorded live!)

3) For those Poplicks readers who don't read my other blog Soul Sides (and shame on you for not), I put together a long post on some of my favorite, off-the-beat-it, I mean, beaten path MJ/J5 songs, including a 50 minute mix of those songs I cover.

P.S.: I've been trying to figure out why I've been so compelled to stay on story over the last five days and it's certainly not out of the tabloid fascination that will only grow (and get uglier) in the weeks to come. It's the music, always the music, that keeps drawing me back in and it finally dawned on me this morning that while MJ certainly wasn't the first pop artist I heard in my lifetime, he was so utterly everywhere at my entry into the pop world that everything I love about music, about its emotional power and reach - MJ was a foremost influence. In other words, his music was one of the most important ways through which I learned to love music. And so, in paying tribute to that musical legacy, I'm really just trying to find a way to express an appreciation for a gift that, 30 years after I first shook my tush to "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," has continued to enrich my life on a daily basis. For that gift, I will remain forever thankful for MJ's music, regardless of what I may think of the man behind them.

WHAT MAKES MICHAEL JACKSON'S DEATH A TRAGEDY

2009-06-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Gone Too Soon

Instead of tackling Michael Jackson's legacy, which Oliver and others have spectacularly done, I thought I'd share a true story about why I am devastated by his passing.

Last October, my wife and I had the honor of being invited to Natalie Maines' Halloween party. The night before the event, we received instructions from the Pasdars not to bring cameras, as they would be confiscated by security.

I assumed Natalie was planning to wear some scandalous costume (e.g., Cher's outfit from the "If I Could Turn Back Time" video?) that she didn't want to see end up on TMZ.

But when we arrived, we learned the reason for the no-camera rule. No absinthe or opium could have helped us to imagine this: Michael Jackson was at the party.

When friends at the party first told us this, we doubted it, although the paparazzi outside the property made us wonder. Later, we talked to Natalie and she insisted it was true. She told us that Michael's family -- MJ, Prince I, Paris, and Blanket -- had secluded themselves inside the house (the party was outside).

I assumed that she was setting up a prank that would end with an MJ impersonator and a bunch of zombies emerging from tombstones to dance to "Thriller."

But when Natalie started sharing details of how Michael's oldest child was incredibly well-spoken, I considered running into her house just in case she was telling the truth.

The "P.Y.T."-loving child in me wanted him to autograph my face so I could tattoo his signature on to my forehead. But my wife was several months pregnant at the time and I couldn't afford for either of us to get shanked by his bodyguards.

We would have forever been skeptical about Natalie's claims until, by sheer luck, we saw Michael and his three kids -- with our own eyes -- walk right in front of us. They were all wearing masks, which, ironically, didn't look out of place. (Halloween must have been his and his kids' favorite day of the year.) I was able to see Michael's eyes and hair, which left no doubt. Plus, he was flanked by bodyguards, handlers, and Joan Collins (!). The next day's news reports also helped Dima and me to convince our friends that we weren't making anything up.

(Random thought: My son can truthfully say that Michael Jackson spent a few seconds of his final Halloween standing a few inches away from him -- before he was even born. Who else can say that?)

Unfortunately, Michael didn't spend time at the party dancing. Or joining us for karaoke. Instead, he spent most of the time inside the house, near a window, watching his kids play with others in the children's party area.

But as I look back on this unbelievable story of being at a party with Michael Jackson, I am haunted by the profoundly sad thought that struck me that evening.

Michael spent much of the last decade being deprived of the one thing he loves most: being around children.

One doesn't need a psychology degree to see that Michael was a man who spent his adult years trying to live out the childhood that he was denied. Whether putting a young Kris Kross and Macaulay Culkin into his music videos or bringing Webster to the Grammy Awards, Michael clearly loved to surround himself with kids, whom he saw as the innocent antithesis to evil adults.

Of course, this is all creepy if you happen to believe that Michael Jackson is a child molester.

But I don't. I believe and have always believed that he is innocent of these heinous crimes. And not because I am a naive fan who believes he can do no harm.

Undoubtedly, the sexual abuse of a minor is one of the worst and most despicable things that any human being can do. The charges against him deserved to be taken seriously. And if they were true, he deserved any public scorn or punishment that fell his way.

But in my opinion, falsely accusing someone of sexually abusing a minor is also one of the worst and most despicable things that a person can do. The harm to one's reputation and soul must be just as damaging -- and last just as long -- as the scars from actual abuse.

While we'll probably never know the truth, I've written before about how the evidence against Michael in the Arvizo case was flimsy.

Undoubtedly, the King of Pop is also the King of Bad Judgment. What with his publicized sleepovers and backyard carousels, his sense of boundaries is like no other adult. His myriad plastic surgeries and careless spending suggest someone missing a few marbles. But those things -- plus his few million dollars in assets -- only made him, in my mind, an easy target for someone looking to make a fast buck.

Yet, despite his acquittal and the fact that no judge or jury ever concluded that he inappropriately touched a minor, Michael Jackson rarely is considered a victim.

Sadly, this week's articles about MJ describe a world that adored him despite his personal conduct. They seem to deny the existence of people like me who adored him and believed he engaged in no sexual abuse.

How horribly sad for a man who loved children like no other to be kept away from all but his own. Sure, he wasn't legally restricted like registered sex offenders from being near minors. But the paparazzi -- waiting to photograph him touching a child to start a new chain of lies -- and the endless child molestation jokes that followed him ensured a forced separation.

Thus, his surprise appearance at that party reminded me of the cruel sentence he spent the last decade of his life serving. He probably wanted nothing more than to spend that Halloween surrounded by hordes of children.

But as a result of the scandalous allegations of the last 20 years, those children at the party no longer adored and idolized him as did those of us who grew up in the 70's, 80's, and early 90's. Plus, if their parents knew Michael Jackson wanted to play with them, they would have pulled their kids away, just to be safe. (Despite my steadfast belief, I, too, would have prevented my kids from being around him without my supervision.) Plus, Michael's lawyers, agents, friends, and family probably preferred he be separated from minors, just to avoid further troubles.

On a related note, I've never understood why Michael Jackson is mocked for forcing his kids to cover their faces. To me, it's clear he's protecting his kids from the kind of public scrutiny that chipped away at his happiness over the past forty years. Unlike many other celebrities, he has managed to give his children anonymity and provide them the possibility of a private, quiet life. And yet, he is famous for being a bad parent because of that one incident during which he failed to fully secure his son for two seconds while holding him over a balcony ledge. (Does anybody really think there was a risk that Blanket was going to fall?)

I hoped Michael's upcoming London shows would be a resounding success, just so he could die knowing that the public's last memories of him wouldn't involve a criminal trial for child molestation. I also wanted him to pass on wealth to his children, instead of debts.

But alas, that will never be. And that is what makes his death especially tragic.

Thankfully, I retain one very positive Michael Jackson-related memory from Natalie's party. At some point, the DJ played "Thriller" when he saw what looked like someone wearing a Michael Jackson costume -- not knowing that it was actually Michael Jackson. Even more ironic, the popularity of the song filled up the dance floor in a way that gave him the freedom to walk by partygoers largely undetected.

At the very least, Michael spent his last Halloween being reminded that his music will bring great joy to a dance floor for decades to come.

I truly hope that he can rest in peace, something that fans and non-fans alike have denied him for so long now.

MICHAEL JACKSON: NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE

2009-06-27T14:46:00.001-07:00

From the time he was 10 Michael Jackson grew up in front of the world - first wonderfully, then weirdly, then woefully. His death at just 50 is hard to quite process. A tragedy? Yes but I'm not sure if it's any more tragic than the grotesque implosion of the rest of his life. I thought Hua had it exactly right: "Different versions of Michael Jackson had already died years ago."

A similar point was echoed by my friend Eliani while we were noshing at 2am at the Taco Zone truck, following a two hour MJ5 tribute set with Wil at the Shortstop. In between bites of carnitas, she proffered (I'm paraphrasing), "depending on when you grew up, each of us has a different Michael Jackson we knew and lost."

I was lucky to have grown up with one of the incadescent MJ incarnations. I probably heard a J5 song at some point in my '70s childhood but I don't actually remember hearing a Michael Jackson song until "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough" and the Off the Wall album came out. I was probably 7 or 8 then, just discovering the radio and top 40 and so my exposure to the expansive world of pop was indelibly marked by his presence.

It's been an interesting process, trying to decipher what exactly made him so great. After all, and this is not meant to be remotely disrespectful, but while Jackson clearly helped sell a gazillion records, if you actually parse down his musical impact, he's overshadowed by any number of peers. Some have had a greater, overall presence on pop music (James Brown + The Beatles), others have stayed in the mix as a creative force with more consistency (Dylan), and certainly, there's been other artists just as commercially successful but more adventurous (hello Prince!).

That said, consider how a pre-pubescent child managed to score success on par with Marvin Gaye at the turn of the '60s/'70s, then gradually pull away from the machine (or if you prefer, The Corporation) that fueled his success, only to emerge into a solo career that didn't simply improve on his achievements but elevated him into the greatest pop artist of his generation.

Child singers are simply not meant to survive into adulthood. I can only think of two similar examples: Stevie Wonder comes to mind but Stevie never had the kind of instant success that the Jackson 5 provided Michael (that said, Stevie's creativity is unparalleled, including by Michael). The other would be, interestingly, Celine Dion. Do with that what you will. However, those exceptions aside, pop music history is littered with the ghosts of child singers whose careers disappeared with the onset of puberty.

Whatever the truths of Jackson's childhood (idyllic vs. tortured), what you can say is that he had to shoulder the same kind of creative challenges under the Motown system that his colleagues - thrice his age - were also dealing with. Not only that but he was expected, long before he was old enough to even drive, to emote the kind of passion, longing and melancholy that usually only repeated adult heartache gives you access to. Emotionally, he had to grow up in his singing much faster than what his physical age would otherwise belie. It's common to talk about J5 songs like "ABC" being "filled with innocence" but if you listen over the group and Jackson's solo catalog from the 1970s, there's a lot less sunshine than you'd imagine. That he managed to drop iconic, hit records throughout most of that process (with the exception of a fallow period in the mid-'70s) is a testament to his talent/genius/luck/whatever you want to call it.

And therein, to me, lies both the triumph of his achievements but also the makings of his (and in a sense, our) tragedies. As Jeff Chang argued, "for that voice, he lost his childhood. Or more precisely, he gave it to us," which isn't quite like saying he died for our sins but I think part of what Jeff is suggesting is that if Michael wasn't blessed with such a magical presence, we may not have liked him so well. And if we didn't like him so well, maybe his life would have turned out more normal, less (self)-destructive. These "what if" scenarios are impossible to answer, of course. All we know is the Jackson we were given and if his life is to be read as a kind of sacrifice to our pleasure, at least we can honor that by celebrating his libations.

Consider too: Jackson was a once-in-a-lifetime musical (and of course, cultural) figure, the likes of which will almost certainly never be duplicated again (sorry Jonas Brothers). The pop landscape has shifted, irrevocably I feel, over the last 10-20 years and the ability for a singular figure to become a multi-generational crossover star seems practically impossible. Of course, it probably seemed impossible back in the '70s...until Michael did it.

I should add too: for all his foibles, scandals and just general surreality, I absolutely guarantee you that the music Jackson and his family left behind will only evolve to seem more sublime, enchanting and moving [1].

In lieu of a more organized/formal post, here's a rush job on tunes to listen to.

("Big Boy," an early, early J5 single on Steeltown)

("2 4 6 8." The numeric sequel to "ABC" recorded for the Jackson 5's second Motown LP.)

("Never Can Say Goodbye." Stone. Cold. Classic.)

("I Wanna Be Where You." Off of Jackson's solo debut, produced by Hal Davis and Willie Hutch.)

("I Can't Help It." Quiet storm at its best.)

("Butterflies." From his 2001 Invincible and one of the last great songs I heard from Jackson. Shout out to Floetry for the OG).

If you feel like it, here's me and Jay Smooth musing on MJ for The Sound of Young America, recorded earlier today.
The Sound of Young America

And I was also briefly on Michael Barnes' tribute show on KCRW.

[1] This presumes there isn't some smoking gun evidence which comes out posthumously that MJ was indeed, guilty of child molestation. But even his music could likely survive that.

DON'T CRY FOR HIM, ARGENTINA

2009-06-24T22:07:00.001-07:00

I don't normally like indulging in schadenfreude but good god, between this and Senator Ensign, it's been a very entertaining last few weeks.

Love the understatement here from the NYT, who said that Sanford's admission is, "considerably dampening his prospects for a national political career."

RACE AND POLITICAL LEANINGS IN LA

2009-06-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

Blacks, Latinos in L.A. more conservative than whites, Times Poll finds | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times

Interesting results here but wait - why aren't Asian Americans included here? We constitute the third largest ethnic group in LA county!

TNC ON RACE AND THE SOUTH

2009-06-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

southern son, klan father

Nathan Bedford Forrest Has Beautiful Eyes - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Hua and I were talking the other day about how much things have changed for us as writers since the beginning of the decade - suffice to say, there's been a massive transformation and not necessarily for the better, at least from a freelancing point of view. Back in the heady days of, oh, 2002, it'd be more than enough to get a column-length piece into the SF Bay Guardian about music or art or culture and that, to us, was the ideal kind of platform to work out our ideas.

Of course, the emergent blogosphere created an exponentially greater number of platforms and obviously, I had no qualms in taking advantage of it for personal use (i.e. you're reading this blog, no?) But as we all know, the spread of blogging was one of the forces that weakened the older print base I had taken for granted in my 20s. And for the last five or so years, what we've seen is a decline in print opportunities, a proliferation of online voices but dare I say - the level and quality of discourse didn't carry over mediums. It just hasn't.

That's why I've been so floored by what Ta-Nehisi Coates has been doing over on his Atlantic blog. Practically daily, he penning these incredibly thoughtful and provocative posts that, in my mind, realize the full potential of what a blog can do in terms of speed-to-publish (a main liability of today's print press), not to mention sheer quantity, but without sacrificing intellectual alacrity or quality of prose.

This is one example of what ~~blogging~~ writing should aspire to, regardless of the medium, but I am ever so thankful TNC's holding it down online.

Anyways, read his latest post and see what I mean for yourself.

THAT OLD INTERRACIAL DESIRE CHESTNUT

2009-06-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

White male seeking sexy Asian women | Salon Books

Ronnie sent this over to me this morning asking for the ol' Poplicks opinion.

Salon.com's Laura Miller reviews a new book by Richard Bernstein, The East, the West, and Sex: A History of Erotic Encounters, and highlights the myriad shortcomings in Bernstein's attempt to defend the historical tradition of White Western men lusting after Eastern/Asian women. To be honest, I don't have much to add onto what Miller does here - her critique is incisive and thorough though, it must be said, based on what Miller quotes, Bernstein's book hardly seems to make a convincing argument about the benefits of this arrangement for both sides of the racial line. One imagines that Bernstein is one of those that insist Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings were in love despite the inconvenience that he was her slavemaster. However, given that I haven't read Bernstein's book, it's probably unfair to saddle him with such a weighty assumption (maybe not though).

As usual, it's the *comments* section that is far more fascinating - and maddening. God forbid one should ever raise some important questions about equality or power in relation to sexual desire - you'll find a thicket of apologists sprout up instantly. There's quite a few "I have a thing for Asian women and I'm loving it!"-types (boring self-aggrandizement) and an unfathomable number of people trying to deploy a biological diversity argument, i.e. "we're 'naturally' attracted to people different from us" which I find especially disingenuous since one only need point out the rather low number of White male/Black female couplings to suggest this "biological imperative" argument holds no water in the face of social realities. The sexual entanglements of West/East are inextricably linked to history. And economics. And war. Et. al.

Perhaps in an *ideal* society, one free of such nuisances as racism and colonialism, ethnic difference could be a more innocent part of romantic/sexual attraction, but unless one is being willfully ignorant of history (and Salon's commenters seem to have this particular affliction), you can't claim that sex and desire exists in such a world.

I'm not - at all - claiming that cross-racial love/sex/desire always enacts unequal relations of power. However, you can't possibly remove that context either, which is the problem Miller has with Bernstein (who seems to brush such concerns under his (Oriental?) rug) and the problem I have with the apologia in the comments section. After all, aren't entire realms of sexual fantasy predicated on variations of inequality, whether you're talking about dominance/submission role play or even something more basic, such as the dynamic of selfishness vs. selflessness during lovemaking? So long as such inequalities are consented to and fulfilling for all partners, I don't have a problem with it but to refuse to acknowledge that inequality is part of what's being eroticized is dishonest as best and imperial at worst.

One last thing: as 1) Asia rises in geopolitical and transnational economic prominence during this century (thanks, in no small part, to America's ballooning debt) and 2) contemporary feminism takes root and expands in Asian societies, I wonder how this all might impact sexual relations both in Asia and between Asians (women and men alike) and non-Asians.

THIS HAT IS WHERE IT'S AT

2009-06-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

SEX SELECTION AMONGST ASIAN AMERICANS

2009-06-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians - NYTimes.com

I wrote about this last year and new studies reconfirm the findings. An absolute shame - and frankly, scandal - in our Asian American communities.

SHAUNCRONICITY

2009-06-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

Shaun The Sheep - The funniest videos clips are here

I deserve a late pass but seriously, this not only showcases how stop-motion animation can still be more magical than going balls out CGI + the wonders of dialogue-free storytelling.

PHOTO TOKENISM

2009-06-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

City digitally adds black guy to Fun Guide cover to make it more ‘inclusive’ - Posted Toronto

I don't know which is worse - the fact that apparently, no one could find a stock photo that was more inclusive or just the terrible Photoshop hack job here.

TA-NEHISI COATES AND ANDREW SULLIVAN DEBATE IDENTITY POLITICS

2009-06-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Writing Out Loud - The Atlantic
(June 11, 2009)

This whole exchange is good. Really, really, really good. TNC = game-changer when it comes to an astute, thoughtful approach to blogging about race and politics.

STARING AT THE SWIM TEAM GETS YOU KILLED BY A GANG OF DANCING NINJA MEN WHO KNOW HOW TO TWIRL

2009-06-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

I dig the Literal Video series.

VIRUS ISSUES FIXED!

2009-06-05T15:22:00.001-07:00

For over two weeks now, Oliver and I have been trying to figure out how to fix this horrendous malware issue that shut down Poplicks for a few weeks. Many of you probably received warnings while trying to visit this site.

I'll spare you the details, but it looks like we're finally virus-free now.

If you can see the video above of the Republican Party's mascot, all is good.

OUR SITE IS SICK

2009-05-28T01:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we know, we know, we got hit with a malware issue. We're working on it but seriously - it's a pain in the rear. Thanks for your patience.

GIRL POWER

2009-05-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Jezebel - Sometimes It Takes A Daughter To Make A Man A Feminist - Daughters voting liberally

It's true - before my daughter was born, I was a hardcore, reactionary conservative. And moreover, I've recently heard Junichi talking about how we need to lower taxes, cut social spending and invade more countries. Crazy! ;)

WINNIE THE POOH MIGHT WANT TO ATTEND YOUR FUNERAL

2009-05-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

My understanding was that there would be no math.

I've seen the above frame many times. It features a sweet, sentimental Winnie the Pooh quote -- "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I would never have to live without you." - and includes a sample picture of a mother and child.

Just today, however, my wife pointed out a serious flaw in the quote that will ensure I never see this frame the same way.

The Pooh quote is only sweet if the two people are born on the exact same day.

Thus, the sample picture in the frame is totally inappropriate. If the toddler in the picture were to say that quote to his mother and it became true, he would live to see his mother die and then survive off his inheritance for at least another decade.

The only appropriate picture would be one of twins.

Here's a more specific example. Imagine Demi Moore will live to be 100 years old and Ashton Kutcher wishes to live to be a 100 minus one day. Ashton, who is 16 years younger than Demi, will see his wife die when he's 84 years old and then live a lonely existence for another 16 years.

That is, unless Demi can inhabit Whoopi Goldberg's body after being murdered and dance to "Unchained Melody" one last time. And that's ignoring the inevitable reality that Ashton, being a vain Hollywood celebrity, will inevitably dump Demi in three years during sweeps week of Punk'd: 2012 Edition when she becomes eligible to join AARP.

In conclusion, for this frame to have universal appeal, it should say "I Want To Die Before You."

And thus concludes the story of why I'm not in marketing.

MLK BIOPIC

2009-05-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

DreamWorks Plans Martin Luther King Biopic : NPR

It's actually surprising there hasn't been one already, now that I think of it. Two questions come immediately to mind: who will they cast? How hagiographic is this going to be?

MALCOLM X AT OXFORD

2009-05-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz would have turned 84 today. I dedicate this day to his memory and that of the June Jordan.