NOVAJAVABLEND #10 [12.11.09]
America, this is your Grammy winner. Right here.
I’m only just getting around to paying any attention to the Grammy noms, since my investment in not only popular music but music as a whole and any discussion thereof is diminishing faster than the speed of light. Seriously, the world has gone mad and all I can do is laugh until my sides hurt.
Compare the headlines that Beyoncé was nominated for 10 awards while Whitney was nominated for zero and you begin to understand the magnitudinous absurdity at work. And no, I don’t have any particular investment in either Whitney or Beyoncé (although in theory I’m supposed to be genetically predisposed to worshipping them since I’m a Black, gay male–but then I truly do not give first-fuck or last. I’m hoarding fucks and distributing them only for emergency purposes. Waste not, want not.) but 10 to 1 for these two speaks volumes on music, its industry and fans, and our culture. (Even a close comrade says of Beysus: “GaGa gets shunned in the new artist category because of a bullshit technicality and this nursery rhyme writing ho gets 10 NODS??? Please. She must be fuckin’ somebody on the nomination board somethin TERRIBLE!!!”) Or maybe it doesn’t. Consider this:
Nominations for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Ego: Beyoncé & Kanye West
Knock You Down: Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Ne-Yo
Run This Town: Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West
I’m On A Boat: The Lonely Island & T-Pain <—THIS
Dead And Gone: T.I. & Justin Timberlake
Have you LOL’d all over yourself like I did yet? One can only imagine the copious amounts of crack smoked and bong water swallowed to arrive at this nomination. But, I think it should win, just be-fucking-cause.
Why it’s okay to assume the new Disney prince isn’t Black.
Critical reviews for Disney’s The Princess And The Frog have already started to trickle in and they are mostly positive. There are a couple of beefs I had with this movie once I knew the storyline, mainly that Disney re-purposed a fairytale from the Grimm tradition instead of using a story from Black or African folklore. The other issue I had was the prince, once I saw him. My first reaction was that he was not Black (that instinct was correct) and would it be too much for Disney to depict two Black main characters in a romance?
Now neither of those things bother me, since I’m a sucker for classic Disney animation and fully intend to see this movie, in spite of the fact that I strongly dislike children and dislike children in movie theaters even more. Let me repeat, I do not have a problem with the prince not being Black. Tiana and Prince Naveen both spend the majority of the film as frogs anyway, and this device within the narrative allows them to appreciate each other in the absence of race. Hopefully that aspect of the story resonates with people and teaches kids (and adults) a valuable lesson.
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