Music Video of the Day - "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" by Stars

Yes, the lynching situation got worse

Golfweek magazine also covered the Kelly Tilghman/Tiger Woods lynch comment story discussed in my last entry. They unfortunately chose a very unfortunate cover photo to accompany the article:

Gawker coverage here

Worthless Wars of Words

Tiger OK with 'lynch' remark, but Sharpton ready for battle

Because Al Sharpton has launched himself into the position of being the most vocal member in the efforts of advancing the African-American race, I would like to say that he has helped his people in countless ways. But that would be a lie. I am not saying that he has done no good. I'm sure he has. But as usual, I think he has gone too far in fighting what really amounts to a ridiculous and unimportant battle.

Last week, Kelly Tilghman, an announcer for the Golf Channel, caused a very mild scandal when she made a joke about young golfers lynching Tiger Woods. The comment was in response to a joke her co-announcer made in regards to how the other players would try to compete against the phenom. It was an ill-conceived comment, made in the heat of the moment. I for one have made lynch-mob jokes, thinking in my mind more of the witch-hunt aspect of the idea, than the intense racial undertones. However, I am not on television and I do agree that her lapse in judgement was worthy of a slap on the wrist. Tiger Woods himself was content to just shrug it off.

But Rev. Al Sharpton once again felt it necessary to mount his horse, raise his battle flag, and demand that she be fired. CNN compared it to the Don Imus fiasco. But here's the thing: Don Imus has a tradition of making malicious and controversial jokes for the sake of being malicious and controversial. Imus crossed a line when he made an attack that was both sexist and racist against a group of very young women. He too probably didn't fully think of the consequences and the depth of meaning of his words, but Imus, as aforementioned, made his name, his fortune, from towing the line of what is and isn't appropriate. Tilgham just likes to talk about golf. She made a small mistake and her friend, Tiger Woods, forgave her.

Perhaps this is a bigger deal than I'm making it out to be because of golf's history of deeply rooted racism...But I still have a better idea for Al Sharpton. Instead of going after public figures who make public snafus, why not work on getting equal education for blacks in public schools? Instead of wasting so much time trying to get media attention, why not try to get the attention of the youth stuck in a cycle of violence? Instead of worrying about what white people are doing wrong, why not try to help blacks do what is right?

Suggested reading: White Guilt by Shelby Steele

A shout out to VH1's 40 Least Hip Hop Moments List*

Um, I Created a Life.

Stuffy white lady pushing stroller, to friend: I can't believe people are actually taking Justin Timberlake seriously these days.
Hipster crossing East: He brought sexy back, bitch! What the hell did you do?

--Central Park West

Overheard by: Zora Zero

via Overheard in New York, Jan 15, 2008

*Justin Timberlake made the list

Not News

Senator Hillary Clinton narrowly won the New Hampshire primaries.

President George W. Bush began a Mid-East tour.

Violence is ripping apart the once peaceful country of Kenya.

White women across America are being kidnapped and butchered.

This is not a blog post about what should and shouldn't be considered newsworthy. I am one of those who believes that a couple of fluff pieces in a sea of death and politics and war can help to boost the morale of those who would become jaded by the dark world we live in. I think reading about the exploits of the rich and famous can relax someone's mind when in the middle of trying to decide what to do to help their working class family, help their country, help their community...

...but can we please heed the little Southern boy's cry and leave Britney alone? I am admittedly part of the problem. I have enjoyed watching the train wreck that is her life. But isn't it a bit disgusting the way we will exploit human beings (the way I am doing even now by blogging about her) who are the in the midst of great emotional and mental turmoil? And we write apologetics for it, justify it, "She's begging for the attention" or "Well, that's the price you pay for fame." It's one thing to have a little less privacy and another to have your problems fueled and intensified, scrutinized by the egging-ons of a world watching from the comfort of their own homes, thumbs pointed downward, waiting for you to finally meet your bloody end.

No, she is not innocent...but her children are. Maybe if we stop paying attention to her, she can start paying attention to the things that matter most.

Memo: In Sweeping Policy Change, AP Alerts Staff Britney Is Now 'A Big Deal

No Day But Today

Procrastination is a lot like masturbation: it's a lot of fun until you realize that you just screwed yourself.

I am notorious for my tendency to procrastinate. It has been a lifelong disorder, that when I was younger, had minimal consequences. I managed to do my work well enough to get by okay and often, as many do, found that the urgency of a fast approaching deadline caused me to create work of a relatively high quality. But one often wonders, "What if you approached that work with urgency from day one?"

Part of the problem is that it is easy to get burned out on a project...to quickly lose all affection for it: whether it be a writing project, a cleaning project, a science project, etc. But work, even artistic work, is called work for a reason. It is not easy and it should not necessarily be easy.

What do you want to accomplish in life? Start working on it now! The thing about life is that you don't know when your deadline is. You don't know when it is too late. I am not making a New Year's Resolution. That seems like a guarantee of future failure. No...but I am working daily to begin to live life with a new sense of urgency. I must assume that opportunities will no longer fall into my lap. I must not let those opportunities that do appear, pass me by.

This is an emergency. This need to live the life I want to live is a present need and should not be a dream or a wish. And I will proceed day by day with this knowledge in my heart.

Go boldly in the directions of your dreams; live the life you have imagined. -Henry David Thoreau

To Cherish and Embarrass

I must admit that I am probably late to this party. I was just watching Wildest Wedding Show Moments 2 when they showed a clip of a scene that a friend of mine had told me about.

We had been talking about public marriage proposals. For the most part, I think they're sweet. I think it'd be awesome for a guy to propose to me at a baseball game, for instance. But only if it had been clearly established that we planned on getting married. The idea of turning down a marriage proposal is almost as painful as the idea of having my marriage proposal rejected. Now imagine being proposed to by someone who you don't want to marry in front of thousands of people? What do you do? Do you say yes to spare that person the embarrassment, or do you follow your heart and say no?

Now, I've found that the clip I saw on TV was a hoax, but the below clip seems to have actually happened. (And it seems to have happened just a couple of months after the hoax. Bad timeline on my part? Life imitating art? Or another hoax? Suspicious, but still outrageous.)