B Movie

From: http://www.gilscottheron.com/lybmovie.html

Humbly - The Griot Poet

Well, the first thing I want to say is…”Mandate my ass!”
Because it seems as though we’ve been convinced that 26% of the registered voters, not even 26% of the American people, but 26% of the registered voters form a mandate – or a landslide. 21% voted for Skippy and 3, 4% voted for somebody else who might have been running.

But, oh yeah, I remember. In this year that we have now declared the year from Shogun to Reagan, I remember what I said about Reagan…meant it. Acted like an actor…Hollyweird. Acted like a liberal. Acted like General Franco when he acted like governor of California, then he acted like a republican. Then he acted like somebody was going to vote for him for president. And now we act like 26% of the registered voters is actually a mandate. We’re all actors in this I suppose.

What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune…the consumer has got to dance. That’s the way it is. We used to be a producer – very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers and, finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your resources will control your world. This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now. They don’t know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They don’t know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same policy - of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster Dulles ain’t nothing but the name of an airport now.

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia. They want to go back as far as they can – even if it’s only as far as last week. Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards. And yesterday was the day of our cinema heroes riding to the rescue at the last possible moment. The day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse - or the man who always came to save America at the last moment – someone always came to save America at the last moment – especially in “B” movies. And when America found itself having a hard time facing the future, they looked for people like John Wayne. But since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan – and it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at – like a “B” movie.

Come with us back to those inglorious days when heroes weren’t zeros. Before fair was square. When the cavalry came straight away and all-American men were like Hemingway to the days of the wondrous “B” movie. The producer underwritten by all the millionaires necessary will be Casper “The Defensive” Weinberger – no more animated choice is available. The director will be Attila the Haig, running around frantically declaring himself in control and in charge. The ultimate realization of the inmates taking over at the asylum. The screenplay will be adapted from the book called “Voodoo Economics” by George “Papa Doc” Bush. Music by the “Village People” the very military "Macho Man."

“Company!!!”
“Macho, macho man!”
“ Two-three-four.”
“ He likes to be – well, you get the point.”
“Huuut! Your left! Your left! Your left…right, left, right, left, right…!”

A theme song for saber-rallying and selling wars door-to-door. Remember, we’re looking for the closest thing we can find to John Wayne. Clichés abound like kangaroos – courtesy of some spaced out Marlin Perkins, a Reagan contemporary. Clichés like, “itchy trigger finger” and “tall in the saddle” and “riding off or on into the sunset.” Clichés like, “Get off of my planet by sundown!” More so than clichés like, “he died with his boots on.” Marine tough the man is. Bogart tough the man is. Cagney tough the man is. Hollywood tough the man is. Cheap steak tough. And Bonzo’s substantial. The ultimate in synthetic selling: A Madison Avenue masterpiece – a miracle – a cotton-candy politician…Presto! Macho!

“Macho, macho man!”

Put your orders in America. And quick as Kodak your leaders duplicate with the accent being on the dupe - cause all of a sudden we have fallen prey to selective amnesia - remembering what we want to remember and forgetting what we choose to forget. All of a sudden, the man who called for a blood bath on our college campuses is supposed to be Dudley “God-damn” Do-Right?

“You go give them liberals hell Ronnie.” That was the mandate. To the new “Captain Bly” on the new ship of fools. It was doubtlessly based on his chameleon performance of the past - as a liberal democrat – as the head of the Studio Actor’s Guild. When other celluloid saviors were cringing in terror from McCarthy – Ron stood tall. It goes all the way back from Hollywood to hillbilly. From liberal to libelous, from “Bonzo” to Birch idol…born again. Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights…it’s all wrong. Call in the cavalry to disrupt this perception of freedom gone wild. God damn it…first one wants freedom, then the whole damn world wants freedom.

Nostalgia, that’s what we want…the good ol’ days…when we gave’em hell. When the buck stopped somewhere and you could still buy something with it. To a time when movies were in black and white – and so was everything else. Even if we go back to the campaign trail, before six-gun Ron shot off his face and developed hoof-in-mouth. Before the free press went down before full-court press. And were reluctant to review the menu because they knew the only thing available was – Crow.

Lon Chaney, our man of a thousand faces - no match for Ron. Doug Henning does the make-up - special effects from Grecian Formula 16 and Crazy Glue. Transportation furnished by the David Rockefeller of Remote Control Company. Their slogan is, “Why wait for 1984? You can panic now...and avoid the rush.”

So much for the good news…

As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation. And here’s a look at the closing numbers – racism’s up, human rights are down, peace is shaky, war items are hot - the House claims all ties. Jobs are down, money is scarce – and common sense is at an all-time low with heavy trading. Movies were looking better than ever and now no one is looking because, we’re starring in a “B” movie. And we would rather have John Wayne…we would rather have John Wayne.

"You don’t need to be in no hurry.
You ain’t never really got to worry.
And you don’t need to check on how you feel.
Just keep repeating that none of this is real.
And if you’re sensing, that something’s wrong,
Well just remember, that it won’t be too long
Before the director cuts the scene…yea."

“This ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really ain’t nothing but a movie.”

[Refrain repeated about 25 times or more in an apocalyptic crescendo with a military cadence.]

“This ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really ain’t nothing but a movie.”

Message To The Messengers

We all struggle with inner demons, and Gil Scott-Heron is no different.

Before we called it "spoken word poetry," Langston Hughes toured the south and Historically Black Colleges and Universities with a jazz band in tow. He influenced Gil Scott-Heron, the Last Poets and the Watts Prophets... and they influenced me.

Thus, this gives homage to a great voice: witty, funny, political, angry, intellectual and poignant. May we all wax this brilliant when we write.

The Griot Poet


* * * * * * * *

Gil Scott-Heron
From: http://sbacari.tripod.com/poetry/msgtomsgrs.htm

"...Be sure you know the real deal about past situations,
and ain't just repeatin' what you heard on the local t.v. stations.
Sometimes they tell lies and put 'em in a truthful disguise.
But the truth is, that's why we said it wouldn't be televised.
They don't know what to say to our young folk, but they know that you do.
And if they really knew the truth, why would they tell you???!!!
The first sign is "Peace." Tell all them gun-totin' young brothers
that the 'man' is glad to see us out there killin' one another!!!
We raised too much hell, when they was shootin' us down,
So they...started poisoning our mind and tried to jerk us all around.
And then they tell us they gotta come in and control our situation.
They want half of us on dope and the other half in incarceration.
If the ones they want dead ain't killed by what they've instigated,
They can...put some dope on the brother's body and claim it was...
"drug-related."
Tell 'em "drug-related" means there don't need to be no investigation,
Or at least that's the way they gone play it...on the local t.v. station.
All you 9mm brothers, give 'em somethin' to think about...
Tell 'em you heard that this is the "New Word,"
They gotta work that stuff out!!!
But somehow they feelin' the wrong way with a gun in they hands.
They feelin' real independent but they just pullin' contracts for 'the man.'
They will tell you it's hopeless out there on the avenue,
But if they really knew the truth, why would they tell you???
And if they look at you like you insane,
And they...start calling you "Scarecrow" and say you ain't got no brain
Or start...tellin' folks that you've suddenly gone lame,
Or that...white folks have finally co-opted your game,
Or worst yet, implyin' that you really don't know,
That's the same thang they said 'bout us...a long time ago.
Young rappers, one more suggestion, before I get outta your way.
I appreciate the respect you give to me and what you've got to say.
I'm sayin' "Protect your community and spread that respect around."
Tell brothers and sisters they gotta calm that bullshit down,
Cuz we terrorizin' our old folks, and we've brought fear into our homes,
And they ain't gotta hang out with the senior citizens,
Just tell 'em, "Dammit, leave the old folks alone!!!"
And we know who rippin' off the neighborhoods.
Tell 'em that B.S. has gotsta stop.
Tell 'em you sorry that they can't handle it out there, but they gotta
take the crime off the block!!!
And if they look at you like they think you insane,
Or start calling you "Scarecrow," thinkin' you ain't got no brain,
Or...start tellin' folks that you've suddenly gone lame,
Or that...white folks have suddenly co-opted your game,
Or worst yet, sayin' that you really don't know,
That's the same thang they said 'bout me a long time ago.
And if they tell folks that you've finally lost your nerve
That's the same thang they said 'bout us, when we said, "Johannesburg!!!"

But I think you young folks need to know that...things don't go both ways.
You can't talk respect on every other song or just every other day.
What I'm speakin' on now is the raps about the women folks:
On one song, she's your African Queen and on the next one, she a joke.
And you ain't said no words that I haven't heard, but that ain't no
complement.
It only insults 8 people out of 10 and questions your intelligence.
Four letter words or fours syllable words won't make you a poet,
It will only magnify how shallow you are and let ev'rybody know it.
And if they look at you like they think you're insane,
Or they call you "Scarecrow," thinkin' you ain't got no brain,
Or...start tellin' folks that you've suddenly gone lame,
Or that the white folks have finally co-opted your game,
Or you really don't know. They said that 'bout me a long time ago.
If they finally start tellin people that you've lost your nerve
That's what they said 'bout Johannesburg!!!
You ain't insane...you have got a brain...you haven't gone lame...you
have got your game!!!
Remember: KEEP THE NERVE, KEEP THE NERVE, KEEP THE NERVE, KEEP THE
NERVE...WE'RE TALKIN' 'BOUT P.E.A.C.E.!!!"

Essay Addressing Ignorance

This is an essay in response to the comments seen on an AOL posting of the same story in the link above. It just seems convenient (to me) that an investigation of Mr. Sharpton comes at a time of a focus on Jena, Louisiana and the lack of prosecution of cases by the Justice Department of this administration. It is also convenient that it happens, just as Mr. Sharpton observes, at the beginning of the '08 election cycle. Such an investigation could inevitably find something or nothing well after January of 2009, post the election cycle and past any efficacy or civil activism Mr. Sharpton could affect.

© 13 December 2007, The Griot Poet

* * * * * * *

With gem and witty comments like these:

“If stupid black people could reelectede that dem idiot...”

“What does this man do for a living....besides making money keeping racial prejudice alive and in the news????”

“IT'S ABOUT TIME HE GET HIS DUE!!!!!”

It speaks volumes to the superiority of the American educational system. Commenting on the comments:

(I assume he meant “reelect” and either “them” or “democrat.”)

(The answer to keeping racial prejudice out of the news is real American education on real American history.)

(No comment. Just absolutely none I can think of.)

I’m neither a supporter nor an enemy of Mr. Sharpton. But it is patronizing and condescending for some to think of them selves as intelligent enough outside of a group to pick its leaders. Did your parents have the right to pick Gandhi for the Indians?

Exactly what makes you the “experts” on the leaders Black Americans pick for themselves? Conservatives will pick Justice Clarence Thomas or Mr. Shelby Steele to represent their views, the other ninety percent will probably pick Mr. Sharpton or Mr. Jackson.

What defines the experiences of African Americans in this country is a matter of perspective, and I’m afraid yours is blinded by a culture that looks at others through rose-colored glasses, nurtured and pandered by myopic talk show hosts that don’t utilize the rules of investigative journalism because at their own admission, they are not journalists. They are mouthpieces that parrot talking points given to shock and boost ratings pandering to the worst motivations in an audience. You are deserving of the title “ditto heads,” because repetition of the nonsensical is the talent of tropical avian and ventriloquist mannequins, not critically thinking, and rational adults.

Instead of pandering to the xenophobic racist right, try to MAKE AMERICA BETTER and as good as its promise in the Constitution for ALL people(courtesy of Mr. Tavis Smiley, phi nu pi).

Then you will see Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson retire because there will be no more incidents like Jasper, Texas (James Byrd dragging death); Amadou Diallo (41 shots); Sean Bell (23, killed after a bachelor’s party the night before his wedding); Khiel Coppin (NY police fired a hail of 20 bullets, hitting Mr. Coppin 8 times); Jena, Louisiana and nooses in trees to fight!

Instant Writing #39

A piece created between myself and my publisher...

© 7 December 2007, The Griot Poet

Dueling Banjos - an instrumental song made famous in the movie "Deliverance" (circa 1972), see http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Dueling_Banjos..... Dueling Poetry - a free verse conversation between two or more poets; the extension of social and/or political thoughts or ideas; a collaborative, creative work between two or more poets..... Definition by TGP

No keyboard before me on which to type
my words get punched into the night
by the vibration of sound and
I recite verse free from
the incarceration of time,
meter, measure, rhyme,
my message is louder
than Strunk's hold
on grammar ... so you hear it,
no matter what I say ... and
my speech gets spoken
even though it's unwritten,
I need neither writers
nor politicians to compose
thoughts for me ... my
vocabulary merges with meaning
until deserving sentences write
themselves ... and no editor
dare omit a word ...
least they be found guilty of
treason against
the law of poetry.

The court is now in session,
formality makes indiscretion
obsolete ... as we ...
kneel, bow, and pray
to congressional hymns
that have sown their way
into our traditions ...

"Oh say does that star spangled banner
yet waive ...?"

Chinese slaves built America's railroads
and many of them are buried today
beneath the tracks
over which our passenger trains run [past]
like clockwork ...

our prison is made by a system of bars
called minutes ... and these are forged of neither steel,
nor mortar, but confining still---each believer
behind bars of their own private cell
called: freewill ...

it's an open campus penitentiary
where slaves study the subject of servitude
and every student makes the grade ...
or gets forced to repeat the lesson
until they can recite the lie
verbatim
in unison
with the masses ...

we are new and improved slaves
and our chains are made of
zero's and one's ...
classism is the new bondage
and I am ...

prisoner number 310-02-6624
reporting for mass ...

holy father ... forgive my trespasses
and make all my gas receipts
tax deductible ... least my enterprise
show a profit and I be made liable
to pay for my freedom ...

see ...

a 13% tax caused the Boston Tea Party,
yet, we pay 38% today
and are more than willing to keep our mouths shut
just to keep from being
audited by the IRS ...
which is about as federal
as Federal Express,
by the way,
the IMF has funded
BOTH sides of every
WORLD WAR
and these are the same people
from which we borrow the funds
to buy our homes ...

and I don't want to know anything more ...
and neither do you ...

because it's hard to hear that Prescott Bush
funded Adolf Hitler ... and it's difficult to swallow
the concept of multi-national obfuscation ...

but let us look on the bright side ...

at least most people don't know
obfuscation means.

* * * * *

The words you type ring clear,
Yet, truth is not what we want to hear...
"Truthiness" is the metaphor
Coined by those who obfuscate/confuse by
Their own forked tongues "creating their own realities"
And openly despise the "reality-based community"
That don't cooperate on their tripped-out fantasies
Of PNAC/Pax Americana world domination conspiracy theories...
I use the forward slash to define/educate
those that don't know the meaning...

No pole left or right
Will vote to cut Campaign Finance
from the true masters of the dance
we call "elections"...
The elite in each country throughout time, given reflection
Loath democracy
And give us the hypocrisy
Of rigged elections, writer's strikes,
Prima Dona divas like
Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Ritchie and Brittani Spears
To entertain our eyes/misdirect our ears/snowball us
As the US
With the stroke of a pen
Becomes the North American Union
(from the former US, Canada and Mexico)
And the numbing, dumbing drone
Of the obvious oxymoron’s:
So-called "Reality TV" and "fair and balanced news..."

Not that I advocate this,
But famous suicides are rampant:
Cho-Seung Hui, Megan Meier, and Robert A. Hawkins
Of the Virginia Tech Massacre, Myspace teen suicide and Omaha mall shootings respectively

While some of us in the "reality-based community" write
Fighting with pens and electrons in cyberspace
Those without expression or voice choose to check out of this place
And in their quiet or violent passage
Point to the hypocrisy, lies and disasters
Building empires from former democracies make!

ILLEGAL POETRY

© 7 December 2007, The Griot Poet

Sparked from an e-mail from Thom the World Poet...

Commentary:

Her poetry is a little rough, but no more nihilistic than any metal-head-rocker-cum-now-Republican-family-values-proponent.

The slippery slope gets slicker: the definitions of illegal poetry will get lower and lower. I won't have to illustrate a violent act - just opposition to a government policy, or a You Tube video someone doesn't like may get us all "renditioned."

Haiku:

to my distress, I
confess: I am guilty of
thoughtcrime - freedom dreams!

coming soon: Dept of Homeland Security, Poetry Abatement Division (Gene Elders, original e-mail comment)

"I'll be famous"

In "Question Mark" and "Ishmael’s Axe" I accounted for the sordid tale of Cho-Seung Hui and the Virginia Tech shooting. It is poetry most writers would not like to record.

Megan Meier thought that "Josh" loved her. The figment of a neighboring mother's imagination broke up with her and resulted in a sweet girl’s suicide.

Now we have Robert A. Hawkins in what is now the Omaha Mall shooting at the Westroads Mall: nine dead, including Robert and five injured at last count.

I'm old enough to remember when CNN debuted in 1980. Prior to that, HBO had limited showings and television shut down (the "snow" screen in the scene of the movie "Poltergeist") around 11 PM. If you were an insomniac, you REALLY had to work at it.

Not to say there weren't shootings: the UT tower incident in the '60s comes to mind. However, with 24-hour news and the Internet on which you read this commentary, becoming "famous" can happen in nanoseconds at near light speed with the voracious need for copy by the media.

Ironically, "Robert" means "bright and shining fame." I wonder if he knew this when he wrote "I'll be famous" in his suicide note?

In 2004, Nebraska ranked 41 out of 50 states in the rate of suicides recorded: 166 deaths reported in the state at a rate of 9.5. I'm getting this from www.suicidolgy.org.

From the CNN article linked above, his landlord paraphrased: "He basically said how sorry he was for everything," Maruca Kovac said of the note. "He didn't want to be a burden to people and that he was a piece of s--- all of his life and that now he'd be famous."

Mental health in this country is a phobia, a cousin in the attic no one wants to discuss. We've all got our issues, and they can be exacerbated by the economy, social situations and most importantly, lack of treatment.

It would seem silly if someone broke an arm or the femur in their legs and tried to "play it off" as if nothing hurts. Mind you, I've had my share of hairline fractures as a martial artist that I did the same thing with, but as I get older I'm a little more cautious and check out everything, EVERYTHING with my doctor.

When will we have this attitude about mental health?

Could crime rates be the result of desperate people finding themselves in desperate situations where nefarious criminal activity makes "sense" in warped minds?

Would their be a decrease in wars if we had clear-minded leaders that steered their countries towards peace and alternate energy sources so we're not beholding to despots and dictators to drive our SUVs, pay $3 in gas and turn on a light bulb?

If you were expecting poetry, I've already done it in "Question Mark" and "Ishmael’s Axe."

Sometimes I don't want to be brilliant in tragedy. I want tragedy to spur ACTION that will change or prevent such events becoming more frequent. I write because "I am involved [with] mankind," and I am concerned.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Those lines are John Donne’s From "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions."

My prayers to all Ishmaels before their cry for help makes them "famous."

The Griot Poet