Showing posts with label Spike Lee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spike Lee. Show all posts
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Terrell Takes Hannity To The Woodshed Over Eastwood's Indefensible Portrayal of Only White Men Fighting at Iwo Jima
Bravo to my buddy and former KABC colleague Leo Terrell. While he and Fox News Spokeshole Sean Hannity remain on the same Los Angeles radio station, that didn't prevent Leo from checking Sean last night about Clint Eastwood. Check it out:Continue... after the jump.
Nevermind that Clint's done "Black films" like "Byrd" or that he's married to a biracial sister. While I don't always agree with Spike Lee, he's absolutely on point on this issue. And don't think folks were not high-fiving each other over Lee's brazen statement that he "is no longer living on a plantation" when it comes to calling out what he feels is insensitivity to all the men of color who have not been properly acknowledged or heralded. This despite fighting for a country who has not always returned that unconditional love to these veterans.
Clint, you should know better. At the end of the day, it's about folks skilled at their craft having an opportunity to work so they can join the Screen Actors Guild, get some dental and medical benefits, and leverage working with a Clint Eastwood for the next gig. It's one thing if it would be historically inaccurate to portray black people. It's completely different when demonstative evidence establishes otherwise, and still a conscious decision is made to keep us off the set under the guise of artistic license.
Hannity's ridiculous response to this battle between the two acclaimed directors/actors over the lack of African-Americans being depicted in World War II films was comical... and pathetic. Sometimes it's not about black or white. Sometimes, it's about right and wrong.
Exibit A why my GOP party is bracing for some heavy losses this November.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Spike Lee Takes On Clint Eastwood, Aka... Mars Blackman vs. High Plains Drifter: Who's Correct on Blacks Role In WWII?
Cannes Film Festival--Most things you do successfully in life; you feel good afterwards. There are a few things you can do, fail, and still feel good afterwards.
Taking on Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood is neither of those.Spike Lee accepts this risk and is determined to make things happen, as he goes after Clint for the lack of an African American presence in his two war epics Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. His first move was creating the new movie Miracle at St Anna.
This is an epic story about members of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought the Germans in Italy. His second move was to "call Eastwood out" for his lack of Black soldiers at a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday.
“Here’s the paradox,” he said. “These African-American men wanted to fight against fascism in the name of democracy. At the same time, they were still second-class citizens.” Although Lee emphasised his respect for Eastwood as a film-maker, he claimed that the director had been told of the African-Americans who fought at Iwo Jima, and had chosen to ignore that “information”.
TIMES ON LINE has more of this story.
Friday, May 2, 2008
BARBARA WALTERS GOT HER FREAK ON WITH A MARRIED OBAMA CLONE BACK IN THE DAY!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Alicia Keys Pays Tribute To Spike Lee's "School Daze" In New Music Video "Teenage Love Affair"
Seeing as though I met my now wife when I was twelve, I'm absolutely digging "Teenage Love Affair" by Alicia Keys. It's my favorite cut on her slamming cd. After watching the video, I'm just beside myself:
As a Morehouse Man, the whole "School Daze" vibe is so on point, I feel like I'm back in time, strolling between The House, Spelman and Clark Atlanta University. Anybody out there want to co-sign on this???
As a Morehouse Man, the whole "School Daze" vibe is so on point, I feel like I'm back in time, strolling between The House, Spelman and Clark Atlanta University. Anybody out there want to co-sign on this???
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Spike Lee Pimp Slaps Rap, And Takes Those Lying Clintons To The Woodshed
WHY SPIKE AIN'T HAAVIN IT!
An unabased Barack Obama supporter, the brotha warmed up the audience with a jab at the New England Patriots. But, turning serious, award-winning film director Spike Lee expressed concern about the misguided values some blacks live by today in a speech last night.
Lee focused on film, hip-hop and the importance of education and hard work in the black community in his lecture to an enthusiastic crowd in a packed Salomon 101.
"No matter what you want to do, if you want to achieve that dream, you have to bust your ass," Lee said. "I'm very fortunate (to be successful) because my first two years I wasn't doing anything in school."
Lee, who attended historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, said a major problem with the education of blacks was the notion that being smart was equivalent to being white.
"If you speak correct English, get good grades, you get ostracized as being a sellout," Lee said. While he was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s, "you got major props if you were smart. No one would call you a white boy or white girl if you got A's."
Lee said he blamed the rap industry for discouraging blacks from hard work and studying. At one point, "it was against the law for African-Americans to learn how to read and write," Lee said. Now, rap music and videos spread the notion that "ignorant is being black ... gangsta ... ghetto."
Lee, who said he had "no idea (he) wanted to be a filmmaker," credited his surroundings for his early success. Lee was raised in Brooklyn by his mother, an art teacher, and his father, a jazz musician. He said he first starting filming the summer after his sophomore year of college in 1977.
But that's not all. Seems like legendary filmmaker has his panties in a wad over a few things,like the difficulty in getting financing for films about blacks, why he'll win an Oscar in 2025, and politics.
When asked what he thought about Obama, Lee had this to say "I’m riding my man Obama. I think he’s a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was Do the Right Thing. I said, “Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to Soul Man. Michelle would have been like, ‘What’s wrong with this brother?’ ”
As to whether this meant he was down on the Clintons, Lee answered in the way he always does, pulling no punches. "The Clintons, man, they would lie on a stack of Bibles. Snipers? That’s not misspeaking; that’s some pure bulls***. I voted for Clinton twice, but that’s over with. These old black politicians say, “Ooh, Massuh Clinton was good to us, massuh hired a lot of us, massuh was good!” Hoo! Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins—they have to understand this is a new day. People ain’t feelin’ that stuff. It’s like a tide, and the people who get in the way are just gonna get swept out into the ocean."
No really Spike, how do you feel?
Monday, March 31, 2008
It's Back To Black For British R&B Singer Amy Winhouse
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Today, It's All About Katrina, Jena 6, And The Bobby Brown/Whitney Houston Custody Battle Trainwreck
Bush: 'Better Days' Ahead Two Years After KatrinaCNN, Spike Lee Give Camcorders to Kids Post-Katrina
Response to Hurricane Katrina Draws Fire
As La. Rebuilds, Many Think the Nation No Longer Cares
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
SPIKE LEE ATTACKS HOLLYWOOD FILMS
By NICK VIVARELLIROME -- Spike Lee engaged the Italo press with some anti-Hollywood ranting as he officially unveiled his new World War II project about the plight of black American soldiers fighting the German army in Tuscany.
"If you look at the history of Hollywood, the black soldiers who fought World War II are totally invisible," Lee lashed out during a packed presser in Rome's posh Hotel de Russie.
"This is the paradox: black people who were fighting for democracy but at the same time were second class citizens at home," Lee elaborated further.
Read more of this story in Variety.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
IF PUFF CAN DO BROADWAY, WHY NOT SPIKE?
If there is one universal truth about Spike Lee it's that the man is gutsy.
In a move that has the Broadway vanguard choking on their crumpets, the director of "Do The Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" is slated to direct "Stalag 17" for the Broadway stage.
It's not so out of the box for film directors to try their hand at theater work, but here's the rub with Spike: He has never worked in the theater and couldn’t recall the last play he attended.
Yet he's confident that he'll do a great job. We're sure he will. That's our Spike! To read more on this story, go here.
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