Entries from February 2004 ↓

Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist and ESPN basketball commentator Stephen A. Smith believes some Black players in the NBA are openly insubordinate towards Black coaches and, conversely, deferential towards White ones.

Smith wrote his comments in Tuesday’s paper, on the heels of the Philadelphia 76ers firing head coach Randy Ayers, a Black man, and replacing him with assistant coach Chris Ford, who is white. The Sixers are below .500 and underperforming tremendously, after years of being a playoff contender under former head coach Larry Brown, also white.

The article is readable online for a limited time.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Even George Bush’s own core supporters are starting to realize what the rest of the civilized world has known for years–he’s a liar, he’s incompetent, he’s stupid.

Conservatives, from FOX News’ Bill O”Reilly to George Will, Robert Novak and others are now questioning not only Bush’s record-setting deficit-based economic policies, but now they are doubting his justification for war with Iraq.

Ok everybody together, “We told you so!”

A co-worker and I were commiserating this morning about being artists trapped in a 9-5 world. She is a contemporary dancer who has danced with such companies as Pilobolus, choreographed for others and has her own fledgling company. I am a still-card-carrying-but-non-working actor/voiceover artist and fledgling writer. Both of us are management level employees at a non-profit, where for the first time in a long time we’ve got a steady paycheck and somebody else to pay the health benefits. It’s tough to leave.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t still feel the pangs of a show business career. This past Saturday, I got a chance to voice two really short segments in a colleague’s documentary. It was the first VO I have done in ages, and while I could have rolled out of bed at 3:00 AM and done it, I was delighted he called me. Even that little bit made me realize how I miss an artistic environment.

The Gods must be conspiring to tempt and torment me because when I got to the office today, production trucks for Law & Order were parked right out front. RIGHT OUT FRONT. Production vehicles are not an uncommon sight in New York City, you can see them all over the place at any time of the year (there was even a shoot on my street at home a few months back), and you can always tell by the “No Parking” signs and orange cones everywhere that someone is shooting.

Now before I settled in to gainful employment, I did L&O about four times over the years. Background work mind you, but fun nonetheless. A small part of me wondered if I could flash my SAG card and talk my way into such a role today, the fact that I had work to do notwithstanding. Common sense got the best of me and I went up to my office.

But during lunch I went down to my bank on 14th and 8th, and came back up on the C train. I got off at 8th and 23rd and walked smack dab in the middle of an extras holding area for where they were shooting. I recognized the milling about and the production crews with walkie talkie headsets.

Again I tried to pay them no mind and continued across 23rd Street, but who did I see walking towards me? S. Epatha Merkerson and Jesse L. Martin. Professional actor (not to mention New York) etiquette prevented me from gushing or saying something stupid–I thought later of telling Epatha how much I enjoyed her performance in the play Fucking A. They passed and so did I, but several steps behind them was Jerry Orbach, walking by himself.

I kept walking towards the office and didn’t look back. In retrospect, I think the only thing I would have seen was my past.

Well, at least I can now post again. You’ll also notice you’re being redirected to a new URL. I figured I might as well rename the site while it’s being redesigned.

I’ll try to get back to regular posting again now that this temporary site is at least running. I miss my side blogs however.

Ok, so this thing was supposed to be updated a while ago. Not that there was anything wrong with the old design, it’s just that I got sick of looking at it. I have no plans to be one of those people who redesigns every few weeks. Once, maybe twice a year at best. But I had it in my head to do the damn thing–or rather get somebody to do the damn thing–and then we’d be done with it.

But noooooo! Technical shit had to go wrong, and glitches and shit, and all at the wrong time. With a main blog and five side blogs to fill each week, I write a lot, and last week in particular I had a lot of stuff I wanted to cover. But noooooo! Shit goes wrong and I can’t blog and it was really pissing me off. To have something to say and no place to say it is one of the most frustrating feelings in the world. I guess that means I’m a hardcore blog addict.

So anyway, the crack design and technical team is hard at work rectifying this problem. I don’t understand it all, I just do content. What you’re seeing now is another stop gap measure. It’s gonna change again, so don’t get use to it.

So now you know.