Just a train of thought I have been on. I just finished the Help for my book club. I have also been really interested in seeing the Blind Side. Both focused and/or written by white people about black experience. At first I did not think of the Blind Side this way, until I was watching the View last week. Vanessa Williams was on and talking about how some people in African American culture view the movie the Blind Side as yet another depiction of good-hearted white people coming in and helping the black race. Basically implying if enough white people just adopted another kid or helped the African American culture everything would be solved. It never dawned on me to think of this way. The panel around her (Whoopi and Sheri were out) was completely white and absolutely defensive. It did get my thinking. How many times do we see a good-hearted African American couple adopting a white kid. I can not think of one. Now there can be an argument for this that there are a lot more disadvantaged black and Hispanic kids out there. Maybe...
After reading the Help I realized it was completely written by a white woman with a lot of the book's focus on the experiences of African American nannies and housekeepers in the 60's. I felt like she did a fine job, but did she? I wonder what the black community thinks of the book? I think this has become a best seller more on the merits of white people buying it rather than anyone in the African American culture. I am a white person and can only imagine what a black person experiences, but I certainly do not know.
Are both of these examples just another shade of racism? It is intriguing to ponder and have no idea what the answer is.
May write more on my thoughts about this later. Just wanted to put this out there.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Kevin Smith is Gracious
Craig, my husband, has been a huge...huge fan of Kevin Smith since '94. I thought he was always great with dialogue and spoke to our generation. We are just a few years younger than he is. I liked Clerks and I think I saw Mallrats. I really liked Chasing Amy. That was as far as it went with me until I met Craig. He would post on the View Askew board, watched something of his on a weekly basis over and over again. He even went to a chic flick, Jersey Girl. My husband liked it (that never happens with most chic flicks) and it is apart of our movie collection. I started to appreciate Kevin Smith more and more. Then he started to do "Evening With Kevin Smith". These were the funniest Q and A's I had ever seen. He was brutally funny about his experiences navigating through Hollywood, his relationships with his family and friends past and present. He has done three on DVD so far. I highly recommend them.
So for the last couple of years I have wanted to get tickets to one of his talks. Never could seem to make it work with Kevin Smith's schedule and our own. He NEVER seems to come down to Houston. Then last Fall Craig just says,"He is coming to Houston." I knew exactly who he was talking about. The event was last night.
It was very similar to what is on the DVDs. However it always looked intimidating to go up and ask a question. It seemed you had to be in the zone with his humor to get the recognition you wanted. In person that was so far from the truth. The man was absolutely gracious. If you asked him a half way decent question he zoomed he on you. You were the only person in the room. The place was packed and it was a real gift. I felt for the most part the audience was respectful of him and when a questioner was not the audience responded.
Over the years I have watched comedy acts on stage or been in Los Angeles or New York and saw stars. Their can be a real haughty attitude to them or just leave me alone mentality. Which is totally understandable when everyone is at you. But you become totally out of touch with your humaneness. In the 15 years since he was been famous, he has not lost touch with himself as a person and it showed throughout the night. He showed vulnerability talking about the Southwest fiasco (my husband and I are boycotting them from now on until they refine the policy) to just outright bawdiness about sex, homosexuality, and even beautiful moments of the birth of his daughter. Here is my tangent on this: My only complaint is I had a semi-orgasmic birth YES I said orgasmic. And he talked about how much pain his wife was in before the epidural. It does not have to be that way we have created a lot of the pain by forcing women on to monitors, not being able to move around, or eating. Just watch Business of Being Born or Orgasmic Birth to see a different point of view. I almost screamed a view times about this at the event last night. But I was respectful.
His presence felt so real like you were just hanging out as friends. It has got to take it out of you to be so present for everyone and he went on at around 8:30 until nearly midnight. Graciousness is a talent that we do not always flex and he certainly does not have to with being famous in our culture. That means a lot to his fans. It was truly wonderful evening. Kevin Smith does have great fans here in Houston and I hope he felt that will come again.
So for the last couple of years I have wanted to get tickets to one of his talks. Never could seem to make it work with Kevin Smith's schedule and our own. He NEVER seems to come down to Houston. Then last Fall Craig just says,"He is coming to Houston." I knew exactly who he was talking about. The event was last night.
It was very similar to what is on the DVDs. However it always looked intimidating to go up and ask a question. It seemed you had to be in the zone with his humor to get the recognition you wanted. In person that was so far from the truth. The man was absolutely gracious. If you asked him a half way decent question he zoomed he on you. You were the only person in the room. The place was packed and it was a real gift. I felt for the most part the audience was respectful of him and when a questioner was not the audience responded.
Over the years I have watched comedy acts on stage or been in Los Angeles or New York and saw stars. Their can be a real haughty attitude to them or just leave me alone mentality. Which is totally understandable when everyone is at you. But you become totally out of touch with your humaneness. In the 15 years since he was been famous, he has not lost touch with himself as a person and it showed throughout the night. He showed vulnerability talking about the Southwest fiasco (my husband and I are boycotting them from now on until they refine the policy) to just outright bawdiness about sex, homosexuality, and even beautiful moments of the birth of his daughter. Here is my tangent on this: My only complaint is I had a semi-orgasmic birth YES I said orgasmic. And he talked about how much pain his wife was in before the epidural. It does not have to be that way we have created a lot of the pain by forcing women on to monitors, not being able to move around, or eating. Just watch Business of Being Born or Orgasmic Birth to see a different point of view. I almost screamed a view times about this at the event last night. But I was respectful.
His presence felt so real like you were just hanging out as friends. It has got to take it out of you to be so present for everyone and he went on at around 8:30 until nearly midnight. Graciousness is a talent that we do not always flex and he certainly does not have to with being famous in our culture. That means a lot to his fans. It was truly wonderful evening. Kevin Smith does have great fans here in Houston and I hope he felt that will come again.
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