Troy

2012 Academy Awards Recap B&W Throwback Silences the Competition by Kam Williams The Artist, a black& white silent film evocative of a bygone era, won the hearts of the Academy Award voters, netting Oscars in the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Costume Design and Score categories. Hugo won five times, too, but only for technical achievemnts. After The Artist’s Jean Dujardin beat George Clooney for Best Actor, the foul-mouthed Frenchman not only broke his silence, but tricked the censors by saying the F-word in his native language during his exuberant acceptance speech. Maybe there’s a reason why silent film is his medium. Dujardin wasn’t the only winner to resort to expletives, so did T.J. Wilson (Undefeated), the first African-American director to earn an Oscar for a full-length documentary. It’s difficult to discern exactly what T.J. said, since he was bleeped a couple times for his indiscretion. Also crossing a line was presenter Jennifer Lopez, whose daring dress failed to cover all of one of her areolas. Could this have been a deliberate wardrobe malfunction by J. Lo to have the fashion talk of Tinseltown revolve around her revealing evening gown? But I digress. As this critic correctly predicted, Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) upset favorite Viola Davis (The Help) for Best Actress. Anybody else notice that naturally-coiffed Viola seemed to stand up as if to accept when Streep’s name was announced, as if she’d assumed she’d win? Why did I forecast a Streep victory? My thinking was that the 94% white Academy would cast sentimental votes for her over a relative newcomer, especially since the perennial-nominee hadn’t won in 29 years. Plus, the members could easily avoid being labeled racist by simultaneously supporting Davis’ African-American cast mate Octavia Davis for Best Supporting Actress. Replacement master of ceremonies Billy Crystal (for Eddie Murphy) did another excellent job, easily making everyone forget last year’s awkward attempts at comedy on the part of co-hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway. This go-round, the nine-time emcee revived such trademarks of his tenure as an opening song-and-dance as well as an inspired spoof of the Best Picture nominees via a movie montage. Complete List of Oscar Winners Best Picture: The Artist Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen Best Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash Best Animated Feature Film: Rango Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation (Iran) Best Original Score: The Artist, Ludovic Bource Best Original Song: "Man or Muppet" by Bret McKenzie, The Muppets Best Documentary Feature: Undefeated Best Film Editing: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall Best Cinematography: Hugo, Richard Richardson Best Visual Effects: Hugo, Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann & Alex Henning Best Sound Editing: Hugo, Philip Stockton & Eugene Gearty Best Sound Mixing: Hugo, Tom Fleischman & John Midgley Best Art Direction: Hugo, Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Schiavo Best Costume Design: The Artist, Mark Bridges Best Makeup: The Iron Lady, Mark Coulier & J. Roy Helland Best Live-Action Short Film: The Shore Best Documentary Short Film: Saving Face Best Animated Short Film: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Honoring the 75th Anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14 AT 6 PM A Literary Salon Join us for a Harlem Renaissance-style salon with live music, readings, wine and hors d’oeuvres. Mix and mingle and enjoy excerpts from Zora Neale Hurston’s writing, read by award-winning actor and poet, Carl Hancock Rux. Singers Toshi Reagon, Nona Hendryx, Martha Redbone, Marcelle Lashley and KimberlyNichole will perform. The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space 44 Charlton Street in SoHo Tickets: $25 at thegreenespace.org/zora Tickets include wine and light hors d'oeuvres

All of the critical reviews at Rottentomatoes (expect for ours) is trashing the Perry's latest film: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tyler_perrys_good_deeds/ The reviews of the general public over 4,400 of them are overwhelmingly positive (though it is not clear how many of these folks actually saw the film). I need more data, but anecdotally there is perfect correlation between a race of the critical reviewer and the reaction to this film. Let me know what you all think about Tyler Perry's Good Deeds Film (after you've seen it).

Good Deeds -In Theaters: Feb 24, 2012 Wide http://aalbc.com/reviews/good_deeds.html

Rick Stevens Ascot Media Group Post Office Box 133032 The Woodlands, TX 77393 Office: (281) 333-3507 pr@ascotmediagroup.com www.ascotmediagroup.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A Captivating Tale of an Unlikely Friendship Del Mar, CA – February 24, 2012 – Growing up in the tumultuous racial tension of the South in the 1960s, there was a secret in Betty Ann Hoehn's home: alcoholism. But the young girl also had a secret ally: Corinne. There was little shared between the two. Hoehn grew up in luxury; Corinne grew up in poverty. Betty Ann was white. Corinne was black. But when Corinne came to work for Betty Ann’s family, the friendship was instantaneous – sparking a heartfelt relationship that bonded them against all societal norms. In Corinne and Me: An Unlikely Friendship (AuthorHouse), author Betty Ann Hoehn reaches back to a time when racial issues determined daily activities for the majority of Americans. Her story captures the segregation that many experienced during that time and touches the heart through the story of one downtrodden, but courageous and loving woman who reached across racial lines to help a child and provide the unshakeable love and friendship that would take that child through the most difficult time in her life. “Through my life journey, Corinne has always been there for me; teaching me important lessons in life. My story highlights our unique relationship while drawing attention to important issues in our world today,” says Hoehn. “We are all God’s children; love knows no race, sex or religion.” For years, Hoehn watched as one by one the members of her family succumbed to "funny breath"--her family's euphemistic term for alcohol addiction in a time when addiction was not openly discussed. Little did she know that she, too, would fall victim to the disease. Her determination to overcome and lead a fulfilling and productive life is uplifting and encouraging to anyone who is facing this challenge or seeking to help a friend or family member as they face a life of recovery. Betty Ann Hoehn was born and raised in Memphis, Tenn., and currently resides in Del Mar, CA. Born in 1954, she grew up in the 1960s, a tumultuous time—strictly enforced segregation between blacks and whites, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the feminist movement. She received her B.A. from Bowdoin College in 1976 and her M.A. from the University of Memphis in 1997. She is an art historian and independent lecturer. Corinne and Me: An Unlikely Friendship intertwines the racial and segregation issues of the 1960s with positive messages of acceptance, love and faith. Available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com For more information please visit: www.corrinneandme.com ###

"I have found that brothers(actually all men in general) will do almost anything to attract the woman they want." Tansoba, Absolutely! At some point we reached a tipping point where enough women will accept anything from a man. Personally I was not raised to treat a women or anyone badly. Besides it is not in my nature. However I have observed guys treat women like crap. Over time as you grow up you begin to wonder if that behavior is the way you are SUPPOSED to teach a woman. The behavior is reenforced and seemingly works for many Brothers. The pimp archetype being the supreme master I remember calling my girlfriend, in high school, a "bitch" I was not angry or anything just using the term to refer to her. She immediately put me in my place, I knew better, but figured I'd see what happened. I have never refereed to another woman as a bitch again. As I got much older, I discovered that women who allow themselves to be mistreated have low self-esteems. Some Brothers seek these types of women out to exploit. Usually these guys have low self esteems themselves. I also discovered this is not the type of woman I would find desirable for a long term relationship, or even spend much time around. Hence the likelihood of me calling someone a bitch, that I hang out with, approaches nill. ----------------------------- More about Dark Girls

In previous years, when a sufficient number of people here cared about such things we would rake the NAACP and it's literature nominees over the coals [check a conversation from 2005]. So in the tradition of old I'll carry on. I believe the list of nominees are indeed better, but as usual the focus is on celebrity -- indeed in every literature category in which there was a celebrity nominated the celebrity won. Tony Dugny won for his children's book, Shirley Strawberry for being a debut authors, Hill Harper (yet again), and so on... It was however nice to see Reshonda Tate Billingsley win in the fiction category. Fortunately for ReShonda, this was the only category where a celebrity was not nominated. Reshonda Tate Billingsley That said, I'm still very grateful that the NAACP continues to honor and highlight Black literature. There are very few entities doing this type of work. The 10th annual Hurston/Wright Foundation's Legacy Award was cancelled last year. I'm in the industry and so few people are talking about this it is scary. A luta continua!

43rd NAACP Image Awards - Winners and Nominees for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work [2012] http://aalbc.it/nia2012 The awards were presented Friday, February 17th, 2012 at the The Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, CA

Writegirl simply type: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzgsaMNSYlE [/CODE] where: [CODE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzgsaMNSYlE is the URL of the Youtube video. Make sure you do not use the shorted version of the URL that will not work basically "UzgsaMNSYlE" is this video's unique code, the rest of the stuff is the same. The discussion board software is smart enough to embed the video automatically. Othewise type you can type: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzgsaMNSYlE[/media] [/code] This will make sure the video is embedded

Any group of people who'd throw Native Americans off their land will sure enough drain a community of their water.

Gibran (Alidawriter), that is since 1997 Brother -- don't short me :-) Trust me, if you managed to find your way to these boards and make a post you are doing pretty good. Keeping up with all this technology, social media, and the changing landscape of media, that about 1/2 of my day -- diverting valuable time from publishing content and developing the website. Writergirl your first response really resonated with me, so very sad... I do believe the answer will come over time was we, all of humanity, evolves (as Cynique says) into something beyond the barbaric children we are today. Sure there are glimmers of hope as some individuals demonstrate higher levels of consciousness. But the handful of monsters in control exert much more influence. I suspect humanity will ultimately prevail, but the time frames will be measured in 1,000s of years.

Man after reading a couple of your posts I didn't realize who you were until now: http://aalbc.com/authors/tariqandjones.htm I see you are still at it with a vengeance! Also, make it easy for folks; always provide a link when you post info about one of your books. Though I suspect anyone who read this post all the way to the end, would take the extra effort to find you book if they liked what they read. At any rate, here is a link folks can use to get your book on Amazon: http://bit.ly/whenisayjump ________ I hear what you are saying Gibran. In fact I remember all the press, back in the 80's about the pending emergence of a "Super Predator" the psychopathic, cock diesel Black male criminal that was gonna steal your money and rape your women. I grew up in Harlem and I remember how bad the crime was. People were getting mugged left and right, Drugs were rampant, etc, etc. The people in the community wanted something to be done. So when tough drug laws came into effect a lot of people where happy, sad to say, to see some Black men go away for a while. Of course people were reacting to an immediate crisis and were unaware of the broader implications of the tactics utilized -- Who gives a crap about the longer term societal implications of locking up Black men on a massive scale when you can't walk down the street without fearing for you life. Fast forward two decades and the Black community is worse off than ever before. Sure the streets of Harlem are safer than they have been in the last 40o years, but those streets are increasing trod by wealthy white folks. While Black male unemployment here is better than 50%. Many of the brothers are not only unemployed but realistically the are unemployable -- no education, few skills, criminal records... A disastrous situation for the community.. Now what? The schools are in a shambles, Wall street has taken what little wealth we had through shitty loans, health care is a luxury, and there are no decent paying jobs for folks who did not go to college, the criminal justice system is busting at the seams with Brothers, we are losing independent Black media platforms at an alarming rate and Black leadership (including Mr. Obama), is largely ineffective -- seemingly unable to make a dent in this catastrophic trend. What is the answer?

Oscar Predictions 2012 Who Will Win, Who Deserves to Win, Who Was Snubbed by Kam Williams On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were staged in Hollywood at the Hotel Roosevelt. Wings, a silent film, won the Oscar for Best Picture that night, a feat which would never be repeated, given the impending innovations in sound technology that ushered in the age of the talkies. But, as they say, wait long enough, and everything comes back into style, and such is the case with The Artist, a nostalgic throwback that’s the prohibitive favorite to prevail at this year’s ceremony. Who’d a thunk that a black & white, silent flick from France would eclipse powerhouse productions by the likes of Spielberg and Scorcese. However, the movie will meet some tough competition in the Best Actor category, where I’m picking popular George Clooney to eke out a victory over virtual unknown Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist’s pantomiming protagonist. I also see perennial-nominee Meryl Streep (17 times) squeaking by The Help’s equally-deserving Viola Davis for Best Actress, more for her 29-year drought than for her spot-on impersonation of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Best Supporting Actor is difficult to handicap, too, since four of the entrants, Nick Nolte, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow and Kenneth Branagh, have each enjoyed multiple Oscar nominations, but never won. My gut tells me that Plummer gets the proverbial “body of work” vote. As far as Best Supporting Actress, Octavia Spencer will triumph, since nonpareil comic performances like Melissa McCarthy’s in Bridesmaids continue to be underappreciated by the Academy. Besides peering into my crystal ball to forecast the winners, I have also indicated below which nominees in the major categories are actually the most deserving. And because so many great performances are invariably snubbed by the Academy, I also point out who has been overlooked entirely. Overall, look for The Artist to garner five or six Oscars which, while not exactly a sweep, will still be better than next-best Hugo’s trio of statuettes in technical categories. The 84th Academy Awards will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 26th at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, and will be hosted by Billy Crystal. Best Picture Will Win: The Artist Deserves to Win: The Artist Overlooked: Bridesmaids Best Director Will Win: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) Deserves to Win: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) Overlooked: David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) Best Actor Will Win: George Clooney (The Descendants) Deserves to Win: Jean Dujardin (The Artist) Overlooked: Ryan Gosling (Drive) Best Actress Will Win: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) Deserves to Win: Viola Davis (The Help) Overlooked: Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) Best Supporting Actor Will Win: Christopher Plummer (Beginners) Deserves to Win: Max von Sydow (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) Overlooked: Albert Brooks (Drive) Best Supporting Actress Will Win: Octavia Spencer (The Help) Deserves to Win: Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) Overlooked: Carey Mulligan (Drive) Best Original Screenplay: Will Win: Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) Deserves to Win: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) Overlooked: Lars von Trier (Melancholia) Best Adapted Screenplay: Will Win: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendants) Deserves to Win: Steve Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin (Moneyball) Overlooked: Tate Tatlor and Kathryn Stockett (The Help) Predictions for Secondary Categories Animated Feature: Rango Art Direction: Hugo Foreign Language Film: A Separation Cinematography: The Tree of Life Costume Design: The Artist Documentary Feature: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Film Editing: The Artist Makeup: The Iron Lady Original Score: The Artist Original Song: “Man or Muppet” (The Muppets) Sound Editing: Hugo Sound Mixing: Hugo Visual Effects: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Writegirl, maybe you should be rightgirl. I could at least tolerate the comparison if the alternative we was holding up offered us something better.

Cynique, I'm not sure of particulars of Bobby and Whitney's relationship, but I do know that, "birds of a feather..."

Tansoba, those are really beautiful sentiments. How do you propose that we, as a society (or at least black folks), make this happen? For example when you say, "I believe sisters should get a commitment before sex.", what does that mean? Should sisters wait for marriage, an engagement (including a ring), a verbal expression of committment -- what?

Alidawriter thanks for thanking the time to share your thoughts here and sparking a discussion. I see this is your 3rd post but this is the first one I've seen and I just wanted to welcome you to the discussion baords. This might sound odd coming from the guy who founded AALBC.com, but we must consider that fact that for the vast majority of history man was not publishing books, indeed for most of recorded history most people were lilterate. As as a result, I'm very careful in the power I associate to books. Indeed one could make a strong arguement that some cultures, that never saw a book, were superior to our own, where we literacy is high and books are plentiful. As a book seller I'll highlight the highbrow literary books as well as urban literarture. The most interesting people read widely. I encourage this, try to do it myself, and I hope this is reflected in the website's content. Two years ago at the National Black Writers Conference I hosted writers like Maaze Mengiste, Victory Lavalle, and Dolan Perkins Valdez. This year I'm hosting K'wan and Wahida Clarke. While many would hold one group of writers superior to, or more entertaining, than the other; I believe we have room for -- indeed should -- have both. The problem we have is that as we continue to lose platforms and the "black voice" on-line and elsewhere is controlled by large corporations; the literary legacy will reflect what appeals to the masses. This is our most pressing issue and it is occurring rapidly right before our eyes... Cynique funny you should mention music, I can't think of a more perfect example. As I witnesses Black radio for example coalsce into the Power 99's and the KISS FM's across the country. The same few artists were heard, regional differences diappeared quality of the music suffered greatly. The world of books is ever worse...

Check out AALBC.com's Latest eNewsletter -- full of information on Books and Film! http://aalbc.com/current.htm Let me know what you think I can always use more constructive criticism -- thanks

I visited the Charleston a couple months ago and checked out the Slave Market and the AME church -- doing these things is not just from Black History Month anymore.

By the way did anyone notice Facebook was down a few minutes today? Facebook lists the risks that could significantly harm its business. If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with Facebook, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed; We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising. The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with facebook, could seriously harm our business; Growth in use of facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results; Facebook user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control. ; We may not be successful in our efforts to grow and further monetize the facebook Platform; Our business is highly competitive, and competition presents an ongoing threat to the success of our business; Improper access or disclosure of our users' information could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business; Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and other matters. May of these laws and regulation are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could harm our business; Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock; The loss of Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl K. Sandberg, or other key personnel could harm our business; We anticipate that we will expand substantial funds in connection with tax withholding and remittance obligations related to the initial settlement of our restricted stock units (RSUs) approximately six months following our initial public offering; The market price of our Class A common stock may be volatile or may decline, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price; and Substantial blocks of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the market as "lock-up" periods end, as further described in "Shares Eligible for Future Sale." If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline. For anyone that hardcore here is Facebooks S-1 filing in its entirety: http://aalbc.it/facebooks1

I used to ignore everything Boitumelo wrote, now I really appreciate the contributions :-)

"Girl I wish I WOULD make my kids say some shit like that! They ain't SLAVES!" ​That is the statement of someone who was not likely raised in a manner to respect their elders or even authority for that mater. Now we are several generations deep into this and have no cultural memory of a time when things were different. Since most folks don't read there is no prospect for knowledge transfer.

Boitumelo is somewhat of an enigma. As far as I know Writegirl Boitumelo does not reply to posts. I don't read the poet's board very much, but Cary once pointed out that there was something poetic about one of Boitumelo's contributions so I decided to check out this one out. I thought the piece was worth reading but I also know the all-caps-text-dense-single-paragraph-post that is Boitumelo's style would probably cause folks to ignore the writing altogether. So I decided to reformat the piece (so any formatting problems were caused by me).

Trust me, the police don't want to go out on these calls either. Add mental illness into the mix you have a whole new class of problem. Writegirl, the problem is even worse when you consider the fact that police are stationed in many of our inner city schools. So and infraction that might have warranted a suspension in the past now results in a criminal record, creating a steady supply of Black boys to feed the insatiable prison industrial complex. No I also recognize that a lot of young men are simply of of control and parents, and schools have lost control. I'm not convinced that the parents or the schools are to blame. Our society has allowed a whole class of behaviors to slowly but surely disappear. The least of which is respect for elders. Children have not problem talking to their parents like they are grown. I can't remember the last time I heard a child address a man as "Sir" or a woman as "Ma'am". I see kids curse their parents out -- in public. Even on the upper east side of Manhattan is not uncommon to see a little girl call their mother "bitch" without an repercussions. Unless we reign things in this will only continue to get worse...