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Friday, August 7, 2009

Transformations....

I'm sitting here watching "Car Wash"...dang, that soundtrack was fiyah, for reals! It's so interesting to see folks as they were 30 years ago...Antonio Fargas played the sweetest gay flame to a tee, Bill Duke was the young rebel, and The Pointer Sisters were the joint. Did you know that Joel Shumacher (director of The Lost Boys, Batman Forever, etc.) of all people, wrote this movie? By himself. He also wrote "Sparkle" and the screenplay for "The Wiz". Who knew?

There are many transformations that happen in 30 years, some for the better...some well....ummm, you know, not so hot.

Black film has gone through both extremes--the "not so hot" downgrades from the 70's with the Ice Cube legacy (see the upcoming film "Lottery Ticket" with said Cube and Bow Wow, and any "Are We Whatever Yet" films), and the upgrades being the new class of thoughtful Black films, i.e. "Medicine For Melancholy".

Saw a couple of pictures in the past few days that are prime examples of the upgrades and downgrades from the 70's.

Remember Freddy "Boom Boom" Washington? Remember Cochise? He was so fiiiiiine in "Cooley High", sexy, sexy, sexzay. To be fair, Laurence Hilton Jacobs was severely compromised even in the 90's; he chased after my redbone girlfriend for the longest, and she never even gave him the time of day....there were many more traces of Joe Jackson (whom he played in the "Jacksons" mini-series) than Cochise by that time. Here he is today--call me mean, but I'm sorry, it's disturbing.


On the other end of the spectrum is super super-model Iman, who called Michelle Obama "not a great beauty" (btw, I disagree). Well, if being a "great beauty" means wearing blond plastic Barbie hair against your dark African skin, with a couple of (or more) surgical facial procedures, along with wearing foundation lighter than your natural skin tone, she may have a point. Either way, still much better than 1975, yes?




7 comments:

Lenoxave said...

LMAO! You are so wrong, but true.

RainaHavock said...

I would say something about Iman but that would be mean. O_O So I want say it all but still lol at this post.

msladyDeborah said...

The soundtrack from Car Wash was definitely hawt! I was sitting here thinking that I only saw this film once. When it played in the theatre.

Iman has never been that impressive to me. I find her to be rather shallow from the interviews that I have read. I'm sure she doesn't think Michelle is a natural beauty. But from where I sit, give me Mrs.Obama's look any day because it is for real. Not a make over thanks to cosmetic surgery.

Ms☆Go said...

In all fairness to Iman, we don't know if her opinion on Michelle is based on her own internalized issues or simply preference.

*shrug*

BUT.

I DO think it was crass to air that opinion about a peer (another black woman in the public eye).

It's just tacky.

And Iman? Probably would not have gotten as far as she did in modeling had she not augmented herself. So, I can't judge her too harshly for playing their game.

We know how the media works. :-/

One beauty standard for all.

dubbleu said...

WOW, I had never seen that before picture of Iman. Talk about change. I guess the entertainment industry is as hard as they say it is...

Nicole said...

I love "car Wash" Richard pryor was too much in that movie!

Invisible Woman said...

@lenox ave and raina havock: you know i'm right!

@ms. lady: you should DEFINITELY see car wash again.

when i read iman said that, i was like "wtf?" i mean, her hair is fierce and weaveless, nice skin, fit body, tons of style, and was all about the business even before being first lady. i really wanted to tell iman to stfu, and i'd really always admired her before that statement.

@ms go: everyone makes a choice; iman made her choice by trying to assimilate and europeonizing. there are other models, naomi campbell for example (who is very vocal about racism), beverly peele, naomi simms, alek wek, and others who kept true to who they are.

the choice she made to make that statement was also beyond wack.

@wanda: it's very good to her now, tho

@nicole: richard was on it in that movie, for reals