Monday, May 29, 2006

Explique, si vous plait?





Ok, respect to Luke Cage, hero for Hire, forever. And I’m not talking the pseudo-racist Brian Azarello Cage or the Bendis I’m too cool for a costume Luke Cage, I’m talking about old school metal tiara yellow shirt open “Sweet Christmas”, fighting villains named Cockroach Luke Cage Hero for hire.

If not respect then appreciation for the foul mouthed, kinda super-powered, alcoholic semi serious Bendis creation of Jessica Jones. I read every single issue of Alias and the Pulse, and tracked the whole Jessica Jones falling in love in Luke Cage.

But come the hell on! Why does the black icon of the seventies have to hook up with the most trailer trash alcoholic chick in the Marvel Universe? And its not even that I’m against the inter-racial thing. I’m just saying why the most low rent white chick on the marvel universe?
Why not Ms. Marvel, or Spider-woman. My collaborator on Afrogeeks seems to think Joss Whedon has problems with black men. Fuck that, Joss is a scripting god mainlining Celestial L.S.D. through his metaphysical veins. Bendis and the editors at Marvel got issues with Black dudes. Yeah, there’s two Marvel weddings going on, Black Panther and Storm, and Luke “Pimp my world” Cage and Jessica “I like to get drink before I have sex” Jones”. B.P and Storm, is just an example of two God like characters joining, big freaking deal. I mean they’re not human so they can’t really be black, you know? But Luke was human. His only power was being strong and bullet proof. No country of his own, no ability to control weather, just a convict with a hard ass body. He was the most human of the black super heroes. So does that mean he has to kick it with a demented white girl with no powers to speak of who failed at the superhero game? Just saying, it smells fishy.

Alternative/Alternablack and my new love Jahcoozi

Not to go against my homie here but I’ve got a bit of a different approach to the whole Afrogeek/alternablack implied binary opposition.

Afrogeek, them’s be folks. Those who lay outside the habitual bounds of what modern culture considers Black. Maybe not the coolest kids on the block, the afrogeeks generally start on the fringes and get absorbed into dominant U.S culture when something that they’ve created can be integrated into the mechanism of capitalism, i.e. they make something that can be bought or sold. The product generally gets (hi)jacked while the culture of the black geek gets fused into popular images of blackness. Hip-hop is a prime example of third stage geek culture. I predict the same thing will happen with black speculative fiction, and anything that comes from the margins.

Alternablack is that which increases black. It arises concentrically with the afrogeek as it situates itself in improper relation to what the dominant culture considers blackness. If blackness performs its role as a culture, a race, and ethnicity, in polar opposition to Whiteness (“It’s black because its not white.”) then Alternablack functions as the inclusive element of humanity which refuses binary constructions. Just as the color black can absorb all other colors and still function as black, so too does the alternablack incorporate the seemingly non black in order to re-contextualize our notions of blackness.

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST WRITE?

Simple the front woman of Jahcoozi, Sasha, in my mind is an alternablack because she is Sri Lankan and sings about being Black. She increases the capacity of blackness. Oh yeah, and she’s hotter than cayenne pepper on a demon’s ass. Yeah, she want’s to marry me. At least that’s my mental.


Myspace Tom is Rupert Murdock and he is not your friend

Ok, so as I'm sure all fo you afrogeeks know Rupert Murdock owns myspace. So all that personal information you submit in order to find a new "Friend" is actually going to be used to assign you a commerically viable cultural integral that is keyed specifically to your financial and social strengths and weaknesses. Think I'm paranoid? Peep the link below. A guy by the name of Robin Sloan hooked this flash up for the fun of it with a friend a few years ago. Rumor goes Murdock AKA, Mr. Charlie, took one look at it and bought Myspace. I don’t think it was Robin’s intended result for his project. Anyway, it opens up some interesting possibilities. Would love to hear what people think about it.

http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/

Video vision

Video Vision
Been meaning to post this for a while, along with a lot of other stuff. But just so we're clear, I predicted this as soon as the video Ipod came up. Who wants a five inch screen to watch all your illegally downloaded stuff on anyway? I'm first in line for one, as soon as I can figure out if they work with glasses.

http://www.myvu.com/

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

A bit late, but here you go.

Ororo Munroe (Storm of the X-Men) and King T’Challa of Wakanda (The Black Panther) were married a little while ago. And in un-comics like fashion, the story was written by a Black Man. Was this an historic comic book event or just a “Marvel is trying too hard to be semi-relevant” stunt?

Your thoughts, insights and opinions.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

My Definition…My Definition is This.

AfroGeeks: Black, Post-Black, Pan-African Diasporic (including mixed folks) lovers of sci-fi, fantasy, tech and mech, horror, fantasy, anime, magick and other outre stuff traditionally (stereotypically) considered things only white people dig. Basically, if you were teased, beat up—or both—for being into what you were into, you just may be an AfroGeek.

Alterna-Black: Black, Post-Black, Pan-African Diasporic (including mixed folks), para-mainstream entities. Has love for—or a position in—mainstream popular culture, but (usually) isn’t embraced by the lovers (read: white majority) of mainstream popular culture.

Examples:

Octavia E, Butler: AfroGeek
Mos Def: Alterna-Black
The Roots: Alterna-Black
?uestlove: AfroGeek
Tamar kali: Alterna-Black
Living Colour: Alterna-Black.
Fishbone: Alterna-Black
Vernon Reid: AfroGeek
Prince Paul: AfroGeek
Pam the Funkstress: Alterna-Black
Walter Kitundu: Alterna-Black
Kelis: Alterna-Black
Erykah Badu: Afro-Geek
Talib Kweli: Alterna-Black
Dave Chappelle: Alterna-Black
Nalo Hopkinson: AfroGeek
Steven Barnes: Alterna-Black
Dead Prez: Real Black!
Flavor Flav: Damn…I don’t even know

Who We Are

- We are not monolithic or uni-faceted.
- We see the importance of both Public Enemy and The Clash.
- We got cable, not for BET or MTV, but for the SCI-FI channel.
- We want to hear Tamar kali alongside E40. (flamingyoni.com)
- We see the parallel between the hyphy movement and punk rock.
- We used Star Trek: DS9 to help our students understand the Iraqi invasion.
- We see the importance of a Pan-Black presence in popular culture.
- We miss Gordon Parks and Octavia E. Butler.
- We have stepped off of our blocks and dreamt of the stars.
- We have passports and have used them more than once.
- We know we are the shit…but, then again, so are you.
- We are Black, Post-Black, and see the advantages and limitations of this existence.
- We are not limited to hip-hop, even though we may love it dearly.
- We do not all know each other, but we do know that we are enormous in number.
- We are not mainstream, even when we are.
- We purchased our computers before we got our cell-phones.
- We rarely ever have to call tech support.
- We hear Digable Planet’s Rebirth of Slick and we still get chills.
- We can name more than 10 famous black folks, who are not celebrities, athletes or musicians.
- We are all around you.
- We are AfroGeeks.
- We are Alterna-Blacks.