Sasha Fierce's Mama: The Official Portrait

The Real Sasha Fierce has approved the release of this photo.

Hood By Air: Can You Deal?

Eklektik Moves: Kuduro Courtesy of Caramimi Blog

My great friend and all around music muse Antoinette Celes from San Francisco posted this clip, amongst many others, which range from the music of Sun Kil Moon, Erik Satie, and The Cocteau Twins, to various musings on art and breathtaking photography on her blog CARAMIMI. This joint showcases dancers working it out to the sounds of kuduro, a mix of house and Carribean beats, which is popular in Angola. Shit is amazing.

Rich Medina @ Southport Weekender 41

I'm now an official fan of Philly/NYC-based DJ Rich Medina, who much like my friend DJ Ben Manzone, who himself is holding down a weekly Sunday jam throwdown called Masterfleet at coco66 over in Williamsburg, BK, keeps the vibe strictly organic with a mix of rare soul grooves, classic jack beats and funkified house along with a few kitchen sink elements. Yes, your soul can be saved, baby. Check out his homepage.

BONUS BEATS

Slumdog Child Star Beaten In Public By Dad

Azharuddin Mohammed, 10 year old star of the Oscar-winning smash Slumdog Millionaire, was subjected to a public beating today by his father who was frustrated by his son's refusal to comply with his wish to display him before an adoring public outside of the tent the family lived in.

No doubt exhausted from his recent travels and still riding high on what must have been a whirlwind of public appearances and interviews, combined with returning home to the realities of life in slums of Mumbai, maybe the kid just wanted to crash, you know?
Instead, he was treated to a hot dose of said reality, much like the one portrayed in the movie. After repeatedly slapping and kicking the boy, his father, Israel, then apologized.

"I was so confused and stressed by my son's homecoming that I did not know myself for a minute. I love my boy and I'm happy to have him home", he stated soon afterwards. Wow. Talk about life imitating art imitating life.

Read more about it here.

Jamie Foxx Rides With Opie, Blames It On The Alcohol

90's videoman extraordinaire Hype Williams hits you with a surrealistic mix of Hollyhood celeb cameos, including Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Forest Whitaker, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ron Howard(!), lesbian-lite, bourgie hoochies, and the ubiquitous T-Pain who, speaking of the nineties, seems determined to bring back the slo-mo-flash-2-bottles-of-overflowing-champangne-bottles-before-the-cameras move. No, wait. I think Hype already trademarked that shot back in the day. So.....is this what it's like to party large in LA? Whatever. It works for me.

On Blaming Rihanna: Um, Teens, Ur Doing It Wrong

There are actually a couple things I want to rant about this week - the whole Rihanna/Chris Brown affair and, of course,  New York Post Page Six cartoonist (and I use that term loosely) Sean Delonas's umpteenth failure in attempting to produce an image which reflects even the most minute trace of class or wit. I mean come on, if you've ever had the misfortune of viewing any of this man's work, you'd already know that he's a borderline talent or hack, at best. I've always found his style to be exceedingly repulsive and demoralizing in such a way that I'd experience a momentary lack of faith in humanity - and that is no mean feat. After all, as I mentioned in my previous post, I do have a taste for the horrific! That said, I'm glad the dialogue has been opened, and let's keep this up front - whether or not you find the cartoon in question to be racist, and it is, let us not forget that it also ran the day after the victim of the chimp attack had her whole damn face torn off!!

And speaking of battered faces, I find some of the reactions to the Chris Brown/Rihanna mess to be equally, if not more demoralizing. After gleaning the comments sections of some the most popular black entertainment sites, I started to feel as if there is no fucking hope for the current generation of African Americans, as I've read some of the most frighteningly idiotic comments from mostly female posters, who expressed their contempt for a victim of domestic violence. From accusations of "provoking" the attack to exposing Chris to herpes led the reasoning for such ignorant statements, and I simply had to stop reading in fear of my head exploding in frustration. I even got into a heated discussion with a few young female relatives of mine, who defended the perpetrator, all the while lying down on the tracks before the speeding train of perpetual ignorance and exclaiming that they don't believe everything they hear in the media. Granted. But why do I get the uneasy feeling that this is mostly the perception of mostly black teenagers? And throw in few young adults please, while you're at it.

Can this be the result of a basic lack of education? Home training? Perhaps it's contempt for the light-skinned black female, while simultaneously placing the light-skinned "fine" black male on a pedestal? Or is it the R Kelly Effect all over again? Why does the male, no matter what hue, always get a pass? Is it because of all the past pain and suffering and alleged burdens the black man has to shoulder play into it? My guess is it's a combination of all of these. I also believe that the way we perceive and portray ourselves in modern media culture, especially in music and television (hello Vh1!), has a lot to do with this. Constantly, in music videos and so-called reality shows, black females are shown debasing themselves to the extreme, eschewing any hunger and need for higher learning, professional achievement and self respect, all for the pleasure and entertainment of the male antagonist, in the hopes of winning his approval. The same applies to the whites in terms of these shows which portrays these women to be shrill, slutty, manipulative and lacking any semblance of integrity or class. Worse, we watch incredulously as they spout their own vapid reasons for wanting to participate in this sideshow. What's going on, people? Is it only entertainment? Clearly, much of what passes as reality TV is scripted, but I sincerely doubt that a lot of young kids who watch these shows can discern or even care to acknowledge this fact.

So, what can we do? It's pure and simple. Educate, educate, educate. Each one teach one. Make your kids pick up a damn book. It is the responsibility of the parents, got that? That's where it starts. That is all.

By the way, the Chicago Tribute has published an interesting article which touches on teens and their views on violence in relationships and the Chris/Rihanna affair. Check it out here.

Valentine's Day Special: Friday the 13th Part 12 - The Cold Heart of Crystal Lake

No apologies. I'm gonna come right out and admit that I'm a big fan of horror movies - the gorier, the better. Growing up in the 80's, I miss the danger and excitement of going to the movies on NYC's 42nd Street a.k.a The Deuce (fuck you Guiliani/Bloomberg) in the good old days where once, if you were so inclined, you could score the drug of your choice, a $20 "Ho Surprise" (back in those days, you didn't know what you was gonna get), a 40 in a brown bag, hit the games at Fascination or troll the peep shows, turn a trick at one of the hundreds of porn "palaces", get you some choice ass 12 inch singles from the record store in the A train station below 8th @ 42nd, or get your picture took in your best b-boy stance by the red tile wall - those who was there know what I'm talking about. At least it was interesting.

It's frustrating to experience the spectacle, forced elegance and sterilized version of what it looks like today, with its clueless, smug tourists and carpetbagging midwestern transplants who haven't the slightest clue that they wouldn't have lasted all of 5 minutes in the Times Square of yore. Y'all ain't really doing New York. Just check out one of my favorite blogs, ForgottenNewYork and you'll see what I mean. Best of all, back in those days, you could knock down 3 fitty for a triple pack of grindhouse/horror/karate flicks on The Deuce, and if you managed to navigate through the relentlessly sticky aisles and broken seats and got through all three flicks without getting your pockets cut out by a pickpocket or your ass sliced by a thirsty dope fiend lurking in the theater, you knew you was down.

Listen, I put up with Jason Goes To Hell, Freddy Vs Jason and Jason X , but it behooves me as to why somebody had the gall to remake or "re-imagine" a Deuce classic like the original Friday the 13th. I say re-imagine because this version is supposedly a mash up of FT13 parts II & III. Whatever. I'll probably go and check this out because it's supposed to have some choice kills, but I'm still kind of pissed. Call me a purist, but I miss the old school 70's/80's classiks like Sleepaway Camp, Autopsy, Maniac Cop, Last House On The Left (which is being remade by its creator, Wes Craven btw), The Power, The Beast Within, The Brood & It Came Without Warning, just to name a few. Back then, horror flicks didn't have a sense of humor, just straight up thrills. Hopefully, director Marcus Nispel's new version will restore my faith in horror movies that can still scare the shit out me.

I recently came across an article which listed a movie called Cold Heart of Crystal Lake as the 12th of the FT13 series. This short film was made by a fan of the series, director Joe Patnaud of Timberwolf Entertainment. Made on a budget of $250, it's pretty good, and a treat for all you blood hounds out there. Enjoy.

Beezo's Tryna Get It Together:

Beezo Blue is a work in progress, and lately, I haven't had as much time as I'd like to devote to BB, so posts here will be a little sparse for the next month or so. That will change, of course, and I will try and get in a few posts about anything earth-shaking, and if I have an emergency rant, you'll hear about it.

In the meantime, I'll post as much new & Throwback joints as I can. Also, in the coming months I'll be updating the look of this blog as well as adding some exclusive music including more Hip Hop, House and new R&B and movie interviews and general news items.

Please bear with me though, and check in every other day or so. Until then, enjoy a few songs I can't get out of my head at the moment:

Scarface - My Block

J Dilla - Life Goes On


Dj Jazzy Jeff & Big Daddy Kane - The Garden


Omar - Syleste

Video Clip: Mariah Carey & Gabourney Sidibe in Push

Here's a clip from the highly anticipated movie Push, featuring Mariah Carey & Gabourney Sidibe. Read more about it here.