RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!! (Vol. 1, No. 4)

The easy part of doing "RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!!" is sifting through my brain to recall the most random thoughts and observations throughout the week or month that will tickle every one of you who actually entertain me.  However, the hard part is figuring out an interesting introductory paragraph, but like everything else about this series, things just happen by the grace of God and often out of nowhere.  Hence, we have a lovely Maryland license plate and I'm sure you're wondering what's the significance of it.  Well, here's a secret about me: I'm a numbers fanatic and looking at the back of license plates allows me to feed my fetish.  The game is simple: I take the bigger number, divide it by the smaller number and see if I can get a quotient without a remainder.  I cannot in this case, but the way that my brain is setup, I said to myself, "If that bigger number was 9045, then the quotient would be 1005."  I'll break it down even further by a number like 3, 5, or 15 and come up with further quotients like 335, 201 and 67, respectively--and this is all in my head.  Yup...been this much of a certified dork since 1987, but I bet you'll ask me to figure out the tip at dinner instead of wasting your time with a calculator.  Now when you start talking calculus, that's the only time in my life when I needed a tutor, so I might not be the guy you wanna talk to about that.  With that said, let's get random, kiddies and ducklings...

In Heavy Rotation (Black Music Month 2016)

When Momma Scribbler, Big Little Brother Scribbler (when he was actually Little Little Brother Scribbler) and I moved to Halley Terrace in Southeast D.C. in the summer of 1988, it took my mother about six months before she broke down and purchased cable for the first time.  One of the channels that my brother and I gravitated toward was BET and among so many awesome aspects to the only channel at the time that was owned by and featured Black people, I remember always looking forward to Black Music Month in June.  You would think that a predominantly Black network couldn't do it up any more for a month dedicated to our musical legacy, but with more throwback and world premiere videos as well as a few specials, they managed to drum up the excitement regardless.  While BET has channeled more of their Black Music Month energy into the BET Awards, I've decided to keep that initial legacy going in my own way and specifically dedicate this month's edition of "In Heavy Rotation" to my fellow brothas and sistas with a mixture of the old and the new.  Flipping one of Ol' Dirty Bastard's opening lines from "Triumph", let's take it back to '89--although none of these albums were made in '89, but you get the point...

When Winning DOESN'T Cure Everything: How the Golden State Warriors' Historic Season Was a Failure

Confession time: as much as Steph Curry is my current favorite player in the NBA and as much as I cheer for the Golden State Warriors because I appreciated how they assembled their team, a small part of me had a Skip Bayless moment and hoped that they wouldn't win the title for selfish reasons.  It honestly wouldn't have been as interesting from a writer's perspective if all of the historic accomplishments that happened this year culminated in a second-straight championship.  When they struggled mightily and historically overcame the 3-1 deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, I was sure that they had momentum on their side.  When they went up 3-1 on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals, I felt like my actual prediction was going to come true.  However, when Draymond Green got tossed for a game and Klay Thompson had his tricky "feelings" comments about LeBron James, I knew that King James and the Cavs were coming with the guillotine much like the Warriors came for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook when they clowned Steph Curry's defense.  When the Cavs forced a Game 7, I didn't have a good feeling about the Warriors' chances, felt like Cleveland stole the momentum and, unfortunately, that bad feeling came true.  One of my good Facebook friends and fellow sports enthusiasts took me to task for saying that breaking the Bulls' 20-year record for regular season wins means nothing if they don't win the championship.  While I understand the historical gravity of their season, I stand by my assertion: the Golden State Warriors' 2015-16 season is a failure.  In explaining my adamant position, allow me to summarily dismiss any potential excuses...

Coronation of the Prodigal Son: The Biggest Win of LeBron James' Career

There's nothing like being on the right side of history, but until the Cleveland Cavaliers won the first championship of their 46-year existence, the team was an extension of a city that had grown accustomed to being on the wrong side of history.  Even though they rolled through the Eastern Conference on their way to their second consecutive NBA Finals appearance against the defending-champion Golden State Warriors, many pundits still gave them little to no shot against the team that set the new record for regular season wins at 73 led by the league's first unanimous MVP in Stephen Curry.  Meanwhile, LeBron James made history by being the first player in NBA history (along with teammate James Jones, who was with him all four years in Miami) to make six consecutive Finals appearances.  However, when they lost Game 4 at home of all places, LeBron and the Cavs faced an uphill battle that no other team in NBA Finals history had ever been able to overcome: come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series.  However, with a tenacity like perhaps no other player before him, King James willed himself and his teammates with a "why not us" mentality and rallied to accomplish what seemed impossible against arguably the best team in basketball.  The Warriors' historic season quickly paled in comparison as the Cavs made team history, NBA Finals history and, most important, Cleveland history as the region's "Prodigal Son" finally brought one home for "the 'Land".  So let's explore parts of the path to LeBron's ultimate victory...

RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!! (Vol. 1, No. 3)

So it's been a while since the last post of this mildly comical series and you're probably thinking, "After this lengthy hiatus, why did Dirk decide to lead off his post with a picture of After 7?"  Some of y'all might even be like, "Who the heck is After 7 anyway?!?!"  Elementary, my dear Not-sons: I uttered the words "after 7" in reference to rush hour being over and traffic dying down and voila...my second favorite song from the R&B trio, "Ready or Not," enters my brain space!  ("Can't Stop" is my favorite.  I know y'all wanted to know that and even if you didn't, now you do.)  Later that evening, I happened to be talking about music from that same period with one of my dear, dear friends and what song got mentioned?  That's right...After 7..."Ready or Not".  Gotta love when randomness abounds and since the song probably won't be stuck in my head enough to make July's "'Get Out of My Brain!' Countdown of the Month", I thought I'd show love to Babyface's actual brothers and L.A. Reid's cousin for marketing purposes only.  (How about that last little fun fact.)  Now that I've unexpectedly taken you back to 1989 and made you want to crate dig for some more slow jams, it's time for the zaniest of the zany.  (QUICK NOTE: the word "zany" doesn't get enough play, so I decided to show it some love today.  See...even my vocab is random.)  Let's get on with it, fellow randomites...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Tuesday Night at the Movies, #3 The Last Dragon

So I know y'all were expecting the continuation of the "Tuesday Night at the Movies" edition of the "Rave & Favorite Five" last week and maybe that one Frantic Fanatic of the Blog out there thought, "Uttt-ohh...is he bumping one movie for another again?"  Well, unlike the conundrum of picking between House Party and Friday in the No. 4 slot, this holdup was simple: the late, great Muhammad Ali passed away, so yeah...that kinda took precedence.  Anyway, as you see which movie comes in at No. 3, there might be some of you who might think, "You have The Last Dragon ahead of Friday and (for those one or two of you hard core science fiction buffs) Blade Runner?!?!" Others might side eye from a different angle like, "The Last Dragon is only at No. 3???  What could you possibly have ahead of it?!?!"  Either way, this movie has been part of my cultural consciousness since I was six years old, it never ever gets loses its nostalgic allure and I'll give both the stiff critics and the overzealous cultists five good reasons why it made my cut...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five Special Edition: The Curious Soundtrack of Big Dadi Scribbler

Those of you who checked out my Mother's Day edition of the "Rave & Favorite Five" might have thought, "Awww, that's sweet...him love his momma!"  Facts, and don't you forget it.  Also, you may remember me saying that I come from a musical family not in the sense of trained singers or musicians, but just in a household of music lovers and Big Dadi Scribbler played the biggest role in shaping my musical tastes.  Much like I've had for the past ten years of living on my own, my dad had his own dedicated room for music that was full of vinyl and turntables--a room to which I would constantly follow him and fuel my fascination.  He's always had an excellent ear for music and knowing what songs would either be hits or could get people out on the dance floor and keep them there.  Furthermore, he's never been the type to limit himself to "age-appropriate" music.  Quick example before we begin...when he spent time down in Fort Lauderdale, he'd come back to D.C. with a bunch of Plies and Rick Ross mixtapes--often making me feel like I needed to play catch-up with him.  So as you'll see in the Father's Day edition of the "Rave & Favorite Five", there might be a lot more hilarity and head scratching involved with this tribute, so buckle up...

Scribbler's 2-for-1 Tuesday Special: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali

As evidenced from several posts, 2016 has been a rough time of losing heroes.  Unfortunately, we must now add the greatest boxer of all time and one of the most awesome human beings that ever lived and breathed, Muhammad Ali, to that list.  When I got the ESPN notification on my phone on Saturday at 12:29 a.m., my immediate reaction was, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"  I'm still in disbelief over the loss of Prince less than two months ago, so this just felt like emotional overkill.  Granted, I grew up in the Mike Tyson era of heavyweight boxing when many in our naive generation swore up and down that nobody could touch Iron Mike...that is, until our parents and elders hipped us to Mr. "Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee".  Suddenly, Iron Mike didn't seem as cool as a three-time heavyweight champion of the world who was one of the most skillful, tough, charismatic and confident brothers to ever perform in any sport, the blueprint for the activist and man of faith simply moonlighting as an athlete and could even push rhymes like weight.  So while the typical move for someone who is as into sports as I am would be to post my favorite five fights of his, y'all should know that I'm not that predictable.  Hence, this special edition of the "Rave & Favorite Five" as well as an "11th Hour Post of the Week" will capture my five favorite Muhammad Ali moments that manifest how his level of strength, courage and wisdom included but was certainly not limited to the sport of boxing...

Dirk Scribbler's Step-By-Step Guide to Making Movies About YOU

In the midst of watching the recent reworking of the legendary Roots miniseries, I was disappointed but not surprised by the large number of Black folk who complained, "I don't wanna see any more slave movies."  Thrown into the fire of disdain are also films about Black people being butlers and maids or marching under the "we shall overcome" banner.  At first, I was gonna write a post about why I don't have a problem with slavery movies and the like for two primary reasons: 1) they're a part of our narrative and, unfortunately, the remnants of the worst period in American history still rear their ugly heads in numerous ways in communities across the United States; and 2) I don't believe in letting the descendants and proponents of our oppressors off the hook, especially when they're still oppressing our people.  I also thought about taking a few gratuitous shots at many of those same folks don't wanna see any more movies about slavery, but have no problem listening to or watching us as drug dealers, substance abusers, promiscuous and/or misogynist lovers, money-hungry hustlers and heartless killers.  However, instead of launching a divisive diatribe and since this blog is New Problem Tuesdays, I decided to do some problem solving to help the disgruntled.  So for all of you rebels against 12 Years a Slave, The Help, The Butler or the new-age Roots or those of you who feel like Denzel Washington should've received an Oscar for X long before Training Day, I have carefully carved out a five-step guide regarding how you can be a part of the process of seeing more movies about you and people who look like you made.  Get your notepads ready...

Scribbler's "Get Out of My Brain!" Countdown of the Month (June 2016)

The beauty of the "Get Out of My Brain! Countdown of the Month" is threefold. On one hand, there are songs that you have absolutely no problem with occupying your brain space.  On the other hand, there are others that have no business being there at all and make you question your self-proclaimed impeccable taste in music--particularly whether or not you ever had any in the first place.  On a third hand loaned from some stranger on the street for the purpose of making my point, you could start off a month thinking that you're gonna have a few repeats from last month, but the vast treasury of music combined with the randomness that has always been your mind takes over.  To the last point, The Manhattans had a really strong chance to be the first repeat spot holders with "Wish That You Were Mine", but that whole first time for everything thing will have to wait at least another month.  So enough of the introductory fluff...let's discuss this month's space invaders...