Thursday, May 23, 2013

blaxploitation, drag kings and langston hughes

I know I said I was to have no lazy days this month but yesterday I couldn't help. I did nothing productive all day! Well, I wont say ''nothing.'' I did say my affirmations/meditations that pertain to my writing and book promotions. But that's all I did that was writing related.
    Cleveland has had some hot days already and summer is not even officially started yet! My apartment has been an oven and my fans are doing very little to keep me cool, so I kept drinking lots of cold water. I watched back to back episodes of Dark Shadows and a documentary called Baad Assss Cinema. It's about the blaxploitation films of the Early 1970's. These films were action packed urban dramas with lots of drugs, sex and violents. They swept the country and saved Hollywood from bankruptcy. They had titles like Black Cesar, Coffy, Blacula and Shaft to name a few. Pam Grier became a superstar and both Blacks and whites flocked to see them. The era of  ''blaxploitation'' films lasted from 1971 with the release of Melvin Van Peebles Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and lasted until about 1975. Pressure from political groups like the NAACP and C.O.R.E[congress of racial equality] put a stop to them. They felt that they exploited Black Americans and presented a negative image. I have seen a couple of them and I personally think that they preserve a beautiful snapshot of the early 70's in terms of fashion, furniture, cars, etc. I also think they created Black super heroes and heroins, so what if they were drug pushers, pimps and gangsters, employed Black actors and actresses like never before and they were/are just fun to watch! I think they are works of art. Today they are all on DVD and have a cult following like Dark Shadows and Star Trek.
    I did get on the computer yesterday but not to blog. Instead I watched female to male make-up tutorials on YouTube. I didn't know it took so much for a female to become a drag king! I wish drag kings got more recognition. There should be a drag race type reality show for drag kings. I would watch it! I also watched interviews of drag queens from Rupaul's Drag Race on a YouTube show called Under the Wig, which is out of Richmond, VA. Lastly, I surfed the web for Gay personals and hook-up sites! I was just bored and fooling around at that point. I couldn't even get into any of the sites because you had to join and  I wasn't going to do that, so...
    Then, I read some Langston Hughes poems and went to bed. I'm not big on poetry but Langston Hughes' work moves me like nobody else's. His poems are incredible to me.
     I can't afford to spend my days like that all the time or I'll never get my sequel finished. I just got off my day job as I write this, but I must get some writing done today. I don't care if it's only one sentence!

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