Temple Basketball
By Avery | July 24, 2008
Temple basketball is number 20 in ESPN’s ranking of most prestigious basketball programs since 1984-1985. Had we pulled off a couple Final Four appearances, we’d be even higher. I knew we had a well-known program, but I didn’t think it was quite as consistent as it is, especially over the last few years. But even with the small downturn the program has taken, we’ve only had one losing season. Not too bad.
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The Big ‘O’
By Avery | July 24, 2008
Having spent a little time traveling over the past few weeks, including spending time in some very urban areas and some verrry suburban, borderline rural areas, I can safely say that all the talk about obesity is warranted. Now understand, based on what I saw, it’s not just Us, but it definitely is Us. So when I see pieces like this out of Madison, Wisconsin, I kinda cringe.
The disparity is most pronounced among women — almost twice as many African-American women are obese compared to white women in the state. And that disparity is what makes black women believe they are being held to a white standard of beauty and body type. Which is nothing new, said Beverly Burns of Madison, who was recently treating her visiting granddaughters to ice cream at the East Towne Mall food court. Burns recalls that as a young girl her mother was forced to stand with her back against the wall in the school gymnasium, and told that the space between her body and the wall meant that she was too fat. Burns is still indignant.
It’s weird. Having always preferred that svelte body type, I’m like, ‘I coulda been told you that.’ But I’m also keenly aware that obesity as a health issue and obesity as a body type issue have a dangerous confluence. I know quite a few women who think of calls by the medical industry for women in general, Black women in particular, to lose weight, as being motivated by some insidious plot to make them dislike their bodies. But there’s a difference between being physically fit and being trim. There’s also a difference between being curvy and being fat.
Now, here’s where I side with the people who look skeptically on these types of studies: the basis for declaring someone obese is the Body Mass Index, which, while mostly accurate, can yield some strange results because of the way it’s calculated. For instance, when I work out a lot, I tend to get heavier because I grow muscle. My BMI then goes up, moving me into the overweight range. Not that I’m all musclebound, but it’s obvious that the growth ain’t fat. At the same time, I know that in the overwhelming majority of the cases, the correlation between BMI and body fat is pretty much right. So then it comes back to health.
Not being a woman, I can’t pretend to know what it’s like to think that your body type is not “right.” Dudes pretty much get a pass. Not entirely, but we get a lot more leeway than the ladies. At the same time, some of these sisters need to recognize that even though they may have curves, a lotta that weight is not being carried in their breasts and hips. It that might be where they notice the weight lost first, but I’m tryin’a tell you — from scientific observation, of course — sometimes people think they got ‘S’ curves when they really got ‘O’ curves.
Self-delusion is just as bad as media inculcation.
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Wha’chu Gon’ Play Now?
By Avery | July 21, 2008
Blame It On The Boogie - The Jacksons
Sooperman Luva II - Redman
Golden Lady - Stevie Wonder
City, Country, City - War
What Is Slick - Pleasure
The Wobble - Dyke and The Blazers
Some Day - Mariah Carey
Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) - Joe Tex
Standing On The Verge Of Gettin’ It On - Funkadelic
Grigiopela - Gianfranco Plenizio
I’ll Pray For You - Cab Calloway
Somebody’s On Your Case - Ann Peebles
C’Mon Wit The Git Down - Artifacts, f. Busta Rhymes
The Grand Finale - The D.O.C., f. NWA
Misdemeanor - Ahmad Jamal
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That Dude
By Avery | July 19, 2008
This is a story jokers should be talking about.
If all goes to plan on the field this fall, Florida State safety Myron Rolle will produce the kind of season that catapults him into the first round of next spring’s NFL draft.
If all goes to plan off the field, Rolle will be faced with a vexing yet welcome decision: NFL locker room or Oxford University classroom?
Rolle, a preseason All-ACC and All-America candidate, is an astounding anomaly in a sport synonymous with low graduation rates and dumbed-down majors. He’s a 3.75 pre-med student who will finish his undergraduate degree in just two-and-a-half years; a National Leadership Honor Society inductee; the recipient of a $4,000 research grant for his work studying human mesenchymal stem cells and the facilitator of a health and living program at a charter school run by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
Just sayin. I haven’t rooted for Florida State since Charlie Ward, but Rolle might be able to get me to toss a couple granules of ‘hope so’ their way on Saturday afternoons.
Topics: Sports | 3 Comments »
…And A Bag of Chips
By Avery | July 9, 2008
Duane took it way, way back, bringing back the Homegirls potato chips, but makin it relevant, he points out the positive messages printed on the back of the package.
MOTHERHOOD
As we look to becoming mothers one day, we will produce good children with good manners and good minds. We are the first teachers.
WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THIS THING AROUND
MARRIAGE
We should save ourselves for marriage. Why should a man respect us if he can have us before marriage? Respect yourself and everyone will respect you. NO RING…NO THING?
WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THIS THING AROUND
THE POWER WITHIN US
The force within us is stronger than the negative forces outside of us. So our message to bad influences is… STEP OFF!
THERE IS A NEW BAG ON THE BLOCK… ITS ALL THAT..AND A BAG OF CHIPS.
Wow. No ring…no thing? Would they even PUT that on a bag of chips these days?
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Brand Name
By Avery | July 9, 2008
While any potential big-name coming to a Philadelphia team is exciting to me, I’m really not sure that adding Elton Brand to the Sixers is gonna do a whole, whole lot. The Eastern Conference is becoming quite competitive, but the Sixers are probably on the back curve of that. Up front are, of course, Boston and Detroit. Throw in Orlando and Cleveland, and that pretty much relegates the Sixers to a bottom seed in the playoffs already. Not to mention that it’s highly unlikely that Washington and Miami will be as bad as they were this year. Nah. It’s nice to add a big name to the roster, but I’m not sure that adding Elton Brand actually moves the Sixers any closer to a ring. This certainly doesn’t seem to make them automatics for the conference finals.
Topics: Sports | 5 Comments »
It Ain’t US, It’s YOU
By Avery | July 8, 2008
Floyd Mayweather and Winky Wright think that HBO boxing announcers are biased against Black fighters.
“They talk about Kelly Pavlik, a white fighter, like he’s the Second Coming. Or they go crazy over Manny Pacquiao. But I’m a black fighter,” Mayweather said. “Is it racial? Absolutely. They praise white fighters, they praise Hispanic fighters, whatever. But black fighters, they never praise.
“I’ve noticed it for a long time but I couldn’t say anything because I had to do business with them. I’ll still do business with them, but I’m done holding my tongue.”
I’ll tell you what: I have noticed that HBO’s announcers can be biased. When Floyd won me that dough in his fight against Hatton, if i hadn’t actually been watching the fight myself, I would’ve thought that Hatton was walking away with the thing. Jim Lampley is nowhere near unbiased, and Larry Merchant…well, at one time he was the best in the business, but Larry Merchant has no more business announcing a boxing match than Larry Holmes has fighting in one. At this point, Larry Merchant is strictly on unintentional comedy status. But he’s definitely opinionated, and it definitely favors a certain type of fighter. Unfortunately for Pretty Boy Floyd, it’s not really based on race. Winky actually hits at the real reason, but he allows himself to let the racial angle stick.
“Black fighters, we have different styles,” Wright said. “But the announcers, they want someone that just walks out there face-first. Boxing is supposed to be an art. Black fighters, we’ve got style, we’ve got pizzazz. All they want is for us to just go out there and slug.
“I think they’re just always looking for the next white hype. They just don’t give black fighters the same credit that they do for a white fighter, or a Hispanic fighter like De La Hoya. They definitely have their favoritism.”
Now, what Winky Wright said, if you exclude race, is exactly true: announcers and fans want to see a fight. Speaking for myself, while I appreciate a strategically-executed boxing match, that’s not really what I prefer to watch. Those aren’t the fights that get me excited while they’re happening and they’re not the fights I look back on with fond memories. The fights that get me excited were actually fights. Maybe Winky forgot, but Hagler and Hearns were both Black. So was Larry Holmes. So were a whole lot of other fighters. Again, don’t get me wrong, I understand the scientific, strategic aspect of boxing, but that’s not what I’m tryin’ to see. Especially not if I’m dropping pay-per-view money on it. If I dropped 45, 50 dollars on a fight, you better believe I want somebody to get dropped. So except for the fact that I have always and probably will always root for the Black fighter first, I want the one who’s bringin the action to win. I think the announcers call the fights the same way. As far as I’ve been able to observe, the announcers tend to favor the active fighters. But it’s not about race, or even “racial” style, it’s about activity in the ring. You wanna be a fan and announcer favorite? Go in there to wreck.
But this is a funny thing, because I definitely understand the picture from the perspective of the boxers. We’ve all seen what kind of a toll boxing can take on those who have been willing to get in there and slug it out. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to come out brain damaged or physically disfigured. Roy Jones was famous for saying that he didn’t want to hurt anybody and he didn’t want to get hurt. I can respect that. It’s a job, not a lifetime sentence.
But, and this is a sofa, fighters hafta understand where the fans are coming from, too. This is America. Soccer has a following, but it ain’t nowhere near football. That’s because football has scoring. If a fighter wants to leave the ring looking exactly the same as he did when he came in and fights with some impregnable defensive style that leaves him invulnerable while allowing him to pick his shots from round to round, that’s his prerogative, but he can’t feel some type of way when the fans and the announcers don’t like it. He can play goalie if he wants to, but we’re lookin to see blitzes and bombs. If he’s unwilling to do that, it’s disingenuous to act like there’s some racial bias afoot. Even if the feet are in the mouths of Lampley and Merchant.
Topics: Everwhatever | 5 Comments »
Intereresting Top 10 This Week
By Avery | July 7, 2008
Stevie 54
Little Brother 53
Public Enemy 37
Oscar Peterson 28
Take 6 25
Kirk Franklin 23
ATCQ 23
James 21
Elvis 20
LL 20
First time ever Elvis cracked my top 10 listens in a week. I’m actually surprised.
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King Asiatic Nobodys Equal
By Avery | July 7, 2008
Nuff Respect Due
Topics: Everwhatever | 1 Comment »
Jesse Helms
By Avery | July 4, 2008
Although I’m not one to revel in anybody’s misfortunes, I think there’s something…ironic (?) about the passing of Jesse Helms on July 4th. Perhaps it’s because as much as he signifies traditional conservatism to white conservatives, he represents a whole lot more to me. And in his case, that’s not a good thing. At all.
May his soul rest in peace.
Topics: Everwhatever | 1 Comment »