Making Super Black History

WHEN I WAS a little boy, my friend Roosevelt and I shared a zeal for football. In the realm of or second-grade fantasies, we were sports broadcasters who followed every season of the NFL. We documented out predictions for each season in a comic strip complete with dialogue, outrageous detail, and catchy cartoon figures.

Whenever we couldn’t agree on the dialogue or on who would draw what team’s figures, we’d have a fight. Whoever won the fight won the right to write or draw whatever he wanted. Our fights were always physical, but they rarely hurt each other. The one who was hit too hard or pinned to the ground during a wrestling match would only have to say, “Stop,” and that was that.

Back then, some thirty plus years ago, it never really crossed my mind that even though some of the players looked like Roosevelt and I, the coaches of our favorite teams did not.

Back then, the Indianopolis Colts didn’t exist, but the Chicago bears were in their heyday.

Now, all grown up and looking through the looking glass of my brief history in this incarnation, the coaches of a few of the NFL teams look like me.

Tomorrow, two of them will face each other in the first Super Bowl in history that features not one, but two teams helmed by Black men. Two Black men who consider themselves friends, just like Roosevelt and I, will fight for the right to call themselves Super Bowl champions.

How did this come to pass?

A little more than four years ago, [Paul] Tagliabue urged NFL owners to improve their minority hiring practices. At the time, the league had an appalling total of two black coaches - Tony Dungy and Herman Edwards.

Tagliabue appointed a diversity committee headed by Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney that instituted a rule which required teams to interview at least one minority candidate for coaching vacancies.

The league now has a total of six black coaches, which is not a number to brag about. But the NFL will be quite proud on Sunday when Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears and Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts stand on the sidelines as the first black coaches in a Super Bowl.

Even still, as the full text of this article will tell you, things could be better. But Smith and Dungy have already made history.

Ultimately, the game will come down to which of the coach’s quarterbacks will execute. Peyton Manning will want to finally add the coveted Super Bowl ring to his padded resume, leading the Colts to their first ever Super Bowl crown.



Smith will want to coach his green quarterback, Rex Grossman, to a mature performance to give the Bears a chance to win their first Super Bowl in 21 years.

I must admit, I’ve got a soft heart for the Bears. They’re closer to my hometown of Milwaukee. And there’s something about Peyton Manning I just can’t get into.

Whichever team prevails, the coach will make history as the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl.

But that’s not all.

A new wrinkle in the Super Bowl week routine, added months ago, briefly brought the coaches together during their morning news conferences. It’s believed to be the first time coaches have posed together with the championship trophy before the game.

As it turns out, the pictures will commemorate the Super Bowl’s first black head coaches — who also happen to be close friends. Dungy coaches the Indianapolis Colts, while his protege coaches the Chicago Bears.

When the photo session ended, they shook hands and hugged, and Smith departed.

“It’s a proud moment for me, an awesome moment,” Dungy said, “not only because of what that symbolized for African-American people and African-American coaches, but more than that because of who I was standing with.”

Each coach will do things differently and the same in an attempt to add their names to the legacy of this great sport.

Just like Roosevelt and I, no matter who wins, I’m sure both Smith and Dungy will be take consolation in the fact that someone they consider a friend will walk through a big part of American history.

He Wrote The Songs: The Billy Strayhorn Story

Prolific gay composer Billy Strayhorn—who penned music for Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington—finally gets his due in a new documentary and CD.

by Kurt B. Reighley

from The Advocate

The new documentary Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life tells the story of a great love between two men. But it isn’t a romance, and only the titular protagonist is gay.

Billy Strayhorn wrote or cowrote several of the 20th century’s greatest jazz and pop songs: “Satin Doll,” “Lotus Blossom,” “Something to Live For.” He penned his masterpiece, “Lush Life,” recorded by everyone from Nat King Cole to Rickie Lee Jones, at the age of 16.

These gems have become Strayhorn’s legacy. But in his lifetime—which began in Dayton, Ohio, in 1915 and ended in a New York hospital 52 years later—the composer, arranger, and pianist was best known as Duke Ellington’s right hand. As Lush Life illuminates, the two enjoyed a complex relationship, which at times hindered Strayhorn from becoming a star in his own right but also permitted him freedom he might otherwise never have enjoyed.

Continue reading “He wrote the songs”





Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn

I READ THIS marvelous book back when it first came out in hardcover in 1996. Now that a new documentary and CD are coming out, I’ll want to reread it. There was something about Strayhorn’s story that I identified with. I remember crying a lot as I read it. Perhaps it was that he seemed an orphan of sorts, adopted into Duke Ellington’s music family. I had just started to search for my birth relatives, so I was an open wound.

Whatever the connection to Strayhorn I felt, I was simply moved by David Hadju’s elegiac narrative about the great man behind music’s greatest man.

At the time, there was buzz that a feature film based on the book was going to be made about Billy Strayhorn, played by Will Smith, who had just received raves for his turn in Six Degrees of Separation. Needless to say, nothing came of that.

Instead of waiting for my review of the book, which I may or may not get around to writing, I decided to post the following one that I found while surfing the net for artwork to include in this entry.

Duke’s alter ego
by Richard Williams

Jazz has produced several memorable threnodies - one thinks of John Lewis’s lament for Django Reinhardt or Charles Mingus’s salute to Lester Young - but none more affecting than Blood Count, recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1967, a few months after the death of Billy Strayhorn, Ellington’s long-time collaborator.

Dyed in the deepest indigo, it features the exquisitely mournful alto saxophone of Johnny Hodges, for whom Strayhorn had fashioned many wonderful settings. What makes Blood Count unusual is that Strayhorn wrote the piece himself. In fact, it was the last thing he composed, its title a rueful reflection of his plight in the final stages of a losing battle against cancer.

The partnership between Ellington and Strayhorn, who wrote together between 1940 and 1967, constitutes a mysterious phenomenon which went almost unexamined and hence largely misunderstood during the lifetimes of its principals.


As one of the great instruments of jazz, the Ellington orchestra was widely assumed to be the vehicle for its leader’s genius. Yet it was Strayhorn who produced some of the orchestra’s best known pieces of the post-1940 era: “Chelsea Bridge”, “Passion Flower”, “Day Dream”, and “Take the A Train”, that irresistibly hectic evocation of the now-demolished elevated railroad running from 59th to 125th Streets, adopted by Ellington as his signature tune and therefore assumed by many fans to have been written by the leader.

As David Hajdu demonstrates in this expert and enjoyable biography, Strayhorn also contributed in a less clearly identifiable way to such major items of Ellingtonia as the extended works titled “Black, Brown and Beige”, “Such Sweet Thunder” and “Suite Thursday”. He was often employed in completing or revising Ellington’s own sketches, and frequently his participation went uncredited.

If the rest of the world thought about Strayhorn at all during his years with Ellington, it probably conceived him as a shy fellow who preferred to stay at home and toil in obscurity while Ellington took the band around the world on one long party. Not the least of Hajdu’s discoveries is that something like the opposite was the case.

Continue reading the book review

Djimon Hounsou: Just Because

He is nominated for an Academy Award, after all.

Voices Rising: Other Countries Anthology

Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing
(Other Countries III)

edited by
G. Winston James
& Other Countries

Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing marks the twentieth anniversary of Other Countries—a small organization endeavoring to create a powerful, far-reaching, deliberate legacy of black queer expression. Voices Rising gathers more than sixty writers whose work forms an important bridge among members of black LGBT communities, charting two decades of evolution, accomplishment and struggle. The poems, short stories, essays, interviews and dramatic excerpts gathered here exemplify the personal, political and cultural complexities of identity, desire, family and community. In these pages established authors appear alongside emerging talents and heretofore unknown artists to compelling, historic effect. No other anthology so effectively represents the depth, breadth and brilliance of the current generation of black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers.

Contributors include: Samiya Bashir, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Sharon Bridgforth, Cheryl Clarke, Samuel R. Delany, Alexis De Veaux, R. Erica Doyle, Thomas Glave, Jewelle Gomez, D. Rubin Green, Duriel E. Harris, Imani Henry, CRAIG HICKMAN, Cary Alan Johnson, John Keene, Renita Martin, Bruce Morrow, Jcherry Muhanji, Letta Neely, Robert Penn, Colin Robinson, Shaw Stewart Ruff, Reginald Shepherd, Pamela Sneed, Storme Webber, Tim'm T. West, Marvin K. White, Malik M.L. Williams, Bil Wright, and more.

ISBN-10: 0-9786251-3-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-9786251-3-9
Specs: Softcover, 583 pp.
Price: $25.00
Pub. Date: January 2007
Cover photo © 1997 by G. Winston James
Cover design: D’Mon McNeil

[ Buy online ]

Jennifer, Eddie, Helen, & Forest Do It Again

13th ANNUAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS®

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Forest Whitaker / THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND



Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Helen Mirren / THE QUEEN



Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Eddie Murphy / DREAMGIRLS



Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Hudson / DREAMGIRLS



Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE



PRIMETIME TELEVISION

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Chandra Wilson / GREY’S ANATOMY



SAG Awards Recap: Part I
SAG Awards Recap: Part II

Roger I: 10-Time Grand Slam Champion

Roger Federer d. Fernando Gonzalez 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4





A Perfect 10
WITH HIS straight-set victory over Fernando Gonzalez in the final of the Australian Open, Roger Federer became the first male player since Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros in 1980 to win a Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set.

Feña almost ruined the Last King of Switzerland’s perfection. Serving for the first set at 40-15, the Chilean, who entered the match with 177 more winners than unforced errors, missed a forehand into the top of the tape, a forehand he had made time and time again throughout the fortnight. But pressure can be a bitch. He pulled up on the shot, allowing Federer to stay in the game, which he took on his first break point of the set. After a lengthy twelfth game that went to deuce more times than I remember, Feña saved two set points, but meekly lost the set in the tiebreak 7 points to 2.

Swirling wind wreaked havoc on the match. Neither player wowed with the consistently scintillating tennis they brought to bear in the semifinals. The women’s champion Serena Williams, who studied tapes of Feña’s matches throughout the fortnight, so impressed was she by his level of play, stayed around to watch the final live from the stands. (So much for her lack of commitment to the sport!) She commented to Pam Shriver that Feña wasn’t playing the kind of tennis that brought him to his first Slam final and was hanging around too much on the Melbourne letters about 10 feet behind the baseline. Still, he managed to compete as best he could and only dropped his serve once in each of the remaining two sets, ensuring Federer his march toward breaking all the records in the history books.

For his great effort throughout the fortnight, Gonzalez will move to a career-high No. 5 when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Making History
With 10 slam titles, Roger ties Bill Tilden for fifth place on the all-time Grand Slam titles list. This is also the second time in his career that he’s won three Slams in a row.

With the Australian Open under his belt, he will focus on winning his first Roland Garros title, which would secure him a Grand Slam and put him on course for a true calendar-year Grand Slam as well.

With Queen Serena back in rare form and already focused on clay and King Roger’s continued dominance, perhaps 2007 will be the first year in tennis history that both a male and female player bag the calendar-year Grand Slam.

Stay tuned.

Related Articles
What we learned
Fernando’s tennis lesson
A comfortable genius
No stopping Fed express
Poll Results

Men’s Final Preview: Let’s Have Some Fun!

by Savannah

IT CAN’T be all serious all the time. Let’s take a different look at the two men who will clash tonight in the final of the Australian Open.

There are a lot of similarities between Fernando “Fena” Gonzalez and and Roger Federer. Numerologically the numbers “1” and “10” are the same regarding their seeding. Both men are Leos. Fena was born 7-29-80 making him a Leo “2”. Roger was born 8-8-81 making Roger a Leo “8” person. Sunday, January 28, 2007 is a “1” day.

Fena’s birthday, the 29th, is a two. The number “2” is ruled by the Moon. The number “8” symbolizes Saturn, called the taskmaster by some and “an old devil” by others. By the way “1” is the number of the Sun, the ruler of Leo.

As a side note Serena, born 9-26-1981, is an “8” person. Maria Sharapova, born 4-19-1987, is a “1” person.

For more on numerology visit here.

We can have even more fun.

Roger - 1981 was the Chinese Year of the Metal Rooster.

Metal Roosters can come off as arrogant and stuck up at times. They need a cushion for that overextended ego and someone to make sure it stays inflated. They are reasonable people who seem to analyze every decision they make and every situation they find themselves in. They are standoffish at times and can let their aggression get in the way of a blossoming friendship or romance. These Roosters should take a breather from their egos long enough to really enjoy what they have to offer.

Fernando - 1980 was the Chinese Year of the Metal Monkey

Persuasive and passionate, this Monkey is a warm person. He is successful due to his innate determination and ambitious nature. He works hard to climb the ladder of success and prefers to work alone. They are loyal employees, always prepared and tactful with answers and upper management. In love these Monkeys are just as loyal as well as loving and affectionate.

For more information visit this site.

Yes it’s a bridal site. But it’s one of the best sites for Chinese Astrology I’ve visited. And I visit a lot of them. Let’s note Serena was born in 1981 like Roger. If Sharapova’s birth year information is correct she was born in 1987 the year of the Fire Rabbit.

The Chinese New Year is late this year, 2-18-2007. The year is that of the Fire Boar. The Boar is ruled by water. The year is ruled by Fire. Water and Fire don’t mix do they?

What does all this mean?

Western Astrology
The moon will be in Gemini for the match. Gemini is an air sign. The sun is in Aquarius, also an air sign. With these two fire signs going at it the match should be exciting. Think of it this way. Fire needs air to burn. There will be plenty of excitement in this match.

By the way this could also explain why Serena, a Libra (Libra is an Air Sign) dominated the way she did over the Taurus woman Maria Sharapova who truly looked earthbound and plodding during their match.

Chinese Astrology

Monkeys can run circles around other people with ease. They are curious and clever people who catch on quickly to most anything. Monkey people generally can accomplish any given task. They appreciate difficult or challenging work as it stimulates them and makes them think.

A Monkey’s good memory and his ability to adapt are two of his most prized possessions. He is intelligent and stoic, able to pick new trades up quickly and easily. Monkeys are also able to do all the work in half the time it takes someone else, but will charge you double what someone else would charge. As such, Monkeys generally take occupations in the world of finance, such as banking, stock exchange or accounting

The Rooster is a flamboyant personality, feisty and obstinate. He is quite the extrovert who loves to strut his stuff and is proud of who he is. Outwardly confident, the Rooster is also a trustworthy, hardworking individual. He’ll tell it like it is with no qualms or reservations.

Roosters are more motivated than most other Animal Signs, making their careers a priority in their lives. They are hard working, flexible individuals able to stick to the given tasks. They are generally successful individuals who reach the top of their chosen professions.

The Element of Metal

Those born under the influence of the Chinese Astrology element of Metal are determined, self-reliant and forceful. You enjoy the good life and all it has to offer -- luxury, comfort and freedom, especially. You're like a reclusive film star: You want the acclaim, but you also want to be left alone. You create your own success, building your desired destiny with single-minded focus. Others look up to you in awe of your commanding, confident presence.

While Metal individuals are strong and virtuous, you can be a bit set in your ways. No arm-wrestling with the metallic ones, either; they might break that appendage in two! They can be stern taskmasters as well, demanding the most from yourself and those you love.

Numerology
Saturn is the co-ruler of Aquarius. Roger, an 8, has the celestial lights for him in this regard.

Conclusion
I see these two men very evenly matched coming into this final. With all things equal I give the edge to Federer only because he’s been here before. Gonzalez wilted last year in pressure situations. But if he stays focused and plays the way he has been he can give Federer a run for his money. The paying fans as well as the sleep-deprived ones are hoping for a good match. We just may have one.

For a more “traditional” preview, click here.

Serena the Great: 8-Time Grand Slam Champion

Serena Williams d. Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2



Smackdown Down Under
IN JUST over an hour, #81 swept aside new world No. 1 in the championship match of the Australian Open in Melbourne Park 6-1, 6-2 to win her third Australian Open title, her first title since she won here in 2005.

Playing flawless, aggressive tennis, the focused Dreamgirl simply didn't allow Little Miss Sunshine an opportunity to play the match. Sharapova, who was extraordinarily gracious in defeat, even as her father Yuri stormed out of the stadium, suffered her worst smackdown in a Gland Slam match since the 2004 Roland Garros quarterfinals when she fell to Argentina's Paola Suarez 1-6, 3-6.

Saving both of the two break points she faced, #81 hit line-clipping serves up to 122 mph. She cracked 28 winners to only 11 unforced errors, a superb ratio for a player who admitted her errors are usually in the 50s. It seems that studying the videotapes of Fernando Gonzalez, the finalist who has played the best and cleanest tennis overall in this tournament, paid dividends. The champion remains a quick study.

No. 81 become only the second unseeded woman in the Open Era to win the Australian Open, and the first since 1978 when Aussie Chris O'Neil took the crown.

No. 81 also posted the second most dominant performance by a champion in Melbourne since Steffi Graf defeated Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-0, 6-2 in 1994.

Teary-eyed, Serena dedicated her third Australian Open crown to her slain sister Yetunde Price.

Serena the Great, who will catapult to No. 14 (with a bullet as the announcers proclaimed) in the rankings on Monday, is back. Back to muzzle every single one of her naysayers. Back to remind the world what championship tennis is supposed to look like.

All hail to the Queen.

Related articles:
Best of Serena's overall Grand Slam victories
Serena sizzles to title
Serena wows even herself
She's Back
Serena's To-Do List
Who Will Win? - Poll Results
Henin out of Melbourne: Who Benefits? - Poll Results
Ode to Serena

Little Miss Sunshine vs. Dreamgirl

Australian Open Women’s Final Preview


(AFP/STF)

by Mad Professah

The dream Women’s Australian Open Final. A revenge match between World No. 1 and No. 1 seed Maria Sharapova (RUS) and former No. 1 but currently unseeded (ranked No. 81 in the world at the beginning of the tournament but in the top 20 after it) Serena Williams (USA). Head-to-head the two are tied 2-2, although they have not played each other since Serena eked out a 2-6, 7-5, 8-6 win almost exactly two years ago in the 2005 Australian Open semifinals, saving three match points in the process, even though Sharapova served for the match in both the second and third sets. This was one of the best WTA Tour matches of 2005 and tonight’s rematch is expected to surpass that epic battle for drama, suspense and import.

The 2007 Australian Open has been a revelation for Serena Williams watchers. Despite only having played in four tournaments last year due to a nagging and serious knee injury, Serena was able to “shake off the rust” by improving her play round by round in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. After cruising through the first two rounds, Serena faced Nadia Petrova, a top 5 player, and came through with a victory despite being one game away from a straight sets elimination. That was her closest test, because not enough rust had come off her game to allow her to play her best tennis, but somehow, magically she was able to come up with brilliance at precisely the right moments to pull her through to the end, like a champion.

In her next round, Jelena Jankovic didn’t play the tennis which had made her the hottest player on tour coming into the tournament, and a resurgent Serena took her out in straight sets. Shahar Peer did an excellent job of pushing Serena by playing tenacious defense and remaining mentally tough enough to earn a match point. Serena calmly played high percentage tennis and won the last 3 games of the match. Against the powerful ball-striker Nicole Vaidisova her level of play had developed to the point where after surviving a close first set, the result of the match was never really in doubt.

Sharapova’s run to the final was nearly ended in the first round where she blew a 5-0 lead in the third set against the wily Camille Pin (FRA) and lost six consecutive games in the over-100 degree Melbourne heat and sun. Sharapova was two points away from a stunning first round loss against an unseeded and unheralded opponent who cooperated by collapsing mentally to allow the No. 1 seed to escape with a 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 win. Sharapova needed intravenous hydration afterwards. By surviving this crucible, Sharapova added to her growing reputation for mental (and physical) toughness. Although her subsequent play has been enough to defeat a trio of Russian players (Rodionova, Zvonareva [22] and Chakvetadze [12]), as well as end the last attempt of Kim Clijsters (BEL)[4] to win her first Australian title with a whimper instead of a bang. However, since that first round, Sharapova has not been pushed, and that will definitely happen against Serena.

In fact, the problem for Maria is that Serena’s play in the final is most likely to be even better than it was in the semifinal and Serena is well-accustomed to facing very hard hitting combined with excellent defence every day (i.e. practicing with Venus) and has played tougher matches than Maria in Melbourne. I believe this will lead Serena to her 3rd Australian title and 8th Grand Slam championship.

‘Dreamgirls’ Leads Oscar Nominations with 8

INEXPLICABLY, however, it was snubbed for Best Picture and Best Director. This is the first time in Academy Awards history that the film which leads the field in nominations did not receive a Best Picture nod.

I’m in shock. (I don’t shock easily.)

I’m in mourning. (Allow me my melodrama.)

Even Jennifer Hudson’s and Eddie’s Murphy's well-deserved nominations can’t console me right now.

I’m taking a few days off from blogging on this site to protest.

Modern Fabulousity opines on the backlash that may have caused the snub.

The Complete List of Nominees