Blaxploitation and Deliverance

Thinking more about Isaac Hayes, looking for that academy awards clip. Not interested in digesting all his biographies and dissecting his character. More to try to honor his role in America growing up. I'm a "child of the 60s." born in 1960 and a time of upheaval. remember attending mlk's memorial service with my parents, i was seven or eight. When we came home from the service i used musical notation for the first time to write the melody for "We Shall Overcome." I never wanted to lose the feeling of that time and place. yes, i identified with that kind of change being possible. as a little blond white girl in Orange, California. corny, cultural appropriation, insulting? maybe some of that, too, but it's what it was. so when a friend recently blogged about "Black Moses" i got curious. i mean, it felt right, having seen and felt popculture thru that time, but i wanted to get a little deeper. and now I want to put this thing here that i found. Because it gets at what I've tried to say but didn't nearly as well. Leading his people into the promised land of money making movies and music, at a time when black characters in pop culture were Sammy Davis Junior and Sidney Poitier. What it meant was that white folks were spending their money to hear and see the black man's reality.* For the first time ever. First, though, from Wiki: "Blaxploitation films, such as Mandingo, laid the foundation for future filmmakers to address racial controversies regarding inner city poverty, and in the early 1990s, a new wave of acclaimed black filmmakers focused on black urban life in their films (particularly Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood, among others)." The PopMatters Film Blog
The Front Page
11 August 2008
Funk Soul Brother: Isaac Hayes He was Black Moses, creator of some stellar Hot Buttered Soul. He gave Shaft his Oscar winning authority, and broke down color barriers in the highly conservative - and Caucasian - film composer’s club... With a combination of long form covers and stunning originals, (Isaac Hayes) helped a lagging label that had just lost Otis Redding to a plane crash...But it would be the opportunity to score a seemingly unimportant blaxploitation film that would change Hayes, and the face of Hollywood, forever. 1971’s Shaft remains significant for many important reasons. First, it was one of the first mostly minority films to take the groundwork laid by Melvin Van Pebbles with his indie masterpiece Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song and turn it into a mainstream mandate. Second, it established the viability of the genre to those outside the urban setting - especially among the critical counterculture. Finally, it gave a soundtrack voice to the growing influence of R&B and soul. Hayes’ now classic wah-wah peddle tinged theme, containing lyrics that today are just as outrageous in their considered cool, became an instant smash. It earned the then 29 year old a much coveted gold statue, the first ever awarded to an African American outside of the AMPAS acting category. This is monumental for reasons that reach beyond Hayes’ own career. It opened the door for musicians of color, paving the way for Stevie Wonder’s win in 1984, Prince’s score prize the same year, Lionel Richie’s award the year after, and perhaps most remarkably, the Three 6 Mafia’s stunning upset in 2005 (Hayes actually appeared in Hustle and Flow)." Black Moses indeed. *Not that there is any one "reality" for any group of people. I don't mean to offend anyone here, and if so please let me know. This stuff is generality, of pop culture change and only that.

Obligatory Phillips

Getting ready Mom gave me Phillips Milk of Magnesia. She said she'd heard people get constipated when they travel. I think i hesitated a little, so she only gave us a little, as I remember. Me and my brother. He was six i was eight. Our sister was a baby, three months old. I remember random things, the drive there windy. A week or so before getting a haircut. A "pixie" haircut, the adults thought it would be practical because it was so hot in Libya. I cried. Smelling the exhaust fumes at LAX, they made me excited. And they still do.

The airplane was glamour to me. Like my aunt Jeanine's all white with blue balls christmas tree. Everything was lovely, quiet, kind, color coordinated. TWA light blue with navy and red accents. I was in awe. Every few minutes a new little comfort: drinks, warm towels, hot food, a toy plastic stewardess pin. We flew over the Atlantic.

It was a fairly empty plane, so the stewardesses made my brother and me little beds out of three across seats. They smelled like ladies. When tucking me in with a soft pillow and dimmed lights she said, "Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite." I thought that was the coolest thing, never having heard it before. It felt delicious there in that blanket with those lovely women taking care of everything and the warm hum of the engines cocoon.

When I woke up the sun was bright. I was a little unsure of what to do. I thought there was some sort of schedule of life on the airplane. I waited for someone to come and announce something next. Peeking out the bright window all I saw was endless white. It was the tops of clouds, but then I thought it was frozen arctic water. The stewardess laughed when I asked her if it was ice and if it was time to wake up. Not in a mean way, in an "aren't you darling" way. She got us things for breakfast. I started to feel a little something in my stomach.

We went back to sitting with our parents, getting ready to land. She got me a bag and my mom told me about the proper use of it. I felt better. The seatbelt light came on, we started the long descent thing. I threw up. Didn't quite make the bag, not all the way. some, the rest ended up in my brand new white boots. I cried because my boots were ugly now and my tights all dirty. The stewardess brought me some water and mint gum to freshen my mouth. I felt better. Then threw up again, this time I got the bag thing figured out. Could have used some Dramamine.

I wonder if those women ever realized how beautiful they were.