Santa Claus: Environmental Impact Statement

PETA has trouble with the fur coat. The red and white paint on the fur contain toxins. The reindeer are captive in cages in freezing temperatures and allowed out one time each year to work long hours. Santa is grossly overweight and is susceptible to a stroke or heart attack. Santa is promoting sprawl by living at the North Pole and his manufacturing facility is polluting the land, water and air. And what about black Santa?

Santa supports drilling in ANWR because his delivery service needs the extra oil (he doesn’t really deliver presents worldwide all by himself). Santa uses nonunion, Chinese labor and undercuts other smaller stores by giving away his product. We can’t tell whether Santa is a Republican or Democrat. It is rumored that Santa is being subsidized by the U.S. government and is receiving special air clearances by the Defense Department. Congress is calling for an investigation. Clearly, the Record of Decision should reflect that Santa is a significant polluting entity.

Big Black Goes Ape For Blond

King Kong is a great 3-hour epic love story between the beauty and the beast. I can see how the big fella fell for Naomi Watts. She is fine. But I do not see how she fell for Adrien Brody. King Kong looks better. When the blond first meets Kong, she screams when she sees how big he is. When Kong runs off with the blond, a bunch of white men armed with automatic weapons pursues them through the jungle to save her. Interestingly, the search party is led by a Black man.

Skull Island is some type of environmental aberration with dinosaurs and amazingly nasty bugs of all types. The natives are zombies right out of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead. They seem to be on some pretty powerful psychotropic drugs too. Kong fights and kills 3 T-Rexes and giant bats. Kong is captured when a bottle of chloroform* is broken on his face and he inhales the fumes.

After being exploited on Broadway, he escapes and does a number on Times Square. He wants to find Naomi Watts and any old blond will not do. He dispatches with blonds faster than a cheap New York pimp until Watts finally shows up. Watts was so distraught at the loss of her love at the top of the Empire State Building that I thought she was going to jump too. Of course, the other beast shows up to save her.

*Chloroform (also known as trichloromethane and methyl trichloride) is a member of environmental pollutants known as trihalomethanes a by-product of chlorination of drinking water and a long-standing health concern. In the past, chloroform was used as an inhaled anesthetic during surgery, but it isn't used that way today. Breathing chloroform can cause dizziness, fatigue, and headaches. [Images: Universal Studios]

Acting White

The irony of this behavioral phenomenon is that it is an environmental issue in Hollywood, in the classroom, and in the black community. It isn't real but it is a distraction to the easily bamboozled. The dynamic LaShaun Barber (pictured above) gives a great description of this paradoxical trap at her CORNER. Which actors 'act white?' Which ones 'act black?' What is 'acting white' and 'acting black?'

Positive Hip Hop Environment

Hip Hop successfully penetrated Hollywood like rock & roll and rhythme & blues never did. Hip Hop opened the Hollywood doors to an unprecedented number of blacks. Of course, maybe Motown stars such as Diana Ross pointed the way. But the Temptations, 4 Tops, James Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix, although some of the best ever, never penetrated Hollywood like Will Smith, Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, Ice-T, LL Cool J, Outkast (Andre Benjamin) Eve, and others. Maybe the times also had much to do with it. Although the 60's stars had the talent, they probably just did not have the opportunities. Anyway, it is good to have something good to say about Hip Hop, because much of the news this CNN for the Hood broadcasts is quite negative.

Booker Rising: Interesting Posts

The dynamic blog Booker Rising has two posts that are stranger than Hollywood. Or maybe they were made for the Left Coast.

1. "Environmental Laws Lead to Ban on Death"

2. Brokeback Mountain - - Hollywood Promotes Reach Around Romance

It's A Wonderful Life

I just watched my favorite movie (excluding The Matrix Trilogy) again and it was as good as ever. Frank Capra also cast many blacks in this 1946 film, including Annie as Bailey's maid (those were the only roles blacks could get back then). Mr. Gower would have been arrested for child abuse today for injuring George's ear. Harry Bailey would have been charged with sexual harassment for slapping Annie on her behind. Donna Reed shouting upstairs to her mother, "he is making passionate love to me.." was pretty racy for that time. But let's get to the real question:

Can anyone out there tell us the plant Zuzu's petals came from? And Googling it will take some real research. A big prize for the first right answer.

"They're not there either...Zuzu's petals."

Richard Pryor Dies at 65

Richard Pryor died of a heart attack today.

Making Green Music In A Blue World

Environment Man (Blues Instrumental)

New AAEA Podcast

Listen Now

The above link is an interview conducted by our Blog Technician Marshall Kirkpatrick with Norris McDonald, President of the African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA). The podcast is about 18 minutes and covers a variety of topics including:

1) This blog, the AAEA Hollywood Blog and AAEA's experiences with constituents on these blogs.

2) Will podcasting take off or do most people prefer their talk on the radio and music on their iPods?

3) Nuclear power. The AAEA supports it as the solution to air pollution and global climate change problems.

DiCaprio Green Documentary Fiction?

If Leonardo DiCaprio does not endorse nuclear power as the front-line technology fix for global warming in his planned documentary, he is producing fiction. The film, 11th Hour, a feature-length film that explores global warming and offers solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems, is scheduled to be released in fall 2006. He will collaborate on 11th Hour with Tree Media Group founders Lelia Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners to produce, co-write and narrate the film.

AEon Flux & Black Monkey Woman

Although the movie is visually stunning, intelligent and has okay action, the image of one black character, Sithandra, was interesting - - her feet were surgically replaced with hands. She proceeded to swing from tree limbs. Maybe it wasn't intended, but this modification essentially turned her into a monkey. Or maybe racism was intended. What do you think?

The setting for the movie takes place 400 years in the future, after a virus decimated 99% of the earth’s population. What is left of mankind, now reduced to only 5 million souls, resides within a walled city-Utopia called Bregna. Doesn't it seem that in Hollywood the Earth is often decimated by a virus in the future?

Æon is a citizen of the anarchist country of Monica and is a tall, sexy, scantily-clad secret agent . Æon is sent on a mission to assassinate Trevor Goodchild, biology expert and ruler of Bregna, as well as a direct descendent of the scientist who had saved humanity from oblivion by devising a cure for the virus. Things don’t go exactly as planned. They never do in these movies do they?