Daily News Feed 1.14.09/Vocab: maudlin

Was Notorious B.I.G Really that Influential?
The most important film of our time” goes the tagline for the new biopic “Notorious” which is the story of the life and death of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. aka “Biggie Smalls.” Really? This is a more important film than Malcolm X? And it’s more important than the films about Martin Luther King or films such as “Cry Freedom” or “The Great Debaters?” I don’t even think it’s the most important Hip Hop movie. What about Krush Groove or Beat Street? I’ve loved hip hop since I first heard “Rock Box” by Run-DMC in the early 80’s. From the era of Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang, the Whodini, Fat Boys, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys in the mid-80’s. In the late 1980s it was the EPMD, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy, NWA, the Tribe Called Quest, De la Soul, Queen Latifah, Compton’s Most Wanted, and Dr. Dre. They are the legitimate pioneers of rap and hip hop. (Continue Reading….)

New York Knick Eddy Curry Sued by Former Driver
Knick center Eddy Curry was slapped with a shocking sexual-harassment suit yesterday by his former driver, who claims the 6-foot-11 hoopster tried to solicit gay sex from him. Stunning court papers charge that Curry, a married father of several kids, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky “in the nude,” saying, “Look at me, Dave, look” and, “Come and touch it, Dave.” Curry, 26, also made Kuchinsky perform “humiliating tasks outside the scope of his employment, such as cleaning up and removing dirty towels [into which Curry had ejaculated] so that his wife would not see them,” the Manhattan federal court suit says. (Continue Reading….)

RNC Chair Candidate: We Don’t Take Blacks Seriously
Michael Steele doesn’t think Republicans take black voters seriously. Didn’t hear him? He’ll say it again. In a November interview with the Washington Times, the chairman of the 31-year-old Republican training outfit GOPAC claimed that Republican leaders “don’t give a damn” about blacks. At last week’s debate between Steele and five other candidates for Republican National Committee chairman, Steele, almost unbidden, accused his party of “rolling out” black members as tokens, for media consumption. “We’ve had this conversation for 15 years,” Steele said after the debate, “about bringing black folks out. Well, do it. Don’t just talk about it. Do it.” (Continue Reading….)

maudlin \MAWD-lin\, adjective: