Memo to Isiah Thomas...

FROM: Kemp Powers

TO: Isiah Thomas

RE: WTF???

Isiah, you are sincerely f*****g killing me here. I've always liked Steve Francis, going back to his high-flying days as "The Franchise" with Houston, but a backcourt of Francis and Marbury is about as intimidating defensively as a backcourt of me and my son. I pray to the basketball gods that this is part of your brilliant plan to land us Kevin Garnett or Allen Iverson this summer. The Big Ticket could be the answer to the Knicks' prayers. The Answer wouldn't, but he would at least make Knicks games worth watching again. But if you don't land KG or AI, you'd better pretend you're in Sao Paulo and start taking a helicopter to work.

I don't get it. Michael Jordan botched things up less than you, and he still got sent packing in D.C. And he even suited up for the team! Are you thinking of signing Walt Frazier too? Bear in mind, I don't hate you Isiah. I just love my Knicks, and I hate what has been done to them. Talk about lipstick on a pig. I didn't want Larry Brown in New York. Look at how poorly the Pistons are doing now that the underrated Flip Saunders is coaching them. My pick for coach would have been Mike Fratello. Everyone knows the czar is a no-nonsense, defensive-minded guy who keeps his teams competitive. I remember those Cavs squads he used to coach that gave the far more talented Bulls and Pistons runs for their money back in the day. But no, the Knicks had to go for the overpriced glamour pick. And despite your wise and steadfast refusal to trade star-in-the-making Channing Frye, I don't trust you. I would not be surprised in the least to see Frye packaged with Francis or Marbury to land a hobbled Jermain O'Neal in the offseason. Those are the kinds of moves the Knicks have become known for.

Oh well...Snakes on a freakin' Plane...

This show is 100% Sucker Free

After several years of standing on the fence, just renewed my love affair with Netflix. I got tired of the hard to find releases never being in at Blockbuster, Rocket Video, or Hollywood Video. The first thing was to fill the queue with films and television shows I've missed over the past few years, and I received, and watched, Spike Lee's Sucker Free City last night.

SFC originally aired on Showtime a couple of years ago. It was supposed to be a regular series (a la The Wire), but the deal fell through, and Lee only directed the two-hour pilot, which is available on DVD.

Two words for SFC: LOVED IT!

It's hard to watch any film these days and not "see" a screenplay, and based on that I have to give writer Alex Tse as much credit as Lee for creating a rich film with subplots that I am left salivating to see resolved. It's rare to see a film handle so many ethnic groups so well without being patronizing to any of those groups. Tse manages to establish some very real issues such as Chinese ethnic pride, but doesn't stoop to making the black characters the boogeymen in order to do so. I sincerely hope Tse gets lots more work, because my man has a unique voice that deserves to be heard.

Then there's Spike himself, who does such a great job directing this film that it had me reminiscing of Mo Better Blues. Talk about painting a picture of the City by the Bay that has never been seen before. It's an unfortunate reality that Hollywood relies pretty exclusively on South Central Los Angeles for all of its ghetto and hood needs, and Spike's very real (though virtually unrecognizable) vision of San Francisco is amazing.

Talk about one of the ones that got away. SFC would have been reason enough for me to subscribe to Showtime again. A real tentpole series. I might have to look up Alex Tse to find out how the show was supposed to end.

A Tale of Two Chappelles

Dave Chappelle
Originally uploaded by Mattitude.

Like most of America, I was excited to watch Dave Chappelle's two recent television interviews on Oprah and Inside the Actor's Studio. Caught them both, and I'm left begging the question; did Oprah drug Dave?

I kid, of course, but it's hard to view both of the specials and not come to the conclusion that Dave was f&$%#d up when he visited the mighty Miss O. I was really let down by the Oprah appearance, as he didn't elaborate on several very interesting issues, such as his feeling that his comedy had become "socially irresponsible." Boy, how I would love to build with Dave on that topic for a few hours. Break out the Johnny Walker Black, homey!

Fortunately, his appearance on Inside the Actor's Studio was fantastic. He was charming, funny and insightful, and even had fun with the much-parodied James Lipton. If trolling for re-runs, definitely catch the Lipton special, and skip the Oprah one.

Speaking of my fellow Negroids, I just found out I'll be covering the NAACP Image Awards for a news organization next weekend. Funny, but I didn't think anyone even covered the Image Awards. Shows how much I know. I've scanned the sight to educate myself about the "nominees" (hard not to laugh at that one, because I don't think anyone votes for the awards). My guess is that Everybody Hates Chris is a shoe-in for best TV series, and Crash is going to continue its roll of accolades. I'm much more interested in who will actually show up. Should be a fun red carpet. Better dig out the steamer for my blazer jacket.

A Whale of a past few weeks...

...and that's both good and bad. I'm not usually a big believer in the "death comes in threes" superstition that my mother subscribes to, but it did strike me when the great Lou Rawls' death was immediately followed by the death of the matriarch of the Civil Rights movement, Coretta Scott King and then, this past Friday here in LA, producer Jay Dilla. Dilla's really shocked the hell out of me because he was only 32, and I had no idea that the disease he was battling (lupus) was fatal. I also wasn't aware that he had been battling the debilitating disease over the past several years.

Those who know me also know that I have been a huge Slum Village fan from the jump. I still consider the casio-inspired "Raise it Up" to be a Dilla masterpiece, "Welcome to Detroit" to be one of the great unheralded hip-hop albums of the past decade, and I recall very fondly picking up SV tracks in London (a year before before their first album was released in the States) and the great atmosphere of the last SV show I attended in Michigan. This is a HUGE blow to the hip-hop community...

Funny chatting with friends in NYC and hearing them sound so annoyed about the big deal people in other places were making about the snow. Reminds me of when I lived in Minneapolis, and family would always call to find out if I was alive after a news report of the record cold temps. Now maybe they'll stop calling me every time there's a forest fire in the O.C. to find out if my place has burned down.

All has not been doom and gloom. Had one of those "I never thought I'd get to do that" experiences just this past weekend, when I took my daughter out to Long Beach to go on a whale watching cruise.

Rather than battle the weekend traffic, we caught the subway do Long Beach. I got this great picture of the Wiltern Theatre before we hopped on the Metro at Wilshire and Western:

Wiltern Theatre
Originally uploaded by Powerkeni.

The ride to Long Beach was nice, as the Blue Line is all above ground. You pass right by the Watts Towers, and straight through the city of Compton. I'm always amazed by how much nicer Compton appears (from the subway, at least) than Watts or any of the other communities we pass through.

The weather was nice, but Mackenzie had to wear her furry poncho, because it got MUCH colder when we got out onto the ocean.

Mackenzie at the fountain
Originally uploaded by Powerkeni.

The boat was a comfy research vessel called the RV Challenger. When they told us our cruise would be three hours, I couldn't get the Gilligan's Island theme out of my head, and kept checking for cloudy skies.

RV Challenger
Originally uploaded by Powerkeni.

Now for the good news. We did see a whale, and very close up at that. About 45 minutes into the trip, the heart-shaped blow of a grey whale was visible off in the distance. The captain then deftly spun the boat around, and the whale actually popped up just off the boat's stern. It was quite a sight, barnacles attached to its head and everything. Mackenzie was really excited. I think she (like I) questioned how much of any whales we'd actually see, so it was nice to see the entire creature so close up.

The bad news? Well, I was so busy trying to check off "Grey Whale" on the "Sea Animal Bingo" checklist they gave us that I forgot to take a picture. By the time I got my camera out, the whale was gone. Got a nice picture of the water though...

The say looking at the water makes you seasick...
Originally uploaded by Powerkeni.

As well as some eerie pics of the Queen Mary as we pulled back into port.

She looks like the Titanic...
Originally uploaded by Powerkeni.

I can't recommend whale watching enough. Being out on the ocean, you never expect so much sea life to be visible just a couple of miles from a major city. An equally enthralling and humbling experience.