Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Monday, March 30, 2009
Isn't It a Pity

After a morning and afternoon of strange and often deprarious work-related levity, I wound the day down this evening by combining the terribly conflicting activities of reading the archly witty basketball philosophy tome The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac while simultaneously watching Spike Lee's Malcolm X.

The Macrophenomenal is one of the most wisely funny non-slapstick books on sports that I have ever read. Every dripping moment of humor IS empowered by intensely willful, thought-driven life analytics; reading it is one of the smartest gut-busting experiences a person might ever experience***.

Watching Malcolm X, on the other hand, is an experience that is not remotely funny, at any point. In fact, it might be the longest drama ever made--three and half hours--to be devoid of even a single joke. It is also, obviously, a sad tale, culminating with the inevitable death of its protagonist. Therefore, combining the two activities was a predictably ridiculous decision, as I spent nearly three hours fluctuating between fall-out-of-my-chair laughter and block-out-the-world rapt and serious attention and thoughtful consideration of the terrible plight of Malcolm, of black people, women and everyone and anyone who wasn't in a position to destroy everyone else.

And yet... there was a strange kind of sympathy from one to the other--drive, obsessive attention to detail, passion, and melodrama. Except of course the obvious differences in chutzpah and hubris. I'm not even going to explain why to, please, "Don't get me wrong"--seriously, rap dudes--but I feel like there was an honest reason I was able to read and watch these two works of art simultaneously while slipping within and out of one another without notice.

After the film's intense climax (which in effect concluded my reading session) I felt like there was nothing I could do but head immediately to "S--Simone, Nina" and put on one her most emotional and arresting ballads, a 12 minute live piano-only cover of George Harrison's "Isn't a Pity". This cut, which blows me away each rare instance I deem worthy to play it, is found on the strangely hard-to-find record Emergency Ward (also worth tracking down for the arguably more excellent 18 minute--!!!!!--cover of Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"). I feel like a lucky, sad man every time I hear Simone moan about her heartbreak, and I look forward to the next time I shall put it on some weeks or months down the road.

I very much would like a cigarette.

Nina Simone - "Isn't It a Pity", from Emergency Ward

NOTES:
*** = Leave it up to Jeffrey Beaumont to lay the hyperbole and mixed metaphors on thicker than thieves.

Labels: loved sounds, mp3, thoughts

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 3/30/2009 10:59:00 PM 0 comments

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