This Is A Late Night Show

With all the fuss over the Leno vs Conan controversy, and I'm not a big fan of either one, it reminded me that January 3, 1989 was the first broadcast of my standard for late night shows, The Arsenio Hall Show.

Late night shows haven't been the same to me since his went off the air.

My Day At The Clinton Presidential Center

As a history junkie I've always loved presidential libraries. The Carter Center is on my must see list next time I drive down to the ATL. Next time I go back home I'm thinking about making the run up to Aggieland and checking out the George HW Bush one on the Texas A&M campus.

My grandmother Tama took me and my brother during the summer of 1977 on a bus trip with her church group to see the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, TX and the LBJ Presidential Library 30 miles to the east in Austin on the University of Texas campus. It was an all day excursion that I enjoyed, especially when the shuttle took us over a hill that gave us an awe inspiring view of the Texas Hill Country. I remember saying to my grandmother at the time, "No wonder LBJ loved this place."

I was even happier when we arrived at the library and I got a chance to check out the memorabilia from the LBJ presidency, take pictures on the museum grounds and see the nearby state capitol dome before we boarded the bus for the two hour run back to Houston.

In November 2006 I drove the 800 plus miles from Da Ville to Dallas so that I could attend my cousin William's November 11 wedding. My route took me through Little Rock and past the Clinton Presidential Center all lit up in its nighttime splendor and I resolved to check it out on the way back.

On the return trip as soon as I crossed the Arkansas-Texas border I stopped at the welcome center just outside of Texarkana. You pick up a red 'William J. Clinton Passport' that you get stamped at the various places you visit on the presidential tour. Three of the locations, his birthplace in Hope, the boyhood and teen home in Hot Springs and the museum in Little Rock were on or close to I-30. Fayetteville, (or as we called it when I was at UH in the old Southwest Conference days 'Fayettenam') was in the upper northwest corner of the state close to the Missouri line and not on the agenda.

Twenty five miles later I was exiting I-30 and heading toward downtown Hope, President Clinton's birthplace. There's an old Missouri Pacific railroad station that has been renovated into a museum. It has some memorabilia from the time he grew up there, the '92 and '96 presidential campaigns and his time as governor of Arkansas. It even has pictures of a concert that Elvis Presley did in Hope before he made it big and a large collection of railroad memorabilia.

After you see a short film on their favorite son's life, you start a self guided driving tour that takes you past his birth home on South Hervey Street, Brookwood Elementary school on South Spruce Street that he attended in 1952-1953, the home he lived in on East 13th Street until his family moved to Hot Springs in 1953 and the Rosehill Cemetery where his mother is buried. I spent an hour and a half taking pictures, spending time at the various tour stops and meandering through Hope before I pointed the car back in the direction of I-30 and headed toward Little Rock. I burned so much time in Hope that in order to get to the museum before it closed at 5 PM I reluctantly had to bypass Hot Springs.

I hit Little Rock around 1:15 PM and after jumping off Exit 140 parked on the large parklike site of the Clinton Presidential Center. It's a three story building right next to the Arkansas River that looks like a futuristic unfinished bridge, a play on the 'Bridge to the 21st Century' theme of his presidency. On the site is a renovated railroad station that serves as the repository for his presidential papers. The gift shop is a free shuttle trolley ride just up President Clinton Avenue in downtown Little Rock.

I noticed when I parked the car there was a convoy of TV trucks in the lot and parked close to the building along with two black limos. I found out why about thirty minutes later. The museum was packed with tour groups. Many of us there that day were still in post-2006 election euphoria. I gave a shout out to a group of my mom and sister's sorors who were touring that day along with other groups of African-Americans.

I spent most of my visit happily perusing the various interactive exhibits, the memorabilia and reflecting on just how jacked up this Bush presidency was compared to the Clinton one. I was on the third floor looking at a temporary exhibit of cowboy movie posters and a hand drawn picture of the 'High Noon' gunfight scene by a young Bill Clinton when a young woman excitedly shouted, "He's here!"
"Who's here?" I asked.
"The president is here!"

That news traveled through the museum with lightning speed and triggered a rush of museum patrons to the lower levels of the building. It was the reason the TV trucks were there. I discovered after I quickly ambled from the third floor of the building to standing outside the Great Hall and talking to one of the museum employees that Salon.com was having a luncheon event that day (November 13) in which Brother Bill was speaking. I stood outside along with the other museum patrons hoping that we'd get a chance to see him and shake his hand when he was done, but the Secret Service had other ideas.

After hopping the trolley and grabbing some souvenirs at the gift shop I headed back to Louisville. The next time I'm in the area I'm definitely stopping by there again. The museum was definitely worth the $7 I paid to get in and was a positive, uplifting way to spend a day. Many of the conversations I had with folks from all over the country that day expressed our common desire and resolve to bring that type of forward thinking leadership back to the White House and our country.

I can only hope and pray that next year the rest of the country is hungry for that type of leadership as well.

Arsenioooooooooooooooooo Hall!

AC and I were talking politics one day over dinner. During the course of our discussion the Arsenio Hall show appearance of Brother Bill came up. I smiled when I remembered the nights I used to eagerly tune in to watch Arsenio.

Through 1,284 shows aired from January 3, 1989 to May 27, 1994 Cleveland-born Arsenio Hall gave Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Jay Leno major competition in the late night talk show arena. His show pulled a 3.9 rating at its peak which was remarkable considering it was syndicated and it varied in the times that it aired in various markets.

Some of the elements of Arsenio's show were timeless. He had a band led by Michael Wolff and he opened his show with a monologue. But it was a hip and cool talk show geared to my generation, the MTV generation and my culture.

It was groundbreaking as well. Before the end of the year people were barking and pumping their fists in the air mimicking Arsenio's shout outs to the 'Dog Pound' section of his studio.

He didn't have a sidekick or an anchor desk. He did have couches to give the guests the feeling as if they were sitting in his living room. He put a multiethnic cross section of artists, musicians athletes, comedians and other personalities on his stage who weren't normally invited to other late night shows.



To realize just how groundbreaking The Arsenio Hall Show was you have to see old videotapes of it (or just check out the TransGriot Video). Every major act of the 90's from MC Hammer to TLC to Mariah Carey performed on that stage. The rap world got a major boost from various artists being spotlighted on his show. Even old school artists like James Brown and Prince came on Arsenio to perform.

He also used the show as an education platform as well. Magic Johnson made his first public appearance on Arsenio's show after disclosing he'd contracted HIV. He did one commemorating Dr. King and his legacy. Jesse Jackson, Sr. made an appearance. Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan was one guest that caused controversy along with Andrew 'Dice' Clay. Then presidential candidate Bill Clinton came on Arsenio in a surprise appearance that many pundits agree probably won the 1992 election for him.

Hall received two NAACP Image Awards in 1991 and a Key of Life Award for his work as “a crusader in the fight of human rights."

Since 1994 the late night talk show world hasn't been the same without Arsenio around. Here's hoping that one day he'll grace our late night TV screens again with his presence.

R.I.P. Hip-Hop 1979-2007

Dearly Beloved,
We are gathered here today to pay our final respects to Hip-Hop Music.

Rap has always been around in African-American culture and in all musical genres. Hip-Hop was created by the street and club DJ's of New York. It was fun, infectious party music that quickly gained a following in the rest of the country thanks to the monster Sugarhill Gang hit 'Rapper's Delight'.

The Sugarhill Gang were quickly followed to hit status by other New York rap pioneers such as Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Big Daddy Kane and Kool Moe Dee. Hip-Hop began to address social issues in the early 80's as it struggled to gain more mainstream acceptance and airplay and break the pejorative label of radio programmers and music critics that it was 'just a fad'.

The pioneers were eclipsed by emerging talents such as LL Cool J and Run DMC as it continued to evolve and gain new fans. Hip-Hop began to grow from its New York birthplace and expand to Houston, LA, Atlanta, Miami and the rst of the country. Showmanship was added by MC Hammer as the ladies began to step up and rock the mics. The battle of the Roxanne's gave way to Salt and Pepa, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Monie Love and Queen Pen as the music began to appeal to groups outside of the African-American community.

The West Coast began to be heard with NWA, Ice Cube and Doctor Dre. Public Enemy not only gave us serious beats but biting social commentary infused with Black pride as they dropped science on us along with KRS One. Digital Underground and Will Smith (AKA the Fresh Prince) gave us humor. De La Soul and others continued to push the creative boundaries of Hip-Hop as West Coast based rappers Ice-T, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dog became household names.

In ten years Hip-Hop achieved its Holy Grail of mainstream acceptance. Videos were being played on MTV and BET. Arsenio Hall opened the door for mainstream television show appearances by featuring rappers on his Emmy award winning late night talk show. Hip-Hop artists were soon making guest appearances on network TV shows or having shows and movie scripts written for them. Hip-Hop got its own category in the Grammys in the late 80's in addition to its own media magazines, TV shows, formatted radio stations, nationally televised awards shows and clothing lines.

Then the Hip-Hop up-from-the-hood American Dream turned nightmarish. The East Coast-West Coast Hip-Hop War with its focal point being the simmering hostility between Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. It boils over into violence that results in the senseless shooting deaths of both men. Rappers going to and spending more time in jail than they did on concert tours and bragging about it. The positivity of the female pioneer rappers being overshadowed by the antics and raunchiness of Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim just as Eve and Missy Elliott emerged as their creative heirs.

The large record companies bought out the Def Jam's and Sugarhill Records of the world as they sought to shoehorn their way into the music form they dissed earlier in the decade. Unfortunately the quality of Hip-Hop declined as the misogony, homophobia, glorification of criminal life and disrespect of women escalated under corporate ownership.

The late C. Delores Tucker tried to warn rappers in the mid-80's that they were treading on dangerous ground in terms of the content and direction of Hip-Hop. They dismissed her and others as 'haters' and 'sellouts' as they counted their cash and penned their expletive-drenched rhymes glorifying excessive materialism and hypermasculine sexuality liberally sprinkled with unfettered use of the n-word and b-word. The floods of megacash from record breaking sales numbers obscured what Hip-Hop started out to be and warped its base values.

Sadly, Hip-Hop lost its way and became all about the money instead of kicking positive lyrics and good times. Music executives with no emotional, historical and cultural investment in Hip-Hop continued to sign and promote more whacked rappers that deluged the airwaves with more negative rhymes and video imagery.

As Hip-Hop becomes less popular with African-American teens it is bought and listened to in increasing numbers by white teenagers. It has the effect of giving them an even more skewed impression of African-American life and culture than they already possess. Rappers morph into neo-minstrels and live action cartoon characters instead of eloquent street poets.

We increasingly lament the shift in some rap artists attitudes toward women from Sir Mix-A-Lot's ode to Black womanhood to increasingly negative ones. We also deplored the hypocrisy of dissing sistahs while using those same sistahs to pose half naked while shooting soft pornesque videos to promote their CD releases. The outbreaks of violence at Hip-Hop concerts and Hip-Hop awards shows disgusts more and more people.

Today, Hip-Hop is a shadow of its former self with sales down 21% in one year. While you have some artists that recognize what they need to do to resuscitate and restore Hip-Hop to its former glory, others such as 50 Cent refuse to see the light and tragically don't care as long as they 'get paid.'

Farewell, Hip-Hop. I've long since gone back to the music form that some of you boasted was dead in the early 90's. R&B and Soul still lives and is better than ever.

Ashes to ashes, mixers and turntables and dust to dust, we now commit our old friend Hip-Hop to the ground as we pour Cristal on your remains for all the dead homies.

It was an exhilarating ride while it lasted. May Hip-Hop rest in peace.

Happy Birthday Jasmine Guy!

One of my favorite quadruple threats was born on this date in 1964.

I fell in love with Jasmine when she played Hillman's diva princess Whitley Gilbert on NBC's A Different World. But that wasn't her first time in the limelight. She's been performing on stage and screen for over 20 years as a dancer, actress, and singer.

Jasmine was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and danced in the TV pilot and on the show Fame with Debbie Allen. In addition to doing Broadway and dance theater, she's appeared in the movies Harlem Nights, Klash, and one of my fave Spike Lee movies School Daze. She also played Velma Kelly in the touring production of Chicago.

She also done television since A Different World with roles and guest spots on Showtime's Dead Like Me, NYPD Blue, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Touched By an Angel , The Parkers and That's So Raven.

You can also call Jasmine an author. She penned the book 'Evolution of a Revolutionary', the story and spiriitual journey of Afeni Shakur. For those of you who are wondering who she is, you've probably heard of her son Tupac.

Jasmine these days is happily married and has a daughter. I'm looking forward to checking out her next multimedia project.