dave chappelle's block party. if you haven't seen it yet and like hip hop you must go. i was told by my twin that this is the must see movie of the year thus far and i had no clue what it was or what the concept behind it was even before i went in but i came out as giddy as a little schoolgirl and even found tears welling up during the fugees performance. fugees people! they haven't performed together in who knows how long.

now i am the first to admit i don't know too much about hip hop. i can barely tell the artists apart, have no clue what any of the songs are about (i had no clue one of the songs i liked dancing to was saying "sweat dripping down my balls" until i saw chris rock live and it was in one of his jokes), and it's only by the grace of my other half that i even know that common, rakim and jurassic five are good. ive been able to fool a couple people every now and then as i have great cd's in my car with all good songs which were bestowed on me by my twin and almost even won an ipod contest in vegas last year as my friends were most impressed with some of the old school songs i possessed. but seriously ask me what any of it meant or who was who i couldn't tell you. im really a kelly clarkson and backstreet fan deep inside.

but despite that fact, i still found myself getting all caught up in the excitement and dave chappelle im convinced is the funniest person alive. his comments are freaking hilarious...it was genius to invite some of his folks from his hometown and watching him give them the special golden tickets.

and the lineup. i don't know much but i know enough to know that this is the ideal concert any hip hop lover would want to see. common, erykah badu, mos def, roots, jill scott, the reunion of the fugees itself is worth watching. i literally teared up watching lauryn hill sing killing me softly. by the way, why didn't anyone ever tell me that mos def is cute? and he's got such cute little outfits too topped off with the perfect hat.

overall a nice uplifting movie that got me thinking that maybe i should try to concentrate a little more on the lyrics from now on but if only it didn't require so much effort on my part. i literally need to stop all that im doing just to catch a few words here and there. but i do remember the last time when i was in san diego and i was watching a jay z dvd and james was teaching me what he was saying and he kept rewinding this one part and repeating the lyrics to me (ive pasted below) and i thought to myself hm...that is pretty clever. maybe these rapper guys really are talented and i should concentrate more on the lyrics and less on the beats. wish me luck now.

"december 4th" off of 'the black album'

At least let me tell you why i'm this way, Hold on
I was conceived by Gloria Carter and Adaness Reeves
Who made love under the sycamore tree
Which makes me
A more sicker emcee than my momma would claim
At 10 pounds when i was born i didn't give her no pain

or if you like james's version better:

i was conceived by peter wang and betty shi,
who made love under a eucalyptus tree,
and then i popped out and said "you can't dis this, see!?
that's why i'm the sickest emcee who speaks chinese

so crash won best picture last night at the oscars. an "upset" it's being called in the papers today but really did anyone think brokeback was going to win? because really...the thing that prevented brokeback from winning best picture was brokeback itself. it was just too damn popular winning all the awards leading up to the oscars. it was the darling of hollywood if you will. nominations for the entire cast pretty much, ang lee, michelle williams, jake gyllenhaal and heathe ledger but when the tide began to turn i believe was when crash won the sag award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. because that was when the whispers started. everyone started predicting that maybe crash was gaining momentum and would win at the oscars and to me, that's pretty much exactly what happened. i feel like the only reason why crash won was because the academy knew everyone was expecting brokeback to win and in an attempt to be different (oscar for it's hard out here for a pimp? ridiculous if you ask me) they decided to give the oscar to crash. which is fine and all because who am i to judge the academy and certainly wouldn't be writing a post on this except for one minor little point. i hated crash. hated it. i mean at least give the oscar to one of the other best picture nominations if you didn't want to give it to brokeback. as i haven't seen any of the other ones i can't say which one but crash? blasphemy.

from the very beginning ive been standing by my opinion that crash is just not that good. not at all by a long shot. does no one else agree with me on this? sure i thought brokeback was overrated as well when i finally watched it but i never got what all the hoopla over crash was all about. no it was not "eye opening" and groundbreaking in dealing with racial lines. what crash is is cliche and too easy. i mean come on, the white cop who's racist against blacks because of his own father? the rich white wife who's discriminate against the help? the director who makes his black actors talk more black? i mean seriously people, these story lines are old. they've all been told before. it's nothing new. at least brokeback had two gay cowboys...at least it's something.

i read this article about grey's anatomy a while back about how diverse the cast is and one of the lines i liked the most was when they were describing the relationship between dr burke and christina. yes it's an inter-racial relationship between two minorities a black and an asian at that but while the relationship has its problems, none of them have to do with their culture or race. in fact, the root of their problems has nothing to do with their race at all but instead imagine this now...focuses on their personalities. what a shocker.

so the academy really did a shit job this year. true i haven't watched most of the movies, constant gradener, walk the line, syriana, good night good luck they are all going on my list but i almost would of just liked it better if they just gave all the oscars to george clooney. he's great and besides his speech and john stewart last night, the oscars were as dull as always.