NOTES FROM BLACK HISTORY MONTH

I'll do more for "MY" month in later blogs, but now, as I watch a rerun of RAY and enjoy Jamie Foxx's mesmerizing portrayal all over again (and the unsung Regina King), I find myself thinking about how intertwined the history of America and of Black America are and how you can't just separate one from the other. This is the time of the year when I always remind people that you can designate February as a special month to celebrate Black history in the United States, but that all of Black history in America can never be contained in one month--or one year.

A few other quick thoughts on an unusually chilly California night:

--Caught a few minutes of a show on MTV called JUVIES, about juvenile "delinquents" and how they become incarcerated. One 15-year old was arrested and incarcerated for 72-hours for...running away from home? I have no problem with police picking up juveniles who have run away, but it doesn't seem to me like this should be a criminal offense. What if they are running away from abusive parents? What if they pull a thoughtless teen moment and stay out all night without remembering to call their guardian? Shouldn't authorities ascertain the situation and then determine if the juvenile should be returned to their parent or guardian? I think the prison industry and the punitive mentality has totally taken over America in a pernicious way.


--My cat Samuel L. Catson--Sammy for short (pictured) is crazy. Apparently, I'm told, all cats are at least a little bit crazy, but I think Sammy may have reached his tipping point. He's become obsessed with playing with an old shoelace. If you play "the string game" with him, he just loves it, but if you stop, he'll bring the string to you--and then swipe you until you play it again. hide string from him for a few hours and Sammy goes on a rampage, batting the vertical blinds, running around the apartment and howling like a maniac. Sammy's a pouter and a sneak thief but dammit, I love my orange tabby. But he's still crazy!

--STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP may be a very uneven and exasperating show, but I don't see where replacing it with an obvious SOPRANOS/DEPARTED ripoff like THE BLACK DONNELLYS is going to pay off for NBC. The creators of the DONNELLYS, Oscar winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, tried a remarkably similar dark premise on CBS in the early 90s called EZ STREETS. It was well-acted and fairly well written for a one-hour network drama, but it lasted six episodes, sinking without a trace.

That's all I got for now. Peace...