"You're, like, my Black Spock...like in Voyager."

OK, I should be asleep, but I had another weird TVLand observation I needed to write about. After the whole Good Times thing, I caught an episode of Star Trek. A lot of people don't realize that, despite my love for the franchise, I am not that much of a fan of the Original Series; I like The Next Generation onward. Lately, however, TVLand has been showing the classics, like when the crew goes up against Space Lincoln. Well, this morning was the Khan episode, "Space Seed".

A lot of you may know Khan as "the villain with the bitchin' pecs from Star Trek II". Yes, that is Khan, but he first appeared in the series. When they find Khan, he's on a derelict freighter, with about 70 other people. They've been frozen since the 1990s, and the Enterprise crew tries to figure out what their story might be. To me, though, the crux of the episode is that Khan is such a charismatic motherfucker, and he macks one of Kirk's women off the bat. This is a process that I like to call "Outblacking". Kirk was essentially outblacked by Khan. How does this work? Well, let me tell you.

The "outblack" concept was something I came up with in college. When you have a frat party, and one Black guy, the odds are in Black guy's favor because he has a card that he can play at any point. He can remain quiet and enjoy the dip, or he can bust out and become the life of the party, making the other (mainly White) guys insecure. He has, in effect, outblacked them. But here's where things get hairier. Say, you have a guy like me as "the Black guy", but in walks a thug. His street cred is stronger than my kung fu. By virtue of his "keepin' it real", I've been outblacked. He is then entitled to my women and my kick ass party reputation. From that point, I either have to leave the party, or try to act like we're friends, so that everyone else thinks we know each other (don't all Black people know each other anyway?), therefore leeching off his blackness chi. You can see this played out every weekend in clubs across America. It's the most base form of Black on Black crime.

James T. Kirk is the pimp of the Alpha Quadrant. Because pop culture seems to imply that sex appeal and sheer and utter pimpness are "Black concepts" (see Bill Clinton), this makes Kirk Black. Well, here comes Khan and he seems to snatch the one chick on the Enterprise who wouldn't give Kirk any play. Surprise, Kirk! You've been outblacked! And all it took was a Mexican with Jesus hair. She didn't even get a chance to see that magnificent chest of his.

I'm thinking about contacting some BET people, and seeing if Outblacked! would make a good show. After all, they put Hell Date on the air, so I really don't think they can find much fault with my idea...

Posted by William @ 7/25/2007 12:29:00 AM
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"Why'd she have to take her candyass back to Norway?!"

Dr. Phil said it was OK to look, but he sure as Hell didn't tell me what I'd find...

I'm going on very little sleep right now, so bear with me. This isn't exactly a stream-of-consciousness post, but it's going to be sort of scattered.

Last night, I caught the oddest episode of Good Times ever. It was like the writers decided to just pretend that the Evans' weren't poor. Because anyone who's ever seen Good Times knows that that is the plot of every episode: we're poor, we don't know how we're gonna make it, but our family will get us through. Basically, the plot of Good Times is pretty much covered in the theme song to 227.

So, in this episode, I guess the producers wanted to try something different. It's not that the Evans family wasn't poor now, but it wasn't the main focus of the show this time around. JJ was putting together a singing group with Michael as the lead singer. Thelma was their choreographer, while Willona was their songwriter. Anyway, GT used to do a lot of "Here's Michael singing" episodes, as Ralph Carter was a Tony Award-winning musical star. This performance stood out, however, because he was incredibly tone deaf. I guess it just goes to show you that they didn't overdub back in those days.

So, JJ takes the group to a nightclub because there's a talent show, with a grand prize of $150. And this money will come in handy because the Evanses are poor. How the Hell they were going to happily split $150 between 8 people is beyond me, but I wasn't exactly alive in 1976, so maybe things were different then. Well, at the nightclub, they find out they can't perform because Michael's only 15, and it's an establishment that sells alcohol. The group turns on JJ and they storm out of the club. While he's sulking, he meets Judith Cohen. This is where the episode gets weird.

Judith Cohen is this overweight, self-deprecating, redheaded Jewish chick who wants to be a star. At the same time, she doesn't chase her dream because she doesn't believe in herself. Well, JJ finds that he's a manager without a group, and Judith professes that she's a group without a manager. Wow, that is some hardcore self-deprecation. So, the decide to join forces, and JJ sees this chick as his ticket out of the ghetto. The part that struck me, though, was that he latched onto her without ever hearing her sing. I thought it was going to turn out that she was terrible, and he'd truly latched onto a loser. In any case, he took her to Thelma to learn some dance steps, and Willona was going to do her costume. JJ was determined to make sure Judith won that competition. All this, and still nobody had heard her sing a note.

Well, competition time comes, and Judith gets onstage. At first, she's kind of hokey, poking fun at herself in some Vaudevillian act. Next thing you know, she launches into this moving rendition of Send in the Clowns, which had an emotional resonance that I'd never experienced from that show before. Well, of course Judith wins the competition. Next thing I know, there's Dean Travers from Three's Company, and for once, he's not being smarmy. He wants to sign Judith to sing weekly in his restaurant, but that plan is squashed when JJ refuses to hand Judith over to this more established manager who just pops in out of nowhere. Apparently, this guy had clout, and he controlled all of the musical acts in Chicago. If JJ wouldn't give Judith to him, he'd make sure she never worked again. So, JJ decides that it's more important for her to showcase her talent than for him to hold onto her, so he lets her go. Yes, he gives up his ticket out of the ghetto (which, oddly, was a white girl), by giving her to The Man. Sure, that's probably not how I was supposed to read into that episode, and it was 4:30 in the morning, but that's the message I walked away with. It could also be interpreted that the Black man was never going to better his situation as long as he had something that the White man wanted. Once again, probably overanalyzing. Man, I need sleep...

Posted by William @ 7/24/2007 11:37:00 PM
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"'Cause you said forever, and ever. Who knew?"







Ahh...a cute White girl, eating watermelon. Be still my Negro heart!

Anyway, four years ago today, this blog was created. Yeah, I know I celebrate a *lot* of anniversaries on this thing, but this is the real deal. Williambrucewest.com has only existed since 2004, when I bought the URL. However, the blog portion, "The World According to a Russian Exchange Student", was created on July 11th, 2003. It used to be found at waynemanor.blogpsot.com, which somehow belongs to someone else now...

So, 4 years of rambling. The odd part is that I feel my life has come full circle. I'm almost right back where I started. There's not a lot of progression found in these posts. Sure, there are broad character arcs, from the Natalie saga ("I'm so in love with this lesbian who doesn't love me back") to the H&M rants ("I can't stand this place and I'm too good to be here."). God, I can be such a drama queen! But have I really grown as a person? Is there any evidence of that? I don't know about that.

In 4 yrs, I've documented 4 full-time jobs, 2 part-time jobs, 2 girlfriends (in "real-time"), 1 car, and 3 moves. I look back at my first week of posts, and I still feel the same way about much of that stuff. Not much personal growth there.

I've watched this site change from "the thing I do when I get bored at work", to the "please read my blog because I'm funny and I really depend on attention from others" phase, and now the "hey, I'm gonna write this shit because it's funny to me, and at least Tarek, Marcus and James (and possibly Austin) are reading it" phase.

I've gone back and forth between the "I'm only going to riff on pop culture, but not talk about myself too much" stage to the "I'm gonna wear my heart on my sleeve" phase (see aforementioned lesbian and the "Alouise" saga). Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually a pretty private person. I love getting in everyone else's business, but I don't like them in mine. That's why I'll write about observations, and crazy situations in which I've found myself, but you're not likely to find me in a discussion regarding how I "feel". That's why I think I like the pop culture stuff more. Going forward, I think we're going to gravitate more in that direction.

I don't really know what I set out to do when I started this. I mean, blogs were somewhat cutting edge back then. They were seen as "the next big thing", and while Blogger existed to help you along, blogs weren't standard with each Facebook, Friendster, and Myspace profile like they are now. In fact, Facebook didn't even exist back then, while Myspace was still just for high school drop-outs. My, how times have changed!

Anyway, I think I just created this thing as a vanity project. I thought I was funny and I wanted attention. Every now and then, I'd have a great post (in my mind, anyway), and I'd aspire to greatness. I'd think that my site would become a destination website, where people would come for the funny. I thought I could be an everyman version of Wonkette. Why do you think my URL is my name? It was pretty much a way for me to maximize the attention I got, but maximizing exposure.

Here we are, 4 yrs later. Wonkette's pretty much a shell of its old self. I go to sites like elephantlarry.com, and think, "Now, that's funny!" Me? I'm kind of a hack. I think that's become more apparent in my recent humor, as I've devolved into BET "Man, aren't White people crazy?!" humor, and my liberal use of "Negro" and "Nigga". That's the easy way out. That's the Comicview approach, but it's not going to cut it in most situations. Especially seeing as how only 1.5 Black people even read this site.

Don't misunderstand me; this isn't a pity party, but more of a bit of introspection. So, where do we go from here? Why do I even keep this site going? Well, it's all I've got. I'm at a point in my life where this is the one thing that's truly mine, and it's the one thing I've got control over. It's my canvas to do with as I please, and it's my vehicle for expressing myself. I don't do this for anyone but myself. There are no more "why haven't you posted in awhile" or "when are you going to continue such and such story?" comment posts. No, I'm more about, "I feel like talking about dating shows today, and that's how it's gonna be." Sure, I get the occasional "Anonymous" comment (even if you don't have a Blogger account, you could still write your name), but it's not really an exercise in audience participation anymore. And I think I'm fine with that. I'm cool in my little cyber shell. I think it's the Model of Blog Identitiy Development. Jenn went through the same thing as she dealt with the transition from personal blogger to feminist blogger to Asian American Activist destination site. The cycle ebbs and flows, but if you get too wrapped up in it, you start pandering to an audience. My audience thinks like me. If I get the occasional straggler from another site, I welcome the company, but we're not going to have a discourse. Up until now, I didn't even respond to comments. I think I'm going to change that going forward. But I'm not here to change lives. I'm just here to live mine, and sometimes take you along for the ride. If that sounds like something you might like, take your shoes off and sit a spell, 'cause I'm sure I've got a story to entertain you. In any case, I think I'll break character and *not* end this post with an ellipsis. Thanks for putting up with me all these years!

Posted by William @ 7/11/2007 12:09:00 PM
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"You're way too beautiful girl, that's why it'll never work..."

I'm kind of phoning it in today, so you know what that means: random post.

-I'm trying not to talk shit about people behind their backs. Now, I try to say it to their face. It might be dick, but at least I keep it real. Here's a fun example: after the librarian free-for-all a few weeks ago, I had dinner with a few "book people", including a former honcho at Scholastic. The conversation turned to the Modern-day Messiah himself, Harry Potter. Whenever this comes up, I always try to stay out of the conversation. That's the best way to stay out of trouble. But I'd had too much Pinot, so silence wasn't an option. If I remember correctly, I came out with a, "Hey, it's a cute little book and all, but I don't get how it's taken the world by storm." It was beautiful. James & Marcus probably understand the feeling, but it's basking in your own confrontation. You pushed the right button, and you're enjoying the swell before the fallout. Being an asshole for asshole's sake.

But in either the smartest or dumbest move of my career, I managed to spin it ever so successfully. After the shock and silence subsided, I swooped in with the follow-up. "Not to take anything away from the franchise, as I appreciate everything Potter has done for literacy. It's just that, reading the thing, there was too much of a sense of 'been there, done that.'" And they totally agreed with me. That's when I went for the cherry. "I'm a huge Roald Dahl fan, and it offends me that Rowling is a billionaire, using pretty much his ideas, while he died a penniless, suspected child molester." Let's just say that the conversation totally swung back in my favor, and I was the belle of the ball. I shit you not. I'd go into more detail, but I really don't want this annecdote showing up on Bookslut or something. I think I saw a glimmer of my future that night, so I certainly did something right.

It's bad enough that I'm seen as the Antichrist for not liking a children's book about a boy witch. Oh, I'm sorry. Wizard. Semantics. It mainly shocks people because I supposedly love all things childish. "Oh, it's a kids thing? Will would love that!" I do, but even I have my limits. I guess I'm just a snob that way. I'd probably love the series had it not blown up like the Death Star. It's the same way I abandoned Snow Patrol, 24, and Queer Eye when all they became all popular. I don't like hype.

-Sometime I love my job, and sometimes I hate my job (yes, I realize everyone feels this way):
Love my job: got paid today
Hate my job: actually looked at the check
Love my job: debated the timeline of G.I.Joe, as it's actually "work related"
Hate my job: while that conversation was going on, I got about 10 e-mails that could be considered "emergencies"
Love my job: It's comics. Woot!
Hate my job: Yeah, this is gonna do wonders for that business school application
Love my job: It's comics, yay!
Hate my job: which forced me to move back home with my mom, setting me back about 4 years psychologically

Fucking comics...

iPod Randomness:
-For some reason, I have about 8 different versions of This I Promise You. Don't ask me why. It's not like it was a hot party song, nor were there any remixes other than the Spanish version, Yo te Voy. Wait, I have that, so make it 9 versions. And many of them are live. And it's not a song that changes much when sung live. That's a sign of taking boyband fandom too far.

- I have a shitload of Peter Cetera. I remember going through a phase during senior year of Cornell, but I didn't think I kept all of that stuff. I didn't even know he had that many songs.

-My iPod really loves Carly Simon. And it's funny because I only have 3 CS tracks. That's it. And they're all variations on the same song. I get it. Something is coming around again: this fucking song! I think it's the song that comes up the most during shuffle.

-I've got a ton of California Dreams songs that are of a quality so low that I should be ashamed to even have them. Not that possessing CD songs isn't shameful enough. I converted these to mp3 from some Real Audio files I found on someone's website years ago. The sad thing is that they recorded them by placing a tape recorder up to the TV. So, you can guess that what I've got is per-it-ty shitty. But, what can I do? A nigga loves his California Dreams...

-My 'pod glitched up on me the other day, so even though it was on random, it was playing songs in the exact order it had played them the day before. So, for awhile, I actually thought I had ESP. I was going, "The next song will be Always." And it was! It wasn't until about 15 songs in that I figured out what had happened. Or maybe I willed those songs to play. The world may never know.

-You certainly reap what you sow. I have always boasted about how I never pay for music, I get all my tracks from German porn sites, etc, but there's a downside to this. No, I'm not talking about viruses. I'm talking about IDE tags. You see, when a song is encoded, it is usually assigned an IDE code, which is essentially its name. It's the thing that, if you bought the song from iTunes, will make your file show up as "Last Call - Drops of Jupiter - Vestosterone". In a perfect world, the IDE tag will tell you artist, song, and album. This is pretty standard on all legal, copyright protected downloads. BUT, if you get your files illegally, from some weird download site, you're subject to all kinds of bad IDE tags. Sometimes, a song name might be in Cantonese, so you've just got a bunch of symbols and squiggles because they didn't translate properly. Sometimes, you've got an Aretha Franklin song with the IDE tag "Big Old Fat Bitch". And the problem with the illegal files is that you can't change the tags (at least not without a ton of unnecessary work), so these don't organize well in iTunes. So, the upside is I got a hot album for free, but the downside is that I can never find the damn thing because the IDE tags are all fucked up. Sometimes, they'll even split an album. The first few tracks are by "Fall Out Boy", while the second half of the album is by "Fallout Boy", and iTunes doesn't see fit to link the two. I need to look into a solution for this, as the bulk of my mp3s are from the days before the term "legal download" was even coined.

OK, that's enough rambling for now...

Posted by William @ 7/06/2007 11:40:00 AM
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"Baby, I'm Dr. Montalban!"

You know what song I really hate right now? Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry. Don't get me wrong; it's a lame song, but I hate it even more because of the video.

You see, it's supposedly this whole "It's not you, it's me" song. The whole vibe is "I'm growing up, I want more from life, and I think it's time to go after it." OK, that's all well and good. But what I'm not digging is the whole, "It's not you, it's just something I have to do for me" message. Why? Well, in the video, her boyfriend is a fucking drug dealer. I would hope her leaving does have something to do with him. A LOT to do with him. He's a fucking dealer! You can't just up and leave, and act like you made some bold, personal decision when your man is slangin' that rock in your driveway. I feel the video undermines the whole message of the song because it's no longer a song about independence, but one of blind stupidity. She should've left long ago, with her hobo-looking ass. And she's not making a bold stand by leaving him because he's dealing; she's leaving 'cause she wants to, but he just happens to deal. The two things shouldn't be considered related. It's like the song and the video are on 2 different wavelengths.

It also bothers me that it's a hackneyed reinterpretation of Hinder's Better Than Me video. It's like the whole No Scrubs/ No Pigeons response videos from back in the day. In Hinder's video, the chick stays and watches her man die, while Fergie leaves her man before it gets to that point. But she ain't even leaving because of the drugs. She's just leaving. Because she has to. Ummm....OK.

I think what gets me the most about the video is that her boyfriend is played by none other than Milo Ventimiglia. I swear, Milo is the "Andrew Keegan" of the 21st century. Wait a minute...why are you giving me that look? Am I going to hav to explain who these people are?

Andrew Keegan was the everyman hot guy of 90's television. If there was ever a role for a hot, pseudo asshole, it was played by Keegan unless David Lascher decided to take one more go at teenagerdom (he and Melissa Joan Hart played teenagers for about 15 yrs...). Keegan was on everything from Baywatch to Step by Step to his most stable role, Wilson, the teenage father, on 7th Heaven. He was also king of the failed pilot. He went after a lot of shows, but few of them were either picked up or successful. His biggest movie role was 10 Things I Hate About You. Keeg's is getting older, and he's not going to have his looks to fall back on one of these days. Or, maybe he will. He's pretty much going to grow up to be Andrew Shue, so maybe he's good at soccer or something.

Anyway, Milo is on the very same career path. His star is just starting to rise after dwelling in Hollywood limbo for the past few years. His most stable role was that of Jess on Gilmore Girls. After that, he was cast in Heroes, which is supposedly the best thing since sliced bread. Plus, he got to play Rocky's son in Rocky Balboa. But he first had to walk a long, hard road filled with cancellation. From Opposite Sex to Boston Public to American Dreams to Bedford Diaries, it was like Milo had the Ted McKinley "Show-Killer Curse". He has killed so many good shows at this point that I can't stand to look at him. To me, seeing Milo is like watching your doctor put on that latex glove: you're about to get your ass violated, but it'll be over quick so don't sweat it too much. Wow, that was more hardcore than it needed to be! I'm gonna have to reel it in more next time...

Posted by William @ 7/05/2007 07:01:00 PM
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"I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me."

First off, let me say that I'll never understand Myspace politics. I shuffled my Top Friends around to reflect the real-time state of things. I didn't remove anybody. I simply shifted. And all of a sudden, I'm some asshole? It's ranked by who I speak to most frequently. That's pretty much it, but somehow I've slighted someone. I didn't do this...

Anyway, happy 4th of July! I'm starting to think that Michael Bay is my real daddy. Why? Because I f'ing love explosions. Most people would be frightened or the noise might get to them, but I *love* them. No, this isn't going to be a Transformers post. I haven't seen it, nor do I have any real desire to, seeing as how my days have been wrapped up in Transformers for the past 3 months...

No, I'm talking about fireworks. My friend Lindsay and I went to the National Mall because I'd never seen the DC fireworkstravaganza. It was pretty awesome. As I sat there, watching beautiful things explode, I didn't have a care in the world. It was somewhat therapeutic and just what I needed. I'm twisted, I know. Guess I'll have to bring that up in therapy next week...

Posted by William @ 7/05/2007 12:50:00 AM
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"I'm walking on eggshells here, when I'm used to fucking throwing eggs."

I f'ing love youtube, for this alone:


Not just the credits, but the music video! This takes me back to such a better time. No student loans. No underpaid job. No heartbreak. No Quartlife Crisis. All I cared about was whether or not I'd get McDonald's that afternoon (I was a fat kid, and I got McDonald's almost every Saturday) and I wondered if I'd ever end up with a girl like Heidi Noelle Lenhart ("Jenny", aka "the brunette"). God, did I love that girl. And she pretty much never worked again. Little known fact: her stepfather is Haim Saban, creator of the Power Rangers and former owner of the Fox Kids Network. That bitch'll never have to work again!

Why is this show not on DVD?!! The fucking Waltons series is on DVD and that demographic doesn't even know how to operate a DVD player. It's a travesty...

Posted by William @ 7/03/2007 12:28:00 AM
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"Those little whores are good. They even bring the props!"

So, I'm starting to get sick of Style because they're on this Split Ends kick. I just can't bring myself to care about that show, so I've been moving down the dial. My new destination: Food Network.

I've got to say that the only thing I really like on that network is Ace of Cakes. But can I point something out? They don't wear gloves. I mean, I know the cakes are all artsy and whatnot, but I am expected to eat it, right? I don't want to be Mr. Judge-A-Book-By-Its-Cover, but those people look kinda crunchy. I really don't think I want to eat that cake after I've watched them stick their swap meet friendship bracelets all in it. The only benefit to getting a cake from them is that *maybe* you'll get to be in an episode. I wish the health department would raid that place. Here it is, a show on national tv, with a huge Time Square billboard campaign (I saw it during the New York Comic-Con) and it hasn't dawned on anyone that the preparation is a bit unsanitary?

Also, I hate Paula Dean's sons. Here we have nepotism at its finest. I was watching Road Tasted today, and their whole opening credits/intro is based around "Our Mom's Paula Dean!" That's like saying "I work here because my daddy owns the company" or "I come with the package". Great, you're the human equivalent of the parsley that comes with every entree you order in a restaurant. You'd never tell the waiter "hold the parsley". You just know that it's coming, and you move it to the side when the food arrives. Paul Dean's sons are parsley, but Food Network made them into an entree instead. Who's ever heard of parsley as an entree?! Man, I got way too deep into that analogy...

And now, let's talk about the women. I like Nigella. She's kind of plain and droning, but she's plain and droning with a British accent. Score! A British woman could read the phone book to me, and I would be putty. I'd be done. Stick a fork in me and remember the Alamo. It would be over, son.

Rachael...man, she was a lot more endearing in doses. I know that she was pretty much carrying that network about 3 years ago, but she was still confined to that network. Now that her empire has expanded to syndicated show and Dunkin' Donuts pimp, I'm sick of her. First of all, she needs rehab. I swear she's drunk half the time. And she's polarizing. Like Moulin Rouge or Radiohead, you either love her or hate her. There's no, "Well, I guess that Ray chick's OK." No, it's either, "OMG, I love her!" or it's "Man, I can't stand that hyperactive bitch. What is her deal?" Plus, I hate the new darker hair. You never should've joined the Oprah empire, Rach. Look what it's done to Dr. Phil. Most people don't know, but he promised Oprah the blood of his first grandchild. It's true. I heard it from..me, when I made it up just a second ago. Man, I should work for US Weekly.

And that brings us to Giada. Man, oh man, do I love Giada. She is perfect. Utterly flawless. Even with her man hands and giant head, she is the bee's knees. The funny thing about Giada is that I don't think it's possible for men to ever really learn anything from her shows. The chick is all about the cleavage and every time she goes to slice up something, it's just a distraction. I wonder how many guys have been rushed to the emergency room for accidentally slicing off fingers while watching her show. I'll be honest; I don't even watch it for the food. I will watch anything she's in, because it's just the Adventures of Gorgeous Cleavage Girl. 3-Day Weekend Getaway? Sign me up, as long as that cleavage is coming, too! I don't really get starstruck up close. From afar, I might geek out over celebrities, but when I get up to them, I'm cool and collected. Giada comes to town a lot for book signings, and I refuse to go because I'm really afraid of what I might do. Nothing illegal or perverted, 'cause I'm not that guy, but I really feel like I'd propose or profess my undying love or something. And that just wouldn't be cool. Now, if it were Paula Dean, I might end up getting my own show for that kind of display...

Posted by William @ 7/02/2007 12:45:00 AM
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