Rod and Karen discuss the new surprise Kendrick release, Ferguson PD shot, families not allowed to grieve, Venture Capital beef, the Gayes got paid, SAE suing OU, secret service crash, threatening presidents, Kathy Griffin quits, palcohol is back, Kylie Jenner, feeling fat is taken off of Facebook, Suge Knight is blind, Terrance Howard wanna say the n-word on Empire, BallerAlert, Fire Fighter Selfie, rape lecturer, shoe thief, double dunking donuts and sword ratchetness.
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I didn’t completely “get” the Joker/Batgirl controversy, myself. But it’s not exactly the hill I want to die on either. I don’t want to look to my left or right and see the “It’s about ethics in journalism” crowd in my company. The fact that the artist understood and wanted it taken down, and didn’t cry “censorship” is refreshing. Because a lot of fanboys out there are on that false-victim-hood steez.
Just this week, a friend of mine who works in a local comic book shop made a post on the J. Scott Campbell (creator of Danger Girl and co-creator of Gen-13) Facebook kerfuffle. In which Campbell railed against Wonder Woman’s new costume and the comic book industries “continued knee-jerk reaction to internet message board critics…to keep female heroines covered from head to toe in fabric…”. The artist exclaimed on social media that: “She’s an Amazon Warrior, she’s NOT in the *Taliban! :/”.
This FB friend stated “I think the movement to cover women from head to toe is a step in a DANGEROUS direction because it goes in an extreme that does come off as the belief that women shouldn’t show skin.”
I tried talk some sense into him. That he is not somehow fighting for women’s freedom to parade around half necked. Women on comic book covers and movie posters are constantly depicted as having their ass toward the viewer, and where characters like Superman, Batman, The Punisher and so on are covered head to toe, somehow Black Widow and other women don’t need armor in certain places. As if wedgies and wardrobe malfunctions on the battlefield aren’t a concern. As if their bits don’t get a little cold from time to time. As if enemies don’t shoot at exposed boobs, you know, out of principle.
But, he couldn’t see it, and got offended when I told him to check his privilege. And guffawed when I mentioned that it was a smart move on Marvel’s part to do things like change Ms. Marvel’s costume for the current Captain Marvel costume, especially since they want to make a movie for this character, and embrace that growing female demographic. Which seemed to be the direction DC was going with WW.
I think a lot of us guys have a hard time seeing our privilege, and the fact that most of these comics cater to straight male adolescent 13 year olds, or the 13 boys in us all.
I’m glad that comics are trying being all inclusive. I’m glad that there are spaces like this show that can help some of us see things from the other side, because some of us “don’t get it”, but would like to.
I probably should have sent this to the Nerd Off, lol.
Aight niggas.
Loving you is complicated, but
This. Dick. Ain’t. Freeeeeeeeeeeee!
Hi Guys
I’ve listened to that Kendrick album a few times this week and I love it as well. I live in constant fear of it being snatched from Spotify. For me sonically, it’s like a trip through early 90’s hip hop which borrowed heavily from that 70’s funk sound in addition to the jazz infusions. Not to mention how he uses his voice throughout, shifting cadences to tell his story. This album seemed crafted to be performed live. The production will lend itself to improvisation on stage. Also, when listening to “Mortal Man” I almost choked up hearing Pac. It made me remember how much of an emotional connection I had to his music.
There are so many other take-aways from this album, Snoop sounding like Slick Rick, the beat poetry sound of “For Free”, the step by step construction throughout of that final monologue. All in all, I have not been able to listen to the album without sitting and listening all the way through each time.
Rod and Karen, I pretty much agree with you on the issue of the Batgirl cover. It just amazes me that this cover is the thing some male nerds have decided to rally around. Especially since…
1) The book is not targeted toward them, but rather to Batgirl fans and new readers who are young.
2) The cover was commissioned without any input from the creative team. This was just another attempt to cash in on The Killing Joke, not some artistic statement.
3) Nothing is going to happen! This isn’t something unprecedented, covers get changed or scrapped all the time. You want something to worry about ? Worry about the revelation, that the new X-Men Writer had harassed a woman for a couple years. Here is the link if you want to know more about what I’m talking about. http://tinyurl.com/o9hh3oo
And if you are a black nerd defending this cover? Stop,please.
All I can say is….WOW. To Pimp a Butterfly is poetry man. And Karen, I know what it’s like to get so little work done because the music is too good just to be background.
I get where you were going with the Batgirl/Joker. I didn’t bother me one way or another, but I can definitely see why social media was going to put DC on blast. It’s 2015 and the internet means that former marginalized voices have agency & express themselves. Also, comic book fans aren’t just pimple faced, lonely teenage boys anymore.
SAE suing the University of Oklahoma for kicking out their members? Yeah, I’m not surprised and hope the university strip every asset they can from those frat bros.
I was reassured of a very important fact when I after you guys discussed Tyga’s post about Kylie Jenner. That fact is that racist trumps all. I went to the Huffington Post to see Tyga getting fried in the comments but that was not the case. About 99% of the comments were white people crying about another Kardashian dating a black rapper or athlete. They didn’t give a damn how old she is, they are just mad that she was dating someone black. Also, I love how Tyga tried to shame black people for sexualizing his relationship with Kylie and then declares his love for her a few weeks later. He’s a pedophile and all-around dirtbag.
White people HATE the Kardashians. They treat them as if they’re black. And we know by now that it’s because they love black peen. SMH. Racists gonna race.
Yo great talk on the Batgirl/Joker cover. I initially didn’t see the problem with the cover but I also didn’t know that the cover was about something from her past as I didn’t get into comics until recently.
In my opinion its a very dope cover but that was before I knew it was bringing her back to somewhere she’d already been, especially since it was over 20, close to 30 years ago. Nerds gotta get over themselves man, this issue may not affect me directly but dudes should stand up when sexist inconsistencies like this pops up in any of our culture.
Do better nerds!
Hi, Rod and Karen,
Listening to your coverage of the Marvin Gaye/Robin Thicke case, which I have mixed feelings about. This is long, so I apologize in advance.
Pharrell and Thicke did originally try to settle, for I believe $600,000 (whatever the number was, it was six figures and not seven). Clearly, the Gaye family felt they deserved more, and they got it.
Pharrell & Thicke’s defense, once the trial reached court, was that while the songs were similar, they weren’t identical, and “identical” (generally, three or more notes in identical sequences) is what in precedent-setting cases would result in these sorts of music-copyright cases being won (see also George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” vs. The Chifons’ “He’s So Fine”). They tried to argue that the song fell into the “grey area” occupied by other songs that are homages to or pastiches of other songs. In a dry musicologist sense, the songs aren’t identical (see ) but the jury felt they were close enough to infringe on “Got to Give It Up’s” copyright.
That they lost this case on those grounds may lead to a little head-scratching among professional songwriters as to how close is “too close”; Jermaine Dupri is in fact taking advantage of this and going after Ciara’s “I Bet”, which he feels is an infringement of Usher’s “U Got It Bad” (to me, that case would be just like this one: it’s remarkably close, but it’s up to the court to determine if it’s “too close”)
This, however, isn’t a sampling issue as with Vanilla Ice/”Under Pressure”. Ice’s producer knew what he was doing when he pressed “play” on his turntable and “record” on his sampler. A sampling dispute would have involved the record labels as well (well, in this case, both labels – Interscope and Motown – are subsidiaries of Universal Music, so who knows how that would have worked).
What I want to know is…how did Alicia Keys get away with “Fallin'”, when it’s only a few notes removed from “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” (and to be clear, neither the liner notes in her album nor the online ASCAP entry for the song acknowledge any interpolation or list anyone other than Keys as the author)? Is there a backroom deal we don’t know about?
Anyways, love the show. Sorry for the nerd-out…