Category: Me Myself&I

This is the end of the first quarter, during the Bulls’ first finals in 1991. MJ makes mistakes, gives the ball over, gets blocked. Chicago is nervous. The Lakers will win that game on the road.

But right there in the numbers and the beautiful baskets and defense, you know the Bulls are getting that championship. After losing to the Pistons for years and after sweeping them, they’re not in the finals to laugh and have a good time.

MJ is the GOAT because perfection: six finals, six rings thank you very much, you scrubs. That’s just so pure and immaculate, how dare you compare.

But the biggest thing to me that I never hear here in the US: MJ brought basketball to planet earth. You have to understand, there are millions of teams and sports out there. Most sports fans knew Magic, Bird from their performances. As a kid James Worthy was my hero (unknown in France). But in September 1991, everyone was talking about that bald dude that flies and shit. Fucking everyone across the planet.

MJ is the perfect combination of beautiful basketball, stats, beautiful body, stats, leadership, stats and an addiction to winning and dope sportswear. He is.

The next GOAT needs to win seven times without losing once, to look handsome and bring basketball to Mars. Good luck with all that.

Yes spoilers following.

As a black immigrant with zero black relatives,

as a computer expert (game developer and computer nerd since 1987)

as a dude who doesn’t watch trailers and doesn’t care about superheroes (not per se but because they bring this weird “not everyone can do the job” vibe to society, which is problematic)

and who just saw Black Panther this morning,

I have feelings.

First, for sure when I was growing up and saw that there was a black superhero called Black Panther (which was my favorite animal, like probably tons of black kids), I loved it. But it annoyed me, the comics were lame as shit. Or I was too young to comprehend them.

Fast forward to now, looking at black families rushing to their seats with super-excited kids, in the world we’re living in… It’s definitely different and much more positive. I love it.

This article covers it all. There’s nothing to go too deep into on the Killmonger/MalcomX angle because as you know, it’s still a movie that is supposed to attract as many people as possible. They probably battled in the editing room for days and weeks. The first cut was over 4 hours I think?

I was shocked and saddened by how Killmonger kills his girlfriend. I believe in a movie with so many strong women front and back of the camera that this scene exists to remind black men that they’re, also, doing bad shit. It wasn’t gratuitous. We can celebrate blackness, enjoy some black entertainment and get some nested comment on Black Love and Relationship (black women sacrificing themselves for ungrateful black men). If it was gratuitous, then it’s a shame and I’ll blame it on the story and the 2-hour or so cut (how will we be able to incorporate her later on? Kill the character).

The sound mix, sparse subwoofer pulses, rich percussions arrangements and raising voices silencing everything were super awesome.

Three things I’m annoyed with:

– Western Technocentrism

It pisses me off to look at skyscrapers and public transportation as the most amazing science-fiction, as “the city of the future”. First of all, that’s the fucking present. And second of all, it doesn’t work well. NYC and Paris have the same issues. Stay stuck in a train between stations for over a hour and see how you like the future. Live with an upstairs neighbor who walks with the delicacy of a buffalo, you’ll see that it’s not the limitless future. That’s the opposite.

Please reimagine the futuristic African rural shit, that could be so much better than what I saw.

Wakanda’s science fictional city should be about amazing living areas that are hiding behind nature and yet super futuristic and blending with African art. It should be about individual vehicles picking you up anywhere, anytime (which is something that is happening right now in the US with Waymo). MAKE ME DREAM WITH INTERESTING, BOLD TAKES INSTEAD OF DOING THE SAME DUMB EUROPEAN TECHNOCENTRISM THAT DOESN’T EVEN WORK WELL UNDER LOAD IN THE REAL WORLD AND WE KNOW IT

– Monarchy

Rituals, tribes, kingdoms… That shit is old. I want NEW shit. Like a leader leading an actual democratic system where everything is voted real fast & real good because the system is liquid. That would make everything so much more interesting. No dumb ass combat with Killmonger. He wouldn’t have been alone. He would have brought a congregation of black men and women who have been left out in the world. They would have put pressure on those lazy ass Wakandians and that would have been so much deeper and interesting and funny. I know, action movie. And superheroes. And fist fights.

– Representation

I have an issue with that because on one hand, it’s great, but on the other hand, we need black kids to be able to do whatever they want, even when there’s no known black folks who did it before. Look at African countries in the winter Olympics. Being determine to do something because it’s just you and this thing and you know that you will do awesome, is the strongest, purest, most unbreakable determination you’ll ever have. It needs to come from yourself. If you have black representation, that’s great. If you have black mentors, that’s a jackpot. If you don’t have none of that, you still have you. You’re enough. You’re the shit. Plan, manage, conquer. I know it feels impossible. But some of us did. Some of us are. Focus.

The problem of representation is that it hides all that you know, elbow grease that is the most absolute necessity. Representation is not an elevator. It’s a poster in the staircase. It’s encouraging and that’s important. We like to forget about the tenacity part and we forget about it all the time.

Anyway, that was fun. Also the red warriors ladies can get in formation at my front door, thank you very much.

After a moment of silence, I forget about the dead. All I hear is a “why?” in my head while looking at the picture of the arrest. Black smiles pass by in my mind. Those people are gone. For a taillight, cigarettes, skittles. Praying.

They arrest a white murderer on the go like he’s some kind of inoffensive weirdo. Again.

It’s so hard and unfair to have to deal with the clearest proof that everything is racial, ad nauseum.

It’s catastrophic.

The NBA is cold but damn y’all make it like he was the reason the Cavs have a shitty ass defense.

It fascinates me how dudes can turn against each others while they will affirm that this is what women –bitches- do. Y’all bitches too.

IT is a scorer first, that’s what he does. You set him up only to assist, he can do that but that’s not his main weapon. He didn’t shot so well maybe because he’s injured and because there’s drama around Lebron, all the time. He speaks about it, tries to be candid and mofos jump him. That makes everything worse. The end.

Whatever.

Welcome to the Los Angeles Lakers, Isaiah Thomas. May you burn them all with a scorching field goal percentage.

When my Uber driver –an older white dude from Orange County- left the freeway to hit W Adams Blvd four years ago, he said “not a lot of white people ‘round here huh?” to which I answered “nope”. The goal was to find a place with more diversity than Silver Lake and also cheaper. Turns out, both things go together pretty well.

According to Wikipedia my old neighborhood was 2% black. I was now in a 2% white neighborhood.

Next thing I know, a hip place is being built on my block. White folks.

Next thing I know, black businesses are booted out. One, a vintage clothes shop had a 30 days notice to get the fuck out. The other, a beauty salon, well I saw the entire thing unfold from anger to tears to moving out furniture and handing paperwork over to white folks.

Next thing I know, the few homeless folks –all black- around start disappearing.

Next thing I know, I see groups of white people roaming the streets, looking at properties.

Next thing I know, luxury cars are parking around.

Next thing I know, joggers. Fucking joggers.

Next thing I know, I have white neighbors all around. Next thing I see, they raise gates and fences. They also all wear sunglasses all the time which makes eye contact impossible. One month I say hi to Mexicans and shout a “’ALRIGHT!” to black folks and the next one I smile awkwardly at apparently soulless people. A place selling $17 sandwiches is being built not far from me, while the mom and pop burger joint closed unexpectedly.

All that change in three years. It’s fucking weird. It feels like an invasion.

There’s more. I have read a lot about the history of south LA. I have biked all the streets around, I have friends and acquaintances living here. I see realtors flipping houses at indecent prices. White folks at neighborhood councils imposing their views even though they lived here for less than six months. It’s unreal.

I know what’s up: Hollywood is crowded, the silicon beach is extending through Culver City. South LA is between those two and being squeezed. People used to be scared to get shot south the 10, ridesharing services proved that it wasn’t happening that often. That gave people ideas and we know white folks have on average ten times more money than black and brown folks so, boom. They buy houses like we buy candy.

It’s wild. It needs to stop.

I did it  with Master of None. I watched the first season. It was good. I think?

I can’t really remember because it wasn’t extremely memorable and yet it was satisfying?

I very much dislike the auto-play feature, designed to make us binge. I’m reading the premises and boom, it starts playing. I can’t stand the lack of control and how everything is organized to maximize consumption.

It all comes down to how much we can take and I think that despite generations getting used to consuming more, the human brain wasn’t designed to listen and absorb 6 hours of drama at a time. It’s not made for that. Even when you were born in 2005. So our brains disregard and forget as fast as it happens.

While we keep stuffing them.

January months are always pretty grim but this one was particularly bad.

Got my dad to spew some ignorant, racially charged shit so I ended the call in his face before it went way wrong. We haven’t spoken since.

An ex-roommate committed suicide. A super great neighbor that I was looking forward to see more often this year, died unexpectedly. My BFF in France is in a psychiatric hospital, recovering from chronic depression.

I won a GDC pass for the second year in a row but I can’t afford to fly and hang out in San Francisco for a week, like not at all.

I know getting a job where I do what I do best, where I get paid what I should get paid, would alleviate a lot of stress and help me out dealing with a lot of shit around.

So I go back to my military schedule. Feeding my brain with books and expulsing anxiety through ball and bass. Asking for help, hoping for help.

One friend asked me: “where do you get your emotional support?” and it got me like this.

When it came out, I thought about getting some Bitcoins.

I have no idea what on earth is going on with crypto currency, except that everyone is trying to game the game. To cheat as much as possible while using an absurd amount of energy and technology.

It’s weird as hell.

I finished reading Maurice White’s biography. He mentions how happy he is to have had a career in the 70s and up to mid 80s. He talks about the fact that labels used to allow you to grow, to think long-term. Without that thinking no Earth Wind & Fire. No Rick James. No Prince.

Mid 80s, you needed to hit the jackpot within a year.

Now in the music industry you need to hit the jackpot in three months. In five months no one will remember you. It’s not just in music. It’s the same in everything we make. In the 90s, game developers used to have some time to figure out things, ship a bad game, then a decent one or maybe a great one.

Today you die at the first one that doesn’t sell, it’s not even a quality issue anymore.

Producers used to be all over the place. If you couldn’t make it with a big label, you would always have the opportunity to hit it up with a smaller one. There was no “Winner Takes All” paradigm. Smaller markets were fine. Maurice White didn’t sign with Motown, he went through that small company called Chess Records. He did well –financially and artistically- for years, unknown (compared to EW&F stardom). That allowed him to save some money and start his dream band and musical concept.

Big labels were ready to be patient, it was their job. Warner showed tons of patience with Prince, advancing money for his horrible movies etc. That would never ever happen in today’s world. Publishers and game developers used to do that too when games didn’t cost what they cost now. Need one more year to polish? There you go.

Today is more polarized and concentrated than ever before. If you happen to be working for the few companies ruling those creative industries –would it be Disney or EA or Sony Music- you probably have access to more resources than you could use. Outside those giants? Good luck maintaining. Good luck thriving.

Trust has disappeared from transactions and creative careers took the biggest toll.