(Sorry, guys, I've now made it a point to say the actual phrase in at least 80% of my posts because I had to pay some moneys for this domain name. Ie, I'm going to milk it for all the bad choice it is, no "Anchorman." It's like Joan Rivers' "Can we tawk?" Except without the plastic surgery moneys. Plus, it's like that "Family Guy" joke where Peter talks about how exciting it is when they say the name of the movie IN THE MOVIE. OH SHIT, SHE SAID "RILLI THO" Que exciting!!!!!)
As you have probably heard, Don Cornelius, creator of "Soul Train" and originator of my favorite phrase, "Love, peace, and soulllllllll," died last week. Sadly, a man who broke racial barriers and introduced us all to the latest in fashion, music, and dance trands, killed himself at age 75.
As a dancer and lover of soul music, I shed as close of a tear as I could muster (new pharma cocktail). But I knew that--pills aside--I should logically be sad, and that is the point. I almost went as THE Soul Train this year for Halloween:
But diplopia (double vision) won out.
I go hard in the muthafuckin costume paint!
Anyway, I made it my personal agenda (not to be confused with the gay agenda, which requires more energy and "Glee"-watching than I can withstand) to get a Soul Train line started the next time I went out dancing. Which evidently, was this past Friday.
I thought this would be a simple task. We were in a place where dancing was happening. Lots of dancing. The Soul Train line is common knowledge. If I were editing a piece about it, it would not have to be referenced. That's how official the Soul Train line is.
My, my, but how wrong I was! What's in a Soul Train line? That which we call a boogie by any other name would be as funky.
I tried to rally dance troops. "Hey, let's start a Soul Train Line to commemorate Don Cornelius!"
No less than 4 people denied my request, and all refusals were of the same nature.
"Hell, nah! He killed hisself!" (Direct quotation from the first responder.)
Oh, word? That's how we want to play this game? We can't do a dance line because you don't like the way he went out? Because of your moral qualms? Because I feel like no less than 1 min, 30 secs ago you were dancing to Biggie, renowned drug dealer. And before that--Jay-Z, renowned....also drug dealer. And not just regular drugs--crack. CRACK! Do you know what the crack epidemic did to New York?! Not only are you off-sides sir, we are skipping the yellow card and going straight red.
This raises 2 issues:
1. Separating the art from the artist. I wasn't too pleased to hear that Don Cornelius was convicted of a felony for spousal abuse, but he also had several brain surgeries, so who knows what was going on. A lot of artists have done a lot of bad shit. Several have killed themselves. *<squints eyes>* I still wanted a Soul Train line tho. *</squinting>
On a radio show hosted by the one and only DJ Supa Tang, we discussed the personal difficulties that music lovers sometimes face when musicians commit crimes, do bad things, or wanna do hood rat stuff with their friends.
We discussed Jah Cure, a reggae artist who makes beautiful love songs...but also rapes women. Or TOK, who make some serious club-bangers...about killing gay people. Everyone knows about the revolving door that the penitentiary has personally built for TI's repeated visits (I figured this was apropos, considering the Soul Train awards are usually where this shit goes down).
So, people at the club, what I'm trying to say is: can we celebrate the life of someone who really brought more good to the world than bad? I'm far from a utilitarian (except for right now), but can we put aside the judgments regarding how he chose to end his own life and MAKE A FUCKING SOUL TRAIN LINE, PLEASE?!
2. Suicide condemnation. We really don't know what was going on in his own life, but I can imagine it was a world of pain. And I know there are people who believe in euthanasia, but not suicide, which can turn into a very tricky Venn Diagram. It is rumored that he suffered from Alzheimer's or dementia. I am not actively advocating suicide. However, just as some people believe it's selfish for people to kill themselves, maybe it's selfish to ask for people to remain in visceral misery in perpetuity. When it comes to mental illness, people tend to use a lot of words and not a lot of knowledge, so let's just try to keep an open mind for the moment.
I'm interested to see what my awesome and beautiful readers have to think about this. Please comment and let me know, and maybe we can get a discussion going.
In the interim, as the wise Janet Jackson once said, "Get the point? Good. Let's dance." (I still want my Soul Train line tho.)
PS: FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: www.twitter.com/rillitho . And, as always, feel free to bring topics to the table...
