Friday – 12 February 2010
Thank God it’s Friday… even if it’s my “on” Friday. For some reason, I woke up with Rockapella’s Daisy Simone running through my head. It wasn’t a problem, just really an unexpected selection.

Tonight, Darillyn and Stephanie(2) are coming up for a couple of days.  We haven’t seen D since the wedding; and I don’t think that I’ve seen Steph2 since SaraRules lived in Cedar City. It should be a good weekend.

Last night, SaraRules fixed a Thai shrimp curry. It was very tasty. Three guesses what I have for lunch today.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s spotlight person is: Spike Lee

Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He was born in Atlanta, but moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York when he was a small child. Lee enrolled in Morehouse College where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B.A. in Mass Communication from Morehouse College. He then enrolled in New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He graduated in 1978 with a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television.

Lee became a director of promise with his first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It, in 1986. The film was shot in two weeks on a budget of $160,000 and grossed over $700,000 in the U.S.  (The reception of She’s Gotta Have It led Lee down a second career avenue. Marketing executives from Nike offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company. They wanted to pair Lee’s character from She’s Gotta Have It, the Michael Jordan-loving Mars Blackmon, and Jordan himself in their marketing campaign for the Air Jordan line.)

Lee often takes a critical look at race relations, political issues and urban crime and violence. His next film, 1989’s Do The Right Thing examined all of the above and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. Subsequent films, including Malcolm X, Mo’ Better Blues, Summer of Sam and She Hate Me, continued to explore social and political issues. 4 Little Girls, a piece about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 1997.

In 2006, Lee directed and produced a four-hour documentary for television, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

His most recent feature film release, Miracle at St. Anna (2008), tells the story of four African American soldiers trapped in an Italian village during World War II. This movie was praised for bringing the often overlooked experience of black infantrymen — known as buffalo soldiers — to the big screen.

Lee has never shied away from controversial statements and actions involving race relations:

  • In 2002, after headline-grabbing remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott regarding Senator Strom Thurmond’s failed presidential bid, Lee charged that Lott was a “card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan” on ABC’s Good Morning America.
  • After the 1990 release of Mo’ Better Blues, Lee was accused of antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League and several film critics.
  • Lee was the executive producer of the 1995 film New Jersey Drive, which depicted young African-American auto thieves in northern New Jersey.
  • In May 1999 The New York Post reported that Lee said of National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston, “Shoot him with a .44 Bulldog.” Lee contended, “I intended it as ironic, as a joke to show how violence begets more violence,” Lee said.
  • In 2003, Lee filed suit against the Spike TV television network claiming that they were capitalizing on his fame by using his name for their network. The injunction order filed by Spike Lee was eventually lifted.
  • In October 2005, Lee commented on the federal government’s response to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe:

    “It’s not too far-fetched. I don’t put anything past the United States government. I don’t find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans.”

  • Lee sparked controversy on a March 28, 2004 segment on ABC when he said that basketball player Larry Bird was overrated because of his race:

    “The most overrated player of all time, I would say it’d be Larry Bird. Now, Larry Bird is one of the greatest players of all time, but listen to the white media, it’s like this guy was like nobody ever played basketball before him–Larry Bird, Larry Bird, Larry Bird, Larry Bird, Larry Bird.”

  • At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Lee, who was then making Miracle at St. Anna, about an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during World War II, criticized director Clint Eastwood for not depicting black Marines in his own WWII film, Flags of Our Fathers.
  • During a lecture at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada on February 11, 2009, Lee criticized how some in the black community wrongfully associate “intelligence with acting white, and ignorance with acting black”, admonishing students and parents to maintain more positive attitudes in order to follow their dreams and achieving their goals.

Lee’s production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, is located in his childhood neighborhood of Fort Green in Brooklyn.

Workout
Yesterday, Wes and I made an attempt at getting back into the swing of things at the gym. And guess who did his first 300 pound bench press of the year! Mm-hmm, that’s right. Me. Sho’nuff!

  • Elliptical: random/8 minutes
  • Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/20 reps
  • Reverse Punches: 2 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
  • Bench Press: 1 set/1 rep, 300 lbs (!)
  • Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 205 lbs
  • Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
  • Shoulder Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs

Post-workout weight (in gym clothes): 189.8 lbs

Stray Toasters

Namaste.