Friday – 03 February 2012
It’s my 9/80 day off with the girls.


Diana (l) and Vanessa

I’m trying to decide what we should do. There’s an offer on the table for a short road – and hobby shop – trip that’s sounding more and more appealing. On the other hand, we’re already planning to hit the World’s Greatest Hobby train show on Sunday, so I’m (somewhat) less inclined to buy something today.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is: Don Cornelius

Donald Cortez “Don” Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012) was an American television show host and producer who was best known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance/music franchise Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971 to 1993.

Originally a journalist inspired by the civil rights movement, Cornelius recognized that in the late 1960s there was no television venue in the United States for soul music, and introduced many African-American musicians to a larger audience as a result of their appearances on Soul Train, a program that was both influential among African-Americans and popular with a wider audience. As writer, producer, and host of Soul Train, Cornelius was instrumental in offering wider exposure to black musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson, as well as creating opportunities for talented dancers that would presage subsequent television dance programs. Cornelius said “We had a show that kids gravitated to,” and Spike Lee described the program as an “urban music time capsule.”

By way of NPR’s Dan Charnas:

The significance of Don Cornelius to American culture — and to the American culture business — is told nowhere more eloquently than in one brief exchange between Cornelius and singer James Brown, a story that Cornelius himself recalls in VH-1’s excellent 2010 documentary Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America.

It was the Godfather of Soul’s first appearance on Cornelius’ then-nascent syndicated TV show — designed to do for soul music and black audiences what American Bandstand had long done for pop music and mainstream audiences. Brown marveled at the professionalism of the production, the flawlessness of its execution.

He turned to Cornelius and asked, “Who’s backing you on this, man?”

“It’s just me, James,” Cornelius answered.

Brown, nonplused, acted as if Cornelius didn’t understand the question. He asked it two more times, and Cornelius answered twice again: “It’s just me, James.”

That the man who wrote the song “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” and who recorded the soundtrack to the Black Power movement could scarcely comprehend that a black man like Cornelius both owned and helmed this kind of enterprise without white patronage is a testament to the magnitude and the improbability of Cornelius’ achievements.

Don Cornelius proved a truism about America and race that so few people, even today, understand: Black culture, expressed in undiluted form and unapologetically, will by virtue become accepted by the American mainstream. It’s something that future rap moguls like Russell Simmons and Jay-Z understood instinctively. So it’s a tragic irony that Soul Train‘s decline came with the dawn of the hip-hop era.  Last year, the set and memorabilia of Soul Train landed at the Smithsonian’s Museum of African-American History and Culture.

In the early-morning hours of February 1, 2012, officers responded to a report of a shooting and found Cornelius with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead by the Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner. According to former Soul Train host, Shemar Moore, Cornelius may have been suffering from early onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and his health had been on the decline.

Information courtesy of NPR, The New York Times and Wikipedia

Stray Toasters

And tonight, I’m playing HeroClix: Star Trek Tactics with the guys…

…just before the HeroClix: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ event that I came up with and am judging tomorrow.

Weekend full of tabletop gaming goodness. Aw, yeah…

Namaste.