SCATTER SHOT

PHOTOGRAPHY

• Polaroid-o-Rize your life. This is actually pretty cool, all things considered.

TELEVISION

• Is ABC out of their goddamn minds? Welcome to the Neighborhood is a new reality show where three WHITE families get to choose which of seven families get to move in next door - and four of the families are conspicuously of color (one Black, one Latino, one Native, one Asian) while the other three are all a little "different" (i.e. one family is a pair of gay white men with a black adopted son). Basically, ABC wants these different families to try to impress their White neighbors-to-be to let them live on their block. It's such an unbelievably racist premise, it's amazing no one at the network paused for a second to think - "hey, maybe this isn't such a great idea. Maybe we can do one of those 'Who Wants to Marry a Midget Millionaire' shows instead?"
  
  Apparently, they did finally figure it out since ABC pulled the show yesterday even though all filming had been completed. This probably won't end up costing ABC a ton of money but you figure some producer is going to get axed over how remarkably stupid this idea was to begin wtih.
  
  What's especially appalling is how housing discrimination continues to be a lived reality for millions in America, but now ABC wants to capitalize on it? Check out this laughable description of the show: "...with every encounter with these families, the opinionated neighbors' pre-conceived assumptions and prejudices are also chipped away, and they learn that, while on the outside we may appear different, deep inside we share many common bonds." Give me a fucking break.
  
  I don't doubt that the producers are out to make the judging families look potentially "bad" by superficially exposing their own prejudices and what not but the truth remains, this contest plugs into an incredibly problematic reality for many families who find themselves shut out of neighborhoods by explicit or implicit covenants barring "their kind." Sorry, but I just don't find that a great premise for entertainment (though, in all fairness, it's not as if this show is that much more racist than many other reality shows where people of color are clearly tokens and/or there to be troublemakers).

RACE

• After President Fox's recent gaffe about the difference between Mexican immigrants and African Americans, you'd think Mexico would be a little more careful with how they handle race relations. Apparently, the postal service did not get that memo.

LITERATURE

• Truth really is stranger than fiction: Terry McMillian's man comes out the closet (and we don't mean that in an R.Kelley kind of way). Kris Ex, who put me up on the story, quips: "how bitter do you think her next novel is going to be?"?

MUSIC

• The Chicago Tribune's interactive hip-hop history site. The DJ Challenge is interesting in principle but executed poorly. The history timeline is well-meaning but omits some seminal albums (where did Public Enemy go?) while making other, strange choices (Da Brat? Are you serious?)
  
  
• The MP3 Blog Project has compiled some interesting stats on (guess what?) MP3 blogging.
  
  
• Our man Jon Caramanica tackles random rap, for the NY Times no less. It's a surprising article to end up in the Times. Does this mean I have to guard my Pelon-type heat from Upper East Siders now?
  
  
• Wired Magazine on the brewing beefs in nerdcore hip-hop. If I didn't know better, I would have thought this was written on April 1. But hey, how can you dismiss lyrical brilliance such as: "I'm encrypting shit like every single day; sending it across a network in a safe way; protecting messages to make my pay; if you hack me you're guilty under DMCA." That's not word perfect, that's micro soft. What what - you geeks can't test me.
  
  
• Adisa + Public Enemy + DJ Relm + Balance.
  
  
• Mictlan.com, home to the Old Barrio Guide to Lowrider Music. Check out their dance posters from the '60s and '70s. I love this kind of stuff.
  
  
• Last but not least, this month's Believer Magazine has drawn the ire of the some prominent favorites amongst the blogerati. Basically, people think their annual music issue is wacktacular, not the least of which is because it's narrowly focused on indie rock to the exclusion of other genres and communities (read: it's whiter than baking sode). The NY Times' Kelefa Sanneh wrote an entire column on the issue while Pitchfork.com dismisses the accompanying CD. I'm certainly sympathetic to the criticism being made here but it's not like The Believer has ever sold itself on inclusiveness and diversity. Don't get me wrong - I genuinely like the magazine, especially since it's one of the last refuges for long-form criticism left in the country, but culturally speaking, The Believer makes NPR look like BET (and yes, I'm quite aware they've had interviews with Ice Cube and ?uest Love in it).

  --O.W.