Open Thread: Do The Right Thing Edition
The 20th anniversary of the release of Spike Lee’s ground-breaking movie Do The Right Thing, which dealt with a day in the life of a block in Bed Stuy, and in so doing brought the multi-layered issues of gentrification race coexistence and conflict in the inner city to a broader national audience. Two decades later,…
The 20th anniversary of the release of Spike Lee’s ground-breaking movie Do The Right Thing, which dealt with a day in the life of a block in Bed Stuy, and in so doing brought the multi-layered issues of gentrification race coexistence and conflict in the inner city to a broader national audience. Two decades later, how much has changed and how much remains the same?
one of the things i miss about where i lived in harlem is that right across the street were the spray mist showers and the sprinklers that was both for kids and adults, none of the “you cant come in this park or sprinkler if youre an adult without a kid” bullcrap. plus the fire hydrants were always open. tho if youre not careful and pay attention you can get hosed in the face and head pretty hard by the kids in the hydrants. (i had ringing in my ear for like an hour the one time ahahah). but the sprinklers and spray mist showers would be perfect on a day like today.
*rob*
I may be giving up on Brooklyn real estate entirely and buying a 200 acre farm in Vermont. How do you like them apples? (it has an orchard, among other things.) I would keep renting in Brooklyn for the foreseeable future and would spend weekends at the farm. I just see no point in wasting my time figuring out when to jump into a completely overpriced market. When will it correct? Later this year? Next? 5 years from now? It’s sort of like owning equities in the summer of 2008 – you knew there was a cliff out there, but for whatever reason you hadn’t reached it yet. So fuck it I say. I’ll be a happy renter with a farm.
(the farm would set me back less than a 3 bedroom apartment in the slope)
ROB – YES YES YES!
I LOATHE summer in the city
I don’t mind if it’s 80, but if you add 80% humidity I hate it!
wow i was just reading that coffee at that new place grumpy is 6.50! has the world gone batpoop bananas?
*rob*
I recall DTRT as a great film. I haven’t seen it in a while, and am looking forward to seeing it again (Mr. B neglected to mention that part of the re-release is a BluRay edition). And I also found Crooklyn to be boring.
The movie was about a lot of things, to me it was especially about the contradictions of urban living and race relations (the aforementioned scene where the white supposed gentrifier is from Brooklyn). I think Spike also went out of his way to be scrupulously fair, to show all sides of an issue. To poke fun equally, like the white guy who ran over that dude’s sneaker with his bike.
Even the cops, the scene with the white guy who gets his Caddy convertible sprayed and expects the cops to lock up the kids, but they just laugh at him. And in the end, the death of Radio Raheem, seemed to me that in part Spike was asking a question that remains unanswered; how exactly _do_ you restrain a 300lb person with a mental problem without killing him?
Yeah, and that Rosie Perez love scene was HOT.
Rob, did you say you ain’t white? And you haven’t seen a Spike Lee joint?
Agreed, Dave, you sure can’t get a nicely brownstone in Bed Stuy or Bushwick for half off. No way! In fact, I’ve never seen a “nicely renovated” brownstone in Bushwick.
I’m with you on that Rob. With this humidity, no matter what I do to my hair, by noon I look like Cousin It and I spend the rest of the day pushing my hair out of my eyes.
ugh i feel like im having pre-mature early summer heatstroke. and im sitting in the air conditioning. anyone else wish fall would just get here already?
*rob*
Bxgrl – “I am elated and hopeful, but for people to assume the worst of the past is behind us? I’m still hesitant- I’ve seen and heard too much.”
Umm Things may be far from perfect (but better than almost anywhere else) BUT I would say no matter how you look at it the worst of America’s racist past is behind us – unless there is some slave market around that we are all unaware of.