Whaddaya Hear, Whaddaya Say?

TCM have been running a bunch of old James Cagney movies this month, plus a bio piece on the tough little Mick from Hell's Kitchen (hosted by Michael J. Fox ???), so I thought I'd take some time to run through my favourite Cagney flicks and quotes.

Best Movies:
1. Angels With Dirty Faces
2. The Public Enemy
3. The Time of Your Life
4. White Heat
5. Yankee Doodle Dandy

I've never seen Shake Hands With The Devil (don't think it's been released on DVD yet) but I'm pretty sure I'd love that too.

Best quotes:
1. "Whaddaya Hear, Whaddaya Say?" as Rocky Sullivan in Angels....
2. "Why you dirty no good yella' belly double crosser," as Tom Powers in Public Enemy (I think)
3. Land Lady: "This week's rent is $5."
Cagney: "Stick it on my tab."
Land Lady: "Don't think I won't!"
Cagney: "And don't you think I think you won't" as Eddie Bartlett in Roaring Twenties
4. "I'm always alone when I'm with Matt," as Tom Powers in Public Enemy
5. "Made it, Ma - top o' the world," as Cody Jarrett in White Heat

Get Your Money Right, Just Dress Nice and Don't Thug

Remember when the big debate in Hip Hop music was, "Do you do it for the love of the art, or for the money?" The 'love of the art' dudes were largely underground types and the 'do it for the money' characters ended up being the 'gangstas.'

So in coffee shop circles it became cool to shit on that 'thugged out' stuff. The thugs, responding in kind, were on some 'get the fuck out of my face with that fruity shit.' Both sides were passionate about their position.

I've been listening to some of the new school rappers (or 'unrappers') and there seems to be some serious confusion in terms of what they're about. The aesthetic is almost neo-soul (albeit developed and pushed in a slightly different direction), but the lyrical content is more money-grubbing than the most thugged out 'Pac or Fiddy track you will ever hear in your life. At least with 'Pac and them there was passion. They were on that Scarface shit: first you get money, then you get the power, then you get the women. It was like watching a Bruce Willis action flick, or a Mike Tyson bout when he was in his prime.

Now the same dudes who crack on the gangsta film clips with semi-naked chicks, cars, and club scenes are all talking about shopping bags, cologne and looking cute. They're like some sissy French male-to-male escorts. "Buy cool, edgy, niche gear and gadgets, and this time next year it'll all be played out and replaced." It's probably the most meaningless, empty, 'consumerism for consumerism's sake' style we've seen so far. But the stereotype about the dumb, misogynist thug rapper persists.

These new dudes are way more sophisticated than that. Right?

NBA Pretends To Care About Travelling

Outside of the United States, the debate has raged for years about whether or not traveling is rife in the NBA. I've been playing the game for 20 years, and we were always taught along international FIBA lines, only to be confused by highlight reels of Shawn Kemp and MJ taking 43 steps on the way to some spectacular dunk or other. Now, it seems the NBA has admitted ignorance.

The written rule is far more complicated than you -- or indeed most NBA players -- would expect. And some digging has revealed that the way it's actually called in games is far more complicated than that.

I don't think it's that complicated. You can take 2 steps. You can't lift your pivot foot. You can't bunny hop. But having said that, the NBA is probably all the more entertaining for it.

Leave The Gift of Debt When You Die

I know time's are tough, but God damn! I didn't know chasing ghosts for cash was such a lucrative gift.

Dead people are the newest frontier in debt collecting, and one of the healthiest parts of the industry. Those who dun the living say that people are so scared and so broke it is difficult to get them to cough up even token payments.Collecting from the dead, however, is expanding. Improved database technology is making it easier to discover when estates are opened in the country’s 3,000 probate courts, giving collectors an opportunity to file timely claims. But if there is no formal estate and thus nothing to file against, the human touch comes into play.

Apparently an incredibly high percentage of relatives of dead people feel compelled to pay up, even when they can't really afford. If that's not a sign of how f*&ked the human condition is, I don't know what is.

Urban Camouflage

Well, IKEA camouflage really. Quite entertaining.

Bang The Drum

Go here and play the drums.

The Worker Is Working When The Fat Cat's About

Surprisingly earnest article in The Age today about the culture of golden handshakes for Big Business CEOs. Surprising because it's written by an associate editor, who you might expect to yawn and be cynical.

How much money is enough? The pathetic cliche that's used to defend stuffing the pockets of bosses — if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys — still has some currency. Unfortunately, it could well be judged by history to be one of the most damaging notions of our time. As Martin Lawrence, an analyst with shareholder advisers RiskMetrics, told my colleague Ari Sharp last week: "If paying the most gets you the best, then the CEOs of the Wall Street investment banks were the greatest executives of all time."

The article makes some excellent points, but why do we only shine the spotlight up through the glass ceiling during dire economic times? This should never be acceptable.

Because the market for ex-executives is said to be tight, their wage packages have unemployment insurance built in. That's fair enough as far as it goes, but do their employees enjoy similar benefits? I'm yet to hear of an ordinary worker whose salary carries an extra loading because the market demand for their services is poor.