not the place, not the time

last night was dinner with the Bean, Ivona and Lucy.*
dinner on our terms was not to be had. despite my confidence that we'd be able to grab a garden or sidewalk table at an inexpensive restaurant without much drama since "it's Labor Day weekend. no one is still in the city," i was dead wrong. however, with some drama (read: my lazy, unfed self having to walk around the E. Village), we did end up at Orologio, on 10th and A. although the service was v e r y s l o w, we did land an outdoor table and had a nice time. (the food was good too, although the drinking may have been better.)

i get home to watch the Hurricane Telethon, which i had DVR'd and amongst the celebrity and corporate support, Kanye West decided to make an inarticulate, uninformed and, moreover, ill-timed "statement." this guy is a first-class jackass. for those of you who "missed" it, i have transcribed it as follows:

Kanye West: ahem. i hate the way they portray us in the media. if you see a black family, it says they're looting, if you see a white family it says they're looking for food.
and you know that it's been 5 days because most of the people are black. and even for me to complain about it, i would be a hypocrite because i've tried to turn away from the t, to the tv because it's too hard to watch. i've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now i'm calling my business manager right now to see what's, what is the biggest amount i can give.
and, and just to imagine if i was, if i was down there and those are, those are my people down there so anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with, with the set up the way America is set up to help the, um, uh the poor, the, the black people, the, uh, the less well-off as slow as possible, i mean this is... Red Cross is doing everything they can we, we already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way and they, they, they've given them permission to go down and shoot us...

Mike Myers: [awkwardly continuing to read off teleprompter despite Kanye West's outburst.]

Kanye West: George Bush doesn't care about black people.

Mike Myers: [continuing with teleprompter reading] Please call...

[cutaway to Chris Tucker, who is seemingly unprepared to deliver his lines.]

and here i was all prepared to mock Aaron Neville's spandex leopard print top, which was so uncomfortable to look at. but then Kanye West done went and made things even more uncomfortable. wow, Mike Myers looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. i honestly feel as if Kanye West, in his tirade, just went and pissed on the effort the Red Cross was making to help people.

i mean, Kanye West is famous. if he wants to complain about racism and inequality he should do so, but on his own time. not when it will completely detract from a fundraising effort aimed to help the very people for whom he expresses such concern. even worse, he may well have turned off potential donors who would have otherwise given their money to help.

worse still is that, as horribly delivered as his speech was (KW should take some extemporaneous speaking lessons from Thurston, who has many a trophy exhibiting his prowess on the New Jersey High School extemporaneous speaking circuit), it seemed to be somewhat less than impromptu. this wasn't an excited utterance, but this little self-indulgent speech seemed to be planned. and KW truly is the only one this speech indulged. it sure didn't help any hurricane/flood victims. he should have spent less time ranting and more time on the phone with his business manager ("right now"). if i understand him correctly, at the time of his rant, Kanye West had not even made a donation but had been shopping. (i hope he didn't spend too much of his time on the rugby jersey he wore to the show, because that was not cute.)

Kanye West has the means to get "his message" out to the masses. he has a web site and access to the press on his own time. and he really should have used another medium to speak out if he deemed it to be so necessary (again, apparently more pressing than donating money to provide actual help). but, instead, a show aimed to help end people's suffering became a show that helped to promote Kanye West's delusions of eloquence.

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* i was free of Thurston, who was at his fantasy football draft in NJ. whereas i had a great pasta with chicken, artichokes and tomatoes, the menu at his event was bacon-themed. now i love bacon as much, or more, than the next person. indeed, my brother and i have had serious discussions about how many toes we'd give up in order to continue eating bacon. (i'm not sure who we think is going to demand our toes in exchange for the right to continue eating bacon, but it has made sense to us). anyway, you've all heard of Pigs in Blankets, the best hors d'oeuvre ever, no? well, the pigs at his draft are bundled in a blanket of bacon, not dough. bacon love notwithstanding, i find this to be somewhat blasphemous. i mean you ought not to mess with this perfection: