Posts Tagged ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’
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It’s possible that I could get into a lot of trouble with this comic. So, at the risk of ruining in the joke, I’ll explain myself that everyone wishes they could make a speech like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at least once in their life. Tom is no different. It’s just that the issues he’s passionate about at a little more… pedestrian.
Incidentally, if it makes anyone feel better, eagle-eyed readers might notice that the man in the last panel who puts Tom in his place bears a passing resemblance to Tom’s latent dream scape manifestation of his white guilt. So, is today’s comic a dream? If you’re offended, the answer is “Yes.”
In all seriousness, this isn’t meant to diminish the great work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He’s a personal hero of mine and I find him damn cool to boot. In 2004, I traveled to Memphis and visited the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I don’t know why I feel the need to trot that out like it’s some kind of pedigree. I just want to make it clear that I mean no harm.
I would say there is a certain amount of white guilt that I’m given the day off for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Maybe it’s because I’m from a different generation or maybe it’s because of the whole race issue, but I don’t feel like I’ve “earned” it. Who am I to take advantage of this holiday? Some punk white kid from the suburbs? All I know is the history. I can’t say I lived through those times even as an ancillary witness.
At any rate, if I’m going to feel guilty about it, I might as well try to spin it into something humorous. This is just one of those ideas that got in my head and wouldn’t shake loose. I had to see it through. Hopefully, everyone understands that Tom is supposed to be the idiot in today’s comic. You know, kind of like how Stephen Colbert makes fun of conservatives on The Colbert Report by portraying himself as the worst stereotype of one.
Am I digging myself deeper by trying to compare myself to Stephen Colbert? Funny, too that this would be the first comic I come up with after someone asked me in Friday’s comments section why comic Tom doesn’t have more African-American friends. I think this is what my doctor mean when she diagnosed my “self-destructive tendencies.”
Onto less controversial matters. Cami and I are currently having work done in our basement, so it’s more than likely that we’ll be seeing movies today. I got great feedback about Children of Men and a lot of encouragement to see it. I felt like I had all the evidence I needed to talking Cami into seeing it, but then my good friend Mighty Mitch Clem suggested that perhaps a movie about humanity suddenly not being able to concieve children and the several references to miscarriage that follow would not be appropriate for a woman 8 and a half months pregnant. I appreciated the head’s up. So we probably won’t see the movie until after Baby Brazelton is born. We’ll probably see something like Dreamgirls, instead. After all, since it has all this hype around it and people seem to think it’s going to walk away with an armload of Golden Globes, we should probably see what the fuss is about.
Speaking of The Golden Globes, tonight myself, Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex will be hosting our second talkcast under the nome de plume of “The Triple Feature” over at TalkShoe. We’ll be discussing The Golden Globes LIVE as they are being broadcast and provide real-time reporting that will factor into our picks for the upcoming Oscar nominations. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ll also be talking about Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, which was completely mishandled by the studios when it was left to flounder in a handful of theaters for 7 days without any advertising late last year. The movie was just release on DVD last week and we’ll be discussing that as well.
I encourage everyone to visit The Triple Feature page at TalkShoe and tune in tonight at 9:00 pm CST to listen to the show. It’s only an hour long and we’ll be taking your calls, so join in!
Have a great day!
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It’s been a while since we’ve seen Charlie in a comic, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to reintroduce to the strip.
Y’know, for a while I’ve wanted to get back to telling longer story arcs and I’m sitting on a doozy that focuses on the ancillary players of the Theater Hopper universe. One of these days I’m going to have to get around to telling it and tighten things up a little bit in terms of how everyone relates to each other.
Just like in the comic, both Cami and I have the day off today because of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Being the whitest white guy who every whited, I always felt a little guilty for being given the day off. What am I supposed to do with it? Practice my speech-writing skills? Participate in a sit-in of some kind?
I don’t mean to diminish Martin Luther King, Jr. or his accomplishments in any way. But getting the day off for his birthday is something new to me. The corporation I work for only recently enacted a policy giving employees time off for it. So I’m kind of at a loss.
I’m probably dating myself a little bit here, but I’m reminded of a skit from Saturday Night Live in the early to mid-90’s with Tim Meadows and Ellen Cleghorn as two office workers exchanging gifts on Marting Luther King, Jr. day. All of the white people in the office start to get very worried and start to ask each other “Were we supposed to get them gifts?” Eventually the two parties end up in conflict over the matter and all the white people scurry to get the African American co-workers gifts. When they leave the break room, Meadows and Cleghorn laugh about it all being a scam. I dunno. I guess I’m saying I relate to that confusion.
I didn’t get a chance to see 27 Dresses this weekend. Just didn’t shake out that way. But I did see Cloverfield on Friday night. Very intense film, but it lived up to the hype for me. I loved it and apparently so did a lot of you. The film broke all box office records for January.
It’s been interesting to monitor the reaction to this film. I’ve talked to some people who absolutely hated it and thought it was dumb. A lingering taste of Blair Witch still left in their mouths? The couple next to me at the showing I attended left with about 20 minutes to go. I have no idea what set them off.
At any rate, I’ll reserve the majority of my comments in this space and instead encourage you to tune in to The Triple Feature podcast being recorded LIVE at 9:00 PM CST this evening over at TalkShoe. I know that both Joe and Gordon saw the film and I’m positive there will be some strong opinions about it from all three of us.
If you saw the movie this weekend, I strongly encourage you to call in with your questions or leave your comments in the real-time chat filed during the broadcast. I’d love to gather a little more concensus around the film. I honestly think it’ll be a film people will still be talking about 5 years from now.
That’s all from me. Enjoy the day off if you’ve been lucky enough to have been granted it so. Otherwise, I hope this l’il old comic will help get you over the Monday blah’s.
Talk to you soon!
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