[Stiggers] Float On, Find Love
It's time for those interesting profiles from Float On Personals, brought to you by the law office of Cootie McBride and the L.M.H.F.D. National Bank.
[Chick] Oh, Snap
"Oh, snap!" That's what Monkey said when he realized he was going to miss a barbecue while with his dad at the beach. I was both shocked and amused. "Did you just say snap?"
Deliver Us From Evil
I was lying in bed last week, thinking about the Edgar Ray Killen trial. My feelings on it are hard to sort out; I'm relieved, yet worried that too many people will treat it as an end rather than a beginning.
[Greggs] Just Not Paying Attention
Most of the time when I'm driving home from work, I'm diligently thinking about something like how cool I would look wearing a cowboy hat while dancing on the hood of my car. I will also admit to daydreaming about Colin Farrell, but only when there's no one around to see my look of rapture.
[Kamikaze] The New Racism
You guys should know me by now. I'm that radical, angry rapper-guy who seems to have an opinion on everything. The guy who likes to stir it up, make you think. So as par for the course, I simply must reply to a letter printed in the JFP last issue. Phillip Ley of Flowood obviously took some exception to my last column blasting Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott for not co-sponsoring an anti-lynching resolution. While I have no problem with open dialogue (or criticism for that matter), I do have a problem with abject denial. And after obviously missing the point of my column, your response is, Mr. Ley, akin to your sticking your fingers in your ears, making annoying noises to tune out the truth.
[Stiggers] Battle of The Black Iron Skillet Chefs
Live from the kitchen of Clubb Chicken Wing, it's the premiere of the Ghetto Science Team's Black Iron Skillet Chef cooking competition show with Sista Church Hat.
Hail To The Staff
July 6, 2005 This is the 101st issue of the Jackson Free Press. We set out three years ago to bring independent journalism (and the best entertainment coverage) to Jackson, Miss., based on the "alt-weekly" model that is successful in other markets from the Village Voice to the Chicago Reader to the Nashville Scene, Memphis Flyer and many of the top 120 or so media markets. We had a kitchen table, some know-how, and the rich tapestry of Jackson and Mississippi to work with. The three-year trip we've made to become Jackson's news and entertainment weekly has been both grueling and gratifying.
[Stiggers] Po' Folks And Their Spooky Stories
The Ghetto Science Team brings you The Financially Challenged Summer Camp, hosted by Grandma Pookie. It's time for po' folks and their spooky stories by the camp fire under the moon light. Tonight, Grandma Pookie shares with us a scary tale titled "Night of the Living Financially Challenged.
[Rosella] Tragedy In Madison County
Recently, I have been puzzled by the tragic events that have hit the heart of my hometown, Madison. It seems as if the past three years have brought only grief to the Madison-Ridgeland area. Year after year, we lose more students, and we can't seem to figure out why. When I sit down and try to take it all in, I end up asking questions that no one seems to have an answer to.
If Melton's ‘Pro-Jackson' ...
We realized late in the production cycle for this issue that the Jackson Free Press is publishing its 100th issue this week. It may only be fitting that we reached such a milestone at the same time that the city of Jackson may be experiencing its most dramatic change since we began publishing—a changing of the guard at City Hall.
[Fleming] Barbour: Be Proud, But Not Arrogant
"If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail."
[Kamikaze] Two Steps Forward, Two Back
"If you don't learn from the past, you're doomed to repeat it." Well, don't be surprised if the drama that is the real world has started looking like a rerun. Too often, when Mississippi appears to be discarding the vestiges of racism that has crippled it for decades, someone here does or says something, well, stupid. Needless to say, it's kind of embarrassing how we've yet again given a platform for ignorance to rear its ugly head.
[Chick] Tankini Hell
First of all, I had every intention of boycotting the swimsuit industry this year. No, I was not going to be that chick you see at the public pool wearing gym clothes in the water. (By the way, if she's not going to suit up, she could at least get some band-aids. I'm just saying.) I spent big bucks on a suit last year that covers what needs to be covered and accentuates the few good things I've got going for myself.
[Stiggers] Handle Yo' Bidness
Live from Grandma Pookie's kitchen: It's the Ghetto Science Team's syndicated pirate radio show "Handle Yo' Bid-Ness with Lil' Ray-Ray."
[Irby] Thank You, Mr. McIntyre
PHILADELPHIA, MISS.—Lawyers made closing arguments today in the State of Mississippi v. Edgar Ray Killen trial. I sat with the media in the courtroom shaking my head as defense attorney James McIntyre of Jackson avoided addressing the facts of the case and tried instead to convince the jury why it should not have been brought up in the first place.
Cochran and Lott: Sign On Now
In the wake of the Edgar Ray Killen trial and the media spotlight on Mississippi, another tumult over race and politics boiled to the surface last week when the U.S. Senate passed a non-binding resolution apologizing for years of the Senate's failure to pass Federal anti-lynching legislation.
[Stiggers] What's In a Name?
Boneqweesha Jones and the Ghetto Science Repertory Theater present a sneak preview of the stage play "Colored Folk Who Considered Changing Their Ethnic Sounding Names When the Corporations Wouldn't Hire Them."
[Kamikaze] Jam On
Whew! It's been a whirlwind two weeks. Quite honestly, my head is spinning. But it seems a bit of progress has been made. If you haven't been out of town or off the planet recently, then you've heard about the stir Jubilee!JAM officials caused when this year's line up was announced a couple of weeks ago. Much to the chagrin of hundreds of JAM supporters, this year's festival was originally devoid of any hip-hop. Save for a performance by rock/rap hybrid Free Sol, there wasn't one hip-hop act—local or otherwise—on the bill.
[Parrish] Memo To The Mainstream
I have a three-word response to the media frenzy that followed revelation of the long-secret identity of Deep Throat: Downing Street Memo.
[Lynette's Note] My Heart Belongs To Daddy
Men fascinate me, and have for, oh, I'd say almost the entire 57 years I've been on this spinning orb. Men are deftly driving behemoth trains and trucks, fixing failed computers, making music on guitars and saxophones and turntables, frying fish and jalapenos, grilling steaks and pork tenderloins, coaching teams of youngsters, writing books, kneading bread or shaping burgers, wielding a chef's knife or brush or a computer program or a camera or a potter's wheel or a hammer in the name of creativity—loving and working for their families, friends, their cities and towns—all while expounding and enlightening and entertaining and enlivening.
[Stiggers] At Play In The Fields Of Greens
From the makers of "Poor Folk Gone Postal" is a film about a man who follows that inner voice. While flipping Crunchie Burgas on the grill at Crunchie Burga World, chief cook Purvis Jackson hears a Barry White voice say, "If you plant collard greens, cook 'em with a juicy ham-hock and serve 'em with a nice slice of cornbread, people will come."
For The Children
Myrlie Evers-Williams says she and her husband, Medgar, held each other and cried days before he died. They knew he was about to be killed for his tireless work to bring equality and dignity to blacks in Mississippi. "Promise me you will take care of my children," he told her as he held her.
[Chick] She Is My Business
I think most of us women have had that friend at some point, and if you don't remember that friend, then I bet you were that friend. That friend was the one girl we really, really wanted to be. She made us laugh. She retained our confidences. She was strikingly beautiful and fiercely loyal, and we envied her just a bit, but loved her even more.
[Sawyer] What 'Pro Life' Really Means
As of last month, the Gallup Poll indicated that 23 percent of Americans wish to keep abortion legal, 53 percent indicated legal but with restrictions, and 22 percent support the illegality of abortion. What does this mean? Seventy–six percent of Americans overwhelmingly support the "safe and legal" option often purported by Democrats. I happen to fall into a fourth category that supports a real culture of life, but I'll get to that later on in this column.
[Kamikaze] Don't Get Nuked
What you don't know: filibuster, n. the use of extreme dilatory tactics in an attempt to delay or prevent action.
The Mayor's Race That Wasn't
The JFP started out the election season in January determined to learn as much as possible about both the character and the specific plans of the candidates for mayor of Jackson. Because of the nature of the job of mayor—part business booster, part labor negotiator, part city planner, part "top cop," part statesman—we think that the labels Republican or Democrat are secondary to the mayor being a trustworthy power-broker, a champion against poverty and for education, a proponent of smarter government, and a progressive when it comes to exploring and promoting creative ideas to fuel the cultural renaissance of a city's urban core.
What a Difference a Week Makes
May marked the first full year of the Jackson Free Press as a weekly publication, a feat that we were excited to dive into last summer and, now more than 50 issues later, we're very glad that we did.
With or Without You, Haley
Well, Gov. Barbour, all us under-55 Mississippians got your message loud and clear last week. We don't matter. You don't care about us and what we think of you because, well, not enough of us are likely to vote for you.
[Stiggers] Fun In The ‘Hood
Ghetto Theme and Amusement Parks of America presents "Fun Summer Alternatives with Ghetto Economist Pookie Peters":
[Chick] Screw Miss America
Screw Miss America. I apologize for my bluntness, but I think I have an abusive relationship with the Miss America Pageant. When my college roommate was a pageant girl, I supported her and clapped for her and sent her flowers, but deep down I wished she would just shut up and eat something. I thought Samantha was pretty fabulous all on her own—with or without swimsuit glue—but she just lived for pageants.