Caution: I am going to use the term “dildo-freak out” in this blog post. Do not be alarmed.
It’s telling that it takes two skinny white boys to equal one of R&B’s most storied, bizarre and sincere lyricist/performers. I’m not saying that they didn’t do a great job. In fact, the dislocation of R. Kelly’s lyrics and music onto the Works stage, probably did more to elucidate Mr. Kelly’s deviant and surreal lyrics than would listening to his best selling album R. on repeat while getting freaky in the Jacuzzi with some hotties.
Still, questions come to mind: Was it the sheer power and sexual force behind Mr. Kelly’s lyrics that made Neal Medlyn shed his clothes so often? Was it really necessary to stab that teddy bear? Did anybody accept Christ during the gospel portion of the show? Just why is it “like Murder She Wrote when I start takin’ off ya clothes?”
I applaud Mr. Medlyn and Mr. Mellman for their effort and I understand that sometimes the only way to demonstrate the joy, beauty and primal force of R. Kelly is through a juicy dildo-freak out. I mean, that kind of thing isn’t in my personal library of self-expression, but hey- To each his own.
I was troubled and challenged by one thing though- Earlier yesterday, at the Creative Cities forum, a question was raised about how to bring more diversity into Portland’s creative community. I wonder if having a skinny white guy singing “You’re still my niggah,” from a ladder to the delight of a largely Caucasian crowd is really the best way to go about it. I’m just sayin’. It might be my liberal white guilt talking and its probably just me, but… I was a tad uncomfortable. What the hell. Its just art, right? Right?
posted by P.A. Coleman
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R. Kelly is a pretty slippery subject for parody–no attempt can come close to matching the level of absurdity of the man himself. I left after four songs, and with a bad feeling about the whole thing. First, the laziness of the routine: two nerdy white guys doing dirty R&B–boooo-ring. Give me a character to chew on, something more fleshed out than the generic dweeb Medlyn sketches. And yeah, I felt a tad uncomfortable as well. Something about being in an audience full of white people watching white people do a geek-ghetto minstrel show made me queasy–and I think it’s more than just white guilt.
Kiki & Herb do R. Kelly? I’m there.
I guess this is a very difficult question you have presented. Does skinny white guy Medlyn signing “You’re still my niggah” to a largely Caucasian crowd repress the diversification of the “Portland creative community?” Or to get to the spine of it, does it scare away black people from this “Portland creative community?”
Obviously you are speaking specifically about racial diversity. If you open this door, then you also open the door to other forms of diversity or you probably should. Now we ask – would Kiki and Herb be offensive to Christians or other bigots? Maybe, so. But, do we care? Probably not. What about Laurie Anderson versus republicans? It is hard to say where to stop or whether we should start at all?
Is a person who would truly be offended by Medlyn or Kiki and Herb ever really going to be part of an esoteric art festival? I hardly think so. Realistically it is only a certain portion of the collective that is going to come to TBA – sure if other types of people could be encouraged to partake that might be great, but they certainly shouldn’t be courted by taming the content.
That aside, I am not entirely sure that “Portland’s creative community” is not as statistically diverse as the population of the Portland Metropolitan Area. Probably it is already more racially diverse, then the entire population.
I lived most of my life in Miami, which is technically a very diverse city, but what attracted me to Portland and caused me to move here was the intelligence and openness of the city. The first time I visited Portland I was dressed in some very strange clothing and no one I met or saw on the street said anything negative about my appearance. In contrast, in Miami, every time I went out I would have someone calling me something negative, yet in this smaller town of Portland no one really cared. What really matters about a place is the way people think and how open they are, not how statistically diverse it is.
People should not be encouraged to live here or join a certain community to even out the percentages. They should come because they want to be part of a great smart open modern city.
I also felt uncomfortable with parts of this show. I have been holding off saying anything because so many people liked it, and I know it was done in a spirit of goofiness and fun that wasn’t (I don’t think) trying to make deeper points. Still: I had a conversation with the woman there with me, who is from Poland, that could not fail to draw out some unpleasant truths. She asked me at one point what “niggah” meant, as they were saying it over and over. I tried to explain…
Me: um… well, it’s kind of a different form of a word for black people that is considered racist, but when black people say it it’s not…
Her: Oh, nigger? that word?
Me: Well, kind of
Her: R Kelly is black, yes?
Me: Yes.
Her: But these two men are white.
Me: Yes.
Her: (looking around the room) And so is everyone else here.
Me: Yes.
Her: Hm. That’s interesting.
After that I couldn’t fail but feel that, yes, we are a room full of white people, laughing at two white men who are making fun of songs by a black man. And, you know, R Kelly’s songs are funny, some of them are bad, but some of them are pretty good. I guess it would be different if they were honoring those songs even while making fun of them, instead of just spoofing them. Or maybe it’s different when they perform them in New York, I don’t know.