Spike Lee's X was a necessary slap on the face for society

"Moviegoers give Spike Lee's epic film 'Malcolm X' two thumbs up," Daily Tar Heel, 11/20/92

By Leah A. Campbell
Staff Writer

Reaction to Spike Lee's epic film, "Malcolm X," was favorable from moviegoers who attended the film's premiere showing in Chapel Hill Wednesday. The movie opened in Chapel Hill at the Plaza Theater on Elliot Road. After seeing the film, Erik Ose, a senior from Providence, R.I., said it was important for everyone to see it. "You can't call yourself an American unless you make the effort to see this movie," he said. Caroline Philson, a senior from Charlotte, said she thought the movie earned an overwhelmingly positive message. "I really thought the movie was beyond words," she said. "It was a necessary slap on the face for society. I just think it is ridiculous that we still have a problem with racism in this day and age."

Carrboro resident Lisa Yonkers said she was pleased with the film. "I thought it was great," Yonkers said. "It really gave a good strong message about the need for brotherhood." Some viewers said they saw the film to compare it to the book. Regina Madison, a first-year UNC law student, said she had wanted to see the film ever since she had read the book. "I have already read the book, and now I want to see Lee's version of the story," she said, while waiting in line to see the film. Madison added that she thought Lee's request for people to skip work and school to see the movie on its opening day was inappropriate. "I think that was very unrealistic," she said. "He should have never asked people to take off from work in this economy."

Ante Gray, a Chapel Hill resident, said he was interested in seeing how Spike Lee would handle the assassination scene. "I'm very curious to find out who Lee is going to say killed Malcolm X," Gray said.

It was not clear whether either the 3:15 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. shows were sold out because the owner of the movie theater, Eastern Federal Corp., would not allow any of the theater's employees to comment. A spokeswoman for the company said the corporation wanted to keep a low profile while the film ran. "We in the film industry have come to the conclusion that the press has the tendency to blow things out of proportion," she said. "This film does not deserve any more press than any other film. This is a simple case of looking for trouble and finding it there."

Malcolm X debuts at the Plaza Theatre

What's up. It's Tuesday the 17th, and I'm sitting at home chillin'.

Tomorrow Malcolm X does the debut thing and I'm zeroing in on a 3:15 pm showing with Caroline Philson for a paltry matinee-bargain $3.50 at the plush Plaza Theatre in scenic outskirts Chapel Hill.

N'Gai says he's going to wait until Thanksgiving to see it with Erica.

...

It's now Friday, the 20th of November, and your letter isn't done yet.

...

Wednesday, I drove Pedigo back to Winston Salem, where we met up with his mother and brother. Then I busted ass to get to Chapel Hill in time to go see Malcolm X with C-line.

X was great, I think this is obviously Spike's opus, and he remained true to the story. I do think he could have made sure Malcolm was shown giving more excerpts from some of his last speeches, really hammering home the timelessness and inspiring nature of his words as he was progressing to more and more radical, non-racist, economic and political analyses of the plight of black people in this country. I hope people get a sense of that from the movie even as it stands, because that seems to me to be its only flaw.

- Letter to Dana, 11/20/92

Dada Veda's last show, Cat's Cradle

At 8 pm tonight I'm driving to Greensboro, pressed into service as a lackey once again. Sound familiar? This evening, my charge will be that globe trotting wunderkind who used his Russian scholarship money to take Paris by drunken storm...Chris Pedigo.


Chris in Paris, Spring 1992

He called me from Paris yesterday and said he was coming home because he'd gotten very ill. Three weeks in an American hospital with some awful sickness that begins with a "g," like goiter, or gehring's, or something. Actually, it was something more like "garria." I was told people usually contract this when drinking from feces-contaminated streams.

You get awful diarrhea for a long time, which comes out many strange colors. It's also known as the "rainbow shits."

Pedigo said he'd had an IV hooked up to his jugular and lost a total of fifteen kilos. Since he only weighed 125 lbs to begin with, it didn't sound fun.

Also tonight, Knucklehead Clint Curtis is playing to a potentially packed house at the Cat's Cradle in what's being billed as Dada Veda's very last ever show. Apparently Clint's guitarist Scott is leaving the band, and drummer John Bell is embarking on another project working with a disco cover band. I kid you not. Clint isn't particularly upset, though...I still see him kind of frequently these days, since he's paying us $25/month to park in our driveway.


Five times over the last few months, Clint has personally invited me to his shows, even putting me on the guest list. Every time, I've had to dis. I feel really bad...so I can't let him down tonight. I'm going to drive Pedigo back to Chapel Hill with me and take him to see the show, then drive him home to Winston Salem tomorrow.

...

By the way, Caroline Philson is now going out with David Biggs. Remember him? He lives in a prototypical slacker apartment with roommates Paul Giragos and Pete Corson.

Speaking of slackers, it's now Friday, the 20th of November, and your letter isn't done yet. Everything went basically as planned on Tuesday. When I got to Greensboro to pick up Pedigo, I found him sitting feebly in a wheelchair. He looked terrible. After finding out that he wasn't about to die right then, I convinced him to come back to Chapel Hill for the night. I was planning to wheel him around the Cradle in his wheelchair.

The Dada Veda show was very sad and poignant. They were much better technically than I remembered them being, and the individual band members were set up on stage as far away from each other as possible. This gave them each their own sphere of creativity, all bathed in eerie banks of lights. Clint was wearing a William Burroughs-type 1940's suit, an X cap, and whiteface. Left and right, he treated the audience to theatrical antics.


Designed by Clint Curtis.

And the place was packed! Not only that, it was a very intimate crowd, full of all the band's friends, every other imaginable denizen of the alternative Chapel Hill crowd, and all these really cute women! Anyway, looking at Clint up on the stage, I couldn't help thinking back to our roadtrip, and how Clint had essentially fulfilled his dream to become a bona fide Chapel Hill musical superstar. And then I realized the song they were playing at the moment was Zen Free Love Lunacy, and it all fit together.

Oh, and one bizarre footnote. Do you know that Fox TV show called "Parker Lewis Can't Lose"...? Well, one of the main actors is this huge dumb white guy who they call "Meat". And guess what happens. I'm talking with Josh Bradt, and all of a sudden, N'Gai comes up to me and says "Hey, hey, guess who's here. Yeah, it's that guy from Parker Lewis, right over there." So we go to check him out, real clandestinely, and there really is a dude who looks just like him. But then...he turns out to actually be THE GUY! His name was Abe. We talk with him and he tells us that he's appearing in a movie that's being filmed at Duke, and while over there he had heard that Dada Veda were a really cool band, so he came to see them! Mindblower.

- Letter to Dana, 11/20/92

Ren and Stimpy rock Chapel Hill

A couple Mondays ago, I had dinner with my housemate Jay, Caroline Philson, Eric Wagner, and a guy named Bob Camp, who is the new director and chief writer of the Ren and Stimpy show! Later that night, he spoke and screened four episodes on our campus, in this huge building called Memorial Hall which seats 1,800 and was completely full. There were people standing outside on the windowsills in forty degree weather watching the cartoons. There were two old episodes...and two totally new, never-before-seen ones!



The new ones featured this sick new character named George Liquor. If they eventually get broadcast, they're called "Dog Show" and "Man's Best Friend," and they're awesome!



UNC-CH was the first university Bob Camp has ever been asked to speak at, so he was really cool and laid back about the whole thing.


As CUAB chair, Eric Wagner was responsible for the whole setup, and invited me along to the dinner. I hooked Jay up, and Caroline found her own angle to scam him into letting her come, too. During dinner I got him to draw a cartoon and give me his autograph on one of the Ren and Stimpy flyers I'd created for Derek Shadid's student congress campaign. Caroline also took a picture of us together. Did I mention that Bob Camp is also an extremely patient man? He dealt with my fan antics surprisingly well. And the clincher of the night had to be that it was free food and drinks for all of us at Pyewacket, where the dinner was held, courtesy of student fees. What a deal.


Photo by C-line

And Bob Camp was such a twisted character! He told us all about the sorts of jokes they've tried to put into episodes of the show, only to have them vetoed by Nickelodeon. Apparently, now that John K. (the show's original creator) has been fired, the guy who does the voice of Stimpy (Billy West) is going to do the voice of Ren. Also, have you ever seen this one episode that came on at the beginning of this past (second) season, called "Powdered Toast Man"...?



Well, that episode has been banned altogether from ever being shown again, and all because of only three letters that Nickelodeon got about it from parents who were disturbed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights getting burned in a fireplace at the episode's end. Pretty fucked up.

- Letter to Robb Teer, 12/2/92

The Struggle for a free-standing BCC