2B- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 14, 2006 {the b-side} 4 Once again paving the way for more electronic-based modes of viewing film, iTunes announced Tuesday its partner- ship with Disney to present future and 75 previously released films for download on the popular website. New films will be available for $12.99 in the week prior to their release and will jump to $14.99 once they are released. Old films will sell for $9.99. For now, Disney is the only major studio that has agreed to the sales, which other studios fear may hamper sales on DVD and to television. The move came on the same day as the Motion Picture Asso- ciate of America's announcement that it will prosecute Beijing pirates for ille- gal copies of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," among other films, signaling an escalation of the MPAA's much-publicized effort to fight digital piracy. Much to the chagrin of national interest groups and the better part of its fans, the 13th season premiere of "Survivor" at the Cook Islands will premiere tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS, with four tribes separated solely by their race. (The tribes will be white, black, Hispanic and Asian, in case you were wondering.) Blatant exploitation and segregationist impulses be damned: Expect the ratings to be huge. ... This week in completely unsurprising news, Whitney Houston has (finally) decided to end her tumultuous marriage Steffans is a huge Whitney Houston fan. Poor Bobby. Maybe New Edition will cut a greatest hits album and go on tour. Or maybe not. Apple nerds, open up your checkbooks. Your iPods are all outdated. On Tuesday, Apple announced updates to every model in its iPod line. It's mostly predictable stuff - the omnipresent MP3 players all improved their gigabytes-to-dollars ratio, the Nano got a more scratch- proof chassis, the Shuffle is now literally about the size of a postage stamp - but there is one new feature that anal music junkies have been yearning for: gapless playback. Yes, you can finally listen to your Radiohead albums, classical recordings or the second half of Abbey Road (no one should be listening to live Dave Matthews albums anymore) without that jarring skip between tracks. Steve Jobs, you are too good to us. Ashlee Simpson, everyone's favorite almost-blond, has been chosen to play lead character Roxie Hart in the London production of "Chicago" beginning Sept. 25. She'll give the role her trademark all, but maybe she'll leave the acid-reflux at home for the six weeks she'll be in the foggy city. Break a leg, Ashlee. - Compiled by Jeffrey Bloomer, Caitlin Cowan, Donn M. Fresard and Bernie Nguyen. 01' Dirty Bastard (1999) Nigga Please Elektra We really do believe you can sing, Ashlee. to singer and self-proclaimed bad boy Bobby Brown. After 14 years of reported crack habits, violent arguments and Brown's too-real reality show "Being Bobby Brown," Houston has apparently had enough. The famous diva filed for a legal separation yesterday. Rumors have it that Brown has also been bedding down with music video vixen Karrine Steffans, who may have been partially to blame for the split. The weirdest part? MADGETT Continued from page 1B and showed no signs of slowing. At the outset of her high school years, Madgett's family relocated to St. Louis. The move was a turn- ing point for the ambitious teenager. She discovered the unforeseen bless- ings of a legally segregated, all-black school, where it was popular to be smart and academic achievement was the top priority. Madgett had finally found a place where lofty aspirations were encouraged without question, and she took off running. But she wasn't alone in her endeavors. Madgett not only found support in her father, but also in Harlem Renaissance poets Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. In a meeting arranged by Madgett's father, Cullen confirmed the growing suspicions behind her= bursting creativity: "Well, you're a poet" Hughes's influence proved to be an even greater one. After an oppor- tune book-signing session, the two became lifelong friends and she still strives to pattern herself after him. "He was such a wonderful human being" she recalled, "so down to earth, so encouraging of other poets. If he walked into a room, in 10 min- utes you would be calling him by his first name." Around the same time, Madgett was assembling a collection of poet- ry with unfettered devotion, titled "Songs to a Phantom Nightingale." The book was brought to fruition and published just days after her high school graduation. After leav- ing school, Madgett studied English at Virginia State College and com- pleted graduate work at New York University. By 1948, Madgett's first mar- riage had collapsed and she was left stranded with a young daughter and a telephone-company job that paid a $37 per week. Madgett was always dead set against teaching, but with a child to support she had little choice and took a job at Detroit's North- western High School. But her future was hardly fixed. With the Civil Rights Movement in full swing, Madgett felt pressured to pull away from the public school system, especially after Detroit's unbridled race riot of '64. She con- ceded and accepted an offer to teach at Eastern Michigan University, where she remained until her retire- ment in 1984. In 1963, 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Madgett wrote "Alabama Centen- nial" The poem acknowledges per- tinent events of the time - violent police attacks in Birmingham, the bus boycott in Montgomery - and urges African Americans to perse- vere in the face of seemingly inex- haustible discrimination: "Ride! And I rode the bus for freedom. / Kneel! And I went down on my knees in prayer and faith. / March! And I'll march until the last chain falls / Singing, 'We shall over- come.:9" Madgett hesitates to consider her- self a social activist, but "Alabama Centennial" and other poems denote an undisguised call for justice dur- ing a time of acute racial conflict. The poem"Midway" made waves in the sociopolitical arena too."Mid- way" is a compelling demonstra- tion of unshakeable determination; Madgett's melancholy, yet hopeful voice staunchly refuses to surren- der to attacks on black equality. The poem seems to be an obvious response to the travesties of racial prejudice, but it also sheds light on Madgett's all-encompassing attitude toward personal struggles: "So whether you abhor me / Or deride me or ignore me / Mighty mountains loom before me and I won't stop now." In an attempt to expedite the publication of "Pink Ladies In The Afternoon;' Madgett and her sec- ond husband launched Lotus Press in 1972, which made significant headway later when it assisted in the publication of one of her student's work. The name Lotus Press stems from the Egyptian lotus flower - for Madgett,it's a symbolof the'"African voice transplanted to this country." Lotus Press offers a rare oppor- tunity for African-Americans to publish poetry without the bureau- cratic hassles of publishers who tend to categorize their writing styles as either "too black or not black enough." In 2001, Madgett was named Poet Laureate of Detroit, an official validation of her work after 55 years of writing in the city. Honorary titles typically fail to impress, but Madgett's work deserves admiration for the sake of its insight, regardless of auxiliary labels. Just last May, Madgett published her autobiography "Pilgrim Jour- ney'" the culmination of a thirty- year work in progress. The book was printed through Lotus Press - typically reserved for poetry - because she feared it would be edited past the point of her own per- sonal toleration. "I'm 83 years old; I've lived a long life,"she said. "There's nothing that I want to take out of it." Madgett seldom feels compelled to write anymore. She believes that poems "cannot be forced... [they] should be something that you can't help writing." She blames journal- ism for her "ruined creativity" but one can't help but doubt this when she begins reciting verses written decades ago with effortless ease and grace. By Chris Gaerig Associate Magazine Editor Why is it always the crazy ones that everyone seems to care about? Take Public Enemy for example. Chuck D. has been lec- turing about hip hop and race, all the while Flavor Flav is being dry humped on national television by every club rat and gold digger in the United States - for a second time. How about Outkast? Big Boi's clearly a superior rapper, but everyone seems to like Andre 3000 so much more. Another seminal rap group, the Wu-Tang Clan, seems to be in just about the same place (well, without the flamboyant film and primetime show with amateur hookers). But this time, replace Chuck D. with eight stoned, kung-fu-worshiping kids and Flavor Flav with a really stoned character obsessed with getting laid, high and drunk: Ol' Dirty Bastard. But where Andre 3000 and Flavor Flav are clear- ly the lesser of their duo, ODB could contest nearly any of the Wu MCs. As the Wu-Tang were ahead of their contemporaries lyrically, ODB was ahead of everyone sty- listically (absolutely no meter to his lines and exercising the free- dom to sing in the middle of his verses even when he certainly shouldn't have). No one, to this day even, has matched ODB's schizophrenic flows and few can contest his vitriol and shameless- ly extroverted cries. His throaty screeches are so syncopated and flushed with allusions they would make Ludacris blush. When ODB finally broke away from the Wu to release his solo material, people could only spec- ulate what this madman might concoct. His first solo effort was Return to the 36 Chambers, which ultimately proved a bit sporadic. But when his second album, Nigga Please, hit stores, his legacy was officially cement- ed as not only one of the most deranged MCs of all time, but also one of the most innovative of the past decade. Essentially, this album is as close as music can get to "The Wizard of Oz" (sorry Pink Floyd, you're just not cutting it anymore). Nothing is as it seems and ODB is the Wonderful Wiz- ard running the show. From the intro "Recognize," which fea- tures Chris Rock telling you "It ain't the young DB / It's the O' DB," you know shit's about to get weird. And with production done by the RZA and a not-yet hipster Neptunes, there was no way Nigga Please was going to sound like anything else. The disc give us one of our first looks at the "Bossy" Steak & Shake waitress Kelis on "Got Your Money," and a little fore- shadowing into the RZA's work for "Kill Bill" on the climaxing production of "I Can't Wait." And it would be easy to con- tinue track by track, but ODB can't be summed up as that crazy comic relief from the Wu-Tang. Essentially, he's the Charles Bukowski of hip hop: you either love him or you don't, completely ahead of his time, not afraid to say and convince you of anything. Songs like "Back That Azz Up" are often considered demeaning because they instruct women to pleasure men. ODB, for the most part, stays away from this political pitfall but is equally as shocking and open about what he wants. On "I Want Pussy," ODB repeats: "I want pussy / for free." He says it enough times that you just start to believe him rather than get mad. He really does want pussy for free He separates himself further from everyone else on "Good Morning Heartache." ODB croons along with Lil' Mo's alto throughout the cut. It's either a fairly comedic and enjoyable track or nails on a chalkboard. There's really no in between. But at least he did it. Few rap- pers, if any, would have the gall to do what ODB did on Nigga Please. Ol' Dirty Bastard was unprec- edented and remains unmatched. Following his untimely death while working in the studio in 2004, the Wu-Tang have begun a tour and several of the members have continued their own work. But none of them will be able to fill in or emulate ODB. And Nigga Please showed that people care about the crazy ones because they actually are the best out there. Maybe "Flavor of Love" isn't that bad after all. 4 4 PAID ADVERTISEMENTI Above The Law? Stand up for your Civil Rights, for the Constitution, and for Justice every monday - friday from 5-6 pm with fellow protesters in front of the Federal Building on the corner of 6th and Liberty. Let the administration know you have had enough! 340 1t.S.tet, M-Tn11.9:00pm sn Axb, 91148104 FtStall1.9alpm 7344-"Ola ; 5s1 .Alps 2 t/~0 F ny Puchas I VIENNA TENG TONIGHT! W/SGJOSHUA RADIN 8 p.m. Monday, October 2 8 p.m. I Call for tickets (734) 763-TKTS. Tickets at Michigan Union Ticket Office, all TicketMaster outlets and Herb David Guitar Studio Doors open 112 hour before showtime. Show your student ID for $1 off all Ark shows.