Uppity-Negro.com

I tell you, the only thing ah hates more than Pledge Jones. . . is pledge drives.

And yet, as Ira Glass has noted (scroll down to "The Blair Pledge Project"), I cannot turn away. Usually. Public radio, public television, the local community radio station, I've given to all of 'em in the past. Despite the fact that I've no doubt pulled more hours from radio, it's the tv I feel guiltiest about, probably because I have more than a few crumbling old tapes which preserve calls for donations for posterity, and which offer copies of whatever the program is on the tape for "only" a $150 donation or so.

Maybe everything I've sent to all of 'em added together and adjusted for inflation comes to $150. Possibly. If you round up.

Not that I was paying for the tapes. I was paying for the kind of quality programming that cheap, non-cable-having mugs like me could only find on. . . sorry, after a while you memorize the whole spiel.

Figure offering premiums works for them, and I lack the mad design skillz which aren't really necessary to make Cafe Press coffee mugs, but I'd feel guilty about the shoddy merchandise.

So, instead, shoddy cds. Among the things I've not listened to since before the Flood, and which subscribers may request from the operator who takes your mouse click, are:

1. The Show - The Soundtrack: featuring (Free) Slick Rick(!), 2 PAC, Dr. Dre, Biggie, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J and Tribe Called Quest, among others, some of whom are still alive; Claimed by Jason Voorhees of Crystal Lake, CA
2. Geto Boys (I was young. . .) - Uncut Dope: featuring the seminal "My Mind Playin' Tricks On Me" and "Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta";
3. Tasmin Archer - Great Expectations: featuring "Sleeping Satellite" and a bunch of songs no one else ever heard of; In transit to George Kelly of Oakland, CA
4. Son Volt - Trace: actually, don't think I ever listened to this one. . .
5. and finally Hip Hop 'N Jazz, a compilation of, obviously, jazzy rap tracks, including Us3's "Cantaloop" and Digable Planet's "Jimmi Diggin Cats"
6. New Additions - Evil Stig (eponymous): Joan Jett and the Gits, although they preferred not to be called that. This one just makes me uncomfortable, for various reasons, and it'd be better if someone who could actually listen to it owned the thing.
7. Terminator X & The Valley of the Jeep Beets, featuring a big PARENTAL ADVISORY sticker, "Homey Don't Play Dat" with Bonnie 'N' Clyde, and Sister Souljah.

But remember, you're not paying for crap cds the guy at the shop turned down, you're paying for the kind of quality blogging you can only find here at Uppity-Negro.com. Although the crazy guy who sleeps in the park could probably give you about the same level of discourse.

Paypal (preferred) and Amazon are standing by. Figure at least a buck fifty for shipping and as much as a buck for a mailer, if I forget to grab some at Target and end up paying through the nose at the post office as usual, and donating $2 while requesting a cd will get you laughed at. A lot.