WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT...

What you know about that? What you know about that? I know all about that?

Lyrics from song by Atlanta Rapper and "movie star" --T.I.

"A-T-L ...A-T-L...."

Momma took the kids to see the movie "ATL" this weekend. I initially dreaded the notion. Naw not another take on "Boyz in the Hood" --Naw say it ain't soooo. I'd rather see Ice Age 2. Come on kids.-work with a mother here. I thought I'd nabbed my daughter--who inspite of her looks is a big 10 year old --BABY. Surely she'll want to see Ice Age 2 with mommie (I'm still mommie and I'm holding--no momma or heaven forbid --"mother").

Kids...they conspire and work together just when you think you've got them bagged. They nixed Ice Age 2 --or so my son said --and "they" decided that ATL was the one to see this weekend... Yeah --Right---(You bribed her...didn't you number one son?)

My "pre-teen" son fashioned seeing ATL the minute he saw the previews a few weeks back. "Mommie"(I'm still holding here remember)--he whispers during the previews at the movies "I wanna see that." ''Shoooot" was my response ---"You've got to be kidding me!" Thinking, this has to be the right response--all that stuff in his face and I'm paying for it. Naw--gotta say no--or so a mommie thought...

Weeks pass--a little brother never forgets--Then comes all of this ridiculous hoopla--My vanilla friends stirred the racial pot. Talkin' much smack about extra police protection during the release of this film. Oh no they didn't! says my Angela Davis 'fro wearing alter ego. She comes out when stupid stuff like this happens. "Not only are we going," I say, "but we're going the first night --with the so-called 'gangstas' that will be at the theater." "Arrest me if you will!"

Angela retreats... Ice Age 2 starts lookin' good again...Not wise to go to any "brotha" released movies on the first night. Even my son looks at me cross-eyed when I tell him that I'm going to the movie on the first night --and I'm going to go where I know all the "violent" Negroes will be.

Well,to make a long blog short--we see the movie on Sunday--two days after the "uneventful" opening. Lil bitty T.I. -- no bigger than my slender 12 year old son,on the screen running things. It is not a grammy award winning production--but I liked it. Oh yeah -- I got annoyed with the protrayal of air-headed, gum-popping, weave wearing, booty-shaking, dumb as a door knob, southern girls. Luckily--there was a slight twist to this protrayal in one of the females --or I would have puked leaving the theater. It made a good point --and had a happily ever after ending--quite unlike "Boyz in the Hood." Folks even clapped when it was over...

Yep --I liked it--and I let my kids see it. SHAME ON ME! Naw shame on you for judging me. I dialog with my kids. You name it--we TALK about it. I talk all through the dang movie...pre-marital teen sex isn't something I espouse---but they see it and hear of it--so I talk about it...You'd be surprised at my dialog and what my innocent looking scary suburban kids know. Straight from the mouths of Mommie and Daddy.

By the way -- I've seen 100 times more violence in "Vanilla Ice" blockbuster movies than I saw in ATL. Is anything ever mentioned about racial uproar for ALL of the zillions of movies out there with MUCH MUCH MUCH worse violent scences than what was on the screen in ATL?...Shoot...I've seen more violent cartoons.

Back down Angela...Back down....

As we were leaving the theatre, I see a uniformed vanilla ice police officer standing in the lobby when the movie is over --with another one his vanilla "head of security" looking friends...staring down the hallway in the direction of where the movie ATL was playing. Angela rises again and shouts -- "There was no violence in the theater!" -- Luckily, they are too consumed with their staring and hemming and hawing...that they didn't hear me. Luckily--- my children didn't need to see me with handcuffs on....

A-T-L...A-T-L...A-T-L...