So, today Clementine and I were sitting on the floor of the living room, picking through old record jackets (for that project I was telling you about), when we came to DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s 1989 “And In This Corner.” She looked at for a few seconds, pointed to DJ Jazzy Jeff, and said “Mama.” I wasn’t quite sure where she was going with it, so I just sat there a little longer, watching her study the album cover. She eventually looked up at me, smiled, and pointed back down at the record. This time her finger was on The Fresh Prince, and she said “Daddy,” with a sense of satisfaction that I wish I had the skill to convey right now. It was almost like she thought the whole thing had been a test, and that I’d been flipping through these 100+ record jackets not thinking that she could pick her mother and me out.
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I’m going to try to convince Linette to pose like that with me so that we can compare side by side.
Katy (my vocalist) made a pile of DIY t-shirts and cited your record-sleeve scheme as the inspiration.
Has she seen a picture of captain and tennille?
Perhaps it wasn’t at all about you and Linette. Perhaps Clementine instinctually knew something about DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
Jeff was the brains behind the whole thing…
I don’t know that she’s too far off.
Shit, how’d you do that, Steve?
You’re a crafty mother fucker.
And if Linette looked like either one of those guys, I would have signed up for active duty in Iraq a hell of a long time ago.
(The guy behind me in that shot on the left is a guy I know from high school. He leaves comments here on occasion. He’s apparently both well-off financially and conservative. Linette is neither of those things.)
And, for what it’s worth, it wouldn’t have bothered me at all if Clementine had said we looked like “Rob Base and DJ Easy Rock.” That would ahve been cool… It’s just that I hate that Will Smith.
You DO look like Will Smith w/o your glasses … when you’re sick.
As for Linette’s appearance … I think Clementine was just trying to make you feel better by suggesting that Linette is in the same “family” range, so to speak.
A black guy once asked me if I was “a mix.” I suspect it had more to do with the Malcolm X poster on wall though than anything about me personally.
As there are very few people more pale and soulless than myself, I thought that it was pretty funny.
My kid got all exicited once when he saw magic johnson on tv, he started yelling “kiffa! kiffa! mommy daddy, it’s kiffa!” We couldn’t figure out what he was on about until a few days latter when he asked for his stuffed Clifford the Big Red Dog toy, “Kiffa” – and he was right, it’s resemblence to Magic was uncanny.
Kids see and sense the differences but don’t seem to mind unless you are REALLY strange.
Years ago, after my first visit to Bonnie’s 4th grade classroom on the near East Side of Detroit, her kids asked her why she was going to marry a white guy. I’ve always wondered the same thing … but was grateful that she did.
You’re white?
I have always wanted to be DJ Jazzy Jeff, but never more than at this very moment.
If you’d like for me to remove that comment tomorrow, after you sober up, just let me know.
I would prefer it if you could erase anything I said to friends, neighbors and coworkers at the Corner Brewery on St. Patrick’s Day.
Otherwise, I’ll have to let you know in the morning.
The first time my daughter saw the movie Frankenstein she started yelling “Mark! Mark!”
Are you sure it wasn’t Young Frankenstein?
How about now?