Cafe Society Part I -
Jack Torrance at
the Overlook Hotel:

Cafe Society Part II -
Don Imus at The FanHouse,
Friday the 13th:

Cafe Society Part III -
The Bank Dick at
the Black Pussy Cafe:



"Which way to the egress?"

"I sit now in a little room off the bar at four-thirty in
the morning drinking ochas and then mescal and writing
this on some Bella Vista notepaper I filched the other
night.... But this is worst of all, to feel your soul
dying. I wonder if it is because to-night my soul has
really died that I feel at the moment something like
peace. Or is it because right through
hell there is a path, as Blake well knew,
and though I may not take it, sometimes lately in dreams
I have been able to see it? ...And this is how I
sometimes think of myself, as a great explorer who has
discovered some extraordinary land from which he can
never return to give his knowledge to the world: but the
name of this land is hell. It is not Mexico of course but
in the heart."

-- Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano 

It's Not Easy
Being Green



Don Imus, 1974 album

Rutgers women's basketball
coach C. Vivian Stringer:

"It's about us as people-- black, white, purple or green. And as much as I
speak about that, it's not even black and white-- the color is green."


Imus flap about
black, white, and green

David Lieberman, Laura Petrecca and Gary Strauss in USA Today:

"So amid all the uproar over Imus' remarks and
the national discussion over race relations that they ignited, why
wasn't he fired?

Stringer and others think that has less to do with relations between blacks and whites than it does with another color.

'The color is green-- if we can tolerate as a
society what's just taken place,' she said. 'I don't know how anyone
could have heard this and not been offended.'

As one of the country's most popular radio talk
show hosts, Imus is the centerpiece of a multimillion-dollar business
that would collapse without him.

To get a sense of its size: Advertisers spent
$11.3 million last year on his show at just one station, New York's
WFAN, according to Nielsen. That accounted for nearly 24% of all the
station's ad sales.

Sponsors paid MSNBC an additional $8.4 million last year for spots on Imus' show, according to TNS Media Intelligence."


Mike Lupica in the
New York Daily News,
April 11, 2007:

"Essence Carson talked about what Imus had said about her and her teammates, and about everything that has happened since.

'It has stolen a moment of pure grace from us,' she said.

The moment of pure grace was Essence Carson...."

From ESSENCE.com:

"Essence Communications Inc. (ECI) was founded in 1968. In October
2000, ECI signed an agreement with Time Inc., a subsidiary of Time
Warner Inc., to form a joint venture known as Essence Communications
Partners. ESSENCE was the majority owner of the venture. In March 2005,
Time Inc. acquired the portion it did not already own. The company's
name changed back to Essence Communications Inc. The ECI corporate
headquarters are in New York City, with offices in Chicago, Los
Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit.

During the past 36 years, the company has grown into a vital
business of diverse media properties and communications systems that
include ESSENCE, its flagship magazine launched in 1970. Its success is
linked to its unique relationship with the readers of ESSENCE magazine
and the strong alliances it has forged with America's leading
corporations and financial institutions."