If you ask me this is just more dog whistles from the old white man crowd. (Barry White? Are you serious?)
So anyway, I was thinking about this whole cool thing. I mean it is all so subjective. Who determines what truly makes a person cool?
While contemplating that question, I made a list of some people (living and dead) who made my cool list. Hey, I am Jamaican, I know about this stuff.
They are not in any particular order, and I am not going to explain why each person qualifies. O isn't on the list, because in spite of what wingnuts would have you believe, a politician just can't be cool.
Here goes-
1. Tony Bennett
2. James Baldwin
3. Maya Angelou
4. Miles Davis
5. Willie Nelson
6. Nelson Mandela
7. Angela Davis
8. Bunny Wailer
9. Robert De Niro
10. Denzel Washington
11. Andy Warhol
12. Grace Kelly
13. Sean Connery
14. Curt Flood
15. John Coltrane
16. Condy Rice
17. David Beckham
18. Che Guevera
19. Gregory Isaacs
20. Muhammad Ali
21. Christopher Walken
22. The Edge
23. Ringo Starr
24. Toni Morrison
25. Bruce Lee
26. Steve McQueen
27. Frank Sinatra
28. Paul Newman
29. MLK
30. Johnny Cash
31. Althea Gibson
32. Al Kaline
33. Bob Gibson
34. Judy Mowatt
35. Beverly Johnson
36. Oscar Wilde
37. Jimmy Cliff
38. Jesus Christ
39. Hideo Kojima
40. Marvin Gaye
41. Mos Def
42. Lena Horne
43. Colette
44. Tom Wolfe
45. Cary Grant
46. Arthur Ashe
47. Andre Benjamin
48. Malcolm X
49. Rene Lacoste
50. My parents.
Honorable mention:
Every single person out there working to make the world better is cool in my book.
Rove is wrong about Obama.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wears momjeans and rides a girl's bike can't be cool:
http://weaselzippers.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Obama-riding-a-bike.jpg
In the ad. O is portrayed as an empty headed celebrity who got elected because of the cool factor. Not!
ReplyDeleteIf you ask me this is just more dog whistles from the old white man crowd.
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field playing the race card? Thats never happened before.
Obama is the American Idol president. His "hope and change" con was straight out of hollywood.
The left was comparing Obama to Jesus.
Millions of Obama sheepe were thinking Obama was gonna pay dey rent, lower the seas and heal the earth.
Rove is right? How i know? Field and the rest of the left are attacking him over the ad.
More examples of "color arousal" field won't post.
Delmon Young
Kiet Thanh Ly
Nice list.
ReplyDeleteOdd that Rove would highlight the hagiography of st reagan...a man beloved for Death Valley Days...and no lasting accomplishments of political merit.
Obama 'isn't working' and he is a 'hipcat'...nothing there but dog whistles.
Perhaps Jon Lovitz could benefit from speaking with my CPA. Some lessons about living within their budget...;)
Mold
Hey field. Not everyone thinks Al Green impersonations and late night dinners with Bey and Jay is Presidential.
ReplyDelete'
No Alicia Keys, Mr. Field? She's extremely cool. She's a philanthropist, accomplished entertainer and recording artist, Broadway producer, actress and a mommy. Very cool!
ReplyDeleteVal :-)
Field, you forgot the President of Anon, Inc. He is cool because he doesn't ruffle so easily.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about Breitbart? I know you thought he was a racist, but he was a cool dude.
What about Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears and P. Diddy?
Mike Wallace, MacolmX, George Clooney, Clint Eastwood, Asley Judd
I norminate Townes Van Zant because he'd think the whole thing was a pile of bullshit anyway.
ReplyDeleteI defy the Repugs to come up with one of their own who could even remotely be considered "cool."
ReplyDeleteIt seems like every campaign tactic Obama has taken backfires and then moonbats like yourself try and attribute the miscalculations of these silly plans that failed to Conservatives. Obama's campaign are the ones who tried to recapture his coolness. Not realizing that except for some fringe folk and young kids who barely know the world, no one thought he was cool. Steve Erckel with a whiney nasty vindictive side maybe. Anyway see below; democrats came up with this cool idiocy. Much like everything else about Obama, nothing is presidential and competent. It's all about trying to be a rock star with a fales media image.
ReplyDelete. . In early February, Politico reported that the Obama campaign, hoping to rekindle enthusiasm among young voters, was “looking to revive the cool appeal.” Then, suddenly, news stories started popping up about Obama’s alleged coolness, in contrast to that drip Romney. A sampling:
• President Obama: The cool factor
• ‘Cool’ Obama Returns GOP Fire on Gas Prices
• Obama: The new King of Cool
• Barack Obama is cool. Mitt Romney is not. What does it mean for 2012?
• Campaigning for the ‘Cool’ Vote
• The Obama-Romney ‘Cool Gap’
You're cool FN, not enough people tell you that.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gaz.
Glad that James Baldwin is on your Cool list and I agree about Obama; he seems more like a nerd that happens to like basketball. Loved that Curt Flood wasn't forgotten but how about Magic Johnson; doesn't he rate at least honorable mention? Had to look up who Kojima was but I'll have to take your word for that one, I'm not into games world as I'm a wee bit old for that crowd.
ReplyDeleteAloha from Makaii
Great list...
ReplyDeleteThis town cracker would add: Mamie Smith & Mississippi John Hurt
...the birth of cool lyrically, imho.
Val, Alicia Keys is cool. She def. could have made the list.
ReplyDeleteMamie Smith gets cool points, so does Magic and Van Zant.
The President of Anon Inc? I will have to think about that one a little bit. :)
Bob said...
ReplyDeleteI defy the Repugs to come up with one of their own who could even remotely be considered "cool."
That would be the president that obama, Clinton, and many other democrats love to compare themselves to.
Ronald Reagan. A man that kicked liberal ass for 8 years is cool to most Americans
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/962/Default.aspx
Love your list - think it could use Langston Hughes : )
ReplyDeleteO is imminently cool- he's the first in OUR - alright, my -generation to become president - not some old guy - he's a peer, raising a gorgeous family,with a smart strong wife and so far no personal scandal - the events that shaped his life, shaped mine too - yes, he's a nerd - so is Bill Gates - nothing better than mental prowess.
Cappie, good argument for O, although I can't get over the fact that he is a politician. (Sorry LT, Ronald Reagan wouldn't cut it on my list. :)
ReplyDeleteI love Langston Hughes.
One of my twitter fam gave me Stokely Carmichael and Sonia Sanchez. They would both qualify as well. There must be a thousand more people I could have put on but left off. :(
Whitey's Conspiracy said...
ReplyDeleteI norminate Townes Van Zant because he'd think the whole thing was a pile of bullshit anyway.
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Or at least because of his version of "Dead Flowers"
Field I'm shocked. Very shocked, and disappointed.
ReplyDeleteFirst I was shocked that he wasn't in the top 10, and then rendered speechless when he wasn't on the list at all.
I'm talking about Chris Gayle.
Y'know, CHRIS GAYLE - officially the coolest man in the known universe AND a yawdie to boot.
How could you be so remiss?
President Obama's African father drove ex-European "Americans" out of their damn minds. Had President Obama not fathered by an African, everything would be fine and dandy. I can't wait to vote again for him in November. After that, I'll never VOTE again. Case closed.
ReplyDeleteHad President Obama NOT been fathered by an African...
ReplyDeleteFannie Lou Hamer, Thurgood Marshall, Marcus Garvey, Angela Bassett, Bob Marley, Marie W. Steward, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Angela Davis, Zora Neale Thurston, Lauryn Hill, Katherine Dunham, Dr. Rose Marie Toussaint, Tim Wise, Tom Hanks, Maxine Hong Kingston, Carlos Fuentes,and Ella Baker.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget George Zimmerman, for being the first African American Hispanic/Mulatto to become a "White Hispanic" and get lynched publicly as a racist, despite taking care of Black Children and protesting for Black Rights.
ReplyDeletePC, my bad, Mr. Gayle deserves a nod.
ReplyDeleteGranny, love some of the folks on your list as well.
That's a really nice list. My compliments.
ReplyDelete(never listen t a cow, much less a Purple one)
The Purple Cow said...
ReplyDeleteField I'm shocked. Very shocked, and disappointed.
First I was shocked that he wasn't in the top 10, and then rendered speechless when he wasn't on the list at all.
I'm talking about Chris Gayle.
Y'know, CHRIS GAYLE - officially the coolest man in the known universe AND a yawdie to boot.
How could you be so remiss?
Being a battyman is cool? You really are ass-backwards.
Ernest Freaking Hemingway.
ReplyDeleteJoe Montana.
Jim Brown.
Barry "I'm Out" Sanders.
the Dali Lama.
Dean Martin.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, anyone in the original "Oceans 11".
Jim Brown? Yep. Hemmingway? Yep. Rat Pack? Yep.
ReplyDeleteI am feeling ur list -- John Coltrane: folk need to really study his body of work with the Sax...hey did u miss Bob Marley? He is def on my list: check out this post http://harveysglobalpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/04/bob-marley-documentary-film-as-you-have.html
ReplyDeleteRonald Raygun...please, starting his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi -- site of the infamous civil rights lynching - not cool. Using the Southern Strategy (remember former RCN chairman Ken Mehlman apologized for this racist strategy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Mehlman) is definitely not cool.
Yeah Field you left a lot of folks and I was thinking if you did Tony Bennett you had to include Frank Sinatra and Jackie Wilson was definitely cool and Langston Hughes wrote poesm about being cool like no other.
ReplyDeleteI second Granny's list and some of the others
mr. Field, I gave you TEN NAMES I thought were cool, and you acknowledged NONE of them. I bet even PC and PilotX would approve at least "one" of them and they hate anons! Can't you a least give me "one"?
ReplyDeleteMr. Field, I have been trying for years to get your approval, but you have yet to do so. Mr. Field, I know you get a charge out of driving me crazy because you enjoy depressing me.
Mr. Field, can't you approve at least "one"? Mr Field, you are a sadist.
Jesse Owens and Nat King Cole.
ReplyDeleteI hope Rove hasn't paid for that ad yet.
Kingnut said...
ReplyDeleteWhitey's Conspiracy said...
I norminate Townes Van Zant because he'd think the whole thing was a pile of bullshit anyway.
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Or at least because of his version of "Dead Flowers"
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No, because the first song he ever wrote was the masterpiece "Waiting Around to Die" and they only got better after that. Also, even though he taught the best fingerpickers in Gnashville in the 70s and '80s their stuff, he always called it "Hopkins" style after Lightning Hopkins who he openly emulated.
Harry Belefonte
ReplyDeleteNat King Cole
Nina Simone
No Dolemite or Pam Grier?
ReplyDeleteNo Gene Simmons?
No J.R.Ewing?
No George Jefferson?
Some list field.
MARLEY!! Duh! WTF was I thinking? Peter Tosh could be there as well. Oh well, at least I had Bunny Wailer repping the group.Yes Palli, NKC, Nina Simone, and Harry B should all be on it as well. George Jefferson? I don't think so. :(
ReplyDeleteAnon, who was your ten?
Ashley Judd was #10. She is really cool, unpretentious.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mr's Tosh and Marley both triumphed over scorn and epitomize cool. Did anyone get Miles Davis? His image could be a hieroglyph for cool.
ReplyDeleteHi, Field,
ReplyDeleteI concur that the Republican's new American Crossroads ad, which could be entitled 'Cool is bad,' is a counterproductive ad even for Republicans.
Do they really believe they can convince America that someone is "too cool" to be reelected president? They must also be conceding that Romney is a nerd, but no nerd has been elected president since...never.
Unless a candidate for the Oval Office can convince the country that he's 'Top Gun' or 'Cool Hand Luke' or 'John Wayne,' then that candidate has no chance.
How did Condolizza (sp?) Rice get on the above list? (No insult not intended.)
Sup Francis? Thanks again for that "color arousal" theory.
ReplyDeleteThat is right on point for A-merry-ca.
You say politicians can't be cool, FN. But then you list Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Mandela, and MLK, all of whom are politicians of one stripe or another.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your definition for 'cool'?
Karl Rove's PAC obviously threw this together very quickly, witness the Fallon bit which just occurred last Tue.
ReplyDeleteI am all for Super Pacs blowing their big bucks on crap ads that even the hoi polloi can't quite fathom the point of jump on the knee jerk bandwagon. I hope they flush all their money on silly stuff like this.
"Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Mandela, and MLK, all of whom are politicians of one stripe or another."
ReplyDeleteNone of theose folks (with the exception of Mandela) were ever elected into a political office.
I think we can make an exception for Mandela.
"What's your definition for 'cool'?"
My definition of cool is how Potter Stewart described hard-core pornograpy: "I know it when I see it".
@ FN: I understand your reasoning. Nevertheless, all four men were/are politicians. They just weren't elected officials. One need not run for, or serve in public office to be a politician.
ReplyDeleteThink about it.
angela davis was cool
ReplyDeletenow she has lost all of her cool pts like all of u hobama nazis
fyi
ask huey why
no word on philly schools???
ReplyDeletehow cool is this???
http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-isnt-closing-40-philadelphia-public-schools-national-news-where-black-political-class