wattstax '72: how can you just sit there?

do the funky chicken...not like you've seen it done before! in 1965 the city of watts, ca was torn apart due to some racial profiling (shocked? yea right, "try reading a book sometime")which caused a citywide riot.cops verses citizens. im still trying to figure out who won that one. seven years later the stax record company wanted to "give back" to the socially & economically broken community by hosting an all day music festival and called it "wattstax". this event would dubbed by some as the "black woodstock". and so just for $1 a ticket, attendees had the opportunity watch some of stax records hottest acts perform. the line up included the label's all star artists. pardon me while i mention a few: the staples singers, the emotions, rufus thomas, the bar-kays, and the headliner, black moses himself (or my dads twin depending who you are) isaac hayes. throughout the flick, richard pryor (also a signed artist to the stax label) makes a few cameo interviews and discusses the protypical issues such as soul music or the lack there of in american media, which leads to the ever-so-popular; racial issues / tensions, oppression, and the current living conditions in the ghettos. you can just imagine how fascinating that is.

the thing that gets my mojo working about this flim is the energy of the people. i watch clips of the crowd dancing on the field of the coliseum, and wonder what happened. when did people stop dancing at shows? todays concerts are such a bore compared to what i expericened while watching this documentary (made me get up & start dancing on my bed). which prompts my infamous question "how can you just sit there?" where are my fellow dancers, moving and shakin and gyrating to the live music. are people just discover that they are intimidated by the rhythm of the beat? i dont think so. did they entirely forget how to dance? i dont know, hope not. i have always associated dancing with rejoice & celebration. are people just not as happy & carefree anymore? that would be a shame. cause if the people of watts, with all of their pain & suffering, can dance it out with no regard, then what are we missing? where is our spirit, where are our souls? where is the laughter, where is the rejoicing? not dancing, thats for sure. love-joy