The images arrive and making sense of them isn't easy. Each new graphic, new voice, new development demands its own catalogued slot in the writing desk of our mind's eye. As always, the challenge is to take this new information and weigh it for any predictive value. Sometimes we get a bearing, and sometimes we don't. But no matter which way you point your informational skiff on the sea of data, the omininous clouds ahead promise rough sailing.

Did you notice the rift in America's black community signaled by Rosa Parks's refusal to attend the NAACP Image Awards ceremony on Saturday? She didn't like her portrayal as an empty icon in Barbershop, whereas Cedric the Entertainer protested that he was only pointing out that Civil Rights consciousness is a historical fault line separating one generation from another. The rift wasn't pretty and it signals some odd changes afoot.

There may be some clarity on this coming from Todd Boyd, a professor of Hip-Hop studies at USC's School of Cinema-Television.

Boyd's brand of academic iconoclasm signals a particular type of ethnoscholarship that rejects anything smacking of tradition, because the past was written by dead victors and his generation yearns to co-opt and rewrite that history in order to take full possession of it. What Parks doesn't realize is that she's playing tug-of-war with a mindset that refuses to be informed by the past. Here's Boyd on Ronald Reagan:

"America's version of Adolf Hitler...a sad-ass actor" who was as qualified for office as Adam Sandler. "He was white in the worst possible way."

Perhaps "Reality TV" is a part of this shift, too. Scripted television is, after all, written by screenwriters who interpret reality and present a massaged version for our consideration. The unmediated voices of persons recognizable as our neighbors and friends lends a legitimacy to "Survivor" that comes across as refreshing to audiences, who thus far are insatiable for more.

The losers in this story are, naturally, the Writers Guild of America. At the WGA awards dinner in Beverly Hills, Bill Maher admonished attendees to not to look back on 2003 "as the year you lost your house because of reality television," which was funny because it's undeniably true that a large number of people are scrambling for work that isn't there anymore.

For many, it's especially vexing to see work lost because of programs they consider mean-spirited and demeaning, from the judges' put-downs on "American Idol" to the bug-eating stunts of "Fear Factor."

For some reason, artist Stephen Sawyer is all over buzz-land this morning for his neo-religious iconography.

For some reason I can't fathom, his artwork is considered to be too close to sacriledge for comfort. Here's his "Tattooed Christ in Blue Jeans," for example, which updates the Big J as a construction-worker type who'd look comfortable knocking back a six-pack and railing at the six o'clock news.

"Sometimes it's hard to sell. My work is in-your-face kind of stuff," said Sawyer, adding that most recently a woman walked out of his gallery because she was offended by "Joy to the World," which depicts Jesus laughing.

10:19:03 AM