R Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” (his contribution to “hip-hopera”) is either genius cultural criticism or exactly what he told the audience it was at the theatrical premiere of chapters 13-22 in New york this week: him channeling an alien. The smart money’s gotta be on the latter, because any alien intelligence that came upon Earth couldn’t resist using R Kelly to bore and baffle us for hours on end in every variety of media, getting back at us for all the boring and baffling media we’ve sent out into deep space over the past hundred years.

Meantime, Rob Fields keeps advancing his neither boring nor baffling Black Rock project. It started out as a leaning, became a passion, turned into a blog, a research project and a political stand. Last month the project went live with Nona Hendryx and others. Check it out and tell Rob what you think. He wants to know.

Tags: bold as live, r kelly, rob fields, trapped in a closet