Entries Tagged 'Pop Culture' ↓

Al Sharpton, dropping the bomb, and the morning’s most compelling statement, at Michael Jackson’s memorial service, the Staples Center, Los Angeles CA, July 7, 2009.

Here’s my prediction: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will do huge first-week numbers, based on awe-inspiring trailer footage, then rapidly descend in flames from orbit, as people share with friends that the film is a stinking, heaving pile of constipated rhinoceros feces.

Transformers: ROTF, which opens today, is a narrative and conceptual mess. But this is neither surprising nor the greatest of its blames. It is, at critical moments, visually incomprehensible—and this from someone who considered the faceted clatter of the first film’s shifting multiplanes, at moments, symphonic. But this is the least of its faults.

What offends is how gleefully the film endorses crude racism, serving up, not one, but two near-buckdancing, shiftless Black stereotypes—the sambots, as one reviewer adeptly punned, Skids, top and above right, and his twin (get this), Mudflap. Their insertion reveals how clearly insulated the white people who work at Paramount and for director Michael Bay appear to be in their racial supremacy. This also shows how out of touch they must be with developing, changing American and world tastes in entertainment. (That, without even getting into what will surely be Afrocentric outrage at key scenes of desecration.)

Let me put it this way: Continue reading →

An anonymous collector has decided to part with his certainly much-beloved, actual-size B-9, as the Lost In Space robot’s model number is well known to aficionados of the 1960s sci-fi series. He’s selling it on Ebay, and the retailer managing the sale describes the toy this way:

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, when I spoke with Clive Young in March on NONFICTION, my radio show, I referred to a Star Wars fan film I’d seen of whose name I was not sure. I thought it was The Way of the Saber, but had to research it.

As it turns out, I was mostly correct: The 6-minute short, 2002’s Art of the Saber, by brothers Calvin, Clarence, and Cary Ho, employs the basic phoneme of SW fan film language—two men locked in light saber battle—invigorating it with flashy martial arts. But as opposed to then rehashing tales of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, the Ho brothers, instead, frame their somber work with the words of Union soldier Captain Sullivan Ballou’s famed 1861 letter to his spouse, Sarah.

One of the most captivating documents to come out of the Civil War, the note is powerful for the beauty of its prose, the depth of its feeling, and that its author, writing in noble contemplation of sure death, never saw his wife and children again. Ballou, above, 32, was cut down at the First Battle of Bull Run within a week of writing the text.

By drawing from Ballou’s pathos, the Ho brothers imbue their piece with the Captain’s sober dread, forging a story that is both new, timeless, and a powerful meditation on the cost of war.

Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. You’d think with all the increasing hubub about the coming zombie apocalypse, more folks would be getting geared for the dawn of the dead. Leave it to blogger Zack Danger to pick up the gore-soaked slack with his official Danger Zombie Survival Kit.

The emergency wall case, above, comes done up with a blood red mat in a black frame under glass. Inside, it’s power-packed with a stockless tactical shotgun, two cartons of 12-gauge shells, and safety glasses, to protect your eyes from flying metal or bone fragments. Rollin’ up like that, zombies stand less of a chance than roaches swimming in Raid. Like I said, after catching a glimpse of Left 4 Dead‘s corpse-ridden hell, lemme at ’em.

[via FAIL]

The ascension of Barack Obama has inspired a heightened wave of response from people worldwide, much of it artistic. That’s a good thing. The bad thing is that, well, a lot of that art is just bad.

Or at least that seems to be the contention of the web site Bad Paintings of Barack Obama. By flipping through its contents, viewers with the stomach for it can sample a range of pictorial takes on the 44th president, some skilled, some unskilled, and some just deranged. And some, like the hunky image of Obama, above, skin wet and glistening, emerging from the foaming waters like a Greek god-stud, roses lining his path as an untamed Arabian offers its worthy mount, are a bit of all three.

[via The Telegraph]

Masa (he wouldn’t give his last name), the 48-year-old, Portugese-Japanese owner of this 1972 boattail Buick Riviera, above, posted this YouTube walkaround of it in a mall parking lot.

As you’ve, no doubt, already noted, the machine looks like it’s ready to wage war. The exterior bodywork has been completely blacked out. What little chrome remains has been re-plated, then shone to a mirror polish so high that, when you stare into it, you can practically see into the past. Inside, zebra-patterned seat covers throughout stoke the vehicle’s wild energy.

An optician/translator by trade, Masa says he was attracted to the car’s “form” and “useless size.” He bought it in California three years ago, spending over $28,000 both for the auto and getting it to Japan. Then, he took a year, and another $14,000, to restore it.

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By now, you’ve seen a billion pictures of Barack Obama. But if you’ve got a good eye or visual memory, you’ve already noticed something unusual, something familiar, about this one, above.

The image, by photographer Mannie Garcia, was, as he notes on his blog, taken of

then Democratic Senator from Illinois, Barak Obama, when he was with actor George Clooney at the Press Club in Washington, DC in April 2006. They talked about human rights and Darfur.

But the association with Clooney, or Darfur, is not what makes this image special, or unique. Or controversial.

This is:

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Burlington, VT freelance graphic designer Jess Bachman’s Wallstats.com: The Art of Information blog converts statistical facts about American culture into picturesque visualizations. This piece, above, makes comprehensible the quantity of suds gulped down each year by thirsty USA-ers—50 billion pints, more per capita than any nation on Earth. I mean, check out the size of that Boeing 747, in comparison. Hey, Sully: Try landing your plane on this.

Copeland: Baby’s got belting power. Photo by Carol Friedman

Harlem native Shemekia Copeland has been making a name for herself as a singer of gutsy, earbusting Black music since childhood. Born into blues royalty, the daughter of now deceased Texas blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, she’d often accompany her dad onto the stand, right, where she’d wow audiences with a voice womanly beyond her years.

She’s still doing it. Though not yet 30, Copeland sings songs full of the attitude, soul-weariness, and hard-earned wisdom that is the hallmark of her trade. On her new album, Never Going Back, songs such as “Sounds Like the Devil,” “Rise Up,” and “Limousine” portray a woman beset with calamity, but facing it undaunted; tired and often demoralized, certainly, but absolutely not giving up.

Shemekia Copeland is a guest today on my WBAI-NY / 99.5 FM radio show, NONFICTION, this afternoon, Friday, January 23, at 2 pm ET.

Then, Joe Stevens, half of the transatlantic directing team Randall Stevens with Nicolas Randal, will talk about their 2008 short, Made in Queens. The film documents a group of Trinidadian-Tobagonian youth living in said borough who, as a hobby, build “enormous stereo systems jury rigged onto ordinary BMX bikes.”

The gargantuan “Basszilla,” above, posed with its creator, crew leader Nicholas Ragbir, features

Four 16 volt car batteries powering four 15” bass speakers in back, two 6.5” mids over two 6×9” mids up front. Two 3000 watt bass amps and one 2000 watt mids amp. DVD touch screen with navigation and music equalizer. 22 tooth chainring. Heavy duty chain, rims, tires and custom-welded support brackets.

Made In Queens is screening tomorrow at the Queens Museum of Art, as part of the Queens International 4 exhibition (January 24 – April 26). “Rumor has it,” says Joe, “the crew and a couple of the bikes may even be on hand.” Hopefully they’ll find parking.

Then, Barack Obama’s inaugural address on Tuesday has been widely hailed by people of every stripe, and on every side of the political spectrum. In The New York Times, Gordon Stewart, a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, said the address was filled with “fine language” and “thrilling sentiments.” Meanwhile, Clark S. Judge, a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, called it a “marvelous,” “deeply American” speech.

But was it? Wouldn’t that depend on what vision one has of America?

Ronald Takaki, emeritus professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, above, believes that Obama’s speech rendered a picture of America that, though inspiring to some, leaves out far too many Americans.

You can hear Shemekia Copeland, Joe Stevens, and Ronald Takaki by tuning in at 2 pm. If you’re outside of the New York tri-state, check out our stream on the web. If you miss the live show, dig into our archives for up to 90 days after broadcast.