The experiment

Blogger for word sucks. Or just Word sucks. Anyway, a lost post. Thing is, I really like the utilities of wordpress, and even though I can’t use this nifty layout or ads with it, I think I’m going to make that the main blog for dork nation and keep this one as a mirror. So whenever you click on old Gandalf (or PITW visitors, on my name), you’ll go to the new site. For now, check it out and see how you like it. If enough people tell me wordpress is lame, I’ll dump it. Maybe. Besides, adsense is worthless. I may as well be standing around with a sign reading “will blog for food.” The old new dork nation.

rap show photos

A couple of weekends ago at City Hall in Nashville, TN. The dread, that would be Fatlip, The blue shirted cat is Gift of Gab, and there's also Jumbo of Lifesavas, Pigeon John, and my man Count Bass D.

just a few from Japan

Feast fit for an emperor

I got flickr, why don't I use it?

a favorite from last year

The lad gets his first kiss

Post-fatigue

Not that I haven’t had things to say, just little time or energy to do them. Between PITW blogging, Scene writing, Belcourt stuff, my day job, and the lad, I’m spent. Just to show how much of a masochist I am, I’m considering a music oriented podcast. These would either replace or supplement the music reviews I do. What I really need is a vacation.

Ann Coulter; Too Black, Too Strong

Well, Ann Coulter is nothing if not brave. But you know what they say about bravery. At any rate, she was invited to speak at Philander Smith College, a small, HBCU in Little Rock. I thought at first that this school must have the dumbest President in HBCU history. Then I read he compared Coulter to Lil’ Kim. It was no longer just a thought. Coulter found the comparison flattering. Then she went on to “joke” that Justice Stevens should be poisoned.

Tarheels 8 men out; Lady Heels in Nashville

Damn, knocked out in the second round. Talk about ignominy. Well, it was not particularly surprising; a team that plays four freshman primarily, three of whom were not highly recruited superstars, can be expected to crumble under the intense pressure of the NCAA tournament. However, it wasn’t the pressure that got to the Heels. It was overconfidence. I suppose that is a plague that could affect kids who ended their season with a pretty impressive win streak and a climb from the bottom 20 to the top ten in the rankings. The Heels weren’t overrated. When they play well they can play with anyone, including the best in the nation. They weren’t, as we all know, last year’s star studded team. They weren’t good enough to take it easy, especially against hungry teams looking to prove themselves. All Tarheel basketball players have to remember that people aren’t just playing against you, they are playing against the Carolina blue and white. A win against a UNC team is not just a win, it is the defeat of a mystique, a legend, a perennial powerhouse. George Mason was making those noises all week, talking about being Kryptonite to UNC’s Supermen. They’d come off an upset and were looking to make a run. They were also one of the best defensive teams in the country this year. Meanwhile, tonight the Lady Tarheels roll into my city to play Vanderbilt on their home floor. This is surely a detriment to our chances, yet the Heels are far and away the better team. The tournament atmosphere and home town juice might help Vandy to make it a close game . . . maybe.

ooooo sh*t!

Silent Hill What? Another video game movie? I'm not so sure this one will suck. This game scared me more than the original ALIEN movie. I haven't been frightened by a horror movie in years. I'm hoping this one will do the trick, despite me knowing every plot twist already.

movie review: Why We Fight

Why We Fight Dir: Eugene Jarecki Seems like ages since I saw a movie in a theater with greasy popcorn and a Gigantor sized jug of soda. With a rare moment to spare, I caught Why We Fight, a documentary spun on President Eisenhower’s parting shot at the military-industrial complex. Why We Fight takes the chronological approach, looking at the evolution of a bifurcated beast to a fire breathing hydra. That growth is shown running parallel to the angst of a nation regarding the Iraq War as seen through the eyes of a father who lost his son on 9/11. The film should be enlightening to those who assiduously avoid weekly news mags and chat show blather, though the director (Eugene Jarecki) does well to tighten up loose ends in our theories about why we fight. We fight, the film argues, in large part because people with vested interest in profiting from the art of war tell us too. The arms industry seduces our politicians into buying big ticket items that would just go to waste if they lay there unused. The think tanks spend all their time trying to make themselves relevant, creating new strategies for our global domination. We catch kids with little hope for the future and promise them a new life in the armed forces. That explains, in part of course, why we’re fighting now. That theory weakens once you take the Middle East out of the picture. The think tank discussed in the film, the neo-cons Project for the New American Century infiltrated the Bush administration. Their focus, their reason to exist, seems to be foreign policy in the Middle East. They don’t have a vision for how we handle North Korea and China, as we see now. Perhaps that’s because they didn’t study East Asian history at their Ivy League schools, perhaps it’s because they don’t feel the US benefits from an Asian hegemony, take your pick.  Were we in North Korea (if we were, I would probably not here, I’d be in Tokyo helping to clean up the devastation ) we probably wouldn’t be talking about The Project for the New American Century. Nevertheless, Jarecki’s film makes a strong argument, as Eisenhower did, that we must be forever vigilant against the forces of capitalism usurping the forces of democracy. I mean, it’s right there in the word; freedom should be free.

New Japanese film site

Surely most fans of Japanese film know about Midnight Eye. A similar, mostly informational blog has popped up, Japan Film News. I figure most cineastes would not be interested in the “dead” Japanese film industry. For the rest of us, it’s a good resource as to what is going on in the mainstream industry one hears little about in the West, for example, the Japanese cast of Clint Eastwood’s up coming film on the Battle of Iwo Jima. Takashi Miike cultists who don’t already read Japanese may enjoy the translations of his blog. Most interesting so far: Takashii owes a debt to Tobe Hooper.

lunch time rap

Heard abt this new cat via Miss Info named Chan. Voice sounds like Large Professor, a little. His DJ is deadly, though. Worth a listen. It’s lunch time. Wonder if there are any taquieras nearby.

obligatory Nicole Kidman post, Brad Aboutyou free!

Do this many people really care where Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were while in Nashville? I shouldn’t be surprised yet I am. How does having this knowledge enrich your lives? Okay, I’ll give in if you’re a devoted fan of each. If I heard Prince was in Nashville I’d probably google that shite, too, just out of curiosity. I suppose I’m just missing something . . . OTOH, I do wonder what, if anything, Nicole Kidman setting up in Nashville would do for the city’s film industry. Probably not much, as I don’t recall her being terribly interested in the behind the camera side of making movies. It’d be nice if she threw her weight around . . . bad metaphor, seeing as she prolly weighs 88 pounds. It’s be nice if she threw Nashville a bone (-y elbow) the way Sandra Bullock tossed one at Austin.

We playin' bah-skit-balll (in March) we love that bah-skit-balll

I know, I know, I had nothing to say about Carolina’s loss to BC in the ACC tournament last weekend. A young team is going to play that kind of game. Not to disparage BC, however we did give away a ton of opportunities. What I am pissed off about, is that #3 seed in the NCAA. Y’all know we earned that #2. We’ll just have to prove it by making it to the final four. Now, Pat Summitt is pissed about her Lady Vols getting a #2 seed, with no reason to be. Her team didn’t play that well this year, lost a lot of games they should have won (as opposed to the Heels, who won more games this year than anyone expected). She doesn’t have to worry, they will be favorites if they make it deep into the tournament . . . that is unless they play the NUMBER ONE SEEDED LADY TARHEELS. Sorry moms, bwahahahah. Snoogins. Great! Memphis and Belmont and some other team from Tennessee made it to the “big dance!” Woop dee doo. Not to disparage your teams, Tennesseans, but I really don’t care. Good luck.

review: two flicks from Hong Kong

Koma Angelica Lee Karena Lam Home Sweet Home Shu Qi Karena Lam Actresses working in Hong Kong cinema haven’t received the international props of their mainland China counterparts, not for lack of talent or beauty, they generally don’t get the chance to perform in the kind of art house fare that makes film fest devotees drool. Shu Qi has been able to break through by virtue of her appearances in Hsiao-hsien Hou films (the international notoriety got her a role as fetish bait in The Transporter, hmph). Others, like Angelica Lee (Sin-je) and Karena Lam (Ka Yan) toil away valiantly in genre flicks like The Eye, the moderately interesting horror film that was snapped up for a Hollywood remake during the great rush of Asian horror of a few years ago. Lee and Lam hooked up for the glitzy, cheesy thriller Koma last year. It was so successful a sequel was planned, though Lee fell out of the project, to be replaced by Shu Oi (who, coincidentally replaced Lee in The Eye 2). That sequel, Home Sweet Home, ended up having nothing to do with plot wise Koma, though it was easily as bad as it’s ersatz predecessor. In Koma, Lee plays Ching, a neurotic waif with renal failure, attached to her doctor boyfriend (Andy Hui) at the hip. Lam is Ling, a self-assured mystery girl, who in service of a overcooked plot is the boyfriend’s other woman. The two women cross paths at a wedding reception when Lee’s character discovers a victim of an organ theft ring (you know the urban legend of people waking up with missing kidneys). Then the thriller machinations begin immediately; is Ling an organ thief or just obsessed with the hunky doctor, is Ching a potential victim or paranoid? In Home Sweet Home, Qi takes over the nutty wife role, however Lam’s other woman has morphed into a Frankenstein’s monster, a baby stealing troll living in the bowels of a high priced, high rise in Hong Kong. Lam is really great in both films, though it gets hard to take her grotesque phantom seriously in Home Sweet Home, though the filmmakers pile on the idea that we are supposed to sympathize with her (done mostly through clumsy flashbacks, one of which contains a really great moment with Lam). She’s mostly slithering around in full on Lon Chaney Jr make-up, saying few words, trying to appear matronly and menacing all at once. In Koma, she’s a introverted love sick woman seething at her station in life and equally as determined to free herself. Lee’s very good, taking this really annoying character on her shoulders, and doesn’t need the filmmaker’s help to create any sympathy. Qi has the worst job of the three, having to be the whiny wife in a corny melodrama/thriller and really it is just out of her hands. Both films portend to delve into class divisions, the dangers of urban living and how these forces make these woman enemies than the natural allies they should be. Hou might have made a meal of this, these directors really aren’t up to it. Of the two, Home Sweet Home has the most potential on the page, the idea of melding together Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, and “Desperate Housewives,” thematically and aesthetically,  sounds kind of interesting. However the filmmakers are more focused on getting that glossy look, the racing from plot point to plot point, melodrama and the scares . . . . which is suppose what you’re probably wondering about if you’ve made it this far. These movies are not frightening. They’re billed as horror movies only in that it fits the current marketing trend of Asian films. Don’t, for the love of god, expect RINGU or run about crying how these movies suck because they aren’t scary. They suck because they’re bad. Don’t blame the women, though. Lam was nominated for a Hong Kong award for her roll in Home Sweet Home. Two films that should have given these actresses a wide notoriety will probably damn them as far as the art house market over here is concerned. Too bad.

review: Nightmares on Wax - In a Space Outta Sound

Nightmares on Wax – In a Space Outta Sound (Warp Records) It’s been awhile since I listened to anything from DJ Ease. I really caught on to NOW late, around 2000, when they were already established as part of the “trip-hop” sound coming out of Northern England. I dug a few singles here and there, yet I never took to them as I did Portishead, Tricky, and Massive Attack. NOW’s music was too dance oriented. However, while I’ve warmed a bit to danceable electronica, NOW has moved on. In a Space Outta Sound is hardly as lounge-y as the title suggests. The soul and reggae music that Ease claims as his greatest influence is a greater presence on the new record. Though record stores insistence on dividing our choices by genre will cause this disc to fall in the “electronica” bin, this is primarily a soul (dare I say “nu-soul? Lol) record with heavy hip-hop elements. If anything, Ease is more like a modern Barry White (without the singing and basso profundo) than he is like Shadow or the other turntablists making solo records. The cut “Damn” stands a good chance to be in the running for my top ten song list. It takes a Bhangra riff made popular by recent Ease collaborators De La Soul (from “Ego Trippin”), attaches a melting alto female vocal and whips it into a silky soul song that might scare Prince, were he the type. I almost didn’t listen to the rest of the record for constantly playing this tune. Hip-Hop heads can just skip to “Pudpots,” a stripped down instrumental with nothing but a drum machine and hot horn samples, that is until after the bridge when the dub kicks in. Underground MCs will be practicing their flows over this shit. There’s plenty of material for late night scotch and/or weed or cigars, whatever gets you through those chill out moments. Too bad there’s no spot like that around Nashville. Coolout, I’m talking to you!

What to listen to when you have to stay up late working on articles for next week

Tom Freund – Copper Moon Robin Thicke – Oh Shooter Wu Tang Clan – Uzi Final Fantasy X2 SDT – Zanarkand Ruins Xenogears SDT – June Mermaid MF Doom – Special Herbs instrumentals Elvis Costello – Accidents Will Happen Prince – Computer Blue Talking Heads – Stay Up Late (of course)

Racist of the Year! Nominate your candidate today!

This guy is in the running for “Racist of the Year.” In reply to a post condemning Three 6 Mafia’s Oscar win, this dunderhead had this bile to spew: Just part of the ongoing Africanization of the pathetic remains of American culture. BTW, the estimates I've seen indicate that women do eighty per cent of the day-to-day work in Sub-Saharan Africa, the pimp lifestyle is a natural extension of the Black African male mindset. Damn, I wish Crash was a good movie.

I still dont care about the Oscars but I still post - Indie Spirit Awards, too

Uh, looks like a lot of people think Noah Baumbach wuz robbed. Well, while The Squid and the Whale had better dialogue than Crash, dialogue by itself doesn’t make a great script. Perhaps that is what the Oscar voters were thinking. Who knows (slipping back into I don’t care about the Oscars mode). I notice not too many peeps are discussing the Independent Spirit Awards, where Oscar complainers often go to find the “real” winners. However, this year nearly all the winners at the Spirit awards in the major categories were also Oscar nominees. Makes sense, most of the “indies” are coming out of auxiliary arms of the major studios, and has been that way for several years now. That said, there are a few nominees in the ISAs that didn’t get Oscar notice, you may want to check them out. Gregg Araki – Mysterious Skin (best director nom) Jeffery Wright – Broken Flowers (best supporting nom. One of the best actors in the country, period) Tony Takitani (best foreign film) Lackawanna Blues (best first feature, the movie was made for HBO. Features Terrence Howard) snoogins

Weekend in sports

Argh. So, I was just taking a few shots in the Downtown YMCA gym, warming up for some pick-up ball when one of my (many) errant shots came flying back at me from the rim, dislodging the pinky tip from the joint, leaving me with an “S” shaped finger. I snapped it back in and kept on playing (only able to hit layups for the rest of the day). My Tarheels fared much better, defeating the slimeballs from Durham. The Heels really look good going into the ACC tournament, and if they keep on this route they’ll go fairly deep into the NCAA tourney. Reddick disappeared into the vapors in the second half, clanking long range threes off the iron from every side of the court. I could not have been more pleased. With the Heels now ranked #10, a good showing in the ACC tournament should yield a #2 seed, a lock if they win the tournament. No one, absolutely no one thought the kids would be in this position pre-season. BTW, apologies for dogging Bobby Frasor all year, he stepped up this weekend. Duke, as a team, better step up. Heels fans know Reddick can’t do it by himself, despite what everyone else in sports believes. If he fades and Sheldon Williams is sitting with four fouls, someone has to be a man. The Tarheel women dominated the ACC tournament. I don’t know anyone who can defeat them, not even the resurgent Lady Vols, who have overcome losing two starters and spotty shooting by Shanna Zolman to win the SEC tournament. I don’t know if they deserve a number one seed in the NCAA like Coach Summit believes. It’s hard to make that case with five losses. It wont matter that much as they should advance to the final 8 with little trouble, that is if they play up to their potential. The NFL’s failure to reach an agreement gives me little pause. They’ll probably reach an agreement soon enough, and if they don’t, teams have a chance to step back and make adjustment to come in under the cap.

I usually don't care about the Oscars

I need a helping hand, literally. I’m typing with two fingers on my right after having dislocated a finger on Friday (the anecdote to be filed under the weekend sports wrap to come). In my line of work that can make for a frustrating week. However, I’m still at it. I was surprised that Crash took Best Picture, though I do remember thinking after I saw it that it could win if Hollywood wanted to congratulate itself for its mealy mouthed liberal politics. Crash, or as I like to refer to it, JOHN SAYLES’ CITY OF CRASH was a middlebrow, middle class, noir-ish take on post riot race relations in LA, oddly with barely a hair visible from the second largest minority in the city, Asian-Americans (save a brief appearance by Daniel Dae Kim). I did like Don Cheadle’s easy going upwardly mobile detective, Dillon’s (overlauded) performance as an angry white cop, and Terrence Howard’s breathing some life into the tired “I forgot where I came from” African American power broker. I didn’t like the script, where chance ties everyone together all too conveniently. Sandra Bullock’s brief performance promised to be the most interesting, and would have been a good breakout from her lame RomCom same-o same-o’s. Of all the nominees, it was perhaps the least deserving, yet, as it often happens . . . . While I agree, shockingly, with many of the cons and neo-cons whining about liberal Hollywood this morning re: Crash, y’all need to leave Ang Lee and Three 6 Mafia out of it. Lee earned it, since David Cronenberg wasn’t in the running, and though them Memphis boys don’t get much rotation in my CD player, that was a great choice for best song. It isn’t an example of liberal Hollywood run amok so much as it is a recognition that rap music and hip-hop culture is a global force that you will not be able to hide from. Face it kids, your country singers are trying to pop Kris with rappers these days. It was only a matter of time. It’s cool that some Tennessee boys were the first with an Oscar (ironically, before they won a Grammy. Didn’t the same thing happen to Prince?) I think it is quite amusing to see the cons getting all apoplectic about movies dealing with issues with which they clearly feel uncomfortable. Seems to me that, since most of them haven’t seen the movies they’re complaining about, they feel bad about being on the wrong side of the issues discussed.  If the mainstream (don’t kid yourself, the Oscars are nothing if not mainstream), the masses, can feel comfortable with seeing dudes dry humping each other and don’t mind being confronted with questions of race or how we handle terrorism, then the conservatives are really in the minority. In case you’re counting, I’d have voted for Munich.

Sports wrap - Heels, Duke, and the Titans draft dillema

The Heels crushed UVa last night, avenging the loss in a close game earlier in the season. The domination was the latest in a string of authoritative wins, which bodes well for the Heels as they enter into the tournaments. The kids have matured, the upperclassmen decided to play like grown men (finally), and Williams, making a strong case for coach of the year honors, continues to prove a masterful motivator. Down in Tallahassee, the Seminoles shocked everyone by holding on against Duke for the upset win. That should boost the Heels confidence as they enter into Cameron for the regular season’s last showdown. In all likelihood the two teams will meet some time in the post season, however all we really care about is Saturday night. Though our lads are playing confidently now, going into Cameron can turn the hardest men into wee girls. Can I mention how much I cannot stand Mike Patrick? His pro-Duke bias has been so obvious over the years it’s ridiculous. However since J.J. Reddick has become a media darling, he’s just beside himself. You could hear the air rush out of his lungs when Duke lost. He wanted to go home and hug his pillow. Whenever Reddick does anything, Patrick howls like a banshee. “REDDICK, GOING TO TIE HIS SHOE! OH MY, LOOK AT THE WAY HE TIES THAT KNOT, WHAT A SENSATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER THIS KID IS! UNBELIEVABLE!” He’s been hyperbolic over Duke players in the past, this year he’s over the rails. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, people are actually DEBATING whether or not the Titans should draft Vince Young with their first pick. They figure Leinart will be gone already (don’t be so sure). Who are fans suggesting instead of the QB on the #1 team in the nation last year? Jay Cutler. Yeah, that guy, the guy who could barely complete a pass against Middle Tennessee State University. Cutler is actually a decent QB, and will likely play in the NFL for someone, maybe even start after a year. There aren’t a whole lot of top QBs in the draft so he’ll be a late first round pick. However . . . . he is not Vince Young, I don’t care how low Young scored on the Wonderlic (I scored a 49 if you’re counting). Stupid. The Wonderlic score may indicate many things, though I don’t think it impacts defense reading abilities much. That kind of thing, like most things in football, is learned through repetition in practice. It helps if you have the cognitive skills in place already, however you have to LEARN to recognize a defense through study. I think it’s Leinart/Cutler fans who are spreading the rumors about Young’s near mentally handicapped score on the test. Time will tell.

next wave in hip-hop fashion coming from Tokyo

Speaking of big in Japan, the next wave in Hip-Hop fashion (oxymoron? You decide) is coming from Bathing Ape and designer Nigo. Japanophiles, dance music fans, and toy collectors probably know Nigo already. He’s a DJ/producer, fashion designer, and member of the J-Hip-Hop group Teriyaki Boyz. Nigo opened a boutique in Manhattan at the end of last year. Just a few nights ago I saw Jay-Z sporting a BAPE hoodie on television. Rappers tend to play follow the leader when it comes to clothing, as do fans, so look to hear about BAPE clothing in the near future. You may even dare to spring $400 for a sweatshirt like HOVA. You can see BAPE fashions in action in the video for Heartbreaker from the Teriyaki Boyz. Anyway, it’s about time y’all checked out some Japanese rappers anyway. Teriyaki Boyz are a “supergroup” of like minded rappers, Verbal from M-FLO, Ilmari and Ryo-Z from Rip Slyme, Wise, and DJ Nigo.

review - Bahamadia - Good Rap Music

Bahamadia – Good Rap Music Bahamadia is one of those rap legends few have heard of. Electronica fans have probably heard her spit on tracks from the likes of Morcheeba, and IIRC she was on a Brittney Spears remix (!). She’s been more appreciated overseas than in the states, boasting, without irony, that she really is big in Japan.  However, her bona fides were made early in the 90’s in Philadelphia, just before The Roots and neo-soul broke and there was such thing as a “Philly sound.” Her latest LP is quite good, called appropriately enough Good Rap Music. As an MC she’s caught in a netherworld between hardcore fans and pop star groupies. Her songs, dense and uncompromising, appeal more to the various strains of underground cats, Okayplayers, and back packers, (a group of fans and musicians she excoriates on the title cut) than to the pop fans who support female MCs like Missy and Eve (despite the undergrounders’ enlightened stance, how many female MCs do they support?). However, those women aren’t in Bahamadia’s league as a rapper. Her only peer may be Jean Grae. Good Rap Music is filled with songs that harken back to back in the day. She takes us back to the halcyon days of neo-soul and spoken word, like with the finger snap-head wrap tune “Reign” or rocks it hard over a drum machine and two turntables like it’s the early 80’s on “Culture Cut.” Of course with her Philly roots and association with the music scene there, lyricism is going to be a major concern for the MC, her skills displayed beautifully on “Serious II,” full of vivid imagery and introspection. The best cut (a tough call to be sure) is “Thank You,” an ode to moms. Her moms did a great job.

review: Five Deez - Kommunicator

Five Deez – Kommunicator Rapster Records Kommunicator is one of those rare rap records where adherence to true school hip-hop and defiance of rap conventions meld successfully. Categorists may have trouble where to place the LP, in their dance, lounge, rap, or electronica sections. Producer Fat Jon layers trippy synthetics and swooning female vocals over headknod-ic beats, and the Five Deez MCs flow poetically, mixing in styles from all of rap, from Native Tongue simmer to Dirty South chants. Though it is a thoroughly accessible CD, I doubt heads will be bumping it in the back of their Escalades. It’s definitely an experience to be savored with headphones on, or sitting about in a cloud of smoke.