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tarynisbunhead · 5 months ago

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Man, CGI has really ruined Hollywood.

I've said how much I hate CGI in the past. How at this point I can't see the movie but just CGI blobs, or how about the fact that CGI takes away jobs like Make-up artists and costume design? "Hey if the computer can do it, why bother to wear the costume at all?" This is why corporations now turned to AI, and it's backfiring.

So why even bring this up? This summer I decided to watch Young Indiana Jones Chronicles again. I watched the first half of volume one, so far the first four adventures follow 10 year old Indiana Jones as he travels the world with his parents and tutor. Eventually the series tackles what happened to Indy's mother and the bitter relationship between father and son but as for right now Professor Jones is traveling and lecturing. This series was released in 1992 and as a kid when this series was released I didn't miss an episode, it was one of my favorite shows - why the fucking hell is Hollywood stupid now? This isn't some crummy nostalgia trip because I have the set and watch it on occasion, in the last 20 years Hollywood has given us reboots and self inserts, I'm not entertained watching someone's fan fiction play out.

This show starts off with a monologue explaining how Indy got to be an adventurous kid, and how he ended up with his dog. It then slides into how the family started their trip around the world - their house is a Victorian style house so you know the rest of this will be shot on location. Even as a kid I loved the location shots and costumes, I wanted to go back in time and wear Mrs. Jones clothes, I thought she was so pretty.

Okay now first of all, Professor Jones. George Lucas had to know after releasing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, and having Sean Connery as Indy's father, that wasn't going to be easy. The actor, Lloyd Owen, not only has the look but his acting style follows Mr. Connery. Right down to saying "Junior!" almost exact.

Shoot on location or green screen? I understand budget, but if you were given the money to show off the beauty of a country, why destroy it with computer generation?

I mean even the silent film Phantom of the Opera, that music hall set was designed using sketches. People thought that scene was filmed in an actual music hall. Lucas filmed on location in several episodes, using props that fit the time period, with 10 year old Indy the journey began in 1909.

Props and costumes really make a difference in transporting the audience back in time.

But even at that, through the series Indy meets several historical figures. Some show up several times like T. E. Lawrence and Howard Carter, so of course they had to look like the person they were portraying but what about Sigmund Freud? Tolstoy? Even a young Norman Rockwell?

This is the first episode, Carter and T. E. Lawrence are at a digsite. The crafty thing about Lucas is the characters mention King Tut so yeah you're gonna see these guys again

Here's a young Norman Rockwell

Here's Puccini, the opera composer who gave us Madame Butterfly. I watched the episode last night and didn't realize just how much it showed the actual Puccini - in the episode he went after Indy's mom, the real Puccini was a womanizer so there was no holding back

You can say I'm nostalgic and defend 2024 Hollywood but look at Who Framed Roger Rabbit that was released in 1988

Or how about Dick Tracy, released in 1990

Then there's Rocketeer in 1991

And then the same year that Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was released to TV, there was Newsies - 1992

Can we go back to movies and TV shows that look like the time period they were set in?

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samdukewieland · 5 years ago

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Stuck Inside Media Diary Week 2

New week. New movies I had never seen before. Only one was on the DVR so now it’s just like a glorified streaming guide and for that I apologize. There were three movies this week that I had seen before, but I’ve decided, because rules are important, that I won’t re-watch a movie until I watch a new one. Does this matter? No. But it has made me realize that I might be exposing my ass in the upcoming weeks, because we all lie about saying we’ve seen some movies when we actually haven’t. Not the case for this week, but it’s impending.

Sunday, March 29

Warrior, O’Conner 2011 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

As a person who doesn’t really care about MMA or UFC or boxing or bum fights or bare knuckle brawls I went in under the impression that there’d probably be some kind of barrier in my way of enjoying it, despite knowing its esteemed reputation for being man-weep canon. Any movie that opens and closes with a song by The National is fairly transparent about the type of movie its going to be, despite having an extremely yolked Tom Hardy as one of the main characters. My first cry came at a very unexpected moment, especially because Frank Grillo had a significant role in making that happen (though I will say, I had no idea Frank Grillo was in this movie and about midway through I thought “man, that guy kinda looks like Grillo, but he’s kinda small and has a fashion mullet”). However, I’m a cryer, so I don’t want to set the expectation of you will cry at this you piece of shit! but you might and it’ll come out of a good place, because this movie doesn’t trick you into crying by manipulating you into it (okay, it does at one point, but it involves Moby Dick, so again, it’s kinda unexpected). It opens with “Start A War” and ends with “About Today,” a top 5 sad boy song by The National and I’ll be damned if I didn’t listen to it once a day all last week.

Better Call Saul

“Sunk Costs”, “Sabrosito”, “Chicanery”, “Off Brand”, “Expanses”

John Getz hive, assemble.

Monday, March 30

Working Girl, Nichols 1988 [as of now this is available on HBO]

Sometime in college, I think in a detective fiction class I took, we talked about knowing a reference to something before knowing what it’s either paying homage to or directly referencing. For example: the first time I read The Long Halloween (which is a Batman comic by Jeph Loeb) I had no idea that basically everything involving Falcone is just ripped from The Godfather, because I had never seen The Godfather at that time in my life; literally the first page of the book is “I believe in Gotham City.” Or in Django Unchained when they go to Mississippi and the title card moves across the screen just like it does in Gone With The Wind (Tarantino movies are generally just long homages and references to other things, so if you need another example, just look to really anything he’s ever worked on). There’s probably a German word for this feeling of recognition and I just don’t have the energy to look to see what it would be, but I felt it while watching Working Girl in two regards.

The first was that I didn’t realize that School Of Rock is essentially just Working Girl and when you have a realization like this, you feel kinda dumb, because you just assume everyone figured this out before you did. The second was that Joe Swanberg has tried to model his movies after Mike Nichols ones like his life depended on it and he just can’t or rather hasn’t. Also I’m not a person who was alive in the 80s and I’m sure there’s some modern day equivalent (potentially her daughter) who I defend out of some weird sense of contrarian obligation, but what’s uh, what’s going on with Melanie Griffith and her as actor?

Better Call Saul

“Slip”, “Fall”, “Lantern” [Season 3 finale]

BCS season 3 really stepped up to the heights of Breaking Bad and I think I might like it just a little bit better than it? I haven’t watched Breaking Bad in long time, I find it pretty difficult to re-watch (it’s very fire works factory for me) so I’m sure there are some BB highs that I just don’t remember fully, but that BCS can juggle being three different shows all at the same time and do it excellently really has me taken aback. It’s like watching the Coen Brothers jump from genre to genre and not be worried about the end result.

Tuesday, March 31

Say Anything..., Crowe 1989 [as of now this is available on Hulu]

I’m unabashedly in the can for Cameron Crowe, which is a semi-embarrassing thing to admit, but whatever. I saw Aloha in theatres and watched We Bought A Zoo when it was on FX once (in real time too, so that means with commercials-this was also the only time I’ve seen We Bought A Zoo, but I think I’d do it again); you can’t hurt me. I think I kept my distance from Say Anything... for so long, because it was one of those things that I’d be annoyed at because it’d resonate with me too much, because feeling that is kinda hacky and embarrassing, but if there’s one thing that Cameron Crowe movies put an emphasis on of importance on, it’s being sincere. And I sincerely loved it (hot, HOT take). Thanks to Russillo for recommending it on Simmons’ podcast last week.

Better Call Saul

“Smoke” [Season 4 premiere]

Wednesday, April 1

The Graduate, Nichols 1967 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

Sucks that this movie has been used by a certain type of dude who use it as a blueprint for their life and how they view relationships. Other than that, good job everyone. [I definitely thought it would be clever to watch this after watching Say Anything... because I just assumed Ben Braddock walked so Lloyd Dobbler could run-I was kinda right, whatever]

Hot Rod, Schaffer 2007

While April Fools Day means nothing to me I do try to watch a comedy on the day, because...eh, why not. Hot Rod is maybe a perfect comedy and I think I could spend hours talking about it. I don’t know how there hasn’t been some kind of programming that’s been done around The Lonely Island and their catalog, because it seems very obvious.

Hot Rod with Digital Shorts played before and after and then Wayne’s World

MacGruber and you play MacGruber shorts before and after and then whatever grotesque 80′s action movie you’d want, maybe Commando

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with Lonely Island music videos before and after and then This Is Spinal Tap

The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience sing-a-long followed by The Lonely Island pilot and either a collection or the entirety of I Think You Should Leave

maybe this is all a lead-up to Palm Springs, a movie I have’t seen and know very little about other than they produced it and Samberg is in it

Thursday, April 2

The In-Laws, Hiller 1979

I wrote it as my letterboxd. “review” , but this thing’s 1979 funny until they go to South America and then it is actually funny. Falk is just gangbusters.

Better Call Saul

“Breathe”, “Something Beautiful”

Friday, April 3

You Can Count On Me, Lonergan 2000 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

I say this as a very big fan of his, but! Timothée Chalamet, consider yerself on notice for borrowing heavily from the Mark Ruffalo school of acting. Also, I get it now with Laura Linney, who I’ve liked before, but thought she might kind of be overrated by some people. Also, Matthew Broderick made this after Election (and also Inspector Gadget), so quite the infidelity streak for Brody, probably not a double feature.

Better Call Saul

“Talk”, “Quite A Ride”, “Piñata”

Saturday, April 4

De Palma, Baumbach & Paltrow, 2015 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

The definitive documentaries for the directors of this friend group are basically perfect in their own ways. That this is just De Palma talking about himself and his career and movies, sometimes being incredibly critical of his own work and others. He seems pretty self-aware, probably the most of that group of directors, while still coming across as incredibly cocky. De Palma is perfect for Brian De Palma. However, if anyone wanted to make a 10 hour documentary on Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, De Palma and Lucas in this style or it’s just the 5 of them interviewing each other moderated by like Fincher or someone, man....I could really go for that. (I mean if Michael Jordan can get one, why not these guys?)

The Other Director Documentaries

Spielberg, 2017 (HBO) [Interviews and retrospectives about Spielberg’s career, with personal highlights. It’s essentially Spielberg in a nutshell: big, flashy with a lot of time on particular moments that are more important to him than they are to you]

Empire Of Dreams, 2004 (Disney+) [Ostensively this is about Star Wars, and it’s made by a company-man, it says so much about Lucas, a man who hated how institutions told him what he could do so he unintentionally created one that has copied what he hates]

Heart Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, 1991 [A truly wild ride, tells you everything you need to know about Coppola]

Italianamerican, 1974 [While a new documentary about Scorsese is probably what I covet most, he’s a pretty open book about his controversies and he’d probably enjoy talking about other people’s work more than his own-catholicism’s a helluva thing]

The Godfather Pt. I & The Godfather Pt. II, Coppola 1972 & 1974

I don’t know if I necessarily endorse watching both of these back-to-back; I guess I’m glad I did it, even if the motivation was mainly to just see if I could. Obviously these movies are important and good and are about so much more than just gangsters and thugs, but a lot of the time it just feels like eating vegetables for me. I did not grow up in a household that emphasized the importance of The Godfather so maybe that’s part of it, but I’m definitely not as dismissive of these as I used to be (though part of that could be the mental Stockholm Syndrome Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey have given me). Once I finished Pt. I, I felt like I could re-watch it; once I finished Pt. II I felt like my eyes were melting out of my head and onto my hands (this could be because I had just watched 377 minutes of a story). I will probably never do it again, unless it’s the weekend after Christmas and AMC is just going for it-at least then I’ll have intermissions every 20 or so minutes telling me to go shop at Target.

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thesinglesjukebox · 7 years ago

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JAY-Z - THE STORY OF O.J. [5.12] Gather round, Jukeboxers; that's if you're still reading...

Austin Brown: Props to No I.D. and Jay for rendering Booker T. Washington in vivid sonics, but I've always been (aesthetically and politically) more of a Du Bois man myself. [5]

Ryo Miyauchi: Unedited Jay-Z, but not entirely in the good way. It's jarring to hear series of off-tangent flow and odd pauses from a rapper who put his words down to the beat with laser-sharp precision. But what's more uncomfortable are his unchecked bickering about the youngin's who don't follow his business model. Those rhymes should've stayed saved as a draft in his mental notepad. [5]

Ashley John: The strength of this song is in the chorus where Jay-Z questions how a black man is perceived, realizing that no matter his achievements, he will still be boiled down only to his skin color. Outside of this, "The Story of O.J." reads more like a lecture from my father, spoken at approximately the same pace. His comments about missed investment opportunities in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood and building his children's art collection land more like whining than wisdom. [4]

Andy Hutchins: The problem with being a black man -- even a black business, man -- in America is that you are always first and foremost a black man in America, near-billionaire Jay-Z would like you to know. (Unspooling a song-length version of little brother Kanye's "Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coupe" on an album that is, by all accounts, the latest in Jay's 15-year reckoning with adulthood and maturity on wax suggests that he's maybe a bit late to this revelation.) "The Story of O.J." sounds like a guy who watched O.J.: Made in America and talked about it for a whole brunch with Lyor Cohen somehow taking the tangent to a Clintonian prosperity gospel that is about mastering capitalism when you actually have capital. Predictably, it's a mess: The bruising, stunning video harvests centuries of strange fruit, often in ways it doesn't entirely earn; the "Still nigga" lament is undercut by the fascinating bemusement in the "Okay!" rejoinder in the first verse's first bar; the bit about "Jewish people owning all the property in America" is just another draught of the crypto-racist poison that has been part of Jewish and black folks being left to fight for what WASP America has left behind, and risks overshadowing the whole piece; the shot at stacks being faux phones is equally wrong-headed, if clever. But this is Shawn Carter illuminating the difference between himself and Sean Bell, not begging the question -- a rumination on wealth as a black man, over a masterpiece of production from No I.D. that flips a Nina Simone song maybe five other rappers have the clout to touch -- and that is exactly the sort of art he is best suited to make while he waits for Rothkos and Basquiats to appreciate. [7]

Alfred Soto: Even without a video, "The Story of O.J." is explicit about rubbing black stereotypes in the faces of an audience that at the outset of Jay Z's career had its ambivalences about his eager embrace of filthy lucre. His thin, high timbre parses syllables as carefully as any performance before 2001. When he answers questions no one asked about the practical way to spend lots of money, he switches to talking. To my ears the line about Jews owing businesses, juxtaposed against a sample of a Nina Simone ballad about self-love and the faint boredom in Jay's voice, sounds like he's himself repeating cultural assumptions and stereotypes, in the same way another 4:44 tune questions how a black man is conscripted into admiring Sharpton and Cosby. [8]

Jonathan Bradley: Jay raps best when he has purpose: something to prove, a title to defend, a larger construct that can recontextualize our understanding of his corpus. (Kanye learned from the best how to make an ongoing narrative out of a career.) A full album with producer No I.D. is the same kind of artistic constraint that the film tie-in of American Gangster offered; the coherent aesthetic permits him on both occasions to move beyond the trap of having nothing to discuss beyond being an extraordinarily wealthy man who has accomplished all he could in his field. "The Story of O.J." is ostensibly our introduction to a reflective, mature Shawn Carter, though his politics aren't too removed from the "all us blacks got is sports and entertainment until we even" line back in "Can't Knock the Hustle." He still raps in the overly fussy syllables that have characterized his flow for a decade now -- such a marked difference from the astonishing dexterity of his youth -- and the he says the most on this track during a loquacious lacuna: "O.J.'s like, 'I'm not black, I'm O.J.' ... Okay." The beat, a dreamlike slippage of curtailed soul and jazz runs, says more: No I.D. barely permits "black" to escape Nina Simone's lips before shuffling her askew. [7]

Maxwell Cavaseno: Inspired by his appearance on DJ Khaled's "I Got The Keys" and its subsequent video, I spent a good year warning of HOV: THE MOVIE. In my head, Jay-Z was inspired by his wife's artistic strides and his protégé/producer/"buddy" modernizing and conceptualizing with ease, and would finally attempt to assert his place. Vague notions of him rhyming over trap productions doing a rally of black positivity in the wake of Trump's America filled my goading dreams... Rather, I was eventually greeted with a shockingly traddish album of soul samples and a lackluster Jiggaman ponderously musing on his loved ones' strife to give himself vague outlines of "character" while inanely spouting "You don't see me in the club? I don't see you at the BANK" style paeans of success (which awesomely spilled over into vague antisemitism right here!). All of that is on me to feel like I got my hopes up for nothing. Yet even on places where my expectations and Shawn Carter's desires try to intersect, there's disappointment. [2]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Jay-Z's a hustler baby, he'll sell water to a well. He'll partner up with phone companies to immediately claim platinum certification and convince the world he's still relevant. He'll make a serious album with soul samples that'll have people shouting "the old Hov's back!" despite the rapping not touching his glory days. He'll talk about investing in DUMBO and million dollar paintings and confuse this namedropping for interesting lyricism. He'll roll his eyes at the notorious O.J. quote but then shame young rappers and tout respectability politics. He's a hustler baby, he'll sell mediocre rap to rap fans. [3]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#Jay-Z #The Story of O.J.

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itsfinancethings · 5 years ago

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October 25, 2019 at 10:25PM

Many people say that hip-hop was birthed by DJ Kool Herc on a 1973 summer evening in the Bronx. Others point to the release of the 1979 Sugarhill Gang song “Rapper’s Delight” as the moment when the genre was catapulted into the national consciousness.

But several years before either of those moments, Rudy Ray Moore was rhyming over a beat. On his 1970 album Eat Out More Often, the comedian, propelled by a backing band, spit profane and slang-laced poems about America’s mystical underbelly of prostitutes, hustlers and thieves — including one character named Dolemite, a slick-talking, karate-chopping pimp who exposed corrupt officials and defeated seedy rivals.

This quasi-musical performance of Moore’s recording is dramatized in Dolemite Is My Name, a new film that arrived on Netflix on Friday and stars Eddie Murphy as Moore, who died in 2008. The film traces Moore’s reinvention from struggling comedian and record shop employee to movie star in his own film, Dolemite, which would become a beloved cult favorite in 1975.

But while the movie faithfully depicts Moore’s rise, it ends before it can explore the primary way he remains influential in modern culture: through hip-hop. At every step of hip-hop’s four-decade history, artists have imitated not only Moore’s rhyming style, but nearly every facet of his act. “All these things that hip-hop became — the image, the swag, the independence, the sh-t-talking — he was it before it was called hip-hop,” the West Coast hip-hop pioneer Too $hort tells TIME.

While Moore’s act would be considered decidedly misogynistic today, he put forth an alluring alternative model of success for black men, and his do-it-yourself spirit paved the way for generations of musicians and entrepreneurs. Below, several prominent hip-hop artists from across the decades — Too $hort, Big Daddy Kane, Del the Funky Homosapien and Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell — talk about Moore’s impact on their own art.

“He was the first really to be rapping”

Moore’s rapping on Eat Out More Often was a far cry from what hip-hop would become: his words weren’t rhythmically aligned to the music, and the beats were jazzy as opposed to funk-based. But his unique, bombastic delivery on that record — filled with black vernacular, growling catchphrases, and eye-popping profanity — set many precedents. His theme song to Dolemite’s 1976 sequel, The Human Tornado, got even closer to rap before it was rap: over a funky breakbeat, Moore crooned a few lines before spitting a rapid-fire, multi-syllabic bar: “I don’t want no dilapidated seep-sapping pigeon-toed, cross-eyed, bow-legged son-of-a-gun messing with me,” he snarls.

When Del the Funky Homosapien was a teenager starting his rap career in the early ’90s in Oakland, he was introduced to Dolemite at a friend’s recording studio and was bowled over by Moore’s verbal prowess. “I was like, ‘This is wild,’” he told TIME. Intrigued, Del went back through Moore’s discography and realized it contained the blueprint for rap. “I would be studying his monologues — how to really rap,” he says. “He was the first really to be rapping damn near like that… Having people captivated just by how you’re talking. I wanted to see how he was doing it.”

Del would go on to achieve critical acclaim throughout the ’90s for his tongue-twisting and off-kilter bravado. Meanwhile, another rapper had ascended out of the same city wielding a profane boisterousness: Too $hort. Of all the rapper’s colorful obscenities, he became known for a particular curse word — ”b-tch” — that he delivered in a way not dissimilar to Rudy Ray Moore. Too $hort says this is no accident, given that he saw The Human Tornado “probably a hundred times.”

“There’s no way on earth I could ever fix my mouth to say I’m not influenced by him,” he says. “Part of the makeover of Too $hort comes from listening to Rudy Ray Moore’s rhythmic cadence, his attitude, the way he curses.”

Moore’s influence on rapping was not just stylistic but structural. On his records, he weaved long-winded and uproarious narratives about society’s underworld, full of sexcapades and brawls. Curtis Sherrod, the executive director of the Hip Hop Culture Center in Harlem, says that Moore provided a direct link between griots — West African historians and storytellers — and more recent hip-hop narratives. “He didn’t know he was a griot, but it was in his DNA,” Sherrod says. “He was able to tell stories and captivate audiences who were experiencing oppression and needed to have an hour window into this fable mystery fantastic life he gave you.”

In the years to come, comedic storytelling that often involved sex and violence, from Slick Rick’s “La Di Da Di” to Biz Markie’s “The Vapors” to Snoop Dogg’s “Murder Was the Case,” would become an integral part of hip-hop’s DNA.

“We don’t have to ask for it”

When Kanye West rapped “we never had nothing handed, took nothing for granted” on the opening song to his debut record The College Dropout, he could have been talking about Rudy Ray Moore. Dolemite Is My Name depicts Moore’s struggle to be taken seriously when trying to break into the film industry: he was repeatedly told by executives that his lewd and black-oriented sensibilities were unsuitable for mass consumption. But Moore wouldn’t take no for an answer: he spearheaded Dolemite by fronting the money himself, creating his own distribution networks and learning how to make a movie on the job.

His dogged self-belief and independence would become a model for future rappers to create their own lanes as opposed to ceding creative control. Early in Too $hort’s career, for example, he sold cassette tapes out of the trunk of his car, formed his own label and forged an alter ego built on unshakeable confidence. He would eventually become a leader of the West Coast sound and a massive seller in the 1990s and 2000s. “He passed on that entrepreneurial spirit where we don’t have to ask for it, we just do it ourselves,” Too $hort says of Moore. “In my early days, he was definitely as influential as any rapper.”

Around the same time, the Miami DJ Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell was hoping to ascend in a city that had little hip-hop legacy. Rather than sign to a label, Campbell was inspired by Moore to go it himself and start Luke Records, one of the very first hip-hop labels in the South. “You watched a Rudy Ray Moore movie and saw he produced it, directed it, marketed his music and did everything else,” Campbell tells TIME. “He always inspired me to say, “Okay, if Rudy Ray Moore can do it, I can do it.”

As the leader of 2 Live Crew, Campbell furthered Moore’s legacy through his unhinged bawdiness. 2 Live Crew’s records contained graphic depictions of sex — and many samples of Moore’s voice —and found a massive audience for a level of obscenity that record labels would have thought unthinkable. 2 Live Crew also proved startlingly important to the future of hip-hop through their involvement in two legal cases related to free speech. In 1990, Luke and other group members were arrested for obscenity charges, but they were eventually acquitted and the charges were overturned on the grounds of free speech. The same year, the group was sued for its interpolation of Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” with the case going all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1994, the court ruled in favor of 2 Live Crew and set the standard for protecting works of parody.

“If it weren’t for Rudy Ray Moore, we would have never done those songs,” Campbell says. “He has just as much credit for our career and our success as us doing the music.”

“The Pimp Persona”

While Moore played many characters, none had an impact as monumental as Dolemite. From The Mack to Superfly to Willie Dynamite, Dolemite arrived amidst a ’70s renaissance of fictional black pimps who would set a template for countless hip-hop stars. “I loved the pimp persona,” Too $hort says. “He would kick your ass, and he was about the money. Then he would stop on the street and start rapping to the homies. It’s like, this guy is the ultimate guy.”

In an era directly following the Watts riots, the Vietnam War and widespread urban rot, the pimp became a mythological figure; a larger-than-life, self-made renegade trying to claim autonomy in an unjust world. “If the leader of this country is stealing and getting away clean, what the hell are we supposed to do?” one character says in Dolemite, referring to Richard Nixon. Embracing pimp narratives wasn’t just about escapism, but a rebellion against traditional modes of American success.

So many rappers — from Snoop Dogg to Ice-T to Big Boi — adopted the persona, wearing colorful, flashy clothing and wide-brimmed hats. Their demeanor dripped with laidback aplomb. “I studied The Mack and Rudy Ray Moore / They were my idols when I was a kid,” Big Boi rapped on Outkast’s 1994 debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. There was Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’,” 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P”, and even this year, Megan Thee Stallion’s “Pimpin’,” which flips gender dynamics on their head in its celebration of sex and power.

And Dolemite, the archetype for many of these boasts, would be name-dropped over and over throughout the years by countless stars, both an inside joke and an homage. Snoop Dogg, the Wu-Tang Clan, Eazy-E, the Beastie Boys, Lupe Fiasco and A$AP Rocky have all slipped his name in verses, while Moore’s crackling voice has been sampled by Big Sean, Dr. Dre and A Tribe Called Quest.

Several rappers even went one step further and brought Moore into the studio with them, using him as a torchbearer and literalizing the lineage between them. On the intro to Busta Rhymes’ 2001 album Genesis, Moore implores Busta to “continue to give it to ‘em raw.” On Method Man’s Tical, Moore asserts he “taught the boy everything he know.” Moore also appears as Dolemite in Eric B and Rakim’s 1990 music video for “In the Ghetto.”

That same year, Big Daddy Kane — one of the biggest rappers at the time — staged a rap battle between him and a 63-year-old Moore on record. On “Big Daddy vs. Dolemite,” the two engaged in a vulgar game of one-upmanship before Kane conceded defeat. “He was doing the body shaking and everything,” Kane remembers about that day. “He went straight into character.”

Kane has a long history of engaging with Moore’s work: after watching The Human Tornado on repeat on his tour bus, he sampled a beat for his 1989 song “Children R The Future” by hooking up the VHS tape straight into his recording equipment. And one of Moore’s quips, “Put your weight on it!,” became the basis of Kane’s 1990 song with the same name. “He was that raw comedian that stayed raw,” Kane said. “He was someone I respected and looked at as an icon.”

Kane stayed in touch with Moore through the last decade of his life and says that despite all of the respect Moore received from the hip-hop community, he “died bitter.” “He died feeling like, ‘Y’all gives props to Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Redd Foxx, and they all used to come see me,’” Kane explains.

“To have someone make a movie about him — especially a comedic genius like Eddie Murphy — I know he would be real happy.”

#IFTTT #Blogger

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

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“He was the first really to be rapping”

“We don’t have to ask for it”

“If it weren’t for Rudy Ray Moore, we would have never done those songs,” Campbell says. “He has just as much credit for our career and our success as us doing the music.”

“The Pimp Persona”

“To have someone make a movie about him — especially a comedic genius like Eddie Murphy — I know he would be real happy.”

#Blogger

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seanpatricklittlewriter · 6 years ago

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Updates and Reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve written a major post, so I figured it was time to remedy that. Things are still progressing on the novel front. As soon as Paige finishes the cover to All We Have, that will go to press. I’ve completed edits on the two TeslaCon novels I’ve prepared for this fall, so hopefully I’ll be able to get on the same page with Eric about those covers, and we’ll make something happen.

I’m a little nervous about releasing any of these books, because I always get that way. In Henry Rollins’ most recent special, “Keep Talking, Pal,” he tells a story about opening for Ozzy Osbourne. Over 19,000 people came to see Ozzy play, and before the show, after Rollins Band played their opening set for Ozzy’s band, Henry sees Ozzy huddled in a corner, hands on his knees. When Henry checks on Ozzy, the Blizzard of Oz, in his distinct Birmingham accent, says, “Is there anybody out there, man? I always get nervous that no one will show up.” That says something about the self-doubt that fills all artists. If Ozzy is worried that people aren’t coming to see him, then none of us have any hope.

I think it’s even tougher for writers, though. Unless you’re one of the big names, there are no direct lines to tell how you’re doing. You can upload your books and hope for the best. Once a month, or once a quarter you can check your sales stats, but those are meaningless. You can get a few reviews. However, for the most part, you’re just shouting into a void.

I know that Geoffrey Owens (The Cosby Show actor who played the guy who married the oldest daughter) got somewhat shamed by some yokel taking his picture as he worked a second job at Trader Joe’s. He still acts on stage. He still teaches acting classes. But, he needs to make ends meet, and so he works another job. It’s a stark reminder that those lucky few who are able to make a living from their art, and solely from their art, are the exceptions, not the rule. Even most traditionally published writers have to have second jobs, or even third jobs. Most writers have to work to finance their writing habit, and so it is with me, as well. Despite AFTER EVERYONE DIED selling more than 20,000 copies over two years, I don’t think my entire catalog of sales over more than twelve years of publishing has added up to what I make in a year in my day job. It is what it is, though. I write because I must. No other reason. It’s my dream that someday I can make a living solely from hanging out at Culver’s and jamming out stories, but that’s lottery odds. It just doesn’t happen for most of us. And that’s okay.

It’s so hard to sell any books, even the big names, and it’s even tougher for niche books (like post-apocalyptic survival stories, or steampunk adventure novels). Most of those books exist only as ebooks, and most of them sell only a few thousand copies, at best. That’s just the way it is. Nothing any of us do can change it.

Which brings me to my reviews for this post—I just finished reading THE FAT LADY’S LOW, SAD SONG by Brian Kaufman. This book is a perfect example of how traditional publishing misses great books. This book, an indie title self-published through an aggregate house called Black Rose Writing, is easily the best book I’ve read this year.

Parker Westfall is a career minor-leaguer. He’s never made The Show. For more than a decade, he’s been grinding out a career playing baseball in podunk towns for podunk teams, and those playing days are coming to a close. He’s given one last chance for a season in the sun playing first base for the Fort Collins Miners, an independent baseball team. If there’s one step below the minor leagues, it’s independent baseball. With no other options, Westfall signs on. When he gets there, the team owner asks Westfall for a special favor—mentor a young pitcher who throws a helluva knuckeball.

Oh, yeah—that pitcher is a woman.

The signing of Courtney Morgan could be just a publicity stunt, and the book could have turned into a trite, damsel-in-distress novel, but it doesn’t. Parker and Morgan don’t fall in love. Parker isn’t the white knight who teaches her the game, but rather a coach who helps her find her own way to play.

The book is a sweet paean to baseball, the unsung heroes who never get to be on baseball cards or interviewed on ESPN, and the tiny towns that keep the spirit of real baseball alive. As a baseball fan, and as a fan of good writing, this book falls into place at the top of my reading list (so far) for 2018. It’s one of those books that probably should have gotten more looks from agents or publishers. It’s one of those books that should get more readers than it’s ever going to get.

But, like the minor leaguers this story encompasses, sometimes what you get in the end is just good enough. I loved this book. I can’t recommend it enough.

I haven’t read too many other books, lately. I’ve started a bunch, but for various reasons have not plowed through to the end. I’m getting curmudgeonly in my old age. I’m not willing to invest time in something that isn’t knocking my socks off, maybe. Or maybe it’s because I realize how limited my time is lately, so I can only indulge in books that are really moving me at that moment.

I’ve also found that a lot of books are victims of headspace—how am I feeling when I read them? I’ve started some books in the past that I just wasn’t feeling at that moment, but later on, I’ve gone back to find that I loved them. That’s how I’m feeling at the moment.

As far as movies and TV goes, however: I just saw ALPHA today. It was very good. Not as good as I hoped it would be, given the trailer, but still a solid flick. It’s a survival story set 20,000 years ago, and tells a hypothetical tale of how the first wolf might have been domesticated. While the story is beautifully shot and well-acted, I think it missed some real chances to swing for the fences emotionally and a better director and editor would have really been able to bring a larger emotional scale to the film. It’s still worth checking out, though.

I saw THE MEG last weekend, because my kid likes any movie with giant animals eating people. THE MEG is everything the trailer promised. It’s a Megalodon shark eating people and fighting Jason Statham. That’s what the trailer promised. That’s what the film delivered. If you go to this film hoping it will be some great think-piece, you’ll be disappointed. However, if you go to have some mindless fun, you’ll be happy. It’s not great. It’s not bad, either. It’s exactly the movie you think it will be.

On Netflix, I’ve been binge-watching PERSON OF INTEREST lately. I never watched it when it was first broadcast, but I’ve found that I greatly enjoy this. It’s a solid series.

I’ve also gotten through the first five episodes of Amazon Prime’s new JACK RYAN series. I’ve always loved the Jack Ryan character (even though I’m not a fan of Tom Clancy’s writing style), and I’m a fan of John Krasinski, so this series works very well. The first five episodes have been quite good, and I’m looking forward to finishing it.

Musically, I’ve been digging Brett Newski’s new album “Life Upside Down,” and the new album from Lords of the Trident, “Shadows from the Past.” Both are Wisconsin-based acts, and both are really solid. Brett’s more the indie-folk-geek genre (think, dude with an acoustic guitar and a silly sense of humor), and Lords are doing what I consider to be 80’s-style metal—big, loud, over-the-top, and silly in the best possible way. The lead singer, Fang Von Wrathenstein, has a great set of pipes. Much like how indie books get overlooked by the masses, both of these indie music acts should be much bigger than they currently are. Get in on the ground floor and listen to them on Spotify, or be a mensch and purchase their records. Every little bit helps.

That’s probably enough rambling for now. As always, please tell friends about books you enjoy. Write reviews. Share links. Encourage others to support the artists who are grinding it out.

Stay tuned for further updates on the release of ALL WE HAVE. In a perfect world, it would have been out by the end of September. It’s looking like early-to-mid-October will be more likely.

Thanks for reading.

--Sean

#reviews #writing #books #novels #movies #tv #wisconsin #wisconsin writer #post-apocalypse #updates

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420710ge-blog · 7 years ago

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my first entry

all of these entries will be more or less stream of consciousness

Im watching queer eye. SO I felt like writing a blog and starting a blog bc im emotional and severely depressed. ( if the fab 5 could re vamp me and my life omg)

I'm trying to grasp this concept that i am 28 years old

and i STILL have no idea who the fuck I am or what the fuck am i gonna do.

what i do know is I am a single. I am straight-ish haha (no one is straight these days eff lables and gender norms) I live in a basement. The neighborhood I live in isnt the best in my opinion for me. I know I enjoy cities and hustle and bustle and noise. this area is not where i want to spend a long period of time in. I have my drivers license but dont have a car. I'm on a fixed income. I am very very poor. I've been struggling with money my whole life. My mother was struggling with money and work my whole childhood ive come to learn. i feel like my mom maybe didn't give me all the right tools i needed to make it in this world.

I'm not a good cook, but i enjoy cooking and wish I was good. I eat very unhealthy. I dont know how to shop for groceries or clothes. i eat fast food,microwaves meals and snacks, cheese and crackers, cereal, deli sandwhiches, pb & j, fruit snacks, ice tea, juice and water. (thats basically it unless i go out to eat which is bad bc i have no money for it.)

i cannot grasp the concept of money i dont know how to budget or balance a check book or keep track of spending. i need to put money a side and save and i just cant seem to do it. The money is always being used. i feel like im always in debt or owing money that i never get in front of this wave to start earning actual income every dollar i make is always spoken for and the $1 to 80 dollars that i actually get left over is for cleaning supplies hair products medication condoms tampons pads basically things i need. and im honest in saying i do spend money on food and great craft beer bc its my way of treating myself for actually making a payment or actually getting out of bed, for going hungry for a few days or for having a good mental health day.

My hobbies include filling out job applications, fighting with doctors and secretaries, bill collectors debt collect companies and creditors, watching youtube videos, vloggers and youtubers on my phone and my freinds old old laptop the basement has pretty difficult internet connection and it is freezing cold but other than that its nice it works its a place to sleep and shelter, other hobbies are watching movies and tv, and lastly SLEEP. i sleep 10-14 hours most days or i go 2 days without sleep. i am always over sleeping or i just cant turn my brain and stress and anxiety off just to shut my eyes and sleep. I almost never talk with friends or see other people or go out and hang with friends. the only times i do go out is if someone offers to pay for me or otherwise i cant.

i am addicted to social media. i cant go for more than 15 seconds without checking instrgram or snap chat or youtube or facebook. i can easily spend 11 hours going back and forth between those 4 sites. it is very bad for my mental health and its stunted my success bc i cant help but compare myself. and its vicious negative cycle that i cant seem to break.

i have to walk or use uber or lyft or public transit to get around which gets very expensive over time. walking and being out waiting for the bus or train is very triggering for my mental health. People who are fortunate to have the luxury to own or lease a car please realize the people who cannot afford a car or cannot drive for whatever reason are not second class citizens. People and humans are very nasty and rude and more terrible than youd imagine. having to walk everywhere and be in with the public as much as i have turns you into a cynical abrasive aggresive hateful and rageful person. for example a few weeks ago a car turned on the street that i was walking on and the walk sign was lit and he had a yellow switching to a red, her turned quickly to beat the light that he didnt see me or the walk sign and was inches away from me so i ran after his car and punched the shit out of the passenger window. i spazed out like that bc i had a week of walking in the freezing cold (and living in a super cold place) being rained on and splashed by the puddles being ran thru by cars, teenagers on busses making fun of me throwing things at me, people in cars yelling shit at me and the others standing at a bus bc we dont have a car and we have to wait in the cold assuming that we were all bums or homeless.

I am not happy or passionate about things i use to be obsessed with. I grew up loving comedy. stand up sketch improv.

i use to perform. i would go see it all the time it meant the world to me it is what i wanted t0 do with my life.

but now I dont and i think its was stupid. and a waste of time. same with college it was a waste of time and money to get a degree in something i have no passion about anymore. and a degree in something in which there are no jobs for you.it was terrible decision i made. one of the billions of terrible decisions i ahve made in my life

I have zero self confidence and i barely care what my appearance looks like anymore. i glance in mirrors but never really look at myself. I dont look people in the eyes anymore. I think so hard about what i am saying for i say that it comes out more often that not weird or incorrect bc i am so worried about what others are thinking about me so then that leads to me getting made fun of for how i talk or how i say things. I am always the butt of my friends jokes im always being poked fun at or pranked or messed with.

I dress like 15 year old skate kid. i have nothing that is appropriate for like an office or an audition or job interview or business meeting or family event or a formal event or cocktail party. i dont know how to dress for my age or for my gender.

I am super lazy and messy but i have been working on it.

i use cannabis recreationally not everyday but definitely multiple times a week. when i can afford it. it helps clear my head and use the same way a person uses a nice glass of wine at the end of a long day. i dont think its wrong or inhibiting me as a person. sometimes it even helps with motivation and helps get me out of a depressive funk.

I am severely depressed and have an anxiety disorder.

I over think about everything. i make plans and lists for every scenario that i am going to encounter on a daily basis its almost obsessive. my train of thought before entering a conversation with anyone is “do not say anything weird dont look at them for to long, dont fidget, omg what are they thining about when they are looking at me, am i ugly and i coming off as weird or immature or nervous.”

I lost alot of very important people in my life bc of death or from people and friends and family just cutting me off and people to live the rest of their lives without me. it makes me judge and hate everyone.

I am constantly worried that i am gonna become homeless live on the streets and become a junkie. I actually think about this so so so much. i actually shocked from what i have been thru that i havent become a junkie yet.

I dont want what most white women in their late twenties want and crave. i dont relate or most girls in my age range. its hard for me to find things in common with my peers.

I dont want to buy or own a house. renting forever is fine by me

I do want to buy and own a car preferably a truck but a small suv could work too.

I dont want a family. I dont want children my own or adoptive. I dont want to live in the suburbs or in a neighborhood with tons or old people and families.

i dont want marriage i think its problematic and dumb thing to subject yourself to.

i enjoy soccer and skateboarding and true crime movies and tv shows and horror movies and tv shows.i like some funny things but its selective. i love the sims.

i want to try out living in other states in the us and maybe even try living in the uk.

if i was rich i would want 2 small apartments in central city locations on both coasts of the us one on one and one on the other. and ill use my money to travel. i am craving to travel so badly its all i have been thinking about lately. but again no funds

i want to meet someone who just totally sweeps me off my feet. somone who knows how to be a real man and real boyfriend im tired iof these boys i need a guy who calls me out on my bs, gives constructive criticism, incredibly supportive and KIND. i want our respectfulness to be at an 100%. i want to feel worshipped and adored. i want them to be succesful and be able to bring me up and boost me forward. great listener. not sleepy or annoyed very easily. insane dark weird goofy sense of humor. id love them to be outgoing and be able to command a room and be comfortable around people new and old. great sex and adventures. currently im giving my ex a chance and its prolly a terrible idea.

i want a makeover i want to learn how to dress myself correctly and figure what my style is, make money and keep money, how to cook, how to skateboard, how to surf, how to take care of my skin and my hair. I want to learn how to work out where i wont make my current ailments and injuries and medical issues flare up and put me out of business for few days. id like to have toned arms back shoulders and legs and to not be winded dont everyday tasks.

if i had to make a dream cocktail. and the final result would be the new me i would throw in the blender: confidence of a drag queen, the wit and sharp tongue of joan rivers, the comedic timing of sean hayes, riley reids sex skills, the intelligence and maturity of michelle obama, pinks hair and singing skills, kat dennings body and dgaf attitude. that would be the perfect me in my eyes.

I want to make everyone proud of me. and I want to be proud of myself.

idk what this was but its on the internet

-GE

#selfhelp #depression #anxiety #stress #comparing #addiction #social media #i wanna get better

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smokeybrandreviews · 7 years ago

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Smokey brand Movie Reviews: Lock and Key

I have a clear and aggressive love for cyberpunk. It started, way back when i was an impressionable youth, as i watched Akira for the first time. Oh my god, i had never seen anything so goddamn brutal. So goddamn tragic. So goddamn beautiful. It scratch the itch i began to have for existentialism and fueled my burgeoning apathy. That whole nihilistic take on society is how i was starting to see the world and it stuck. My love for this genre began to grow and embellish, as my palette for cinema and literature matured. By the late 90s, i was introduced to Ghost in the Shell and, oh my god, it was like watching Akira again for the first time. My almost-teenage rebellion acclimated to the Major’s staunch rebellion of self. Her search for what it meant to be alive, what it meant for her to BE, mirrored my own wayward path toward adulthood and i dug every minute of it. I began to search out more and more of this genre and found that post apocalyptic world of data enslavement and social dissonance lends itself to the larger human questions. The hard ones we have no answer for. I saw Akira when i was, like, 6 or 7. I’m 33 now. I still love Cyberpunk. So imagine my utter fan-boying when i found out that a sequel to one of the quintessential cyberpunk worlds ever created, Blade Runner 29, was coming out this year. My hype was real and, oh boy, did this flick f*cking deliver!

Now, before i get into my review of one of my most anticipated films of the year, i just want to take a minute and acknowledge Ana De Armas. Yo, this woman is crazy beautiful and mad talented. I saw her in Knock, Knock a while back an though she was a flash in the pan but, nah. Ol’ girl has some real potential. Here’s hoping she keeps growing in her craft. Also, my god, is she beautiful!

The Best

F*ck this movie is beautiful, like, goddamn, man. And it’s not style or substance! each frame is painstakingly framed. Each scene is lovingly cradled from one to the next. There is never a detail out of place or superfluous addition. This movie knew what it needed to be and it deftly executed as needed. Goddam the efficiency of it’s aesthetic was incredible! Roger Deakins deserves the highest of praise, yo. Bravo, sir. Bra-f*cking-o!

There is a distinct, feminine, energy running through this film. It makes sense to me that the natural pregnancy and birth of a Replicant child, one that happens to be a girl, would legitimize an entire race of artificial people. All things begin and end with women and this flick really drives that home.

But that 1980s Sean Young, tho!

I also like how the majority of the male energy is inflated, abusive, and egotistical. It’s crazy how blind men can be at times and this flick conveys that with adept subtlety.

For all of that female energy, this movie is very much Ryan Gosling’s vehicle. His K/Joe makes this film. We spend the most time with him. We learn the most about him. We see this world, this story, through his eyes. And he does a wonderful job conveying the reality of someone who c literally cannot say “no”. Who knows all of his memories are fakes. Who knows he is little more than a slave. There are some hard to watch scenes where he’s realizing certain aspects of his life and it breaks him. Not the revelations themselves but the futility to change any of them. Sh*t’s wild to see and crazy devastating to bare. Ryan Gosling is an outstanding actor and his skill, though wildly understated here, is put on showcase and this film is better for it.

But seriously tho, f*ck is this movie is beautiful!!

Sylvia Hoeks as Luv was a fantastic foil to K, in all of the ways. Her fiery temper and violent passion was in stark contrast to the distant, reserved impersonal K/Joe portrayed by Gosling. I find the best villains, the best foils to protagonists, are often the opposite because they represent who they can be if they made that left instead of right. And Luv is definitely the wrong turn. She is a real psychopath, through and through, and relishes in her acts of pure malevolence. i adored her character very much and thought it fitting she clocked out the way she did.

But that score, tho!

The Better

Of all the supporting character, Ford included, (It’s weird to call Ford a supporting character in a franchise he started but he really is) i found myself drawn to Ana De Armas. Playing a Replicant for a Replicant pretty much, her struggle to exist as a real person, as someone who could actually, physically, support her “Joe” was heartbreaking. I wanted Joi to find some joy so badly and Ana did an outstanding job conveying that yearning and futility.

The special effects are breathtaking in this movie. There was a scene where a massive, pink tinged, Joi hologram pointed at K/Joe and it was awesome. The thing is, all of that was practical! I mean, there were some color adjustments in post but that was physical. They projected Ana over a bunch of rain and had her interact with Gosling in real time and it was the most dazzling sh*t i had seen in a flick all year. And that was just ONE f*cking effect!

Harrison Ford was outstanding as his usual curmudgeon self he has, more or less, settled into playing in the autumn years of a career triumphant. It’s hard for me to separate him from Han Solo but he does a fine job reminding me that Rick Deckard is still that asshole with a heart of gold, even 30 years later.

Jared Leto also turns in another unique performance, per usual. This cat is becoming a very real actor and it’s refreshing to see. After watching him muddle through as best he could with that sh*tty Joker, it was refreshing to see him be able to make a distinct impact on a film. We definitely haven’t seen the end of his Niander Wallace and i look forward to what’s next for the character.

The rest of the supporting cast, Dave Bautista in particular, did a great job. Bautista turned in another surprisingly deep performance. Someone needs to get that guy a vehicle, fast. He deserves a goddamn marquee already! Also, someone give Carla Juri a role where she is an actual presence. I loved her in Wetlands and the little bit she has to do here, she does expertly. the fact she isn’t in more stuff is wildly disappointing!

The direction here is superb. Denis Villeneuve is fast becoming one of my all time favorite directors. He knows how to tell a great f*cking story. Sicaro was an inspired film but it was Arrival that really put ol’ boy on my radar solid. Sh*t was so goddamn emotional, it crippled me. I literally couldn’t deal with all of the questions and realities that thing kicked forth about reality, love, parenting, and relationships. I cried in my car, man. Seriously, broke down and sobbed. it was too much. That never happens. I never feel that much for a film. For his vision, his skill, to solicit such a overt emotional response out of me? brilliant. just brilliant. He’s pulled back on the emotional revelation for a more existential one in 2049 but the expert craftsmanship is still very apparent. We are watching the birth of a master right now and i am loving every minute of it.

The overall story is on point. It perfectly picks up where the Final Cut of the original Blade Runner left off. The story itself is a little concise and to the point, but it’s also the only logical evolution if you paid attention to the end of the original film. I like the hints left toward the end and look forward to another sequel, if we’re lucky enough to get a trilogy because, goddamn, i love this world!

The Good

It was fun to see Edward James Olmos and Barkhad Abdi make cameos. I kind of wanted more from those guys but i understood there was a place for them and that place was fleeting. Still, great spots.

I found the plot a little derivative. I wouldn’t say this was bad or disappointing and, indeed, the choice was made in an effort to make this flick more accessible since it deals with such heavy subject matter, but it was still a driving narrative we’ve seen before. But, goddamn, was it one helluva take on it to watch!

There was a scene at the beginning of the third act that kind of came out of nowhere. It hints at something greater on the horizon but it feels like that was an unnecessary reveal right now. Like, it was something that one would assume with everything that transpired in the film. It didn’t need to be visually quantified for the audience, i don’t think. It was all a little hand-holdy for me.

There isn’t a real villain in this film. Like, not even a little. I mean, there are insidious motivations all around but overall, it feels l like society, human society, like, WE are the real villains here and the people where’s suppose to think are the monsters, simply want what’s best for the Replicants. I like that twist, personally, but i ca see how someone new to the franchise or unfamiliar with the actual world would be put off by all of the grey.

The Verdict

This movie was so good, man. It’s everything you want in a cyber punk film. It’s everything you want in a post apocalyptic noir. It’s everything you want and need in a sequel. It expands the world, builds the lore, and gives you brand new revelations. It sets up future events but still respects the canon. The performances were inspired, if a little muted, and, goddamn is it beautiful. It never really dragged for me, even though the thing is 2 hours and 45 minutes long, which, in itself, is a goddamn miracle. This is easily the most beautiful film i’ve seen all year, i think i mentioned that before, and it was a legitimately compelling tale. Go see Blade Runner 2049. I cannot impress upon you how much you’ll be missing if you don’t. It is the closest thing to a perfect film i have ever seen, no exaggeration. Go see that sh*t!

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smokeybrand · 7 years ago

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Smokey brand Movie Reviews: Lock and Key

The Best

But that 1980s Sean Young, tho!

I also like how the majority of the male energy is inflated, abusive, and egotistical. It’s crazy how blind men can be at times and this flick conveys that with adept subtlety.

But seriously tho, f*ck is this movie is beautiful!!

But that score, tho!

The Better

The Good

It was fun to see Edward James Olmos and Barkhad Abdi make cameos. I kind of wanted more from those guys but i understood there was a place for them and that place was fleeting. Still, great spots.

The Verdict

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webpostingpro-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Webpostingpro

New Post has been published on https://webpostingpro.com/hartford-sports-takes-another-hit-with-loss-of-joe-d-and-gresh/

Hartford Sports Takes Another Hit With Loss Of Joe D And Gresh

The show ended at 6:30 p.M. Friday.

“Purple Sox baseball is next,” Joe D’Ambrosio stated. “Thank you for taking note of Joe D and Gresh for the very last time on WTIC NewsTalk 1080.”

And with that, after two years, the display become long gone.

On per week while we marked the rebirth of stripling-league baseball and the twentieth anniversary of the demise of main league sports in Hartford, the stop of the afternoon pressure-time sports talk show at the 50,000-watt staple of Connecticut existence hit with a further historical punch.

Part of me is familiar with it.

A part of me hates it.

D’Ambrosio stated he were given word on a Monday in March when a wintry weather typhoon hit.

“They let me recognize [Andy] Gresh turned into leaving and they have been going to take some time slot into every other course,” he said. “It took me completely via surprise. I didn’t see it coming.”

There’s Sirius. There are podcasts. There is stay streaming. There is what quantities to speak radio on ESPN and Fox television. There are limitless reviews on myriad structures. A few is exciting and idea-upsetting, and Some are one step under garbage. On the pinnacle of all that, radio is an enterprise. I get it.

Nevertheless, this one sticks with me, because it strikes at what we’re as a sports marketplace, what we’re because of the collective us.

“I am heavily biased, but I concept we had a notable display,” D’Ambrosio stated. “Gresh turned into incredible.”

“I concept we handled the massive topics extremely nicely, like Dunkin’ Donuts Park, Deflategate, big 12 expansion. We gave time to Boston and New york groups. I notion we was extremely honest to UConn whilst soccer went downhill, which in the end got me in trouble with the pinnacle coach [Bob Diaco].

Hartford CT Historic Homes: Day-Taylor House

The Day-Taylor Residence turned into constructed in 1857 in a beautiful Italian Villa style architecture on the same time that Samuel Colt, the author of the Colt Revolver built his Armsmear property at once across the street. Placed in the center of the Colt Architectural legacy at 81 Wethersfield Avenue, it has been a house of numerous prominent Hartford, Connecticut households.

The Day-Taylor Residence became constructed by Hiram Bill, the distinctly esteemed Hartford builder who additionally built Connecticut’s Country Capitol and the Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park. It became encouraged via the ideas of Andrew Jackson Downing who wrote treatises on panorama layout and structure that were broadly famous on the time. It’s miles an instance of a fashion that Downing knew as “Italianate” based totally on Italian farmhouses that have been also being depicted in popular landscape artwork of the period.

The 3 tall pink brick masonry and the white trimmed building have an asymmetrical facade dominated with the aid of floor-to-ceiling arched home windows at every degree, balconies lintels and a flat-roofed cupola. The brackets lining the low-pitched roof and cupola are specially specified and ornate. The 3-element veranda of the front facade is supported by using elaborate Corinthian columns. The front facade has remained unchanged due to the fact that its authentic creation.

The first owner and resident changed into Albert F. Day

A descendant of Robert Day who became one of the original colonial settlers of Hartford. The Residence turned into later occupied with the aid of his father, a Connecticut Legal professional Trendy. Later proprietors covered Mary Borden Munsill of the Borden Milk company and Edwin Taylor. In 1928 the House changed into sold by means of the Fraternal Order of Eagles who used it as an assembly House, and headquarters. In 1974 it becomes bought through the Hartford Redevelopment Corporation.

The Day-Taylor Residence is likewise extensive Located in Hartford’s Colt architectural legacy which stretches along each aspect of Wethersfield Street for 2 blocks. The area has ended up precise as the Coltsville Ancient District.

The Day-Taylor House turned into indexed on the National Sign in of Historic Locations in 1975. It had a vast restoration in 1979 and the constructing now serves as places of work. The aggregate of it being constructed by means of one in every of Hartford’s most distinguished developers Hiram Bill, that it become constructed the equal year and directly across the street from the Samuel Colt Domestic and the Armsmear estate Park, and that it’s been owned and occupied by such a lot of extraordinary Hartford citizens makes it one of Hartford, Connecticut’s maximum essential Historical houses.

The Inspiration Of Youth Sports Stars

As a younger guy, I used to be in teenagers music and move-united states and changed into able to rank nationally, and put up 4-consecutive years and not using a loss and all first region, and I was fortunate to locate something I was exact at early on in my life. I didn’t realize it again then while human beings use to return up and want to meet me and tell me how lots they enjoyed looking me run and win. Nowadays, I do understand, as it’s far an innate experience we ought to watch others, especially underdogs, conquer and win. Possibly why the Rocky collection movies had been so popular and why human beings like movies just like the Karate Kid.

Lately, I watched a completely inspirational YouTube video approximately a younger athlete

Made go-us of a runner who beat all of the high women on the Country Championships, her name is Grace Ping. You would possibly need to observe the following films yourself:

1). “Grace Ping [GP], a seventh grader, takes down the Whole 2015 Roy Griak high school field” at the FloTrack Channel. 2). “GP Not Allowed to Race NXN” on the MileSplit Channel 3). “GP After Racing Pro 3K At UW Indoor” on the MileSplit Channel 4). “GP Story” Sean Tehan Channel five ). “GP – Athlete Of The Week” Chris Barriere Channel

One commenter wrote: “why am I watching this video, I am Now not even in the song not to mention athletic.”

My respond became simple: “Because you love an individual with that degree of spirit and will to win. All of us do.”

You see, it makes us experience alive, it makes us smile and notice someone pass beyond, cross the gap, defy the chances and win. Individuals will constantly preserve such values and hold a unique location in our hearts for folks who remind us what we are able to. It seems the great move-united states of america runner Grace isn’t simply an anomaly – she is likewise a go united states skier – and people long snowboarding schooling endeavors helped her expand robust aerobic, will, determination, high pain threshold, and legs of thieve, even for a 13 yr old.

it is tremendous what the human body is capable of, and yes, she manifestly has desirable genetics for jogging, however it is extra than that, it’s her intense training, schooling this is transferable from snowboarding to strolling. Interestingly sufficient most talents are transferable, particularly the human trait of perseverance. She’s got that, and nicely, so do you. She’s discovered her “inner winner” and perhaps it is time that you located yours too. Please remember all this and assume on it.

When Another Person Does Not Even Bother to Try, How Should You Respond

A relationship involves or more human beings. We often talk over with a relationship as deliver and take, clean as it might sound, it’s also hard to debate in this statement. There want could be met for as long as they may be getting collectively.

There are different things that may be exceptional to both of them, for this means that each parties can have distinct desires consistent with time. Despite the fact that they might be some sure desires so as to be common between the 2 of them.

The Necessities

There are some commonplace desires that may be seen among them, which can be the want for attention, to be respected, liked, for instance. Physical and sexual wishes can also be part of it.

There may not be any trouble for them to get them met, while both of them is familiar with the these desires. To make certain there’s no challenge between them, considered one of them desires to be there for the opposite individual.

Factor to be Watchful

Once they glance through themselves, could ensure that most of their needs could be met. This may produce awesome outcomes at the floor that their companion isn’t always self-centered character, who should type sufficient to go past miles to acquire fulfillment of their courting.

A Point in time may want to come whilst one offers or even moments After they acquire together, with the aid of and massive, each of them have to be authorized to get what they may need. Even when one offers more than they obtain, we have to take into account that it’s miles nevertheless a part of lifestyles.

The beginning

Commitment could be very important in the dating as it should be the responsibility of the both of them, permitting them to stand for each other. it’s far possible that one won’t get their needs met, but must be unhappy, as a substitute they have to communicate about it with their companion.

Getting annoyed happens without problems while the opposite experience as although they had been disregarded and left their desires unmet. Yet other character won’t also be aware of the hurt they’re inflicting to the alternative

Thoughts Analyzing

Some thing like this would not have been necessary if people may want to neatly experiment thru the minds of each different. human beings could immediately read the human beings ought to smartly test through the minds of every other. They would right away study through each other minds, see their needs and right away met them.

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ges-sa · 8 years ago

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Cosplayer Of The Month April 2017 | Blissful Wonderland Cosplay

New Post has been published on http://ges-sa.com/cosplayer-of-the-month-april-2017-blissful-wonderland-cosplay/

Cosplayer Of The Month April 2017 | Blissful Wonderland Cosplay

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”24975″ img_size=”large” alignment=”right” style=”vc_box_circle”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”24974,24980,24977,24976,24979,24978″][vc_column_text]Our April Cosplayer Of The Month is one of my favorites in the local community. You know when you stare at someone because they’re just so gorgeous to look at? Well that was me at rAge Expo 2016 when I saw Blissful Wonderland Cosplay for the first time. His Babydoll crossplay was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen and yes, I was one of those people who were so surprised when I realized that it was a guy in that gorgeous costume. Sean was awesome enough to take some time to share his cosplay journey with us and to give us a peak into his cosplay mind…[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Hi there Sean! Thank you for taking part in our feature, please tell us a bit more about the person behind the cosplay persona?

Well I’m Sean, I’m turning 23 years young this year. I am currently finishing my last year of studies in 3D Animation at The Animation School. I am an overall geeky shy person until you get to know me or I’m in cosplay. Then it’s a whole other story.

How and when did you get started in Cosplay and why do you enjoy it?

I first got introduced to the concept of cosplaying by my friend when she dressed up as Sakura (Naruto) to a con held by Otaku, and I have always been interested in Japan and anime. Fast forward a few years to 2014 where my friend asked if I could be a model for her for a crossplay makeup tutorial. This had a really great response so I decided for my first Cosplay i will make Alice, from the game Alice, Madness returns. This was my first self-made cosplay, and people fell in love with me being a boy dressed up as a female character. I enjoy the funny reactions i get when people realize I’m actually a guy.

Your crossplay game is extremely fierce! Tell us bit more about how you go about deciding which characters to crossplay and how you make that character your own.

There is no process that I really follow in choosing characters that I want to cosplay. If I like the character or design then I go for it. The challenging part come in with making the character work for my body. I spend about a week on average working and reworking pattern so that I can create a female body shape for a cosplay. This is kind of a way that I make a cosplay my own, through altering it slightly to best work for me and to show off the character best.

Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of cosplaying that you maybe want to share with us?

Yes! I am very much a geek at heart so I love gaming, TCG’s and many table top games. If I’m not busy with varsity work or cosplay you can normally find me doing one of those with friends.

What is the one thing that you try and avoid when making a new costume?

Buying too much fabric. I always somehow manage to end up with yards of unused fabric, in the strangest colors.

We all know that cosplay has been become a very expensive hobby these days, do you have hints or tips for other cosplayers as far as cutting down expenses etc. are concerned?

Plan out everything! Think about how exactly you are going to make the cosplay and what you’ll need. You don’t need to buy too many meters of a fabric if you have sat down and thought it through. Also don’t be scared to ask for help, there are many books, groups and pages that you can look at to help you out.

Every Cosplayer has a favorite part of creating a costume or something they are really good at, what is yours?

I really enjoy the patterning process and figuring out how to make a cosplay work for my body shape.

Tell us about your most epic fail ever, whilst crafting a cosplay costume

This would probably be when I made my Setsuna (Negima!) cosplay in 2015. I accidentally took out the seam allowance of the zip which resulted in the bodice being extremely tight. Needless to say, I didn’t get to eat or drink much that day.

Which character do you consider to be your Holy Grail of cosplays?

That would be the Babydoll cosplay I did in 2016. It is a character that I have been in love with since i first saw the Suckerpunch movie in 2011.

South Africa’s convention scene has been growing leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. Do you have any tips for the other cosplayers as to how to stay comfortable throughout the day?

Stay hydrated and bring a change of clothes. If you aren’t comfortable or not feeling to well, rather take a break, drink some water and rest. And if you want to get changed you can. There is always another con that you can wear the costume to.

Which international con would you really love to go to and why?

I would love to Attend Katsucon, an annual 3-day fan convention held in the D.C. metro area. Every year i sit and patiently wait for the release of the cosplay showcase videos on YouTube. I’ve always wanted to travel and to go to such a big con in the states is an absolute dream.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”24981″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1445504261410border-top-width: 3px !important;border-top-color: #aa71e2 !important;border-top-style: solid !important;”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Cosplayer Bio

Real name Sean Robinson Cosplay name Blissful Wonderland Cosplay Age 23 Current home town Cape Town

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Find Blissful Wonderland Cosplay on Social Media

Facebook Blissful Wonderland Cosplay Instagram @blissfulwonderlandcosplay WorldCosplay.net Sean Robinson

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Cosplayer Roulette

My favorite anime/manga from the following list is:

Naruto / Dragon Ball Z / Sailor Moon / Fullmetal Alchemist

Naruto

Why do you like this particular title?

It was the first proper anime i started watching. The story and characters are amazing. Would definitely recommend it

My favorite platform to watch or experience my favorite titles is

Movies / TV Series / Books / Comics

TV Series[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”24978″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Pictures were supplied to GES-SA by the featured Cosplayer. We do not own these pictures so if you do, and you would like to us to add the credit please drop us a mail to [email protected]

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#Blissful Wonderland Cosplay #Cosplay #Cosplayer of the Month #Cosplay Corner #Cosplay Features #News &amp; Chatter

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webpostingpro-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Webpostingpro

New Post has been published on https://webpostingpro.com/hartford-sports-takes-another-hit-with-loss-of-joe-d-and-gresh/

Hartford Sports Takes Another Hit With Loss Of Joe D And Gresh

The show ended at 6:30 p.M. Friday.

“Purple Sox baseball is next,” Joe D’Ambrosio stated. “Thank you for taking note of Joe D and Gresh for the very last time on WTIC NewsTalk 1080.”

And with that, after two years, the display become long gone.

Part of me is familiar with it.

A part of me hates it.

D’Ambrosio stated he were given word on a Monday in March when a wintry weather typhoon hit.

Nevertheless, this one sticks with me, because it strikes at what we’re as a sports marketplace, what we’re because of the collective us.

“I am heavily biased, but I concept we had a notable display,” D’Ambrosio stated. “Gresh turned into incredible.”

Hartford CT Historic Homes: Day-Taylor House

The first owner and resident changed into Albert F. Day

The Inspiration Of Youth Sports Stars

Lately, I watched a completely inspirational YouTube video approximately a younger athlete

Made go-us of a runner who beat all of the high women on the Country Championships, her name is Grace Ping. You would possibly need to observe the following films yourself:

One commenter wrote: “why am I watching this video, I am Now not even in the song not to mention athletic.”

My respond became simple: “Because you love an individual with that degree of spirit and will to win. All of us do.”

When Another Person Does Not Even Bother to Try, How Should You Respond

The Necessities

There are some commonplace desires that may be seen among them, which can be the want for attention, to be respected, liked, for instance. Physical and sexual wishes can also be part of it.

Factor to be Watchful

The beginning

Thoughts Analyzing

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