Archive for November, 2009

All Batman, All The Time…

Monday, November 30th, 2009

yr 1

DC Comics is celebrating their platinum anniversary by putting the kibosh on developing any new Superman movies. The reason is that the copyright to the character is returning into the hands of the creator’s estates and Warner Brothers (DC’s parent corp.) wants to avoid the legal wrangling that almost derailed the Watchmen film.

This means more Batman films in the immediate future, which I’m not mad with. The Batman franchise headed by crazy Christian Bale has been nothing but winners. My fingers remain crossed to see the aged Batman from The Dark Knight Returns find himself on the big screen. A number of other DC Comics properties are also being developed for films as the rumors go.

Bizarro Superman is supposed to be a comedy where we go to Bizarro Earth to find that Bizarro Superman is a hero there and not a villain. A live action Aquaman movie and Adam Strange are also being developed. Green Arrow, Shazam and Flash all reportedly have scripts that are completed. The best news for DC Comics though is that Warner Bros. has hired longtime writers Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman as consultants to expedite the film production.

Early next year we will get to see some of the classic DC characters in their small screen movie premiere. Smallville: Justice Society will feature Hawkman, Green Arrow, Stargirl and Dr. Fate. The preview pics look interesting enough for me to DVR these episodes. I’ve never been a big fan of Superman, but when you mix that character with the justice League or even just Batman and Wonder Woman it starts to make more sense to me.

DC Comics animation division has been on-point from the word go. Now their live-action film division has got to step their game up or get buried by the oncoming Marvel/Disney juggernaut. DC has the characters to get back in the game, but the question remains as to whether or not they have the game plan.

Black Music Needs More White People…

Monday, November 30th, 2009

thick rihanna

Watching the Soul Train Music Awards show only one week after the American Music Awards show it was painfully obvious to see that Black folks have done absolutely nothing to bridge the production values chasm that has existed since before Soul Train and American Bandstand had their own awards shows.

The lack of staging and reduced amount of backup dancers was the most glaring shortcoming. The fact that these Soul Train awards couldn’t even be broadcast from a non-cable network was the next huge detraction. With all the teh ghey entertainers living in the Atlanta area you had to also ask yourself where was the Soul Train awards scene-stealing Adam Lambert. [ll] to asking yourself that question naturally.

But even that question cuts to the heart of why the Soul Train Music Awards was a major PU~. There were no white people. When the day comes that Black music has no white people earnestly doing it that shit falls the fux off. Classic R & B needs to get that blue-eyed soul back into its chamber. White is on some techno dance dance revolution now shit thanks to that race-trader Timbaland. If the Soul Train Music Awards is ever gonna stand on its own two again they need to get Adam Levine and Natasha Bedingfield on that shit.

What about Jon B and Joss Stone? Let’s break Remy Shand and Amy Winehouse out of rehab. White will get the production values back up to a viewable level where Soul Train can once again be watched with enjoyment. There was a time when white made some of the dopest R & B, ahem, urban contemporary music and I totally listened to that shit. I’m not just talking about that Teena Marie shit that never crossed over onto white’s iPod, I’m talking about that classic music that defies all racial boundaries…


The Police – ‘Spirits In The Material World’


Phil Collins – ‘Take A Look At Me Now’


Swing Out Sister – ‘Breakout’


Hall & Oates – ‘I Can’t Go For That’


Barry Gibb & Barbara Streisand – ‘Guilty’


Sting – ‘Englishman In New York’


Genesis – ‘Tonight’

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?

Monday, November 30th, 2009

dc crashers

How the fux is this couple NOT under arrest and charged with domestic terrorism or at least trespassing?

How the hell does anyone roll up on the White House uninvited?

At least they kept their shoes on.

The Tiger By William Blake…

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

tiger wuss

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

This Fox Rocks…

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

mr fox

Don’t call it a cartoon, this story has been here for years.

Wes Anderson’s latest film ‘The Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is laugh filled animated romp which secretly serves as an allegory for the regular man’s triumph over corporate industrialization. Anderson is a quirky filmmaker who typically pursues a fancier and more esoteric storyline. ‘Rushmore’, ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ and ‘The Life Aquatic’ were all good films that I thoroughly enjoyed, but ‘The Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is Anderson’s first film that I wanted to watch again immediately.

The best movies in 2009 have all been animated, except for the excellent Star Trek, and the subtle supremacy of Transformers 2. My top flick picks this year were Coraline and Up. Anderson creates a world for Mr.Fox which was totally reminiscent of the Rankin/Bass universe that gave us Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. The stop-motion animation was an excellent throwback element considering how much computer generated imagery dominates the film game now.

The puppets are wonderfully costumed and the sets are meticulously decorated for this faux fox world where animals and people speak to one another and interact as adversaries more oft than not. The hero/Anti-hero, Mr.Fox, is determined to live his life with some modicum of dignity so he relocates his family from a foxhole into a tree. While in the tree Mr.Fox longs for the wild days he lived before he had a family and he would steal chickens from the local farmers as a sport.

Things have changed in the old woodland scene though. Big agricultural industrial complex corporations have replaced the smaller family farms and with them have come the security systems that defend the profits of these businesses. Mr.Fox sees these obstructions as a challenge to his skillset and he decides to plan one more big heist to see if he can foil the security at these farms. Believe it or not this is a family movie that doesn’t so much extol the benefits of thievery as much as it celebrates the family that sticks together through adversity.

The film is funny and truly fantastic from a visual and storyline standpoint. The stop-motion animation is just as fluid as detailed as you may remember. Sadly, there was no Burl Ives narration. Though the actors who do voice the characters are vivid and colorful. George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman all play their characters with aplomb. Willem Dafoe, a Wes Anderson favorite, has the killer(literally) cameo in the film which is even better than his role in ‘The Life Aquatic’. ‘The Fantastic Mr.Fox’ is a triumph on so many levels that I may have to go back and see this movie again this weekend.