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Uplifting the unheard and underrepresented voices of the film community
American Film Canon Needs More Black Sci-Fi Films
It is important for Black people to see themselves in the future and that Black Lives Matter is not a fantasy, it is an imagining of the future.
by Kira Sterrett
Black Panther, Marvel Studios
You are now reading an exclusive piece from the Film Daze Digital Magazine, Issue 5: BLM. Enjoy! – The Film Daze Team
In sci-fi and fantasy, the impossible becomes possible — you can be everything and nothing, exist everywhere and nowhere. These two genres imagine a future written without bounds and give us an escape from the constrictions of our real world — a world of limitations that Black people know all too well.
The sci-fi worlds created by Hollywood are dominated by predominantly white actors. How can a genre that cultivates infinite possibilities only have two people of color maximum per movie? Why is it so hard for storytellers to put Black people in the future or, better yet, write them as the leaders of new or futuristic worlds? Some white people have a hard time believing that Black lives matter here on Earth in the present, so it's no surprise they fail to imagine Black people being in the future or on other planets. The lack of diversity in Black sci-fi films is systemic.
Interest in the sci-fi genre is not lacking among Afro Diasporic people, on the contrary, numerous black writers and musicians incorporated sci-fi in their work as far back as the early 20th century — when the genre was still relatively unknown by the masses. One such visionary was social rights activist, historian, and author William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois, who wrote his dystopian short story, 'The Comet', in the 1920s. Du Bois' writings were followed by the work of musicians such as jazz composer Herman Poole Blount (better known as Sun Ra) and Lee "Scratch" Perry who described themselves (and Afro Diasporic people by extension) as members of an alien, "Angel" race, descended to Earth to guide humans to a better future among the stars. Later, Andrea Hairston, Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia E. Butler (often referred to as the "grand dame of science fiction"), and many others contributed to the growth of Black sci-fi's popularity. In hindsight, they are seen as founding members of Afrofuturism — a cultural aesthetic that combines historical facts, sci-fi elements, magic realism, fantasy, and Afrocentricity to examine past events and problematic historical periods, while reflecting on the issues contemporary Afro Diasporic people face. Afrofuturism relinquishes the controlling nature of society and replaces it with imagery and messages about a world that can be different; we can be different in it, too.
In sci-fi, everything we thought of ourselves can be made real, like being royalty in a world fueled by vibranium, perhaps. In Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman's role as Prince T'Challa birthed this reality for all ages of the Diaspora. Black Panther was the push that Hollywood needed to see that Black audiences want to see themselves not only on screen but positively represented. Theatres occupied by Black mothers and fathers with their children heard crying and cheers as the film's audience solidified in their minds that Wakanda was worth fighting for. "Wakanda forever" was heard for months, and friends were greeted with crossed arms over chests — Black Panther's world didn't stop at the edge of the screen, it was something to believe in forever. It did what most great films do: transcend reality and seep into our minds as something tangible. With the news of Chadwick Boseman's death on August 28th — painful as it is to lose a man that fought so hard in private to give audiences something to celebrate — this writer is reminded of Lena Waithe's comment on Black immortality from an interview she did on her film Queen and Slim, where she discusses legacy, and that "black death is more appreciated than black life." Black death garners so much attention to peoples' lives, and then they get forgotten because the next person comes and we have to mourn again. It's a cycle of grief that doesn't let Black people sit with the impact of their lives. But Boseman's legacy as Prince T'Challa will allow him to become virtually immortal as a superhero for so many, and his presence will be felt long after his passing.
Boseman was picked out carefully by Coogler because he knew that his production called for a predominantly Black cast and that he was making something special for Black audiences. Black Panther's story is intrinsic to the Black experience because the people of Wakanda had a connection to their land and their people. The message through Black Panther was that Black people can lead, protect, build, and advance science and technology on land maintained by them.
Eric Brightwell observes, choosing the likes of Will Smith or Denzel Washington as leads, albeit important for representation and equality in general, was not inspired by Hollywood's wish to celebrate diversity but rather by its need to profit from the two actors' fame and name recognition. Furthermore, neither Men in Black nor Book of Eli (starring Smith and Washington respectively) actually explore their protagonists' black background. Agent J and Eli are both simply blank slates: one-dimensional characters that could be portrayed by any contemporary star. Another example of this kind of character is the part of Neo in The Matrix, who was initially intended for Will Smith who rejected it. Not being able to convince Smith, who was likely to attract a wide audience, the Wachowski Sisters approached the next best man, Keanu Reeves.
It has never been more important to see ourselves on screen. Images shape our understanding of ourselves and have a direct impact on how we navigate society and how the world interacts with us. If we keep seeing white people find new worlds and traverse the galaxy, the room to dream about intergalactic space travel and saving the world dwindles because Hollywood tells us that we aren't the heroes for the job. Stories like Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer, are perfect examples of representation of Black women and LGBT+ folks that get to be a part of the future.
Janelle Monae in her film Dirty Computer: An Emotion Picture
The issue with the lack of diversity isn't about who we get to see in space, it's about who storytellers let make it into the future. We want to know that the future of Black lives is thought of and that there are dreams of what we could become. There's a need for Black sci-fi directors and storytellers collaborating on the idea of Black futurity. We want Black trans actors playing scientists at the International Space station finding a cure for famine and Black nonbinary humanoids fighting against droids made by evil corporations. There are so many ideas for imagining Black people as powerful characters in the future. It would be a cathartic release from all the death the world has witnessed at the hands of police brutality every month. Black Lives Matter is not a fantasy, it is an imagining of the future.
Kira Sterrett
FILM PEAKS: Who's Afraid of Sally Reed?
Reflecting on the character of Sally Reed in 'Barry' and…
© FILM DAZE, LLC 2018-2021.


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047 James VanDemark: Technical Discipline & Interpretive Magic
This episode is full of inspiration and extremely useful information! Eastman School of Music Bass Professor, James VanDemark, offers us tip after great tip to bring our practice and performance to the next level!
Among many topics, James talks to us about creating a technical discipline that leads to interpretive magic, and about on how crucial it is to have clear goals and setting the intention to build up our entire identity as an artist whenever we enter the practice room.
He elaborates on the importance of:
using the bow in an imaginative way (having the bow be an extension of our imagination) while having a left hand that is as immaculate as can be
acutely playing in the present moment
establishing a great basic posture
using the mirror
having interpretation be at the center of the technical work
create the concert experience in the practice room
ear training - through listening to recording actively and with imagination, and through exercises
having a schedule, have a clear intent, and be kind to others
MORE ABOUT JAMES:
Eastman School of Music: https://www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/james-vandemark/
YouTube Videos: Here
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bassfilm1/
"Some people seemed destined to lead unconventional lives, and James VanDemark is certainly
one of them," said the New York Times in the first of its three profiles on VanDemark. Performer,
academic, boxer, producer, and entrepreneur - these are the principal roles VanDemark has
successfully played in a highly diverse career spanning nearly four decades.
VanDemark's arts and culture projects have been featured in the New York Times, Connoisseur
Magazine, on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the BBC, CBC, NPR, and in many other media
outlets around the world. In considerable demand as a speaker on entrepreneurial skills at
colleges across the United States and Canada, VanDemark has also received great acclaim for
his frequent role as narrator with many prominent symphony orchestras, including more than 40
performances with the Rochester Philharmonic and 15 with the Texas Festival Orchestra.
Appointed to the Eastman School of Music at the age of 23, VanDemark was the youngest faculty
member ever appointed to a professorial position at a major American music school. His students
perform in many of the world's great orchestras – the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland
Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber
Orchestra, Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic – and
many more. His students have also been nominated for—and won—numerous Grammy awards
in various categories, including classical, contemporary, jazz, and bluegrass.
VanDemark's students have also held positions at major music schools, including Indiana
University, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Louisiana State University,
Carnegie-Mellon, Peabody Conservatory, University of Delaware, NYU's Steinhardt School of
Music, Michigan State University, University of Colorado, University of Alabama, University of
Tennessee, and many others.
VanDemark's performing career has included solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic,
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, National Symphony of Mexico, Netherlands
Radio Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de
Quebec, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and many more. Chamber music appearances have
included the Cleveland, Guarneri, Muir, Colorado and Ying Quartets, the Gryphon Trio, violinist
Yehudi Menuhin, as well as legendary pianists Andre Watts, Alfred Brendel, and Gary Graffman.
VanDemark has also been featured on Lincoln Center's "Great Performers Series" on three
occasions, including in recital with Andre Watts.
VanDemark is also the recipient of commissioned works by many composers, including three
Pulitzer Prize winners: Gian-Carlo Menotti, Joseph Schwantner, and Christopher Rouse.
As a founding member of Square Peg Entertainment, VanDemark developed and represented
screenplays and properties of Oscar winners Ernest Thompson, Horton Foote, Eiko Ishioka, Ron
Harwood, Oscar nominee Hesper Anderson, Stu Silver, Paul Theroux, and many others.
VanDemark also developed the World War I story CODE BROTHERS for CTV (Toronto), THE
WAYNE AND SUE SHOW for Tribune Entertainment, produced the album and music video THE
GIFT with singer Linda Eder for Atlantic Records, and with television legend Sir David Frost,
developed the Frederick Forsyth novella THE SHEPHERD in conjunction with Shaftesbury Films
(Toronto). VanDemark also co-produced and cast SPEAK LOW, the highly successful Brooklyn
Academy of Music (BAM) Gala featuring Jerry Orbach, Donna Murphy, Duncan Sheik, and other
stars of Broadway and the Metropolitan Opera in the music of Kurt Weill. VanDemark has also
served as Music Supervisor for John Cougar Mellencamp's film, AFTER IMAGE.
Acclaimed for his extensive work in the Native American community, VanDemark commissioned
and developed the Native collaborative musical work CIRCLE OF FAITH, profiled in The New
York Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Detroit Free Press, Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Denver
Post, Lakota Times, and on NPR's Morning Edition. VanDemark has helped produce more than
40 performances of the work in the United States and Canada.
As an accomplished amateur boxer, VanDemark was recently profiled on the front page of The
Wall Street Journal, The Strad, on CBC's "Q," WNYC's "Soundcheck," and was featured at length
on ESPN's E-60. VanDemark's conditioning and boxing program for students, musicians, and the
general public has also brought him considerable worldwide acclaim. His recent boxing/
conditioning presentations include the University of Tennessee, the University of Alabama,
Louisiana State University, Loyola University New Orleans, and the University of Santiago (Chile).
VanDemark attributes the longevity and diversity of his career not only to his own athletic training,
but also to his work in the the health care field in the 1970's, when he worked extensively under
the renowned neurologist Dr. Howard S. Barrows at the McMaster University School of Medicine
in Canada in developing the groundbreaking Simulated/Standardized Patient Program (SPP). As
a result of these achievements, VanDemark was named to the Industry Board of the American
Health Council in October 2017.
Join the Mind Over Finger Tribe here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfingertribe/
Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme! Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.
Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly!
https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text: Q: Excel Power Query get a list of files including the names of empty folders and subfolders I need to get a list of all the files and folder names, including empty folders. Is there a way to do this in Excel's power query. Currently it only lists filenames, but not empty folders. I've tried the "cmd" dir print list, but I get an "UNC" error message because it's the folders and files are in a network drive. I actually prefer cmd because it's super fast. Thank you in advance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Haters gonna hate (allegedly)
I know nothing about Taylor Swift. I'm familiar with the song "Shake it Off" because — let's face it — it's difficult not to be. It isn't quite up there with that Bryan Adams song from the early 90s, but it was still pretty damn impossible to escape. Having said that, I have nothing against the woman. She is a tremendously successful pop singer and although I am partial to a good pop song at times, I am clearly not her target demographic. Which is fine.
I was intrigued, though, to read today that Swift feels that she does not get the artistic credit she deserves for her songwriting because of the sexism of the music industry. She is quoted as saying…
If someone has studied my catalog and still doesn't think I'm behind it, there's nothing I can do for that person. They may have to deal with their own sexist issues, because if I were a guy and you were to look at my catalog and my lyrics, you would not wonder if I was the person behind it.
At the risk of being accused of mansplaining again, can I just point out that — while I acknowledge there are people out there who will question the abilities of a woman to write a song purely because she is a woman; those people exist, they are called "asshats" (amongst other things) — I myself was mildly surprised to learn that Swift writes her own songs. But not because she is a woman… no, it's because she's a photogenic young pop-star.
That doesn't preclude a person from also being a songwriter of course. And my surprise was only "mild"… I'm not refusing to believe it or anything. Thing is, I would be just as surprised to discover that One Direction write their own stuff (do they?) It's not sexism; it's just cynicism about the modern music industry. If you're young, good-looking, polished and highly-successful then my initial assumption — male or female — is that you're essentially the product of a marketing algorithm. As I say; cynicism not sexism.
photo by Alan Light
And it's not just the "young and good-looking" bit (though that is fairly prevalent). It's more the "polish", the genuine difficulty I have discerning a modern pop video from an advert for a trendy clothes store… I never for a moment doubted that Patti Smith wrote every syllable of every song (well, except the cover versions obviously!) Laurie Anderson, Suzanne Vega, Stina Nordenstam, Siouxsie Sioux, Joni Mitchell… women can write incredible songs. And the flip-side is also true… Jason Donovan sold millions of records singing songs written by Stock, Aiken & Waterman. Milli Vanilli didn't even do their own singing!
So yes; there are probably some asshats out there who think "Taylor Swift didn't write that — she's a girl!" But most of us, I suspect, were thinking "Taylor Swift probably didn't write that — it's 2016 and she's a pop star". That assumption — it turns out — is plain wrong. But it's not sexist. No more than the growing scepticism surrounding Milli Vanilli in 1989 was racist.
Leave a comment | Posted in: Opinion
Art Music pop
U2 and It's a Wonderful Life
Browsing twitter, I noticed Chris Brooke posted a link to an interview with a Tory MP in which he reveals that U2 is his favourite band.
Now I happen to really like U2. It's difficult perhaps to separate them from their stratospheric success (and Bono's messianic shenanigans) and appreciate them musically. But just because Achtung Baby and Zooropa sold a kajillion copies doesn't stop them being two of the most sonically interesting records of the 90s. As with The White Album… sometimes the stars align and what is popular achieves harmony with what is Truly Great. The albums just before and just after Achtung Baby and Zooropa had wonderful moments, but (and this not a popular opinion among my more musically discerning friends) those two were perfect slices of musical Greatness.
Crucially though, what they are not is political. There's veiled social commentary here and there, but it's mostly love songs, songs of regret, songs of personal loss and a whole bunch of Irish Catholicism. All played out across an Eno-produced soundscape of rock, electronica and complex polyrhythms. It's what Can would have sounded like if they'd formed in 1989 and had an ego-maniacal philanthropist from Dublin as a lead singer.
As I say though, it's not political music and they are not – in general – a political band. Sure, no band goes 30 years without doing some political stuff, but overall that's not what they're about, and an appreciation for U2's music is no indication of political leanings (unlike say, Billy Bragg… if you say you're a big Billy Bragg fan there's a better than evens chance you're left wing). Meanwhile, I doubt there's a great many left wing Ted Nugent fans.
So it does not surprise me that a Tory MP would be a U2 fan. No more than it would surprise me that a Tory MP might be a big fan of Miles Davis.
What I did find surprising about Sajid Javid MP's interview, however, was his claim that his favourite film is It's A Wonderful Life. Because that film is overtly political. It's a film that is vitriolic about the effects of capitalism on community life. Sure, sure, some see it as an ode to a simpler, kinder capitalism (a golden age that never existed) but that's hogwash – Master's degree in Critical Theory and Film Studies be damned! – it's as close to a socialist manifesto as mainstream American cinema is ever likely to achieve.
And if that last scene where the whole town gathers together and pools their money to help out a down-on-his-luck neighbour is too subtle a metaphor for the average Tory MP; the film even has a character who clearly and unequivocally represents the capitalist establishment… represents Toryism. So how difficult must it be to list It's A Wonderful Life as your favourite film when it chooses to depict you as Henry Potter?
Billy Bragg Conservatives Film Music Politics
The two 'David B's
This week, quite rightly, the media has been buzzing with news of the return of David Bowie. His first new material in a decade was released, quite unexpectedly, on Tuesday; his 66th birthday. The song – Where Are We Now? – is a lovely, melancholy meditation on lost youth. Filled with references to Berlin, where Bowie himself spent several years in the 1970s, it was produced by Tony Visconti who – along with Bowie and Brian Eno – formed the Holy Trinity responsible for the three late-70s albums that (in my personal opinion) represent the pinnacle of Bowie's creative output. I know that sounds like I'm saying he "peaked" with "Heroes", Low and Lodger and then went into decline. But that's not how I see it. Yes, there was something of a trough in the 1980s, but 1.Outside in the mid-90s saw him once again climb creative heights rarely visited by others and of the four 90s / early noughties albums that followed, only Hours was less than brilliant (both Earthling and Heathen are grossly underrated and Reality has some stonking songs on it though you might argue there's some filler there too).
The new single is to be followed by an album in March (called The Next Day) which I am eagerly anticipating. And while well-publicised health problems suggest he may not tour the new songs, we can still hope against hope. Right? As well as the inevitable cooing from die-hard fans (of which I am one and for which I make no apology) there have been other responses. Thanks to the internet, you can read the views of the cynics and the compulsive denigrators just as easily as the views of the die-hard fans. Which is fine. If people genuinely don't like Bowie, or genuinely find the new song lacking in some way then they are just as entitled to express that opinion as people like myself who are excited about it. Mind you, a lot of the criticism I've encountered smacks somewhat of deliberate contrarianism. It comes from the same sort of people who tell you The Beatles never wrote a good tune, Citizen Kane is overrated and insist they don't understand the phrase "best thing since sliced bread" because frankly sliced bread is shit.
And you know what, those folk are also just as entitled to express their opinion. I find it a little sad that people actively seek the sensation of jadedness – something I seem to spend a whole lot of time battling – but I don't have to live their lives so let them at it… I'm not looking for repressive legislation on the matter.
Anyway, here's the new single (along with the odd video). If you've not already heard it, I hope you like it as much as I do. I found myself humming it after just one listen and yet I'd still describe it as "a grower" because I'm enjoying it more and more with each new hearing.
The other David B
In my personal musical universe there's probably only one other person who rivals David Bowie for the top spot (luckily my musical universe is polytheistic in nature, so they don't need to fight it out). And that's David Byrne. Like Bowie, David Byrne's finest hour was quite a while ago – and perhaps not at all coincidentally – also involved Brian Eno. I'm speaking of course about Remain In Light, the greatest album ever recorded.
Also like Bowie, however, that didn't represent a "peak" from which there was only a long decline ahead. No, like Bowie's Low, Remain In Light was simply the tallest tree in a forest of redwoods. His career since Talking Heads has been generally overlooked by the mainstream (with the occasional exception… his Oscar for The Last Emperor soundtrack being one such exception) but is no less because of it. So when I read a review of last year's Love This Giant (a collaboration with St. Vincent) that described the album as "a return to form" I was genuinely mystified. You can't return to something you never left, and Byrne has been "on form" pretty much since 1977. Whether it was his work with Talking Heads, his solo stuff, his collaborations (with Eno, Fat Boy Slim, St. Vincent and others) or his many books, films and installations; Byrne has consistently brought joy, light, wonder and a great rhythm section to my life.
Love This Giant is another wonderful record. The heavy use of "heavy brass" gives it quite a distinctive sound, setting it apart from most of his other work (excluding, of course, his album of brass band compositions – Music For The Knee Plays). In fact it contains a song (I Should Watch TV) that rocketed straight into my top 10 Byrne tracks and which I listen to regularly. How pleasing, therefore, that it appears on the short live concert by Byrne and St. Vincent that's just been released by NPR. I recommend the entire gig as it showcases a genuinely wonderful album while throwing in a couple of older tracks. But if you've only got a few minutes, then skip ahead to 24:40 and listen to the glorious I Should Watch TV.
3 comments | Posted in: Media » Video, Reviews » Music reviews
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Ray Bradbury. 1920-2012
I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves – you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.
Today I was saddened to hear the news of Ray Bradbury's death. He lived to the ripe old age of 91 and – if I'm being honest – I was a little surprised to hear of his passing… half-assuming he'd ascended to that Great Library in The Sky many years ago.
Bradbury was one of writers who lit up my childhood and brought colour and wonder to grey 1970s Dublin. His novel, The Martian Chronicles is probably the first serious science-fiction book I can recall reading. I don't wish to denigrate the fantastical space adventures penned by W.E. Johns, which were my initial introduction to science fiction, but they were essentially Boys Own Adventures that just happened to be set in space; whereas Bradbury was doing something entirely different. I'm sure even Johns would agree.
Ray Bradbury's prose was genuinely poetic. It was filled with wisdom, warmth and a rich humour. It was also deadly serious and – looking back – was probably the first "social commentary" I read too. Though of course, at the tender age of 9 or 10, much of the allegory went above my head. Even so, I can distinctly remember thinking that there was something important about Bradbury's work… something I wasn't quite grasping, but that I desperately wanted to. Later in my teens when I re-read The Martian Chronicles – along with scores (if not hundreds) of his short stories – I was pleased to have been vindicated. There was something important about Bradbury's work. And there still is.
Something Wicked This Way Comes remains one of my all-time favourite novels. I've not read it in many years, but I intend to very soon. It's a shame that my revisit to his books is being prompted by such sad news, but I can't think of a more fitting tribute to Mr. Bradbury; a man whose love of writing consumed him.
Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.
When someone has spent more than ninety years on the planet, it's difficult to describe their death as "a tragedy". For surely few of us can expect to have such a span of years, and those of us who do should feel blessed because of it. And yet, when such a wise voice as Ray Bradbury is silenced, the world is always the worse for it. Still, he left us plenty of that wisdom in the books he wrote. Wisdom, wit and some cracking good yarns. For those of you who never encountered his work, may I suggest a short list to track down and be amazed by. And for those who are already familiar with Bradbury… well, there's no harm in a re-read. It's what he would have wanted.
My favourite of his novels:
As wonderful as are his novels, the curious reader should – perhaps even more urgently – track down pretty much any one of his glorious collections of short stories… The Day It Rained Forever and I Sing the Body Electric are two of the best, but you really can't go wrong with Bradbury short stories. And if you don't believe me, then why not track down some of the ones that have made it onto the web (The Pedestrian for example). You won't be sorry that you did.
Leave a comment | Posted in: Opinion, Reviews » Book reviews
Art Books Ray Bradbury Space
Takeshis'
I finally got around to watching Takeshis', the first of Takeshi Kitano's anti-mainstream trilogy (and I do mean anti-mainstream as opposed to merely non-mainstream… there's a whole bunch of deliberate subversion and outright mocking of mainstream movie tropes going on). The story goes, that after his mainstream international success with Zatoichi, Kitano became disillusioned and frustrated with himself. He'd become too safe. Too predictable, in his own eyes. And while I personally thoroughly enjoyed Zatoichi, it's definitely a million miles from the existential meditations of Dolls, Hana-bi or even the earlier Sonatine.
And so, he set out to make a trilogy of films that would quite deliberately alienate the wider audience he'd garnered via his samurai action movie. Films that abandoned all notions of traditional narrative; that made no concessions to accessibility… instead placing a priority on artistic integrity. He would gather up all that existential angst, dream-logic and plain weirdness that passes through his mind as he's lying in the twilight between sleep and wakefulness; and he'd dump it onto the screen with no explanation.
Take that mainstream audiences!
The result is mesmerising and more than a little startling. Certainly not a film for anyone who needs such trifles as "plot" or "sense" to hold their hand for an hour and a half while they watch a screen. At the heart of the film are two characters, both played by Takeshi Kitano. The first is "Beat Takeshi", a successful actor and film-maker who specialises in gangster / yakuza movies. The second is "Mr. Kitano", a convenience store clerk and failed actor who spends his days daydreaming about living the life of his idol – Beat Takeshi – when he's not being rejected at auditions.
Early in the film, there's a chance meeting between the two Takeshis and Beat Takeshi signs an autograph for Mr. Kitano. Afterwards, we watch as Mr. Kitano walks home to his small apartment above a mechanic's shop and falls asleep. From then on, the viewer never knows whether the scene they are watching is a dream being had by one of the two Takeshis, or a convenience store clerk's fantasy of being a successful actor, or a successful film-maker wondering what it would be like to live the life of a failed actor. Or indeed, a successful film-maker imagining what the fantasies of a failed actor about being a successful film-maker would be like. It's no surprise that the original title of the film was Fractals.
Characters from the director's previous films show up in incongruous situations and it definitely helps the viewer if they're familiar with Takeshi Kitano's past work. There's a huge amount of self-referentiality in the movie… scenes from previous films (most notably Sonatine and Hana-bi, but pretty much every movie he's done gets a look in) are revisited in unexpected ways, with characters crossing over from one to the other. Indeed whole sections of Takeshis' appear to be deliberate "self-iconoclasm", with some of the most haunting and affecting scenes he's ever shot being savagely undercut and turned into absurd parodies – most notably the final beach scene from Hana-bi (in my view, one of the most beautiful scenes in the history of cinema) is suddenly transformed into a bizarre action-film caricature with Kitano machine-gunning a whole range of characters from his past films (along with about 500 riot police).
There's a great deal of wit in Takeshis' and while it only made me laugh out loud a couple of times, I spent much of the film with a wry smile on my face. As with all of his films the humour veers from the ridiculously slapstick to the almost-too-cerebral, with plenty in between. And as ever, music plays a large role. Traditional Japanese folk music cuts brutally into high-tempo electronica and back again. Also, the tap-dancing interlude goes on for quite a bit longer than you'd expect.
It's like a very weird remix of his past films, and at no point have you any idea who or what you'll be seeing next on the screen. Personally I absolutely loved it and am looking forward to watching Glory to the Filmmaker! (the second film in the trilogy). But I suspect plenty of people who see Takeshis' will hate it, and no small percentage will fail to reach the end. But for fans of the obscure, the odd and the original, Takeshis' provides an absolute feast for the senses. And the imagination.
Leave a comment | Posted in: Reviews » Film reviews
Art Dreams Existentialism Film Japan Music Takeshi Kitano
R.I.P. Whitney Houston
As I'm sure you're aware by now, Whitney Houston has just died at the age of 48. I personally wouldn't have been the biggest fan of her music, but her ubiquity for several years means that she did weave herself into the soundtrack of my life, whether I liked it or not. And I admit, there were times when it was very much "not". Back in the winter of 1992 it was just impossible to escape her massive hit, I Will Always Love You. You'd walk into shops and where you'd expect to hear Christmas music over the speaker system, there'd be that bloody song again. The radio-waves were saturated with the damn thing and music television was in cahoots.
All the same though, that was a pretty good period in my life. I was a young undergraduate and thoroughly enjoying my party years in North London. So despite the fact that I really hated that song by the springtime of 1993, and despite the fact that I would never in a million years voluntarily listen to it, I found myself smiling with a wistful nostalgia when I heard it being played yesterday as a tribute. That overplayed – and overwrought – tune brought back a bunch of good memories with it.
As well as that, Whitney Houston was also – indirectly – responsible for a particularly lovely moment a few years back. I generally do my best to see David Byrne whenever he tours. His music is genuinely important to me and he's one of the very few people I'll travel distances to see live these days. Anyway, a few years back he played London and I naturally went along. The gig was – as ever – wonderful and it was a fantastic evening. By the time the encore came around I'd pretty much worked out that we'd be hearing Psycho Killer as it hadn't appeared earlier in the set. And we weren't disappointed; that dark and brooding bassline conjuring up all the right kinds of sinister. It's still such a thrill to hear that song loud and live in a darkened venue.
Then, however, after Byrne had finished urging us to run, run away… the lights brightened and the strings kicked in with an oddly familiar tune. I couldn't place it at first. Up-tempo and the complete opposite of Psycho Killer. "Maybe something from Uh Oh", I thought, "I've not listened to that album in a while". But almost immediately I'd thought that, I suddenly realised what the song was…
It was infectious, bouncy and genuinely joyous. Byrne was more than capable of putting a dark spin on the track; subtly subverting it and turning it into something strange and unsettling. But he didn't. Instead he played it completely straight. No hint of irony. And it worked so well. Everyone danced. Everyone looked at the person next to them with a broad grin on their face. And everyone left the gig feeling slightly euphoric.
So I'd like to thank Whitney Houston (via Mr. Byrne) for that small gift. Rest in peace.
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I glanced at my twitter timeline and noticed the following tweet…
Anyone who says the 80's was the best decade for music needs to be shot. By a firing squad #BBC4
@J___Williamson | twitter
I assumed from the #BBC4 hashtag that there was some 80s music documentary being broadcast, but taken at face value (obvious comedy hyperbole aside) I realised I wasn't entirely sure whether I'd be up before that firing squad or not. If asked to name a favourite decade, musically speaking, my immediate reaction would be to say "the 70s". But when I gave it a bit more thought (probably considerably more than @J___Williamson meant her tweet to be subjected to) I realised that – assuming we start "the 80s" in 1980 – rather than 1981 as some are wont to do – then it's fair to say that my favourite album of all time is an 80s album (Remain in Light by Talking Heads). In fact, a huge amount of my favourite music was released during the 1980s.
1980 also saw the release of Joy Division's Closer. It was the year of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, of Autoamerican and of Heartattack And Vine. And the decade that followed saw the entire career of The Smiths and Dexy's Midnight Runners. It saw Tom Waits move from good to great and on into godlike. The 80s saw Prince at his peak. And what a peak that was. There are moments on Sign 'O' The Times that still send shivers down my spine despite the familiarity of 25 years of regular play. It was the decade that brought us the best of The Cure, of The The, of Kate Bush and of The Cocteau Twins. And it was the decade that kicked off the careers of Nick Cave, The Legendary Pink Dots and World Party.
Right at the heart of the decade, 1985 saw the release of Around The World in a Day, Asylum, Don't Stand Me Down, The Firstborn is Dead, Head on The Door, Hounds Of Love, Hunting High And Low, Little Creatures, Low-Life, Meat Is Murder, Rain Dogs, Suzanne Vega, and Thursday Afternoon. That's a pretty diverse list of albums… and each one's a corker in its own way. What's more, there's not a year in the 1980s that doesn't have just as fine a list attached to it.
Then, as the 80s drew to a close, we discovered that It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. We were infused with the Spirit of Eden while we got Naked and Bummed. We got our minds melted by Pixies and My Bloody Valentine as Julee Cruise took us Floating Into The Night, all the while being reminded that The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste.
And you know what…? I've not even begun to do the 80s justice. Byrne and Eno's My Life in The Bush of Ghosts, Peter Gabriel's So, Paul Simon's Graceland and Julian Cope's Fried all helped make the decade what it was. There were seminal records from Siouxsie and the Banshees, R.E.M., and I'm even prepared to put in a good word for The Joshua Tree which – for all its over-earnest breast-beating – contains some cracking tunes. Sure it was a low point for David Bowie, but elsewhere good music was thriving.
Decades?
But of course, I could make a similar case for the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1990s and even the noughties; though I would probably find that more difficult as I've discovered less new music in the past ten years. Probably a result of advancing age as well as having an already extremely extensive record collection that does its best to crowd out new releases (there are, after all, only so many hours in the day). Actually, it's not ten years… looking at my media player, it appears that my discovery of new albums tapers off somewhat in 2007. There's still a handful each year after that, but nothing like as many as there once was.
As it happens, I have a theory that music has become less culturally important in the past few years and – as a result – there's less great stuff being produced ("less" not "none"). I'm not sure that theory stands up to scrutiny… though it'd be a good discussion to have over a few pints of Guinness.
Then, as I began to mentally put together the case for the 1970s, it struck me just how arbitrary the "decade" distinction is. It's a cultural shorthand that extends far beyond music of course, but it tends to be used most frequently in that arena. Most albums released in 1989 have far more in common with the music of 1992 than they do with the music of 1982. There are records from 1979 and from 1991 that – to all intents and purposes – qualify as 80s music. And there are records from the early 80s that tend to be seen as part of the 1970s. The same is true for all decades. The Beatles were a 1960s band even if Let It Be was released in 1970. Hell, I think of The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan as being "of the sixties" even though the majority of their output – quantitatively speaking – came afterwards. And I don't know where the hell Van Morrison fits in. Astral Weeks ("best album ever recorded except when Remain In Light is" tm) was released in 1968, but is essentially timeless, and damn near everything else he did came post-1970.
On top of that, there's the fact that the truly great music of every decade… of every year… is massively outweighed in terms of sheer volume, by the truly awful. Or the merely uninteresting. For every I'm Your Man or Lovesexy there are a dozen of Hold Me in Your Arms and Kylie. Two dozen.
So does it even make sense to talk about whether the music of the 90s is better than the music of the 80s? Certainly Bone Machine and Henry's Dream are better albums than White Feathers and Blackout. But you could just as easily choose Wet Wet Wet and Bryan Adams as your representatives of the 1990s, and… well… they're no Prince or The Smiths.
In fact, you just have to compare Prince to… er… Prince. The 80s really come out of that one smiling.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that – when all's said and done – there's a pretty simple way to identify precisely when music was at its very best. Ask yourself the following question… "When was my 21st birthday?" Now, take the five years before that. Take the five years after. Add them together and you have the best decade for music. See? Simple. And no firing squads required.
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A few days ago in my review of 2011, I mentioned that one of the films of last year I wanted to see – but hadn't – was The Guard. Well last night I rectified that situation. And I'm truly glad that I did, because it's easily one of the best films of last year… indeed it's easily one of the best films of the last few years.
Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh and starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle, the basic plot involves an FBI Agent (Cheadle) assigned to the West of Ireland and teaming up with a local cop (Brendan Gleeson) to investigate a massive drug-smuggling operation. On the surface – and indeed based on the publicity surrounding the film – you get the impression it'll probably be a gentle, whimsical buddy-cop comedy. You could almost write the thing yourself… backwards Connemara guard annoys big city agent with his slow, rural ways and naive casual racism before demonstrating the quaint wisdom of those ways and foiling the smugglers. Ultimately of course, both rural cop and big city agent learn something from one another.
Because I'm such a massive fan of Gleeson, I still wanted to see The Guard despite the concern that it would be an underwhelming cliché of a film. The trailer only makes the vaguest of hints that, actually, that's most certainly not the movie we're talking about…
In fact, it's a glorious subversion of that lazy archetype. This is nicely conveyed by the very first scene which concludes with Gleeson's guard, at the scene of a fatal car wreck, dropping a hit of acid and intoning, "what a beautiful fucking day". It was at that moment I realised I was in for something far less conventional than I'd expected. The Guard does a good job of resisting the temptation to romanticise The West beyond recognition and is most definitely set in modern Ireland as opposed to that timeless Hollywood Ireland that plagues many films. At the same time, it doesn't shy away from presenting the viewer with the stark beauty of Connemara. The financial crisis, thankfully, hasn't messed up the scenery.
The screen chemistry between Cheadle and Gleeson is an absolute joy, though it's very much Gleeson's film. He discusses Russian literature and amyl nitrate with his dying mother, spins wild yarns about his exploits as an Olympic athlete, cavorts with prostitutes, has a casual chat with the local IRA man (a cameo by the excellent Pat Shortt) and drinks pretty much constantly. And all the while he delights in winding up the FBI man… "Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, those men are armed and dangerous and you being an FBI agent, you're more used to shooting unarmed women and children".
On top of the excellent performances by all involved however, the film elevates itself above the run-of-the-mill fare I'd been expecting, thanks to the wonderful script and plot. I'd never encountered the work of John Michael McDonagh before (in fact, aside from being the writer of a 2003 remake of Ned Kelly, which I never saw, this is his first foray into feature films… we can expect good things from this man). But his regular confounding of my expectations throughout the film was very welcome indeed. I shan't elaborate and risk spoiling them, but events do not transpire as they normally would in this kind of film. I'm not saying it's a masterpiece of avant-garde film-making, radically redefining the very notions of narrative. Far from it. I'm just saying that so far as mainstream film-making goes, there are quite a few surprises along the way. And sadly, that's unusual these days.
If I have one concern it's that I'm not sure whether some of the humour, which at turns is both dry and broad, might not go over the heads of non-Irish viewers… Gleeson's Galway accent is good for a Dublin man, though it's not so thick as to be incomprehensible… but the cultural references which would give a chuckle to most of us here in Ireland might not translate (such as the line about going undercover with the mob and "having to go down to Limerick for that sort of excitement"). But I don't think there's too many of them; certainly not enough to ruin anyone's enjoyment of the film; and ultimately I can offer an unconditional recommendation for The Guard. It's funny, surprising, well-written and wonderfully acted. It has plenty of charm without being twee and while it's not "a feel good" movie, it definitely leaves you feeling good. If you know what I mean.
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… and a happy new year!
Greetings dear reader, and welcome to 2012. I hope your journey through 2011 wasn't too arduous and you managed to avoid the worst of the nastiness it contained. It wasn't all nasty of course. Far from it. But the continuing financial crisis certainly made it feel that way at times. Incidentally, I'm trying to come up with a better phrase than "financial crisis" with which to label the ongoing state of affairs. Something that better encapsulates the wholesale transfer of public wealth into the coffers of a small number of private corporations and institutions currently being sanctioned by our governments. Because despite the political sloganeering that claims "we're all in this together" and speaks of "sharing the pain", an examination of the facts would suggest that the "financial crisis" isn't actually happening to the powerful or wealthy. In fact, with a few exceptions, they seem to be doing rather well out of it.
Perhaps "the return to feudalism" might be a better label than "the financial crisis"? It conveys both the huge increase in inequality that's underway. along with the complete loss of democratic accountability. Though perhaps it's a little abstract for the general public. After all, we're talking about populations who consume reality television in massive doses while electing right wing governments without exception. And yes, even those populations who elect nominally "centre left" governments are in fact electing right wing governments; the centre has shifted so far to the right that even the leftist fringes have given up talking about large-scale nationalisation and content themselves with demanding relatively minor changes to the taxation regime and slightly stricter regulation of the financial sector. Don't get me wrong… that's better than the status quo but it's not exactly the million miles from the status quo that we should be moving with all haste.
Anyway, enough of that for now. I have a new post brewing on the subject of Ireland withdrawing from the euro in which I'll be discussing the return to feudalism (nah, it doesn't trip easily enough off the tongue… I welcome suggestions for a better label) in greater depth. For now, sit back and enjoy a brief round-up of the highlights – from my perspective – of 2011. There were a few hidden among the carnage.
From a purely personal standpoint, I continued to share my life with a wonderful woman. The lovely Citizen S remains the best thing in my world and I can't thank her enough for putting up with my many foibles. I also became an uncle and godfather for the first time, which was groovy. Financially things could have been better (hint: job offers welcome!) but we didn't go hungry, had a roof over our heads and managed to pay the bills. We even had a little left over to visit Serbia a couple of times, have a short break in Kerry and generally enjoy life. So whatever else might have happened in 2011, here in the Bliss household, it didn't suck.
Sporting highlights of 2011
With each passing year I find myself becoming more and more intrigued by sporting events. I'm not sure if this is a symptom of growing old or just that I've found myself spending more time with sports fans and gaining an appreciation through them. Either way, I was delighted when Dublin won the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Final for the first time since 1995, in what even the losing fans agreed was one of the most exciting matches in living memory. As fine an advertisement for amateur sports as you're likely to see. The image to the right shows the moment – deep into stoppage time – that Dublin goalkeeper, Stephen Cluxton, kicked the winning point. Truly a "leap into the air whooping" moment if ever there was one. Apologies to readers from Kerry, but despite your loss I'm sure you'll agree it was a wonderful match, objectively speaking.
Elsewhere in sport, Ireland had a somewhat disappointing tournament in the rugby world cup in what was probably the last chance for the so-called 'Golden Generation' to win the competition. It's a shame really… players as supremely talented as Brian O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara and the rest were good enough to have retired with a World Cup Winner's Medal around their necks; they just never managed to find their best performances when it really mattered. However, our soccer team managed to qualify for the European Championships next year, the first time we've qualified for a major tournament in over a decade, which almost makes up for the unjust manner in which we missed out on the 2010 World Cup (I don't think the Irish nation has yet forgiven Thierry Henry).
In golf, Irishmen (albeit Northern Irishmen) had the world at their feet. Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke each won one of the four Major Championships. The previous year, Graeme McDowell also won a Major. And that came only a couple of years after Dublin man, Padraig Harrington, won three Majors in two years. Lately we've been punching above our weight for a small island. Long may it continue.
Last year I also followed tennis for the first time. Serbia's Novak Djokovic became world number one and had one of the game's greatest years ever, completely dominating the sport by winning three of the Grand Slam tournaments and a whole bunch of other competitions. All of this on the back of leading Serbia to its first ever Davis Cup win. Oh how we cheered in the Bliss household.
Also Tottenham Hotspur, the only premiership team worth watching, have had a wonderful 2011. So that's nice.
Musical highlights of 2011
I wish I could say that 2011 saw lots of great new albums, films and TV shows. But it didn't. I got into Brian Eno's Small Craft on a Milk Sea in a big way in 2011, but that was actually released in 2010 so doesn't really count I suppose. Still, get hold of it if you've not already as it's really rather good. I seem to be a year behind with Eno and have yet to get hold of his 2011 album, Drums Between The Bells, but from past experience, I suspect I'll enjoy it when I do.
The two albums released in 2011 that I have got hold of (though only very recently) and which I heartily recommend are Uf! by the astonishingly wonderful Serbian band, Disciplin a Kitschme and In Love With Oblivion by Crystal Stilts. The Crystal Stilts album continues their Joy Division meets Jesus and Mary Chain vibe, though this time it seems to be passed through a late-60s psychedelia filter rather than the Americana of the first album… there are definitely shades of The Doors and The Velvet Underground hidden within the fuzzy guitars and echoing vocals, though with the occasional return to their earlier sound as on the excellent Alien Rivers. Best track (in my view) is the album closer, Prometheus at Large. An altogether wonderful noise.
Perhaps even more wonderful is the driving bass and drums of Disciplin a Kitschme. The new album is probably the most commercial thing they've done, but don't let that worry you, they are still a long long way from the mainstream. The excellent single, Ako ti je glasno… ("If it's loud…") is about as mainstream as they get. It's a grinding four minute kickass tune, cut down from the nine minute heaviness of the album version, which kicks off Uf! and heralds the onset of a really great record. One I'll be listening to for many years to come and – from my perspective – the best release of 2011. Despite digging the band's vocals, my personal favourite tracks – though it's genuinely difficult to pick – would probably be the two long instrumentals; Nimulid Rok and the weird Manitu VI which veers perilously close to jazz and has a didgeridoo, yet still manages to sound awesome. For some reason, those YouTube uploads truncate the tracks, which should be nearly 6 and 10 minutes respectively.
Ako ti je glasno…
Aside from that, there was little that really grabbed me musically in 2011. The X-Factor continued to chip away at the collective soul of humanity while Adele, Lady Gaga and Jay-Z continued to sell records by the pallet-load. Clearly lots of people enjoy that stuff, but it doesn't float my boat. In fact, it actively threatens to torpedo my boat and machine-gun any survivors who make it to the life-rafts. Bastards!
Movie highlights of 2011
I have to admit, I didn't see many of 2011's crop of new movies. I saw a few of the blockbuster releases, not one of which impressed me very much. I'm not sure whether big budget spectaculars have gotten worse in the past few years, or whether I've just become jaded (I'd like to think it's the former, because I've always loved the whole roller-coaster-ride aspect of Hollywood spectaculars and would hate to think I've lost that sense of childlike wonder when it comes to shiny things moving at high speed and then exploding). So whether it was Thor or X-Men: First Class or the frankly risible Super-8 (an ET / Godzilla mash-up might sound great at 2am after some fine skunk, but it's the kind of idea that should really be forgotten the next morning) there was a lot of "being underwhelmed" going on. Slightly better were Limitless and The Adjustment Bureau, both of which suffered from the same problem… a fantastic first half hour followed by an increasingly frustrating descent into nonsense and cliché. In particular I was annoyed by Limitless which – like Inception the previous year – took a glorious premise and completely squandered it.
Another notch up the ladder were Unknown and Battle: Los Angeles. Unknown did the same thing as the previous two films, but took longer to become crap, so at least the viewer has a good thriller for more than an hour before realising it's going to end badly. Battle: Los Angeles, on the other hand, never promises more than it can deliver, even though it doesn't promise much. A bunch of stereotypical Hollywood soldiers fight a running gun battle with technologically advanced aliens on the streets of Los Angeles. For two hours. Exciting while it's directly in front of you and instantly forgettable. But at least it doesn't leave you with a sense of wasted potential.
Much much better was the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost science fiction road movie, Paul. The critics may have dismissed it as lightweight, but frankly I consider any film that can have me laughing from start to finish a more than worthy accomplishment. It's easily one of the best comedies of the past few years and just because comedies tend not to win awards doesn't actually make them any less important. I highly recommend Paul to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. If you're not a science fiction fan you will miss quite a few of the references, but I suspect you'll still find plenty to laugh at.
About as far from Paul as it's possible to get was the excellent The Sunset Limited which slipped under the radar somewhat but was no worse for it. Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones discuss religion and faith in a small room for an hour and a half. That's pretty much it. It's based on a Cormac McCarthy play and kept me rivetted to the screen for the duration despite the simple premise and basic setting. Just as Limitless provides an object-lesson in the damage that can be wreaked by bad writers, so The Sunset Limited demonstrates the power of good writing.
There are several of 2011's most talked-about movies that I've yet to get around to seeing, so I completely accept that it may have been a far better year – filmically speaking – than I'm currently aware of. I'm really looking forward to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (I thought the original film was excellent and usually hate American remakes of European films… but, well, it's David Fincher isn't it?) I also suspect I'll enjoy John Michael McDonagh's The Guard (starring Brendan Gleeson), Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and low-budget British science-fiction flick, Attack The Block when I get around to them.
Television highlights of 2011
As regular readers will know, I have a very high opinion of good television programmes. I think TV can be just as good as cinema, and – culturally speaking – more important. But only when done properly. Unfortunately it's almost never done properly and the number of shows that make the grade, in my view, is absolutely tiny. As with every year, 2011 contained a couple of flashes of brilliance amidst an ocean of pure shit. 99% of television is soul-destroying and it's very difficult to justify the existence of the medium even by pointing to the good bits. But 2011 did have the occasional good bit.
Probably the best thing broadcast last year was the glorious Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon dialogue, The Trip. From start to finish it was pure excellence and veered from the sublime to the pleasantly ridiculous without ever feeling forced. I enjoyed every moment of The Trip and will definitely be rewatching it before too long. Part of me hopes they make more, but part of me sees it as a perfect little gem that could be sullied by trying to stretch the idea any further.
As far from The Trip as The Sunset Limited is from Paul was the epic Game of Thrones. This HBO spectacular is based on a series of swords'n'sorcery novels that I've not read, but I was nevertheless engrossed by the twisty plot, the sumptuous production values, the fine scripting and the wonderful characters. I'm looking forward to Season 2, though I'm a little concerned that they may not be able to sustain the sense of dread that hovers over the whole affair.
I was going to include the amazing BBC update of Conan Doyle, Sherlock until I realised it was actually broadcast in 2010… where the hell has the time gone!? So instead I'll just remind you all what a great show it is and point out that the second season has just begun (Sunday nights, BBC1 and on iPlayer if you can access it). Best thing on TV right now.
Beyond that, 2011 didn't have anything new to offer, televisually. I'm told The Killing was rather good but I missed it. New seasons of old shows were either as good as ever (Breaking Bad and Community) or a bit of a disappointment (Bored to Death… still better than 99% of what's out there, but failing to scale the dizzy heights of the first two seasons). Black Mirror was apparently fantastic, but I've yet to see it – though I intend to.
So yeah, not a great year for TV. But it never is, sadly.
Literary highlights of 2011
Errr… I'm well behind on my reading, so I can't really do a decent "best books of 2011" bit. William Gibson's Zero History was wonderful, but was published at the end of 2010 so doesn't count. The same is true of Ken MacLeod's The Restoration Game which was enjoyable though not quite as good as his previous chilling novel, The Execution Channel which was a brilliant dissection of The War Against Terror and the sinister places it might lead us.
In fact, I'm struggling to think of a single book published in 2011 that I've read. I would say that's terrible, but it's simply a function of the size of the "book queue" I have to get through. Unless something very very special comes out (a new one by Pynchon perhaps) books tend not to skip the queue. So I suspect I'll get around to 2011's crop of new ones early in 2013. So many books, not enough time. However, I will list a random selection of other books I read last year and which I'd recommend (the first five that pop into my head). None of which were published in 2011.
Emergence by Steven Johnson.
Security by Philip Challinor (read my review)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The Principles of Sustainability by Simon Dresner
and… Steps to an Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson. Again.
Other highlights of 2011
Well, I don't want to stray too much into politics or economics in this entry as they tend to be the subject of most of my posts and I'd like to keep this one a little bit lighter. Still, there are a few things worth mentioning, but I'll keep it brief. Firstly – and most obviously – we had the overthrow of despots in a few countries in North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia and Libya). This is unquestionably a good thing, but I still feel it'll be a while before we know the full ramifications of the Arab revolutions. Let us hope for a better future for the people of those countries… they're not there yet.
In Ireland the General Election demonstrated that the population really doesn't know what's good for it, but at least we elected Michael D. Higgins as President. Yes, it's a largely ceremonial position and no, he wasn't my first choice. But the fact that we didn't elect Seán Gallagher – as it looked as though we might – means that the nation isn't entirely off its head.
I guess the fact that the global economy didn't completely implode can be seen as a bit of a highlight of 2011. Personally I'm hoping for a more gradual, orderly powerdown than the total collapse that threatens to occur thanks to the criminally irresponsible actions of those in power. But we shall see.
There were no major new wars, things didn't get dramatically worse in the already war-torn and famine-struck regions of the world (even if they didn't get substantially better) and nobody nuked anybody. All of which shouldn't be considered highlights, but in these troubled times we'll take what we can get.
And so there we have it. 2011 has done its worst and we're still standing. There were high points as well as the much-publicised low ones. And overall, I'm damn glad I lived to see it all and look forward to saying the same in 12 months time. I'm often confused by how terrible the world can seem, because pretty much all the people I know personally are kind, decent, thoughtful and just want to make the world a better place. I guess it boils down to that line from Nietzsche, Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. All the same, maybe if the kind, decent, thoughtful folks raise their voices a little louder this year, we might just drag the rest of the world to a better place. Have a wondrous 2012, dear reader.
2011 Senior Football Final Photo courtesy of independent.ie
4 comments | Posted in: Reviews » Book reviews, Film reviews, Music reviews, TV reviews
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Security (by Philip Challinor)
The War Against Terror has brought death, kidnap, rendition, torture and destruction to an already weary world. It has resulted in an ongoing erosion of civil liberties, human rights and the rule of law. It has also partly unleashed and partly revealed the moral vacuum at the heart of western society. The War Against Terror has done more damage to the notion of enlightened, liberal democracy than any terrorist could hope to have achieved. By fighting fire with fire we have merely succeeded in burning everyone. In my search for a silver lining – and it is a very narrow one indeed – I'm forced to fall back on that old cliché about harsh times providing inspiration for writers and artists.
It is The War Against Terror and consequent loss of civil liberties that form the heart of Philip Challinor's 2010 novel, Security. It's a story told with wit, skill and an unsettling dollop of resignation… a sense that humanity is more than willing to allow terrible things to happen if they're scared enough, and sometimes just because they're too lazy to do otherwise.
Readers of Security spend 24 hours with a mid-level bureaucrat – Anderson – working for National Consolidated Solutions, to whom the UK government have outsourced a number of security contracts. Any novel about the work of a bureaucrat is going to be leavened with a certain amount of existentialism, but Challinor chooses to downplay this aspect of Security by turning the inner world of his protagonist into an abstract mystery story… Just what is it that Anderson does? The central character suffers from that terrible and slightly paradoxical combination of boredom and stress that anyone who has ever done a job that didn't interest them, yet found themselves with a petty tyrant as a boss will recognise. Partly because of this – and partly due to the nature of his company's business – Anderson forces himself to plough through his daily routine by focussing purely on the mechanics of the task at hand. As a result, the bigger picture takes some time to come into focus and although the entire novel is steeped in a sinister atmosphere, it takes a while to work out exactly why.
All the same, there's plenty of humour to be found within the pages of Security, but it is both bone dry and extremely dark, so don't expect too many chuckles. And the inevitable existentialism of a bureaucrat's story hasn't been completely eradicated – despite the attempts of Anderson's unconscious mind to roboticise himself. This existential aspect is most obvious in Anderson's encounters with and thoughts about his family. We can only assume that these sterile relationships did not start out this way and are a direct result of the toll taken on his psyche by the job he performs. Perhaps.
Ultimately Challinor successfully avoids getting too bogged down either in the monotony of bureaucracy or the opaque family relationships of the protagonist. And he creates more than enough intrigue to prevent Anderson's monotonous life turning into a monotonous novel. Like the great Leopold Bloom, while Anderson is a passive participant in his own life, his passivity does not weigh down the story he tells. Over the course of the (relatively short) novel Anderson's conversations begin to reveal precisely what is going on around him – even if at some level he would rather they didn't. And fittingly, his final significant conversation – with the wonderfully objectionable Eric Munt – reveals everything in the most explicit terms while also hinting at an even worse future to come.
Security, like Ken MacLeod's excellent The Execution Channel, paints a bleak picture of a future that threatens to engulf us all should we allow it. A future that has already begun to creep backwards into the present (as the inmates of Guantanemo Bay, Abu Ghraib, the cells at Bagram Airbase or a dozen other places whose names we don't know can attest to), and which must be resisted at all costs. The alternative, as illustrated by Anderson, is too chilling to contemplate outside the pages of a novel.
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Category: 'Reviews'
Gregory Bateson bibliography and links
American: The Bill Hicks Story
Discovering a new band
Avatar 3D
War & The Noble Savage
April in London (David Byrne gig review)
Billy Bragg Live in Dublin
Suzuki & Kawabata Live in Dublin
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
I'm Not There
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In Rainbows
Two To Avoid. One To See.
Patti Smith – Live in Dublin, May 2007
Music musing
Standing outdoors. Then: don't see 300
The methadone metronome
Steps to an Ecology of Mind
A bit of skiffy
Talking Heads: Remain In Light
Down by Law
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Tag Archives: District 36
District 36, District 37, Eastern Shore, polls
Polls Support 7S Predictions
Red Maryland recently published the results of a poll of upcoming Republican primaries. The results are in line with my recent predictions for the primaries in two Eastern Shore districts. Incumbent Sen. Steve Hershey leads former Del. Richard Sossi in District 36. Del. Addie Eckhardt has a good chance to unseat incumbent Sen. Richard Colburn in neighboring District 37.
The key caveat–and why I am not making any ratings changes based on these polls–is that the number of respondents in each district is low. In the Hershey-Sossi race, there are just 87 respondents and in the Colburn-Eckardt race, there are only 58. Another problem is that figuring out who will vote in these low turnout events is not easy.
Indeed, based on this many respondents, the difference in support for Colburn and Eckardt is not statistically significant. Put another way, there is a more than 1 in 20 chance that the difference in support among actual voters is zero or that Colburn actually leads Eckardt.
On the other hand, the sample size and the differences in the levels of support for the two candidates are large enough in the Hershey-Sossi race to indicate that Sossi probably really does trail Hershey. The small number of respondents renders the actual size of Hershey's lead unclear–the range around the estimated level of support for either is huge. But one can say that Hershey is ahead by some amount greater than zero with reasonable certainty.
Addie EckardtDistrict 36District 37Eastern ShoreRepublican primariesRichard ColburnRichard SossiSteve Hershey
District 36, Eastern Shore
Top Ten Senate Primaries II: District 36
2010 Stephen Hershey Mail Piece
Part I in this series is here.
District 36 (R): This one is a complete grudge match between Sen. Stephen Hershey and former Del. Richard Sossi. Hershey beat Sossi, a two term delegate, by just 124 votes out of 10,774 cast in the 2010 Republican delegate primary.
Unique among all districts in the state, voters in District 36 may not cast a vote for more than one delegate from each of the four counties in the district. Hershey and Sossi are both from Queen Anne's, so their primary was a head-to-head contest between them among Republicans across the entire district.
If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Sen. Nancy King has reason to be pleased. Hershey copied her Sleepy Saqib mail pieces (see above). Despite having two terms under his belt and a large money advantage, Sossi lost thanks to what he describes as labelled "a smear campaign."
In the meantime, Hershey has continued to move up in the world. When E.J. Pipkin decided to leave not just the Senate but the State, many, including Hershey, Sossi, and Del. Michael Smigiel, applied for the vacancy.
Eastern Shore District 36
Vacancies are usually chosen by the county party central committees of the party that held the seat. Four Republican Central Committees–Cecil, Caroline, Kent and Queen Anne's–were involved in the decision. However, two voted to support Smigiel while two others supported Hershey, so Gov. O'Malley got to make the final choice between the two men.
O'Malley stated he picked Hershey due to his broader support in the last election but others speculate that Smigiel never had a shot due to his implacable opposition to O'Malley's gun legislation. Smigiel vowed to run for the seat but ended up filing for reelection.
Between leaving the House and filing for the Senate seat, Sossi served as Congressman Andy Harris' liaison to the same four counties that he represented as a delegate–not a bad job for someone seeking to return to office.
Hershey has the money advantage–$38K to $28K for Sossi–but Sossi can attempt to close the gap during the session. He'll also have more time to campaign with no day job. At the same time, it's hard to overlook that he's damaged goods after having lost and failing to gain the endorsement of any county central committee.
One potential boost to Sossi would be if Rep. Harris endorsed his former employee. But so far, Harris has not tipped his hand in the press and has made no donation to either candidate. Sossi would also gain if his former delegate colleagues agreed to slate with him. I have no information on that front (feel free to post on Seventh State's Facebook page).
Right now, it's hard to see why–having turned him out of office–the voters would turn back to Sossi over a candidate who is now stronger as an incumbent. Rating: Lean Hershey.
Andy HarrisDistrict 36Eastern ShoreMichael SmigielRichard SossiStephen Hershey


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Do RNs Have to Renew Their Licenses?
By: Dennis Hartman
CNA License Renewal Law in New Jersey
RNs, or registered nurses, are health care professionals who work directly with patients in a wide variety of health care situations and settings. Although RNs often work in hospitals, they may also work in private medical practices and clinics. Licensing ensures that every RN who treats a patient has the appropriate training and skills testing. RNs must renew their licenses at regular intervals.
Each state has its own regulations and policies for licensing registered nurses, either through a dedicated board of nursing or through the state's health department. States control nurse testing, licensure and nurse education programs. RNs are only allowed to practice nursing in states in which they hold valid nursing licenses. A nurse who moves may need to complete additional training or testing to receive a valid license in the new state.
The duration of an RN license's validity varies by state but is generally two years or more. A nurse who completes a nursing education program and passes all state testing receives an initial license, which requires renewal by a specified date. Later licenses are valid for a number of years after being issued. For example, in California, a new nurse receives a license that's valid until the month after the RN's second anniversary of receiving the license. Each subsequent renewal lasts two additional years from the date of issuance.
The process of applying for an RN license renewal involves supplying basic contact information and submitting a fee to the state's board of nursing or department of health. Certain states require RNs to complete continuing education between each renewal date. For example, in California, every RN must be able to show proof of at least 30 hours of continuing education since the last license renewal to be able to renew once again. This requirement ensures that RNs remain aware of changes and advances in health care.
Nurses who renew their licenses on time receive new licenses by mail and may continue to practice without interruption. Those who apply for renewal late may need to pay an additional late-renewal fee or, in certain cases, stop practicing until the renewed license arrives. In other cases, an RN may receive a valid renewed license but with an inactive status due to not yet completing enough continuing education. An inactive license becomes active and allows the holder to practice once the RN has completed all necessary training and education credits.
California Board of Registered Nursing: License/Certificate Renewal
Mississippi Board of Nursing: RN License Renewal
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Registered Nurses
How to Renew a DEA License
What Do You Need to Become a School Nurse in Ohio?
How to Renew Your CNA
What Does Three C Certified Mean for a Speech Pathologist?
The Requirements to Be a Nutritionist in Georgia
How to Become a Certified Caregiver in Arizona


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OSHA OUTREACH COURSES
How Environmental Engineering Saves the World
Tags Health & Safety October 10, 2021 381 Views
Environmental engineering is the discipline of engineering concerned with saving humans from the harmful impacts of the environment, such as pollution, and enhancing ecological integrity.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, environmental sciences seek to upgrade recycling, disposal of wastes, population health, and air and water pollution management. The world's population is growing steadily, and with increasing life expectancies, there are no signs of decline.
Garbage is a natural aftermath of human activity, adding the potential of humans generating additional garbage via leftover food, containers, and anything else that ends up in landfills.
While recycling initiatives are beneficial, they must catch up with the rising quantity of waste. Consequently, environmental science has become a more vital field of study.
Environmental engineering has existed since the birth of civilization. Whenever classes of individuals started living in moderate settlements, they had issues with providing safe drinking water and dealing with organic waste and sewage. People also had to think about air pollution and soil contamination. As a result, cities have grown, and large-scale farming and industries have developed.
The Environmental engineering projects are concerned with the issues of potable water purification and transmission. It also emphasizes storage, purification, management of wastewater, Air and noise pollution control; solid waste generated and hazardous-waste disposal; dangerous site cleaning; and environmental evaluations, inspections, and impact studies. Environmental science also includes:
Applied research and education.
Project development and scheduling.
Facility design, building, and operation.
The selling and marketing of environmental-control technology.
Environmental Engineering Issues
Global climate change consequences have compelled us to take immediate measures.
By 2030, climatic change is expected to kill more often than 250,00 people each year, given that we remain on our current environmentally damaging course. Taking actions to prevent environmental harm across a range of industries will not be accomplished in a vacuum; it will involve global collaboration and, frequently, the development of localized solutions that work irrespective of massive infrastructure.
Environmental engineers' knowledge, abilities, and insights will be vital in developing the technology necessary to ensure that this planet can sustain life for future generations.
California is an excellent example of a state that has made significant attempts to decrease water wastage and laws like the Clean Air Act, which resulted in a 70 percent reduction in certain concerns like acid rain. Again, this results from environmental engineering and engineers who have dedicated their lives to helping the environment.
What Does Environmental Engineers Do?
Environmental engineers provide us with excellent recommendations! For example, consider the construction of a building. We must dig the earth, clear the trees, and lay the cement. Environmental science informs us of the potential ecological impact of this type of project.
Environmental engineers create! They create technologies that assist us in quantifying things that are detrimental to the environment, such as automobile emissions. Environmental engineers occasionally collaborate with large corporations to help them overcome their air pollution levels.
Environmental engineers find solutions! They develop more efficient methods of recycling paper, plastics, and glass. Additionally, an Environmental Engineer could assist in developing strategies for treating water contaminated by germs and chemicals potentially damaging our health and the environment.
The Findings of Environmental Science:
1.Hybrid Automobiles
We're talking about hybrid-electric vehicles, which combine gasoline engines and electric motors to achieve higher fuel efficiency than conventional cars. The Toyota Prius was the first commercially accessible hybrid vehicle in Japan in 1997.
While they require gasoline to operate, the electric motor increases fuel usage by letting the engine close down while idle via automatic start/stop. Additionally, it delivers additional power during acceleration or ascent via electric motor drive/assist, allowing for the placement of a smaller, more economical gas engine. Certain hybrid vehicles employ regenerative braking. Among the more costly hybrids can also run purely on electricity for a few kilometers, while others close down if they run out of gas. Depending on the model and type, hybrid-electric vehicles can achieve significantly better fuel efficiency than conventional vehicles of comparable size.
2. Germicidal Ultraviolet Irradiation
UV germicidal irradiation (UVGI) kills hazardous microbes like bacteria or viruses in fluids, the atmosphere, and on surfaces. Sunlight inherently accomplishes this to a degree. UV light is known to cause damage to our eyes and skin; also, it kills or inactivates certain germs. UVGI systems accomplish this through the controlled emission of shortwave ultraviolet-B and ultraviolet-C radiation at specific wavelengths, most notably between 200 and 320 nanometers – frequently via a low-pressure mercury lamp. UV radiation destroys the cells or DNA of the microorganisms, causing them to die or become incapable of replication. UV light with a wavelength of 320 to 400 nanometers is ineffective against bacteria.
With the help of environmental engineering, UVGI has been integrated into ventilation ducts, heating, cooling, and air disinfection systems. Additionally, it has been used on whole rooms, ideally while they are vacant or while everyone is wearing protective gear. In conjunction with vertical airflow mechanisms, some systems generate UV light in relatively close areas to cleanse the air over people's heads. UVGI can be used with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters or other filtration methods to remove impurities that UV cannot kill.
3) Energy Production from Kites at a High Altitude
When so many of us consider utilizing the wind's energy to generate electricity, we likely believe in windmills. However, Makani Power, an initiative from the San Francisco area that started in 2006, has been developing kite-type wind turbines hooked to tethers to create wind electricity altitudes, where winds are stronger and more consistent than at the ground surface. Makani, interestingly, is Hawaiian for wind.
The ropes, which can extend up to 609.6 meters (2,000 feet) over the ground, serve as a suspension mechanism and a means of returning energy to the base. The kites are about 100 feet long and are composed of carbon fiber. Instead of hovering, they fly in circles. Additionally, they are lightweight enough to remain aloft in winds less than 15 miles an hour (MPH). According to reports, the turbines can produce twice as much energy, and if not more, at least at a cost that is half that of existing road-level wind turbines. Prices are comparable to burning coal and take up less land than other forms of energy generation.
The kites, which will not be commercially available for several years, are more prone to be employed along coastlines or in the seas tied to buoys. Makani Power has accepted payments from Google and the Research and Technology Initiatives Activity for the Department of Energy (ARPA-E), as well as the company, which is expected to be purchased by Google X. This laboratory is working on projects such as self-driving automobiles and Google Glass.
Environmental Engineering conclusion
Environmental engineers are in high demand, so governmental efforts to increase student enrollment in STEM programs and minimize attrition are critical. According to research by the United States Department of Education, up to 48% of students who began a STEM program between 2003 and 2009 still needed to complete the degree. Environmental engineering has never been more critical than it is now.
However, given the regrettable reduction in STEM graduates, the industries desperately need a boost. With continued technological innovation and an already exceeding population, the world's health and environmental problems will only get worse in the upcoming time. However, those environmental engineers who labor persistently to find other toxins and to safeguard the earth and its people from such discomforts are the ones who can truly make a difference.
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Frances Fox Piven, Icon Of The Left
May 13, 2019 / Francis Menton
In the New York Times, they have a section that goes by the name "New York" on weekdays and "Metropolitan" on Sundays. This section contains next to no useful information about what is going on in New York and/or the surrounding area. Even local news staples like murders and fires rarely get covered. And if you want to learn about the latest corruption in City government, or important new laws coming out of the state legislature, you mostly have to look elsewhere.
But they have to fill the space with something. A fair characterization of the large part of it would be "support for our team." To illustrate, yesterday's "Metropolitan" section was totally dominated by a single article that contained nothing about relevant local news. Instead, it was, to put it mildly, a fawning profile of a woman named Frances Fox Piven. The headline was "This 86-Year-Old Radical May Save (or Sink) the Democrats."
Have you heard of Frances Fox Piven? She first came to my attention way back in the 1960s, when she had become one of the early enlistees in the "War on Poverty," and went around leading loud welfare "rights" demonstrations. She's been doing variations of the same ever since. But I can't say that I have closely followed her career. This Times profile fills in many details, and in the process makes clear that Ms. Piven is a true archetype of the species sometimes known as the Upper West Side progressive radical. I thought that readers here might like an introduction.
Here is how the Times chooses to introduce its piece:
On a recent afternoon, a crowd had gathered in the auditorium of the People's Forum, a new event space in Midtown Manhattan. There was a picture of Lenin tacked on the wall, a shelf of books about Che Guevara and a cafe serving avocado toast. The young true believers and rickety old militants in attendance were learning history and strategy from Frances Fox Piven, a distinguished professor of political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
So the old Commie earns her living as a "distinguished professor" at CUNY. In other words, she is paid by the taxpayers to inculcate Communism into the young generation. What is the level of pay? A site called "The Glass Door" puts the "base pay" for such CUNY professors at $210,000 to $226,000. That would put Ms. Piven somewhere around the top 2 to 3% of the income distribution. But how about the perks? Reading further in the Times piece, we learn that Ms. Piven lives in a "spacious apartment" near Columbia University in Manhattan. There is no such thing as a "spacious apartment" in that neighborhood that you can get on the open market for less than about $2 million to buy, or about $6000-7000 per month to rent. It would be a very safe bet that Ms. Piven has not paid that. Rather, the likelihood is that she either (a) has a long time rent-regulated apartment at far below market rent, or (b) has the rent paid by CUNY as part of her perks of the job (quite a common phenomenon for senior college professors in Manhattan). I don't know which of these it is, but either way, Ms. Piven is getting multiple tens of thousands of dollars of additional, non-taxed income. In other words, her real income is around $300,000, which would be top 2%.
And then there is the proposition that I have asserted many times, which is that there is no one more angry and jealous of the top 1% than those in percent number 2, most particularly those of the second percentile who are college professors. Members of the professoriate view themselves as far smarter and more sophisticated than the grubby capitalists and businesspeople who are making the really big bucks, and can't believe that the world is so unfair as to leave them in second class status to the dopes. So they are filled, even consumed, with anger. Does Ms. Piven fit that description? And how!:
"Since the 1970s, everything has gotten worse and worse," said Ms. Piven. . . . There were very clear reasons for this. "Poor people," she said, had been "humiliated" and "shut up." Those in power now are "crazy." "But they're also evil," she continued. "And they will be evil because they are greedy." Only one thing would stop them, she said. "We have to be noisy, and difficult and ungovernable."
So "those in power" are "crazy," "evil," and "greedy." But wait, Ms. Piven, aren't you one of "those in power"? Further on in the article, a "left-wing journalist and author" named Sarah Jaffe describes Ms. Piven as "obviously one of the most influential people I can think of." She started her career in the early 1960s with Mobilization for Youth, "the New York antipoverty program that became a model for President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty." In later years her academic career "flourished."
She received awards and held prestigious posts: honorary chairwoman of the Democratic Socialists of America; vice president of American Political Science Association; president of the American Sociological Association.
So who bears responsibility for the poor having been "humiliated" and "shut up" over the past 50 years? Perhaps the "most influential" people who designed and then implemented the annual $1.2 trillion of anti-poverty programs that then trap the supposed beneficiaries in poverty, even while these "influentials" receive salaries that put them in the top 2% of income earners? Believe me, this idea has never occurred to Ms. Piven.
You would think that there would be some basis to feel some liking, or at least sympathy, for someone like this who clearly wants, at least in her own mind, to improve the world, and to improve the lot of the poor. But I can't get past the anger and the hatred of perceived enemies. And if I could get past that, I would expect someone who genuinely wanted to improve the world to have some sense of her own fallibility, some humility, some willingness to look at the results of programs (like "anti-poverty" programs) that have been implemented, let alone at the track record of socialism and communism, and attempt to learn something. No, you will not get that from Ms. Piven, or from any of the others of her species. They are true believers. No amount of failure of their prescriptions will ever budge them.
May 13, 2019 / Francis Menton/ 16 Comments
Progressivism in Action, Socialist Death Spirals
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Exclusive Clip: Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung in 'It's Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong'
by Henrick Vartanian June 11, 2015, 7:28 am 1.8k Views
Just released, an exclusive LA Film Festival clip for It's Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, featuring Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung.
In writer, director Emily Ting's refreshing take on the walk-and-talk romance, Ruby (Jamie Chung), a Chinese American toy designer from LA, visits Hong Kong for the first time on business. Finding herself stranded, she meets Josh (Bryan Greenberg), an American expat who shows her the city.
The trailer for , It's Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong displays a colorful scenery with Hong Kong as its backdrop, if not a character. Very aware but slowly immersed with eachother's energy rather than the big city, the two fall into a carefree conversation, with the presence of that boy-meets-girl tension, and ultimately attraction.
Real life couple, Chung and Greenberg, are also executive producers on the independent film, along with Ting. Sophia Shek and Ting are its producers.
Ting's charming directorial debut takes full advantage of the chemistry of its leads, the playfulness of their exchanges, and the magical landscape that is Hong Kong at night. We'll predict this one as a great contender for a "first date" movie.
Take a look at this exclusive clip and the poster for the film, and if you happen to be in Los Angeles, you can catch the film's premiere at LA Film Festival, on June 12th.
The lead actors walk through a lively Hong Kong street talking about the toys Ruby (Chung's character) designs, and the creative names of the stuffed animals add to the charm and humor of this engaging clip. We look forward to seeing the film.
Bryan GreenbergEmily TongHong KongIt's Already Tomorrow in Hong KongJamie ChungLA Film Fest 2015romance
Jamie Chung, Bryan Greenberg in Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong: Romance Enhanced
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Posts Tagged Nigel Farage
Brexit & US politics
Vultures in Brexitland
As everyone knows, Donald Trump lies as he breathes. He lies about big things and small things, and he lies about absurd and ridiculous things. But despite his almost psychopathic dishonesty, Trump is also a stupid man, and so there are times when he doesn't lie about the things that you would expect more intelligent...
Brexit & UK politics
Nigel's March for Freedom
As an instrument of protest and civil disobedience, the protest march has a long and illustrious historical pedigree. Think of Gandhi's 24-day 'Salt March' in 1930. Or the 1936 Jarrow march. Or the 1963 Long March for Jobs and Freedom in the US, where Martin Luther King delivered his ' I have a dream speech'...
Antiracism & Migration
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Europe & UK politics & Uncategorized
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Antiracism & UK politics
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