I’m not crazy about the poster tag-line, a ‘true legend’, while many true things with time become the stuff of legend, and many legends are stories that have outlived and outlasted the crumbling and burying into dust of all things, even concrete evidence, the putting together of those two words… ‘true legend’ , if not exactly an oxymoron, is just slightly inept marketing. You want to put those two together, try this… ‘in a time of imposed truths, he became in his own lifetime… a galvanizing legend’ .
Took me two seconds to come up with that, and I think it shows more thought than what their marketing department did. Call me guys if you need to fire them and get a better marketing presence, we’ll talk. 🙂 .
But that aside, a very good poster and a GREAT Trailer! If the movie lives up to it, it will be a blast.
As someone who just picked up the 2 season set of UNDERGROUND (almost sold out, so you may want to pick it up while you can, use the attached link) and who is a huge fan of the best in Pan African cinema such as SANKOFA, DARESALAM, HYENAS, GENESIS, I AM CUBA, CAMP DE THIAROYE (also available courtesy of the attached links) this film definitely goes on my must check out list. Probably along with the WITCH:SUBVERSION one of the best trailers for the Month of February.
SANKOFA – arguably one of the finest, and both savage and beautiful films made, of a true Holocaust. Haile Gerima’s masterpiece. and the fact that this film is out of print, and does not have a Criterion or similar high-scale Blu-ray or DVD release, is only proof that we have a long way yet to go. Get a copy, you will thank me later.
DARESALAM – This is simply put, cinema at its finest. Get your copy, while you can.
I AM CUBA – For years this film was not available in the west, and then when I finally saw it, I think at a film festival, yeas ago, the camera work, in a time way before CGI, blew my mind. As a fan of David Lean, and Hitchcock and Welles and Fritz Lang, geniuses with the camera, this film was like a generational evolution. In an age before Steadicam adoption, the shots were absolutely mind blowing. When it finally was released on a quality DVD boxset, I rushed out and picked it up, and I told all of you to pick it up. For those new to this blog, back in the day, those who listened to me picked it up for $40. It is decidedly more than that, but still worth picking up, if you have the funds. A Masterpiece.
*************************
Quick rant, feel free to bypass this. 🙂
Here’s a tip you should know. Quality non-hollywood films about and by people of color, especially politically provocative films, have a tendency of not staying in print. And either dry up entirely on the secondary market, or explode in price before disappearing into private collections rarely to see the light of day.
I am never in a rush to pick up KNIVES OUT or 1917 or AVENGERS ENDGAME, because that is going to be there for decades to come. But when I hear about a THE GREAT WAR or EMPEROR or a DARESALAM or a BROTHER JOHN on dvd or Blu-ray, I can not race fast enough to purchase these movies. Haile Gerima, who I had the pleasure to interview back in the day, understood the importance of retaining positive images, and words, and movies, and music. That is culture.
And when the ability to view or hear or see these sounds and images, is at the mercy and whims of multinationals… culture itself is held hostage. And the people who depend on the reflective power of culture, to help define the width and the breadth of their aspirations, are likewise diminished.
And particularly today when so many are weaned on streaming, physical media is ironically both scarcer and yet more important and arguably esteemed and sought after, than ever before.
Because those in the know, understand streaming giveth and streaming taketh away, based on the uninformed whims of the lynchmob. You want your favorite film, available to watch when you want, and in the cut of the film you remember, there is no replacement for physical media. There just is not.
Here endeth the soap-box interlude. 🙂
You can take it, or you can leave it alone. 🙂
Either way, be well.
“We didn’t know he was guilty.
We strung him up, to satisfy the mood.”
“There’s the hunger for the niche.
I wanted to be somebody.
So I decided who the victim should be.
I pointed to an old man.
I led the mob.
I wanted to be somebody.”
— Playhouse 90 A TOWN HAS TURNED TO DUST
Those quotes from 1958, written by one of our great writers to highlight a mindset of ignorance and prejudice and lynchings, are oddly and shamefully relevant. Being that here 60 years later the current occupant of the white house stole into the office, on such rhetoric of hate and stupidity and intolerance.
Invaded the most powerful office in the world, swept in on the unreasoning bellows of the mob.
I love Amazon Prime for making available these forgotten and overlooked pieces of cultural and cinematic history.
Today I watched from the early days of television, PLAYHOUSE 90s A TOWN THAT TURNED TO DUST.
Directed masterfully by John Frankenheimer, written by Rod Serling, starring a stellar cast including Rod Steiger, William Shatner, Fay Spain, Eugene Iglesias, Mario Alcade and James Gregory.
From 1958, when Jim Crow and Lynchings still infested large swaths of America, this live production is unfortunately again relevant in 2019, will always be relevant as long as there are masses who want to blame their lives on others rather than taking responsibility for their lives. And ready, these masses, to be led by the loudest voice of hate, rather than the more thoughtful voices of reason.
Watch it now courtesy of Amazon Prime (search for it under the title AN EVENING IN THE ZONE). This is a film that deserves to be owned on DVD/Blu-Ray. Deserves to always be readily available, and not at the mercy of ephemeral streaming contracts and whims.
I would like to think if Americans were raised on films like 1936’s FURY by Fritz Lang and 1943’s THE OX BOW INCIDENT by William Wellman and this one by John Ftrankenheimer, if these films were required viewing, we would stop repeating the same mistakes and committing the same attrocities and empowering the same hate mongers. To the point where the occupancy of the White House would be different.
There is nothing sadder than history and mistakes not learned from.
1st Kudos to Hulu for, in an age where Streaming Services like Netflix are going price-hike crazy, actually offering a price reduction. Applause to HULU! This and Amazon Prime in my opinion are the best two Streaming services, in terms of both content, value, and ease of use/quality of the surfing experience.
Netflix lags FAR behind both channels, in my admittedly biassed opinion.
Okay onto the stuff you need to catch this month on Hulu (both old and new content):
The first season of LEGION was nothing short of game changing television. Writer/Producer Noah Hawtey with this and the 2nd season of FARGO proving himself one of the best writer/producers of this new Golden Age of Television. [To that list of best writer/producers of this new Golden Age, I would add creator Drew Goddard for DAREDEVIL Season 1 (Was not a fan of Seasons 2 and 3), and Cheo Hodari Coker’s brilliant and criminally underrated LUKE CAGE Season 1 and 2. While DAREDEVIL Season 1 is the better Action Show, LUKE CAGE is the better show, both writing and importance, for reasons way beyond, one person hitting another.]
I am looking forward to Noah Hawley’s feature film directorial debut LUCY IN THE SKY (slated for this year), but until then I will be enjoying the 2nd season of LEGION on Hulu.
INTO THE DARK? A hulu curated series of feature length Horror Movies?? Count me in!!!!!
THE TITAN GAMES is definitely inspired by AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR, and while not as compelling as that show, this is still a very good mid season fill-in for AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR.
I had my doubts about ATLANTA, but the first season made me a believer. A modern day renaissance man, Donald Glover is a creator to watch. And season 2 is now on HULU. This show and WAYWARD PINES are two shows that get painted with the TWIN PEAKS brush, as a measure of their strangeness; but both shows are far better than TWIN PEAKS ever was.
The first episode of UNDERGROUND Blew me away! Fantastic use of anachronistic music, and camera movements to tell this tragic and triumphant tale of horror and holocaust. It is of course not easy viewing, but is rewarding and essential viewing. I did not like and do not rewatch the film ROOTS, but the film SANKOFA which covers the same story of the slave trade but does it with such heartbreaking beauty and incredible visuals, it becomes an undeniable work of art, rather than simply a dry recounting of facts, or a pity party. That is what UNDERGROUND also brings to this shameful part of American history. The struggle of those who fought against the accepted horror of their time.
In that way, how much more heroic are they… than we. I look forward to completing season 1 and 2 this month on HULU!
RICK AND MORTY- much to my surprise is animation genius. LOVE IT. Right up there with the VENTURE BROS. Looking forward to season 4 showing up on HULU.
Called both the best and worst movie of 2018, depending on which reviewer you listen to, I’m really looking forward to watching SORRY TO BOTHER YOU sometime this month. And based on the track record of certain critics, I think this one is going to end up in my loved it pile.
I LOVE this series, POWER, and am way behind on it. So HULU this month will give me the chance to finish season3 and watch season 4.
I loved the first season of the ORVILLE. Season two started off great, but the second episode written by Wellesley Wild and directed by Kevin Hook, wow, that was a stinker.
It is some of the worst television I’ve seen since the 4th season of HELL ON WHEELS. Meaning really god awful, editor-less and rambling and self indulgent, please-fine-me-the-remote-fast-forward television. :). The odd thing is with just a less heavy handed delivery, no need for multiple hit us over the head holo-deck scenes, it could have been a good episode. the message was sound, the delivery unfortunately over indulged.
I will be very pleased not to see the name Wellesley Wild or Kevin Hook on any upcoming Orville episodes. 🙂 . Because other than that misstep, it has been a great and balanced show, not over doing the comedy and letting the drama shine thru when called for. And the visuals/ set and ship design and CGI, are just stellar.
It is the best STAR TREK on TV since the turn of the century. Wow. Let that sink in. 🙂
The premise of this show, addressing wrongful convictions, is I think very timely, and intriguing. Particularly in a witch-hunt/social media lynching America where people are found guilty and punished BEFORE trial, much less a verdict. In such an America where corporations the jury and the judges, rubber stamp social media verdicts, and special interests weaponize social media… a show about wrongful convictions… I’ll take a look.
Now the above are some of the top shows on or coming to HULU in February 2019, and reasons to give HULU a look this month.
So those of you who came just for the February 2019 STREAMING TV guide can leave now.
For those of you who want one of my inconveniently timed and inappropriately placed rants, 🙂 keep reading.
That last mention above, regarding the show PROVEN INNOCENT, made me ponder upon that subject.
One of the most idiotic postings I read recently, was this commenter piling on some guy accused of harassing a woman.
This guy was calling for the usual things the mob calls for, the accused to get fired, the accused to get stoned, etc. To which was pointed out that he knows neither the ‘claimed’ victim nor ‘claimed’ accuser, that before taking sides and handing down his verdict, maybe this should go thru due process. Due process defined as If criminal… a court of law, if civil or corporate, a board of inquiry or a federal HR complaint.
When pointed out that there is a process for proving an actual crime or wrong doing, that perhaps has nothing to do with stirring up lynch-mob justice on Facebook or Twitter, and attacking someone who should be innocent till PROVEN guilty…. this guy’s response was….
“I TRUST WOMEN!!!!”
That was it.
Some woman he does not know, claims some horrendous deed was done to her, last week, 5 years ago, 20 years ago, and this guy takes it as gospel and attacks wherever she points.
You know where that also happened.
Salem Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693.
As well as the United States from the age of reconstruction through the 1960s, where many a body swayed from many a tree.
“ME TOO’, may be a great movement for healing wounds, and improving conditions.
However, it has no place deciding guilt or innocence.
Only facts should do that, not the baggage of the mob.
Here endeth the aside. 🙂
Ishmael Reed, who was honored with the MacArthur “genius” award, is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time nominee for the National Book Award. Mumbo Jumbo, a literary masterpiece, is an ironic and unconventional detectivestory infused with African-American cultural heritage. A strange psychic epidemic called “Jes Grew” is spreading through the country, affecting millions. PaPa LaBas, a HooDoo detective, is trying to find the origins of the JesGrew – not because he wants to cure it, but because he’s ready for a new kind of society.
Version:
| Unabridged | |
| Author: | Ishmael Reed |
| Narrator: | J. D. Jackson |
| Genres: | Fiction & Literature |
| Publisher: | Recorded Books |
| Published In: | July 2005 |
| # of Units: | 8 CDs |
|---|---|
| Length: | 8 hours, 30 minutes |
Get your copy here:
Netflix and streaming options such as Amazon Prime and Hulu has effectively changed how the world consumes and watches tv.
Tonight I discovered History Channel’s BARBARIANS RISING, which tells the tale of one of the greatest warriors in the history of the world, Hannibal Barca, and his insane dream, obsession, vision, to conquer the unconquerable Rome.
I have my issues with the HISTORY CHANNEL, I think their VIKINGS TV show, that paints a friendly, proto-feminist, misunderstood anti-hero view of the Vikings, is irresponsible and misguided film-making at its worst.
I don’t expect a documentary, and even in a documentary, much of what we know, must be colored, romanticized, dramatized. The truth of over 2000 years ago like the truth of yesterday, will never be exactly seen by any two people, exactly the same.
But that said while the telling is fluid, blatantly changing the morality of what is known is not. That is simple mendacity.
It’s white-washing of history, that is beyond romanticism to bald-face lying. Like making the ancient Egyptians white. :).
Here’s the thing the Vikings, in their approach to nonvikings, were proto-Nazis, Nazis in their purest form. They were what Nazis dreamed of being. They believed in rape, and pillage, and death, and wholesale slaughter of their enemies. They were in battle, drug addled butchers and thieves and rapists, who put to the sword any land they could reach. War and Pillaging, was not an end, it was a practice, it was a purpose, it was a past time, it was the reason to wake up and the reason to go to bed. As it was for many of the ancient people. Blood, unfortunately, is under most of our ancestors nails.
They did monstrous things, but they also did admirable things. But art, to be honest, must not dismiss the one, to elevate the other. And that’s what the show VIKINGS does, it glorifies that which has no glory in it, and ignores that, which should not be ignored. And to do this is analagous to havaing a show called Nazis, and to portray them as heroic, with no look into the programs of genocide, and the Nazi Work and Death camps.
I’m not saying don’t have a show about Vikings, but tell the truth, don’t make saints out of sinners, and if you find your characters are too reprehensible when you do that, then maybe that’s telling you something.
This is one I have to own the Blu-Ray of! It’s not a show you want to have disappear off of streaming.
Get your copy here:
Gold is for the mistress — silver for the maid —
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.”
“Good!” said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
“But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all.”
Rudyard Kipling’s COLD IRON as wonderfully quoted on an episode of FORGED IN FIRE
Just an informative show that gives you a respect for this process of making things from idea to final product.
You can currently on the HISTORY Roku Channel see 5 episodes of the 1st season for free, and nine episodes of the 2nd season for free.
And when moved to buy all the episodes, you can get them at the link below:
And here is the full poem:
Rudyard Kipling
Cold Iron
Gold is for the mistress — silver for the maid —
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.”
“Good!” said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
“But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all.”
So he made rebellion ‘gainst the King his liege,
Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege.
“Nay!” said the cannoneer on the castle wall,
“But Iron — Cold Iron — shall be master of you all!”
Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong,
When the cruel cannon-balls laid ’em all along;
He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall,
And Iron — Cold Iron — was master of it all!
Yet his King spake kindly (ah, how kind a Lord!)
“What if I release thee now and give thee back thy sword?”
“Nay!” said the Baron, “mock not at my fall,
For Iron — Cold Iron — is master of men all.”
“Tears are for the craven, prayers are for the clown —
Halters for the silly neck that cannot keep a crown.”
“As my loss is grievous, so my hope is small,
For Iron — Cold Iron — must be master of men all!”
Yet his King made answer (few such Kings there be!)
“Here is Bread and here is Wine — sit and sup with me.
Eat and drink in Mary’s Name, the whiles I do recall
How Iron — Cold Iron — can be master of men all!”
He took the Wine and blessed it. He blessed and brake the Bread.
With His own Hands He served Them, and presently He said:
“See! These Hands they pierced with nails, outside My city wall,
Show Iron — Cold Iron — to be master of men all.”
“Wounds are for the desperate, blows are for the strong.
Balm and oil for weary hearts all cut and bruised with wrong.
I forgive thy treason — I redeem thy fall —
For Iron — Cold Iron — must be master of men all!”
“Crowns are for the valiant — sceptres for the bold!
Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold!”
“Nay!” said the Baron, kneeling in his hall,
“But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of men all!
Iron out of Calvary is master of men all!”
The show is called ALONE, and its simple premise is ‘which person, in a competition style adventure, could spend the most time living off an unforgiving environment… alone’.
It’s less the contrived histrionics of SURVIVOR and more the austere, informative grace of SURVIVOR MAN.
A new episode went up every Thursday on History’s Streaming Channel, and today the entire season of the show is available for a limited time.
Strongly Recommended!
“The Hall of History – Bermuda’s own “Sistine Chapel”
‘The Hall of History’ is a larger than life mural by Bermudian artist, Graham Foster, to be found in The Commissioner”s House at the National Museum of Bermuda in Dockyard.
The two story, 1000 square foot interior mural depicts five centuries of Bermudian history, and took approximately 7,000 hours -over three years – to complete.”
—-BSOA.BM
Hall of History Bermuda’s Story in Art
“Hall of History Mural Bermuda
If you love wall murals, this is the one you mustn’t miss in Bermuda. Hall of History is a 1000 square feet larger than life mural created by the Bermudian artist Graham Foster. You will find it in the Commissioner’s House located at the National Museum of Bermuda in Royal Naval Dockyard.
Graham started the work in 2005 and it took him 7,000 hours of research and painting to complete this mural over more than 3 years time. On November 2009, it was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen. At the time of opening, Graham had presented a painting “The Wreck of the Sea Venture” to the Queen. The mural depicts over 400 years of life in Bermuda and you will be able to see virtually everything that made a mark in the island over the past centuries.
Graham Foster’s Mural “Hall of History” is now captured in a 14″ x 14″ Coffee table book. It depicts the deep history and heritage of his murals with many high quality pictures of the mural. The text of the book has been written by Rosemary Jones. In case you are not able to spend enough time at the Commissioners House to absorb all the details of the mural personally, this hefty book can be a great possession to explore those details. It’s currently retailing for $65 and is available at the bookstores island wide.”
—http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda_0002c4.htm
“Graham Foster is a Bermudian artist best known for his larger-than-life mural, ‘The Hall of History’ at the Bermuda Maritime Museum in Dockyard. The two storey, 1000 square foot interior mural depicts five centuries of Bermudian history, and took approximately 7000 hours [over three years] to complete.
Born in 1970, he is the son of physician Elizabeth Foster and Alec Foster. A professional artist since 1995, Mr. Foster was educated at The Bermuda College and The Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston.
His paintings tend to follow one of two directions – one inspired by Bermuda’s fish,flora,fauna, and people, captured in a characteristically surreal style,the other is looser and more expressionistic,often inspired by dreams and the subconscious.
He is a sculptor [primarily in welded steel] as well as a painter. In 2002, he became the first Bermudian artist to have a work purchased for the permanent collection of The Bermuda National Gallery, a welded steel triptych entitled ’21st Century Fetish Family’. Many of his sculptures are strongly influenced by Tribal Art.”
—http://bernews.com/bermuda-profiles/graham-foster/
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