Zhang Yimou channels the Coen Brothers with A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop.
Charles Mudede
Posted inMovies & TV
China Is for Insects; America Is for Winners!
Mao’s Last Dancer‘s Tired Old Mythology
Mao’s Last Dancer‘s tired old mythology.
Posted inMovies & TV
Remedial Realism
Princess Kaiulani: Not Bad! Not Great, Either.
Princess Kaiulani: Not bad! Not great, either.
Posted inMovies & TV
More than Okay, Less than Cosmic
What Is Right with Black Dynamite Also Happens to be What Is Wrong with It
What is right with Black Dynamite also happens to be what is wrong with it.
Posted inMusic
It’s Tricky
The Four Innovations of a Triphop Genius
The four innovations of triphop genius Tricky.
Posted inBooks
A Worldly Country: New Poems
by John Ashbery
My decision to read John Ashbery’s A Worldly Country: New Poems was made from this reasoning: Like the subject of Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice, Ashbery is an “eminent man of letters.” He is part of the long and noble tradition of American poetry. His early poetry was recognized by W.H. Auden, and the […]
Posted inMusic
All of Hiphop
The Spirit of Atmosphere
Until very recently, white rappers were connected with and introduced to the public by black rappers. Beastie Boys were inaugurated by Run-D.M.C.; Young Black Teenagers (who were actually all white) were created and forwarded by Public Enemy’s production team, the Bomb Squad; MC Snow was promoted by Marley Marl’s MC Shan; and Everlast was on […]
Posted inMusic
Global Gangstarr
Guru’s Worldly Domain
Guru Sat July 23 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd Ave The legendary hiphop duo Gangstarr is DJ Premier and Guru. In the ’90s, the musical genius of DJ Premier was second only to RZA; and the smoothness of Guru’s raps were second only to MC Solaar, who raps in French and so had a clear […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Just Plain Dumb
The Honeymooners vs. Progressive Urbanism
The Honeymooners dir. Schultz Opens Fri June 10 Various Theaters This movie is just plain dumb. Starring Cedric the Entertainer (who should now be called Cedric the Bore, or Cedric the Absolute Bore) as Ralph Kramden and Mike Epps as Ralph’s buddy Ed Norton, the black version of TV’s The Honeymooners has a plot that’s […]
Posted inMusic
Wonder Twins
Zion I Give Hiphop Hope
Zion I Fri, May 13 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside Usually, those who do something for hiphop make very little money, and those who hiphop does something for make tons. It wasn’t always like this. In the past, giving and taking were one and the same thing. These days, a group like Bay Area […]
Posted inMusic
Drummer Gets Really Wicked
DJ Spooky’s Wheels of Metal
DJ Spooky’s Drums of Death Saturday, May 7 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd The last time New York-based producer/DJ/culture theorist DJ Spooky was in the Northwest (a year ago), he performed a piece with the Seattle Chamber Players, Rebirth Suite, that blended hiphop beats with classical harmonies. This week, DJ Spooky returns to our city […]
Posted inMusic
Future Shock
The Source of Andrea Parker’s Sci-Fi
Andrea Parker Friday, May 6 Holocene 1001 SE Morrison In 1999, the Nonesuch label selected a number of prominent electronica DJs and producers (Nobukazu Takemura, Coldcut, DJ Spooky, and so on) to conduct a big experiment, remixing 10 known and unknown pieces by the American composer Steve Reich. The result of the experiment, Reich Remixed, […]