Movie Reviews-Hangin' With The Homeboys, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Hanging With the Homeboys
directed by Joseph B. Vasquez.

Joseph B. Vasquez was a Latino/Black filmmaker from The Bronx.
This 1991 film travels similar ground as Diner, Swingers, American Graffiti and maybe even Cooley High.  It didn't make as big of a cultural (or financial??) splash as any of those movies did but it did feature some actors who would later become relatively well known and in Leguizamo's case arguably a star. It details the adventures of four black and brown New York men in their late teens/early twenties, who on a Friday night like any other go hangout together as they normally do. They're just looking to have some fun, enjoy each other's company and perhaps meet some interesting people of the opposite gender. However this night is for some reason different. Change is upon the young men though not all of them realize it. Just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong on this night.
All four men are either versions of Vasquez at some point in his life, interpretations of Vasquez as other people saw him or based in part on Vasquez's close friends. It's amazing rewatching this movie to realize how young these actors were at the time and how old I am now. Time flies. It's also a shame that Vasquez died of AIDS from drug addiction a few years after this film was released. Black and Hispanic American film would have been much richer had he survived. His death was also bitterly ironic as both of his parents were drug addicts who met in recovery programs.

In some aspects this film has a very theater like or stage feel as the four men get close to 90% of the film lines and the camera stays very tight on them throughout the movie. They are quite well developed characters. All four of them are different people but with enough complementary similarities to hang out together at least once a week. But their friendships undergo some strains and by the end of the movie at least two of the men are entering new stages of life.
The men are:

So what are we doing tonight?

Johnny (John Leguizamo): He is a quiet virginal kid who tends to put women on a pedestal. Johnny is underemployed at a supermarket. He works hard but it's obvious he's wasting time and ought to be doing better things. A kind co-worker notices this and tries to get Johnny interested in applying for a college scholarship. Time is running out on this scholarship. Johnny lacks confidence in himself-something that is obvious to just about anyone who talks to him for longer than five minutes. He has a lot to say if he gets the chance but his shyness and social ineptness can prevent him from acting on opportunity, with women and with life. Johnny is quite proud of his ethnic background and does not take kindly to any jokes or snide comments about Latinos, even those delivered by his buddies in seeming jest. Johnny is pretty intelligent despite his lack of romantic success or street smarts. Johnny will need to get over his sensitivity about things one way or another. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong even though he's confused about his place in the world.

Willie tries to run game

Willie (Doug E. Doug): Willie is unemployed and collecting welfare. He is convinced that the world is out to get him because he's black. He's also extremely holier than thou and probably blacker than thou as well. He's politically aware, or so he says. Much like Johnny, he tends to sabotage himself at every opportunity. He can work himself into a righteous rage about racism, capitalism and every other -ism but these speeches normally end up with him asking his friends for money. Put me down (hook me up) is his constant refrain to his friends. Unlike Johnny, Willie finds work beneath him. He's in a bit of a crisis because his friends, and more importantly from Willie's POV, the welfare agency, are all losing patience with Willie's excuses. Willie has a fear of failing which translates into a fear of trying.  However Willie feels justified in his paranoid attitude towards life as the four buddies do indeed run into some real bigotry during the night, including but not limited to racially hostile transit cops and Italian-American Manhattan nightclub bouncers who take one look at their skin tones and imperiously demand three (!) pieces of id before allowing them entry. Needless to say even though Johnny actually has three pieces of id neither he nor his buddies are permitted into the club. For all of his other faults, Willie is a good friend to Johnny and actually has some useful advice about women. 

Heyyyy, it's Vinny!!!

Fernando aka Vinny (Nestor Serrano): On the surface Fernando Vinny has ten times the confidence that Johnny and Willie have combined. He would probably be a pimp if he had the ambition. A good looking Lothario, unlike Johnny Vinny doesn't have the problem of putting women on pedestals. If he ever did do that it would only be so he could look up their skirts. Vinny treats women as they want to be treated or so he thinks. In any event despite his callous nature and ability to lie convincingly about everything he never ever ever lacks for female companionship. Women bring him food and money, all day every day. However "Vinny" is not his real name. His real name is Fernando. He chose Vinny because it sounds more Italian and helps him pick up more women, including those of Italian or other Caucasian descent. There may also be some self-hatred involved as he is Puerto Rican and may not like that very much. Johnny is not afraid to call out Vinny about this. Johnny is not ashamed of being Puerto Rican. Vinny also lacks a job but looks down on Willie. Vinny's not overly fond of Johnny either, finding him a downer. Vinny also has contempt for Johnny's inexperience with women. He openly questions if Johnny even knows what to do with a woman. Vinny has the ability to run game on a woman and in the very middle of doing so switch seamlessly to doing the same on a better looking woman that he notices. He has no shame about this. He thinks he has good reason for his behavior. Vinny has no fear of rejection or humiliation. He will endure a thousand no's to get to one yes. As far as Vinny is concerned it's his world. Everyone else is just living in it. He's what you might call an honest hypocrite.

My car, my rules fellas!

Tom (Mario Joyner): Tom is a struggling but debonair actor who makes ends meet as a telemarketer while he's working towards his big break. Like Vinny Tom has plenty of confidence though he is not anywhere near as extroverted, domineering and flashy as Vinny. Although Tom's paid acting work is rare and likely to remain so as black actors are not exactly in high demand, he generally stays positive and has had just enough success to have purchased a car, something his three buddies lack and which makes him in demand for their weekly get togethers. He also organizes and directs street theater on subways and elsewhere in order to keep his acting chops sharp. Tom is proud of doing the right thing regardless of whether it brings him success. He's faithful to his girlfriend. He's college educated and loves to tell everyone about the time he almost got a part in Rain Man. Though he's a college grad, he doesn't think college was worth it, perhaps in part because in his chosen field, and life in general, his race limits him more than a college degree helps him. Tom is starting to wonder if some of the people he hangs out with are more of a hindrance than a help.

This film has some comedic moments (Willie's idea of a pickup line is to tell a woman she's perpetrating a racial fraud, Vinny runs away from anything even hinting at critical thinking, Johnny and surprisingly Tom each discover they know less about women than they think) but comedy is not necessarily the main focus of this movie. It's really just a slice of life coming of age drama about four men from the South Bronx looking for some fun and either trying to ignore or forget about their current circumstances. There aren't really what I would consider hamfisted messages here. A few sneak through near the end but as mentioned it's unclear as to whether all of the men will make changes. There's no great reveals. Nobody gets shot though there are a few tense confrontations and fights. I think the title really didn't do this movie justice. I didn't quite love this movie but I certainly liked it a lot. You might as well. If you are familiar with NY or remember it before the Disneyfication of much of Manhattan, you might enjoy the scenery.

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Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
directed by Guy Ritchie

I don't want to talk too much in detail about what actually happens in this movie except for some very broad outlines. There are a lot of twists, some of which a viewer might see coming, some of which he wouldn't. If you haven't seen this film I think you ought to do so. Although this was hardly the first British crime movie of which I was aware it was something that opened my eyes to the fact that crime and caper movies didn't necessarily have to come in an American flavor, with Italian-American, African-American or Hispanic-American styles. The world was full of crime stories. Some of these stories came complete with British accents. This is a classic film. Although comparisons to Tarantino and Scorsese are obvious, what with the voiceovers, freeze-frames, and heroes of dubious moralities, this 1998 film managed to stand on its own two feet and ought to be enjoyed in its own right. It is a film which combines organized crime, street hoodlums and a bit of comedy into a pretty satisfying story. It also introduced the actors Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham (actually childhood buddies) to the world.

Four small time criminals, wait criminal might be too harsh of a word although it's technically correct, let's say hustlers, decide to pool their mostly ill gotten revenues together in order to get one of them, Eddy (Nick Moran) into a card game run by the fearsome crime lord Harry The Hatchet (P.H. Moriarty). Harry runs just about all of the local gambling, extortion, porn, prostitution etc. The game buy in is 100,000 pounds. But Bacon (Jason Statham), Soap (Dexter Fletcher), and Tom (Jason Flemyng) are all relatively confident because Eddy is the best card shark that ever lived. I say "relatively confident" because Soap tends to be a worrywart.

Desperation is not pretty

Unfortunately for the group Harry knows all about Eddy's skills and has taken steps to neutralize them by cheating. His top bodyguard and scary second-in-command/enforcer Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean) helps Harry to cheat by revealing Eddy's cards to him. In short time Eddy has lost not only the initial 100,000 but another 400,000 that he chased trying to make up the loss. So at night's end he owes Harry 500,000. Harry also knows that Eddy didn't have all of the buy-in money on his own so in an effort to be both generous and sadistic he lets Eddy know that his friends are on the hook for the money as well. If they don't pay him back in full in one week, he will send Barry and one of his other vicious debt collectors Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) to start removing fingers and other body parts. McLean plays his part with suitable relish. He was actually a real life bare knuckles fighter and all around thug. He ran with some dangerous people in his day. McLean was described as a very hard man. He was once accused of murder and spent some time in prison. So the menace and testosterone increase dramatically when he's on screen. McLean died shortly before the film was released. The film was dedicated to his memory.

Do I look like I give a f***?

As an aside Vinnie Jones was also PERFECT for his role. He's a quiet, intimidating enforcer who gives off the feeling that he's just seething with barely constrained bloody urges. Evidently this role wasn't all that different from Jones' real life career as a soccer player who was quite in touch with his aggressive side. Big Chris is violent and nasty but he also has a very protective and nurturing nature. This flip side of his personality is ONLY expressed towards his son Little Chris (Peter McNicholl). Little Chris dresses just like his Daddy and idolizes him. They go on loan collections together. Don't swear around Little Chris. Big Chris doesn't like it. And God help you if you insult or lay hands on Little Chris in Big Chris' presence. Berserk doesn't even begin to describe the literal hell you will have unleashed on yourself.
Anyway there's history between Harry and Eddy's family. Eddy's father JD (Sting) is either a former gangster with bad blood towards Harry or a straight and narrow citizen who's not afraid of Harry. Either way he has a bar that Harry wants. JD bought it with money he won off Harry years ago. If JD will turn over the bar then his son will not be harmed or killed. Unfortunately for Eddy, his father takes the view that Eddy's problems aren't his problems. Eddy's grown.

Don't let the smooth taste fool you.

Fortuitously Eddy overhears his next door neighbors planning a heist of a drug dealer. Intrigued he arranges to have them taped and before long he knows all the details of the plan. With no other solution in sight and Barry getting eager to start chopping, Eddy and his friends decide to rob the robbers. However, these robbers, led by the brutal Dog (Frank Harper) won't exactly be easy to rob. The group of friends decide they will need guns. And they purchase some from some other shady characters. However these particular group of villains are also connected to Barry and Harry and sell something they weren't supposed to sell. Big Chris is sent to get it back. And the low level drug dealers, whose lack of security has attracted Dog's professional interest, work for Rory Breaker (Vas Blackwood) a drug supplier whose "cute cuddly facade", 70s style afro and slight frame fool some people into overlooking his TERRIFYINGLY dangerous and violent nature. He's not happy about having his drugs stolen. And then a comedy of errors, missing information and mistaken identity really kicks into high gear. It's like a classic Three's Company episode except that people get shot.

Do I need to start taking fingers? Eh???

Everyone is after the money, drugs and guns. The four friends are in way over their head and they know it. But they have no choice but to try to make the best out of increasingly bad situations.
I really enjoyed the dialogue in this movie. Literally EVERYONE gets a snappy one liner or in some cases, several. Often times the characters don't know something that the viewer knows all along while occasionally the characters know something the viewer didn't realize until later. The film occasionally jumps back in forth in time to mess with your expectations. Again, the writing and dialogue in this movie is just so much fun. Whether it's Rory informing someone that no he will not turn the television down or Soap musing that guns are for show but knives are for pros or Barry telling someone that if he doesn't want to be counting the fingers he doesn't have he had better do what Barry says or Bacon explaining to his friends that Harry once beat a man to death with the first object he could find, which happened to be a woman's sex toy, the wordplay in this movie is a lot of fun.
TRAILER   Do you Understand?

Detroit's Last Stand?

You're surrounded and running low on ammo. You're outnumbered at least 20-1. The cavalry tried to come to your rescue but they all got mowed down in a hail of machine gun fire. Your erstwhile allies are the ones who set you up for what's turned into a massacre. Most of your best soldiers are dead or dying. You and your remaining ride or die loyalists are badly wounded and probably won't make it through the night. Your troops are telling each other "It's been an honor serving with you" and "See you on the other side". Your enemies are really not all that interested in accepting your surrender. Even if they were your pride certainly wouldn't allow you to stoop to offer it. In short there's nothing for it left but to ante up and kick in. You'll live on in stories. You drive into that roadblock. You go out hard and take as many of the SOB's with you as you can in a Bolivian Army ending.

That's the way it is in movies of course. Film often imitates real life. I haven't written about it for a while but my home city of Detroit is pretty much at that point. If you hadn't heard Detroit is under the control of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointee Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, who over the last week released his reports on Detroit's dire financial situation as well as some of his plans to potentially avoid bankruptcy, which he is publicly willing to state is a 50/50 proposition. Looking at some of the numbers I think that if Orr is okay with revealing that bankruptcy is that likely, I think it's even likelier than that.

Movie Reviews-The Purge, Parker, Luther Season One

The Purge
directed by James DeMonaco

I was born in, well never mind, but fortunately I missed the more explicit and violent eruptions of racism. One of my parents grew up under Southern segregation. Earlier generations had to watch their step very carefully because at any second the white Americans they lived around could with virtual impunity harm them or start a pogrom, riot or lynching. Law enforcement and the justice system would usually ignore any crimes committed against black people. Such actions weren't uncommon from the 1880s through the 1940s and only subsided recently, historically speaking. I tend to be a vibrant - some would say tiresome - defender of the right to keep and bear arms because of this history. But today the greatest danger doesn't come from a majority tyrannizing a despised minority but rather from individual criminals of all races, who, filled with self-hate, anger or greed don't mind taking their frustrations out on each other and any law abiding citizen, regardless of race, who either has something that they want or is unlucky enough to take a wrong turn in a bad neighborhood. If you ever read the comments on any Yahoo news story featuring a black subject, you will realize that the sort of eliminationist and supremacist rhetoric that  was once openly expressed in American society hasn't left. It's just not publicly acceptable. But if some had their way, we'd have death camps for criminals, particularly non-white ones. 

The Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson argued in his book Rituals of Blood, that the various atrocities which black people once endured had almost religious sacrificial overtones for the white racist community. Socially sanctioned violence gave them unity and provided a societal scapegoat. This was also true of the Jewish community in German and European society. Without such scapegoats, the majority society would turn on itself. Believe it or not this reasoning is not as far fetched as you might think. In a book I recently reviewed, The State of Jones, a postbellum southern white politician made a serious argument that without the ability to use black women as concubines, prostitutes or rape victims, white men would be forced to slake their lusts on white women, thus leading to more white prostitution, which would be a bad thing.

The Purge is not explicitly about race but it definitely makes some slight allusions to the sordid history I've referenced above. I think that it didn't want to make a specific "race" story but the undertones are all there just the same. The Purge would have been a stronger film had it fully embraced the racial/class underlying framework.

In 2022 America crime and unemployment have fallen dramatically. There seems to have been either a coup or new constitutional convention. People speak of "Our new Founding Fathers". A new law is that once a year, for exactly 12 hours, anyone can commit any otherwise illegal act, and not be arrested, sought after, convicted or sentenced. This called "The Purge". It is something looked forward to by those who seek to settle scores or just engage in morally dark behavior. The Purge is legally race and class neutral but in practice it may hurt the poor and non-white more than the rich and white as those who fall in the second group can more easily protect themselves with gated communities, top notch security systems and lots and lots of guns. There's a hint that The Purge is not designed so much as to release individual frustrations as it is to be a hunting season on undesirables. Perhaps the reason that crime and unemployment have fallen so much is that there are fewer undesirables. See Bill Bennett's comments.

James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) is a happily apathetic home security salesman who has made a fortune selling home protection systems to his upscale neighbors. He has a wife Mary (Lena Headey) and two children Zoe (Adelaide Kane) and her younger brother Charlie (Max Burkholder). His children lack appreciation for the good life that James provides. I found each child somewhat annoying. Charlie is a creepy kid who constantly voyeuristically sends his automated camera throughout the house checking on everyone. Charlie, you're looking at your Mom's behind. You might have some issues, kiddo. Zoe is feeling her oats as a sexually liberated teen who thinks she's grown. Mary has noticed that their Stepford Wife looking neighbor Grace (Arija Bareikis) seems a little put out by James' success. Grace has the ability to threaten and insult while smiling. It's unsettling.

James and Mary reluctantly support The Purge as necessary though each says they would never kill anyone. Neither of their children agrees with The Purge. As they are each convinced they know better than Daddy each child makes a mistake that allows the family home to become compromised during The Purge. Charlie acts from moral concerns while Zoe acts out of lust but hell, good intentions and all that. The film then veers into Straw Dogs/Death Wish territory as the competent but hardly intimidating James is forced to deal with some Purge participants who are highly upset with him and by extension his family. He also must make some very hard moral decisions. The film gives a muddled critique of utilitarianism.

This is a pretty tight film running just around 85 minutes. The film works because of the short running length and limited location. It does a great job at ramping up the paranoia and fear. How hard is it for people to get into your home? How many entrances/exits are there? Are there any secret exits or panic rooms? What would you do were someone trying to get inside against your will?

You may think you know what you would do in dangerous times but the reality is unless you're a trained professional or have been through some serious stuff before you don't really know. Could you really kill someone to protect your family? If you were a non-Jew during the Holocaust would you really hide a Jewish person in your home? Would you risk your life to stop a lynching back in the 1890s? Would you put your life at risk to do the right thing? What about your family's lives? Well some of us would and some of us wouldn't. As I mentioned before, with the exception of a few hints (the man slated for termination is black while his white chief tormentor reeks of preppy privilege and speaks in Social Darwinian terms), the film avoids open race/class issues. By staying neutral The Purge can simultaneously appeal to both right and left fears of interventionist government and crime. It can also be enjoyed solely as a home invasion movie. Is James a class traitor liberal who needs to stick with his own people or is he a brave one man majority standing up against fascism?

If nothing else The Purge will make you check that your doors are locked, your guns are easily available and your kids do what the **** you tell them to do. Were I the sort of person who yelled at movie screens I would have yelled at the Sandin kids. If you are into conspiracy theories you might argue that the principles of The Purge are already being adhered to in the blase indifference to the slaughter that is going on in some inner cities. 
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Parker
directed by Taylor Hackford

Okay, this is not a remake of Mel Gibson's Payback though you might be forgiven for thinking so. It is however an adaptation of a similar story featuring the same character in Payback by the author (Donald Westlake) who created the source material for Payback. I like Westlake though it looks like I haven't gotten around to sharing my impressions of his work here. Too many books to discuss and not enough time. Anyway he was a famous crime fiction novelist. If you're interested you can read more about Westlake here and here. Parker, the titular character and Westlake's most famous anti-hero is not really a nice guy. He robs and kills with no remorse. The one thing he doesn't normally do is kill for fun, unnecessarily or kill someone who doesn't have it coming. He has a code which he lives by and insists that anyone working with him does as well. This is emphasized slightly more in the Parker movie than it was in the Payback movie but in either version, you don't want to deal unfairly with Parker. Stick to the deal and you'll be okay. Break the deal and God help you. And Parker couldn't really give a flying f*** who you're related to, who your friends are or with what organization you're affiliated. If those people know what's good for them they'll stay out of his way. The best way not to get hurt and hurt badly is to stay out of Parker's way. Obviously if more people took that wise advice there wouldn't be much of a movie so here we are.

Parker (Jason Statham) has masterminded the robbery of an Ohio fair. The take is good, a little over a million dollars, but since the team included five guys who all get equal shares, it's not exactly going to put them all on easy street. Parker is also annoyed that one of his team members bungled an assignment and caused some people to get hurt and to die. Parker doesn't like it when things don't go according to plan. In flashback it's revealed that this robbery was a deal Parker undertook on behalf of his father figure Hurley (Nick Nolte). Parker is in a long term relationship with Hurley's daughter Claire (Emma Booth). Claire knows what Parker does and would prefer he didn't live that life. But she's long since given up trying to change Parker's mind about anything.

So Parker is ready to split the cash and say adieu to his erstwhile comrades. One of them, Melander (Michael Chiklis) says he has another heist planned but that he needs everyone's cut to invest in it. Evidently he's already spoken to the other goons and they've all agreed. They just need Parker's buy in. Showing the stubbornness which is both his greatest strength and greatest weakness, Parker declines. He does so even though he is sitting in the back seat of an SUV with armed men. He's just that tough you see. Parker doesn't break his code for anyone. Of course fireworks break out and even though Parker leaves some wounds for the group to remember him by he is shot multiple times and left for dead.

In something of a running gag throughout the movie it'll take more than being shot and jumping from a moving car to stop Parker. He survives. He leaves the hospital, robs some people to get some seed money and talks to Hurley to find out what happened. As it turns out the group that robbed Parker is planing a heist in Palm Beach. One of the group members is also connected to the Chicago Outfit, which sends some people looking for Parker AND anyone who likes or loves Parker. The Chicago Outfit doesn't play by the same rules as Parker. If kidnapping or killing his girlfriend is the most effective way to make Parker back off, or better yet, come in from the cold, then that is what they will do.

Undeterred, Parker heads for Palm Beach to track down the people who stole from him. There he is assisted, at first unwillingly and unwittingly but later enthusiastically by Leslie Rogers (Jennifer Lopez) a ditzy real estate agent who evidently is not a very good saleswoman. She is only a few weeks away from having her car repossessed. She's getting over a bad divorce. She lives with her mother. Lopez is comedy relief here. I thought her a little stereotypical as she does just about everything but scream "I don't know nothing bout birthin' no babies, Miz Scarlett!!!". I think Lopez and Booth should have switched roles. Anyway there is equal opportunity for male and female ogling as the camera lingers lovingly on Statham's musculature and Lopez's curves (which seem to have gotten fuller). The movie is violent, but mostly in a cartoonish way. I have never been shot but from what I understand, it hurts a LOT and can make a grown man scream in pain. Shooting Parker MIGHT slow him down a bit and grimace but that's about it. Shoot him, stab him, beat him, kick him but you'll never stop him or make him cry. He's like the Energizer Bunny with roid rage.

If you like Statham movies you know what you're going to get here, as I've described elsewhere. So it's consistent. If you like action movies, check this out but don't expect anything special. If you don't like action movies, then you won't watch this and won't miss much. Bobby Carnavale, Wendell Pierce, Clifton Collins Jr. and Patti Lupone also star.
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Luther Season One
created by Neil Cross

The most interesting thing about Luther is not that it's a detective procedural with a black man as the lead but rather that Idris Elba, who was probably initially known to many American television viewers -especially black ones- as the tall, dark, handsome and deadly Stringer Bell on The Wire, is indeed, despite his name and his unimpeachable American vocal stylings on The Wire, a thoroughly British man. Watching Luther, in which Elba presumably uses his natural accent to play the titular character, is to be amazed that Elba ever could have convincingly played Bell in the first place. But that's why they call it acting. It's a minor point to be sure but it blew my mind. The other difference between Luther and some American crime dramas is the seeming realness of the actors. With some exceptions (Elba and Indira Varma) the actors who make up the world of Luther are not super attractive. Most of them are average looking with a few who are outright unattractive, just like in real life. There are no gods or goddesses slumming in this series. Regular looking and even ugly people get laid too you know. That's why there's ugly people in the world in the first place. This adds to the show's verisimilitude in my opinion. Let's just be real here. Not everyone wins the genetic lottery. Also the "good guys" don't always win in Luther. Sometimes they can't stop a killer before he strikes again. Sometimes they miss things. It's a testament to Luther's actors and writers that they can take pretty old tropes and find new ways to make you care about the characters. Lastly race is not an issue at all. That would never be the case in an American series would it?

Anyhow Idris Elba plays Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) John Luther. Luther is a complicated man indeed and no one understands him but two women. One of these women is his beautiful but estranged wife Zoe (Indira Varma). Zoe used to be excited by and attracted to Luther's single mindedness and intensity but feels that his work has stolen all of the joy out of their marriage. Luther is introduced chasing a pedophile killer. In a season long theme which grows and expands in some intriguing ways Luther has the psychological gift of being able to think like a criminal and outsmart many criminals. Unfortunately the flip side of this gift is that he is in constant struggle to keep the darkness in himself under control. Given the opportunity he could very easily become a vigilante or death squad killer. He also has a bit of a temper. Oh yes, about that pedophile. Luther has physically maneuvered/defeated him so that the killer is hanging on for dear life to a beam roughly 40 feet above ground. But Luther won't help him up until the killer tells him where his latest victim is. The scumbag is slipping fast and gives up the info. Luther waits for confirmation that girl is where the killer said she was (where Luther also surmised she was) before starting to help the killer to safety. Or maybe not. Luther watches (and nudges?) as the killer falls to what should have been certain death. This is deliberately left ambiguous so that the viewer may make up his own mind. The criminal is in a coma after his fall. Luther is temporarily suspended from his unit but eventually welcomed back by his no nonsense boss Rose Teller (Saskia Reeves) who has thus put her own reputation on the line. Her role is minor but needed. She's kind of like Captain Dobey on Starksy and Hutch. She yells at Luther and tries to rein in his determined rule breaking but will occasionally turn a blind eye. Luther knows which orders to obey and which ones to pretend he didn't hear.

Shortly after his return Luther meets the other woman who understands and accepts him completely, the sociopathic Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson). Alice is similar to Luca Brasi, if Luca Brasi were a slight redheaded British woman with genius level understanding of physics. Alice's parents are brutally murdered, along with the family dog and it is no spoiler to reveal that Luther strongly suspects that Alice did it. It may be the perfect crime as there isn't any physical evidence on first glance. The two spar, bringing all of their considerable intelligence to bear on each other. Alice is like Luther in that she doesn't have a lot of respect for laws or rules, considering herself beyond them. But the same intelligence that allowed Alice to become one of the country's foremost astrophysicists at an impossibly young age, has made it out of the question for her to feel empathy or sympathy for people, with the possible exception of one John Luther. With a great deal of effort she can fake emotions but she'd rather not do so. To her people are just meat. This core difference both attracts and repels Alice and Luther to and from one another.

Brought back into his unit, Luther re-establishes his friendship and working relationship with DS Justin Ripley (Warren Brown) and DCI Ian Reed (Steven Mackintosh). Although these men are very different from Luther and each other, they are great friends with Luther. Ripley is younger and has more of a mentor relationship with Luther. But Ripley strongly prefers to operate aboveboard and by the book. He means to stay within the law where ever possible. Ripley doesn't appreciate some of Luther's actions which make him choose between friendship and the letter of the law. Reed is Luther's age or older. He also has a flexible approach to police work. He's been divorced on three separate occasions. Reed can usually be counted on to have Luther's back when the chips are down.

One person who does have a very strict approach to the law is DSU Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley) who has been given orders to watch over Teller's unit and investigate rumors of corruption or brutality. He is usually very quiet and polite. But don't lie to him and don't make him mad. As he tells Luther he thinks Luther is a good cop. But if Luther is brutal or dirty he'll put Luther away for decades and not miss any sleep because the law is the law. He may not be Inspector Javert but he's close enough. He notices things people other people don't. He's not a physically impressive man but his mind is relentless. He doesn't let things go.

Rounding out the major cast members is Mark North (Paul McGann), the new man in Zoe's life. Obviously he doesn't much care for Luther but confrontation and beating up people, let alone cops is just not his style. Luther is most definitely not ready to let Zoe go while Zoe herself might be willing to return. So North and Luther have tension throughout the season. 

Elba's Luther is a man viscerally sickened by major crimes and his ability to understand the people who commit them. He's eaten up by this. He may even be suicidal. His job obsesses him. This is not quite an action series though there is a normal amount of violence. It really is more about what violence does to people internally. The show's been nominated for and won a few Emmys/Golden Globes so there's that. If you decide to watch this though, please don't go in thinking there will be lots of shootouts and the like. Psychological drama. I was impressed with the story of failed love between an otherwise decent man who just happens to be a serial killer and his clueless but secretly adulterous wife. There's someone out there for everyone even if it may not be the person they're currently seeing. I really liked the theme music by Massive Attack. This only had six episodes but they are long.

TRAILER

A Modest Proposal

But my assessment and my team's assessment was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks. And the modest encroachments on privacy that are involved in getting phone numbers or duration without a name attached and not looking at content, that on net, it was worth us doing. 

Some other folks may have a different assessment of that, but I think it's important to recognize that you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy, and zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a society.
President Barack Obama
As you can see the President thinks his Administration's actions are modest and worth doing. How soothing. He just forgot to inform us about his actions. I'm sure that was a minor mistake. In the manner of Jonathan Swift, Dear Readers, I also would like to submit a modest proposal to solve the vexing problem of danger and evil in the world. We must have safety as many folks from across the political spectrum have demanded. I can offer you complete safety. There will just have to be a few minor, yes modest changes to make in our political system but if they keep you safe, then surely it's worth it yes?

This constitutional republic thing just isn't working out. Besides our nation is more diverse now. Why should this country be ruled under systems that came out of Anglo-Saxon and Western European 18th century political thought?  No we must update our political process to reflect today's needs. Elections are wasteful and give too many opportunities to our enemies or those sympathetic to them to gain power. In fact there's too much decentralization of power in our system. I commend the President for recognizing that, at least. But now, we must have autocracy. All legislative, executive and judicial authority will be handled by yours truly. Since I will be a permanent ruler the rest of you will save oodles of money on silly little things like elections or political campaigns. Political corruption will decline because there will only be one person in charge. Me. And I assure you I am not corruptible. Congress will be disbanded. Only my leadership will keep us safe. Don't you want to be safe?

Many people have said they have nothing to hide and really have no use for the outdated Fourth Amendment. I have heard you my subjects. I am humbled by your great wisdom and intelligence. Under my reign I also won't have any use for that rule created by dead white men. It fails to keep us safe. And we must be kept safe. That is the most important thing for government to do. So to make sure that we are kept safe I will be ordering random searches and checks of every single American's primary home, apartment and vehicle and any other domiciles. From time to time the police may just live with you for a few days to ensure you're not doing anything wrong. They'll stay in your house while you go to work, follow you to your doctor or dentist appointments or drop by while you're out. It goes without saying that they will stop any domestic violence before it starts, read your mail, and take every conceivable method to ensure that no one in your home is committing any crimes.  I'm also considering installing video screens in every home. This will stop domestic violence. I know you will thank me for this later when crime drops. After all I am keeping you safe.

Speaking of crime the Supreme Court just ruled, over the objections of that dammed left wing hack Antonin Scalia, to permit police to collect DNA from people accused of serious crimes. I say good for the court but why stop there? No my friends, what we need are total and complete DNA profiles. The only way to do this is to require everyone in America to visit their local police station and give a DNA sample along with their fingerprints and hair. That way we can have everyone in the database. Crime solving will be a breeze. And since so many of you intelligent folk have responded to NSA snooping reveals with witty aphorisms such as "I'm not afraid of the government knowing where I am or what I'm reading because I have nothing to hide" I am happy to report that I will be taking you all of you up on that offer. While you're down at the local constabulary giving DNA samples to Officer Friendly, the police will also be giving you something.
Microchips. 
This will allow the NSA to know where every single citizen, green card resident, visitor or illegal alien is  (within a 3-5 meter variation) at all times. Babies will of course have these chips implanted and DNA taken at birth, free of charge. Isn't that a wonderful benefit? I think so. Besides, it will keep you safe.

Since we don't need elections, I'm not too sure about the wisdom of such things as trials either. You will need to free your pretty little heads from ideas like "having your day in court"  or "innocent until proven guilty" or "the right to remain silent." Frankly I don't think you will miss them that much. Still to show that I'm a nice guy I will allow judges and trials to continue. We'll I'll just make a few, how did President Obama put it, "modest encroachments" on the trial process. First of all, all judges at all levels will be appointed by me to serve at my pleasure. Next we need to get rid of this silly "innocent until proven guilty" meme that has infected so many otherwise intelligent people. If you hadn't been doing something wrong you wouldn't have been arrested and charged. Everyone knows that. And in the RARE case that is otherwise, well any cook will tell you you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. 

Henceforth, accused criminals will be considered guilty and have to prove their innocence. And as far as remaining silent, heck if you were falsely accused wouldn't you want to speak up? Remaining silent just confirms guilt in my book. And all this nonsense about a right to an attorney or a jury trial prevents efficiency in our system. So we'll be getting rid of that. If you can't afford an attorney well you should have thought about that before you committed a crime, you silly goose. And judges, being educated legal professionals, are much better at determining guilt than the yahoos who can wind up on juries. Society will save more money by not having to waste time by selecting juries. Besides my judges will keep you safe. And isn't that the most important thing to you? I thought so.

Because of the wise reforms described above there will be much less doubt about the innocence or guilt of an accused criminal. Yet I know that some of you may have atavistic attachments to such concepts as the Bill of Rights but believe me it's more important to keep you safe. I mean that's what you're telling me every day.

Finally it has come to my attention that many of you claim to have the right to dissent and point to such things as the First Amendment to guarantee your free speech, right to petition, assemble, disagree and so on. Well obviously you weren't paying attention. When I said I would be an autocrat, were you unclear on the concept? Anyway the First Amendment has been abused by those who would harm us Dear Readers. So until we can be sure the terrorist threat has been completely eradicated I'm afraid that I will be shutting down all publishing houses, newspapers, broadcast media, cable networks and Internet service providers. Don't worry I will reopen a select few, who agree to provide continuously vetted material that gives you accurate information about the world. This will stop cancerous ideas like free speech and dissent from spreading  prevent terrorists from communicating with each other. Now some of you may squawk and complain but (1) I really wouldn't do that in front of my security force if I were you and (2) it will keep you safe , which should be the most important thing to you. Right?

There are a few other minor changes to still be worked out but these modest proposals should be sufficient for now. You can thank me later. Remember, I've got my Eye on you.
Sincerely,
Sauron, First of His Name, Ruler of the World and King of Men. 

HBO Game of Thrones Season Finale Recap: Mhysa

In the same fashion that GRRM goes out of his way, perhaps too much so, to break artistic convention perhaps the HBO showrunners could start to do the same. For three seasons now the most gripping and shocking moment has been in episode nine while the finale mostly deals with the repercussions. Things really don't have to be this way. It worked for season one because it was almost demanded by the source material. This trope was okay in season two but didn't quite work in season three. The book that season three was mostly drawn from was widely considered to be among the most compelling in the series. I'm not necessarily sure that always came across this season. There may be more on that later. But since this season was the most successful so far does anyone really care besides purist book readers? I don't know.

Anyway the season finale, as expected, starts in the Red Wedding aftermath. Roose Bolton looks approvingly on the final mop up of Stark and Tully forces. Men are hanged, burned alive, and hacked apart. In a horrific scene drawn straight from the books Bolton and Frey men surround the mutilated corpse of Robb Stark. He's been decapitated. Grey Wind's head has been attached to his body. The men mock the King in the North. Arya and The Hound see it and ride off. The Hound thoughtfully grabs a Frey banner as to blend in. You've really got to feel for Arya. In a very weird way she's grown up though. Yoren once held her and prevented her from seeing her father's execution and corpse. The Hound makes no such concession to her sensibilities. It is what it is.

In King's Landing Sansa and Tyrion discover a brief common interest in discussing ways to get back at people who mock them. This is interrupted when Podrick summons Tyrion to a Small Council meeting. Joffrey is besides himself with glee at having heard about the Red Wedding. Maester Pycelle makes Tyrion pick up a coded message from Walder Frey to Tywin that Robb and Catelyn Stark and all their forces are dead. So now you know why Twyin was writing all those letters all throughout the season. Being the sadistic little s*** that he is Joffrey is boasting of how he will have Robb's head served to Sansa, a suggestion which apparently horrifies Tyrion who forbids it. This sets off a little intra-Lannister rumble. Joffrey apparently still believes that Robert was his father and compares Tywin to him in a very negative manner. With that Tywin effectively sends Joffrey to bed with no supper. The chamber is emptied except for Tywin and Tyrion.

Tyrion is shocked that his father was behind the Red Wedding but the ever pragmatic Tywin sees little point in arguing in how a war is won, just that it is won. Besides most of the direct blame will fall on the Freys. Tyrion points out that such treachery will never be forgotten by the North but Tywin shrugs. Now that Robb and his heirs are gone it's critical for Tyrion to impregnate Sansa. When Tyrion protests and challenges his father to name a time that he ever sacrificed for the good of the group, his father icily reminds Tyrion that Tyrion is only alive because he's a Lannister. If Tywin had acted in accordance with personal desires he would have murdered Tyrion in the cradle. Tyrion goes to break the news to Sansa but sees that she's already heard.

This show is big on hints and here's one that was extremely and very deliberately obvious. At the Nightfort Bran is telling the story of the Rat Cook, a man who invited the king to dinner, murdered the king's sons and fed them to him. By the way a similar story is also told in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus so it's not as if GRRM is alone in an appreciation for Grand Guignol. The Rat Cook was then punished by the gods by being turned into a carnivorous rat who ate his own children. The moral of the story as Bran pointed out is that the gods never forgive the violation of the sacred guest right. It is the gravest sin. People who do that come to extremely bad ends. In the very next scene we see Walder Frey eating and gloating as the blood and carnage are cleaned from his halls. Roose warns that the Blackfish escaped but Frey, who is revealing a MASSIVE inferiority complex, considers that of small import. And if you hadn't noticed that the Bolton sigil is a flayed man hanging on an X shaped rack you really should have been paying attention. In response to Frey's curiosity Roose reveals that the Ironborn occupying Winterfell handed over Theon to his bastard son but that his bastard son Ramsay had other ideas about both the Ironborn and Winterfell. This is an important confirmation that it was Ramsay Snow who sacked and burned Winterfell. So the Bolton treachery goes back further than one might have realized.

At presumably the Bolton Dreadfort stronghold, Theon hangs on the rack, while his previously unknown tormentor, Ramsay Snow, Bolton's illegitimate son, makes fun of Theon's new eunuch status. Ramsay says he got his cruelty from dear old dad. In what seems like a reference to a similar Roots scene featuring Kunta Kinte, Ramsay beats Theon senseless until Theon accepts his new name of Reek. Ramsay also sends Theon's genitals to Pyke, demanding that the Ironborn leave the North or Balon will get other flayed parts of Theon. Balon doesn't care but Yara does. She decides to lead an attack to rescue Theon. Bran and company run into Sam and Gilly. Sam recognizes Bran from stories he's heard about him and after some initial suspicions the two groups share notes. Nonetheless neither can convince the other to change directions and ultimately they continue on their separate paths.

At Dragonstone news of Robb's death has reached Stannis. Davos helps Gendry to escape after he's learned that Stannis still wishes to burn Gendry for more power. Greatly angered, Stannis intends to have Davos executed but declines when Davos reveals a letter from Maester Aemon of the Night's Watch asking for help to combat the White Walker threat. Melisandre (cleavage alert!!) goes along with this and claims to have seen something in the fires. As far as escapes go, Varys tries to pay off Shae to leave but Shae thinks this request comes from Tyrion and won't go. Cersei tells Tyrion to give Sansa a baby if he wants to make her somewhat happy. She says that even Joffrey's current status as a psychopath can't erase her fond memories of him as a baby and her love for him. Jaime and Brienne make it back to King's Landing where Jaime is reunited with Cersei. 

Arya and The Hound run across some Frey soldiers gloating about the murders of Robb and Catelyn. When Arya learns that one of these soldiers was among those who mutilated her brother's corpse, she murders him. The Hound makes quick work of the remaining ones and is a bit surprised at Arya's ferocity and skill with a knife. Arya is completely unrepentant and repeats to herself the mantra she learned from Jaqen H'ghar, Valar morghulis, or all men must die.

Ygritte has tracked down Jon Snow. Jon says that he still loves Ygritte and that he knows she feels the same but that he took an oath. Well if she still loves him she has a funny way of showing it as she peppers him with arrows. Then again, she didn't shoot him in the head. It's unclear as to whether this was for lack of trying. Either way I think that particular romantic interlude is over. Sometimes things just don't work out. Again I think we ought to at least consider the chain of events from Ygritte's point of view. The wounded Snow escapes back to the Wall.
At Yunkai the previous slaves embrace their freedom and Daenerys stage dives into what looks like the entire cast of extras from the Matrix Reloaded dance scene. The freed people call her Mhysa or mother. 

What I liked

• Charles Dance continues to seemingly effortlessly dominate any scene he's in. His Twyin Lannister is a Magnificent Bastard indeed.
• Arya's murderous frustration and revenge has been a long time coming but we finally get to see hints of it. 
• Ygritte's almost wordless rage. This was very well played indeed. I look forward to seeing her next season. She can use the same phrase "You know nothing, Jon Snow" to run the gamut of meanings and emotions. There's a thin line between love and hate.
• Davos' insistence on remaining the moral center for the man he calls king. It's a welcome respite from GRRM's otherwise constant mantra that nice guys finish last. Because of where he was born Davos is a bit more realistic than Ned Stark, as is Brienne but all three characters possess an insistence on doing the right thing and playing by the rules regardless of the personal cost. Two of them are still alive.
• The show forces viewers to accept that the Stark quest for justice and possibly revenge may not necessarily be the central theme. This really messes with normal storytelling convention. I wonder if it does so so much that some people will give up on the show. I wouldn't blame them if they did. Different strokes, different folks.
• Sam reminding Maester Aemon that the Wall wasn't built to keep out men. Sam finally comes across as competent in this episode. He may never be a bada$$ but there are some things he knows about and history is one of them.

What I didn't like

• I don't remember if Yunkai was mostly black and brown in the books. I don't think it was. I certainly don't think the ruling slaver Yunkai class was mostly Caucasian. In any event I think it's somewhat lazy writing to immediately have black + brown = slave in a televised adaptation. Of course this could wind up being a critique of Orientalism and paternalistic imperialism but still. Even ignoring any unfortunate racial implications the Daenerys ending scene was meant to be epic -complete with overhead crane shot and swelling ponderous music- but it mostly just left me cold.
• The pacing was a little off in this episode and this season. The show runners had said that the Red Wedding was initially the scene which made them know they had to adapt the book. They did an excellent job of that but other storylines either dragged on too much (Theon) or were greatly shortchanged (Arya)
• It would have been nice to get some reaction from Robb's other bannermen up North about the turn of events. After all, several of their relatives died at the Red Wedding as well.
• Please read the books. 

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes.  If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here.  NO SPOILERS. NO BOOK DERIVED HINTS ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea..of course as the series biggest spoiler is no longer a spoiler perhaps instead of decapitation you would just get sent to the Wall...

Music Reviews-Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace, Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won, Alligator Stomp

Aretha Franklin- Amazing Grace

Many classic soul, R&B and funk singers came out of the black (generally Baptist and Pentecostal) church. Once they hit it big some left the gospel genre and never looked back as they predominantly performed secular music for ever more. Others eventually grew disillusioned with secular music and returned to the church. Some kept a foot in both worlds, releasing a back to roots gospel album every few years to prove to themselves and their audiences across the musical spectrum that they loved gospel and hadn't forgotten their roots. Perhaps some of this was just cynical marketing practice but given the very real venom with which some gospel partisans and critics viewed the practice of gospel stars crossing over, it's really no surprise that some gospel singers who made it big in the secular world would occasionally feel the artistic, personal (and religious?) need to produce a "purist" gospel album.

There are many such gospel/soul stars who have done this. Ray Charles, Mahalia Jackson, and Sam Cooke all come to mind but today I just want to quickly pull your coat to Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace album. This 1972 masterpiece was recorded live with Aretha Franklin's touring band (which included heavyweight musicians like bassist Chuck Rainey, guitarist Cornell Dupree and drummer Bernard Purdie) and with gospel superstar James Cleveland (an influence on both Aretha Franklin and her father Rev. C.L Franklin), Cleveland's crack choir and Aretha's father himself. Mrs. Franklin herself obviously is the featured vocal soloist but also holds her own on piano. I'm not sure if she was featured on organ. In any event it was a glorious and seamless combination of traditional gospel music mixed with some more popular forms. 
As I've written before I love Franklin's voice and she was in rare form here. I think she's been so good for so long that we almost take her talent for granted. I really enjoyed the mashup of Thomas Dorsey's Precious Lord with Carole King's You've got a friend.

If you haven't heard this you owe it to yourself to give it a listen. I don't quite understand how anyone doesn't like gospel music but that's just because I grew up with so much of it. Then again I always gave a side eye to grown men with processed hair shaking and screaming "Can't nobody do me like Jesus!" but there's not much of that here. You don't have to be religious to love this music. Tastes differ of course but if you like gospel or soul this is a must have album. If you don't like gospel music well then this definitely isn't the release for you. More's the pity. My parents had this performance in various different formats over the years. I'm very familiar with all of the different classic gospel tunes featured within. Amazing Grace is today still Franklin's best selling release. Mary Don't You Weep is a wonderful update of the Inez Andrews classic. Chuck Rainey's bassline wouldn't be out of place on a Band of Gypsys release. The band and choir swing hard on How I got Over. Of course the title song Amazing Grace makes an appearance.  Precious Memories is slowed down to a crawl. Franklin and Cleveland duet. I also like James Cleveland's voice as it had a roughness similar to Howling Wolf's. Voices like that always remind me of my maternal grandfather. I wish I had a voice like that but I think you need to grow up drinking TNT, smoking dynamite and working from can't see until can't see. The album closes out with Never Grow Old.

The sound recordings are just about perfect. The bass is where it's supposed to be, deep and full in the mix, almost like a reggae recording while the guitar and drums do not dominate but instead support the vocals, pianos and organs, which generally are where the melody is to be found. Throw in some tambourines, handclaps and syncopation and you too will be transported back to the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church. Good stuff. This is the real deal. The audience and choir give a lot of feedback. I think the human voice is the most versatile and beautiful instrument. Franklin was and is one of the world's greatest singers.




Led Zeppelin-How the West Was Won

Led Zeppelin was one of my favorite bands despite their lack of attention to little things like properly crediting songwriters they covered. They were hardly alone in that sin of course. When this album was released years after the group had disbanded just about all of those issues had either been settled out of court or thrown out of court. The song credits had all been updated. Anyway that doesn't have much to do with the quality of their music. Either you like it or you don't. Their previous live album/concert movie The Song Remains The Same evidently caught them on a relatively bad series of nights, as the band sounded tired and apparently had tuning problems.
That was just not an issue in the 1972 Los Angeles concerts that make up How The West Was Won. The group is incredibly energetic, inventive and is collectively playing its a$$ off. I think Led Zeppelin was generally better in the studio than heard live but here they are a very very good live group. You may miss some of Jimmy Page's overdubs and studio wizardry but I suppose that's the case any time you listen to a live group where there's only one guitarist. 

Page does his best to make up for it and I think he does. But even as Page is challenged by the live format, Bonham is liberated by it. Drum solos and an even fuller heavier sound than you normally associate with Bonham are both on display. I've written before of how much I enjoy hearing the bass and tom-tom drums as separate audio events and that is true throughout this release. Bomham has a very thick but also quite clear sound that was probably unique among hard rock drummers. You may occasionally feel bludgeoned by his relentless attack here but I personally think that's a good thing. Plant is in full tenor glory. He warbles, sings and cries in ways that aren't necessarily soulful as I might use the word but definitely gets his point across. And bassist John Paul Jones not only holds the bottom end down in a manner which might make Bootsy smile but stretches out to play mandolin, electric piano and organ to add in all the little parts that made Led Zeppelin special.

For a live album the production quality is really good. Songs are extended and mashed up in medleys in which everyone gets a chance to shine. Most of the time this works very well. Sometimes it doesn't but the band just plays through it. If you are a hardcore Zeppelin fan you already have this. If you're just curious about Zeppelin this could be a good place to start as the three CD set, though it leans towards the heavier end of their discography, still has quite a few acoustic numbers. If you hate Zeppelin then obviously this is not the album for you.

Whole Lotta Love (extended w/medley)  Bron-Y-Aur Stomp   Going to California
LA Drone/Immigrant Song  Bring it On Home   Moby Dick  That's The Way  Heartbreaker
Stairway to Heaven  Since I've Been Loving You Dazed and Confused (part 1)





Alligator Stomp

Louisiana, or at least the New Orleans area of it, can be arguably said to be the birthplace of both jazz and rock-n-roll. Most people are familiar with Dixieland jazz and the traditional African-American second line drum and brass bands found in New Orleans and echoed in regions of West Africa and Brazil. But Louisiana is also home to different forms of music, stuff which is both related to and separate from the more familiar New Orleans music. I'm talking of course about Cajun music and Zydeco. Originally Cajun music tended to be more closely associated with European-Americans and featured violin or dobro soloists who played in a distinctly French or Celtic style while Zydeco was more closely associated with African Americans or mixed Creoles who often used used a more percussive style. But as early as the fifties, even despite the musical and social segregation the distinctions had become  increasingly meaningless. It's all just good music as far as I am concerned. Many of the singers, regardless of race, sang in French as much as they sang in English. Both Cajun music and zydeco are, like many of the other musics native to that part of the world, made for dancing.  Some are slow waltzes while others are outright get down and boogies. But usually this is not something that you sit and listen to quietly. 

Alligator Stomp is a sampler of various music by Cajun and Zydeco recording artists from across the color line. Some are black, some are white, some are other. They all have something to say. If you aren't familiar with these styles of music or worse, think they all sound the same, you might want to pick up this album. You may be surprised at some of the things you hear. There's the early rock-n-roll of Cleveland Crochet's Sugar Bee and Johnnie Allan's cover of Chuck Berry's Promised Land. You get the pleading white soul waltz of Jo-El Sonnier's Jolie Blonde. That's a favorite. There's Rocking Sidney with old school rock-n-roll You Ain't Nothing But Fine. That song combines a clean appreciation of the feminine form with just a hint of the wolf on the prowl. I love it. Queen Ida mixes straight ahead zydeco with humor in The Back Door. And zydeco king Clifton Chenier shows that rock-n-roll and zydeco are the same thing in Eh Petite Fille.