Music Reviews-Otis Redding, ZZ Top, The Velvetones

Otis Redding

That's how strong my love is

I generally reject the idea that anyone was the best at anything when it comes to art or music. For me, art is about communication and transcendence. If someone can draw you into their world and show you something that you like that's really all that matters. I don't have the interest or the talent to say anyone is the best. There are however some artists who do tempt me to say that they are the best and Otis Redding is one of them. If someone wrote that "Otis Redding is the best soul singer that ever existed" could anyone disagree with that? I mean if you're not Al Green, David Ruffin, Wilson Pickett or Marvin Gaye, could you?  And if you mention D'Angelo or Mayer Hawthorne I'm going to throw something heavy at your head. Seriously. You should duck.

Unfortunately Redding's life was tragically cut short in a 1967 airplane crash that also killed most of the Bar-Kays. So we never got to hear everything that he was capable of doing.  He was really just getting started. I don't listen to a lot of modern R&B. One reason I don't, besides a generalized distaste for pseudo-disco, excessive melisma, synths and drum machines, is that I just haven't heard many modern male singers that have the kind of power and control that was exemplified by classic soul singers and most particularly Otis Redding. He was nicknamed "The Big O". (He stood 6-4 though judging by how some women carried on at his concerts there may have been other reasons for that sobriquet)

Otis Redding was actually discovered when he was working as a a roadie for Johnny Jenkins. After a session he stuck around the studio to sing and directed Steve Cropper to play the piano. The song was These Arms of Mine. Various musicians were impressed, joined in and the rest as they say is history. You couldn't write a better Hollywood story than that. The funny thing is that Redding started out singing gospel and for a while was a Little Richard wannabe, even touring with Little Richard's band. Go figure.

Redding had a natural baritone voice that was quite well suited for countrified soul ballads of aching and loneliness. This dovetailed perfectly the needs of Stax Records and evidently quite a few sixties era music fans. Redding was also the hardest of the hard soul singers. He gave everything he had in every performance. The amount of energy he expended was truly frightening.  Some people then and now thought that Redding was guilty of "over-souling". Well maybe. He was after all a performer. But my take is that compared to his contemporaries and certainly compared to what passes for R&B today Redding was an essentially honest performer.



Otis Redding and The Bar-Kays

Redding wasn't just a passive recipient of whatever songs the record company deemed appropriate but was an active songwriter, producer, arranger, musician and bandleader. Although he playfully joked that "that little girl stole my song", he was the writer of Respect, which Aretha Franklin took to number 1 in 1967. Redding grew up singing gospel and was primarily influenced by Little Richard and Sam Cooke. The list of singers, songwriters and musicians he influenced is too long to start. Redding's death and MLK's murder a short time later would bring an end to the first incarnation of Stax records.

It's sad that Redding didn't live to do more. All we have is five short years of some of the most beautiful soul music that was ever created. Redding did tearjerking ballads, updated blues, dance music and even some of the funk that was starting to emerge. He had been to England and had his ears open to some of the new sounds coming from there. Who knows what he would have done in the seventies and beyond. But that's life. As Jimi Hendrix said,  "The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye." 

These Arms of Mine  Try a Little Tenderness  I love you more than words can say

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag  I've been loving you too long (Live at Monterey)
Pain in My Heart  Hard to Handle  Tramp (with Carla Thomas)   That's how strong my love is
For Your Precious Love  Shake  Sitting on The Dock of The Bay

ZZ TOP                                                                               

We bad. We Nationwide!!!

ZZ Top is a blues-rock trio that started in 1969. It's comprised of Billy Gibbons (guitar/vocals), Dusty Hill (bass/vocals) and Frank Beard (drums). The group has been through stylistic and sonic changes but has always kept at least one foot planted firmly in the blues. ZZ Top is just as well known today for copious facial hair, redneck shtick and cowboys from outer space stage attire as they are known for their music but this is a con. Gibbons is an extremely skilled blues-rock guitarist (listen to Sure got cold after the rain fell or the otherworldly gospel slide on I want to drive you home). His vocals, however, are best described as an acquired taste. Gibbons combines a deep and very thick Texas twang of mid century white American provenance (his natural speaking voice) with archaic black southern slang or other accents he picked up. This occasionally can come across as aural blackface.

The author Charles Shaar Murray once called ZZ Top the perfect band for "people who were crazy about blues but weren't crazy about black people playing them".  It's true ZZ Top has been far more financially successful than any black blues artist. But with few exceptions ZZ Top was diligent about giving proper (i.e. paid) credit to those who influenced them or whose music they covered. Gibbons always proudly speaks of being influenced by such musicians as BB King (who inspired the band's name), John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, Bo Diddley, Buck Owens, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Jones and many others. Famously, Gibbons opened for Hendrix, who showed him a few licks and said that Gibbons would go far.

ZZ Top did not begin their career with cover tunes. Their first album consisted of technically original but dreadfully dull derivative boogie rock numbers lacking any rhythmic bounce. Their second album was better. It was their third album, Tres Hombres, which made them commercially viable and revealed that Hendrix was correct when he predicted Gibbons would be the next big thing. The standout song from Tres Hombres was La Grange (which was heavily influenced by both John Lee Hooker's Boogie Children and Slim Harpo's Shake Your Hips ) and told the story -one of many by Gibbons- of a trip to a house of ill repute. La Grange featured two guitar solos-the second of which was crammed full of pinch harmonics -those squealing noises that Gibbons used better than any guitarist not named Roy Buchanan or Eddie Van Halen.

The eighties saw ZZ Top reach new levels of fame/prosperity, when, inspired by such non-blues performers as Prince, Devo and Depeche Mode they released the Eliminator album. Eliminator featured drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. It was dance music- ZZ Top style. It probably didn't impress people who had grown up listening to James Brown or P-Funk but it was a huge pop hit. Eliminator made ZZ Top MTV icons although their older blues/rock crowd initially didn't like it. Post-Eliminator the band repeated the synth sound to diminishing returns until the nineties. They started doing frequent "back to basics" albums that never quite recaptured the urgency of their early seventies sound. Unfortunately they also began recording much louder.


Gibbons may not be the world's best songwriter but frequently he writes a really good blues/rock song. The group couldn't have written songs like Woke up with Wood if they didn't have a (often ironic) sense of humor. ZZ Top never takes itself too seriously and neither should you. Enjoy and Get it On sounds like something Muddy Waters would have written only faster while Cheap Sunglasses is a fun piece which shows Dusty Hill was listening to funk. Avalon Hideaway combines George Jones-type vocals with inventive drumming. Sharp Dressed Man imagines Elmore James meets techno.

Enjoy and Get it On   Sharp Dressed Man  Legs  Avalon Hideaway
Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell   Cheap Sunglasses  Blue Jean Blues
I want to Drive You Home  Waiting on a Bus/Jesus just left Chicago
I Thank You (cover of Sam and Dave song)   I Thank You (Original Sam and Dave version) I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

The Velvetones

I think many people can relate to the lyrics of Glory of Love. The beautiful thing about well written songs is that they can touch something in everyone if you listen. The Velvetones didn't write this song but I think their version is the definitive one. The rap that they did in the middle of the song is bittersweet and funny at the same time. My brother described it as a love letter as written by Sam Kinison. I don't know much about this group or have any of their 45's or albums (if they did any). But I do have several doo-wop collections that feature this song. It was also on the Casino film soundtrack. Melody of Love is also a sweet little number that is bluesy and very positive. Again, who can't relate to Melody of Love?  It's just a truly beautiful song. I thought with Valentine's Day approaching it would be a nice way to end this post with two songs that speak to the emotions that love brings.
Glory of Love    Melody of Love

Super Bowl Commercial: Republican Racism or Fair Criticism?

There is a honest way to criticize the role that China plays today in our world-its devotion to mercantilism, its general refusal to protect US intellectual property rights, its contribution to climate change, its currency manipulation, its reliance on cheap labor and repressive central government. However Michigan Republican senatorial candidate (and former congressman) Pete Hoekstra decided not to make any of those thoughtful arguments in his campaign ad attacking Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow. No, Hoekstra went for the more visceral approach.

And so far Hoesktra is holding firm in defending the ad. Hoekstra is not exactly known for being union-friendly but Michigan is a state which has not had much benefit from "globalization". Whether it be foreign students in Michigan universities, foreign car sales threatening the health of the Big Three, or US companies packing up and moving their entire operation overseas, globalization and outsourcing are epithets around here. Still, Hoekstra HAD to know that such an ad would bring commentary and disgust, which may well be what he wanted. He is claiming that his detractors are the ones bringing race into the discussion, not him. I think this is kind of like repeating the children's ditty about Chinese and Coca-Cola and being surprised and offended that anyone is actually, well , offended. The other issue in the background is that once these sorts of feelings get aroused and exploited, who knows where they can end up.

King said it's too early in the campaign to know what kind of impact the ad  will have politically. It depends, she said, on whether he can neutralize the fallout and how the opposition uses it.
There was one immediate effect. Washtenaw County Commissioner Alicia Ping on Monday was so offended by the ad she donated money to Hoekstra opponent Clark Durant's campaign."For him not to know that this is unacceptable, either he doesn't care or he doesn't get it," said the Saline Republican, who is Chinese-American.

On Monday, Hoekstra stood by the $144,000 statewide ad buy, blaming the "left" for bringing up racial concerns to divert the conversation from the real issue he was pushing of Democratic incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow's spending record.
"We're stereotyping here the American left who's more than willing to spend, spend, spend," Hoekstra told a group of supportive voters in Birmingham on Monday morning. "This is why they're angry. They're not angry about stereotyping the Chinese. They don't care."
Hoekstra said he wanted to be "bold" and "daring" and he urged supporters to explain to friends that it's his opponent who is "politically incorrect."  "Debbie is spending your money, and your kids' and your grandkids' money. That's politically incorrect," he said. 

Nick De Leeuw, a Michigan GOP consultant, scolded Hoekstra's spot on Facebook: "Racism and xenophobia aren't any way to get things done." TV host Lou Dobbs said on Fox News that Hoekstra is "doing a terrific job" at defining results of public policy choices.

SOURCE

QUESTIONS
1) Do you find this offensive? If not, why?
2) Is China's economic relationship with the US a fair topic to discuss?
3) How would you re-work this ad if you were a consultant?

Book Reviews-The Heroes, Johannes Cabal, Running on Race, Angry Moon

The Heroes
Joe Abercrombie has taken a buzz saw to the normal heroic fantasy conventions. Abercrombie is a DEEPLY cynical writer who is quite interested in hypocrisy and evil. Few characters are good and those that try to be usually end up worse off. He maxed this out in his last book, Best Served Cold, and it was a bit too much. Too ugly.

He thankfully backs off slightly from his trademark cynicism in The Heroes, which is set in the same universe as his previous works. The Heroes is about a three day battle between the forces of the North (think 11th century Vikings, Scots and Celts) and the Union (think 16th century England/France/Holy Roman Empire) at a hill known as, what else, The Heroes.

Who started the war is not important. That both sides are being manipulated by shadowy callous wizards isn't important. What is important is Abercrombie's meditations on the nature of violence, the randomness of war, his examinations of what it means to be a good man, and his questions about whether people can really change. Some folks try to change while others think it's too late or are trapped by their personas. You can't exactly start preaching mercy and nonviolence if you're King of the North and known for burning enemies alive. 


Abercombie keeps the reader enthralled from the accidental beginning of the battle in which Northmen on opposite sides use familial connections and professional courtesy to avoid bloodshed to the battle's end in which a few weary survivors wonder if all the carnage was worth anything. Some of this reads like a Vietnam or Korea war journal. In one particularly majestic passage Abercrombie splits the POV between 6 different soldiers as they fight and die in turn. Usually though the story is told from the multiple POV's of a disgraced Union leader who wants to reclaim his good name by killing as many Northmen as he can, the ambitious woman he loves (she's married to someone else), a low level veteran soldier who is more interested in surviving than fighting and on the Northern side: a callow recruit who can't wait to make a name for himself, the previous Northern King's cowardly son who wants his father's throne back and a few Named Men.

The Named Men are all warriors who have done battlefield deeds of particular valor, total stupidity or incredible wickedness. Thus they have won the right to a nickname that commemorates their deeds or their actual nature. Some are true to their word, others can't be trusted one bit but most share a dedication to violence that is noticeable even by the standards of the casually brutal North. 


These men (and one woman) are the hardest of the hard and lead at least a dozen followers into battle. For example, the Named Woman is known as Wonderful, because as a young girl she led village resistance to marauders and personally killed four of them. The leader of the arriving relief force said it was wonderful strange that a woman would do such a thing. Others are known as Shivers (he was also in Best Served Cold), Straight Edge Craw (known as the last honest man in the North), Cracknut Whirrun (who fights without armor because as he proudly boasts "Armour is part of a state of mind in which you admit the possibility of being hit."), Stranger-Come-Knocking and several other ominous or seemingly farcical names.


After a particularly horrific day one person asks the wizard on their side why he doesn't use magic to bring the battle to a conclusion. The wizard contemptuously responds that magic is the art of making something act against its nature but that there is nothing more natural than men killing each other so why should he bother to lift a finger. 
Keeping the POV to a minimum helped with pacing. The Heroes had the requisite amount of action and gore but a surprising bit of pathos and even humor. As always Abercormbie has a few surprises in store. He looks behind the tropes he uses so well to say some interesting things about human nature. It's almost All Quiet on the Western Front for the fantasy crowd.


Johannes Cabal The Necromancer
by Jonathan Howard

This book is a mashup of Faust, Wicked and Something Wicked This Way Comes. 

Johannes Cabal has long ago sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for sorcerous power but discovers that the lack of a soul is interfering with his ghastly experiments. So he travels to Hell in order to retrieve his soul from Satan, who not unsurprisingly, takes the viewpoint that a deal is a deal.

"Now, as I've already said I can't start giving souls back willy-nilly or else I'll never hear the end of it. There'd be a queue from here to Tartarus of ne'er-do-wells whinging and whining and wringing their hands and I get enough of that at the best of times..."

Nevertheless, since the Devil is nothing else if not a gambler, He agrees to return Cabal's soul to him if Cabal can, within one year entice another hundred people to sell their souls to the Devil. In order to assist with this the Devil gives him an enchanted carnival with which to entrap foolish people.

Of course both the Devil and Cabal have some secret interests and things hidden up their sleeve which they "forgot" to tell each other about. Cabal is assisted by his older brother, Horst, whom Johannes accidentally turned into a vampire in another experiment gone wrong.  To say the least, Horst is not exactly happy with this turn of events. He is even less pleased to have been locked in a cemetery by Johannes, who claims to have been looking for a cure. Sibling resentments between a vampire and necromancer can be dangerous, if not for the brothers then for those around them. The book has a sort of steampunk feel to it.  Based on their names, Horst and Johannes seem to be German but it's difficult to say exactly when or where the action takes place. It doesn't matter a whole lot once you get into it. The book is written in a very sardonic tone, not unlike that of Terry Pratchett or Simon Green but a little darker. It's occasionally humorous but rarely hilarious. Cabal is a self-centered, egotistical, immensely practical man who doesn't suffer fools lightly. Cabal doesn't seemingly have a conscience. It was probably long gone before he lost his soul. Cabal's choices may rub the reader the wrong way. They certainly offend his brother.

Running on Race

by Jeremy Mayer
As we approach another Presidential election we see the requisite dog whistles by both the incumbent and his would be challengers to bring out their base voters. This book looks back at the racial rhetoric and winks employed in presidential elections from 1960 to 2000. You could argue that not much has changed besides the names. Bottom line is that politicians need to go where the votes are. The much ballyhooed browning of the electorate is not happening as fast as some people would like or as others fear but it does reveal that the Republican national party doesn't feel it needs to or can appeal to black voters. This means that often Republican candidates must appeal to the fears of the party's Caucasian base-whether it's Gingrich talking about food stamps and entitlements, Santorum claiming he doesn't want to give black blah people other people's money, or Cain claiming that black people were brainwashed.

Mayer puts the tipping point of explicit unabashed Republican appeals to white racial fears roughly around the 1976 election. After that point in time Mayer argues that the black vote generally stopped mattering to Republicans. As a result of being freed from such moderation,  Republicans were free to ignore the black voter. This enabled some Republican candidates to make a more or less direct plea to whites through such seemingly neutral but racially charged words as "states rights", "neighborhood schools", "welfare queens/bucks", "food stamps", "law and order", "affirmative action", and other descriptions which fed into the idea that "the blacks" as Donald Trump might say, are an undifferentiated mass of lazy, hypersexed, violent, low income and low iq people who extort things that they don't deserve from good, decent, (white) folk. It's doubtful that most national Republicans really believed all of this but they DID want to win. And on the other hand when Republicans did attempt to make outreach to black voters their attempts were (unfairly?) dismissed as inauthentic or grandstanding, such as Reagan's visit to the South Bronx.

Of course this strategy worked pretty well all things considered for Republicans nationally even though the Northeast Republican declined and fell as a viable force within the party after the seventies (could Mitt Romney be leading a comeback?).

This strategy also had negative effects on the Democratic Party. Democrats sought to appeal to the new Black voters but had to walk a tightrope of declining support and outright derision from working class, blue collar whites who rightly or wrongly often saw the Democrats as being too close to black people. This need to regain a competitive footing among whites, especially blue collar whites who had often voted Democratic in alignment with their economic interest, led to the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council as well as a few calculated decisions by white Democratic politicians (Clinton) to distance themselves in the public eye from Black people or "Black" interests.

Mayer discusses all of this and more. He brings out how Presidential politics may make even a relatively honest man say things he may not believe or refuse to hear things he does believe in order to win an election. I think 1976 is too late as a tipping point but Mayer marshals an impressive amount of evidence to support his arguments.

Angry Moon
by Terrill Lankford

This is a short book that combines noir, a love story and the supernatural in a melange that shouldn't really work. Surprisingly though it does. Imagine The Godfather meets Apocalypse Now with just a dash of Wuthering Heights, The Big Sleep and some Hammer horror films thrown in. Although this sort of thing has become old hat now, back in the late nineties when this book was written it wasn't cliched yet. Anyway the story concerns a truly professional and deadly hitman known as Ry Caulder. Ry has a soft spot for women and children. He does not torture. He does not kill innocents. He does not mutilate or send messages. He just removes bad people from this world-quickly, painlessly and permanently. Caulder knows he's an evil man but in his environment he's (pun intended) a straight shooter. He has an unblemished reputation for reliability and honesty. You get what you pay for with Caulder. He's on time and thorough. Always. He is the best. He does not miss. 


His primary client is the LA Mafia family-which has mostly gone legitimate and underground. It seems however that there are a few loose ends which the Family needs Caulder to tie up. One of these "loose ends" is a man Caulder trained in the line of wetwork. Caulder doesn't like it but business is business and he does the job. Deciding that he's had enough, Caulder talks about retiring but the Family insists Caulder do one last job-that of his mentor, a legendary hitman known as Fredrickson, who was about the closest thing to a father that Caulder had. Fredrickson, always more brutal and savage than Caulder, has killed some people-including innocents-that the Family didn't want killed.  It looks like Fredrickson has hooked up with the Colombian cartels to make a move on Family interests. Now the Family wants Caulder to punch Fredrickson's ticket. 

Caulder doesn't want to do this but the Family makes him an offer he can't refuse. He does the job but is shocked to find Frederickson still alive the next day. He repeats this but gets the same results. And now Frederickson is coming after Caulder, the Family, and Caulder's sexy but naive next door neighbor, Stephanie, a single mother and would be actress, on whom the cold, ascetic and lonely Caulder has a serious crush. 


Although the supernatural elements are hinted at in the prologue they are very slowly revealed throughout the story in a most plausible manner. And if you've ever wondered what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, this book's theory is as good as any. Caulder can't understand why Frederickson won't stay dead and when he puts it together he doesn't want to believe it. I liked this book.  You might as well. It deftly balances the different aspects which I mentioned above.

Movie Reviews- Red Tails, Kill List and more

Red Tails

Ok, first things first about Red Tails, because this has been going around the blog-o-sphere a bit. There are no black women in Red Tails. A few are shown in photographs. One man has a relationship with a local white (actually more olive) woman. They kiss and apparently (it is after all a PG-13 film not R) do the do. Imagine that!! A man away from home and a woman with no men around actually find each other attractive. If that bothers you enough to make you clutch your pearls in shock and not want to see the movie then that's that. To each their own.  Keep your race pure, fight the power, skip the movie.


Red Tails is not a great movie. It has some rather serious pacing and script problems. This was the director's (Anthony Hemingway) big screen debut. It's not overly surprising that the dialogue is stilted with a decidedly small screen feel. Many actors are people you will recognize from The Wire, which is where the director was from.
As you already know from the hype, reaction and criticism Red Tails tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, African American fighter pilots of the WW2 AAF who had to battle segregation, an intensely hostile officer brass and media scorn to be able to make a contribution to the war effort.

Fighter pilot movies come with built in limitations. As the men are wearing flight masks and/or helmets during battles, there's not any room there for deep expressive acting, nor is the target audience for these movies generally interested in such. The time for acting is when they are on the ground. Usually such movies have to paint the actors in very broad strokes very quickly so that they can get back to the action. Red Tails tries to do this but fails with all but two or three of the actors.


There's Easy (Nate Parker) the conflicted and self-pitying flight leader who is measuring himself against his father; Lightning (David Oyelowo) his hot tempered second-in-command who is the best fighter pilot in the squadron but who constantly questions orders and rages against segregation; Deacon (Marcus Paulk) a simple minded country dude who thinks religion will get him through the war unscathed; Ray-Gun (Tristan Wilds) a mild mannered young man who REALLY hates being called Junior and a few others who kind of blend together. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terence Howard portray the unit's top leaders. Andre Royo (best known as Bubbles on The Wire) shows up as a caustic and demanding mechanic. Royo's role is small but he brings gravitas. But with a great many actors in the film, it was obvious they were "acting". That's never a good thing. I blame the script.

Oyelowo was a dead ringer for either my Dad or Uncle as younger men. So I was already positively disposed to him. He also had the best role and did the most with what he had. He can definitely point to this film as good work. The others, ehhhh. Again, the director made this movie feel too much like TV. Scenes ended much too quickly. I was halfway expecting "Tune in next week" or " Lysol works best on tough dirt" after some transitions.

The action was pretty good, if very obviously CGI. It would have been nice to focus more on that. It was exciting to imagine flying in a wedge formation and needing to be aware of your surroundings at all times, while all the while both your enemies and your friends are blasting away at each other with .50 caliber machine guns and 30mm cannon. That took skills, nerve, and dedication. Lucas delivers on that-not as much as Star Wars but enough. For a few glorious moments you are in the cockpit of a P-51: young, brash and deadly, challenging a German destroyer all by yourself. Rumble young man, rumble. 


Because this was largely aimed at a younger audience, Lucas and Hemingway simplify things too much. The racists are largely cartoonish. The movie does not explain that at this time the racists had the full force of military and civilian law behind them. Where as Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna spent a bit too much time on flashback, Red Tails could have used a flashback or two of some romance, a family memory or some experience of the Jim Crow South.
All in all this movie was fun but not super high quality. I would say a solid 5 out of 10. I am glad the story was told again. I hope this film does well financially. Positive portrayals of black heroics are rare. Seems like this should have been a summer movie. If you like war movies this is just an ok film. If you don't like war movies you won't care for this. Again the primary audience for this movie is teen boys or people who used to be teen boys. And that's fine.
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Kill List

Movies like Kill List are often called a thinking man's horror movie with the implicit suggestion that the more intelligent people will like this movie while the bovine masses will wander off in search of the latest Saw or Final Destination installment. Well there is something to be said for movies that make you think, no doubt about that. But movies also do better with a clear theme. Kill List stands right at the intersection of those two descriptions.
The director had something to say but I'm not sure he really got his message across. In some ways this film was reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby or some other more artistic horror films. It's very weirdly atmospheric and interspersed with brutal violence. If you're in the mood for something definitely outre, this could work for you.

A former British soldier who is now a contract killer, Jay (Neil Maskell) ekes out a hand to mouth existence with his beautiful but argumentative Swedish wife Shel (Myanna Buring) and their son. Shel will go upside Jay's head quicker than Elin Nordegren with a nine iron. Money is low. Evidently something went really wrong on a job in Kiev. Jay doesn't like to talk about it. Jay's former Army buddy Gal (Michael Smiley) shows up for dinner with his odd new girlfriend. He has a new job-one that's supposed to be pretty easy and pays well. After some more disputes with Shel, Jay agrees to take the job. There is a list of people who Jay and Gal must kill. Things get odd as these people seem to know Jay and don't resist their murders.

Jay starts to get more and more violent as the murders go from quick eliminations to very brutal and bloody messes. And why is Gal's enigmatic girlfriend talking to Shel? And what's up with the strange symbols popping up in some of their victims' effects and Jay's house? And who killed Jay's cat?
This really was a throwback to some of the best of Hammer movies, before they declined. However the film was in part based on the director's nightmares and it shows. Also the English and Irish accents are very strong which is usually not a problem for me but the dialogue and ambient sound are not mixed properly. The conversation among characters is exceedingly hard to follow. As a result this is probably a movie you'd have to watch a few times to really understand the strange ending. The problem is you might not care enough to do that.
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I'm through with white girls(The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks)

Although Tyler Perry has become for better or worse the only commercially (albeit not critically) successful black filmmaker who regularly examines relationships, it didn't have to be that way. Perhaps if more people had seen this film recent black film history might be very different.

Jennifer Sharp directed this deliberately quirky independent movie. It is worth checking out. Sharp created this film in a very short period of time for a very small budget but it really doesn't feel cheap.

Jay Brooks (Anthony Montgomery) is a Black American graphics novel artist/writer -DON'T call his work comic books as he will cut you- who exclusively dates Caucasian American or European women. He seems to view this as fitting in with his non-stereotypical lifestyle. He has a white roommate. Jay does not march to the drum of what is considered popular within mainstream black culture. He's a horrible dancer, is not into rap and is certainly no one's idea of a tall dark and handsome Mandingo warrior stereotype.

Although Jay claims indifference that some people (including some of his white paramours ) question his essential blackness, in truth he is somewhat worried about/insulted by this. Jay is however, more concerned that every single relationship he has doesn't last. Sometimes he's the dumpee but mostly he's the dumper. Wondering if he has gone over to the white side too much Jay decides to give black women the benefit of his company. This doesn't go well until he meets Catherine Williamson (Lia Johnson-who was also a producer of the film), a beautiful black bohemian author who doesn't like to do public readings of her work because of her stereotypically Caucasian "Valley Girl" sounding voice. 

As stories of this type usually do, the movie follows a theme of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy must change and grow and face either a happy ending or tragic parting. I enjoyed this movie. It showed what you can do with a little bit of money, a good script and a lot of determination.
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Things Behind the Sun

Everyone has bad things in their past. Some are worse than others. It is a cliche that some of us are so damaged that we're frozen or stunted while others seemingly let the most horrific events roll off of them like water off a duck's back. Everyone is different. Certain folks need a kick in the butt and a stern reminder to drop the self-pity. Others simply have to work through things at a slower pace that may take years. It is true though that we are all the sum of our experiences and for better or worse those experiences shape how we view the world and engage it.

Things behind the Sun is a raw powerful movie despite dipping into or even wallowing in some of these cliches. I wouldn't even call them cliches at this point; they're more tropes. The movie starts out detailing the messed up life of rock singer/songwriter Sherry McGrale (Kim Dickens) who, despite the fact that her hit song is moving up the charts at warp speed, spends a great deal of time engaging in self-destructive boozing and partying. This behavior always comes to a crescendo at the same time every year, when she normally can be found passed out drunk at the exact same Florida house. This time Sherry is ordered to attend AA meetings and so it makes national news.

Her song (it's about rape) comes to the attention of a music magazine editor (Rosanna Arquette) who dispatches young writer Owen (Gabriel Mann) to interview Sherry and get some background info on where/how she grew up and who her inspirations were-the usual music stuff. Owen has to get past Sherry's protective manager/on-again and off-again boyfriend Chuck, a harried and paranoid Don Cheadle.

But Owen is not really looking forward to this assignment because he and Sherry grew up together. He already knows all too well what inspired her song. You can probably guess where this is going-the writer and director Allison Anders based it in part upon events in her life.

This film was extremely hard to watch at times but that was the point I guess. This is NOT a film for kids or for anyone who can't watch events depicting extreme brutality and betrayal. Unlike The Accused, this doesn't come across as overtly political or shrill. This is a much more personal story. The predominant emotion is sadness. Evil is shown not only to have negative impacts on the object but also on the actor(s) and those who encounter the victim later in life. And if we run across people that are pure evil, even as we strive to remove them from our life or remove them from the planet there can still be a twinge of regret for wasted talent.

This was another independent film with limited budget and short schedule but it matches up in both looks and story with any big budget movie. Eric Stoltz, Elizabeth Pena, Patsy Kensit, and CCH Pounder also star. If people really want to understand what evil is, this movie shows it without flinching.

Free Birth Control!!! (Whether you want it or not)

Conversation between Federal Government and citizen.

Maybe I should use a different finger to make my point

Well hello there subject citizen! I’m here to help you. From now on all of your birth control pills are gonna be free!! No co-pays or deductibles. Isn’t that special? You can thank me later.

What’s that friend? You say you don’t need or use birth control pills? Hmm. Well that’s no problem because future HIV screenings, breast pumps, sterilization procedures, domestic violence counseling and screening, well-woman tests, and STD counseling are gonna be free!!! Isn’t that wonderful? Aren't you just quivering with joy and gratitude? I know I would be. 

Oh. You say you’re an XY human being and not an XX human being. Well see I’m afraid these benefits apply only to people with XX chromosomes.  You XY's will just have to continue to pay on your own for gender specific issues. I think that’s fair. Since I’m the Federal government, what I say goes. I got your equal protection right here pal.

Ehh. Speak up sonny it’s hard to hear you with my head in the clouds. Oh, you say you have firm and deeply felt religious, financial or moral objections to paying for other people’s birth control? I thought we went over this before. That’s just too bad partner. Life is not fair. I think it’s a good idea. You will just have to violate your religious objections. What’s the big deal anyway?  So your premiums rise so that other people can have “free” birth control? It’s “free” to them isn’t it? And that’s a heck of a selling point, you must admit.

Yes I know that virtually all plans already provide birth control, 99% of women who have had sex have used at least one contraceptive method, impoverished women are covered by Medicaid and most teen mothers said lack of access to birth control was not a problem. I read that new study which showed that higher income women (who were presumably paying co-pays for their birth control) had much lower rates of unplanned pregnancies than poor women (who were often covered by Medicaid)  So? Shouldn't you be ecstatic to pay more so that they can pay less? Stop mumbling about the inefficiency of subsidizing something someone was already doing.

Oh cut out that blubbering. So you have diabetes or colon cancer or prostate cancer or black lung or heart disease or optic neuritis or MS or Parkinson's or high cholesterol or obesity or any number of other LIFE THREATENING conditions. Tell it to someone who cares. You will still have to pay out of pocket for office visits and co-pays for medications related to preventing or treating those conditions. Those diseases either disproportionately impact men or impact men and women equally. I certainly can’t preen as the great savior of women’s health if I’m trying to reduce costs for both genders now can I sport? Any of this getting through to you kid?

Yes, that's right, everyone has the absolute individual right to use or not use birth control as they see fit. I'm glad you're finally seeing the light there buddy. I knew this would get through your thick skull eventually!! We agree on something. Finally!!

I want YOU to pay for birth control

Eh. No. Just because everyone has the individual right to use or not use birth control as they see fit doesn't mean that you have the individual right to pick a plan that doesn't include birth control OR that you have the individual right not to pay for other people's birth control. They have the right to choose; you have the duty to pay for their choices. What are you some sort of nutty libertarian? How dare you express preference as to what goods and services you want to buy with your own money. You say you have nothing against anyone using birth control you just don't want them to reach into your pocket to pay for it? Stop oppressing me with logic. The same people who smugly shout if you don't like abortion don't have one also say if you don't need birth control pay for mine anyway. And that makes all the sense in the world to me. Yes it sure does. No I won't explain how.

Say you'll sue? Yeah, so what I just lost in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC where I tried to argue that there was no ministerial exception to federal employment laws. That's a completely different case. I don't see any issue with church and state coming together as long as the state gets to tell the church what to do. And I do so love telling churches what to do. I know I said if you liked your health plan you could keep it but you know I said a lot of things. And stop whining about the Amish or Christian Scientists getting religious exemptions. I like them. You, I don't like.

So you say you might drop insurance coverage or close up shop rather than pay for coverage that violates your deeply held ethical, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs? Well that is a road you don't want to travel down my friend. If you're smart you'll get with the program. I have this handy dandy new indefinite detention law that I can't wait to try out. Go ahead. I dare you. I double dare you. I double DOG dare you.

QUESTIONS
1) Do you think the new HHS policy is a good thing? If so why?
2) If people who object decide to pay fines or drop coverage what should the Federal government do?
3) Is this a threat to religious freedom and/or freedom of conscience?
4) Do you recognize the "double DOG dare" reference?

Music Reviews-Songs in the Key of Life, Hardcore Jollies and Etta James

Songs in the Key of Life

Stevie Wonder is often considered to be a genius. I can't call if but if he is then Songs in the Key of Life is the release that proves it. He had never created anything as fantastic before and would never do anything as sublime afterwards. This is without a doubt the best release Wonder ever created, a top ten seventies album and arguably one of the best albums of all time.
Growing up, I listened to this album obsessively. It was one of the few current pop albums that my parents also loved. There were many times that I would come home to hear this album playing. So it brings back a ton of good memories. Wonder's writing here is top notch. Listening to it makes you think why can't people write lyrics like that today? His love songs get the point across without getting lost in explicit descriptions. The blues and protest songs are angry and direct but don't slide off into pity or hatred. 

I can't really compare this album to many others, inside Wonder's work or out of it. It transcends simple comparisons. I don't listen to a lot of modern music because I generally find it soulless and lacking in rhythm with too many electronics but Wonder proved back in 1976 that electronics and modern sounds didn't necessarily have to impede soul or rhythm. The album is seamless-literally. There is no way to tell if or when Wonder transitions from playing almost all the instruments himself to working with a full band or if he is recording live in studio. He combined the most up to date synthesizers and electronic orchestration with skilled talented band members, great song writing and really warm mixing and production. There are too many session musicians to mention but some special guests included luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Minnie Ripperton, Syreeta Wright, Dorothy Ashby, George Benson and Deniece Williams.


Sonically juxtapose this album to almost anything released after say 1990 and notice the difference in recording volume. Songs in the Key of Life is recorded very warmly with a full rich sound. You can hear everything and nothing is too loud. Modern music is often recorded way too loudly which gives a sterility that thankfully is nowhere to be found on this album.

At a time when many contemporaries were either turning amps up to 11 and playing the simplest blues riffs they could steal, or boasting about not even being able to play their instruments, or running pell mell into disco, Wonder showed that there was still room for someone who took music seriously and didn't let cynicism dominate his worldview.


Musically this album runs the gamut from the updated hardcore urban blues of Pastime Paradise and Village Ghetto Land to gospelized masterpieces like Joy Inside My Tears to jazz inspired tunes like Sir Duke , afropop like I am singing to pop ditties like I wish and If it's Magic  and Isn't She Lovely to R&B like As or Knocks me Off my feet to funk/rock like All Day Sucker or Contusion. There is literally not a bad song or filler on this release. That's unusual for any album let alone a double one. Double albums tend to be sprawling and virtually always have a few duds or indulgent navel gazing songs on them. Not so here. The quality control is incredibly high. Everyone should have this album. If you don't shame on you. Go out and get it. Now. If you do have it, take it out and listen to it. This album is medically proven to cure loneliness, confusion, depression, rage and melancholy.


Hardcore Jollies

Funkadelic was always the more outrageous, dangerous, rock oriented half of P-Funk, George Clinton's conglomeration of musicians, and this release lives up to that billing. Hardcore Jollies is "dedicated to the guitar players of the world" and proceeds to show why from the first cut, a demented take on Coming Round the Mountain.


After guitar legend Eddie Hazel left the band, he was replaced by a man known as "Kidd Funkadelic" -Michael Hampton. Although Hardcore Jollies was not Hampton's first outing with the band it may be -in my opinion-the one in which he had the most impact. It's hard to say. I like this album a lot but it is VERY heavy on guitar wanking. The man himself, Eddie Hazel also shows up to play on a few cuts. Unless you are a guitar junkie or completist collector this might not be an essential Funkadelic album for you. But if you LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE guitar then this album is a must-have. The only "hit" that is on this release is Cosmic Slop but to me that was more than worth the price. Of course to me almost anything P-Funk did in the seventies was more than worth the price so there's that.


Unfortunately by 1970's America, music critics, radio programmers, record companies, and most shamefully musicians and audiences that should have known better had begun to redefine "rock" so that the term excluded (with the exception of Hendrix and Chuck Berry) almost everything that any black musician ever created. Thus David Bowie or Talking Heads doing James Brown inspired music are still rock musicians but James Brown or Funkadelic? Nahhhh. This is silly, racist and most importantly untrue. Hardcore Jollies is a rock album. Period. As I mentioned it's full of extended nasty midrangy guitar solos played by Hazel and Hampton that sound like Godzilla and Mothra put aside their differences and decided to kick everybody else's a$$ for a change. Bootsy Collins and Cordell Mosson hold down the bottom end here. Hendrix Alum and drummer extraordinaire Buddy Miles also can be heard on this release. This album, sounds for lack of a better word, out there. There's judicious use of synths and reverb. Listening to it makes you feel like you entered another world. The lyrics are often explicit with plenty of double entendres. Check out Smokey and You Scared the Lovin Outta Me.

Etta James

Etta James passed away yesterday. Unfortunately some of the younger generation only knew her from her song At Last or from the film "Cadillac Records" which was full of exaggerations and artistic license (Etta James did NOT have a relationship with either of the Chess brothers-yes there were two, not just one) or as an older cantankerous woman who didn't appreciate Beyonce's versions of her songs or depiction of her life.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. All music is related. This is especially the case with African American music. And before say the late seventies, many black musicians grew up in an era, where although they may have eventually specialized in whatever genre their interest lay, they had to be able to acquit themselves well in a variety of different music styles. Jimi Hendrix backed up Wilson Pickett and Little Richard.  George Clinton started out singing doo-wop. Fred Wesley hit it big with James Brown but his true love was jazz. Jazz giant David Newman got his big break in Ray Charles' band. And Ray Charles played anything he damn well pleased.

This is the world in which Etta James grew up. She was comfortable singing in a wide variety of genres. I love blues but Etta James was more than a blues singer. She came in at a time and place when blues was both influenced by and transitioning to rock-n-roll, R&B and soul. She also had quite a way with pop and gospel songs. Ironically and sadly she died the same week as Johnny Otis (a Greek-American bandleader who for all intents and purposes decided to be black), the musician who "discovered" her. 

Back in the day there was a song called Work with me Annie by Hank Ballard. This was a pretty suggestive song because "working" was exactly what your dirty mind thinks it was. It was followed up, just in case any really dim person missed it, by a song titled Annie had a Baby, can't work no more. A teenaged Etta James sang an answer song titled Roll with me Henry and her career took off. If you haven't heard her sing you really missed a treat. She had struggles in life as we all do but her personal issues* aren't important to me. What is important is the incredible voice James had. She should have copyrighted the term "smoky alto".

Do yourself a big favor and take some time to listen to her sing Something's got a hold of me, Baby what you want me to do (in which she takes a vocal solo in which she imitates a harmonica), You can leave your hat on, I'd Rather go Blind,  Ball and Chain, A Sunday Kind of Love,  Only Women Bleed,  Fool That I am or many many more. You may be interested in her seventies album Only A Fool, which had very bass heavy production and was chock full of rock and soul covers aimed at the younger audience. There's also a cover of Prince's Purple Rain floating around there somewhere. I'm not a huge fan of her post eighties work but like a lot of people from the old school she worked until she couldn't any more. Much respect. Nothing against Beyonce or Aguilera or Adele or Joss Stone or whoever but this right here was the real deal.

*Fun fact-James was also known for not taking any stuff. In the Howlin' Wolf biography Moanin' at Midnight, the author describes an incident at a 1955 Apollo show where the lovestruck but then illiterate Wolf had someone write a note of sweet nothings to the seventeen year old James. James responded by confronting the 6-6 300lb Wolf and rudely rebuffing his advance in front of his entire band. "Old country man" was the nicest thing she said. Undeterred Wolf had someone write another note to take to her. James wrote back a note that was simple and sweet. "You m******f****! F*** you!!" At this point Wolf got mad. But he took the hint.