REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1962) — friday night fights at the movies!

September 9th, 2011 by Mr. C

Director: Ralph Nelson
Stars: Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris
Genre: boxing drama

This movie had a heavy hitting hollywood cast and they would prove to not disappoint! The story revolves around an aging pro heavyweight boxer, Mountain Rivera (Anthony Quinn) and his supporting team in the ring: manager-Maish (Jackie Gleason) & trainer-Army (Mickey Rooney). The film starts out with the young Cassius Clay (yes, the real Cassius Clay before the name change to Muhammad Ali) beating the pulp out of Mountain before knocking him down & out in a match in NYC. He gets a severe beatdown which forces Rivera to retire due to a grotesque eye injury much to his dismay. This film really had little to do with boxing instead it delves into the struggle of a man’s 2nd life after 17 years of nothing but fisticuffs in the ring. As Rivera beats himself up mentally on the reality of his education and job skills, Maish the sleazy manager (Jackie Gleason) tries to scheme a way into convincing Mountain towards a professional wrestling career as an American Indian character known as the “Fighting Chief”. A monkey wrench would get tossed into the plot when Mountain meets Miss Miller (Julie Harris), a counselor at the unemployment agency. She encourages him to interview for a job at the summer camp for kids. A sort of beauty and the beast relationship will soon simmer in the hot pot. However, Jackie Gleason would have his own agenda and most definitely will have a few condescending words for this lady of goodwill. Mickey Rooney’s character despises the selfish manager for the mind games he plays in order to dupe the soft hearted brute.

This black & white film contains a lot of colorful performances led by Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Julie Harris, & Mickey Rooney. The characters they portrayed instantly hooked me into the story. I felt total sympathy for Mountain Rivera as the “beast” looking to find himself after a career in the fight game with the help of the “beauty” at the unemployment agency. The selfish & conniving character played by Gleason will make you want to 5 knuckle sandwich the tube! A whole host of closeup shots of Mountain at his emotional points will help to convey his feeling of despair & frustration to the viewer. This movie will appeal to all, NOT just boxing fans! Go see this, y’all!

Tags: , ,
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)

John Doe played Sound Fix

September 8th, 2011 by chocko


John Doe played an intimate show to a few dozen people last night at a Brooklyn record store, Sound Fix Records. John is an original member of the legendary California punk band, X. You best get to steppin’ if you don’t own their first 2 albums…Los Angeles and Wild Gift. At least have those in your record collection. I walked in during soundcheck and heard some of “Burning House of Love” off the Ain’t Love Grand record. John sounded great and that song would be the only X song played later that night. The rain didn’t stop his fans from showing up to see him play some songs of his new album, Keeper on Yep Roc Records. It’s his 8th solo album and it’s got 12 brand new tracks of laid back, mature rock and roll tunes. You won’t find any punk rock songs on the record, but the second track, “Never Enough” a song about hoarding, does get a bit rowdy. Cindy Wasserman provided backup vocals for the in-store performance. She’s got a great voice and she sings on a bunch of tracks on the new album, but do check her out in her own band from California, Dead Rock West. John shot down a request of X’s “4th Of July” but he did play “Golden State” which was a highlight of the night.

SET LIST
Handsome Devil
Burning House of Love
Little Tiger
Don’t Forget How Much I Love You
This Far
Golden State
Never Enough
Giant Step Backward



Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in music | Comments (0)

street art nyc

September 8th, 2011 by chocko


Creepy on 145 Ludlow St.

Nanook + Gaia collaboration on 145 Ludlow St.

YOK on 145 Ludlow St.

JR on Grand St.

JR on Wooster St.

photos by chocko

Tags: , , ,
Posted in art, photos | Comments (0)

The Great Buster Keaton

September 8th, 2011 by Mr. C


The Film Forum in NYC ran all day screenings of Buster Keaton silent films on labor day monday so you know I had to get out to see at least a few of his gems! What really added to the appeal of this event was the live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner on all of the films! It was a real treat to hear Sterner set the mood scene by scene upon his tempo and style of play! The experience of watching a silent film with live music definitely gave it a retro vibe. I’ve been a Buster Keaton fan since the early 1980’s when Jackie Chan mentioned that Keaton’s physical comedy is what really influenced him to incorporate self deprecating slapstick with unbelievable stunts to his own peking opera-kung fu background! From then on, I began to discover what a genious, Buster Keaton was as an artist, performer, & director!

Steamboat Bill Jr. was one of the features I saw at the Film Forum and it’s easily one of my favorites! There were plenty of scenes in that movie that still amazes me to this day! Buster plays a college kid on school break enroute to meet his father (Ernest Torrence), a captain of a paddle wheel boat known as the Stonewall Jackson which makes its daily rounds on the Mississippi river. The problem is he hasn’t seen his boy since he was a baby so he has no clue what he looks like. All Bill Sr. knows when he picks up Jr (Buster Keaton) at the train station is that he is wearing a white carnation. Unfortunately, every young lad seems to be donning a white carnation at the station! This will lead to a whole host of chuckles! They eventually would cross paths! The diminuitive Bill Jr tugs along his ukelele while sporting a french style hat as opposed to the usual ‘pork pie’ look that we are all accustomed to seeing him in. This is not exactly the son that the big rough & tough man of the mississipi pictured his son to be. Jr also has a fancy for a young lady that happens to be the daughter of the owner of a competing luxury boat targeting to put the Stonewall out of business! The two fathers will most certainly have conflicts! Sr goes berzerk and soon finds himself behind bars! The events that follow will prove that Bill Jr is not just any ordinary clumsy fool. He’s a fool with integrity and good luck with the blessing of newton’s law of gravity always by his side! Some outstanding stunts/scenes from the movie includes the crazy storm sequence that teared down houses like they were toys as Buster was swept away! The scene that everyone links to Keaton is when the whole front side of a building falls down on him but fortunately the glass-less window frame lands exactly where he is standing! Classic! The jailhouse skit was also insane! The hat and more hats scene was hilarious as well. This was the 1st time that I’ve seen a Buster Keaton film on the big screen and with the added live piano accompaniment, it really made for a great way to appreciate the master at work! The balls of laughter coming from the audience including children really proves that his movies are timeless! I was bummed that THE GENERAL screening was sold out that day as that also has some amazing stunts of Buster on a train! He seemed to have this uncanny ability to bring inanimate objects to life! It was a pleasure to watch Jackie Chan’s inspiration come to life again on the screen! Thank you Buster, Buster!

Tribute to Buster Keaton via DrMoonRat@youtube

Tags: , ,
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)

Resurrect Dead

September 6th, 2011 by chocko

Director: Jon Foy
Stars: Justin Duerr, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik
Genre: Documentary

This is not a zombie movie! Resurrect Dead The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is a documentary about the Toynbee Tiles which have been found on streets in cities along the East Coast and even in some cities in South America since the early 80’s. The tiles often display the message: Toynbee Idea/In Movie 2001/Resurrect Dead/On Planet Jupiter. What does it all mean and who or what is responsible for this cryptic message? Are aliens from another universe involved? What does the historian, Arnold Toynbee and his theory of bringing back dead molecules to life, Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001 and the planet Jupiter have to do with all of this?

Jon Foy’s debut feature length documentary follows Justin Duerr, a young misunderstood artist who has been obsessed on solving the mystery behind the tiles ever since noticing them on the streets of Philadelphia while working as a delivery boy in the 90’s. He spends years gathering clues, taking photos, and researching in libraries and the internet but things don’t go into high gear until he meets 2 other Toynbee Tile enthusiasts, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik. The trio combine their resources and brain power and come up with a list of possible suspects. Their investigation leads them to a trip to a shortwave radio convention and eventually they find themselves at the South Philly address of a highly reclusive old man who hardly comes out of his boarded up house.

I found the movie highly entertaining and fascinating to watch as the mystery unraveled. It is a movie to be enjoyed and discussed afterwards. The director and three main characters were at a recent screening at the IFC Center in New York City. After the screening they answered some questions and provided more insight into the documentary. They gave away pins with photos of NYC Toynbee Tiles on them and also announced that 2 new tiles have been placed outside the theatre by House of Hades in homage to the original Toynbee Tiles. It is believed that there are no longer any original Toynbee Tiles in NYC. There is a video featuring a portion of the Q&A below. Don’t watch it if you haven’t seen the movie already because the spoilers might ruin your documentary viewing. It’s more fun to watch the movie and be surprised and experience the thrill of the hunt. Go see the movie now…Chocko highly recommends it.

THE TRAILER

Resurrect Dead Q&A at IFC Center NYC


(from left to right: director Jon Foy, Justin Duerr, Steve Weinik and Colin Smith) photo by chocko

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in art, movies, photos | Comments (1)

Tower of Death (1981)

September 4th, 2011 by Mr. C

Director: Ng See Yuen
Actors: Kim Tai Chung,Hwang Jang Lee,Yuen Biao,Roy Chiao,Roy Horan,Lee Hoi San,Bruce Lee(Archives)
Fight choreographer: Yuen Wo Ping
Producer: Raymond Chow & Golden Harvest
Genre: brucesploitation

Tower of Death aka Game of Death 2 was one hell of a train wreck! No survivors indeed, but it does have certain elements in it that are quite appealing even for a Brucesploitation film. First off, R.I.P. to Kim Tai Chung who recently left us way too early. He notably starred in this film as well as Miss Please Be Patient, No Retreat No Surrender, and Game of Death. He was an excellent martial artist in the Tae Kwan Do realm and did a great job as a Bruce Lee clone/shadow. Game of Death 2 also contained a great deal of archived footage of Bruce Lee, edited and spliced on the screen to enhance the clone of Bruce as much as possible. The usual suspects of camera angle trickery, dark lighting, & zoomed out shots were all in effect! The editing in this film is no where near as ‘frankensteined’ as Game of Death 1 but old footage transitioned with the new will still make it look quite obvious to even the most novice of the “Little Dragon” fans that Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde have been working overtime in the labs splicing & dicing film. Scenes of Bruce Lee from Enter The Dragon, Return of the Dragon, & the Chinese Connection are rather abundant in the first quarter of the movie. However, I must admit that there were a few neat archives of film with the real Bruce Lee as a 6 yr old and teenager blended into this movie that made it very interesting. The most odd & creepy of the authentic footage includes clips of Bruce Lee’s funeral in real life with him in the open casket. Exclusive real life images of the little dragon were also on display in the film.

I’ll give a quick understated synopsis of the film before writing about the main stars of the movie, the fight scenes! Billy Lo (archived footage of Bruce Lee + Kim Tai Chung) is back again accompanied by his Master martial art friend Chin Koo (the great Hwang Jang Lee) as he demolishes challengers with his left and right foot while casually sipping tea. Everybody is having fun until suddenly Chin Koo is mysteriously murdered? Billy Lo then goes on a CSI hunt in Tokyo to find out what had happened. At the gravesite, a helicopter appears during the burial and hovers over the coffin to suddenly dropping down a lift with claws to take it up to the sky! Tragically, Billy will lose his life while attempting to hold onto this lift. Talk about dramatic! Who, what, & why would someone whisk away the coffin? Conspiracy? Fake death? Bobby Lo (also played by Kim Tai Chung?) is Billy’s brother and he will certainly have revenge on his mind!!

Now to the more important parts of the film! Hwang Jang Lee puts on a grave display of dynamic TKD kicks onto his unfortunate opponents! His leg combinations, control, flow, & execution is really something to behold! HJL is probably the most skilled kicker onscreen and probably off screen as well of ALL TIME! He plays such a great villain in all of his movies! The end fight between him and Bobby Lo is tremendous! The great Yuen Biao (Jackie Chan’s kung fu brother) makes a fighting cameo with him battling a fellow shaolin monk with a bamboo pole! Good scene which basically left me wanting to see more of Biao in the movie! Roy Horan plays a crazy ‘gwai-lo’ who is the master of his domain known as the palace of death. Horan greatly admires the fierceness of the Tiger while adoring the swiftness of a peacock! He definitely would put that on display while he ripped apart one of his Hung Kuen (Tiger-Crane fist) foes! Bobby Lo (Kim Tai Chung) would exchange fists with an enraged chinese tarzan before moving on to the more formidable Shaolin monk opponent played by the great Lee Hoi San! The end fight between Kim and Hwang Jang Lee left me salivating for a Game of Death 3, no just kidding! Like I said earlier, the fight scenes in this movie were the clear stars of the film as the story was just pure WTF! Trust me, I didn’t even scratch the surface with some of the other silly scenes! It makes you want to scratch your head and ask, did Raymond Chow really approve of all these edits? The Godfather of Golden Harvest Studios? You’ll just have to see it to believe it! The Tower of Death definitely qualifies for the it’s so bad that maybe this could be pretty good scale!

The fight choreographer of the film was the venerable YUEN WO PING! No wonder there was an overflow of great fight scenes! I’ve also heard through reliable sources that Cory Yuen Kwai and Sammo Hung also had a hand in this dance! Is this a good movie? NO! Was this a good tribute to Bruce Lee? HELL NO! Should you see this film if you are a fan of martial arts? Hells Yeah!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)

Justice League Reboot

September 1st, 2011 by chocko

I was never much of a DC Comics kid growing up and I can’t even remember the last time I picked up a DC book, but with the recent news of DC relaunching 52 titles, you can’t help but want to check it out. Justice League #1 recently hit the stands with many comic book shops celebrating by holding midnight sales of the title on its release date.

Geoff Johns is the writer for Justice League and I guess his job is to reintroduce everybody to the heroes that will later form one of the greatest super hero teams of all time. Jim Lee provides the art work which will knock your socks off…every panel is superb. OK…lots of spoilers so you have been warned. The story starts out by establishing the fact that super heroes just aren’t accepted in the world, they are dangerous and the government is willing to take down caped crusaders. Batman is seen chasing some alien who’s been seen trying to plant a bomb in Gotham City. Military aircraft are firing away and making the chase a bit of a challenge, but Batman keeps his cool. Hal Jordan a.k.a. Green Lantern comes to save the day with his super powers and ring…acting like a total dick, but he gets the job done cleaning house. They eventually follow the alien who detonates a bomb while yelling, “For Darkseid!” Green Lantern and Batman have no idea what that cry meant, so they decide to take a trip to Metropolis to visit another alien that might know. We get to see a cameo of Vic Stone a.k.a. Cyborg on the high school football team, before Green Lantern and Batman meet up with Superman. The comic book ends with Hal Jordan getting his ass kicked and it looks like the showdown between Batman and The Man Of Steel is going to be interesting.

The back of the book features sketchbook drawings of the new updated costumes by the master, Jim Lee. Wonder Woman…pants or no pants? We shall see. It looks like Aquaman’s costume also gets a reboot with a little more body armor making him look a little tougher and meaner. You go Aquaman, King of The Seven Seas! I’m looking forward to their reintroductions along with The Flash and seeing how Darkseid ties into the plot. The sketches in the back also features the various stages of how the cover came to be. Definitely worth the $3.99 cover price. Wowzers, when did comic books get so expensive? Next issue: Batman Vs. Superman. I’m gonna predict that Batman gets his ass in a sling, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens in issue #2! To be continued…

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in art, comic books | Comments (1)

BLVD. WARRIORS (2012) directed by Rene Carson : Trailer

August 27th, 2011 by Mr. C


“I am not teaching you anything.
I just help you to explore yourself.”
– Bruce Lee

I wanted to flashback to a documentary film that I neglected to mention on my initial writeup of Ric Meyers’ Kung Fu Extravaganza program at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con. The trailer of BLVD. WARRIORS was previewed at the startup of Ric Meyers’ program and it really brought back some great memories of the 1970’s & 80’s kung fu craze! Rene Carson (Director/Writer/Producer) of the film recently provided us with some awesome still images and information about the film which got us all excited about this project again! I’m not sure if I can wait till early 2012 for the release of it! The trailer opened up with something very familiar & soothing to the ears!
Fans of the Drive In Movie Theatre on WNEW’s Channel 5 in the NYC area which aired from May 1981-July of 1988 will instantly recognize this intro and be transported back to a time when Saturdays 3pm were golden! This 2 hr time slot would be booked with a colorful demonstration of high flying martial artists with a tunnel vision for revenge in the name of brotherhood & morality to protect their families, community, & honor. When I watched the trailer for BLVD. WARRIORS, it conjured up that same type of feeling and nostalgia. Blvd. Warriors documents the tale of how martial arts and asian culture would impact the lives of blacks and urban Americans alike. Inner city folks that joined the military would get stationed in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, & Vietnam. When they came back to the States from service, they were armed with a whole new philosophy in fighting, mentally & physically. In parallel, asian martial art movies shown in grindhouse theaters in poor to working class communities and films that aired on public TV like the ones promoted by Drive In Theater provided another outlet for our youths to digest a new culture in the arts that would eventually manifest itself onto other avenues of expression. The important thing to note is that urban americans now had something positive to grasp in the form of asian fighting arts which would be the vehicle that they will use to aspire for something better in their lives within the turbulent cloud of social, economic, political, & family duress. City life & everyday survival tactics coupled with a militiary background and martial arts thrown in the mix would be a heavy source of discipline leading to a righteous path of self discovery. This documentary serves as a way to celebrate these local urban warriors who took this vehicle to a higher level and being the pioneers that they are, they propagated their teachings through their martial background whether through dojos, temples, or films to help inspire people in other fields such as music, dance, the arts, education, & other countless forms of media. This movie would also pay homage to the old school martial art films and the artists/actors who indirectly sparked a bonfire of hope for their fans giving them something to cheer for when everything else around them looked bleak. Many a breakdancer, hip hop artist, movie director, actor, blue collar worker, corporate mogul, and the average Joe & Jane were influenced one way or another by the asian fighting arts movie craze! I know that’s what got me into the weekend warrior training mode at the time. Other good examples where musicians utilized kung fu culture into their realm includes hip hop groups like the Fu-Schnickens and the Wu Tang Clan hailing from the slums of Staten Island, NY with which the members of the Wu affectionately dub SHAOLIN as a synonym for Staten Island! Wu Tang Clan’s classic debut album, “Enter the Wu-Tang – 36 Chambers” including the song “Da mystery of chessboxin” is clear evidence that the fusion of hip hop with kung fu is a key ingredient to their magical elixir! RZA, a founding member of the group has made it well known that Bruce Lee was a tremendous inspiration in his creative endeavors!

Trailer of BLVD. WARRIORS


The trailer of this film revealed eye opening movie clips and interviews from some of the most well respected martial artists like Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite), Grandmaster Ron Van Clief (The Black Dragon), Grandmaster Ronald Duncan (The Way of the Winds/Ninjitsu), & Sifu Carl Scott (Soul Brothers of Kung Fu). Images of Bruce Lee, Cheng Pei Pei (Come Drink With Me), Wang Yu (One Armed Swordsman), Etsuko Shihomi (Sister Streetfighter), Gloria Hendry (Black Belt Jones, Hell Up in Harlem), Lo Meng vs Wai Pak (5 Deadly Venoms), Lo Lieh (5 Fingers of Death), & Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill) would provide a kickass picture worth more than a thousand words! Stills of the Paramount Theater in Newark-NJ, Fox Theatre, & The Pagoda in Chinatown from the teaser trailer further wet my appetite for this film! An interview with Grady Hendrix, an asian movie historian and co-founder of Subway Cinema in NYC will also be an invaluable resource added to this melting pot of wandering warriors!

Rene Carson (Director) is targeting to premier BLVD. WARRIORS at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2012! We’re hoping to get a glimpse of this documentary shortly thereafter!

This project was solely an entity of passion fueled by Rene Carson. He produced this film without any studio financing or support, completely based on his own interest in the subject. You can clearly feel that passion seep through to the viewer upon watching the trailer which makes us anxious to see the entire feature!

As a last statement, I can attest that BLVD. WARRIORS will not just appeal to urban folks! It will also get some of us eclectic suburban creatures, pretty jazzed up too! From the immortal expressions of Bruce Lee, “WATTAH” *While swiping the nose with my thumb* !!

~Way of the inspired fist~

*ALL images in this post provided by Rene Carson

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (6)

Pooperazzi: photos from outer space

August 23rd, 2011 by chocko

here are some chocko photos from the vaults…


Laura Marling at Housing Works


Coco + Ice-T at Barnes & Noble (Union Square)


Kathleen Hanna and Joan Jett at MoMA


Wild Flag at Johhny Brenda’s (Philadelphia)


David Johansen of New York Dolls at Best Buy (Union Square)


Chrisette Michele at Rockefeller Park


Gregory And The Hawk at Littlefield


Marky Ramone at Chef Central (Paramus, NJ)


Ani DiFranco at Music Hall (Tarrytown, NY)


Paul Simon at Webster Hall


Sasha Grey at Housing Works


Henry Rollins at Joe’s Pub


Madeline Follin of Cults at House of Vans


Elias Rønnenfelt of Iceage at Other Music

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in music, photos | Comments (0)

The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal : Olek’s Crochet Art exhibition

August 21st, 2011 by Mr. C

The Bad Artists Imitate,The Great Artists Steal
Exhibition at the Jonathan Levine Gallery @ 529 West 20th Street NY, NY
Tuesday-Saturday August 10th-27th 11am-6pm
Artist: OLEK

Folks, only one more week left to get a glimpse of NYC’s own crochet artist extraordinaire Olek with her solo exhibition: The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal! You might have seen some of her crochet art in the streets of the east village and lower east side. Her works include yarn inspired sculptures, canvases, yarn covers for shopping carts, bicycles, & everyday objects. Olek even crochet ‘bombed’ the famous bull sculpture by Wall Street! She wrapped the entire greedy beast with yarn! Her latest work includes covering the “Walk Man” sculpture created by Scott Taylor at Tompkins Square Park with her signature knit work, but the piece had to be taken down because it was vandalized. Olek also did a crochet tribute to Banksy by knitting his well known “Balloon Girl”. Check out some of her work at the Jonathan Levine Gallery if you can, it’s amazing! FYI: “The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal” was a quote by Pablo Picasso. Banksy had an art piece with a stone inscribed with this quote, but crossed out the crediting of Pablo Picasso’s name to input his own.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in art, community, mr. c, photos | Comments (0)

Legends of Folk: The Village Scene

August 20th, 2011 by Mr. C

I saw a great documentary on PBS called LEGENDS OF FOLK: VILLAGE SCENE which was about the folk music movement during the 1960’s in the Greenwich Village section of NYC! The film had awesome footage of live performances from relatively unknown folk musicians at the time in the process of becoming the great legends that they turned out to be which includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Simon & Garfunkel, Peter Paul & Mary, The Mamas and the Papas, The Lovin’ Spoonful, & many more! I’ve been to a number of Richie Havens performances in the past and it was always amazing to hear him tell stories about the folk music vibe in the village in the 1960’s up in the cafes on Mcdougal & Bleeker streets and performances at Washington Square Park! Richie Havens, if you didn’t know was the 1st act to perform at WOODSTOCK on Friday August 15,1969 at Yasgur’s Farm! Richie slayed his performance with his 2hr 45min set! Havens really set the tone, mood, & rhythm of that historic weekend! Getting back to the documentary, the Village was a hotbed of creativity in folk music due to the turbulent times of the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement. These topics bred songs of unity, love, & anti-war sentiments. These folk legends would gather in the many cafes that ran rampant on Mcdougal street & surrounding area such as the Gaslight Cafe, Night Owl, The Folklore Center, The Fat Black Pussycat, Folk City, Cafe a go go, The Bitter End, & Cafe Wha to just name a few! Cafe Wha & The Bitter End are still in operation to this day! The current Fat Black Pussycat lounge/bar on West 3rd street is not the same as the Fat Black Pussycat theatre of yesteryear. The original location of the pussycat theatre was on Minetta street which is being occupied by a mexican restaurant at the current time. The documentary didn’t mention the Bottom Line on west 4th street because it was erected in the 1970’s but that also was a good venue to check out great musicians up until 2004. The 1960’s sure was a golden era for music in downtown NYC!

Visit the PBS website to find out more about this fascinating documentary!

Watch the full episode. See more PBS Specials.

Tags: , ,
Posted in community, mr. c, music | Comments (0)

Bang Bang (2010)

August 19th, 2011 by Mr. C

Director: Byron Q
Cast: Thai Ngo,David Huynh,Jessika Van,Walter Wong
Genre: gangster

This film really surprised the heck out of me! Bang Bang chronicles a day in the life of an asian american gang and the different paths in life that a few of the members would take. This is the 1st feature film for Byron Q (director/producer/editor/writer) and he delivered a raw and gritty heavy hitter in his debut! It wasn’t a documentary but it was filmed as such, complete with the fuzzing of car license plates & faces with an extreme slow down in camera speed compounded with posterizing/choppy effects to distort some of the gang fight scenes. The stereotypical low rider vehicles, distracting soundtracks of blaring hip hop music to mask substance in favor of style, and the wife beater/guinea tee look that some west coast gang movies are known for are NOT of influence in this piece. Instead, the relationships between the gang members, the confrontations, and the interaction or lack thereof between them and their families get the most screen time as opposed to glorifying gang violence with all the cliches attached to the lifestyle. It was described pretty well by one of the movie promoters present at the screening when he stated that the movie was like you being a fly on the wall in the day to day operation of a local gang. What was really amazing was that most of the cast of Bang Bang are not professional actors but real life gang members. David Huynh who played Charlie and Jessika Van (Jenn) were 2 of only a handful of professional actors on the set!

The story centers around Justin (Thai Ngo), a vietnamese american who is heavily involved with a gang but wants to get out to pursue better pastures in the music industry. On the flipside, Charlie (Justin’s good friend) is living in the comforts of a wealthy Taiwanese family, wanting desperately to be part of the gangster scene to rebel against the lavished lifestyle bestowed upon him. As Justin & Charlie go in opposite directions, they both get caught up in a back and forth web of silly nonsense with a rival crew that will eventually lead to not so pleasant things. The leader of the SD gang, Rocky (Walter Wong) was also another centerpiece of the film that shined through with his strong presence and performance on the screen. The movie lends to the struggle of 1st & 2nd generation asian americans & their family issues which further influences them to a life of self destruction.

Bang Bang was definitely rough around the edges cinematically and dialogue wise but maybe this was an intended feat by the director? The delivery of the story in its documentary like shell was also very refreshing to digest. The cast in the film were very likable as they sloshed through the crap of gang life with the very intentions of getting out…except Charlie! My only gripe with the movie was character development. Personally, I wanted to know more about the backgrounds of our lead players! Also, more screen time and development of the leading lady would of been optimal as well. What was pretty neat about the film was that even with the intense and heavy scenes there were light sprinkles of comedic relief added to the fray. Some funny situations that came to mind was the fermented cactus scene, the break-in to Justin’s own home, the molly pill (X+), & Charlie’s acting out of being a gangster while holding a gun with all the opera like music as the soundtrack!

Go and support this film, folks! It tells the tale of the other side of the asian american coin.

Thai Ngo who played Justin in the film is a real life hip hop artist based out of Portland.

Tags: ,
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Categories

Archive

brick & mortar record stores

cinema

music & eats!

services