LUCY KAPLANSKY played at the RINGWOOD LIBRARY in NJ
September 21st, 2010 by Mr. C
Lucy Kaplansky’s performance at the Ringwood Library in Ringwood,NJ on football sunday & on the last weekend of indian summer on 9/19/10 was entertaining & spectacular to say the least! First off, the Ringwood Library is encompassed in the Dr. Doolittle surroundings of the forest with happy chipmunks, inquisitive coyotes, & cheery bambi’s lulling around with the Wanaque river not too far away. I wouldn’t be surprised if black bears were lurking around somewhere in the vicinity. The library venue seems to be a perfect playground for music lovers with all its earthy glory & organic appeal! It’s always a pleasure to catch Lucy folk out at one of her live acoustic shows because all of her performances are very intimate & she always gives 100% of emotion when performing. Because of her songs & lyrics, it seems like we, her fans are familiar with her entire family including her mother, father, molly(adopted daughter), & her husband. Her stories of her mathematician father with great piano playing abilities to her talented song writing husband to her nurturing mother to her beautiful daughter, Molly who was adopted from China. All of Lucy’s performances are all so personal & we, as her music fans really appreciate her passion & sincerity! By the way, it was a family affair at the Ringwood Library concert as Lucy’s husband & daughter were on hand to run the merch table! Molly helped with unwrapping her mom’s CD so that she can sign them! Nice assembly line! Molly signed CD’s, as well! It was a gorgeous sunday afternoon of pleasant folk music to my ears before the New York Jets clashed with the New England Patriots at the Meadowlands which the JETS went on to eventually shock them! Lucy’s 19 song set list included a beautiful folk song from Scotland(got to get the name of it)<----(Edit...Lucy Kaplansky tweeted me back...name of the song is 'Loch Lomond'), Manhattan Moon, Lifethreads, ten year night, Mothers day, Beauty Way(Eliza Gilkyson), Written on the back of his hand, Sanctuary(Eliza Gilkyson), Brooklyn Train(...on piano), Ring of Fire(Johnny Cash), Don’t Mind me, Blue Chalk(John Gorka), Land of the living(dedication to 9-11) on her Red Thread album, Hallelujah(Leonard Cohen), Song about Pi, & This is Home. She also performed John Lennon’s “imagine” by request of the audience. Lucy played Imagine for the very 1st time, & I think she did a pretty darn good job adding her signature folk stamp on it! Someone even googled the lyrics on an iPad so that she can reference it! Bring it, Steve Jobs & the baby boomers! Lucy rocked out with her encore performance of Bruce Springsteen’s, Thunder Road! It was Thunderous, indeed with a folk twist to it! Folks, no pun intended...Go out and purchase Lucy’s new album, a collaboration with John Gorka & Eliza Gilkyson called RED HORSE! It’s a nut buster of a folk cover album with each artist doing 4 tracks including an original song of their own, two original songs from the other 2 artists, & one cover tune that is mutually exclusive from the trio of RED HORSE! For example, Lucy Kaplansky performed 4 songs: The 1st was “Scorpion”, a song of her own, 2nd was “Sanctuary”(Eliza Gilkyson), 3rd- “Blue Chalk”(John Gorka), & the fourth song was “Wayfaring Stranger”, a well know spiritual folk song from unknown origins, maybe from the 1940’s? Get the RED HORSE album y’all & make sure to get Molly’s signature on one of her mom’s album! She’s an aspiring artist! Molly loves the Beatles & thinks that she is RINGO!
Tags: eliza gilkyson, imagine, john gorka, lucy kaplansky, new jersey, red horse, ringwood library, this is home, thunder road
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GANG MASTER (1982)
September 17th, 2010 by Mr. C
Gang Master, a Shaw brother produced film released in 1982 directed by Chui Siu Ming is one of my top 20 Shaw movies of all time! It’s a costume-period piece epic film & not a modern triad street gang induced flick as the title might indicate. The “Dragon Gang” is an organization created by the Han Chinese rebels in the sole efforts to revolt against the Yuan Dynasty & Mongolian rule. Austin Wai Tin-Chi plays the lead role & is elected to succeed his slain father as the leader of the dragon gang. All seems cheery as a spring roll until Austin Wai gets framed as the culprit who is murdering fellow clan members. The truth also comes out that austin wai’s character may not have been a pure Han Chinese & persecution follows. What’s wicked about this film is that CHAN KOON TAI (one of my fave shaw brother actors) plays a mongolian villain & leader of the Yuan Dynasty clan with one goal in mind, eradicate chinese rebels. Another twist in the wrist in the story is that there is a mole in the dragon gang that is co-conspiring with the mongolian leader & causing chaos within the dragon triad. AUSTIN WAI is fighting for his life & his innocence in these accusations against him. There is also an added sidebar involving an EAGLE & AUSTIN WAI that opens up another can of worms in the film! Another Planet Chocko fave actor, Little Dragon Bruce Leung is also in the movie playing a kung fu fighting machine in the brotherhood! Bruce’s fighting sequence with the rope dart is off the chain gang! The action in GANG MASTER is fast & furious with lots of symbolism in triads & secret hand gestures to authenticate thyself! The fight scenes seemed to have been sped up a tad from the editing but, rest assured the cast of characters can all bust a move! The action sequences filmed in birdseye & panned out views definitely added some mass appeal to the scenes as well! Do yourself some justice & pickup some cheery spring rolls & a copy of Gang Master & go gang busters on it! No doubt, son! If you end up liking the wares of Austin Wai then I highly recommend another classic shaw movie, “FIVE SUPERFIGHTERS” , Ya’ Dig!
Tags: austin wai, bruce leung, chan koon tai, chen kuan tai, chui siu ming, gang master, shaw brother
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toronto graffiti
September 12th, 2010 by chocko
Tags: canadian, graff, graffiti, street art, toronto
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Metric played Juicy Couture NYC
September 11th, 2010 by chocko
Metric performed last night at Juicy Couture in Manhattan during Fashion’s Night Out. It was a fancy event with fashionistas, divas, and wannabes in attendance and pretty much taking over all of Fifth Ave. Metric performed as a two piece with Emily Haines providing the lead vocals and Jimmy Shaw on the guitar. Emily and Jimmy rocked the small and intimate crowd at the Juicy Couture store on Fifth Ave. with a short but sweet acoustic set. Metric played 3 songs from their recent album titled “Fantasies.” They started with “gimme sympathy”, then Emily played the piano for “twilight galaxy” and “help I’m alive.” I was surprised by The Strokes cover of “the end has no end” which they ended their set with.
Tags: emily haines, fashion's night out, indie rock, jimmy shaw, metric, new york city
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THE EYE OF THE STORM: JANE ELLIOTT’S class exercise in 1968
September 8th, 2010 by Mr. C
Mr. C has been wanting to share an eye opening exercise that Jane Elliott conducted for her 3rd grade class in Iowa in 1968. This class experiment was commonly known as the brown eyed-blue eyed exercise which was meant to simulate & demonstrate the harshness of our society with the way we mistreat people who look different which was supervised in an elementary school setting by Mrs. Elliott. This class experiment was eventually made into a documentary called “The Eye of the Storm”. It was a daring lesson that would slap the school children in the face with discrimination that they had never experienced before & hopefully, would change their thinking on understanding & appreciating people of different colors, regardless of planet associations, star alignment, & cultures. Some of you martians might have seen this in college during social studies, teacher education, or psych class, but if you haven’t, I recommend taking 30 minutes away from watching that porn to watch this lesson from Jane Elliot from 1968! I first witnessed this brown eyed-blue eyed lesson plan when I showed this film in 16mm format to a psychology class when I worked at the college media center when attending the same college. I ran into it again recently on PBS when perusing through their website & remembered how mind blowing it was. The rediscovery of this study slapped me in the face once again & it was awe inspiring! No matter if it’s in the 1960’s,the new millenium, planetchocko’s stoneage, or the Jetson’s era, everyone can learn from this, & ought to learn from this. Mrs. Elliott & The Eye of the Storm documentary, schools this 3rd grade class in Iowa, the same set of students again 14 years later, & yet again to adults in a mixed environment. TAKE the TIME to watch it on PBS via the web here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p66&continuous=1
It might change your view of the world & how we treat people if you’ve been living under a rock or been away at Mars like we have for a while.
Tags: eye of the storm, iowa 1968, jane elliott, lesson on discrimination
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montreal street art and graffiti
September 2nd, 2010 by chocko
most of these photos were taken on Saint Laurent Blvd. between Rene Levesque Blvd. E. and Rue Saint-Catherine O.
Tags: canadian, graff, graffiti, montreal, street art
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TAMIA,MARIO,CHRISETTE MICHELE – CENTRAL PARK SUMMERSTAGE
August 23rd, 2010 by Mr. C
Miguel
Tamia
This past Saturday, Central Park’s Summerstage played host to an R&B congregation of rabid fans lucky enough to witness an explosion of soul,pop, & r&b tunes from the likes of MIGUEL,TAMIA,SALT from Salt N Pepa,MARIO, & CHRISETTE MICHELE. Everything else in between, DJ DEE WIZ filled in the cracks with some old school hip hop joint compound & inflamed the crowd something short of a frenzy as his ‘musac’ on the wheels of steel & his crowd participation emcee’ing was off the hook as he got on the MIC before it really got too hot! Everybody was bouncing to Dee Wiz as he spinned classic joints that hip hop fans of the late baby boomers & GENERATION X martians salivated to! Joints like ‘The Breaks’ from Kurtis Blow,’The Message’ from Grandmaster flash & the furious 5,’Friends’ from Whodini, & ‘Rappers delight’ from Sugar Hill Gang got the old school ball rolling as we bounced our domes like bobble heads without a care! Wiz then slipped in E.U.’s ‘Da Butt’ & my fat ass started working off that junk in the trunk, y’all! WIZ didn’t leave any stones unturned as Eric B & Rakim,NAS,Pete Rock & CL smooth,Das Efx,Naughty By Nature,LL cool J,Digital Underground,the 45 King,Fifty,Nice n Smooth,Mary J Blige,Notorious,Special Ed, & many other fevers to the flava were represented! When DEE WIZ dropped Fat Joe’s “Lean Back”, the central park summerstage house…SHOOK! Man, we all did the ROC-A-WAY…Now,LEAN BACK..LEAN BACK! DJ Dee Wiz definitely knew how to rock a party!
The 1st act to perform on summer stage was MIGUEL. I wasn’t familiar with his tunes, but most of the crowd seemed to know his music. Apparently, he gets pretty decent play on 107.5 WBLS. MIGUEL was aight! I got into his song “All I want is you”. Next, on the menu was TAMIA. She really blew my house down at central park summerstage! I think she’s been dormant for a while until this performance in NYC. Lucky us! Tamia looked amazing & her voice was smooth,powerful, & as crisp as when she first surfaced to the scene in the mid 90’s! TAMIA & AALIYAH were my 2 faves in the 90’s to listen to when I wanted to just kickback & chill! TAMIA blessed us by singing her classics like stranger in my house, officially missing you, so into you, imagination, can’t get enough, me, You put a move on my heart, & spend my life with you among other hits! I still couldn’t get over how great she looked & how great she sounded! P.S. her husband, Grant Hill was also in attendance to show support! Tamia has a new album coming out in 2011. Represent, y’all!
Salt from Salt n Pepa
Mario
MARIO was slowly queuing up on stage as the ladies in the audience were definitely very close to conception! I’m not a big fan of MARIO’s but the ladies love Mario as much as the ladies love cool J! To my surprise, Mario sounded real good live as he blasted out his hit tunes like thinking about you, braid my hair, just a friend 2002, & let me love you amongst others. MARIO brought up a young lady that he sang to when he busted out “braid my hair”. He put on a good show & I was surprised he didn’t take off his shirt as the ladies in the audience had requested!
Chrisette Michele
Last not but least, Chrisette Michele was on deck! To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Chrisette’s music & hot damn, I must of been comatosed or something to miss out on her tunes until now! She’s what you call, having an “old soul”. Chrisette’s got that voice that is so soulful, so blistering, that it cuts very deep with emotions when her voice hits your cranium. She sings about being in love,being out of love,& everything in between! Chrisette’s got that style that reminds me of a hybrid blend of Erykah Badu, Macy Gray, & Mary J Blige! Chrisette performed Golden, epiphany, what you do, If I have my way, porcelain doll, blame it on me, & a few other songs that I can’t recollect. At the end of her performance, Rick Ross joined Chrisette Michele on stage to perform “Aston Martin Music”!
It was a great day of live music full of soul, pop, RnB 90’s style, & hip hop courtesy of DJ Dee Wiz, all for free! You’ve got to love NYC in the summer! Unfortunately, the summer full of free NYC concerts is coming close to an end! JAZZY JAY, DJ SCRATCH, SEAN PAUL, & a few other free jams are still lined up before the summer ends, though! Get your blazin’ hip hop & RnB ON, you SuCkAs!
–MR. C
Tags: central park summerstage, chrisette michele, mario, miguel, rick ross, salt, salt pepa, summer stage, tamia
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LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (2010)
August 23rd, 2010 by Mr. C
LITTLE BIG SOLDIER starring Jackie Chan was a period piece film of warring states in China. The story had a makeup of an epic tale, but in the end it was a pretty big disappointing soldier in my opinion. It wasn’t because the film wasn’t a classic Jackie Chan movie full of kung fu fighting & stunt proportions. In the contrary, Jackie did little to no fighting in the movie, but he did grace us with a peppering of good old buffoon style acrobatics that only Jackie can lay claim to! I just didn’t feel any emotions for the antagonists or protagonists in the film. I didn’t cheer, hate, or have any passion to root for Jackie’s character or anyone else in the film for that matter. You did feel for him at the end of the movie, but for me it was a little too late. The skinny of the movie is that there is a clash of power in China with the Liang & Wei clans. Jackie is an old clown of a soldier for the Liang family & a General of the Wei clan is the other main character in the movie. The general of Wei & his men were ambushed by the Liang soldiers which was an assisted setup by his jealous younger brother to rid of him in order to be the next heir on the throne. In comes Jackie, when he is a lone survivor in the battlefield along with the wounded General. Jackie captures him & the movie basically goes on a journey between the two. Jackie’s intent was to return to the land of Liang & collect a reward for the capture of the general of Wei. Of course, the two characters go on a path that would have them pitted against a clan of braveheart soldiers, a young lady, a school of sages, & a run in with the prince-younger brother of the General of Wei.
I didn’t like the comedic aspect of the film thrown into the foray of the story. Yes, I know it’s Jackie & it is part of his genetic makeup in filmmaking, but it just didn’t work for me. I felt I would of enjoyed the film if it had more of a dramatic feel & sense of urgency.
Critics of this movie called it one of Jackie’s better films in years & got decent ratings in Planet China. I’m a big Jackie Chan fan myself, but LITTLE BIG SOLDIER didn’t do it for me, but it may for you.
–Mr. C
Tags: jackie chan, little big soldier
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street art nyc
August 19th, 2010 by chocko
The Shepard Fairey mural (top photo) is located at the Cooper Square Hotel on East 5th Street & 3rd Avenue. The A.S.V.P. paste-up (middle) is located on First Ave. in the East Village. The Primo piece (bottom) is located at the old Germania Bank Building located at 190 Bowery and Spring Street.
Tags: a.s.v.p., graffiti, mural, new york city, nyc, primo, shepard fairey, street art
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YOUNG AND DANGEROUS (1995-2000)
August 16th, 2010 by Mr. C
The YOUNG AND DANGEROUS series (based on 7 films) directed by Andrew Lau is a classic chinese gangster-triad tale depicting HK gang life in the 1980’s & 90’s. These flicks provided much talk at the watercooler,in chinese households,teahouses, & dim sum palaces throughout the deadly 5 venoms of the kevin bacon rule! Video stores at your nearest Chinatown profited from bootleg copies of the VHS & VCD variety & barbershops in C-Town profited from the extraordinary requests with the flock of seagulls hairdo when these films emerged! The 1st movie was released in 1995 & the 7th & last in 2000. This film was based on the triad themed comic book,“Teddy Boy”. Young and Dangerous had its share of haters & naysayers in Hong Kong because many believed that these movies heroicized & glorified the triad lifestyle & would steadily influence kids in thinking that joining gangs would be the cool thing to do. Movies like A BETTER TOMORROW, HARDBOILED, THE KILLER, & HONG KONG GODFATHER(Shaw Brother version NOT Andy Lau’s) amongst many others have had a heavy influence in depicting HK Triads & YOUNG AND DANGEROUS would continue on with the tradition. This collection of 7 movies then went on to pass the torch to “Infernal Affairs” as well as give birth to a few spinoffs and 3 headed triad monsters of their own! Young and Dangerous had a heavy hitting cast of Hong Kong eye candy canto-pop stars at the time such as Ekin Cheng,Jordan Chan, & Gigi Lai as well as veteran actors such as Anthony Wong & Simon Yam along with rising star, Michael Tse. These films centered around Ekin Cheng who plays ‘Chan Ho Nam’ & Jordan Chan who plays ‘Chicken’. Chan Ho Nam & his best friend Chicken grew up idolizing the “Hung Hing Society” and one of their “Dai Lo’s”, Uncle Bee. The smooth talking duo eventually gain enough street cred to join the society as they both make a name for themselves in the game by slaughtering a few foes. Things will soon get hot when Uncle Bee gets executed! Chan Ho Nam would prove himself worthy of being the next undisputed belt holder as one of the leaders of Hung Hing to manage the district of Causeway Bay in Hong Kong which spawns a new path with twists,turns,jealousy, & fate. Young and Dangerous will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride to stories of undercover cops playing triad members,sleeping with the enemy,clashes at a funeral,undercover triad members from other gangs,sexcapades,photo-ops,friendships with taiwanese gangs, a relationship with a priest & his daughter, & Sonny Chiba playing a yakuza boss in the last film of the series. Anthony Wong does a tremendous job with the character “Tai Fei” especially in the 2nd movie! Simon Yam plays a cool mofo mob boss of Hung Hing which led him to his exploration of the underworld in Amsterdam!
Some people like watching “24”,“Lost”, & “Sex in the City” TV series, but I would much rather spend my rainy weekends re-watching the YOUNG AND DANGEROUS over a 5 gallon bucket of instant ramen noodles infused with nathan hot dogs,spam,a fried egg, and a bottle of sriracha hot sauce sporting my upgraded flock of seagulls hairdo from a classic mullet! If you are a Hong Kong gangster film buff & you have not watched or god forbid, not even heard of YOUNG AND DANGEROUS then we all know what your next school project is in Chinatown! You dig?!
–Mr. C
Tags: andrew lau, anthony wong, eking cheng, hong kong gang, jordan chan, micheal tse, simon yam, triad, young and dangerous
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Doug E. Fresh and DJ Dee Wiz played Jackie Robinson Park
August 12th, 2010 by chocko
Harlem was hopping last night for sure! As soon as I passed Jackie Robinson Park looking for a spot for my car, I could hear the speakers from the stage booming through the adjacent blocks and blasting Eric B. and Rakim and Run DMC…I knew I had found the place to be.
DJ Dee Wiz was behind the turntables and kept the crowd (definitely an older and mature bunch) moving, playing lots of R+B joints from the 80’s and 90’s… Bell Biv Devoe, Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, Keith Sweat just to name a few. I enjoyed hearing “candy girl” and “popcorn love” by New Edition. It seemed like there was a lot of stalling to get the “world’s greatest entertainer” on stage, but it was all worth it. Doug E. Fresh took to the stage around 8:45 pm after the legendary Spoonie Gee blessed the microphone with a few tracks. Doug E. Fresh addressed the crowd about the recent rash of violence plaguing the streets of Harlem. An impromptu performance of “Self-Destruction” from the Stop The Violence Movement of the 80’s got the crowd pumped. Before getting too preachy, Doug brought out his nephew who performed a song for the audience. It was definitely a family affair, Doug’s son performed as well in his own rap group, Square Off. I was feeling it… the song got my head nodding. A highlight of the evening was when Doug got on the microphone for a little beatboxing with a harmonica which turned into a sing along of Biz Markie’s song, “Just A Friend.” Throughout the night, songs (or at least parts of songs) such as “La Di Da Di”, “The Show” and “I-ight” were performed. Doug E. also demonstrated some of his dancing skills, while doing the wop, the snake, the cabbage patch and teaching us the Dougie. Lots of people were in the house: Kid Lucky, L.A. Sunshine (of the Treacherous Three), T-Ski Valley and Barry B. The World’s Greatest Entertainer came and rocked us and left us wanting more.
-chocko
Tags: doug e. fresh, get fresh crew, harlem, new york city, old school hip hop, rap, spoonie gee
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unbreak my….
August 11th, 2010 by Mr. C
broadway between 11th & 12th…
Tags: wellington papers
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