Seen on Valencia St, San Francisco 7/29/05

Seen on Valencia St, San Francisco 7/29/05
Posted by: afrofuturist.

In SF -- recovering from nasty bout of food poisoning. Glad to be alive.

Now playing: amazing Matmos live album.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This amazing and much needed film has filled that hole in my world left gaping ever since Xanadu. I had despaired that American film would ever again ride the simple jouissance of one incredible, candy-colored dance number after another, after another, building and cresting with no obvious destination except "Up and Out"! Goes the glass elevator, through the roof of the chocolate factory, blowing my mind, then and now.

I won't repeat StinkyLulu's on point commentary. One technical query. Is the sound muddy during the Oompa Loompa songs intentionally, in a sort of hyper-erudite reference to the somewhat grungy sound and lighting of 1970s era film? Or was I just watching the film in a crummy theater? I wavered between being disappointed at being deprived of Roald Dahl's priceless doggerel, and enjoying the smart of the wink-wink nudge-nudge reference to pre-MTV music videos, which were usually just performance footage gussied up with cheap 'effects' like the one used in Charlie to clone one actor into an Oompa-Loompa army.

Oompa-Loompa. This words makes me very happy.

At Neighborhoodies

At Neighborhoodies
Posted by: afrofuturist.

Luther remembered

Jason King writes in the Village Voice:

"Vandross, who left us age at 54 two years after suffering a diabetes-related stroke, made music that was equal parts abject melancholy and joyful faith--faith in the power of love to redeem all ... more

Rize from the K-Os

Saw David LaChappelle's documentary on krump and clown-dancing in LA last weekend. Visually amazing, the narrative structure of the film was strictly generic, following both the "they dance because they are oppressed" line and the "from the deepest heart of Africa to the urban wastelands of America comes .... RHYTHM!" LaChappelle, who has made a number of "hard candy" music videos (or so I've been told, I haven't seen them) brings this MTV aesthetic to the film, which is a bit of a stretch, literally, for a feature-length film.

Here in Montreal, hanging out with a friend who is working on the Montreal hip hop dance scene (you did not know there was one, did you) I saw some videos of Canada's #1 hip hop artist, K-Os. Most of the videos feature dance but not in the cliche MTVH1BET form -- they are actually having fun not gyrating for male visual pleasure, and they are all of all races and genders. One video in particular "The Man I Used To BE" stands out in memory for its intelligent use of dance as part of the story of the video, rather than just a videotaped strip show. K-Os is the one contemporary hip hop artist I've seen who openly admits to Michael Jackson as an influence. How refreshing to be here in Canada, on holiday from 'black authenticity,' US-style.