Hmm...that's a very good question. Let me ask these h@#$...

"Has hip-hop gone too far in degrading women?"

I'm going to say no, no it hasn't. Hip-hop could go farther if it tried to really push the envelope. It currently rests right near the apex of hyper-masculinity. Let me ask CNN this:"At what point had hip-hop gone 'far enough' in degrading women?" 2 Live Crew? NWA? Sir Mix-A-Lot? I would argue that Nelly's 'credit-card swipe through the buttocks'-move was a brilliant deconstruction of the state of African-American male/female relationships. In one succinct, viciously beautiful masterstroke, Nelly crystallized the ambivalence the black man feels towards the black woman. Reverence and exploitation; lust and revulsion; love and hatred--primal forces as entwined and inseparable as strands of DNA. All that defined with one puerile yet potent gesture.


"Tip Drill" isn't just another trashy rap video; it's a visual thesis. Do they award Nobel prizes for performance art?

If You Don’t Watch Battlestar Galactica, You Probably Won’t Get into Heaven

The greatest television series I’ve ever watched in terms of balancing entertainment and depth is Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's been my personal standard for serial television for about five years now surpassing Buffy the Vampire Slayer (barely), ‘24’ and I guess Dragonball Z (which one day I swear I will write a book on). What I love about NGE is its use of the ‘end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it’ scenario to examine what it means to be human from a metaphysical and sociological point-of-view. Battlestar Galactica picks up that thread and expands upon it in such a way that I’d say it’s required viewing for every man, woman and child in the developed world.

In summary, BG is about the last survivors of the human race (about 50,000) trying to rebuild human society and evade a race of robots known as Cylons (seemingly) bent on their destruction. I’ve just finished watching the first season and before it was over I was putting the second season in my Netflix queue. So many tantalizing plotlines, so many fully-realized characters. Who can resist that? One of the oft-repeated lines in the show so far has been, “this has all happened before and it will happen again.” Indeed. Nothing that happens on the show plot-wise is all that original: robots rebel against their creators; an unorthodox pilot and her by-the-book captain bump heads; an estranged father and son reconnect—you’ve seen it all before, but probably not done this well. The principal cast of Edward James Olmos’s Commander Adama; Jamie Bamber’s Lee Adama; Mary McDonell’s President Roslin; Katee Sackhoff’s Starbuck and James Callis’s Dr. Baltar is one of the strongest troops of players I’ve ever watched. They start off following the archetypal blueprint each is drawn from: tough-as-nails commander, sensitive but tough and formidable politician, reckless pilot, etc. Suprisingly, each of them is fleshed-out and given room to breathe so that even late into the first season, they’d do things that genuinely surprised me. One of my favorite scenes thus far is when Starbuck reluctantly admits to a horrible error in judgment years ago that ended up costing the life of Commander Adama’s son, Zack. After her revelation I’d expected him to hug her like a father, but instead he tells her to get out of his sight while she can still walk. Later after she gets stranded after an unexpected Cylon run-in, he expends the resources of the entire fleet to rescue her. His anguish and paternal love for her permeated every frame of film in that episode. I kept thinking, “Wow, tell me he won an Emmy or an Oscar or even a freaking ESPy for this. The supporting cast is all aces, too. I found myself caring what happened to every character. There isn’t a weak spot to be found.

The reason I mention the acting is because it needs to be that strong in order to pull off some of the things it tries to do. (You can’t have a character yell out: “He wiped out my entire civilization!” and be taken seriously unless they can do it with complete conviction.) This brings me to the primary antagonists: the Cylons. The Cylons are such an interesting group of villains. They are depicted not so much as heartless killers as religious zealots. They continually talk about ‘the one God’ who has designed this elaborate plan that both the Cylons and human race are a part of. They espouse monotheism while the humans are shown repeatedly to be (at least nominally) polytheistic (worshipping what appear to be Roman and Greek gods interestingly enough). Why this is or what this means, I have no idea but it sure is fascinating. What is equally interesting is that the writers seem to be giving equal weight to both religious vantage points. Things will happen within the BG universe that seem to support the Cylons’ beliefs and then something will happen that supports the humans’ beliefs. I can’t wait to see where they go with this.

It is also fascinating to watch the surviving humans try to re-establish a stable society complete with a functioning government and rigorously disciplined military. On a certain level it seems absurd that they would hold elections complete with televised debates and pundits while being doggedly pursued through the galaxy. Yet, it seems completely plausible and I guess, human.

Then you have the Cylons who look and feel like humans in every sense. I’m still not sure what they are trying to accomplish. They are clearly toying with the humans, but to what end it’s impossible to tell. I guess I’ll find out in a couple of days when season two arrives.

The show has the potential to be one of the best ever if they can keep up the writing and character development. It manages to have the right level of soap-opera interpersonal drama, political intrigue and philosophical musings to keep me completely hooked like a rat on the coke-lever. Good job, guys!

P.S. - BG is also a sci-fi show for people who don’t really care for sci-fi. Other than the setting, there isn’t much science on the show. They rely on technology which in some ways is antiquated compared to what we have now. The architecture of the ship and the way everything looks reminds me of Cameron’s Aliens. Things look clunky and mechanical and wholly believable. So don't worry about getting bogged down with a lot of techno-jargon if that's not your bag, man.

Weekly DVD Recommendations of Movies You Wouldn’t Even Think of Watching

Remember that kid on 3rd Rock from the Sun? Well he's all grown up and he's turned out to be a hell of an actor. His name's Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Keep an eye on him. He's going to be talked about the way Ed Norton was early in his career. In this film, Brick, he plays Brendan, your typical noir anti-hero. This movie is pretty much all style, but that's like saying a Twinkie is nothing but sugar. Well, duh! You know that going in. Rian Johnson's neo-noir is set in a Southern Californian high school, but the students and faculty speak using the hard-boiled argot of Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane novels. This leads to rapid-fire exchanges such as this:

Assistant VP Gary Trueman: You've helped this office out before.
Brendan Frye: No, I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed.
Assistant VP Gary Trueman: Fine. And very well put.
Brendan Frye: Accelerated English, Mrs. Kasprzyk.
Assistant VP Gary Trueman: Tough teacher?
Brendan Frye: Tough but fair.

The dialogue and delivery are a bit jarring at first, but once you get used to it, it becomes entertainment in itself to try and decipher what exactly it is the characters are saying. Pretty soon it'll seem like the most natural thing in the world that the characters are speaking that way, kind of like that Romeo and Juliet remake with Claire Danes and diCaprio. Anyway, the story involves drugs and a lost (in more than one way) love interest. Brendan sets out to find out what's happened to his ex-girlfriend and hijinks ensue. Just rent it already and support somebody who's at least trying to make good stuff. It'll be better than spending your money on obvious dreck like this.

Yeah, I'm as Late as a Tranny's Period Heck on This

Okay, so I'm a couple of four years late on this, but Battlestar Galactica is one helluva show. It's like a live-action Robotech with writing that approaches Whedon-esque levels of awetasticness. I'll probably finish Season One this weekend and write it up. I watched the season premiere/mini-movie, all three hours of it, and couldn't wait to see more. No show has hooked me like that since 24 (R.I.P. 2004-2007). I am so fracking psyched! Wow, you never lose the geek vein do you?

I Wonder What He Thought of Planet of the Apes?

Here's a reader review of 2005's Peter Jackson directed remake of King Kong:

"hat-ed it!" can't see how YOU liked that flick,man. i remember this was out at the movies I was going to see it on the strength of your recommendation alone. some of the best, most believable special effects ever aside, this shit was terrible and the most racist movie you could make. (which is why i never liked the story in the first place and was leery about the remake).

You got a 3 hour movie where the first hour is worthless and dry as hell, simple math here. the only reason i saw the end was that i fell asleep and when I woke up to turn it off, they got to the island. the island has these savage "natives" that look like crack whores in harlem or west philly or return of the living base heads from the PE joint. wtf?! what was up with the shaking? were they high on meth? or is that how "natives" act? Was that Africa they ran across, the birthplace of civilization?
Then they kidnap dude, take him out of his element as a spectacle but when they lose the ability to CONTROL him, they start wilin out. He starts wilin out (cause you know you can take an ape out of the jungle, but you cant take the jungle out of the ape) and they start trying to KILL him? damn.

That's the same way the white man has treated us here in Amerikkka. How you gone not want us here, when yo ass brought us here in the first place? And what does King Kong represent anyway? the black man ego? his sexual id? his unharnessed potential? or his THREAT to white entitlement? whatever he represents the only opiate is the WHITE WOMAN? gtfooh! and this dumb bitch reciprocates the love? i'm thru. you need to lay off my man Jack Bauer and write an article about King Kong!
I give the film....the finger"

-angry black film critic

Thanks for that review! But deep down don't we all want a little Aryan affection?