Visited San Antonio, TX last month. Pit stop before hitting Austin for SXSW. Breakfast at the Mexican restaurant near the S.A. bus stop was affordable. These were business cards I picked up there.
Google Video pick of the week #006
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La Señora Muerte (1967), is a couture horror flick. It was one of several pictures prolific B-movie director Jaime Salvador made with Luis Enrique Vergara at his Filmica Vergara CineComisiones production banner in Mexico.
This film opens with Marlene’s lover dying after sexing her. While being stricken, he asks for the shady Dr. Farell, an evil mad scientist-like character played by this guy’s dad. Farell wickedly tells Marlene that he needs fresh blood to revive her – much older – lover. Of course, to make things even more interesting, the blood has to come from young, fashion-forward women.
The film, while cheesy as hell (check out the mad scientists computer), features some fancy houses in what could be Polanco, and a wardrobe by Mexico’s foremost designer of the 60’s and 70s, Pedro Loredo. It works for the film since Marlene, an eventual killer and the woman of the flick’s title, is a fashion designer.
Her costuming— I presume is also by Loredo, in the credits his billing goes: “Desfile de modas/ diseños de Pedro Loredo/ creador de la moda mexicana.”
Soul of Lupe Yoli
These pictures are screen grabs from the documentary La Lupe: The Queen of Latin Soul (2007), by award-winning director Ela Troyano.
For more on La Lupe, including downloadable audio, check out this post over at DJ Sonido Franko’s blog.
Google Video pick of the week #005
At one point during an unseasonably cold and windy Mexico City evening, the video monitors behind Nortec Collective showed some animation that resembled a Kraftwerk video, except the guys playing the machines had mustaches and Norteño style cowboy hats.
An appropriate nod to their forefathers in electro experimentation. Here´s video from Sunday night.
This week´s Google Video is a smart documentary all about how 3 young Black men channeled the cold, rust and depression of 90s Detroit into techno, Europe´s millenial music. Of course, for me, techno used to only remind me of vampires in a club.
Google Video pick of the week #004
¨Dream is Destiny,¨ precedes one of the first beats in Richard Linklater´s 2001 animated feature Waking Life. Since I´m headed to SXSW in Austin, I figured I would post about this movie, which is so imaginatively rendered, and made by a writer/director best-known for catapulting Austin slackers into the film-making limelight.
Linklater, who in some of his older pictures, and with no facial hair, kind of reminds me of a young Richie Sambora, was the poster boy for the indie film era that spawned (Jersey´s most visible movie director) Kevin Smith. And he has a resume as respected as any mildly successful Hollywood movie guy. Most of his films find niche audiences, but he´s made at least one movie everyone saw, School of Rock. His last movie, about Orson Welles, got good reviews.
¨Waking Life,¨ was one of two animated features the Texas director managed to bring to the screen. It uses a technique called ¨rotoscoping.¨ According to this Wired piece, ¨artists digitally trace over some frames of live-action footage by hand with a Wacom pen and tablet,¨ to create the trippy effects.
You can read a Web Q&A with the director, where he mentions some of the music he likes: ¨Duke Ellington and Bunny Berrigan and Fats Waller…¨ (via Empire Online).
Must See Factor: 5
Best Reason to See It: It gets kind of deep and existential in places.
Best part of the movie: The part where the guy gets shot.
Google Video pick of the week #003
Former Playboy photographer and WWII vet, Russ Meyer, directed this week’s 1965 pick, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Some call it a feminist cult classic, others call it violent trash. This is what Roger Ebert wrote about the director and his movies, when this film was re-released on DVD:
Take away all the jokes, the elaborate camera angles, the violence, the action and the sex, and what remains is the quintessential Russ Meyer image: a towering woman with enormous breasts, who dominates all the men around her, demands sexual satisfaction and casts off men in the same way that, in mainstream sexual fantasies, men cast aside women.
The T.I., N.J. Connection
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You can stream and download T.I.’s out-of-jail track, “I’m back.” Atlantic Records, in hopes that an incarcerated Gucci Mane (or Lil Wayne) doesn’t snatch all of T.I.’s thunder, had their star southern rapper take media calls yesterday, fresh out of a stint in prison on federal weapons charges. Rappers and guns, rappers and guns. One of my first published stories was a co-byline on a piece about “Naughty by Nature” getting caught with guns.
T.I., wasn’t in trouble for “a” gun, but several. I bumped into him at the fashion industry convention called MAGIC in 2008.
I always like to point out to people the connection T.I.’s global success has to New Jersey. The Great Migration meant a cross-roads such as Jersey would always share a connection with the lands across the Mason-Dixon, including T.I.’s home state of Georgia. But to have this link represented in contemporary pop culture, I mean … that’s what Sinatra lived for. So, what’s the Jersey connection to T.I.?
Jason Geter. As legend has it, Geter was a guy from Montclair, who discovered T.I. in a barbershop, after he moved to Atlanta to stake his claim in music. An internship and a front-desk job later, he struck gold.
He now not only manages the Bankhead rapper, but also runs his Altantic imprint, Grand Hustle records. He even got his 15 minutes of TV fame when he did a co-cameo on HBO’s “Entourage,” above. You can read more about Jason and see pics, here.
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Furthering the N.J. connect, T.I.’s Akoo clothing line got some free publicity in the states biggest city, Newark. A billboard put up down the street from my high school was thought to be too suggestive for the people ambling through Downtown.
Ski Mask Ways…
These terrorist-like ski masks complemented the back to black Carlos Diez show, which was an expected draw at last week´s Cibele Madrid Fashion Week. You can see more, here and here.
California Sunshine: L.A. L.A.
- Big City of Dreams
For all my family and friends on the East Coast enduring crazy weather this weekend, just remember, L.A. She keeps you safe and warm; like in California Dreamin´.
Click on the picture of the skyline and take a quick drive through downtown L.A. of the early 70s, in the opening minutes of Steven Spielberg´s Duel (1971), courtesy of Google Video.
Photo of downtown Los Angeles taken from top of L.A. Times Spring St. garage, 2008.
Weezy on Mexico City Bus Stops
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Hip-hop isn´t as noticeable on the streets in Mexico City as it is in North America´s other major cities, NY, L.A., Atlanta, Toronto. That´s why this Rolling Stone (Mexico) billboard, above, caught me off-guard. You can find it throughout the city, on bus stops.
Does everybody know what Wayne represents, in the sense of representando? ¨A Milli¨ was played out a while ago. The only American rap cut I hear on Pop 40 Mexican radio is “Empire State of Mind.” Jay-Z is just mainstreaming himself like that I guess. That song Wayne did with Shakira, I hardly ever hear. It hurts my ears anyway.
The RS cover is a duplicate of the US version. Wayne going to jail, etc, etc. AP had a trite piece today on rappers going to jail
In the history of hip-hop, other popular rappers such as Slick Rick, Shakur, Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Remy Ma, Beanie Sigel, Shyne, Mystikal and C-Murder have spent a few months to several years in prison. Snoop Dogg was acquitted of murder; Diddy faced jail time but he was acquitted in 2001 on bribery and weapons charges stemming from a club shooting. His protege, Shyne, wasn’t as lucky and was convicted in the same case and sentenced to 10 years; he was recently deported after his release from prison.
They talk to Shaka Zulu alot, Ludacris´manager and get the big jailhouse chat with Gucci.
Gucci Mane warns others to avoid his fate.
“Don’t keep bumping your head against the wall,” he says. “It’s a serious situation. It’s so many things that happen behind these walls. Think about how to avoid situations so you won’t have to come in here.”
The story is somewhat pointless, just a repeat trend piece some bored editor said to roll with, following RS´ lead this week.
The truth is, on the streets, going to jail is cred—a right of passage for Black/Latino men in America. Going to jail, as in the case of Tupac, and following that up with platinum success doesn´t happen to everyone.
I can´t name another rapper after, who had a publicized jail stint, then ran to the top of the sales charts when he became free again. What Wayne has working for him is that he´s still young. And, like Annette Funicello, Cubby or any Mouskateer, he´s been training for the music life since he was a pup.
But it´s not about that, going to jail for thuggery lends your rhymes credibility. I think if a rapper goes to jail for unpaid taxes or speeding tickets, it doesn´t work the same.
Of course, many of the faces referenced in the AP story bring the trouble on themselves.
Mainstream media and critics generally don´t have a clue when it comes to the particulars of these guys. It gets me.
Take for instance all the tatto-age on Wayne? Other than the ¨B¨ he´s holding up with his right hand, the rag in his back pocket and the ¨DAMU¨ scrawled on his chest—outright gang affiliation—what other reason does the ¨greatest rapper alive,¨ have to be going to jail? Thuggin(g), of course.
channibalsmith.com 
