« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
August 28, 2005
I AIN'T DISSIN' YOUR 9-TO-5, THAT JUST AIN'T MY TWIST
Chiwetel Ejiofor: Best Supporting Actor? Not that the Academy is going to watch Four Brothers - secretly, they resent John Singleton for his DIY stab Hustle & Flow - but if they do, the man from Dirty Pretty Things might still be too much for them. In a film that traffics in blunt force -- whether its gunfights or heavy "Detroit" accents or Marky Mark calling someone a "house nigger" just to prove, you know, that he rolls like that -- Ejiofor is a study in grace. And this with one of the great comedic performances of the year. Sure, he's been watching Tarantino, the most obvious antecedent for his portrayal of local hood Victor Sweet. But Ejiofor is meticulous - the mannerisms, the irrational bursts of anger, the arched-eyebrow smirking. The performance is completely self-aware, and yet utterly whole and self-contained. Sweet is a small man who desperately wants to be big, a pathology Ejiofor nails. Threatening to fuck the fiancee of one of his goons, telling another one to eat food off the floor, wearing a preposterous fur jacket - these are gloriously juvenile actions that parody themselves. Ejiofor saves them, though, without redeeming his character. Sweet gets his comeuppance, and you cheer for it, but my, what a glorious unraveling it is.
Odds, ends:
Imagine the permutations.
-"Run Away," by Bubba Sparxxx and Frankie J. I'm just saying. Remember who told you first.
-Cam'ron to Miami PD: "I don't even wear pink no more."
-Kurt Loder on VMA pre-show: "Lil Jeezy"!
Posted by jon at 11:14 PM | Comments (5)
August 6, 2005
YOU HATE THE LAW? BREAK IT. I DON'T CARE.
SUPPORT KAYSAR's REVENGE!
Re-imprison him in the BB6 house as a strike against racism and religious intolerance and, mostly, to eliminate the word "Cappy" from network television. (Though hearing the houseguests feting him with "What up, Kay-SAR!" to the tune of "What Up Gangsta" was far more chilling than any of the clearly-having-an-affair moments between Maggie and Cappy)
Posted by jon at 9:45 PM | Comments (3)
August 5, 2005
WATCH ME AS I REPRESENT THE F.A.P.
Why is it so hard to find a 5th Avenue bar? It's like a Butterfinger without the emotional commitment.
Speaking of fluff, when I first heard Rihanna's "Pon De Replay," I was like, "Why haven't I heard this B-minus Gwen Stefani single? I mean, this B-plus Pink single?" It sounds like a song made in one of those music-production video games, with presets for "island rhythm" and such. Summer anthem? No. That would imply it codes temporally, which it emphatically does not - not a season, not a year, hardly even an era.
I mean, I'm not mad at the prefab. No disrespect to Tori Alamaze, but I fucks with the Pussycat Dolls version of "Don't Cha." And what's more, I believe it, a bunch of sassy glamazons telling you off for how broke your chick is. It's so real-life, so honest.
What I like even more is that the ambiracial fitness queen who fronts the group in the video - and maybe even sings lead - used to be in a prefab pop group, Eden's Crush, from the junior-league WB reality show Popstars. Nicole Scherzinger - below, center - had the pipes the last go round, but not the gimmick. [reports on Maile Misajon would be welcome}
Jah bless the PCs for her second chance, because I'm all about redemption. Just like Curtis Jackson, I'm a charitable dude. But seriously, let's all give Billy Danze a hug. Not only because his bedtime story is so scary, but because there's just no glory in being 50 Cent's corner boy. Watching him and Fame manning the block while 50 is "in the hood" in the back of the chauffured Bentley is as potent an argument for DIY capitalism as I've seen on BET ever. Friends don't let friends sign bad deals without ownership potential.
[Unrelated: Head over to The Suburbs Are Killing Us for about five versions of Alphaville's "Forever Young," one of the most unjustly slept-on German post-new-wave ballads that may or may not be about nuclear holocaust. I had one of my first slow dances to the original version. CTY F&M, stand up.]
Posted by jon at 3:47 PM | Comments (1)