what more dya want

http://magicpie.smugmug.com/

Shot Topics

Henri Cartier Bresson is my favorite photographer. He inspired me to do photography.

He spent three years in a POW camp. He always used a handheld leica.

There’s an exhibition of his work at the MOMA

Either see the exhibit or get the book.

You won’t be disappointed.

Album of the Day

I always liked Bill Withers but had little time for live albums. So when I heard people going on about how great Bill Withers live at Carnegie Hall was I made my way to the record store with a hesitant mind. I really purchased it to diversify my vinyl collection (of course I had James Brown live at the Apollo but who doesn’t) since then i’ve gone on to purchase a variety of live albums none of which come close to capturing the warm soulful renditions and honest to God down home patter of this legendary and underappreciated  soul tenor. It just get’s better and better with each listen. Dead serious.

RANDOM SEGMENT ON BEACHES

My favorite beach. Grace Bay Beach

Film Of the Day

Saturday Night Fever is one of the best films to come out of a decade when they made a vast majority of the best films. A dark sociological study of life in late 70”s Bay Ridge or disco movie? Whichever way you call it. It’s witty, heart wrenching, full of classic one liners. Jam packed with great songs and has a strong fashion aesthetic.. What more dya want. Over the years it’s become a symbol of a bygone cultural phenomenon but we know better don’t we?

ALMOST AS NICE AS MY FAVORITE BEACH BUT 50% CHEAPER TO GET HERE

Nassau Beach Bahamas

simply a question of taste

http://magicpie.smugmug.com/

SHOT TOPICS

My mates were hassling me to go see the Tim Burton “thing” at the MOMA before it’s over. I planned to but alas i seem to have missed the deadline. I’ve seen a few drawings online and they look great and yep I know the internet doesn’t do them justice etc and i did wanna go out of some kind of vague curiousity.  But I gotta say… I just don’t get the Tim Burton thing. Never have, maybe some day I will. I did like ‘Edward Scissorhands’ once. I haven’t seen it in years and I remember being really impressed with the first Batman movie that he did but everything else has done nada for me. I have friends that are really into him which is why despite the fact that I do find a lot of his output tedious I do have a fairly broad knowledge of his work. It’s just way too otherworldly for me. Of course like all things its simply a question of taste, after all I was never an avid comic book reader as a kid or as an adult. Perhaps that’s got a lot to do with my general apathetic regard for his work, but i gotta tell ya. I don’t get the genius thing either. here’s a guy who has managed to navigate the system and produce the type of films that he wants to see, creating his own sub-genre if you will. Inventive yes. genius… You’re reaching. His movies leave me feeling like. Well like I just saw a Tim Burton movie. Great use of color man! interesting story I guess. So… Where we going next? I know this is not a particularly topical article but I Just had some stuff on my mind that’s all. Feel better already.

Staying true to feedback

MY JAMAICAN MASSIVE HAVE INFORMED ME THAT I’M FIVE BLOGS IN AND HAVE NOT YET MENTIONED THE WORD JAMAICA OR REGGAE AT ANY POINT. THEREFORE..

FIVE
CLASSIC

REGGAE
ALBUMS

———————————–

Album of The Day

I saw U2 when I was a wee young lad. They were promoting achtung baby on the Zooropa tour and had graciously put up a few thousand tickets for the unemployed on a first come first served basis for a concert at Wembley Stadium. As me and my mates were all unemployed at the time we piled into my orange mini convertible (ballin)! and drove across river to line up in the pouring rain and accept their generous offer of free tickets. Knowing my probable intention was to scalp the tickets and make an easy profit my mate Justin convinced us to actually go attend the concert as he was really into this album at the time. I remember Paul Oakenfold deejayed. the Stereo Mc’s were the opening act and Bono was dressed like a devil. The actual show is a foggy haze but i’m sure it was amazing. My mate (shout out to Rob) got so stoned he spent the majority of the show talking to this Russian dude who he had mistaken for me. The guy was 6ft 8 and of Russian origin. I’m 6ft  and of Jamaican origin. To this day i’m dumbfounded by the biggest case of mistaken identity in recorded history. Aah.. fun times. Oh yeah. Great album.

staying true to feedback pt2

My mate Robert (not the Robert I mention in my nostalgic recollection in shot topics. Another Robert). Let me know (and rightly so) that I had neglected to mention the passing of Malcolm Mclaren. Impressario, self publicist, performer and manager of the sex pistols and new york dolls.

MALCOLM MCLAREN

22 JAN 1946 – 8 APR 2010

Film Of The Day

Its Russian and it’s black n white but don’t let that put you off. this film is revered in large part for it’s incredible cinematography which is truly breathtaking and  way ahead of it’s time. However amongst all the lens trickery lies a deeply humane storyline. This girls fiancee (Boris) goes off to war just after they decide to get hitched. as much as he loves her he feels compelled to do his duty. during the war her house gets bombed and Boris’s cousin offers to take her in. Now this geezer has been trying to get his mitts on her for ages and though it’s not truly revealed it’s suggested that he may have forced himself upon her forcing her to marry him. Boris’s parents get all riled up cause they think that she’s betrayed their son. Feelings are magnified by the fact that no one’s heard from Boris in ages and he’s feared dead. I won’t give away the conclusion but i’ll say this. It has one of the most emotional climaxes to a film that i’ve ever seen. Top draw movie. Get it done.

nike’s all day baby

http://magicpie.smugmug.com/

SHOT TOPICS

So Shepard Fairey seems to have completed his Mural on the wall made famous by Keith Haring back in the day. Big shoes to fill. No seriously. I’ve been checking out that Keith Haring book. The one where he pretty much keeps a diary of his life since arriving in New York. anyway, he seems to have pretty large feet but more importantly. His sneaker game was tight. Nike’s all day baby, Especially the dunks. Check it out for yourself. Oh yeah. the guy talking to Shepard Fairey in this photo is Ed Burns.. Word…

an item of clothing that I want but don’t have

I have an 81 stones t’shirt and two 89 stones t’shirts, I also have a stones voodoo lounge tour  t’shirt but i can’t seem to get my hands on the limited edition 70’s sticky fingers tee!

Film of The day

I cant believe it’s been like 12 years since I saw this flick. Scorsese met his match with this stimulating look at the seventies porn industry through the lens of my main man Paul thomas Anderson. This film sucks you into the narrative with such conviction that you forget that it’s almost 3 hours long, it feels like 90 minutes tops. Great fashion, memorable performances. Epic music score. Need I say more. Oh yeah. the DVD has one of the best director commentary’s of all time running a close second to William Friedkins commentary for French Connection, but that’s for another time and another review.

another item of clothing i wish i owned but don’t

my wife’s super rare vintage orange suede nike blazer’s unfortunately she’s a size 6 or i’d squeeze my feet in em. i do own a pair of vintage brown leather blazer’s but it’s just not in the same league as these.

Album of The Day

Most people reading this blog probably won’t have a clue who Tim Dog is. Those who do are probably mouthing the word “Really”! right about now. Tim Dog is primarily known for two things. in the early nineties at the height of west coast gangster raps hold on popular culture Tim made a track called “F**k Compton”. Great track, created a lot of buzz but subsequently did nothing for his career. Oh! the second claim to fame was Snoop Dogg telling him to eat a big fat d**k on the outro to ‘Dre Day’. Anyway amidst all the nonsense he put out an album that is a creative masterpiece. Depicting life as a self described Bronx Nigga, Tim Dog was on a mission to bring rap respectability back to the East coast. Tracks like “step to me”  “goin wild in the penile” and “I’ll wax anybody” could have easily put Tim Dog at the forefront of a New York revival. Unfortunately ‘Penicillin on Wax’ fell between the cracks and it was left to the likes of Biggie and Wu tang to grab the baton and bring it back east. It’s one of those albums to be laughed at and admired at the same time but i’m dead serious when I label it a Hip Hop classic.

the final item that i wish i owned and unfortunately do not

I do not have a photograph of the item in question because i did not buy it. my wife urged me to buy it, she said i’d regret it if i didn’t. the sales associate also wanted me to buy the item, a passerby said it looked great but i balked at the price. it was at the store in paris which made it impossible to track down once i returned to new york. it was a white cardigan and had a fur collar nuff said.

i’m a keep it real

http://magicpie.smugmug.com/

SHOT TOPICS

R.I.P Guru 1966 – 2010  Instinctively I feel a need to be sentimental about the passing of Guru but Gang Starr were not by any stretch of the imagination a sentimental group. They were loved for keeping it real so i’ma keep it real.

Nobody ever tried to duplicate what Gang Starr did (In a genre rife with bandwagonism this speaks volumes).

No other group define Hip Hop in it’s purest form better than Gang Starr.

Guru had the illest voice of any MC that ever-blessed the mic.

‘Hard to earn’ is a bona fide classic Hip Hop album.

The best Hip Hop concert I ever attended was Gang Starr, EPMD, and Public Enemy at Brixton Academy .

If I had to choose a track of theirs I’d be hard pressed there’s so many.

If I definitely without a doubt had to choose one track I’d have to go with ‘Mass Appeal’.

FASHION SEGMENT

PROPA!

Film Of The Day

His first film ‘welcome to the dollhouse’ was the hot indie film of 1995 and well deserved but it was his second movie a disturbing take on suburban conformity that cemented Todd Solondz status as “that dude” however brief. Yep It’s perverse and I love every minute of it. I know Phillip Seymour Hoffmann is an incredible talent and he gets nominated for looking at a slice of cheese nowadays but I’ve never seen him take his craft to these excesses. Never liked Lara Flynn Boyle in anything before or since but she’s radiant as a self-indulgent bad fictionwriter. The main protagonist is a pedophile. Our Heroine never finds true love and everyone reeks of desperation and pent-up regret but it’s a cinematic and comedic masterpiece. I took a date to watch it back in the day and she hated it. Second guessed her choice of men and swiftly moved on. It’s that type of film divisive and brilliant. Haven’t been too impressed with his output since but hey. one classic on the resume is worth a shout out.

really bad song that i can’t stop listening to

i’m shadowing you

the singers unlimited

really great song that I just can’t listen to anymore

santana

oye como va

Album of The Day

The most soulful rock album this side of exile on main street without a filler in sight. I usually have very little time for introspective rock and the cover isn’t exactly spell binding.  However, instead of sticking to the script and delivering a whiny reflective corn ball of an album like the cover suggests they kindly delivered one of my favorite rock albums of all time.’Urban Hymns’ I know we all love ‘bitter sweet symphony’ but honestly, they could have released any song off this album and had the same impact. It’s that good. I mean really, think about that.Of course ‘bitter sweet symphony’ had that iconic video but if they’d released a totally different song off this album that also had an iconic video attached I guarantee it would have been as popular!

if you wanna delve deeper

http://magicpie.smugmug.com/

SHOT TOPICS

Yeah . I know it’s been running for a week already but I just started the blog three days ago and I couldn’t leave this piece out. The film forum is having a month long film series (starting April 9th)  focusing on “newspaper films” This may not sound like a huge barrel of fun for you hipsters out there but any cinephile worth his salt will tell you that any opportunity to see ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ or ‘Citizen Kane’ on the big screen is an event seldom seen (get it). If you wanna delve deeper and get into films with dodgy titles like Dr X or Night Mayor you can go for that and of course ‘All The Presidents Men’ is scheduled too. You can tell by the photo where my loyalties lie. Slimy verbal gymnast Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) plots and claws his way up the tabloid food chain clinging to the heels of JJ Hudsucker (Burt Lancaster) in one of my favorite flicks of all time. ‘Sweet Smell Of Success’ “i’d hate to take a bite out of you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic” They just don’t write lines like that nowadays!

www.filmforum.org/

FASHION SEGMENT

PROPA!

ALBUM OF THE DAY

You can feel his presence on this album. Commanding, encouraging, wailing from the vocal booth but this particular compilation is not about James. This one’s dedicated to his co-conspirators. The legendary figures who shared the stage and helped engineer his vision, they just happened to spend their career in the shadows of a man who lets face it pretty much eclipsed anything he came into contact with. Solid from beginning to end. Vicki Anderson, Donald Byrd, Hank Ballard the list goes on and on. Time tested classics that have been pillaged by hip hop glitterati for decades spring to life on this disc. Funk in it’s rawest most determined state without a James Brown scream in sight. (Oh well maybe a few) Oh. There’s a part one too. Not as potent in my humble opinion but worth a cop n0ne the less.

Recent Obsession

Lifelong Obsession

FILM OF THE DAY

How Robert Duvall never won an oscar for this movie is beyond me. He plays a pastor, a character who since childhood has been blessed with the proverbial gift of the gab. His commitment to the good book is slightly tainted by his devotion to the fairer sex beyond the confines of his wife. His wife (played by Farrah Fawcett in the role of a lifetime) is seeking a divorce largely due to past sexual indiscretion on the part of this everyday man of the cloth. He doesn’t take it too well, intimidating poor Farrah, the kids and eventually bashing her new beau’s head in. One thing for sure this priest ain’t no dummy and he hops it out of town taking him on a journey of self discovery for all that cross his path. My favorite scene is when he shows up at his old church, all Raybans and white suited shimmying down the aisle like Jagger on acid. Miranda Richardson is excellent as the apple of his roving eye. Billy Thornton plays a redneck brought to his knees (literally) by Duvall. The cinematography alone is worth the monthly Netflix fee. Do yourself a favor..

“who’s who and what’s what.”

You can check out more of my images at http://magicpie.smugmug.com/

Here is my short movie. We have a feature length version in the works.

Mr Obscure part 1 (of 2)

A mockumentary based on the life and times of Thomas Berkeley one of the most influential and under appreciated renaissance men of the latter part of the twentieth century.

when i feel obscure i listen to

monty stark

http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2009/12/monty-stark

SHOT TOPICS

Last night I went to the pre release screening of ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’  i tried to write something on it and couldn’t quite wrap my head around what I wanted to say. Now it’s the following afternoon and i’m still hard pressed to describe this film. I’ll tell you this much. Its an independent movie made by an independent producer (Banksy) It is a covert expose of street art that having decided to pursue a certain narrative direction turns the camera on itself and sets off in a totally new and exciting direction. I guess in order to make sense of what I just said you’ll simply have to go see the movie. I’ll tell you this for free guvnor, It’s the best film i’ve seen all year. An entertaining mess of a film that delivers a sociological experiment tightly packaged as a documentary. In a good way of course.

FILM OF THE DAY

This is one of my favorite movies of the last few years. Our hero (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a low ranked samurai basically eking out a meager living working as a book keeper. His co workers take diabolical liberties nicknaming him twilight because of his disheveled state, being a widower he has no wife to take care of his appearance as he struggles to make a good life for his daughters. His family tries to force a wife upon him but he refuses to commit to this nonsense as he feels he is not worthy of a new wife due to his lowly position. A child hood friend is in an abusive relationship so he’s forced to smack her husband around. In doing so he displays his impressive fighting skills garnering acclaim amongst his peers and attracting the interest of his superiors who now want to use his talent for combat to commit murder placing him in an awkward predicament. He just wants to live off the land and grow his crops, teach his daughters the way of the world but you know how life is. There’s always some one out there trying to take advantage of the pure of heart.  He reluctantly has to take matters into his own hands and let em know who’s who and what’s what. Top film in my opinion, a must see.

FASHION SEGMENT

PROPA!

ALBUM OF THE DAY

Mate. I seriously love this album. I mean like i listen to a lot of loungey electronica stuff nowadays, all bleeps and background vocals. I’m a sucker for the Gotan Project. I get off on Herbert, St Germain, Savath & Savalas and countless beat matching wizards from across the globe. Sure It gets a bit derivative at times but it suits my lifestyle and get’s me feeling all crispy, modern and relevant . I bought Mezzanine like ten tears ago way before I knew who ‘zero 7’ were and as much as I like that other stuff I just mentioned none of it has come close to duplicating the rush I felt when I first played Mezzanine on my mothers Aiwa stereo system back in the day after copping the album at HMV Oxford Street. I know it has a creepy cover and who knows what the beetle symbolizes but it’s the ‘attack’ at their best. From here on after it was downhill for the boys from Bristol. Cop it. it’ll do you good.

Here is the link to my world famous fortnightly podcast.  I hope you enjoy!
http://c2live.podbean.com/mf/web/hv3yu2/pod13_29mp3.mp3

when i’m keeping it real i read

pryor convictions